Arc Tangent

The first round of the Pang! DJ Comp at Lot33 was – to put it bluntly – awesome.

Many of Canberra’s best and brightest upcoming DJs were out in force. The competition organisers left the field pretty open, asking for trance, progressive, electro, breaks, dubstep, techno, tech house or minimal – and I doubt they were disappointed; entrants gave us a pretty full sampling of the world of electronic music.

Entrants were given a half hour to wow the crowd, using their own equipment or the provided CDJ1000s, DJM800 and two Technics 1200 vinyl turntables.

Sadly, I must confess, I got to the event a little late. A miscommunication with a friend (oops) landed me at the event a full hour after it started, so I missed some of the earlier acts. The crowd was initially pretty sparse – sort of to be expected, in Canberra – which left the earlier DJs down on their luck for the ‘crowd reaction’ criteria of the competition. Hopefully the judges took it into consideration!

Not once was I disappointed by what I was hearing. It’s a dirty cliche, but the standard of competition really was high.

Chris D threw down a great set, and for my money, this is where the night really started to take off – keeping in mind, of course, that I came late to the party.

The debut public performance of primary-school buddy duo The Invigilators followed. The duo got the crowd’s attention mixing trance on vinyl turntables; their efforts were marred only by some messy levels – due to shoddy Vinyl – and I suspect that’s the only reason they didn’t make it through to the next round.

Tim Heaney put on a very solid set and had amazing stage presence; he worked the sound masterfully. I could only liken the vibrancy and enthusiasm he displayed to seeing Armin van Buuren live. I heard that Heaney was asked to do an opening set for another event later this month, so if that’s true – well done Tim!

Faux Real gave us some powerful dubstep, an unusual sound for Lot33. Faux Real didn’t make it through to the next round – but the judges did give him a second chance set, as they felt the club wasn’t used to dubstep but his sound deserved more attention.

My personal highlight of the night was the performance of Staky. Allegedly a few drinks up, she played the best techno set I’ve ever heard, and played it flawlessly. Staky really wowed the crowd – even a few who don’t usually care much for techno – and the judges agreed.

Beetham capped the night off – literally and figuratively. If you’ve ever heard him play, you know he doesn’t muck about, and this performance was no exception.

By the end of the night the club was packed, and I’d be surprised if anyone went home disappointed.

The judges have since spoken, and the results are in – the following make it through to the next round: Staky, Chris D, Beetham and Tim Heaney, with Faux Real getting a second shot at a date to be announced.

There was only really one quibble I could raise about the event – not having some kind of shout-out for the DJs as they came up on stage, or left stage. These artists deserve some respect, and not everyone in the crowd knew the lineup off by heart. Even a poster with set times and artist names would have been awesome. I’m sure it was just a technical glitch with the mic, and with any luck it’ll be sorted by round two.

I’d call the Pang! DJ comp one of the best things to happen in Canberra. We get to see talent that might otherwise languish in obscurity, the artists get a chance to make a name for themselves and Pang! get their claws into artists that are guaranteed to bring the house down.

Round Two of the comp is a fortnight away (Thursday 23/04/2009) – don’t miss it!

UPDATE: As pointed out to me in the comments below, I did miss out on a few people. If you’re one of the DJs I didn’t mention in this article – sorry! I didn’t want to comment on things I didn’t see/hear. Feel free to drop me a line (comment here, or email me) and I’ll put together a follow-up article of some sort … somehow.