The Presets - Beams

Such electronic music as this is apparently labelled, would not normally make it into my collection. But The Presets have bridged the gap for me with their excellent musical ability. Consisting mostly of two guys and two keyboards, they still manage to put on extremely entertaining live shows. I experienced such a show and it is permanently ingrained in my mind. It went a little like this….

Girl And The Sea – I walked into the 2006 Big Day Out festival and headed straight to the Boiler Room to try and catch the rest of The Preset’s set. As I entered, this song was playing and being such a giant room it took me most of the song just to reach the rest of the crowd. I more floated than walked there as this soothing song carried me absent-mindedly to my destination. I as enjoyed the keyboardy goodness I made a mental note to listen to this song more often. Once it finished, I snapped back into reality and continued listening to the rest of the set. Down Down Down came on and the crowd, including myself, really got into it. At this time, I was still yet to meet up with any of my friends, the next song however changed everything, it was…….

Are You The One? – Just a couple of notes in, the crowd recognised what it was and a cheer was let out. Almost instantly, in what had previously appeared to be an impenetrable wall of people, holes began to appear. The moshing begun and breathing room became a thing of the past. I was able to move seamlessly, to the beat of course, through about 15 rows of people, to make my way right to the front. The atmosphere was great and everyone was going crazy. Then all of sudden, a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me one metre to the right where I found myself in the middle of a group of 4 friends. There was no time for introductions, we were in the middle of a incredible experience and had to enjoy every moment, and that we did. There are very few songs that can invoke such joy in a human being. This song managed it.