Live Review: Let Them Eat Cake

A convoy of cars, busses and stretch limos and hummers descends upon the Werribee Park today to celebrate the start of the New Year with this year’s edition of Let Them Eat Cake. 

It’s a daytime dance party that prides itself on presenting us with some of the hottest electronic music deejays and producers of the moment in the relaxed surrounds of Werribee’s mansion. 

Thankfully this year proves to be no exception with each of the four stages offering up some blistering sets from a range of artists. The weather gods set the scene by providing us with a perfectly cloudless day that isn’t scorchingly hot.

This year, organisers seem to have focussed in on curating a fine selection of acts and presenting them with a minimum of fuss. The stages and decorations seem a touch less ornate than usual.

Motor City Drum Ensemble on the main stage greets us upon arrival with the solid crunch of four on the floor beats accompanied by a particularly sweet deep bass throb. After especially exhausting New Year Eve celebrations, MCDE’s sounds just feel good. Neither an ensemble or haling from Detroit, MCDE is Danilo Plessow from Germany who spins up an eclectic set which presents a fine blend of obscure disco, boogie and funk seamlessly put together into an epic two and a half hour mix that takes us through most of the afternoon. 

Leaving The Bastille stage to see whats happening over the Palace of Versailles stage we find Singaporean producer KIAT attracting a small crowd as he fires up an energetic drum and bass set. English duo Khan and Neek follow Kiat with a very bass heavy dubstep vibrations. The sound coming off all the stages are amazingly crystal clear and comfortable on the ears no matter how close of far you might find yourself from the stage. 

Over at The Guillotine Stage, Chaos In The City are spinning light and breezy tech house vibes ahead of DJ Boring who works similar vibes but is more focussed on aggressive beats that keep the crowd moving. Local selector CC:Disco! keeps the buzz around this stage happening. Interestingly, the stand out sets of the day work solid tech house beats. 

Nightmares On Wax, pulling a big crowd of fans, opts for pumped up beats instead of the chilled grooves for which he typically associated. DJ Tennis’ three-hour set tends to meander a little aimlessly but Peggy Gou on the smallest stage draws what feels like the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd of the day. The Korean producer now resident in Berlin has only been producing for a couple of years but her tech house beats have a deep crunchy grit over which she flirts with acid and electro before smashing the crowd with straight up techno. Her set today demonstrates why she has been winning hearts and minds all over the world.  

On the home run. Opiuo brings the bass and chunky block rocking beats, which he seems to be belting out on an electronic drum kit. At this stage, almost everyone is heading to the Bastille to see Bicep. They are perhaps the only act on the bill that swathes the crowd in dreamy synth pads that feel a touch cosmic. Their beats stutter to produce irregular patterns of electro tech. Underneath the stars, the cosmic flourishes in the mix make complete sense. Bicep’s set flexes plenty of muscle bringing to an end a full on day of music and merriment.