Few festivals have gathered a following as quickly as Melbourne's Let Them Eat Cake. The invention of some of the city’s most clever promoters, the New Year’s Day bash has been long in the making. Many on the organising team have had their fair share of festival involvement and have worked notably with Future Entertainment, Rainbow Serpent Festival and Strawberry Fields, however the brief for LTEC was always going to require experience and solid foundations – to provide the best underground electronic artists from Australia and overseas and mix this with artistic stages, gourmet food and beverage and palatial surrounds. Adding to this, it was all to be enjoyed in an “intimate environment”, the counterpart to monster NYD festivals such as Summadayze.
After the success of the event’s debut last year, LTEC was already pencilled into people’s minds as how they wanted to ring in 2014. While last year’s performances like that that of US artist Kerri Chandler hung in people’s minds, so too did memories of blissful sunshine, lush green gardens and zero queues. So my first questions about 2014's edition were; will the line-up stand up? Will the intimate vibe remain? After all, unsustainable growth is a festival’s biggest liability, as crowd suitability and enjoyment are all put at risk. Too much change and the event may never be viewed in the same light again.
One of my first happy observations about LTEC 2014 was the lack of uncertainty. I adored the line-up of house, techno and broken beat. While it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, names like Dusky, Bicep, Cyril Hahn, Julio Bashmore, James Holden, Floating Points & LTJ Bukem were universally palatable choices that wouldn’t lower the tone of the party. All announcements were timely with no cancellations! Australian line-up additions of Mike Callander, Client Liaison and A13 were some of my favourites – all great examples of what Melbourne has to offer in its electronic reaches. Set times were excessively easy to navigate and The Bastille stage presented by Resident Advisor was by far the favourite with a first class array of on-trend artists.
Walking into the festival is also just as dreamy as one would imagine. The impeccably kept gardens of Werribee Mansion really make the perfect setting for a day of dancing and debauchery. We were all in awe of the incredible Bastille stage by Bamboo DNA (the same Californian folk who have designed structures for Strawberry Fields and the notorious Electric Daisy Carnival in the USA) complete with multiple LED visualisers. Other noteworthy touches to the site included a tent with oriental beds, the plant filled “Grobar” and the mansion-side VIP bar (while not accessible to general admission, it’s great to see a festival that takes good care of guests!).
Dusky’s set started during the first shower of the day, however a well-sized crowd braved the weather for their set. Despite the duos more heightened popularity, they are still faithful to deep underground house. As expected, ‘Careless’ drew a big reaction and looking back this was definitely one of my top picks of the day, well exceeding all expectations and holding up against a very strong international contingent. Their track selection grabbed my attention and their vibrancy on stage held it.
I haven’t been drawn to Julio Bashmore’s music for a few years now, however for the majority he was highly anticipated. Camera phones came out for his seminal 2011 release, ‘Battle For Middle You’. Bashmore kept things on point with Carl Craig’s hypnotically oscillating remix of ‘Falling Up’ by Theo Parrish. As the sun shone through the clouds in brief patches, it illuminated thousands of smiles.
The Castle Stage co-ordinated by The Operatives was a very special hangout. A crazy structure complete with neon turrets, it’s musical contents was just as eclectic. I headed over there especially to catch Melbourne artist A13. One of my favourites from the now defunct Heavy Innit parties, A13’s sound has a finger on the pulse of all things electronic and his LTEC set was like a cherry on top of an interesting year. He drew a healthy crowd and stunned us all. His quick mixing of autonomic, trap, dark ambient basslines rolled out ominously from the infamous Heartical HiFi. I hung around to catch the start of Digital however was lured away by friends for mojitos.
On the way back another distraction caught my ears – Bicep. The main Bastille stage is positioned in such a way that it’s inescapable, matching its namesake. While their set was enjoyable I didn’t feel like it lived up to their sound. It makes sense that an analogue-pushing pair would move into live analogue mixing. One can only hope for the future. Either way it was still danceable and delightful enough to get our bodies moving. Throughout the day I realised that the DJ set is certainly not a dying art. CDJs and Technics dominated riders and much loved artists proved that they can still blend the new with the pre-loved for maximum effect.
My last musical highlight of the day was James Holden. I’m sure some people are reading this thinking, “What about Koze?”. Well I say, what about Koze? If you saw Holden you’d know the answer! Amongst Holden’s crazy combination of off-kilter techno and acid, Four Tet’s massive ‘For These Times’ fitted in well. This little number that overflows with machine gun snares was possibly the most played track at Dimensions Festival 2013, it never fails to shake the floor.
For most of James Holden's set I couldn’t believe that he was just using CDJs. He holds each track in for so long and teases your ears with seamless progression. ‘Renata’ from his 2013 album 'The Inheritors' took pride of place in the set and really heralded him as the act of the day. After visiting Australia twice in the past two years, he has proven himself as a genuinely original producer and uber talented DJ.
In retrospect I wouldn’t hesitate to give Let Them Eat Cake a five star rating. Despite the festival's capacity increase from 3500 patrons in 2013 to 6500 this year, the effect on the day was definitely not negative. Few queues were experienced and there was ample room to dance. I did hear more than one attendee advise a desire for more toilets, but nothing other than that. Perhaps having three decently sized stages instead of five could prevent the amount of clashes (something which impacted the musical side of this review) and allow for more volume on the main stage. Other than that – divine! If a festival is fun with that much rain, then you know it’s good, so definitely head to Let Them Eat Cake if you want a day of non-stop pleasure. No matter what each years line-up brings, it will be the soundtrack to a day of delight.
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