Live Review: Tensnake, Sepalcure, Jimmy Edgar

An amalgamation of different but equally important ventures into contemporary electronic music saw to The Bakery last Friday night. With “extra sound” and “extra lighting” according to Next Hype's Facebook page, Perth fans were in for even more of a treat than they had bargained for. Next Hype DJs spun some suitable house selections, gathering a neat posse of early birds to the dance floor. Travis Stewart (Machinedrum) and Praveen Sharma (Braille) came together three years ago now with their intricately sensual Love Pressure EP, to form the unique collaboration that we know and love as Sepalcure. A heavy alien-like vocal manipulation from Sharma insisted, “Let's get real motherfucking cosy”; a grin full of expectancy wide across his face as the duo began the set with the airy and playful title track from their stunning new Make You EP. The boys made plenty of pleasant but subtle alterations to percussive and vocal elements of some of their classics, conjuring an unshakeable electricity amongst the crowd.

The tempo picked up half way through the set with the mischievous foot working Pencil Pimp riding cleverly into a beefed up version of the delicate He Said No made especially for the dance floor. German based house sensation Tensnake took to the Macbook Pro and mixer combo for his performance, which displayed everything we have to come to expect from a Tensnake set: A string of good natured disco house bombshells. The sugary and overwhelmingly joyful vocals and piano stabs of Coma Cat sent ripples of delight through the crowd. Gigamesh's lush rendition of Radiohead's Everything In Its Right Place played out in its entirety, ending a streak of cheesy disco house numbers, before the honey-coated disco vibes picked up once again. A love for funk and everything futuristic can be instantly detected through any of Jimmy Edgar's production amongst his impressive nine year spanning discography, and although these influences can be heard with somewhat of a sharp ear in his DJ sets, they scream techno more than anything else. Edgar began the set with a slow drone that grew progressively faster and equally dance-friendly. Leroy Peppers' remix of French Fries' Yo Vogue brought finger guns a blazin', before a deafening wave of feedback interrupted momentarily. Edgar made a swift recovery though, bringing the crowd quickly back to life with more low range fun.