written by Chris Familton

This was set to be an evening highlighting the prevailing winds of local explorations of post-Animal Collective/Radiohead indie-tronica where the best elements of electronica have been slowed and absorbed into song structures with organic elements provided by live instrumentation.

Bon Chat Bon Rat were on board first with their warm 80s electronic pop that brought to mind Junior Boys or a stark Depeche Mode. Some great projected textures made the trio look like they were lost in a forest and their crisp programming and playing sounded impressive through the OAF PA. Their songs though were a little too earnest at times with portentous lyrics about ‘walking down your street but you don’t live there anymore’.

Mission Control, up from Melbourne, brought some energy to the stage with a set that was high on warped pop melodies, and Raph Brous’ edgy No Wave guitar and shoegaze synths. It was a nice balance of styles that threatened to really take the growing audience somewhere but it just managed to fall short of a full embrace. They do have some leftfield electronic anthems in them – like Chariots Of Fire – that deserve attention.

Megastick Fanfare arrived like hometown heroes and let loose an intoxicating barrage of rock solid rhythms, Battles-esque vocals and plenty of squelches and sparkling guitar. Their approach is to build songs from the ground up with the drums and bass laying a bed for the rest of the band to restlessly sleep in. Some drum hardware issues hijacked the middle of their set but they recovered well to have the crowd moving hypnotically.

Danimals have had a fascinating journey with their involvement in the Tooheys/Mark Ronson project, a summer of festival appearances and their recent signing to Stones Throw. As a result they now seem like seasoned pros with a much tighter, confident and almost swaggering set of songs. Frontman Jonti Danielwitz still seems as naively bewildered when he addresses the crowd but supremely at ease when he is playing. The addition of saxophone added groove and some freedom of funk that enhances their curious blend of electronica, hip hop and shambling indie pop. Once they got rolling and were locked into a song Moses MacRae’s drumming seemed perfect and effortless with the rest of the band providing their own unique musical signatures. This is a band coming of age.

this review first appeared in Drum Media