Live Review: FOMO Festival Adelaide

Taking place on an afternoon where the heat ruled before it settled into a balmy evening, FOMO Festival will surely go down in the memory of punters as one of the best music events Adelaide has seen in recent years.

Local Dutch-Australian producer Flash89, aka Paul Kranenburg, kicked off the event with his classic dancefloor rhythms as the crowds started to assemble. There's a big focus on hi-hat samples in his production with intermittent vocal samples.

Melbourne singer MIMI was a surprising fit on the bill, but her edgy R&B cross house-style vocals were interesting enough for the audience. Just A Gent is fast becoming a regular on Australian festival circuits and his solid trap sounds have won over a large contingent of dance fans. The novelty value of his costumes and image is a bit questionable at times, still he's a decent, if not overly innovative, producer with some good vocal samples in his arsenal of sounds. The crowd, however, seemed a bit disengaged, even with popular R&B remixes.

Carmouflage Rose is an African-Australian rapper really starting to make waves. The quality of his production today really stands up to international contemporaries and his live presence was pretty good, particularly with the DJ also rapping. 

Canadian duo Loud Luxury put on a fantastic dance show, with people streaming towards the stage to catch them. The hooks were strong and the beats ideal for an outdoor dance festival. There was a deft touch to the mixing which demonstrated the difference in quality between domestic and international DJs.

Australian DJ Anna Lunoe won over plenty of punters with her slick mixing and great selection of tracks, before American producer San Holo announced his arrival on stage strumming an electric guitar before he settled into some sophisticated rhythms. The restrained trap elements and mix of vocal hooks went down a treat and when See The Light dropped, the vibes throughout the crowd were great.

Mura Masa sounded very slick in one of the standout sets of the day. The chilled sounds were a step above much of the production that preceded it and the nice pulses really fitted the vibe at that time of night. When Love$ick dropped at the end, the crowd really started to take off.

Rae Sremmurd is a Mississippi hip hop duo with a very modern sound and a love of smooth autotune. Their production is awesome with good dance sensibilities and music tailor-made for dancefloors, but at a festival, these guys really kill it, with the crowd eating out of their hands. Tracks like No Type sound so much better with hundreds singing along to it. Their collaboration track Powerglide went down a treat, as did the brief version of Swae Lee's track with Post Malone, Sunflower.

The Nicki Minaj headline slot was well worth the wait, with an extravagant stage set up featuring the word “Queen” in giant letters, unicorns and a golden throne and extremely ripped backup dancers. Minaj's rapping was slick and fast, her confidence and swagger palpable from hundreds of metres away and her voice definitely on point. The backup dancers choreography was entertaining rather than unnecessarily elaborate. With too many singles to name, the singer was often drowned out by the audience singing along, even for more elaborate rap sections. 

The quality of acts at the forefront of popular hip hop and electronic music are a far cry from the disposable pop of earlier years. Many of the tracks today are mainstays of club nights across the world, so to hear them in this setting was very special for many people.