Live Review: Severed Heads, Lucy Cliche, Young Magic, Nun, Ela Stiles, Terry, Shouse, Drug Sweat, Sweet Whirl

This year's Melbourne Music Week hub is the State Library of Victoria. Curated by MMW along with Aarght Records, Smooch and Paradise, tonight's show sees the day-to-day book depository and free internet hotspot transformed into a music wonderland.

Sweet Whirl start the night early out the front (free for all passersby) and unfortunately this intimate, albeit well-performed, set gets lost in the regular city rabble, sponsorship fliers and a general misunderstanding by the random assortment of people about the event to come.

There's a lengthy delay before we're allowed into the actual hub, which Drug Sweat open. Due to the bizarre stage layout, the band look like they are supporting the empty DJ decks out the front of stage. Halfway through, this changes when the lighting guy rocks up, but the set itself is hit and miss, largely due to the Led Zeppelin-style mix.

Back out the front, Shouse go all-out, attracting a crowd of tourists and snap-happy passersby. Unfortunately this makes their set borderline novelty with an atmosphere that feels like we're watching a talented busker on the city streets, late at night, jamming out. Habits make an appearance for the final Shouse track but, again, it feels like no one present even has a vague idea that they are an established and talented band. Terry (in usual Terry fashion) turn the tide giving a top-notch show with stadium-sized sound, which bizarrely suits the lo-fi aesthetic and impresses the fans who turn up in support.

After a wedding wraps-up in the great dome, we are finally allowed into the third performance space. The room is a marvel. Artists are set up in the middle, directly below the dome, with speakers circling the performance space in a 360-degree fashion. Ela Stiles opens the area and is a bit on the quiet side, kind of contradicting the space and scope of the room; although the natural reverb in the room adds a really nice tone as is also evident during the following act, Nun. Although watching an act like Nun while crammed into a little circle (in theory) shouldn't work for their stylised performances, they nail it when backed by good production and a concept, which covers up a lot of the nitpicking faults that frequently arise in their regular pub-style shows.

Now Brooklyn-based experimental/electronic/dream-pop act Young Magic make their return to our shores and deliver a solid and tight set of new and old material (unfortunately to a crowd that look quite unfamiliar with them).

On the petri-dish experiment of an outside stage, Lucy Cliche holds up all the late arrivers for a boogie and (again) the sound is quite woeful. But nestling up to the front of the stage, the experience is as carefree and fun as Cliche looks while banging out beats behind her table of electronic gizmos.

For fans young and old, the return of seminal Australian industrial/EBM act Severed Heads is indeed a special occurrence. They've called it quits as many times as having brief reunions over the past ten years, but Severed Heads also defined and refined their sound throughout the '80s and pushed electronic music technology for the time. Naturally, the room is packed; packed to the point where, even at the back of the room, you know the person grinding up against you a little too well. This does indeed dampen the experience for many a fan. The tracks themselves do embrace - and are the result of - modern technology, but still have a certain level of nostalgia that calls back to their classic records. The bizarre AV accompaniment echoes the same sentiment and, when it synchs up with the lyrics, is quite hilarious. A welcome and triumphant return? Yes indeed.

Although stylistically different, Harvey Sutherland & Bermuda are the current (and well deserved!) 'It' outfit for Australian electronic music. Like Severed Heads before them, these virtuoso players push so many boundaries through performance and composition that anyone who has seen the band before, when asked, responds with eyes rolling into the back of their heads while letting out a sexually suggestive groan. Tonight, they begin a little roughly, mainly due to a few misfires and a bit of a tinny/muddy mix. Latest 12" Priestess is an early highlight but from there they lack their usual momentum. They do get it right on staple Bermuda when the complex jams evolve and spew colourfully from the three-piece. Maybe it's fatigue, but they still don't reach the dizzying heights of past performances. Still, they manage to be the best performance of the night despite it being an off-one. It won't be too long until they reach the dizzying heights of fame they deserve.

For many, the night gets called following this act. But the party continues. Scottish producer YouandEwan delivers a solid mix of laid-back house with some refined trickery behind the decks out front. DJ Fantastic Man follows and closes the main bandroom with a more playful, synth-heavy mix. While rounding out the Dome area, Deer use the space and their DJ/electronics-based set borders on sound art while Albrecht La'Brooy does an equally interesting, although more dance-heavy, set that is hard not to fall in love with.

The concept of the library being this year's hub and tonight's specialised, epic line-up are clearly influenced by the master class of MONA FOMA/Dark Mofo's Faux-Mo/Blacklist parties. But it feels like a commercial radio version of it. It feels quite disorganised. It feels less like an event for regular music fans who are passionate about the artists playing and more of a glitter-coated 'sampler' of the Melbourne music scene. While far from a disaster, it leaves us wanting more in a bad way.