Destination? feat. Miles Dyson @ The Cross, Sydney (08/03/08)
On Saturday March 8th, after an impatient 2-hour commute on the bus past the Randwick Racecourse and the deluge of post festival goers, I made my way to the nether regions of Sydney AKA Kings Cross, where I was to witness to a struggling deluge of punters on the streets making their way to the array of clubs and bars for the night. Aptly named ‘The Cross’, the mezzanine level of the Bourbon has been renovated to resemble a lounge room just as much as it is a nightclub. Destination? was the night, and it was the second time it had ventured form its original home of Perth after their launch featuring Koma Bones in February. And tonight, it was none other than Miles Dyson behind the decks.
First impressions summoned old fond memories of the smaller dingy clubs in my earlier ‘radical, wild and crazy’ days, at clubs such as Sugar Reef, The Underground and Tantra on Oxford Street. From hearing a few good releases and remixes of fRew from Vacation Records, I was excited to finally catch the man in action. Maybe my expectations were too high, or being in the preceding position to the main feature let him down a bit; but I felt a little, err… for want of a better word, bored. Technically his DJing was fine, but the energy lacked somewhat as his track choices were a little monotonous.
Thumbs twiddling, I retreated to the Bourbon below where the music was, er… diabolical. I was grim and dubious at my outlook for the rest of night. But 2am finally came around and Miles Dyson made an appearance. Dressed in a breezy, oh-so white long sleeved shirt and Grosby leather sandals, Miles hailed from Germany but looked as though he had made a stopover in Dubai, Arabia or a desert of any kind. Despite his suspicious attire, when it came to crunk and crunch, Miles Dyson inflicted all sorts of damage. A stellar remix of Coburn’s We interrupt This Program, which was characteristically Dyson, set the steam ahead for a beautiful set driven with progressive electro beats and gravid bass lines ridden with distortion. The receding dance floor instantly flourished, and excited no sooner did the excited little punters begin flocking to the ministage adjacent to the decks for a front row view of the DJ.
Apart from DJing, producing and remixing like a madman for the likes of Jude Sebastien, Egor Boss, Ironie, Electrixx, Electrorocker, Miles also runs a production company that manages 12 different record labels, which have as many as 200 releases out on the market at one time. He’s indeed caused a ruckas in the world, along with so many other Germans (I’m thinking Paul van Dyk, DJ Hell, DJ Shah, err… Hitler?) and most recently with his smash hit remix of 30Hz’ Daddio. Amping up the 80-100Hz and dropping golden goodies like Electric Soul One, Mr Timothy’s Thumb, Elite Force’s Melodik Hypnotik and Rock to the Rhythm by Cutback, Dyson sustained a vibrant yet grimey discography that refused to let my shoes rest.
When Miles finally retreated form the decks, the Tone Def DJs jockeyed up and turned the one-man show into two. Comprising of Stalka and Dirty D, this duo had an absolute armada of massive breaks, electro and progressive releases and tunage to supply the crowd till 6am. Bumping and grinding their way through the morning, Tone Def never relented. It would have been a hard job to follow Miles Dyson, but the Sydney boys stepped up to the task sufficiently. It’s always a pleasure to catch excellent homegrown talent, and while overall Miles took the cake, our locals definitely kept up the pace.
So it was a cracking night of musical talent form the Destination? crew. Miles Dyson was a first timer to our shores, so if you come across him, be sure to make him feel welcome and give him some much needed love before he jets off around the world. Looking forward to the next installment of Destination?!
