Client Liaison bypass the head to trade directly with the heart.
Twin brothers from Brisbane, Multiple Man's music sounds like new wave songs heard from the opposite ends of a very long tunnel. More reverb floats around than in all of the bathrooms of the world combined. You could almost imagine that one of the identical brothers is simply an echo of the other. Their throb and clang music is too alienating for the dance floor and emphasises the esotericism of their obscure science-fiction namesake, sounding bleak and dystopian. Their stage presence is as bare and industrial as their songs and could use a little more life.
Thankfully, Chela has brought more dance moves than most people manage to pull off in a lifetime. The Victorian chanteuse charms the small audience with an emotive rendition of Guts, before stepping off the stage to shake loose on the dance floor. She belts the chorus of new single, Zero, with similar abandon and continues the crowd interaction through new songs, Love Is Selfish and Pangs. Her confident eye contact endears her to the audience and she introduces her honest songs in a way that makes you want to be a better person – or at least someone who dances more. Romanticise is then the bouncing pinnacle of her set, before she finishes with the sweet and sentimental Handful Of Gold. In an ideal world, Chela is already famous.
Client Liaison are then all business; and the crowd is ready to make a deal. A synthesised didgeridoo noise welcomes the two majestically '80s-looking men to the stage and they set about making music that lives up to the eccentricity of their hair-dos. Frontman Monte Morgan's flowing black mullet is as curly and delicate as his voice, even evoking Prince during the falsetto sections of new songs Hotel Stay and Touch. Meanwhile, instrumentalist Harvey Miller's blonde crest of hair is as steep and wave-like as the crashing effects he's producing with a drum machine. Combined, they form the perfect synth-pop duo: the stone-cold stoic instrumentalist and the tender, impassioned singer.
They take the softness of Soft Cell and splice it with the rhythm of the Eurythmics. “It's all in the conviction,” Morgan sings on Rain, throwing in synchronised dance moves. And they make you believe it. They run through their cult hits End Of The Earth, That's Desire and Feeling, finishing with Free Of Fear. By this stage there have been more saxophone solos than you can count on one hand. However, most impressive of all is Morgan's ability to sell the emotions behind these songs. His singing is committed, and the unwavering look in his eyes shows dedication to every moment. Client Liaison bypass the head to trade directly with the heart.