Hermitude
Enmore Theatre, June 26
Hermitude duo El Gusto and Luke Dubber.Credit: Picasa
There is one criterion for a royal Hermitude homecoming: make it big.
It seemed size was the only thing on the minds of Blue Mountains duo Angus "El Gusto" Stuart and Luke Dubber (aka Dubs) as they returned home following a long hiatus from this city and a well-received tour of America.
Standing behind two long benches of decks, MPCs, drums machines and other gadgets, they turned ten years of intelligent dub, instrumental hip hop and big beats into a continuous 90-minute party set that turned the sold-out Enmore into a room of banshees.
Everything was bigger, heavier and more bass-driven than ever.
Let It Go and All Of You, from their explosive 2012 album HyperParadise, were rolled into a tantalising mini-medley before the pair seamlessly ripped into Golden, usually a soft, wobbly tranquiliser to put on in the background.
This time, the bass was as deep as the sea and each wobble was magnified ten fold to turn things up another thumping notch.
Speak of the Devil was insanely large. Get In My Life was even larger. And when you thought they had nowhere further to take it for their final act, they pulled out The Villain, an angry, stomping dub-fest that grew larger and larger until I thought the floor may cave in.
Even the rare moments of down-time felt gargantuan. Frayed, an introspective slow burner about the pain of loneliness from 2008 album Threads, was heavily beefed up and exploded with powerful surges.
A steady stream of cameo performers added the frontman magnetism that is sometimes left wanting when El Gusto and Luke Dubs are stuck behind the decks.
The highlight was Young Tapz, an energetic teenage pocket rocket from New Zealand who burst onto stage for latest single Through The Roof, a reggae-tinted club banger from Dark Night Sweet Light, the follow up album to HyperParadise that shot straight to number one when it was released in May.
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Some of the complexities of Hermitude's deeply intelligent, innovative creations were lost in the sea of massiveness but it wasn't a night for that.
The exotic sounds of their earlier instrumental explorations were reduced to another quick and monstrous mini-medley from 2003 debut Alleys to the Valleys. Rather, they traded in the introspective stuff for big, electronic, dance-heavy party fodder.
And that was exactly what we wanted. This was a homecoming to remember.