Its the Summer! This weekend sees another rather large and new festival hit town, or should I say the hills! Subsonic festival offers something a little different, carrying on from the last earth dance (watch out for my mini-review of that soon), with some great techno berliners Tom Clark and Daniel Dreier off High Grade Records as well as Jamie Jones for his second performance after last week as well as others. Spread over two days its a festival that comes highly recommended!
Also another gem this weekend will be young gun Danilo aka Motor City Drum Ensemble play and epic 5 hour set at an inner city warehouse on Pit street. Also Likes Of You hits town again with a great line up of tech and techno artists.
Sunday is definitely all about the aferparties, watch out for Jamie Jones at Spice and MCDE at Bunker!
Friday Subsonic Festival Day 1 - Riverwood Downs Mountains - ft. Jamie Jones, Format B, Tom Clark, Alex Smoke, Daniel Dreier and more
Index ft. Clark UK - Civic Hotel
Thank Techno Its Friday ft. Claire Morgan - Copperlily Nightclub
System - Club 77 - The Weekly fri techno night continues at Club 77
Sat Subsonic Festival Day 2 - Riverwood Downs Mountains - ft. Jamie Jones, Format B, Tom Clark, Alex Smoke, Daniel Dreier and more
Co-Op ft. Motor City Drum Ensemble - Inner city warehouse - MCDE to play an epic 5hour set
Likes Of You ft. Format B, Alex Smoke, Arnaud Le Texier - Civic Underground
Off the Beat ft. Simon Caldwell and guests - Melt Bar - Every Sat for deep disco, house and funk
Musik Matters - Favela - Dedicated to the true house sounds of Sydney
Club Club ft. Umek & Kidda - Chinese Laundry
Sun Spice ft. Tom Clark & Ben Korbel - Kings Cross Hotel (4am)
The Bunker/CO-OP after party - From 4:30am Bunker Bar
bSide - Beresford Hotel - The new night hosted by fbi presenter Lorna Clarkson with an eclectic mix of local DJs
Apres @ Tilbury Hotel - Sydney Record Label Future Classic arfternoon sessions
Sunday Sessions ft. Ben Morris, Robbie Lowe, Culbert, and Tim Jirgenson - The Deck, Luna Park - From 3pm an afternoon by the harbour
Q: What was the name of Oxia's debut solo album released in 2004? A: Oxia's debut solo album was 24 Heuers released in 2004 on his label Goodlife.
Congratulations to Sam, who has scored a free double pass for tomorrow night! Thanks to all those that emailed answers and thanks to Likes Of You/Future Entertainment for the tickets. The event will kick off from 10pm, if you missed out getting a ticket get their early as road blocks are expected! More info here & set times here
This will hopefully be just the start of free tickets/entry give-aways for the blog with more planned for later in the year.
If you've just c0me across the blog make sure to subscribe for all updates on local scene news, promo releases, free sets and general electronic music banter!
As usual if you would like to get in contact with myself please email the blog at sydneylovestechno (at) gmail (dot) com
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.
Ahhhhhhhh! Loco Dice*said in quivery voice* plays at The Metro this Sat 16th May from 3-6am! I mean what can I say but EPIC! I can't wait for this techno heavy-weight to finally touch down on Aussie shores and when considering some of the other acts that have toured in the area of techno, minimal-techno its a surprise that he only now makes the trip down under.
But then again Loco was on a extremely hectic European tour for this latest album 7 Dunham Place before returning over to the USA, South America and now Aus and Asia. Currently at the forefront of his game he is a name that has become quite well known in all areas of dance music and only one of a few DJs that are constantly attributed to the rise of minimal-techno over the past few years.
His style can be described as chunky, rhythm driven minimal, techno and house with a flow that keeps people locked into the dance floor. However he is not one without critics (who isn't these days) having reached the top of his game in the European Hip-Hop scene and touring along sides of Snoop Dog, Jamiroquai and others his current 'techno-king' status is a far cry from this former DJ genre and many quote the fact that he is best mates with Martin Buttrich has something to do with his success for his relatively short (comparing to the other 'techno kings') career in techno.
Believe it or not the fact that his background is so different to many other artists in this area of electronic music I believe definitely attributes to this 'cool' attitude/cool factor he seems to carry with him and to every event he is listed on. This cool attitude that stems from his former hip-hop days is, in my opinion, a welcome addition on the techno/minimal scene that is so often plagued with moon-tanned 'nerdy' music kiddies. Even his album 7 Dunham Place is named after where he lived in Brooklyn while recording the album, just pressing play on the album and hearing songs like 'Pimp Jackson Is Talking Now' will instantly convey what I mean.
As in one interview on a German radio show Loco Dice describes that every song on his album has a history to his time while living in the Big Apple. The presenter goes one to talk about how Loco Dice come across as a very 'open-minded' DJ and that he not only likes electronic music but also other types of music, she also mentions how she heard that he loves to go to RnB parties with friends to which Loco Dice replies (loosely translated!)"That's right, I love to go to RnB, hip-hop parties when I have the time I'll be the first one there!" The presenter than asks him what is a perfect party in his mind, "The perfect party to me is when everyone is really dancing and everyone is open-minded...where people can go in and there's a good atmosphere like in a hip-hop party where its lots of 'sex', attitude but of course electronic parties are different haveing their own vibe..but for me its when you can just go into a party with sex(y), dirty-club attitude/atmosphere where everyone just goes out and have fun for 9 hours... "
If thats his ranking for a perfect party then this Saturday is sure to be a doozey!
Topping the bill on the main stage is electronic/prog-house man and Renaissance Mix Master Hernan Cattaneo who returns after a couple years absence from our fine land. I have heard some rave reviews of his last tour so no doubt he will surely impress again. Also appearing are the cross-over tech men Jesse Rose and Oliver$ creating a bit of a stir on the Sydney electro-house scene.
Sydney 'big-star' DJ Ben Morris has warm up duties and after seeing him play at nevermind various times I'm actually pretty excited to see what he has in store for us. Check out his Kink promo mix in the link below for some great songs.
Bringing this huge line-up together is the famed Melbourne institution 'The Likes Of You'(adding to the already long list of bizarrely named music organisers) easily fitting up there as putting on some of the best electronic parties in Melbourne. Teaming up with touring giant,Future Entertainment, this is their launch in Sydney as they come in to carve up a slice of the Sydney music scene. While there has being some nay-sayers (The Sydney-Mebls rivalry to anyone reading this overseas!) I think any quality edition to the Sydney music circuit is a welcome one and with 2 of the best companies in Aus we can and should expect an awesome party with good sound, good production, organisation and of course good music. Anything less..well that would just suck...So lets see come this Saturday.
