Live Review: Opiuo, The Chief, Oisima

Oisima (aka Anthony Wendt) warmed up the crowd with a set leaning toward the experimental aspect of his beat-crafting sound. A sought-after musician, both as a DJ and live producer, Wendt is always playing somewhere in Adelaide and thus has a lot of freedom to test and play with different sounds in front of his audience. Opting for uptempo breaks and a well inhabited soundscape, as opposed to his more well known minimal formula, tonight was certainly an example of Wendt's diversity and willingness to subject the audience to sounds they are not used to, rather than play what's expected. 

The Chief (aka Tom St Jack) is actually an Adelaide export, now a successful DJ on the global underground scene. Having made his last SA appearance in the Electrolounge at Womadelaide, St Jack can always guarantee to get the crowd moving. From the moment he dropped his first track, those inside Fat Controller felt the groove. It was a nice sight seeing people in a mainstream club throwing down to glitch-hop and electro--swing.   

Opiuo's live sets are always different. Depending on the venue and the nature of the event Opiuo even performs with a full live band. Taking advantage of the dark club context Opiuo performed a solo set of the heavy bass variety. Dynamic lighting in the way of strobes and drool inducing laser splitters complemented his set as he kept the audience at the edge of their seat. Building a nightclub vibe, Opiuo manipulated and delayed the climactic points in his songs to add an element of surprise. Opiuo performed his latest single Sneakers, which his current national run is named after, and expertly transitioned an unreleased and as yet unnamed song from his upcoming record Omniversal into the popular track Quack Fat for one of the best moments of the night, a tantalising tease of the material to come.