Getting your groove on for the last First Blood. Here’s the pictorial recap.

A four day long weekend, and what better way to start it with some dark techno dancefloor action courtesy of Alex Smoke at Minimal Fuss.

I hadn’t heard any recent material from Smoke, in fact the most recent was his Paradolia album which I thoroughly enjoyed. Buoyed by positive reviews from a recent visit to Sydney when he played at Chinese Laundry, I was certainly keen to check him out.

I quite enjoyed his set, even if at first it felt a little stop start. A different sound to Paradolia - and I’m not going to use that much overused term “minimal”, he chugged along on his techno groove using Ableton Live and Logic Pro, a dancefloor most appreciative to his sounds.

Declan and Ben Korbel played in a tag-team style prior to Smoke. Perhaps Declan is going deaf as he absolutely murdered the mid and high ranges when was on with Korbel bringing them back to an acceptable level. Korbel’s sound has changed to contain much more techno these days, yet, it still contains the floaty remnants of his progressive headspace. Whilst not my bag, it was far from offensive.

Hats of to the Minimal Fuss crew for a solid party, and no, I didn’t make the dawn service.

View the photo set.

Another quality promo video for Minimal Fuss, featuring Alex Smoke this Thursday night at the Civic Underground, Sydney. See you there. Don’t forget Abe Duque on the Friday night, same location.

Mike Banks and Jeff Mills, the “genesis of Underground Resistance” - reunite to perform as X-102 at Sonar in Barcelona this year.

<72pt>Gobsmacked!</72pt>

In 1989, “Mad” Mike Banks and Jeff Mills laid the first stone of Underground Resistance, and by doing so changed the face of techno forever. Few people have had an impact as intense as UR, a label that has always been linked to ideas like “militant”, “pioneering” and “advanced”. Fifteen years later, Banks and Mills return to their X-102 project to take a new version of an absolutely legendary piece from the UR catalogue and part of electronic history to the stage: “X-102 - Discovers The Rings Of Saturn”, created with Robert Hood and published in 1992. A soundtrack created live to accompany the latest images (never seen) of Saturn, obtained by the unmanned Cassini-Huygens space mission. It is a conceptual tour de force which explores all the aspects of this mysterious planet, including its rings and moons, at the classic co-ordinates of UR: with echoes of science fiction, the best Detroit techno imaginable and a pure underground spirit.

If only I could start my Euro trip this year, one week earlier.

Ok, so I’ve been slack. This gig was at the end of January. Ages ago. I know.

He played some fun records. He played some curious ones. He rambled on the microphone. He wished us a happy new year. He wished us a happy Australia Day. He put his “hand on the muthafuckin’ record”. He drank some vodka. He had a light-hearted approach to his music. He didn’t play any of his own solo productions. He talked about rollerskating jams.

Respect.

Riders on the storm

He played Tyree Coopers “Video Crash” - an old house favourite of mine, to J Dilla and The Doors (yes, you read that correctly!) featuring the The Coach House Rhythm Section - it was eclectic, yet entertaining music. Old school funk james and more minimally influenced techno also pervaded the air - a melange of sounds that kept everyone wiggling on the floor. Yet, as I mentioned - he didn’t play any of his solo works.

I had so much fun, I went back the second time to see him at the “unofficial” Mad Racket gig at the Mandarin Club. It was darker and had less people who had been given corporate promo free tickets, which meant more headz and thankfully, less wank.

View the photo set.

Boom! Did Spank Rock deliver the goods at their Sydney Festival Becks Bar performance or what? High energy, fast and furious, bumping and bouncing Baltimore beats. The new “Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge” was wonderfully tongue in cheek. Amanda Blank’s lyrics and delivery were as tight as her black spandex catsuit. New tracks and old - from “Bump” to one of my favourites “Rick Rubin” - it was an electric performance.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Peace Out who supplied the warm up. In 17 years, I don’t think I’ve seen something so bad, both musically and attitude wise. Terrible music selection, below par beatboxing, and a sub-standard attitude that was more in place with ‘wiggers’ hanging out in fast-food carparks on Parramatta Road. Please, tell me when it’s appropriate to yell out “Let’s get fucked up Sydney!” Hopeless. Talentless hacks.

View the full photo set.

OK, so I’ve been a bit tardy in getting the photos for this one sorted out. Only took a few shots on the night, I was more intent on focussing on the music and having a good time, and that I did.

View the photo set.

Moodymann performing “Freaky MF” - with his girlfriend, behind the sheet at a gig in Japan. Can’t wait for this Saturday (and potentially Sunday) night.

House Master C

Having just celebrated his 44th birthday, HMC shows no signs of letting up. In what ended up being more like a reunion party, HMC along with Angelo, T-Bot and Scott T rewound the clock for a night of music, old and new at Cargo on Hindley Street West.

A mixed crowd, a combination of the headz plus the newer Garage club crowd meant the vibe was exactly that - mixed. However, it was great to catch up with so many old faces. HMC dropped many an old favourite, from Kenny Larkin’s “Integration”, “Humanoid” by Stakker, “Flash” by Fix, his latest under the Late Nite Tuff Guy monicker “I Get Deep” - a flavourful workout sampling the vocal from Roland Clark’s “I Get Deep” and a loop of Rework’s “Anyway I Know You” that was taken from Richie Hawtin’s “DE9 - Closer To The Edit” compilation, and of course - the one track that started it all for Juice Records, “Life Support System”.

I left around 4, and this was probably a a blessing in disguise - albeit one wearing leathers.

View the full photo set on Flickr.

Moodymann finally makes his way to Australian shores with a show at the Sydney Festival on January 26. He’s playing at the Mad Racket party at the Hyde Park Barracks. Be sure to get your tickets early as they sell out every year!

There’s some other great shows at the Barracks this year, including Andy Weatherall, Amp Fiddler and Spank Rock.