Live Review: Roland Tings

The one genre that was unexpected from a DJ set by up-and-coming Melbourne deep house producer Roland Tings was disco. This is what he immersed himself in for the two painfully long hours of his so called “album launch”, during which he played all of about two and a half songs off his LP (one of them should’ve been Who U Love).  

For someone who has previously supported fellow Melburnian producer Chet Faker on tour, Tings (real name Rohan Newman) kicked off the night with tracks that had a real upbeat ‘70s cyber-roller-disco feel to them. The crowd seemed not to mind so much, but for this reviewer, it felt boring, tedious and generally unpleasant. Triple j Good Nights presenter Linda Marigliano even made an appearance at the beginning of the night in support of the local DJ.

For someone who’d bought a hardcopy of Roland Tings’ debut album (which is a damned big deal for a young adult in the 21st century), and for Tings to then abstain from playing anything remotely even borderline deep house was disappointing, underwhelming to say the very least. Not only did he refrain from playing the genre that was so overwhelmingly apparent in his (brilliant) self-titled debut LP, but Tings also danced, moved and head-bopped way too often, out of time and to beats that were non-existent.

Roland Tings did manage to play Floating On A Salt Lake from his LP, at the end of his set, but instead of wanting to high-five the guy for it, all that was running though the mind of this reviewer was the uncomfortably staggering amount of glitzy disco house that made up his superficial, cheesy, old-school and out of date “album launch” DJ set.