Live Review: Willaris K, Theo Kottis, Lonelyspeck

Willaris K is one of the big up and comers in electronic music with his dark, emotive and dramatic brand of techno. With his Scottish friend Theo Kottis in tow, he brought a fantastic show to Fat Controller in line with a lot of great dance music in this country at the moment. It was a quiet start but there was enough of a critical mass towards the end to ensure a pumping dancefloor.

Opening act Sione Teumohenga aka Lonelyspeck is an incredible Adelaide talent. A super progressive dream-pop-electronic act, he is as good a producer and beatmaker as he is at ambient composition. Teumohenga perfects arrangements that are super harmonic yet don't easily resolve, meaning the songs continue to flow with little stagnation. His slower songs mix it up a bit with harsh percussion just behind the beat and a vaguely lo-fi vibe. There's something paradoxical about his music in that his talent is very evident and his arrangements are just gorgeous, but it's likely that the ambient washes and ungraspable offbeats are keeping him locked out of sustained radio play and by extension commercial success. Still, he's not too far off the type of talent that has seen acts like Blood Orange rise to critical acclaim. Hopefully, some success is just around the corner, but perhaps it's not important to him. 

Edinburgh's Theo Kottis is a fantastic producer with upbeat mixes and a swag of international influences. His sound is almost an afrobeat influenced house cum techno style. There's enough variety in there for the momentum to change with the vibe shifting from somewhat hard to bright and dynamic. The sound is ideal for anything from late night clubs to festivals. As his set wore on more and more people made their way onto the dancefloor. Inevitably some '90s synths found their way into the set, but it worked in context without being part of any of recent resurgent genre cycles.

Willaris K, real name Jack McAllister, made himself known to the punters prior to the official start of his set, jumping on stage to take over production towards the end of Kottis’ set, but it was a false start of sorts, with Kottis resuming for a couple more tracks. When McAllister did take to the stage, his very confident and theatrical presence dominated the space. His style of almost classical influenced techno is clearly geared around taking the audience on a journey rather than just dancing to repetitive kick drums. One of his more recent singles Risen featured a very drawn out and epic build up to the drop, with different elements brought in at different times. When he dropped the sublime Alchemy, the lift from the crowd was palpable, and in conjunction with the music, it was just glorious.

The performance from McAllister with his slightly theatrical approach and good changes from quiet to loud and variations in intensity is a good showcase of how techno can appeal to a wider range of people. Dance music with underlying drama and tension can provide more nuanced appreciation than simpler forms of techno or house. Even so, there were times where we expected more elements to be going on, but understandably there still needs to be a repetitive element in techno music, as opposed to trap and bass, for instance. Still, it was a great show and one that will see repeat fans returning in the future.