Welcome to the Beats Lounge // The City's Hidden Hub of Creativity
Once a month every Thursday if you take a small walk up Elizabeth street to Fifty Five Bar, you will find a room full of like minded producers and beat making enthusiasts that make up one of Melbourne's best kept secrets. The Melbourne Beat Lounge. A monthly event that showcases the best beat-makers the city has to offer, alongside a community that aims to not only nourish the craft, but create a self sustaining group of individuals dedicated to the sub culture.
At the heart of this initiative is Ben. A local musician and producer who has been running Beats Lounge for three years. Following a move from Darwin, Ben attended the previous iteration of these nights that was put on by legendary local producer entro. Following the Covid Lockdowns that saw a lot of the live arts scene in the city fall by the wayside (which included the original iteration of these beats nights), Ben took up the mantle in collaboration with Fifty Five Bar to continue these events with a simple strategy. Consistency and Curation.
The first part of this alliterative approach is the consistent basis in which the beats lounge run. Having these nights run every month for the past 3 years has created an artistic hub for both creators and enjoyers of the beat-making scene. Quite often this style of Lo-Fi Hip adjacent music lends itself to enjoyment in isolation. Whether that be as a more passive enjoyment through playlists that aid individuals for when they are studying (we see you lo fi girl doing her homework) or those who take a more active listening route. The people who can listen to a Knxlwedge beat and marvel at the intricacies of the sample choices and production elements. The Beats Lounge acts as a central nucleus for both kinds of listeners to gather in person and either enjoy the live sets while enjoying a beer and conversing, or to lock in an engage in the performance of the producers. Building an atmosphere where the enjoyment of Beat Making can be enjoyed on multiple levels helps foster a real in person community that can take down the barrier of isolation and breach it with a more tangible gatherings.
The part of the beatmaking subculture that is particularly fascinating is its presence in the online space. While the origins of Djing, Beatmaking and other similar forms of music all have foundations in block parties or more particularly historical cities such as Detroit, Chicago etc its modern form belongs to the internet. As previously cited, the lo-fi boom of background noise had a major chokehold on younger generations, especially during covid. Not only that but the rise in Lo-Fi being an aesthetic, whether that be with trendy anime inspired visuals (just see some of the amazing posters used for these events) or this imagined retro world of an 80's Japan. These online obsessions held by young people over the covid period did shine a light on the creativity and the strengths of trends in the internet communities but since the world has been back to (relative) normalcy this interest in beat making has not necessarily transferred over to live in person attendance.
With this consistent approach to creating an in person community, these Beat nights aim to bring that shared interest into one space, both safe for its attendees but also inspiring.
Curation is the other major aspect of this events success. While the consistent nature of this event creates a routine for the public to attend or play, the night would not be so viable is the choice of artists was not also of the highest quality. Ben takes a great pride in choosing who plays these events. It is not expected for you to be a virtuoso beat maker, a degree of quality is expected. If you are an aspiring beat maker Ben always has his DM's open to listen to your stuff, if it isn't quite ready yet? No problem keep in touch and after some more work on your craft you could find yourself on a Beats Lounge Bill in a couple months. It's a feedback loop and expectation of standards that not only ensure's truly committed beatmakers a slot, but also encourages those with passion for this art form to keep practicing and honing their craft.
The curation doesnt stop at purely the audiotory senses. As stated earlier, visual accompaniment is a huge component of this music making culture. The splendour of this night of music doesnt stop at the display of talent from those behind the samplers. As you can see in the photo above, visual projections are a typical accompaniement, however during the latest showcase on the 17th of September, Beats Lounge hosted live art and an exhibition from an extrordinary local artist Keii (be sure to click on their name to see their wonderful art on instagram). The interplay between such striking visual art being made and presented alongside the performers adds yet another layer to an already wonderful initative.
It is truly inspiring to see a group of dedicated individuals fully committed to giving a platform for a more niche style of performing in Naarm. While its common to see guitar adjacent bands on every corner throughout the city, performers armed with an SP - 404, MPC or any related beatmaking gear are rare in comparison. The immense popularity of the various stylings of music that make up this culture (seen in the recent success of the debut of the Move My Way Festival read our review here) has not yet fully translated to regular attendance for a local scene outside a few key spaces. With all the hard work Ben, Fifty Five Bar and all of the producers put in to make this a welcoming and encouraging community, we hope to see these events increase in popularity. A greater amount of visibility is well deserved.
Be sure to follow Beats Lounge on Socials as well as Fifty Five Bar.
We will also tag some of the frequent producers they have at their events below!
Comments