This review comes from two perspectives, both writers are immense appreciators of electronic music but have a slightly different views on what’s hot and what’s not. I didn’t go, but I heard it was an amazing day from pretty much every account. I say to anyone who thought it was going to be shit; dumbass.

Sunday marked the start of a new era in music festivals in Australia, specifically Perth. Creamfields arrived in Perth and although summer is gone, punters still came out in full force to the Claremont Showgrounds on Sunday. Punters and all music lovers across the nation would have been pretty excited to hear Creamfields was heading down under. The line-up wasn’t the biggest of the summer, but it did cater to a number of genres – there were tech acts (Green Velvet/Dave Clarke/Joris Voorn), for the trancers there were (Ferry Corstein and Marco V) but the majority of the line-up followed the genre of the moment, electro (The Bloody Beetroots, LMFAO and MSTRKRFT). Read the full review after the jump… (videos courtesy of Dj Nathin Francis)

The day from the perspective of Will…

I learnt some important things at creamfields yesterday.

1. don’t go to a festival sober and alone unless you want to be annoyed by 34 various people who ask you if you are selling pills.

2. Don’t go to an all dj dance festival sober. Period. You just feel like an idiot. It can’t be everybody else?? No. You are the minority. It’s your bad.

With that aside I can now discuss the days proceedings.

I had written off the Claremont showgrounds as a place to have events. I just never understood how somewhere so large could be so difficult to get around. But that’s because I have had to endure many BDO bottlenecks to squeeze through.

Although Creamfields being a much smaller outing I was greeted by a refreshing layout that had all stages a matter of metres apart, with no sound spill.

After wandering around the throng of people for a while looking for a familiar face I ended up at Kid Sister playing on the outrage stage. I enjoyed the energy of the whole “yes, ALL of us mc” mentality of the guys. But I found it a bit annoying (as I do with most other live hip-hop/dance acts with a dj). It’s a necessity to scoop out all the mids in the mix to make way for the live vocals, unfortunately that’s where the melody of a song usually lies, so, all that’s left is thundering sub rumble, hi-hat sizzle and a whole lot of yelling. Plus, they didn’t mix, at all. It was more of a play track/hype up the crowd/play track affair, so they didn’t really transcended the hip-hop, dance music bridge like I was hoping.

It wasn’t all that bad, there were some tracks that stood out for me; da da da (I think it was called) was a highlight. They were really getting people going as well, I probably would have been one of them under different circumstances but as I mentioned before “me no drinky =(

Next I wandered over to the Limelite tent where I saw the end of the Limelite Dj comp winners Pearly Whites set. They seemed to be having the time of there lives and so where the crowd, wish I had seen more of their set.

I got over to the Cream stage to see Riva Starr who was definitely one of my highlights of the day. He played a really pumping set spanning a couple of genres. Starting with a track I wish somebody could enlighten me about. It had a really strong 90s house beet with a washed out piano line and a slight disco club feel. From then he launched into some tech house and got a real groove going. I am not as big on my tech as I would like to be but all the tracks he played were really palatable; I especially liked the world music vibe that is apparent in much of Riva Starr’s work.

Another Favourite of mine for the day was Lifelike, who came on after a timetable re-jig. His live set flowed seamlessly mixing in the next track to compliment the last. It was a lot heavier than I expected, but he tailored to the festival crowd impeccably. The only problem I had was with the sound. I have a huge allergic reaction to digital distortion and it was noticeable through out the entire set (especially the break downs, you could hear the speakers crackle). None of the other dj’s had this so it might have had something to do with the interface he was using. At times I found that it was actually hurting my ears a bit. This is something I probably only would have noticed in my state of sobriety. Everybody who was off chops wouldn’t have given a fuck and honestly the song selection and those driving bobble-thudder 80s baselines I love so much made Lifelike my day favourite regardless.

The day from the perspective of Faree …

The artists who started off my Creamfields experience was Green Velvet. I was very eager to see how he would go as after all, he is classified as Techno, which always excites me. I was really impressed when I walked in to the stages as they were indoors in a big pavilion; it was really more of a unique warehouse experience. He opened to a pretty respectable crowd for a mid-day set, he started with his widely renowned song, Shake & Pop. It was very refreshing to see how he was performing, standing over the decks with a microphone and providing his own vocals to all his tracks. The crowd in general was really enjoying it but then it sort of when downhill from there. First of all I was quite disappointed to see him play just his own productions and wasn’t really displaying any mixing skills. Playing an early set as he did comes with a bit of responsibility as a DJ. He should have been playing a light, bumpy, party sort of style. Instead he started playing a really heavy, intense sound, a sound best described as “drug music” and that’s the way he ended it unfortunately.

It was now time to get dirty for Australia’s # 2 Dj, Dirty South. He was really impressive, he really juggled his track selection really well playing a good balance between his commercial tracks such as Alamo, We Are and Meich. Then they were other tracks that really amazed me, which unfortunately I couldn’t ID. All I can I say about them is that the sound system in the Outrage stage made it that much better as it really handled the bass very well and just added to the experience Dirty South was bringing. I have to say he was a real crowd pleaser as he did the whole love heart to the crowd although I think we all have seen a million times before.

In the next time slot, I managed to watch parts of Lifelike and those 3 big haired guys called LMFAO. There wasn’t much I could really say about Lifelike, to me it was just standard average set. For the period I was there, I felt they could do more with their tempo. They just kept it in the mid 130’s BPM and just kept it there the whole time. At times I found them really monotonous with the occasional big drop here and there. I just wasn’t satisfied with their performance as I really expected more from my Techno acts.

When walking in the Outrage stage, I was in for a shock. The building was filled up to about 80 %, spanning over 200 metres in length. So it was definitely a difficulty getting through the crowd. LMFAO wasn’t really my taste in music from the beginning, seeing these 3 big haired black guys dancing about on stage. I must say the whole arena was really into it, everyone was dancing and bumping around giving a feel good atmosphere. They really brought the hip-hop element to Creamfields and they were just great entertainers in general as they would have been the highlights of everyone’s day.

The highlight of my day was fast approaching; I headed back to the Cream stage for the incredible Dutch producer/DJ, Joris Voorn. This was my Creamfields and probably many others as he played probably one of the sets of my life. He immediately changed the tempo of the whole crowd straight from his opening. He really started off with a very bumpy, energetic, party sort of Tech/ Tech House. He showed plenty of energy with his style of mixing, which really transcended to crowd as I saw the most life in the crowd the whole day. He then slowed in down a little with a more melodic style with the big tech drops with his very own Movin’ which the crowd indeed followed. The closing of this epic set was really something special as it left the whole crowd just speechless, as they just couldn’t stop grooving to the funky tech beats. He ended it strongly with tracks like Beachball and my personal favourite Beach Kisses! It was truly the highlight of the day.

It was now time for another Techno act by the name of Dave Clarke, playing to the Creamfields crowd at a much faster tempo, punters would have been able to differentiate between their sounds, as Dave’s was more of upbeat, noisier, cluttered sound of Tech. Nevertheless, the crowd was really appreciating the style as it really got heated up on the dance floor.

I was fortunate enough to be able to witness a true Trance legend, Ferry Corsten. Although I only was able to watch to last view tracks, I still managed to hear him at work as he was banging close to 140 BPM and then just dropped Coldplay’s Viva La Vida which indeed the whole arena sang too. Unfortunately I was also there to witness Ferry’s set being cut 15 minutes early due to sound difficulties. I don’t think the festival-goers can complain with the extra 45 minutes due to Steve Angello’s withdrawal.

Overall I think it was very brave how Limelite and Creamfields put together this festival. Although it was Claremont Showgrounds where we have seen many festivals located before, the venue this time was very unique as it really felt like an underground warehouse party. It was very small venue yet it was very intimate, something Perth needed, as it was a response to the complaints from Future Music. It was indeed an enjoyable day of music, there were surprises and also let downs but I guess that’s the unpredictability of live music and gigs, you just never know. Looking forward to Creamfields 2011!