After a hectic weekend, seeing Trevor Jackson, Aireoplane and Yen at Hyde Park Barracks and ducking into the back of a Spanish club to check out Shit Robot the night after, I thought I would post up a some articles from couple of other places to complete the rainy Sunday afternoon here in Sydney. With Australia day around the corner and your sick day notice in for tomorrow, no doubt, I'm sure some reading is in order.
While talking with some friends over the weekend the notion of design and music seems to be more prevalent today then ever. Designers and musicians, especically electronic musicians, seem to go hand in hand. Whether its cover art, web site design, graphic design or even the live visuals associated with a DJ act its seems the visual component is a side that can be skilfully used to 'enhance' the music; show a different aspect or perspective. While many people, at first, may just see the swirling live visuals as some sort of way to further trip out drunken (alcohol or otherwise) people the visual component is as much a valid art form as the music itself and needs to be taken more seriously in my opinion.
Becks festival bar was graced with the edgy visuals of VJ Morph which in many ways perfectly complemented the edgier sounds of spaced out disco coming from the time-code vinyls of Trevor Jackson. While in the background saw visuals projected onto the old Sydney Barracks building of which some were designed by visual artist, Julapy. Check it out below, but much of his designs come from code, rather than sampled visuals.
Ghostly International is another electronic label known for some unique and defined visuals. Cover art or live much of it is directed and created by Michael Cina who's work extends far and beyond that of underground music labels. Have a read of the interview with him below to gain some insight into this much overlooked industry.
Back to music, I can safely say Trevor Jackson at Hyde Park Barracks last Friday pumped out some great house and new disco. Steering away from the obvious, going down the slightly gritty but keeping it lively it was a set that was happily lapped up by everyone. Have a read of Dr Tad's review below;
Prolific, visionary, revered and innovator are words so often bantered around by the music industry today, that they seem to be of little worth. However, mention the name Audion or Matthew Dear and these words start to paint a picture of an internationally recognised pop music and techno artist who easily fits within these grand descriptions.
Matthew Dear is widely considered to be one of the great innovators of electronic music during the last 8 years and a look back on his releases under his many alias and one can see why. False (for M_NUS), Jabberjaw (Perlon) and, of course, his most famous of all techno alias, AUDION, has seen Dear effortlessly balance pop and techno while still receive accolades from both the rock and electronic music media.
Matthew Dear's darker alter ego, Audion, releases on the acclaimed dance-music label, Spectral Sound, which he founded in 2000. Arguably, Matthew Dear burst into true music industry spot-light with his release of his debut album, ASA-Breed, on Spectral Sound's sister imprint, Ghostly International in 2007. That release received wide acclaim from all corners of the globe and I have heard it described as electronica-pop, acid techno, minimal-folk however I personally believe low-fi pop as the best descriptor here.
Dark, quirky, minor and tonic sounds describe not only his releases under Dear but also his releases under Audion. Dear has a natural affiliation with rhythm and sound scapes with every release layered with detailed synthetic sounds. As any techno DJ can tell you dropping an Audion track mid-set can devastate dance-floors.
His track Mouth-To-Mouth released in 2006 was a club-anthem that infected DJ boxes the world over and is a perfect representation of his sound. Stripped back, gritty, insanely rhythmic with huge stabs of masterfully created synths that push the track on and on. In fact only last week I found my self going crazy to this club classic. Again. And loving every moment of it.
I beleive every respectable techno/house DJ will have their 'Dear' moment. Personally thinking back, Saturday night here in Sydney in this small little club with a massive sound-system, I dropped a rather subdued Audion track. Or so it seemed. Starting off with a pulsating drum, beating on the off beat, it layers and layers with pulsating synths that pan from left to right, until mayhem ensues. The dance floor loved it. Have a listen below as this probably one of Audions slightly over-looked tracks however I beg, dont skip through the track but listen all the way to the end.
In his live show Audion will be harnessing these elements of his productions to create new-interpretations on the fly. His techno tracks are naturally 'infectious' so, as you can imagine, this combined with his custom live set-up form quite the aural-visual experience.
Audion live in Berlin
Hecatomb is the name he has given to his live show. In ancient Greek the word means 'large-scale sacrifice' or 'slaughter'. In this context I believe one can assume we, the audience, will be the ones up for sacrifice. Dear ushers us into his 'world' with minimalist visuals that rotate, warp and transform. Dear always maintains a constant theme in his shows whether its in his dark minimalist techno or in his contrasting and defined visuals which were specially made for the show by his long-time album cover designer, Will Calcut, and renowned German visual artist Eno Henze.
The Audion live experience has always been thrilling, with Dear creating new interpretations of his material on the fly. In his new live show, Dear goes even deeper into the Audion world, further differentiating it from his more song-oriented Matthew Dear material as well as from the herd of live-laptop performers cluttering the electronic-music scene. By fusing man and machine into an indistinguishable unit, Audion controls his audiences’ collective consciousness in new, never-before-seen ways. At the center of the show is a custom video setup...
Will Calcut is the lead designer behind the Ghostly International label and his warm minimalist style perfectly suit the sound scapes of Matthew Dear. Eno Henze has created psychedelic visuals for the famous Cocoon club in Frankfurt as well as many gallery installations around the world.
ASA Breed Cover Art by Will Calcut
Eno Henze, Tscherenkows Traum, Live visual installation
Having already toured with his live show, Hecatomb, in select European clubs and festivals we our now lucky enough to experience it this Saturday in the refined intimacy of the The Civic Hotel.
Also on the line-up his revered French techno producer, Oxia, who will be performing a DJ set in the Civic Underground. Organisers of this event are combine efforts of Future Entertainment, Likes Of You and Reckless Republic.
Released only a couple weeks ago this is a debut album from Michna on Ghostly International record label (The label Mathew Dear aka Audion is on!) I found it after only recently listening to the entire Matthew Dear album ASA Breed which is seriously good stuff!!
In tune with other artists on the label Michna (Like Mathew Dear) does not limit him self to one genre the album crossing many genres of music but in the end displays Michnas worldly influences and his up-bringing from the american Hip-hop scene. Think hip-hop inspired beats mashed with electronic influences...
Michna (born Adrian Michna) is a world traveller, seeking knowledge at all points along the way. He has gigged everywhere from Shanghai to Budapest, and has spent most of his life between the extremes of NYC and Miami. In return for his adventuresome spirit, these travels have blessed him with musical influences in spades.
New York City is the place young Michna cut his teeth. Whether DJing parties with tapes as a teen or sneaking in to play with his band at CBGB a few years later, Adrian found his way as a DJ under his Egg Foo Young alias, earning him a URB “Next 100” nod in the process. Production gigs for Bonde do Role and Diplo followed, allowing Michna to put his deftness at both the drum machine and the trombone to good use, creating tracks out of dense blankets of sound and texture.
Apart from the tightly woven musical amalgam of hip-hop, booty and electro, it’s the detailed process that makes Michna’s debut album, Magic Monday, move. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the album is its rich element of musicality; in an era when hip-hop tracks have devolved into two-note keyboard loops, songs like “Skunk Walk” live up to their name with full-bodied funk and live horns. When Ghostly owner, Sam Valenti IV, asked Adrian which samples to clear, Adrian replied, “What samples?”
With its solid backbone of sound collage, Magic Monday pulls together Michna’s variety of influences to reveal the sound of New York City in transition. At a time when so many New Yorkers complain that their fair city has been sanitized beyond recognition, this is a record that keeps a nice layer of grit beneath the fingernails. After all, it’s the details that matter in the end.
