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

N - Z:

• Novy vs. Eniac - Pumpin' [Kosmo, 1999]
  "Pumpin' is very much a personal rave anthem: I got my copy from my best friend when I first started DJing, and I heard it countless times from other DJs at Hush."
  – Fractal.


• Plastikman - Spastik [Plus 8, 1993]
  "Sometime, you don't need bells and whistles. You don't need a dirty gut wrenching bassline. You don't need the huge, everlasting build. You don't need a large black woman shrieking to "take you hiiiiger!" You just need an unstoppable kick drum and snares. And not just any snares. Snares that are trying their damnest to rip your head off. Brent was playing this one night right before I was to take over on the decks. He then gave me a sly grin as if to say "now top THAT!""
  – Deko-Ze.


• Pryda - Remember (WMC Intro Edit) [Pryda, 2006]
  – Puck.


• Renato Cohen vs. Tim Dexlue - Just Kick! (Carl Cox Remix) [Intec, 2004]
  "Driving, pulsing techno + sing-song girly vocals = a huge huge huge winner."
  – Fractal.


• Santiago Nino - Believe (Max Graham Remix) [Aurium, 2005]
  "Caned the hell out of this track up until the day I moved on from my residency. One night when Davin and I were playing one of those bananas PFR vs. Lush nights, I recorded our set. During the breakdown in this track, people were screaming so loud that the needles picked up the vibration and it was included in the recording. Pretty freaking amazing."
  – Braeden.


• Sigma - Back To Front [Life, 2009]
  – Mat The Alien.


• Simon Noble & Alex Daniels - I Want You! [Temptation, 1998]
  "A little bit of that mid 90's clubby, pop-flavoured house that always went over so well in small doses."
  – Sunspun.


• The Feelgood Factor - Da Fonk Train [???, 1996]
  "For a long time, the West Coast was known for its strong breakbeat, funky house and dub scene. I would pad my record crate with fresh releases from Wall Of Sound, Skint and Finger Lickin' and "Da Fonk Train" was one of my "In case of trouble, Break Glass" tracks. It always got the arms in the air with everyone jumping and treating each other like best buds. Brent Carmichael often took that song as a cue to bring shots to the dj booth (like he needed an excuse...). Oh, and "Da Fonk Train" was written by a young fella named Norman Cook who then became one of the biggest dance artists of all time under his Fatboy Slim guise."
  – Deko-Ze.


• Thomas Krome - Shockabuku Volume 2 - Side A1 [Corb, 2001]
  – Kevin Legere.


• Trisco - Musak (Wonderland Avenue Remix) [Vinyl Addiction, 2000]
  "A textbook get-out-of-jail free track. Comes complete with a bassline from a Moroder tune, huge fills, and a timeless groove."
  – Fractal.


• Woody - Body Music [Fumakilla, 2000]
  – Kevin Legere.


• ? - Side B [Invasion Series Volume 3, 2000]
  "Like many other tracks I often used this one happily knowing that no other DJ's on the local circuit were packing it. Simple and to the point this track is beautiful in it's versatility."
  – Sunspun.

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.