decoded_ Something for your mind… Something for your mind…

Wir fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n auf der Autobahn…

Went to the Global Gathering event on Sunday here in Sydney, held at the Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park, in the Hordern Pavilion, Royal Hall Of Industries, Forum and concrete surrounds.

Kraftwerk. Awesome, once again! Such a unique, minimal, fantastic live show, quite theatrical with the curtain closing/opening during the show to reveal new costumes and robots! Simple, beautiful, pure, electronic music. They were the main (only) reason we went to this event. I never would have thought I’d ever get see them live, and now I’ve seen them twice, very happy!

Starting with ‘The Man-Machine’, also playing ‘The Model’, ‘The Robots’ (performed by actual robot versions of themselves, f**king cool!), ‘Numbers’, ‘Trans-Europe Express’, ‘Radioactivity’, ‘Showroom Dummies’, ‘Computer World’, ‘Computer Love’, ‘Tour De France’, ‘Boing Boom Tschak’, ‘Musique Non Stop’. I got spine tingles from ‘Autobahn’ again. I listened to that album 100’s of times as a kid in the mid-late 1970s, yeah I’m that old! And I think they also played ‘Home Computer’ and/or ‘It’s More Fun To Compute’ and possibly a couple more. They didn’t play ‘Pocket Calculator’ though. Was odd most people stood motionless watching them, those sounds had me moving with a huge grin. Fantastic!

The Orb. Great to finally see them live. I wish I got to see them in the very early 90s when I was really into them though. I used to love chilling out to the ambient, psychedelic sound-scape, dub/dance sounds of their ‘The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (Deluxe Edition)’ and ‘Aubrey Mixes: The Ultraworld Excursions’ CD albums.

They performed live, four guys on stage, a drummer, a rapper/MC on the mic, and then two other guys (one of them being main man Alex Paterson) behind decks, laptops, synths/controllers etc. A fun mash up of noises, sound-scapes, breaks, deep basslines, and slow techno beats. Starting with a cover of Eminem – ‘Without Me’ which was funny/bizzare. Also heard ‘The Muppet Show’ theme cut up with Electric Six – ‘Gaybar’ over some serious frantic beats, the ‘Star Trek’ theme, a guitar riff from a Pink Floyd song (can’t remember it’s name) floated in and out of the mix. It was really nice to hear their tracks ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’, ‘Perpetual Dawn’, ‘A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld’, and I think ‘Toxygene’ was played as well. I liked! I don’t think much of the crowd had any idea who they were or what to expect, not helped by playing between trance acts.

DJ Sneak. You always know what to expect from him, that same old, jackin’, boompty, old-school, house music, with vibes of hip-hop, with some girly vocals, and splashes of latino piano and percussions. Fun to hear some blasts from the past too, Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You, followed by Daft Punk – Around The World. I had a boogie to his set. Yep, the kids don’t understand rolling house grooves, they can’t dance continuously, they just want to go from big breakdown to build every few minutes, or they lose interest, which they did. The act on before, that went over time, that I’m not even going to name, was such horrible cheese, I expected it was going to be bad, but it was even worse than I thought possible. I’ll tell you where you can shove that tumpet. I can’t believe the kids like that crap.

Fisherspooner. Was one of the guys, not sure if it was Warren Fisher or Casey Spooner, being quite funny on a mic, with female DJ Lauren Flax on CD decks. As expected lots of buzzy, synthy, stonkin’ electro-house sounds were played, tight mix though. They played their track ‘Emerge’ with live vocals, which was cool. They didn’t play ‘Just Let Go’ though, which I would have loved to hear, about the only two Fisherspooner tracks I like/know.

Some un-expected blasts from the past got mixed up during their set, in remix form… Outlander – ‘Vamp’, Reese (Kevin Saunderson) – ‘Rock To The Beat’, also heard Darryl Pandy’s vocals from his and Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk track – ‘Love Can’t Turn You Around’, and another classic female vocal from an early house song I’m having mental blank on, something like ‘Finally’, or ‘We Are Family’. It was all a strange mix of sound/styles but it somehow seemed to work. A bit of an odd warm-up for Kraftwerk though.

Seems to be a big nod to older music happening at the moment.

Heard about 15 minutes of Sasha outside whilst Joanne ate a German sausage (the food that is) in the food area at the back. It’s good to see nothing has changed in the world of plod, sorry prog, with more time without beats than with, or maybe it was just the lack of bass on that outdoor system. Although people in the crowd complained of too much bass, not a well setup system I guess. I don’t think that style of music suited being outdoors in the sun. Heard a bit of Gorillaz Sound System whilst having a sit down in the Hordern Pavilion, I wish I hadn’t, heard them that is. I couldn’t resist asking Joanne a number of times, in my Nigel (Spinal Tap) accent… ‘Is This A Joke?’, they are basically just a bad commercial dance cover band.

It was an ok event, nothing special apart from Kraftwerk and The Orb, but I had fun. I’m glad it wasn’t a sell out event, I think they got maybe 10,000 people, and were expecting double that. So it was pretty easy and quick to get in, get around, get drinks, get in toilets etc. You could tell production costs had been cut, but it didn’t spoil my day or the acts I saw. Any negative thoughts were wiped clear once Kraftwerk started. It was great having them play last, made for a happy exit.