Live Review: PVT, Nico Niquo, Corin

Local upcoming electronic music talent Corin (aka Corin Ileto) kickstarts tonight's entertainment.

A classically trained pianist, Ileto delivers her set with focus and intensity. Pulling an enormous amount of sound out of her Nord keyboard is impressive, but the mix comes off sounding a little flat despite the spacious atmospheric intentions of her compositions. Vangelis seems to be an obvious point of reference. There is definitely an imaginary soundtrack aspect to these tracks and the film that Ileto seems to have in her sights is Blade Runner 2049. As Ileto adds dense layers of sound to the mix, she also leads us to a monstrous warehouse rave.

Releasing an album earlier this year on the rather hip Orange Milk Records label, Nico Niquo (aka Nico Callaghan) is a bedroom producer with something of a penchant for soft, ambient sound. Using a minimum of equipment, Callaghan produces an expansive shimmering sound that immerses the room in a virtual bubble bath of lush, synthetic music. It's a strangely nebulous sound that evolves slowly, organically expanding and contracting over time. Callaghan is joined for most of the set by friend, collaborator and all 'round amazing saxophonist, Jared Olmsted. The fluid saxophone melodies exude a delicious, deep and sophisticated late-night vibe on an abstract jazz tip. Nico Niquo's set seemingly slows time right down as the crowd, comprised largely of male chinstrokers, lose themselves in meditative reverie.

It's been a long time since PVT, formerly Pivot, played Melbourne. The trio from Sydney are in town to showcase their latest album New Spirit. While the outfit have always tended towards abstract post-rock angles with jazz on their minds, they have in recent years become a lot more pop. New Spirit takes the pop tendencies of Homosapien and places them in a context that is more sprawling post-rock verging on psychedelia. There was a time when Pivot dealt instrumentals, so it's surprising to see Richard Pike dropping his falsetto vocals into the mix; it gives PVT a bit of an indie-dance edge. His brother Laurence Pike's drumming is as always precise and on point. He keeps up with the sequences issuing from Dave Miller's laptop. Miller programmes his soft synths to sound strangely organic and lusciously dreamy. There are plenty of references to '90s dance music and at times they tease with euphoric moments that bring to mind Orbital and then there are those moments where they come close to dealing a New Order Blue Monday vibe. Fans ready to dance the night away respond enthusiastically.

Perhaps needing the cash to get back home, PVT man the merch stall and there is no shortage of fans willing to grab a copy of New Spirit for a mere ten bucks.