Before I begin, I would like to pen an open love letter to The Edge. This absurdly pleasant block of the Queensland State Library opened only two weeks ago, and on entry, it instantly became one of my favourite places in Brisbane.

Terms such as "artistic commune" and "creative hub" are frequently abused as meaningless buzzwords, but they hold their ground here. There's an inventiveness in the architecture and interior design that really does fuel creativity and inspiration. Looking across the river, coffee in one hand, notebook in the other, as cyclists zoom by upside-down in the surrounding mirrors (pictured), it's hard not to feel energised.

Even among complete strangers, there was a certain sense of comfort and community. I'm hesitant to go on, as this will inevitably lead to words like "networking" and "collaboration". But there was certainly a lingering threat that I may not escape the building without inadvertently co-founding a jazz fusion project with a passing performance artist.

Musicadium is one of the first organisations to utilise The Edge (about which I will now shut up - thank you for your patience). This Brisbane-based digital distribution service has already won a lot of good will with artists for its business model, which allows musicians to retain all rights and royalties.

The White Noise workshop takes that nurturing attitude a step further. The three-day course placed selected emerging musicians under the guidance of industry experts, and made full use of the venue's recording studios, editing labs and rehearsal spaces. Talks spanned songwriting, recording, distribution, management, legal issues, and marketing.

They finished the week in style, with a free public performance at the Edge's auditorium to showcase three acts supported by the program. From the calibre of the performances, it's obvious that this was no Mighty Ducks style, zero-to-hero transformation. While as-yet-unsigned, all three artists have a live history and an established repertoire of songs, and were obviously selected for their natural existing talents. Let the pretentious gig review commence!

Dane Tucquet

"Sit down," insisted the evening's first performer. Good advice, as new Brisbane resident Dane Tucquet's gentle guitar work and gravelly voice have a hypnotic charm best experienced while relaxed.

Nature has given Dane a vocal range other artists can only accomplish from old age and decades of hard booze. His voice default to the lower octaves where the average singer's pitch control simply gives up.

With nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a stomp box, Dane created an incredibly full sound without losing the intimacy of a solo performance. These limitations allowed him to exercise a great deal of creativity. In the aptly-titled singing in the bath, he made do with just his own voice and some borderline-interpretive-dance movement. He later created a complex tribal drumbeat from simple stomps and taps on his guitar pickup.

This was a great display of thinking outside the box from a gifted songwriter who deserves to go places.

The Belligerents

"Stand up," insisted the evening's second performers. A good indication of thing to come.

Brisbane-based five piece The Belligerents played a very bouncy set of disco-rock songs that would stand (bounce?) comfortably alongside the likes of Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys. As such, they won me over immediately.

They had the confidence and stage presence of a far more experienced band, with tight coordination in both their music and movement. For all the energy, however, it was the restraint of their song structure that really made it work, allowing them to operate as a loud five-piece without once sounding cluttered or chaotic.

They played the audience well, with the auditorium's wooden floor doing a good job of carrying everybody's simultaneous stomps. By encouraging singalongs in their final number, they instantly turned an unheard song into an established anthem. A crowd-pleasing cover of Britney Spears' Toxic went down equally well, and exposed an alarming truth: it's actually a pretty great song.

Unfortunately, the demos available on The Belligerents' MySpace page have a hard time capturing the sheer energy and professionalism shown on stage. For the time being, they are solely a live experience. I can't wait until their recordings can do that experience justice, because they really are enormous fun.

Sietta

Sietta, the final act of the night, can easily be likened to ambient trip-hop acts such as Goldfrapp or Groove Armada, though this runs the risk of unfairly pigeon-holing a very innovative duo.

Vocalist Caiti "caiti.b" Hailing is a phenomenal singer, and a damn fine dancer to boot. If her confidence and vocal range had any limitations, she certainly didn't show them here. James Mangohig handles the electronic production, looping Caiti's vocals over insanely catchy hip-hop beats. James moves with the rhythm; Caiti with the soul; each doing their own thing, but gelling together brilliantly.

Not for the first time that night, I became an instant fan.

(Sietta's first EP is also available on iTunes. It is, as the kids say, totally rad.)

You might have noticed the above three reviews are uniformly and glowingly positive. Let this be an indication of the talent selected by Musicadium rather than a damning indiction of my critical judgement. All three acts were enormously entertaining, and if the White Noise program brings them even the tiniest inch closer to success, it has done its job admirably.

Links

Musicadium - website - blog - facebook - twitter

Dane Tucquet - myspace

The Belligerents - myspace - facebook - twitter - youtube

Sietta - myspace - facebook - twitter

Special guest write-up by Alastair Craig

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