Young Marco
Ben Taaffe, Reece Walker, Beecroft Sux
Ambar Nightclub
Sunday, April 20, 2014
The best thing about long weekends is the huge selection of gigs. Local promoters get to take advantage of tours which may only make it to the east coast otherwise. Easter Sunday night was no exception, with Get Weird and Fungle Club bringing over Dutch producer Young Marco.
As always, the Get Weird crew drew a broad selection of attendees, ranging from hip hop heads to hipster and everything in between. Those who came from the sixth Day Woo party at Flyrite were offered discounted entries. This made sure that those who skipped Easter dinner with their families got to dance all day and into the early morning of the long weekend.
Young Marco is making a name for himself with his wave house style, mixing classic analogue sounds from the ‘80s with more modern house aesthetics. His production is more danceable than works coming out of imprints like Minimal Wave Records, whilst still retaining the sounds associated with the NY and European wave scenes.
The dance floor was already filled when Reece Walker, one half of local live techno group SENATE, took to the decks with an all vinyl set. He focused on a mix of vocal house, techno, break beat and modern acid house. The track to get the best response was an instrumental remix of Donna Summers – I Feel Love, resulting in a large cheer from the crowd. A far cry from the aggressive set showcased at the recent Perth Boiler Room party, Walker shows that he is a jock with a huge breadth of musical tastes.
Up next was {MOVE} honcho Ben Taaffe. Wasting no time, Taffee raised the tempo and pushed the bass cabinets. Dropping tracks from Omar S, Metro Area and Daphni. All those in the club who weren’t dancing when he stepped up to the booth seemed to be on the floor within a few minutes, leaving only a scattering of people talking in Ambar’s dark corners.
Finally the main act jumped behind the decks. What followed was a hugely eclectic mix. The first half hour was like a soundtrack to an unreleased Eddie Murphy film from the ‘80s. Huge analogue sweeps, synth toms and white noise snares. For the rest of the night he moved between nu-disco, euro house, prog, electro, acid and even some classic Detroit techno sound. The young Dutchman wove what would sound like a disordered mess of genres for a less successful selector, keeping the dance floor packed and sweaty. Although not a hugely technical DJ, Young Marco was able to read the room with few errors, after some initial train wrecks at the beginning of his set.
A Get Weird night can’t be discussed without mentioning their “Tiny Club” and this was by far the tiniest club that they have ever hosted. At the most 15 people squeezed in the hallway towards the ladies bathroom, along with a laser and smoke machine. The lack of space however didn’t slow down the party, with some great music and insane antics. (Where else could you see a girl crowd surfing out of the toilets) Complementing the tunes in the main room, you had No Mad (dubstep and bass music), Lightsteed and Friends (electro), Eddie Flex (the other half of SENATE dropping a more upfront techno set) and Armin Van Goff (grime, dubstep and half time drum ’n’ bass).
The night finished off with Beecroft Sux. It seemed most punters wanted to stick around until the end of the night to get the most out of their long weekend, with a relatively full dance floor still going once the lights in the club were turned on.
