Saturday, October 4, 2014Villa
In the world of modern electronic dance music, you become accustomed to watching the performances of up-and-comers, young DJs who are learning their trade and nourishing their style yet who can already claim to be tastemakers and production pioneers. These whirlwind risers can fill a dancefloor with the enthused buzz of a new scene, but the DJs are in a similar boat to their congregation as it’s all relatively new and shining to them as well. This can sacrifice the feeling that the room has a captain perfectly steering a ship and instead it feels like you’ve all been plunged into the same hectic boat race. However, when an experienced artist who has been at the top of the game for years takes up the mantle of throwing down the modern vain of multigenre party EDM sets, what emerges is the pinnacle of club music.
Enter Datsik, one of the great dubstep pioneers from roughly half a decade ago. The American producer was last seen in Perth playing Stereosonic in late 2012, the same year he created his Firepower Records label which has since signed a catalogue of established and soaring artists. For the last couple of years, Datsik has refused to let dubstep die: he continues to churn out scintillating productions while also incorporating the rising trap genre and party EDM movement, revitalising dubstep-based sets. With the stage for this performance being an exemplary Inhibit event at Villa, featuring the absence of lines, the presence of Perth’s best dance music massive, and a top bill of supporting artists, there was plenty of cause for excitement to see 2014 Datsik. By the time Killafoe had finished off a typically intense set, packed with the grain of multigenre scorchers the occasion demanded, this excitement could be felt throughout the room.
Without surprise, then, the ensuing 90 minutes were prodigiously immense. The whole set seemed to consist of three and four-track builds, culminating in crashing dubstep crescendos and almighty trap bangers. Stand out trap included Carnage’s Bricks, Gladiator and Loudpvck’s Tony, and throwback Scumbag by Bro Safari. The dubstep highlights all came courtesy of Datsik productions, including his Bar9 collaboration Droid, the remix of Rise at Night’s Armed & Dangerous, and collaboration with Protohype, Zero. In addition to the consistent rolling out of bangers, Datsik used the entire set to cultivate a party atmosphere, with periods of house and DnB (including Netsky’s remix of Rusko’s Everyday) inevitably inviting the full flow of the Villa sing-along choir. The arrival of Flux Pavilion’s I Can’t Stop provided Datsik with a crowdsurfing opportunity, properly soaking up a typical and lustily kinetic Perth crowd. Finally, the cursed last song announcement rang out, Datsik’s huge melodic remix of Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence the fitting finale for such a barnstorming set. It was a shame that JD4D’s following support was marked by unfortunate technical errors, but the looming majesty left hovering after Datsik was already irreplaceable, the mark of an artist at the top of his game then, still at the top now, the evening’s voyage having been captained to great success.
JOSH LLOYD
