Lovers of alternative music look forward to Illuminate Adelaide‘s Unsound weekend as it always brings a wide selection of local and international musical artists. Held over two nights, it started at Lion Arts Centre on Friday and finished at Hindley Street Music Hall before the closing acts performed in the suitably grimy basement of Ancient World. What drives the success of Illuminate Adelaide is the passion and enthusiasm that drive creative directors and co-founders Rachael Azzopardi and Lee Cumberlidge. Over the last five years, they have scouted uncharted territory to constantly evolve the festival. Lee’s influence on Hobart’s early Mona Foma days is visible in the offering that Unsound presents.
Catching the tail end of the set from Nídia & Valentina Magaletti of Portugal and Italy gave me instant FOMO that I didn’t arrive earlier. Their rhythmic percussion sounds had an instant attraction, with the audience’s attention glued to the stage. Like a lost highway movie, their sounds evoke a feeling of other places.
Shortly following, Bolivian-American siblings Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton presented their album LOS THUTHANKA. It is described as a melting pot of queer psychedelia, Andean rhythms and digital noise. Dressed in traditional cowboy outfits, they turned guitars and keyboards into almost unrecognisable sounds. The twisted, tortured music grabbed your soul and took you on a journey through time and space. A Pitchfork review of their album described it eloquently, “The blistering, collagic dance songs of Los Thuthanaka are all about negotiating with time, collapsing it so that it no longer feels linear”. With a hypnotic, hazy light show, the experience was almost reverential. They graciously spent time at the merch desk talking about the music and signing CDs.
The following artist aya is from the Pennine region of the North Atlantic. Her album Hexed! explores the “transfigurative power of experience and memory on the physical body”. Her dervish-like state had her prancing and gyrating on stage to a backdrop of intense noise, sound and feedback. Like the previous performers, it was an almost spiritual experience. With an underlying energetic punk feel, her performance was a breathtaking and surreal “take no prisoners” offering. Glitch, noise and screams blended perfectly.
US duo, Yellow Swans, closed up a coherent yet wildly different collection of artists with a set that was full of noise, psychedelia and hardcore. After taking a hiatus in 2008, they have returned to Australia. Performing in Adelaide for the first time, they were obviously grateful to share their music. It was difficult to tell how the duo shaped shifted and tortured the sound so that it became almost unrecognisable.
The show then morphed into a dance club with the likes of xxxquisite, DJ Raime and DJ PGZ playing well into the evening.
Part two of Unsound started at the wonderful Hindley Street Music Hall. One of the venue’s strong points is the three layers of viewing overlooking the stage, which means an easy ability to find a comfortable spot to watch the show. I was again disappointed to arrive late and miss German electronic musician Wolfgang Voigt playing GAS live. It was described as “an audiovisual non-stop psychedelic live trip, ranging somewhere between Schoenberg and Kraftwerk, French-Horn and Bassdrum”.
However, I did get to experience UK trio, Moin, in all their electronic glory. The band consists of Tom Halstead and Joe Andrews of the electronic outfit Raime alongside visionary percussionist Valentina Magaletti. The elements of grunge and shoegaze mixed with overdubs of poetry were sublime. Set amidst a hazy light splashed stage, the tightly controlled musicians allowed the music to take on a life of its own.
Having performed for over fifty years, Velvet Underground founding member John Cale is showing no signs of slowing down. He opened with “Shark-Shark” from his latest album Poptical Illusion. The audience was instantly enamoured, and Cale threw himself into the performance. The rear visuals were simplistic and cartoon-like, yet as mesmerising as the music. With a massive back catalogue of songs, he still manages to give the audience what they want, even with a couple of covers thrown in – Elvis Presley‘s “Heartbreak Hotel” and Nico’s “Frozen Warnings”. There was minimal banter between songs, just allowing the music to do the talking. It was a perfect ending to the Unsound weekend, with a mammoth offering of experimental and underground music.
The party didn’t end there, though. Nearby venue Ancient World hosted a closing party that opened with trans/queer multidiscipline DJ artist SKORPION KING. They turned the dance floor into a hot sweaty mess. The venue is the antidote to the glossy discotheques that line Hindley Street, with vegan food, fresh oyster shucking, graffiti and board games. It was like finding a hidden undergroung Berlin nightclub.
DJ E from Los Thuthanaka then took over the decks. Their choice of songs was a surprising mix of contemporary songs that had the dance floor jammed to capacity. aya then followed with a DJ set, Adelaide institution Strict Face gave us his legendary grim music before the night closed with Bibbee Zee.
A memorable weekend of alternative and experimental music once again helped cement Unsound into the Illuminate consciousness.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
There are still more musical offerings at Illuminate Festival, including Kiasmos on Friday July 18th and Supersonic on July 19th which has a range of free and ticketed events in the West End of Adelaide. Check out the details on their website
All images by Kerrie Geier
