Live Review: REVIEW: Community was the key at Southbound's Locals Showcase

When people think of underground electronic music in Australia, Brisbane isn’t exactly the first city that springs to mind. However, against the backdrop of larger scenes like Melbourne and Sydney, there’s a tight-knit circle of local crews working away, throwing sick parties with engaging dance music. The last few years in particular has seen a fresh wave of young, inspired promoters hit the scene, and more often that not every weekend will have some kind of club night or warehouse party on the cards. 

Riding this wave is SouthBound, a team of absolute angels who put on events that are all about the party, without pretension. Taking over Black Bear Lodge on February 8th, they put on a local collective showcase of crews both new and established, giving each group an hour on the decks to show their chops. SouthBound launched proceedings, followed by Cyber, who kept the mood bubbling away with warm house and disco selections as the room slowly started to fill out. The emergence of heavy kicks and snappy breakbeats signalled Grid’s entrance into the booth, and the pace began to pick up as acid basslines whipped out of the speakers with elasticity. 

The Illuminaldi, a mysterious cult of dance floor deviants, followed up with a choice cut of heavily infectious, groovy tunes - the Fantastic Man edit of Estate of Mind being a standout. After that it was back to the warp zone, with Dialogue laying down a slick set of fast paced, steely techno. The crowd was well up for it by this point, the relentless four to the floor energy keeping everyone locked in. Closing down the night was No Persuasion, who went deep into murky bass music and dub territory à la Ilian Tape and Livity Sound, with frenetic techno making way for sub-pressure rollers. With each crew giving the other room to put forward an honest account of themselves, it made for a great representation of what’s happening in Brisbane at the moment - cheers to SouthBound for putting it together.

Image: Supplied

Words by Cameron Dun