After its launch into Australia last year, Creamfields Australia is back bigger and better for Easter 2011. The Totem Onelove crew (also behind the Stereosonic festival) are committed to bringing you some of the world’s best acts, utilizing some of the best venues in Australia, amazing production and value for money in ticket pricing.

Totem Onelove (Hardware Corp and Onelove Music Group), are pleased to announce the main headliner for Creamfields 2011 will be Deadmau5 with the full live show (with LED Mau5 head and new production), designed by the people who brought the world Daft Punks’ legendary live show!! Deadmau5 is one of the biggest acts in the world with countless productions, and has been stunning audiences worldwide with this live show and production that he is bringing for the first time to Australia.

Another year and another smash hit for Frenchman Martin Solveig, All over the radio and TV with “Hello” Martin will be shooting an exclusive video at Creamfields Australia. Skrillex is one of the hottest producers at the moment, owning 7 out of 10 spots on the Beatport chart in November 2010, Chuckie one of the most in demand acts in the world with his Dutch House weapons. Simon Patterson one of the new school of trance, he has jumped in the DJ Mag rankings and blown away crowds at major festivals including Trance Energy around the wold. Gabriel and Dresden are one of the most revered acts in the Trance/Progressive world and haven’t toured for many years. Wynter Gordon has had a massive few months, “Dirty Talk” topping the Aria Charts and will be performing live at Creamfields. Hi Tek Soul is the new project for Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, the original Detroit Legends together for 3 hours at each show. After sellout club shows across Australia, DJs, remixers and producers the Bingo Players return for Creamfields after a busy end to 2010 and start of 2011, Top 3 Psy Trance act Skazi return to Australia with a new album due in March: “Time to feed the animals” French Wunderkid Surkin is back in Australia with a new live show. Electronic Duo Dada Life are from Sweden. Check out their latest album “Do the Dada”. Umek is one of the techno massives favourite acts, get set for Umek at all shows. Nadastrom The collective brainchild of Washington, D.C. natives Dave Nada and Matt Nordstrom. Emerging duo experiencing significant buzz. i.e. The debut release from Nadastrom sold out on vinyl and became a digital store annual bestseller. One of the buzz acts of 2010 was Round Table Knights, a huge year on dancefloors, charts and touring. At a time when techno is marketed in the same way as a sci-fi blockbuster, and it’s possible for every aspiring DJ to have the same playlist as their idol with just a few mouse clicks, the mysterious Sandwell District label is pushing in the opposite direction, putting some distance between the artist and the audience. London based Tim Green is one of those producers who doesn’t turn in a lot of filler tracks. His unique style and flare shine for all to see when the 25 year old puts his music out there.After a decade in the business Bart Claessen knows a thing or two about trance, Over the last eight years he’s been responsible for huge club hits, international chart smashes and sub-genre defining releases. If there is one thing you can’t blame Mumbai Science for it’s a lack of imagination. At only 24, the duo already have a decade worth of creative experimenting behind them

Bring a friend for free; existing tickets holders for the Gold Coast and Perth events can now bring a friend for FREE! Arrive with your friend on the gate and you will both be admitted on the one ticket.

Ticket discount; For those who haven’t yet purchased a ticket, Jam is now offering tickets at a discounted rate of 50% off.

Good Vibrations Festival CEO and owner Justin Hemmes explains “The first two shows of the tour were Amazing! We have the most phenomenal artists performing for us this year and want as many of you as possible to experience this festival! As we still have additional capacity to fill for this weekend’s shows, we’re extending this offer as this show is too good not to share!’

This year’s Good Vibrations Festival line up features Faithless, Phoenix, Nas & Damian Marley, Sasha, Ludacris, Erykah Badu, Kelis, The Ting Tings, Miike Snow, Friendly Fires, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Mike Posner, Yolanda Be Cool, Aloe Blacc & The Grand Scheme, Rusko, Fake Blood, Sidney Samson, Bag Raiders, Koolism, Tim & Jean, Kill The Noise and Fenech-Soler and a heap of local talent in each city.

Don’t miss your chance to experience this amazing line up with our one-off ticket specials!

Faris’ day…

One of UK’s legends in grime, Wiley was due on the main stage. I was really excited to hear him play a bit more of his harder dub/DnB material rather than his radio hits such as, Wearing My Rolex. Unfortunately he was just plain disappointing for me, he opened with his hit which is understandable but the direction he was going on was all downhill from there, he was just attending to the mainstream public and not the people who really listened to his older material. It was a really poor live performance too, at times it was more of the background track playing rather than him performing. He definitely could’ve given much more to the crowd.

If there was one performance of the day that really surprised me, it was hands down Major Lazer. For someone who generally dislikes the whole electro scene, I actually thought it was close to one of the best performances of the day. They were emceeing live on stage to different types beats, from dubstep, electro and even some old rhythm classics (cant remember the names) that you just never hear anymore. The emotions and party vibes were just so overwhelming, at that point I was feeling quite exhausted but somehow I still managed to really get stuck into the performance. I haven’t actually seen a crowd go insane to the extent of what happened when Pon De Floor was dropped as the whole tent was cheering with their hands in the air, as it weirdly just got so quiet just only moments before. Overall I thought it was a great performance, it really got the crowd dancing throughout and was highly entertaining, that’s the way it should be.

Then there was one, dance music legend Tiesto. With his latest album Kaleidoscope, it wasn’t really surprising for me that came out with his newer material. It’s fair to say that Tiesto has really branched his sound moving into a multi genre. For the first half of his set, I really don’t think you could even call it trance. It was more of a hard electro and house sound, whether you think it’s for the better or worst, I’ll leave that for you to decide. His first half saw his play hits such as Who Wants To Be Alone and the Tegan and Sara collaboration, Feel It In My Bones. His set then decided to take a new direction, introducing the ‘Tiesto classics’. I think this is what the trance faithful all come to see as they patiently waited and somewhat expected for him to eventually play. One particular track that he played was To Be or Not To Be by Elio & Raffunk which was a real surprise as I truly appreciate its progressive build-up. When you think of a Tiesto set, one song always springs into mind, Silence. It was more a matter of time before he drops that, and true enough he did. The crowd was really showing their appreciation at this point, as they held their hands up high in euphoria. As much I didn’t enjoy his first part of his set, it was something that was expected he would play so I wont hold that against him, it was great to see him include his classics in the latter part which made me really leave on a good note. Which the whole the day deserves. This years festival was definitely one to remember.

Cam’s day…

I only managed to catch the last few minutes of Caspa’s set with MC Rod Azlan in the Carl Cox & Friends tent, but those last few minutes seemed to encompass a sweat filled pit of punters grinding out to his signature bass heavy dubstep sound. It is always a challenge to get people out to a festival early in such extreme heat, but the weather didn’t stop the festival from having great numbers early in the day. From there I decided to make a move to the Sneakerpeeps tent hosted by Democracy, as most of the acts I wanted to see were based on that stage. The tent was located further away from the main areas, which I thought was a good idea as I heard no sound clashes throughout the day. DJ Dan was already on the decks pumping out a groovy tech-house set to ease punters into the swing of things.

Moving on I decided to head down to the new Silent Disco area to catch a few of our locals, Nina Van Dyke and Rohan Smith. I thought that the new setting served much better this time round, where it encompassed more of a laid back atmosphere where people could sit down and relax in a different environment, as opposed to it held being in another tent in the past.

There was one act that I have been cringing to catch for some time now – Luciano. It seemed that Luciano’s set had started off quite flat due to some technical problems with the sound, as it was quite soft. With a quick and healthy response from the tech-team, the sound was back to normal and the party was well underway. His set embraced a warm house and tech-house feel that was a pleasure to listen to, with a highlight classic of Sugar Is Sweeter by CJ Bolland. Having one and a half hours to play with, it wasn’t long before Luciano picked up the intensity to get the crowd roaring with excitement and passion.

Heading back to the Sneakerpeeps tent to check out Reboot’s set, I wasn’t particularly impressed with what he was playing. The tent was quite empty at the time, but I thought his set was sounding quite generic and when competing with such a superior line-up, his set did not stand out for me.

The disappointment of Reboot was quickly overcome when I went to see the legend, Carl Cox. There really isn’t much to be said about Cox, as he is a long time veteran to the scene and has graced us plenty of times with his highly energetic and prolific sets. It also never seems to get boring when he occasionally jumps on the microphone and has a shout out to his fans, who intuitively respond with a thunder of exhilaration. Cox’s sets are always entertaining and by judging by the turnout, it was quite evident that he was re-iterating his presence amongst the Perth scene.

Before I knew it, I was anxiously waiting to finally experience one of Ricardo Villalobos’ much talked about sets. He was certainly another act of whom I have been waiting to see, and if you were there to experience it, you would know why too. Villalobos is well known for his talent to take punters on a journey of music, and that he did. Starting off quite slow to set the mood, Villalobos constructed his set to entail a quality selection of grooving house tracks to flow into an upbeat tech-house sound. The tunes he was playing was definitely a highlight for me, but towards the end it seemed as if he was having some technical problems, leading to a few off-mixes. Nonetheless, it didn’t seem to bother me, nor the amount of other International DJ’s standing alongside him on stage to catch his set.

To top the night off Redshape closed the Sneakerpeeps stage. A dark, morbid and hedonistic approach was used to convey his set, which I thought was quite good to showcase just how quirky techno music can be. Although I think some of the crowd was worn out by that stage and not particularly ready for the melancholy mood that Redshape brought to the table, I thought it was great to see an act playing some serious tunes to close off the tent, however I think his set would have been much better suited to a 3am club set.

All in all, it was a great day of music and festivities and albeit the strenuous heat that circulated throughout the day, I am happy to say that Stereosonic has safely held its ground to still be one of the best festivals I have been to.

TOOL

RAMMSTEIN

IGGY AND THE STOOGES

M.I.A

JOHN BUTLER TRIO

GRINDERMAN

BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77

WOLFMOTHER

LUPE FIASCO

DEFTONES

THE BLACK KEYS

BIRDS OF TOKYO

PRIMAL SCREAM – SCREAMEDELICA LIVE

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS

DIE ANTWOORD

ANGUS & JULIA STONE

PLAN B

BOOKA SHADE (DJ Set)

BLISS N ESO

THE NAKED & FAMOUS

THE JIM JONES REVUE

AIRBOURNE

ANDREW W.K.

LITTLE RED

CRYSTAL CASTLES (NZ + East Coast)

PNAU

GYROSCOPE

CSS

DEAD LETTER CIRCUS

KID KENOBI & MC SHURESHOCK

VITALIC

BLUE KING BROWN

KIDS OF 88

OPERATOR PLEASE

CHILDREN COLLIDE

WILL STYLES

GYPSY & THE CAT

LOWRIDER

SAMPOLOGY

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!

We started with Kid Cudi, who had an enormous crowd in front of a small stage, but maybe that added to the atmosphere of excitement. He belted out a few tracks in a row, with “Enter Galactic” drawing a huge response. even more than when he played “Day n Night.” I think a highlight of his set was when he screamed out I’m Kid Cudi, or something to that effect and everyone went mental? I think they already knew he was Kid Cudi, not sure how that works. He finished with “Pursuit of Happiness,” but the crowd had already began to leave to see Salt N Pepa, so the atmosphere was killed for my favourite track. The full review is after the jump…

I only wondered past Salt N Pepa, and watched a mass of people swarm towards the stage. I heard plenty of commercial hip-hop being played between their tracks, and that seemed to work well with the crowd. Instead of watching Salt N Pepa I watched the up and coming pop/hip-hop artists, Killaqueenz. The crowd was small and I think they missed out on a great set of booty shaking hip hop, and trust me there were a few booty shakers there.

Gossip put on the best show of the day, on top of their catchy songs Beth Ditto took her dress off! Their set began with Beth claiming they were ‘the shitest band in the world’ followed by ‘we’re the Kings of Leon,’ snap! They managed to do a quick rework of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” using Perth, and some “Billie Jean” at the beginning of Love Long Distance. It was during “Standing In The Way of Control” that Beth decided it was time to strip down to her underwear, and it was worth every moment. After previously claiming her boobs looked like socks filled with coins, she obviously needed to show the crowd her evidence. They played a cover of Tina Turner’s “What’s Love,” and Elvis’ “At Last,” adding to an already fun set. They finished with “Heavy Cross,” and rounded out a very memorable show.

I now need to tell you about the biggest, unavoidable and most frustrating problem… the crowd. I knew it was going to be like it was but I was surprised at the level of grotesqueness. At the beginning of Gossip, Troy was in front of the barrier to get some photos, so Holly and I ventured to the front in the hope of catching his eye and getting a photo. This is the watered down version of events without the swearing but, I kid you not, we received the most intense death stares (plus some swearing) I’ve ever experienced, and we were polite in asking to go in front of them for a few minutes, but it didn’t matter they still hated us. I know you already know this was the case, but angriness at festivals really gets under my skin, especially when we were being polite.

Friendly Fires Dj Set and Armand Van Helden failed to impress. Friendly Fires dj set was plain boring and Armand Van Helden did three exceptionally poor mixes, so I left and got some food.

All was not lost! Basement Jaxx are known for great live shows and they did not fail to deliver. Opening with all members of the stage band in black cloaks, singing easily the creepiest song on the new record, “Scars.” They went through their new and old catalogue, changing costumes, dancing, djing and playing instruments. There was a great transition between djing “warp” and playing a track on an acoustic guitar. “Seven Nation Army” played on the trumpet made me laugh, and then of course it got stuck in my head. They were a great end to the day, if the crowd was a bit better I’d be even happier.

The Killers (Cancelled)

Armand Van Helden

Gossip

Busta Rhymes

Friendly Fires (Cancelled) Dj Set replacement

Salt-N-Pepa

Z-trip

Kid Cudi

Naughty By Nature

Plump Djs

Gym Class Heroes

Chase & Status (Live)

Craze

Dave Seaman

Chuckie

Art vs Science

Bass Kleph

Sam Obernik

Killaqueenz

Hosted by Slimkid3

Big Day Out (Website)

BLOWFLY

FEAR FACTORY

MUSE

DJ CHUCUCHU

POIRIER FEAT MC ZULU

TELEPROMPTER

POWDERFINGER

LILY ALLEN

ESKIMO JOE

GROOVE ARMADA

GRINSPOON

THE MARS VOLTA

LADYHAWKE

DIZZEE RASCAL

KARNIVOOL

PEACHES

THE TEMPER TRAP

KASABIAN

MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS

RISE AGAINST

MAGIC DIRT

MASTODON

LISA MITCHELL

THE HORRORS

BLUEJUICE

CALVIN HARRIS

KISSCHASY

THE DECEMBERISTS

TAME IMPALA

GIRL TALK

JET

SASHA

DEVENDRA BANHART

PASSION PIT

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO

SILENT DISCO

HILLTOP HOODS

DECODER RING

ITCH-E AND SCRATCH-E

MAYA JUPITER

MIAMI HORROR

MDX

SUGAR ARMY

SAM LA MORE

THE SCARE WAGONS

LOCAL ACTS

Abbe May & The Rockin Pneumonia

Arts Martial

Blue Shaddy

Burgerkill

Kit Pop

Muller

Rekab

Emperors

Human Extinction Project

Steven Muller

The Chevelles

The Novocaines Tim & Jean

Deadmau5

Axwell

Fedde Le Grand

John Dahlbäck

Laurent Garnier (with live band)

The Crookers

Surkin

The Bloody Beetroots feat MC Justin Pearson

Miss Kittin & The Hacker

Marco Carola

Chicane

Cut Copy DJs

Drop the Lime

Renaissance Man

Alter Ego

Zombie Nation

Umek

Dragonette

Hudson Mohawke

Tim Sweeney (DFA)

The Cobra Snake

Kidda

Juan Kidd

Grant Smillie

Andy Murphy

Acid Jacks

Grafton Primary

Canyons

Knightlife

Bag Raiders