Live Review: Tycho, Polographia, Moon Holiday

San Fran’s Tycho played the last club show of their Australian tour at The Hi-Fi on Saturday night, with a rousing performance that was as much about the blissed-out visuals as it was the hypnotic, driving synth-pop.

Sydney’s Alex Ward, aka Moon Holiday, officially opened Field Day this year via Unearthed, and her turn opening Saturday’ gig was a great chance to see her up close and really swim through the dense pink clouds of sound she produces. Languorous melodies hid underneath lush synth loops, gently tugging us along through the soft foggy soundscapes. Tiny details were there adding texture for those needing or looking for it, but otherwise it was a beautiful-if-brief dream sequence made real. Nice work, Alex!

Sydney post-R&B outfit Polographia shook us awake with a set of songs that were heavy on atmospherics but light on subtlety. It was a vibrant 40 minutes or so, with the guys locking onto their groove with impressive zeal. Their simplistic song structures were polished and infectious, and while they clearly owe a bit to the current movement spearheaded (initially) by Canada’s The Weeknd right through to Aussie acts like Movement and Guerre, the subtlety of those acts is/was missing from Polographia.

Tycho’s sound has moved away from their IDM/Ninja Tune/trip hop-inflected beginnings and are now leaning heavily on traditional rock instruments to get their message across. Their sound is far more able to accommodate masturbatorial flights of fancy using slick and moody repetitive minor key bass lines and soaring guitar melodies than by sequencing the same idea using Ableton. If Depeche Mode and Tangerine Dream cheered the fuck up and had a love child, current era Tycho would be it.

Snarky comments on style aside, their show was uplifting, with trippy sunburnt visuals of warm slo-mo surfing scenes and women roaming sand dunes, as well as the aforementioned pulsing synth-pop droning into the night. It was a natural high that was based on hypnosis rather than narcosis. Each song sounded like the last, so it all melted into one long epic piece that calmed and invigorated us at the same time. Neat trick.