Live Review: Hermitude, Jayteehazard, Basenji

Jayteehazard and Basenji warm us up with a diverse blend of music genres as the sold-out crowd slowly makes its way closer and closer to the dance floor.

A colorful audiovisual light display welcomes Hermitude to the stage as the atmospheric Shift begins to play with a synth-laced electronic harp introduction. Luke ‘Dubs’ Dubber and Angus ‘El Gusto’ Stuart have pulled out all the stops for this latest album tour with a mind-boggling stage set-up that includes turntables, drum pads, synthesisers, samplers and keyboards in amongst their computers and controllers. GoPros are mounted on every angle of the stage so we get to experience all the live action as the duo create magic before our eyes and ears.

Diving right into fresh new tracks from that latest album, Dark Night Sweet Light, they dedicate Ukiyo to all the lovers in the crowd and Dubs jokingly asks us to send them the lyrics of the song because even they have no idea what they are. The chillwave track sets the pace for their stripped-back sound with more vocals that are stretched, warped, chopped and intertwined throughout.

Sampling The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens, the jungle chanting and steel drums strike up and we sing along to the “ee-e-e-oh-mum-oh-weh”s before a huge drop leading into Flume’s explosive remix of HyperParadise. They keep the momentum going with the appropriately titled, turbo-charged track, Through The Roof, fuelled by mariachi-inspired horns and alarming synths that push the limits even higher.

Chloe Kaul joins them to lend her sensual vocals for the smooth Hazy Love. The soft, ethereal track puts us in a dream-like state and provides a short moment of calm before they demand for us to “Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance!” once again for the infectious Speak Of The Devil.

Dubs and El Gusto strap their keytar and controllers over their shoulders respectively and move to the front of the stage for a freestyle jam before busting out their aggressive, trap-house remix of The Presets’ Ghosts.

The Buzz skyrockets energy levels into another dimension with chipmunk sound effects and incredible drops that we can feel in the air, charging right through our bodies to send us into uncontrollable dance fits.

We continue to bounce up and down together for the encore, The Villain, as we’re encouraged to put our middle fingers up to let everyone know we’re not sleeping tonight; we’re staying awake ‘til the sun comes up.