![Grammy-nominated Flume makes phenomenal music and plenty of thought has gone into his live show.](/web/20161210190812im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/8/a/z/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt8axu.png/1481357841779.jpg)
Flume
Sydney Olympic Park Arena, December 9
★★★☆☆
With his inventive, original electronic pop, Harley Streten, the scarily talented 25-year-old behind Flume, has made one of the albums of the year, dominated the recent ARIA awards and will soon, deservedly be Australia's latest great white hope at the Grammys.
He has also come a long way in terms of physical performance, from those early sets spent moping behind a laptop. These days he not only dances with infectious abandon behind his mad-scientist set-up, he actually talks to the crowd, like a genial pop star rather than some untouchable DJ.
He makes some undeniably phenomenal music, too – full of heavy distorted beats and deliriously seductive hooks, sometimes enigmatic and instrumental, at others featuring a chart-slaying vocal – and thought has gone into its live presentation.
The Flume set is loud and clear, enhanced by dazzling lights and climactic confetti cannons, and makes just about everybody dance throughout.
What remains awkwardly unclear is what exactly Streten is doing up there, despite the cameras above him presumably there to enlighten us.
This is no old-fashioned, so-called purist argument. We get that his music is too complex to play live in the traditional fashion, and would sound ridiculous if recreated by guitars, bass, drums and the rest. He necessarily has to use samples, backing tracks and more, and that's fine.
However, if on stage he is effectively merely conducting recorded music and recreating morsels of the fantastic sounds he has created – with the exception of a couple of cameos from rapper Vince Staples and singer Kučka, it's just him up there – can we call him a great live act?
The delighted thousands that packed out this sizeable venue would say yes, and it's probably their opinion that counts. When Streten stretches himself by tapping at his sophisticated-looking tablet screens and occasionally hitting electronic pads with a drumstick, the fans go berserk.
They start singing to Holdin' On before the Otis Redding sample kicks in. They jump, spectacularly, at Staples' behest to the slamming hip-hop beats of Smoke & Retribution and get their phones out to make terrible recordings of Never Be Like You.
We all enjoy hearing at arena volume many a choice cut from the two Flume albums plus the recent EP, as well as a selection of his greatest remixes (among them Lorde's Tennis Court, Hermitude's HyperParadise and Disclosure's You & Me.
Thrilling as much of it is, though, it's hard to shake the feeling that it's ultimately all more smoke and mirrors than Smoke & Retribution.
Flume plays a second show at Sydney Olympic Park Arena December 10.