I like to think that on a brunch plate there will be a few different toasties, maybe some eggs, avocado, haloumi… on my brunch plate for the first day of the New Year I was instead given a healthy helping of glitch hop artist Edit and techno magicians Oliver Huntemann and Alex Niggemann, all finished it off with lashings of future bass legends Shades.
Feature image by Duncographic via Let Them Eat Cake
Now in its fifth year, Let Them Eat Cake has always offered up a full buffet and even the fussiest eater would struggle not to find something on the menu to suit their tastes – this year proved to be no different to the others. The grounds of the Werribee Mansion were as absolutely stunning as ever, and what better place to hold a party for those of us who wanted to dance our way into 2017?
I started my day with American glitch hop artist Edit (who is also part of the Glitch Mob). Edit has been on the circuit as a solo artist since circa 2004 and was last in Australia over 5 years ago. He made his presence known early through deep intricate glitch sounds that have tantalised my ear buds; I’m a bit of a freshie when it comes to bass genres of music and wasn’t sure how such a big sound would work so early in the day, but he started his set off with softer, more elegant tracks, which is his trademark sound. Towards the end of his set he threw in a few tracks from the Glitch Mob, and they went down an absolute treat.
After Edit it was time for some techno. My favourite. Even more of a favourite is Oliver Huntemann – I am a self-professed Oliver Huntemann fan girl. His dark, brooding, nearly-haunting sounds have a way of pulling you into the music in a kind of “Take me to your leader” way, and his set at Cake was nothing short of flawless. His dark rolling synths and classic techno sounds could be heard and felt all over the grounds at the Mansion, and literally had me in a trance for two hours and feeling extremely satisfied with his remix of the Victor Ruiz tune ‘Never Mind’, his own banger with Dubfire, ‘Humano’, and a brilliant set-closer in his remixed version of the Underworlds track ‘Crocodile’.
Next up was local Melbourne DJ Retza from Chameleon Recordings. Retza has been on the Melbourne circuit for a few years, and his set at LTEC was a mix of the latter with a bit of tech house and techno that had the crowd gathered at the small stage buzzing.
Next on the plate was Alex Niggemann. This was my first time seeing Alex play and I have to say I didn’t really dance to his set – I stood there listening to his beautiful deep melodies and found myself closing my eyes every now and then to take it in a little bit more. His well-crafted progressive techno was just perfect for that time of the day, and kept the main stage rocking.
I made a quick stop over to see Canadian Tech House DJ Heidi throwing down some deep tunes to a fully immersed crowd before heading to see my chosen closing act, Shades, a future bass duo (Eprom and Alix Perez) from America and the UK.
Unfortunately Alex was unable to make the event so Eprom did a solo show, and mainly played his own tracks. Thankfully, Eprom is at the forefront of bass music and is always pushing the boundaries between heavily-distorted synth lines and clean production values, and he skipped through classics such as Hurricane and Pipedream, even throwing in an O.D.B remix. And what a staunch meister he is! I’ve rarely heard a sound so in-your-face, and I could feel the vibrations running through my body each time he dropped the bass – an ideal way to close out the buffet of electronic talent.
Then it was over. The first day of 2017 done, and my brunch plate empty. Artist of the day had to be Oliver Huntemann, but track of the day honours go to Eprom for the perfectly-timed ‘Samurai’, taken from his latest LP. All in all, it was an ideal way to start the year off, and a brilliant continuation of the legacy Let Them Eat Cake are very quickly building for themselves as one of the country’s premiere electronic events.
