Guy J – Brisbane Show – Lemon & Lime

On the afternoon of Sunday 9 April 2023, La La Land Brisbane and Lemon & Lime hosted an amazing party for lovers of deep and progressive house music. Some of Australia’s finest talent was on show, with a very welcome guest – none other than Israel’s Guy J, owner of legendary record label Lost & Found.

Guy was on tour of Australia and New Zealand, having played Prince Bandroom in Melbourne for Morning After open to close on Thursday and OTC again at Factory Theatre in Sydney on Saturday. Joining Guy J in Brisbane on Sunday was established all-rounder Zankee Gulati from Sydney, as well as experienced and friendly locals Rich Curtis and Nick Galea.

Zankee Gulati had the pleasure of opening the event, with a three-hour set until 6:00 PM. Zankee shared that three hours is always fun especially when it’s for warming up for the greatest of all time! He said that the tracks that stood out the most from him were by Mike Rish from Melbourne, which was no surprise. The reason being that Guy is a fan of Mike, whose tracks always catch attention in Zankee‘s sets.

Some of the music played by Zankee Gulati included tracks like Habitat by Brian Cid, one of his favourites, which he said playing was amazing. Then some of the older Volen Sentir tunes. Zankee played Evaporate (Mike Rish Remix) by Amháin and to close another by Mike Rish.

Fortunately, the set was recorded, and it has become one of Zankee‘s most popular ones on SoundCloud, which is amazing for him to see. The room being completely empty to rammed by the end of his set was very rewarding for him. He even had two of his close friends from Sydney come up for it.

"Warming up for Guy J is a dream come true and I thank Dan Burke (Lemon & Lime) for making it happen! I had a lot of people messaging me from Brisbane and made a lot of new friends. Hope to come back soon."

Zankee Gulati

The dance floor was full and the drinks were flowing, with a crowd that had been waiting since way back in 2016 for the return of Guy J. Brimming with unreleased music, he opened his set with a mix of 2018’s Airborne, and continued with around 60 unreleased tracks on hand that he had produced during the isolating events of the last few years. Guy had four hours to take us with him as we melted into deep progressive bliss.

This year Guy has had numerous releases on his label Lost & Found, as well as his down-tempo sister label Armadillo Records. At the end of March there was State Of Trance / Anonymous on Lost & Found, as well as a compilation featuring other artists called We Are Lost, in July. August saw the 100th release for the label, and it was a rerelease of the one that started it all, Guy J‘s progressive house classic track Lost & Found, with an electronica AM Mix on the B side. That one is out on vinyl.

A standout track on another label that did get identified during his set was Patrice Bäumel‘s remix of La Esperanza, produced by Claptone and featuring Katie Stelmanis. It’s out on Different Recordings. For the encore, Guy played a mix of Omid 16B‘s Escape (Driving To Heaven), still a favourite for Brisbane clubbers since the original was released 10 years ago, on Alola Records.

There are no set recordings online from Guy‘s 2023 tour Down Under, however, he does have a set that was recorded in the month prior.

Rich Curtis is no stranger to playing major events for Brisbane crowds, and has had tours overseas. A capable producer in his own right with many releases on international labels, Rich had just the right progressive and melodic selection to keep everyone moving and grooving into the night. The next two hours were just magic and a testament to the quality of Australia’s own talent.

Taking care of things at home for a while recently, there were some productions of his own that Rich featured in his set. They were the Mike Griego remix of Baby Raver, out on pioneering Australian label Balance Music, and Famous First Words, a foray into minimal/tech, on Tronic.

When asked if he enjoyed the event, Rich said:

"Heck yes, was epic! One for the history books, all facets of the event were primo. Well done Lemon & Lime!"

Rich Curtis

He recorded his set and featured it on his long-standing radio show Resolutions.

Closing the night was another familiar local DJ, Nick Galea. He kicked things off with Yoohoo by Dusky, on their label 17 Steps. Deep and tech house played by Nick rounded out the event perfectly, with tracks by artists including Oliver Schories, Mark Knight, Simon Doty, Matt Sassari and Cristoph. Towards 2:00 AM he dropped the recent take on an old favourite Rhythm (Of the Night) by Yotto & Something Good, which was very memorable.

Dan Burke, owner of event promoter Lemon & Lime, would like to thank Melbourne’s Morning After, who organised the tour.

"It was an all round great event and we can’t wait to have Guy J back in Brisbane!"

Dan Burke

Since then, Lemon & Lime have hosted more events at La La Land Brisbane, such as Cosmic Gate in late April, John ’00’ Fleming (Open To Close) in May and Giuseppe Ottaviani in June. At the start of October they had Hernan Cattaneo at The Triffid, which of course was sold out and absolutely epic, with an after-party featuring Eelke Kleijn at La La Land.