Live Review: Willow Beats, Colourwaves, Oisima

In an era of electronic music where you can sometimes find yourself watching a line-up of supports that sound rather similar, merely biding time for the main act, The Basement on Saturday night was almost a mini-festival that showed off some of the best and most varied talent this country has to offer.

Melbourne’s Colourwaves brought booming beats and echoing synths with a hypnotic voice, a little like Washed Out at his most intense or Cut Copy in their dreamier moments. You could watch Ryan Dodson enjoying himself – once a young “bedroom” producer who is now on the cusp of bigger things – or close your eyes and be transported to some kind of psychedelic world.

Oisima, he of the bucket hat and bushy beard, wove jazz, hip hop and ambient beats to command the attention of the whole room – and their bodies. A shy line-up at the back of the room converged to fill the dancefloor as Adelaide’s answer to Bonobo, real name Anth Wendt, tapped his sampler with precision, his sneakered feet all the while delicately marching to the beat. Annabel Weston joined him to smoothly provide ethereal vocals on tracks like Everything About Her.

With Willow Beats there was no need to close your eyes in order to visualise the sounds. The screen behind Murwillumbah uncle-niece duo Narayana Johnson and Kalyani Mumtaz filled with mind-bending graphics of chemical reactions, microscopic sea life and otherworldly valleys, images ranging from the beautiful to the grotesque, just as the music veered from delicate and mysterious.

Think the irresistible canon of Blue to their newest release, the mystical Merewif, to quirky marimba-laden tracks like Cog Goblin, and descending into dubstep territory, sending the room into a frenzy with the likes of early track Franky. Johnson showed off a vocal range from angelic to commanding while Mumtaz produced infectious beats, the two occasionally swapping roles or joining forces on the instrumental side. Who knows what’s in the water at Murwillumbah but these two aren’t quite like anyone else right now, topping off a very unique night.