Greg Wilson jammed a great selection of electrofunk, disco, house and everything in between at an outdoor bar gig in Bondi on a Thursday night. A hell of a treat for about 150 people who were there to check it out. Note the old Revox in the background of the above shot! He worked some slick edits and jams, including the bassline from Roxy Music’s “Love Is The Drug” with Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”, Steve Wonder’s “Superstition” and even the 80s pop hit “Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles.

The playing of such popular tracks for many might be a little droll, and ordinarily it would be for me, however it’s the pastiche – the edits, additions of drums, fusions of basslines and just doing things a little differently that adds to the appeal – think of someone like Richie Hawtin, but in this instance someone who doesn’t use minimal house and techno to create the blend of sounds and isn’t so heavily reliant on new technologies.

Top that all off with a supremely friendly crowd and the full seventeen minute Patrick Cowley mix of “I Feel Love” to close out, not to forget the Little Creatures Pale Ale available by the pint at the bar and you had a fine Thursday night of fun.

View the full photo set.

Spank Rock at Sydney Festival – January 2008

I gave FabricLive33 an absolute thrashing this week, so you’ll see a favouring of the tracks from the CD below in my chart of most listened to for the week. If you’ve seen them live, or even if you haven’t, and are just familiar with their playful Baltimore sound, then this CD might surprise, not for it’s lack of playfulness – far from it, but it’s a fusion of many styles, a genre-smash of techno, old school breaks, guitars, electro (not electro-house) and even some progressive rock!

Mr. Oizo – Nazis (Justice Mix)
Dominatrix – The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight
KW Griff – Good Man
Metro Area – Orange Alert (DFA remix)
The Romantics – Talking In Your Sleep
Uffie – Hot Chick (Feadz edit)
CSS – Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above (Spank Rock Remix)
Kurtis Blow – The Breaks
Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler
Rick Ross – Hustlin’
Matthew Dear – Fleece On Brain

A good article on Luciano discussing his electronic music influences. He name checks Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Lil’ Louis and our own HMC.

Rumours have it that he will tour Australia in December 2008!

Rush Hour Records has developed a strong following through its activities as a retail shop, distributor and a highly regarded record label over the past ten years. In essence, Rush Hour has dedicated itself to developing and supporting the music it loves.

Aardvarck in the mix

To celebrate ten years in the business, the Rush Hour team touched down for 3 shows in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney and I was able to check out the Sydney gig – albeit briefly.

To my chagrin, both Recloose and Aardvarck were at the controls in the two spaces, indoor and out. Whilst Recloose was having a fine time of it playing some early Drexciya and some middle-aged Moodymann, it was the sounds on offer from Aardvarck that had me moving my feet, especially the old Carl Craig numbers he spun – most enjoyable to hear that material out, especially in Sydney.

The Rush Hour flavour was certainly in full effect, and it was a real shame that the Future Classic gig was such a disappointment for me – in hindsight I would have skipped it, and headed straight for Sydney Uni.

Now.. did anyone find any 58mm lens filters? No? Didn’t think so… dammit.

View the full photo set.

A couple of new pieces of music gained over the past few days. “Second Hand Sounds Vol. 2″ by Matthew Herbert is a double CD collection of post-productions from Matthew “insert nickname here” Herbert, recorded between 1996 and 2001.

Herbert’s kind enough to divide it in two: The second disc is the dance set here, while the first includes his more “difficult” impressions. Most of the highlights come from that second set, beginning with a pair of his “hits”. “Can’t Take It” by Recloose and “Sing It Back” by Moloko. The obscurities, however, are consistent stand-outs, with Louie Austen’s “Hoping” proving that Herbert knows how to remix a pop song without removing the framework of a pop song. For better, but occasionally for worse, virtually all of these tracks are immediately recognisable as Herbert productions; the point-perfect beats, use of split second samples and crackly vocals to drive the tracks sound more like a formula than a blueprint after several soundalikes come one after another. (NB: these tracks were never meant to be heard in succession.) Also included are the Herbert remixes of his own productions, like Wishmountain’s “Aerosoul” and Doctor Rockit’s “Tape Measure”.

Also, today received Herbert’s “The Mechanices of Destruction” under his Radio Boy guise. I’ll have a listen tonight, but go to his website for more info on this one.

1. Beau Mot Plage – Isolee (Playhouse – 12″) 1999
Deep electronic house – so bleepy yet super funky.

2. Interstellar Fugitives – Underground Resistance (UR – double album) 1998
Yet to leave the box since it was released. unbelievable tech/electro from the subvertive masters.

3. Recyclopaedia Eclectronica – Umek & Valentino Kanzyani (Recycled Loops – 12″) mid2000
I’m not a huge fan of this gear normally however this was one minimal hard as fuck sonic bomb from the slovaks

4. Instrument of Change – Random Noise Generator (430 West – 12″) early2000
funkiest tech-house you’ll hear all year.

5. Metropolis – Jeff Mills (Tresor – cd) new
Mills develops his own soundtrack for the Fritz Lang classic. Buy a copy of the movie for a completely surreal experience

6. Designer Music Vol. 1 – Carl Craig (Planet E – cd) new
Designer music indeed – remixes over the years done by Carl as varied from Incognito to Alexander Robotnik

7. Ghetto Style – Gil Scott Heron (Fantasy – cd) early1970s
Sex education ghetto style, one of the masters from the early 70’s

8. Revenge of the Jaguar – DJ Rolando (UR – 12″) 99/new
From the Derrick May to the Octave One mixes, old and new. It shows that techno can still be soulful.

9. Switchblade – Roni Size (white – 12″) new
Believed to be a promo from the new album, really gritty fat sounding beats

10. Chix52 – Chicks on Speed (vl – 12″) new
The chicks are back with 3 B-52’s covers plus a new one. Electro meets bumping rock meets and takes on the early influences of detroit and chicago with the reworking of the B’s.

It seems that “The one and only – Phony” stickers I made didn’t go unnoticed. However, since I was new to Sydney, I was completely unaware of the mid 90s club “Phony” that used to be in action!

Rolando rocks Sydney at the Off Broadway on August 11.

By the time 4.15am rolled around, we were all more than ready for the Aztec Mystic to drop. DJ Rolando, one of Motor City’s original DJs was here to represent the Underground Resistance stable. And with a musical background of latino rhythms and hip-hop freestyling the show was tipped to be special.

With a smattering of unofficial UR merchandise walking the crowd, plastering chests with “It’s a Phony™” propaganda, the political tension mixed with the flooding female toilets simply added to the atmosphere. Moving away from interiors to aural experience, the Sydney locals warmed up the decks with class. Fax and Biz-E kept the crowd moving, and by the time Calix had finished his live set, all eyes were on Rolando – patiently waiting for his go on the decks.

Contributing to the political fashion with his own Jaguar Shirt – he launched straight into the set with the tunes everyone knew him for. Moving from classic Detroit into juicy electro, Rolando’s turntable skills were exemplary. Syncopated mixing, with distorted scratches and cut ups – even this much name-dropping of skills doesn’t do his set justice. He got my thumbs up with his electro introduction of the classic Bambaata “Planet Rock”. In his caged booth, Rolando appeared oblivious to the trainspotters hanging off the wires. His female companion, working the lighting, was much more appealing than the two underdressed dancers that wobbled at the previous Flash event, and she bopped through the entire set – a lot sexier than previous dancers! By 6am, when the Saturday workers had dragged themselves home, local Patrick HAF completed the evening with the track of the night. Anyone who drops Kraftwerk’s “Tour de France” has made my lack of sleep and overdose of Red Bull well worthwhile.

Reproduced from the current issue of 3DWorld – review by Neptunes Lair.

In an effort to see Kevin Saunderson I did, less than an hour ago. Even if I dissed the Planet for all my literary neurons are worth, I still couldn’t fully convey my current impression of that cesspool of ignorance and stupidity. But hey, I’ll give it a shot…

I turned up to the Planet to see a large line at the door, and requiring some dosh I walked down to BankSA at Gawler/Pirie. By the time I got back, I saw two bouncers dragging a guy flat on his back down the side street. Nothing too exciting, I thought, just your average drunk. Then a car full of guys scream up in a Corolla, jump out the car and approach the bouncers – I thought it was the drunk’s friends out for a rumble, but the fact they carried radios and arrested one of the bouncers kinda demolished that theory. Seems the guy wasn’t flat on his back simply through consuming too much ethanol, but rather through providing a rapid deceleration force to a bouncer’s fist. After the first bouncer was “thrown in the boot” I saw cops arrest at least one more. Great start to the night…

Back into the line, trudging slowly forward, when one of the bouncers actually managing to stay out of police custody comes past and starts booting people out of the line for being dressed too casually, myself included – I was informed that waiting in the line would be a waste of time as I had zero chance of getting let in. Checking out the rest of the line as I hadn’t really done yet, it soon became clear that it may as well have been the line waiting to enter the Prissy Couple of the Year contest. Never mind the fact that I was there to hear and appreciate Kevin Saunderson, or the fact that nine out of ten people inside wouldn’t know or care who he was, and would spend half his set thinking “Why doesn’t he fucking play that Real McCoy track!”

Now I’ve heard the attire argument a million times before, and I know if someone turns up wearing a “Fuck the Po-lice!” t-shirt, covered in tattoos, wearing steel-tipped boots and has a Browning bulging out of sprayed-on black jeans, it’s fairly reasonable to deny entry. However, I was tidily dressed, and was not offensive in the least. This didn’t seem to matter to the bouncer though, whose order from up on high was to treat the entry line as a catwalk parade for pretentiousness.

IMHO, it would be a fairly good bet that if Kevin Saunderson lined up outside they’d refuse him entry as well. F*ck Planet, I’m off to Recon.

– Courtesy of CJP