Hermitude

“Hope you enjoy the show,” she said as I received a slapping stamp to the wrist, which in my opinion was overly soaked in the staining ink. Nevertheless, the Northcote Social Club’s bandroom is infamous for its sweaty power shows, so as I set up in the corner of what was a quickly filling room, I expected nothing less. After a long wait, Hermitude’s fans were reveling in the idea of a headlining show, and as we were soon to find out, so were they.

Perching myself up in the corner of the stage hoping to avoid flying elbows to the head, Dubs and El Gusto took the stage beginning with what I like to describe as, an insane epileptic drum machine fit. The crowd immediately switched into gear and it was from there that you knew you were about to smell a lot of body odour.

From Tales of the Drift; Nightfalls Mesenger and Can’t Stop, they all caused body convulsions to tremor through the crowd. From Threads; Slychain, Frayed and Cartridge Kings, they were reasons for hysteria, the bass pushing through and past the punching fists and jerking knees with physical force.

Until now we were all satisfied with hearing what we all knew and loved, however it was at the first inkling of Hermitude and Urthboy’s hit, “Your Call”, that the crowd nearly inserted their faces into the actual mixing decks.

My corner of solitude and welfare was no longer. People’s limbs were converging and flailing upon my camera; I was at the helm of a beat driven attack on the boys from the Blue Mountains… Marvelous.

After a short keyboard malfunction, which considering the hardware on stage was a minor hick-up, the boys got nostalgic with a few tracks from Alleys to Valleys, getting the long time fans to raise their hands in reminiscence. Followed by an extensive reggae dub, the boys announced their newest track, Get in My Life, giving us a taste of what’s to come from these two musical machinists.

The magic of Hermitude’s music in fact comes from the broad spectrum of styles they play. From a filthy dub-step, bass fest to an island getaway, reggae, jazz fused orgasm where the flow is literally seamless. So filled with minute details, the instrumental possibilities of this jungle/reggae/dub/hip hoppedy sound is endless and very exciting.

With lighters scattered over the top of the crowd, the boys went mobile toward the end of the show, El Gusto beating his samples and drums and Dubs running his hands up and down the keys. Friday night in the black of the NSC bandroom saw a filthy riot of electronic genius fueled by an anticipation and expectation which to say the least was more than fulfilled.

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