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FashionMusicArtCulture

Now or Never and the Space In Between

30 August 2024

Set within Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building, Now or Never was marked as a festival of duality. Under the floating multi-coloured panel, split in two this year, the audience experienced a fusion of sounds and tastes that leant into a grungier side of techno—dark, edgy, acid-infused, and trippy. The festival’s central concept drew inspiration from John Berger’s theme of “looking through the image,” exploring the gap between what we see and what we know as sight and sound converged to create memorable experiences. Through the diverse mix of European and local performances, the festival began to explore how curation as a contemporary practice could propel Australia’s musicscape to new global heights.

Building on the roots of beat culture, the evening began with a key figure in Australian underground culture: DJ PGZ. Blending hard techno with sparse bass and heavy drum syncopations, the Gunai/Kurnai and Yorta Yorta artist crafted a hypnotic, trance-like set rich with cultural influences. Later, DJ AYA’s punchy trance-tech and high-energy presence contrasted with Esthella Boersma’s techno set, which ventured into breakbeat at times. Kaleidoscopic visuals dimmed as the audience embraced Francois X's more brutal, edgy sound. The French-tech maestro merged sensual, rich textures with darker elements, delivering off-kilter electronic techno anthems punctuated by sharp, consistent bass lines that shook the walls.

It was Donato Dozzy who then subverted the boundaries of a unified sound. Known for his distinctive atmospheric and hypnotic tech, Dozzy’s set shifted into a trippier side of techno, navigating different BPMs and genres while maintaining an overarching brisk tempo. In the final minutes, he transitioned between four-on-the-floor and breakbeat, with momentous releases that drew cheers and whistles from the crowd. By the end, audience members felt as though they had journeyed far from where they started, as lightning-like visuals filled the walls and ceiling.

The result was a bridging of apparent opposites: Australia and Europe, space and time, imagination and lived encounters. In striving to push the Australian music-scape to new global lengths, Now or Never demands that audiences look deeper into what’s ahead of them, reflect on what’s behind, and revel in the space in between.

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