Live Review: Listen Out

Back for its second consecutive year, Listen Out managed to put together another crammed eight hours of goodness, with an eclectic array of sounds and vibrations to accommodate for a evidently varied demographic.

Over on the aptly titled Crate Diggers Stage, Perth locals including up-and-comers Troy Division and Casual Connection got booties shaking early on in the day with derivatives of house music. Over on the Atari Stage, acts like Slumberjack and Kilter solidified Australia’s domination in their unique spin on the jersey club sound.

Young Fathers are extremely difficult to pigeonhole, but a few years back a listings magazine described them as a “Liberian/Nigerian/Scottish psychedelic hip hop electro boy band”. This may be a total mouthful, but it’s probably the closest portrayal you’re going to get in ten words or less. Purely intoxicating energy from the group washed over the audience, as the three vocalists passionately rapped and animatedly flung their bodies around the stage.

Chet Faker. Pic by Brandon Davies.

The quirkiness continued on the 909 Stage from one of the LA beat scene’s proudest produce, Shlohmo. A crazed Wedidit fan who was propped up on another’s shoulders exclaimed his adoration for the beat-maker with an outfit decked out in black and white label merchandise, which was received with gestures of supreme gratitude. After some minor electrical issues, the set ran smoothly with his gorgeous take on drawn-out R&B jams.

The Perth local who has well and truly taken the instrumental hip hop scene by storm, Ta-Ku delved into a DJ set that began slow and sexy, but quickly built up fast and heavy, including his jolting remix of fellow Australian Listen Out-ers Flume and Chet Faker’s Left Alone. Carrying on from the clever inclusion of last year’s singular dose of hip hop to the festival from Azealia Banks, ScHoolboy Q, bucket hat on head, provided a heavy hitting measure of this generation’s take on rap music. Q fervently spat out flawless verses from new and old material, including an energised version of fellow Black Hippy Kendrick Lamar’s m.A.A.d City to the delight of the enthusiastic crowd.

Yahtzel. Pic by Brandon Davies.

A particularly sombre-looking Four Tet began his performance with KHLHI, a pertinent and groovy opener produced under his new moniker Percussions, setting the scene nicely for the remainder of a truly wonderful performance from a man that knows his way around a melody.

With no clashes and hence nil competition, Sydney-based Harley Edward Streten, more commonly know by his stage name Flume, had the stage packed out; and this is an understatement. A detectable tone of both sincerity and conceit in his voice, Harley thanked his Australian fans for supporting him now that “the whole world is taking notice”. All of the big hits were played out, modified only by the inclusion of familiar rappers sampled over the top of them, but this was just enough to give the performance an edge while still giving the fans exactly what they wanted. His sensual and mellow remix of Lorde’s Tennis Court served as a fitting conclusion to settle a lively crowd down if only a little bit.