The Hush Top 50, 2000 - 2010: It's About The Music

And really, it always has been. Hush has been the place for electronic music in Victoria for ten years now. Ten years. Think about where you and who you were ten years ago, think about how fast trends, sounds, and clubs come and go. Then think about what an achievement it is for a club to still be bringing the sounds after 520 week, or 3,650 days, or 120 months, or however you want to measure a decade.

In celebration of this milestone, I wanted to collect some of the aural history of the club, in singles, remixes, and edits. So I asked a rogue's gallery of residents, favorite guests, and local legends to give me their top five Hush tracks: the music that always worked, that always raised the roof, destroyed the floor, and so on.

The results are below, in alphabetical order. Listen, dance, and remember: A-F - G-M - N-Z

A - F:

AFK - Lush [Proton Music, 2006]
"The track I wrote for my Saturday night residency ended up being released on Proton Music, was remixed by Formulate, Matt Rowan and Jaytech and was also played all over the world. How cool is that?"
– AFK.

Agnelli & Nelson - Everyday [Xtravaganza, 1999]
– Puck.

Barletta - Panther (ZedsDead Remix) [Intellegenix, 2009]
– Mat The Alien.

Bent - As You Fall (Micah's Swollen Floor Remix) [White Label, 2004]
"This is a bit of a monster as we all must know by now. Micah did two remixes of this Bent track, and this particular one is the massive one."
– AFK.

Binary Finary - 1998 [Aquarius, 1997]
– Yoseff.

Chable & Bonnici - Ride [Alternative Route, 2003]
"Track of the year when it came out. There wasn't a single dj that I know of that wasn't playing this track or a remix of it."
– Braeden.

Datsik - 3 Fist Style [Basshead, 2010]
– Mat The Alien.

Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart [Electra, 1990]
"If this doesn't make you want to dance, you probably have no pulse."
– Fractal.

Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence [Mute, 1990]
"This was a track that I ended many a set with and is one of the best Mode songs ever. It is also a song that converted some of the BC indie kids who used to adamantly claim to hate dance music."
– Deko-Ze

Digga - Down On You [Sandpaper, 1997]
"The night that I first played this rare gem out it got stepped on and scratched all to hell. The only thing left playable was the vocal loop "I wanna do you" which complimented most of my sets thereafter as an overlay."
– Sunspun.

DJ Misjah - Access [X-Trax, 1995]
"It was the late 90s, rave was IT, acid trance and techno were massive, glow sticks, fun fur and Vicks were abound and PLUR actually meant something (Peace, Love, Unity and Respect for you newbies). "Access" was the call to arms acid track that packed a 303 punch like no other and literally tore a new one into Rumors (which later became Hush). It also tore a hole into one of the bass bins. Jack, the owner, didn't speak to me after for about an hour after that."
– Deko-Ze.

DK8 - Murder Was The Bass [DK, 2003]
"The apotheosis of hard techno."
– Fractal.

Donna Summer - I Feel Love [Casablanca, 1977]
"One of the main things I have always loved about Hush is the diversity in crowd. On the dancefloor, I often see clubbers, ravers, students, hippies, gays, curious, hookers, a sailor, queens, a pimp (you think I'm kidding?) and everyone in between. This also makes for a crowd who are up on their music or at least eager to hear something they haven't heard before. "I Feel Love" may be 35 years old (and older that some of the patrons) but is truly a disco masterpiece that stands the tests of time and unites everyone, no matter who you are."
– Deko-Ze.

Formulate - The Voice of Qi (Seed's 8-Bit Breaks Remix) [Pacific Front, 2005]
"People consistently went nuts for this."
– AFK.

Fred van Eck & Etienne Overdiijk - Tribal Quest (Tribal Dub) [Hard Heels, 2000]
"Too much of this would be bad but 3 minutes is perfect."
– Sunspun.

Top 50 tracks: A-F - G-M - N-Z

No discussion of the music that got played at Hush is complete without the late, great Brent Carmichael. If you never heard him play, you can hear his final mix here. Electronic music in Victoria owes him a huge debt of gratitude. We miss him.

Hush is the descendant of a club called The Limit, which is itself a descent of a club called Rumours. A proper history would include a discussion of all three spaces...but that's for another time.