Live Review: Oscar Key Sung, Joy Sparkes, Strict Face

If you haven’t fallen in love with Oscar Key Sung yet, be prepared for your heart to beat a million miles per minute, skipping a beat or two, as you swoon over his hypnotic rhythms. For the launch of his Altruism EP, the band room was quieter than usual with many of the Rocket regulars hibernating during the winter and exams season, but those attending were in for treat. 

Wired onto the club walls was Rocket Bar’s neon light manifesto — “no request, no regrets”. This age-old saying has inspired many great sets mixed behind this booth. Local DJ/producer Jon Santos, better known as Strict Face, was no exception and got the night underway by fearlessly launching into a hell of a mix of underground tunes, including lush electronica laced with down-tempo, fuzzy beats and of course, a bit of filthy UK grime. The juicy set was bursting with a Jamie xx meets Drake sort of vibe but it was the overarching R&B groove that would have led to much lip biting and hip grinding on the dance floor, which was near empty but for one very sensual groover. Undeterred, Strict Face, bopping his head (on the beat, of course), managed to incorporate a few cheeky new edits of his own into the set. This budding producer and tastemaker is one to keep an eye on because he’s very likely to look up from the decks to give you an encouraging nod of approval while you’re cutting shapes of all sorts. Kicking goals, he even won over a new fan by the name of Oscar Key Sung who was spotted dancing along to early slow-burners; he is a very good dancer, by the way.

Having just performed at Futuresounds Electronic Music festival on the other side of the city, Joy Sparkes entered the room. With her Lorde-esque spooky vibes, she used the loop pedal and let her cooing vocals vibrate through the room. This was quite a long set where she played some new trippy material between her ambient electronica; to be honest a continuous mix tape of sample sounds. Nonetheless, she does have a special ‘spark’ and is a interesting act worth checking out.

There was a quick intermission before Oscar Key Sung – real name, Oscar Slorach-Thorn – took up the reins. He possesses an addictive stage presence; from the way he works his sampler and laptop to clasping the microphone or making eye contact with his audience, you didn’t want to look away just in case you missed a second of it. The EP is minimalistic and clean sounding with raw lyrics bleeding through imperfect, woozy rhythms and, in a live setting, intimacy. The title track, Altruism, showed off his clear-cut higher register abilities, the polar opposite of his deep speaking voice. Slorach-Thorn slowed down the tempo, breathing in an air of mystique that pervaded the dimly-lit band room. The live version of future dance floor classic (okay, this is a call from me) All I Could Do turned into a spaced-out odyssey of breathy scatting and piercing falsetto. On the current single, Skip, he sounded vulnerable and lingered on his words, strong on vibrato, to get his message across: “But if there’s more/I want to see it through. I want the extended edition…”

There was a notable the lack of “messenger” tone sample in this live performance, however. Also, there was no sight, or rather sound, of his fresh Jamie xx arrangement for Loud Places, which he’d performed on triple j prior to starting this tour. The slowed-down live rendition of all OKS favourites was suitable for sitting in the club corners and crying or dancing in a foolishly unattractive manner. Perhaps it was the lack of things on stage, or that his voice, but his lyrics were the dominant feature of the performance. Whatever it was, it was tangibly beautiful and Oscar Key Sung had everyone dancing by the end so all’s well that ends well. 

Slorach-Thorn is not just some indie artist waiting in the wings to crack the mainstream acclaim; he continues to strengthen his grip on Australian R&B but also isn’t afraid to try different things to reshape the boundaries.