Donny BenetThis was a night of three shades of dance music at Oxford Art Factory with an audience willing to embrace the dancefloor from the outset. The electronic/guitars duo Mezko kicked things off with a set that impressed for the way Laura Bailey and Kat Harley found the sweet spot between dark electronica, post-punk guitar and rolling bass lines. It was a Death In Vegas-sounding blend of sex and subtle menace coloured by synths and the shared vocals, buried in the mix. A closing cover of Dead Or Alive's You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) with guest Mossy was the icing on the cake.
Mossy clearly has a strong vision for his music, much like his Sydney contemporaries Alex Cameron and Kirin J Callinan. Without his band for the night, he cut a striking figure, whether pacing the stage or as a static silhouette amid the smoke and downlighting. Mossy makes pop music with a rich vein of melancholia, pathos and drama running through it. His voice at times was reminiscent of Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon circa the Notorious album, while elsewhere he displayed a glam streak a la Brett Anderson of Suede.
The Donny Benet Showband hit the stage like the well-oiled professional unit that they are. Note perfect and consummate players, they locked into the opening song and never let up. Benet, of course, was the ringmaster and showman — resplendent in a pink suit and gleaming teeth — he played up his persona to the hilt across songs new and old. Last year's single Working Out was greeted with cheers, as was one of the best, unreleased songs, about the abandonment of love in Santorini. Benet's approach to post-disco minimal synth funk is to embrace every element, good and bad, fold in some soul and reggae and present it with unabashed authenticity. That meant sax solos aplenty, frenetic guitar soloing, pitch bending synth and Benet's own astonishing bass playing. They left the audience baying for more, delirious in the pastiche and downright fun and funk of it all.
