Future Classic Label Night feat. Todd Terje @ Civic Underground, Sydney (26/04/08)
Is the disco revival finally starting to make waves in Australia? Sure it’s been a brewing since the early 2000s in underground parties, but with journalists finally catching onto the sound, hipsters taking notice and now the influx of DJs like Todd Terje, Mike Simonetti, Optimo, Theo Parrish, Rub n Tug and Lindstrom, ‘08 just might be the disco’s year to resurface down under. Whatever your view is, let’s keep amazing parties like this between you and me, because we all know what happened the last time marketing executives smelled money in disco…
It was my first time to the Civic Underground. After climbing down the stairs I found myself in possibly the most appropriate room I could have expected for a party like this. Normally I would have been put off by the white padded walls, flashing computer lights and generally sterile environment, but for some reason it worked beautifully and completely complimented the sound. Nathan McLay was behind the decks setting the mood for the night with some slow Maurice Fulton jams and delightful disco grooves on the Balearic tip. Perfect for building the excitement that was to follow.
By about midnight Sydney’s finest (and my favourite) DJ Simon Caldwell took control of the reigns and pushed things up a notch. Fortunately for Terje, Simon Caldwell crafted the perfect warm up set, creating a full dancefloor into a frenzy and bringing them down in time for Todd to take off from there. Unfortunately for Todd Terje (and without saying anything bad about him), Simon may have done what he usually does, outshining the very act he was supporting. Playing a host of new and old tracks from the likes of Lexx, Mugwump, D-Train and Faze Action it was almost impossible not to get down on the floor.
By about 1am the club was packed and the bearded Norwegian (they really do have beards! I thought it was a myth) stepped up and dove straight into the cosmic Scando-disco sound we all love him for. With ease he weaved in and out of new and old disco, boogie, deep house, minimal, and even throwing in the odd folky rock stomper. It was in fact much more of a house and techno affair than I expected but he pulled it off very well, keeping the crowd on their toes by never sticking to one sound for too long. Disco balls were spinning, lights were flashing, the music was proper and everyone was getting down. It was a proper party indeed. Terje finished up with the brilliant modern/future Chicago house classic The Sun Can’t Compare by Larry Heard, which sounded more amazing than I could have hoped out of the Civic sound system. I personally was hoping he would delve more into the Balearic sound he does so well, but then again I did hear he did a bit of an encore set of 90 bmp disco at about 4am. It pays to stay sometimes.
Excellent work to the Future Classic label for making this happen, I can’t wait to see what else they have in store. The venue, crowd, sound system and DJs were all exceptional. No doubt everyone would have stumbled home from that party smiling and with very sore legs.
