The last couple of weekends the techno and house scene of Sydney have been an absolute hive of activity. With International guests dropping in, it seems, every day there has be countless parties, encore performances and secret afterhours. Here is a selection of some of videos and photos of the artists I took, feel free to use them for personal use but you must email the blog for any commercial uses (ie posters/promo material).
Henrik Schwarz live highlights video. The future classic birthday bash was a great success with a packed civic floor keenly waiting upon Henrik. Once he started, the energy never let up with pounding re-edit, remix and original one after another in a style akin to Henrik live. Saving some of his more well known material too last, it definitely was one set that will stay in the minds of many for a while. Housey, funky, with that techno drive, it really did strike a chord with everyone in the room and theres no better proof then when the artist opts to play for an extra HOUR! Of course no one complained...
Reboot and Emerson, visiting our sunny shores after relocating to Europe, headlined the Top Notch Rooftop parties. Suuny, steamy Sydney afternoon on top of the famous Home night club next to Darling Harbour really set the scene for a afternoon well spent. Luckily this blog has the sets so stay tuned for streaming sets from the artists soon.
Motor City Drum Ensemble played an intimate gig, 2 if you count his afterhours appearance, to only a couple of hundred punters down in the Vault. Apart from some vinyl issues (apparently got locked in a hotel room!) he played a great 4 hour set that had the room heaving in and out. Granted he could only play off his CDs it was still a great set the featured some serious deepness.
Its a fair bet to say music videos can contribute to the success of a track in many ways but why is it that techno seems to be so under-represented in the music video world? Should music videos be confined to only be the most accessible types of music? Sure you have some of dance music world elite (Chemical Brothers, Tiesto ect) will release music videos but Im talking more about techno artists and lesser known electronic artists. Videos such as Claude Von Strokes classic Deep Throat has become some what of an underground music video classic and has mostly likely greatly aided in the success of the track and the brand development of his label, Dirty Bird.
One logical conclusion is that filming a band is just naturally more dynamic than filming a DJ or someone flicking buttons on their midi controller and thus, in some sense, making it easier to film and choreograph rock/pop music videos. However for me this just means dance and electronic music videos have to be more creative in their execution.
Anyway I have being keeping an eye out for techno-music videos and while this isnt one of Harmonic 313's techno tracks it is a good example of what can happen merging a world-renowned creative company from Syd, Sixty40, with one our great dubstep/techno artists with very intriguing results and will hopefully inspire other Aus artists to do the same.
The Beginning: Harmonic 313 (aka Mark Pritchard aka Troubleman aka Reload aka 1/2 of Global Communications aka 1/2 of the The Jedi knights…) came to Sixty40 for his first ever film clip. Despite releasing seminal records since the 90’s and being on Warp Records since 1994 and being the poster child for super-technical, superbly-crafted, bass heavy, crazy-ass electronica there’d never been anything to translate his floor-filling tracks on TV. Crazy. Sixty40 had to pioneer a variety of new techniques to take an entirely open brief into a eye-popping warning of extra-terrestrial doom. The Idea:“Battlestar” is the story of a deceivingly sized binocular spaceship coming to earth and decimating an unsuspecting b-boy in order to conquer the universe. The Dream: Having long-loved animated .gifs made from old stereoscope photos (like this), we wanted to take this technique and translate it to moving footage. We knew Andy Uprock from the Sugartime Burlesque tour we did in 2007 (see the blog) and as he is the most avant-garde b-boy we know, he seemed like the perfect fit for this flick-tastic performance based clip.
Also out on Crosstown records label from the USA. While this track probably wont win techno-track-of-the-year, its still one hell of a cool music video.
Apologies for anyone not from Australia or not involved in the industry as this video probably wont make much sense! Otherwise check out this little video handy-work...
Check out the videos below with Anja Schneider's awesome set and James Zabiela at the recent We Love Sound 09 winter festival. It also shows the amazing level of production that WLS Sydney always seem to provide, literally blows away most other festivals in Aus. Then the video preview of the next Berlin Sessions party.
If your in Sydney the next month then your surely in for a cultural-treat, with our new winter festival of light and music VIVID Sydney (the biggest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere!) accompanying Luminous at the Opera House as well as Creative Sydney kicking off this year for the first time we have quite a lot going down. Oh and I nearly forgot this weekend with We Love Sounds winter music festival featuring many a talented techno artist as well as the huge Sydney Film Festival touching down next week I could easily go out every night of the week doing something completely different.
Usually such festivities are reserved for our summer days but I think people have caught on to the fact that winter down-under (well in Syd anyway) really inst that cold or bad.
Without a doubt there are some really exciting events going down at the Opera House. Brian Eno seems to be the lips of every media station as he has being brought down to curate the first Luminous Winter Music Festival for the Opera House. While at first hearing this many were surprised and impressed at his appointment, in fact the entire Luminous festival as a whole, however it has not being with out controversy with some creative and art companies protesting to the fact that very few of them have being hired, consulted or included in the festival. Not that I'm against Opera House hiring over-seas talent, very much the opposite, I believe Sydney as city constantly looks outward for inspiration from all corners of the globe but I cant help but feel this inaugural Luminous festival does feel like something on the 'outside' or a festival being presented to us rather than being fully part of the city and its people. However Brian Eno did apparently tackle this issue head on in his opening speech a few days ago at the Opera House asking us the very question as to what purpose art serves and how should it be 'properly' incorporated into society and events. Regardless of these protests I still think the festival is an extremely bold one with some really great musicians booked as well as Local bands booked for support, to cut the guy a little a slack it is only the first year of this festival and assuming all goes well I would imagine there would be a lot of changes for next years instalment already. If you dont already know there are some extreamly unique performances going down from Jon Hopkins, Ladytron, Battles all of which have their own special additions making these gigs by no means 'standard-performances'.
Something else that has intrigued me greatly is the Creative Sydney FREE series of talks and presentations tackling issues that artists and people in the 'creative-industries' face every day such as funding, getting sponsorship, getting the right crowd and the like while also exploring the citys creative side and its people. Its something I and friends can easily relate to running a small club night, Space Cadets, as well as friends of mine involved in much larger events and festivals all of whom face these problems. I can easily say such a festival is well over-due with some of Asia's largest creative-companies being based in Sydney and Melbourne. The city is an extremely creative one when you look at it on a whole and such a festival will give this side of the city and its people a much needed 'face' to the 'general' public while hopefully encouraging more creative thinkers to come out of hiding.
Just some of the events I'm looking forward too:
Electronica wizard Jon Hopkins 6th-7th June @ Opera House
Lee Perry 11th June @ Opera House
77 Million Paintings by Brain Eno now-21st June @ Opera House, free entry
Money Who has it and how you can get it! Thurs 4th June @ MCA - Creative Sydney talks, free entry
Notes From The Underground Fri 5th @ MCA
Art 2.0: Future of Art and Technology Fri 12th June @ MCA - Free
Vivid Sydney/Luminous Music Festival website Creative Sydney website
Videos:
Check out our past guest VJ at Space Cadets, Lukas aka Julapy, own visual installation as part of the creative sydney launch!
Vivid Sydney has transformed the city into a spectacular living canvas of music and light in and around the Sydney Opera House, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks, Circular Quay and the city centre. Make sure you get check out the following festivals that are all part of Vivid until June 14:
- Luminous, a music festival at Sydney Opera House curated by Brian Eno
- Smart Light Sydney, including a free 'Light Walk' illuminating the city with stunning low energy light art installations
- Fire Water, a free event featuring three nights of flame, food and spectacle in The Rocks
- Creative Sydney, a series of talks, showcases and performances
Another big festival coming up June 3-14 is Sydney Film Festival - the program is full of fantastic flicks so if you're a film buff be sure to get along. Then there's the Darling Harbour Jazz and Blues Festival plus countless arts events from both local and international companies… We really are spoilt for choice this June.
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.
Easily our most successful Space Cadets since starting this little night a few months back. Musically the sets by everyone were seriously top-notch! I heard some amazing new tunes as well as great mixing by all. Have a listen to the sets, you'll not be disappointed.We had packed dance floor throughout the night right until closing time at 5am! If it wasn't for the Easter Friday laws (every pub and club must close at 5am for some reason, argh) we would of gone on for longer!
A Huge Thank you goes out to Robbie Lowe who played an excellent set taking us through some great new progressive and house tunes as well as Dane Austin who treated us with a live set (check the video below) with the deep, techy and even a little dubstep sounds of Mr Austin. Also our headlining VJ Darko showed us 'how its done' with a great array of colourful, trippy and bizarre visuals and graphics, however words really cant do justice for VJs so definitely come and check him out at a future Space Cadets if your around the area.
Other DJs on the night were myself (Jamie Tek) managing to bash out some Audion, the new Reboot new track Ronson, which was extremely well received, as well as some Daypyk and some awesome new Tom Clark & Daniel Dreier tracks. Unfortunately my recorder lost its 'juice' halfway through my set so consider it a littler taster of what happened in those early hours. Also after my set Timmy Maxwell dropped by for a 'surprise' set with me, Timmy and Alex playing tunes until close.
Chris Leffers started the night out with some extremely funky minimal house tracks that were perfect to get the groove going, after which Nic Scali took over to give us a good dosage of some of the lastest tech-house and minimal tracks going around right now. Alex Caminer warmed up for Robbie Lowe with a great moody techno track selection that had the floor heaving. Think italoboyz and Radioslave latest monster Koma Koma.
Download Set Links: (or right-click on player above)
Next Space Cadets goes down this Thursday 23rd of April with some new DJs and residents Alex Caminer and Jamie Tek. Stay tuned for full details early next week!
Space Cadets on 12th of February was another great instalment of this new Thursday night and I have the audio, pictures and videos here to prove it!
All DJs played excellent sets but don't take my word for it check them out in the brand spanking new audio-player I'll be using from now on! With a little help from my friends at Yahoo as well, and to download the sets RIGHT-CLICK and select download ;)
Also all pictures were taken by good friend DMS who has a great eye for photos, check out his awesome collection of pics at his flickr photos stream here
Andrew Myers - Warmed up the night bringing out some big techno tunes early but definitely set the mood of the night with more 'intense' tunes. Unfortunately I forgot to hit the record button but check him out with Alex Caminer below. Looking forward to his next set for sure!
Jamie Tek - http://www.mediafire.com/file/tmziqmmdchm/Jame Tek 12thfeb.mp3 I took over and played a great set, if I dont say so myself. Minimal techno was the order of the day with some brand new Luciano remixes of Loco Dices album, Stimming & Solomon songs that were EP only releases as well as some up n comers taken direct out of Richie Hawtins mix CD, Sound of Can Elles.
Living Room DJs - http://www.mediafire.com/file/eoyymvzu2oj/LivingRoom-DJs-12thfeb.mp3 Played a banging set of techno and Prog-house which really got the peeps dancing, the set flowed through nicely with some sasha remixes, I beleive, making there way through as well as some other techno that I can remember now. It was not too overwhelming (as prog can sometimes be ) but not to mellow so fitted well with the mood at that point, in other words a great set!
Zushy Woolstone - http://www.mediafire.com/file/2imtzvglyod/Zushy Woolstone 12thFeb.mp3 3hr mixtape man jumps on to take us back into the tech-house/minimal-house direction of the night with some funky tunes to keep everyone dancing. He definitely was building it up towards the end as Zushy prefers long slots to DJs so next time he'll get it! Have a listen above as there are some seriously good tunes to be heard.
Alex Caminer & Andrew Myers - http://www.mediafire.com/file/mnomncihdej/Alex Caminer and Andrew Myers.mp3 Alex Caminer, resident space cadet!, played half a set before going B2B with Andrew myers. They played a great techno set with some so-hot-right-now tracks, think Steve Lawler - Kalimba, as well as some great underground tracks.
LayerOne - Space Cadet resident VJ kicked things off with great visuals all night, my highlights included the dancing girl (check youtube vid below), space ship (above), cubes and many other random objects. Be sure to come check him out next time as well!
