Disco Dissertation

Music for the fall

2011-05-14T21:43:00.000+10:00

Dr Tad's Autumnal House Mix (2011-05-14) by Dr Tad on Mixcloud

My latest DJ Mix.

Tracklist

Tom Trago - Use Me
Floating Points - Vacuum Boogie
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts #5
Coco Steel & Lovebomb - Feel It
Jago - I'm Going To Go (Frankie Knuckles Instrumental Plant Mix)
Justus Köhncke - Timecode (Maxi Version)
Star You Star Me - Vega Cruises
Submantra - Fashion feat. Adam Clay (Dub Mix)
Sterling Void - Serve it Up (Extended Original Instrumental Version)
Rodriguez Jr. - Pandora
DJ Joe T. Vanelli Featuring Csilla - Play With The Voice (Original Free Voice Mix)
Yennah - Dyadic Shift (Audiomontage Bonus Beats)
Burnski - Sometimes Takes Longer
Jori Hulkkonen - The Other Side of Time
Mr. Monday - Future
DJ Yoko - Flamenco - Satoshi Fumi Geome-trick Mix
Furry Phreaks - Soothe (feat. Terra Deva)

Something old, something new

2011-02-16T21:31:00.000+11:00

My latest mix which is a bit 80s/90s in flavour.

@Dr Tad's Something Borrowed Something Blue Mix 2011-02-10 by Dr Tad

Tracklist

Move D feat. DJ Laté - Theo

Sven VT - Ever Since You Came

Lee Curtiss - The Disco Dub

Das Moth - Moon - Jacques Renault Remix

Neville Watson - Time To Lose Control

Leroy Hanghofer - Pin - Jacques Lu Cont Mix

Helium Robots - Long Lost

Evan Evans - Repitition - John Daly Remix

Patrice Scott - 2000 Black

Hard Ton - Marilyn - Zoe Xenia Remix

Liberty City - If You Really Love Someone - MURK Dubs Again

Darkman - Annihilating Rhythm - Wild Pitch Mix

Kenlou - Bangin' - Bangin' Beats

Armando - 100% Of Disin' You

Julian 'Jumpin' Perez - Jack Me Til I Scream - Jumpin' Mix

Cajmere Featuring Dajae - Brighter Days - Underground Goodie Mix

Cabin Fever - Lovemusic

Crystal Waters - 100% Pure Love

Chez Damier - Can U Feel It - Mk Dub

Storm Queen - Look Right Through - Vox

Maceo Plex - Vibe Your Love

Talk Talk - It's My Life - Extended Mix

Where Henrik Schwarz is at

2011-01-25T20:15:00.014+11:00

My latest review at Resident Advisor:

Future Classic presents Henrik Schwarz, Beck's Festival Bar, 13.01.2011

Live techno has never been easy to pull off. It upsets the clubland habit of dancers only occasionally paying attention to the DJ as they lose themselves in music. And it's this gap that, with some justly celebrated exceptions, live electronic acts have found difficult to bridge.

This was how I felt about Henrik Schwarz when he last toured Australia in late 2009. His show at Sydney's Civic Hotel struck me as a bit of a greatest hits parade that lost focus and energy at the halfway mark, as though he'd run out of things to say. He substituted bombast for performance when he could have told a tale more clearly his own. It was fun, but nowhere near matching the emotiveness and subtlety of his productions.

To my surprise, his performance for Future Classic at this year's Sydney Festival was a qualitative leap forward. In two-and-a-half hours he seemed able to tantalise as well as pummel, perhaps finding more room to manoeuvre in the expanded setting. Schwarz followed Nathan McLay's favourites-filled warm-up a little after 10:00 PM by opening with deep, thumping percussion before sliding into the Afro-tinged "I Exist Because of You," detouring into the looped house of Tenaglia's "Equinox," and revising Bill Withers into soulful techno.

Unlike 2009, Schwarz wasn't scared to deconstruct his sounds, with sizeable stretches of pulsating low-end, tripped-out hiss, acid squelch and abstract beats. Then it was more African chants (his recent remix of "Kuar"), an interlude of polka-esque frivolity and his rousing reworking of "Think Twice" by the Detroit Experiment, replete with a teasing extended breakdown.

This was just an entree, however, to a middle peak dominated by poppy vocals, including his own "Imagination Limitation" and hysteria-inducing remix of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," now intensified with a crunchy acidic bassline. For a moment, the school-night punters exceeded Schwarz's own bouncily fervent stage presence with their excitement.

After the gates were thrown open for free entry at 11:30 PM, he dropped a more soulful and musical selection that included James Brown's "It's a Man's World," his collaboration with Kuniyuki, "Once Again," and the sublime atmospherics of Stateless's "Bloodstream." Then it was time for a finale, which included his Innervisions collaboration "Where We At" and the modern Omar-Stevie classic "Feeling You."

If, in 2009, I had felt that Henrik Schwarz didn't have enough to say, this time he delivered a complex and satisfying story. And even though he was given authorial rights for the night, he also drew us all in as willing protagonists in the narrative.

Tensnake: Not holding back his love

2011-01-09T10:55:00.000+11:00

Photo by Win Jie

Resident Advisor have just put up my review of Tensnake's live show in Sydney last week:

Adult Disco presents Tensnake, Civic Hotel, 02.01.2011

Thank goodness for Future Classic, who have not only been championing Tensnake's sounds for longer than most in Sydney, but for also making sure his only appearance in the city was not going to be as fine print for the Field Day festival. So as everyone was stumbling toward the end of a long weekend dominated by bloated outdoor events and hastily slapped-together sideshows, here was a little breath of fresh air.

Already heaving when I arrived before midnight, the compact and sonically immaculate venue approached sardine can status as residents Nathan McLay and Chad Gillard built the tempo and feeling. They happily segued between lighter fare like the Dead Rose reconstruction of Gladys Knight's "Taste of Bitter Love," freestyle-esque tracks like Ilija Rudman's "Time and Time," and trippier sounds like Harvey's powerful take on "Rushing to Paradise."

As Tensnake's live setup awaited his arrival on stage at the scheduled starting time of 1 AM, a nervous Chad suddenly popped up asking if we'd seen where the star attraction had disappeared to. The problem was quickly rectified and raucous cheering drowned out the last record of the warm-up. Immediately Marco Niemerski was away with the boogiefied "Get It Right," persisting with the slow build delivered by the residents.

Indeed, the first half of his hour-long set was about as wonderful a revisionist exercise in joyous, soulful, early '80s disco atmospherics as you could hope for through a laptop and Akai controller arrangement. Once he dropped "Coma Cat" at the midway point of his set, though, the subtlety of what he was doing dissipated a little and we were served a more staccato selection of "big" tracks—a dark reconfiguration of "In The End (I Want You to Cry)," the pumping Glossy edit of "Burning Love," the Foals' "Cassius" and finishing on his genre-crunching remix of "Reckless with Your Love." It was all hands-in-the-air stuff, but seemed to come to a halt too quickly—a conclusion drawn hastily by about a third of the punters, who promptly headed for the door.

This was a shame because, once they got over some missteps in trying to recapture the mood post-Tensnake, McLay and Gillard hit their straps with some cool tuneage. At what other club night can you hear Manolo's Celeda-sampling "The Answer" alongside old-fashioned disco-house and Kink's bleepy, acidic "E79" before some banging techno sliding into '80s synth pop? Despite the thinning crowd, those who remained were rewarded with some nice eclecticism, even if the high quality parts were sometimes greater than the whole.

A trippier shade of house

2010-11-30T23:42:00.000+11:00

For your listening pleasure, my latest mix to listen to or download:

Sick Day Mix Day 2010-11-30 by Dr Tad

Tracklist

Convertion - Sweet Thing

Prins Thomas - Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky)

Ray Mang - Inner City Disco

Young & Company - Legs & Co - Pete Herbert & Dicky Trisco Edit

Al Usher - Gnanfou - Swag's Gnanby Dub

Talking Heads - Heads - Cosmic Boogie Edit

Justin Vandervolgen - Sheebooyah

Ray Mang - Letcha Body Go

Hunee - Bobo

Kink & Neville Watson - Metropole

Neville Watson - Let Me Go

Sister Sledge - Lost In Music - The Revenge Rework

Justin Vandervolgen - The Clapping Song

Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam - Steve Lawler Remix

Sister Sledge - You Fooled Around

Night and day

2010-06-20T23:33:00.000+10:00

OR: THE SONAR DIARIES, PART FOUR

Night

So for those who have never been, what is Sonar By Night really like? Well, if you can imagine one of those massive aircraft-hangar-like exhibition halls where they hold car shows and the like, located in the 'burbs, filled with tens of thousands of wasted youth, with drink queues a mile long (first for your drink ticket and then the drink itself), bumper cars and food stalls, and a cheesy rave atmosphere.... well, there you have it. Except the quality of the music is always superior—straddling the cool end of current pop and EDM tastes as well as delving into the more experimental and obscure.

But like any festival, there is always too much time spent facing crowd crush to get between stages (luckily only three this year, whereas I seem to recall there were four when I first went), and making choices that mean you get to sample more than experience those acts you want to see. So here is my blow-by-blow account of the night I had, but there were so many other nights that could've been had.

First up I caught the end of Hot Chip, pushing their cheery pop-electronica sound in a slightly tougher and more dance-y direction than I was expecting. Following that I scooted over to check out Dubstep-meets-tech hero of the day, Joy Orbison. Tight mixing and interesting sounds, but with an MC who seemed to be unable to move much beyond "Hello Barcelona" and "This is Joy Orbison" in his vocal stylings.

Then it was off to catch the first bit of LCD Soundsystem's set. James Murphy looked resplendently shaggy in a creased white suit and belted out favourites from Sound Of Silver and the new album like "Us v Them" and "Drunk Girls". As I'm seeing LCD soon in Sydney I took the opportunity to check out the return of Richie Hawtin's alter-ego Plastikman. Now this was clearly one for the fans, accompanied not just by a fantastic light show but a dedicated iPhone app that streamed track names and times and even BPMs! It was solid, dependable acid house and techno, but I've gotta say it washed over me a bit. As someone once sang, "Is That All There Is?"

Then it was off to see Barcelona's John Talabot (not his real name—does anyone know who he really is?), whose sound would probably best be described as intense, trippy and distorted nu-disco. While he was only holding a relatively small crowd (a couple of thousand at most) this was interesting, emotive and trance-inducing DJing. Even when big, obvious disco samples rose in the mix there was a modern, techy edginess to them that was truly exciting (and groovy at the same time).

Back to see Dixon (of Berlin's Innervisions label), I was very happy to see he was pushing the darker edge of his sound, with big tribal beats and techno influences—all very appropriate for 3.30am. And a great lead-in to Booka Shade, also playing darker and less euphoric than when I've seen them before.

But as 5.30am rolled around it was time to stumble out the door and look for the SonarPro bus promised to those of us with "accreditations". But where the hell was it? Happily I took Option B and entered the very modern Metro station Europa I Fira. It was a fitting and humorous end to the night as many hundreds of truly wasted dancers sitting on the platform heard the first train of the morning approach, getting their feet and cheering as if they had just been hit with the end of a massive breakdown in the middle of an epic DJ set.

Day

After an incredibly heavy six-hour sleep (could the jetlag finally be banished?) I headed out for the CCCB to catch the one last Sonar By Day act I wanted to see—Detroit's living legend Moodyman. Now this guy is an acquired taste. Last time I saw him, he performed behind a white sheet for the first 30 minutes of his set. This time it was a white towel draped over his head (pictured above). Characteristically, this was a performance that went well beyond playing records, with Mr Dixon Jr. engaging in between-track and during-track patter, much of it hilarious.

He started with a story about how the "lady at Customs" had looked at his records and said they were the biggest CDs she'd ever seen—and what sort of CD player does he own that plays them? And as if to prove the point one of the SL-1200s he was to play on had a fault and needed to be replaced, delaying the show by 10 minutes.

Now, trainspotting is not something you get to do at a Moodyman gig*; he tells you what most of the tracks are. And this being a daytime Sonar set, he stuck with a classic sound dominated by soul, funk, disco, new wave and some hip-hop. There were De La Soul and J Dilla, Fred Wesley, James Brown, BT Express, The Clash, The Whispers and even Nitzer Ebb. Finally he had to be prised off the decks after his all-too-brief 90 minutes, accompanied by the sunshine breaking through after a downpour in the early stages of his set. For all the tired, post-Sonar By Night refugees, this was the perfect metaphor for the way he'd lifted our spirits on a steamy afternoon.

*That said, he played the original track that Daniel Wang's "Free Lovin" is based on—with the weird Afro instrumentation—or maybe it was Danny's own version. Can anybody help?

The sun is shining...

2010-06-19T22:01:00.000+10:00

OR: THE SONAR DIARIES, PART THREE

The jetlag, the bloody jetlag. When you stay up to after 5am after virtually no sleep for 28 hours, surely the payoff is a long snooze. But, no, after four hours was all I managed and so I headed off for a late breakfast at Mercat de Santa Caterina and downed two cafes con leche, quickly recalling just how good the coffee is in Spain.

Then it was Sonar By Day, meeting up with my friends Ant and Lisa and their entourage, sitting in the lovely summer sunshine. Sonar By Day is always a mixed bag: art exhibitions, movies, technology demonstrations and musical acts. This year's robot exhibit was very fun, and I saw an American musician knock out a terrific 30 minute acid house set simply by twiddling the nobs on three little boxes produced by Elektron.

I found both DJ Annie Hall and up & comers Nedry a little flaccid for my tastes, and the dubstep oriented goings on in the Red Bull Music Academy also not my scene. But the standout for my brief day at the CCCB (apart from the great Sangria) was Aufgang. This French trio has a German name—roughly translated as "emerging" or "rising"—and their energetic and supremely tight use of their two grand pianos and one drum kit is a sight to behold. Their sound is somewhere between classical music, techno, sweet Air-like pop and storming piano house, but none of those descriptions do them justice. And they've already proven their coolness by getting Barcelona nu-disco wunderkind John Talabot to remix their track "Channel 7". Check them out!

PS Just a little aside, on the way out I watched Booka Shade getting interviewed at the Sonar radio tent and finally got to do the fanboy thing and tell them how great they are. A true groupie moment, and they are such sweet, funny guys.

Desolat(ion)

2010-06-19T03:33:00.000+10:00

OR: THE SONAR DIARIES, PART TWO

The odd thing about clubbing in Spain is that the clubs tend to be located in the most out-of-the-way spots you can imagine. So, por ejemplo, the techno generation would often drive hundreds of kilometres to massive constructions named for how many km they were located down a particular inter-city highway. Needless to say, the road toll was uncomfortably high at the end of weekend-long benders. Then there is the Monegros Festival, an annual pilgrimage to a remote mountainous region in northern Spain, and featuring some of the biggest names in techno.

It's true even in big cities like Barcelona, and last night I went to the opening of a new venue called Ghoa Beach Club, located just outside the city outskirts on a beach adjacent to Parc Litoral. The occasion was the Desolat off-Sonar label party and the headliners were very impressive indeed: Martin Buttrich, Loco Dice and Marco Carola. It took our taxi driver some time to find the damn place: even the street was not in his navigator device and we bumped into several other partygoers on the way, all searching for the mysterious venue.

Finally we arrived to find an outrageous episode of crowd crush occurring at the front door, with hundred heaving back and forth, some breaking into boos and hisses. The Spanish know how to queue politely. Not.

I had a ticket, but Dave and Andy didn't and we almost turned back but then realised that we would be let in... and when we got inside there was only a small crowd and the whole incident had been about poor organisation. In fact, there were more hangers-on in the spacious DJ area than on the dancefloor at that point, although that would rapidly change as the large space—replete with a massive resort-like pool (briefly used by some brave punters before they were dragged out) and multiple bars—filled comfortably.

Sadly, Buttrich finished his performance just as we managed to get inside and we were treated to an extended warm-up by Davide Squillace. It was a well thought-out and prolonged warm-up set of generic tech-house that helped set the scene but lacked anything really special. But it gave us time to imbibe overpriced mixed drinks (even small bottles of water were 4 Euro) and admire the amazing ability of the crowd to smoke so heavily in the open-air venue that the cigarette fumes were at times almost overpowering.

With Loco Dice on, the music continued in a locked groove, techy fashion without many highlights. But as Andy observed, Dice's drugs must have kicked in at the 30 minute mark and suddenly it was all EQs, filters and effects. He was soon joined by Carola and they pumped out music that would have been positively banal if it wasn't for their ability to play with every effect parameter on a Pioneer DJM-800 mixer and their undoubted ability to read the crowd. It's not that the music was bad, and it was certainly danceable (I managed a lot of grooving despite being stupidly overtired and running on Red Bull), but it was just that big modern European techno sound, pioneered at clubs like DC-10 in Ibiza. In some ways it was musically akin to what Luciano was playing a couple of years ago, but delivered without his panache and talent for layering unexpected elements into the sound.

At just before 5am Andy and I called it a day, just in time to see the first tram of the day arrive at its stop and to catch a taxi with a nice Indian driver who we talked sport with (football and cricket)—leaving Dave to power on for at least another couple of hours.

For a long time in Sydney, Lost Baggage ruled the roost as the premier techno night, pulling high-visibility European DJs who play very much in the style we saw at Ghoa. This party was like the super-professional, highly competent and more pleasantly populated version of a Lost Baggage night, run at a pretty venue with an excited crowd. This is Euro techno clubbing—it's fun but it really may just be the funky house of its generation.

Lost my dog (and my sleep) in Barcelona

2010-06-18T18:18:00.001+10:00

OR: THE SONAR DIARIES, PART ONE

Here I am, baby... but only just in one piece. That jetlag is a killer!

I arrived in Barcelona (which has a very new, very big and very sexy airport) on Thursday afternoon local time in a very underslept state after over 24 hours in transit and went straight to get my SonarPro media accreditation for this here blog. With suitcase in tow, I negotiated some side streets between the Aerobus stop and the place the take your photo and give you your pass, this year in an old convent building that has been subsumed by the cultural centre, the CCCB, where Sonar By Day is held. Only got lost once on the way!

Whilst waiting in an irritatingly long queue I was shouted to a hawked beer by the crew of UK deep house label Lost My Dog and got into conversation about the state of the UK scene with label honcho and DJ, Pete Dafeet. Further to my controversial post on the oversaturation of festivals in Australia, Pete indicated that the once-bloated club scene in the UK (and especially London) was fast mutating into a more fragmented space with much more modest and underground-oriented nights pulling punters. Most shocking of the big club failures was London's Matter, which had essentially collapsed, taking the owners of still-successful superclub Fabric with it (they had apparently put Fabric up as the guarantee against which Matter was financed). So Fabric, still pulling in the masses, is up for sale. Erk!

Pete has an interesting off-Sonar party on Sunday, with US house legend Joshua Iz at the top of the roster. It seems that Lost My Dog is referencing the classic deep house stylee that first got me hooked on dance music just over a decade ago. I will try to review some of their output here in the near future.

Then it was a 30 minute sojourn inside Sonar By Day and catching a sneak of Pete Tong in the main outdoor area. The BBC Radio One institution was playing a more indie/underground selection among older favourites (I think the Henrik Schwarz version of MJ's "Wanna Be Startin Somethin" was there!), but he still seemed an odd inclusion in the normally overly cool selection.

But then it was off to stay at my long-time Barcelona friend Gemma's place, meeting her flatmate, taking a much-needed 20 minute powe rnap and going for a cool 4 euro Mojito & tapa deal at a local bar with her and our mutual friend Luke—let me say the Patatas Bravas was superb, and who could argue at prices like that?

Then off to Gracia for dinner at a very traditional local Catalan restaurant, where perhaps the meat was too much (Luke ordered a 500g steak after our entree... and I had an amazing smaller steak with foie gras sauce, which I know is un-PC but was spectacular).

Finally, it was time to dash across town to meet Dave and Andy and head off to my first off-Sonar event at the newly constructed and much-hyped Ghoa Beach Club. Stay tuned for the skinny on that...

Festival blues

2010-06-13T17:05:00.000+10:00

Sometimes everything goes wrong but it all works out anyway. That was my experience of this year's We Love Sounds festival, held (as usual) in the Hordern and surrounds. All the portents were poor—a less impressive line-up than previous years, poor ticket sales, cancellation of the Perth leg of the festival's national tour, downsizing of the venue, etc, etc.

I was lucky enough to get free admission because my friend Phil (pictured above) was playing. When Dave and I arrived we soon realised how limited the sales had been, with only a hundred people barely making their presence felt in the Royal Hall of Industries. There was a sedate atmosphere and very short lines for drinks all day. Things did pick up as the evening progressed, and the Hordern was apparently inaccessible for 2-3 hours because of the massive electrohouse crowd rammed in to see Crookers and Steve Aoki.

Nevertheless, the music we did catch was excellent. Seth Troxler, following the Bang Gang in the RHI, miraculously managed to shift down several gears from their noisy, ravey nonsense. Sure he lost half the crowd at first but then expertly built atmosphere without resorting to obvious choices (the "Angel Eyes"-sampling bleeptastic techno monster he played was nothing short of thrilling). Soon the empty hall was filling up to genuine underground sounds.

Off to the Forum, we then caught most of The Revenge's set, which was a slow-building, pitched down house sound warm-up (ridiculously programmed after the hideous blare of Sound Pellegrino Sound System). Unlike the last time I saw him, at La Campana last year, there was a cohesion and flow to what he was doing that suggests growing maturity as a DJ. It was a perfect lead-in for M.A.N.D.Y., who have not been on our shores since 2007.

Sadly the promised live show was not to be as the airline had sent their equipment to some misbegotten part of the world. But, after not having played together for some time, Patrick and Philipp played a storming set that started a little shaky (too much Dirtybird-style stuff for mine) but then tore the roof off the now comfortable full Forum. That massive Angelique Kidjo track by Tim Green was the absolute highpoint in terms of energy, but seeing the boys having a ball behind the decks reminded me that tech-house DJs don't all have to be mopey and serious all the time.

Then it was Ellen Allien's turn: she who had blown me away with her festival and after party sets two years ago. This time she was much more eclectic, mixing indie sounds with techno and even old Chicago house. The musical selections were always top-notch but the set was all over the place. And one does wonder whether she, dressed in oversize t-shirt and bright red leggings, is more fashionista or DJ?

Finally, we decided to brave the queue for Underworld and to our surprise we were allowed in to find... a near deserted Hordern. It would seem the electro kids had moved on after Aoki's set finished and while the room filled up again it was disappointing to see that it was far from packed (as it had been last time I saw the band here). Underworld, of course, didn't disappoint, mixing more recent material including the euphoria-inducing "Scribble" with classics like "Rez", "Cowgirl" and "Two Months Off". The visuals, their amazing stage presence (Karl Hyde > Peter Garrett on the gangly dancing front, any day) and the musical production were all stunning, letting us leave on a high note.

I wish I could be as kind to the after party (and I didn't stay to see the worst of it).

So what to make of the poor ticket sales for WLS? In late 2008, just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the onset of global economic crisis, I speculated that we were approaching a fin-de-siecle moment in the Sydney electronic music scene. At that time it seemed to me that the overpriced hedonism being offered by increasing numbers of promoters in proliferating venues was unsustainable. But the unexpected economic revival under the influence of government guarantees of a fragile financial sector, the stimulus package, the reflating of a residential property bubble and the continuing good fortune of exports to China seems to have not only staved off the collapse of the economy but the restructuring of a bloated EDM scene.

In 2010 things are not looking so good. Quality nights like Future Classic's Adult Disco are pulling small numbers and there has been a string of festivals performing below expectations (Shore Thing, the tiny Space Ibiza event and now WLS). It would be too easy to blame this on the specifics of the events—even if their quality is variable. Rather, it seems to me that what we are seeing is a classic crisis of overproduction in the Marxian sense.

During the good years, promoters used profits to expand and upgrade their operations and thereby created larger markets for their product. When I seriously got into clubbing in 1998, international acts in a particular genre came around every month or two, but in recent years a minimal head (for example) could almost see a different international every week.

Yet as more players entered the market, a saturation point was reached—more was being put on than could possibly be absorbed. Such expansion need not stop as long as the factors which allow promoters to find a large enough market willing/able to consume the product persist, most importantly a growing economy where employed wage workers can fork out pricey entry fees.

There is a paradox in how these economic processes work themselves out. Even while too much is being produced across a sector of the economy (here, too many club nights and festivals), for each individual business person it is in their interests to keep expanding in order to beat the competition. It is my understanding that WLS tried to expand this year in particular because there was a new festival on the block with a similar type of line-up, the same venue and a well-known brand (Creamfields).

In a different time, with Sydney clubgoers happier to spend their hard-earned pay for a fun day out, perhaps both festivals could have done well. But I am speculating that the relative failure of WLS this year is an early warning that we are heading for a double-dip recession, initially being reflected in a contraction of discretionary spending by consumers. Given that retail sales in general are sluggish, the headline unemployment figures (generally a lag indicator anyway) may be lulling us into believing that old cliche that "the economic fundamentals are sound".

A red view of The Greens

2010-06-13T14:48:00.001+10:00

Now available in full online is my article on "The Greens, the Crisis & the Left" in the latest issue of Overland journal.

There was also a lengthy discussion of it on Mark Bainisch's blog Larvatus Prodeo.

Back on the ones and twos

2010-06-01T21:22:00.001+10:00

Hey, what the hell happened there? More than three months between posts so undoubtedly there'll be nobody reading this. Which is probably a good thing as writing about music has been the last thing i've wanted to do. Instead I've had a political article published in the latest Overland journal, on "The Greens, The Crisis & The Left". Get yourself a copy, why don'tcha?

But for the first time in months I did feel inspired to lay down a mix, reflecting my penchant for melodic and somewhat trippy nu-disco and tech-house, with a few classics thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

Dr Tad's Disco-Techy Mix by Dr Tad

TRACKLIST
John Daly - Aurora

Mark E - RnB Drunkie

Cole Medina - Red Hot

Mugwump - Tellakian Circles

Tensnake - Need Your Lovin (Dub Mix)

Lindstrom & Christabelle - Baby Can't Stop (Album Version)

Marc Poppcke - Destination Disco

Luther Vandross - Shine (Mixshow)

Greg Gow - The Bridge (Late Night Grand River Mix)

Tevo Howard - Without Me (Boogiedisco Mix)

Dennis Ferrer - Sinfonia Della Notte

Manolo - The Answer (Gipsy Kink Remix)

Spirit Catcher Feat. Ilija Rudman - Secret Stranger (Instrumental Mix)

Ellen Allien - Lover

Daryl Stay - My Groove (Vincenzo Remix)

Nomi & Rampa - Inside (Dr Dunks aka Eric Duncan Remix)

Pet Shop Boys - It's Alright

The pleasure-meets-pain principle

2010-02-18T07:11:00.002+11:00

After a small delay in them getting it up on the site, here is my review of Ewan Pearson's latest mix CD on Inthemix (link here or text below).

Despite another night of Sydney summer downpour I ventured out to see Ewan play at the Civic on Saturday night. He was playing a five-hour set and I had to leave halfway through, but you could tell he was going somewhere special with it. As expected his track choices were esoteric, sometimes a little too proggy for my tastes, but he seemed to have beaten the horrors of jetlag to keep a small but appreciative crowd in the groove.

Sadly I won't be seeing him at the Playground Weekender as I am yet to work up the courage for a four-day party session in a rural setting (call me soft, but I'm about to hit the big four-oh and have a day job).

Nice to bump into fellow blogger Shortino. In the silliness of the moment I not only managed to harass the ever warm and friendly Mr Pearson for track names for my compadre, I even tweeted them. #tweetlikerichiehawtin I say!

Ewan Pearson – We Are Proud Of Our Choices

When Ewan Pearson and co-author Jeremy Gilbert wrote their academic text on dance music, Discographies (Routledge, 1999) they drew on influential currents in cultural and political theory from Lacan to Derrida and Butler to deconstruct some of the crude assumptions about the scene held by critical outsiders. But their spirited defence of dance culture, centred in their view around jouissance (how Lacan described a moment of ecstatic reverie bordering on agony) could also puncture the pretensions of some cooler-than-thou scenesters who wanted to reduce the pleasure of the dancefloor experience to the laboured hipness of their own tastes.

Despite his considered curation of the latest mix CD on Kompakt there is very much the pleasure-meets-pain principle about Ewan Pearson’s approach to EDM on display here. It is a mix that sneaks up on you with restraint and a rejection of obvious pyrotechnics yet still manages to deliver a series of dramatic peaks in its 80 minute running time. And it’s a very intimate experience suggesting that, like the old socialist song, Pearson is proud of standing by his artistic convictions. He is no dedicated follower of fashion (the tracklist is almost wilfully obscure) and this gives him the room to stamp a coherent musical personality on a disparate selection of tracks.

Starting in poppy electronica territory with the Gold Panda remix of Lemonade’s "Bliss Out, he is soon traversing delicate tech-house with tracks from A Ldric, Ivan Smagghe & Roman Flugel, and Lusine. Even this early the spare beats serve to structure insistent melodies, rising and falling. But before they can get out of control Pearson shifts the atmosphere into decidedly more moody deep house territory. The hypnotic, breathy spoken word vocals of "Open Our Eyes" continue to hang in the mix, even as the Detroit-flavoured build-up of Neville Watson’s "Full Flight" explodes into frenzied analogue handclaps. Suddenly an unassuming mix is forcing you to take notice.

From here things get techier, stripped back, with more than a hint of dubbiness. But by the time YOSA’s "Margaret" makes its plaintive cry things are ready to take a turn back to big, haunting melodies from Gregor Tresher (a Petar Dundov remix reminiscent of Dosem’s "Beach Kisses"). This is quickly followed by menacing-as-fuck teutonic vocals from Xenia Beliayeva on Systematic and the driving prog of Chris Fortier before further brain-bending house from Al Usher (remixed by rising star John Talabot) and B.d.i. Decisively pummelled with this sustained finale we get a bonus encore thanks to the sweetness of Little Dragon and Bot’Ox, proving once again Pearson’s ear for pop hooks.

Unlike many DJs who use Ableton to simply replay their club performances without the blemishes, Ewan Pearson takes advantage of its tools to reconstruct tracks so they can be blended for a seeming infinity, with small elements transplanted from their usual homes to other far reaches of the mix. This seems to me to be the studio equivalent of his love for combining tracks when playing out not because of any strict stylistic similarities, but rather the sonic and emotional resonances between them.

This prolonged looping creates a trippiness that binds the diversity of ideas on offer into a coherent whole. It also reproduces those endless yet brief instances of being lost in exaltation among the smoke and flashing lights. Moments we want to recapture as if experienced for the first time but discover are now teasingly beyond reach. By eschewing the easy pay-off and seeking out those intensities in more complex movements, Ewan Pearson has created a work of great subtlety but also great feeling.

Tracklist

Lemonade - Bliss Out (Gold Panda Remix) / Pitch And Hold - We Have Come To Bless Dave Smith

A Ldric - Birds On Tree

Rmnvn - Uno

Lusine - Cirrus

Wah Chu Ku - T Times Too

Yukihiro Fukotomi / Foog - Open Our Eyes

Neville Watson - Full Flight

Taron-Trekka - Shiroi

Hot Natured - Equilibrium

DXR - Faderpushing Sunday

Yosa - Margaret

Gregor Tresher - The Life Wire (Petar Dundov Variation)

Xenia Beliayeva - Analog Effekt

Chris Fortier - Sunday Is A Travel Day (Ink & Needle's Skybed Remix)

Al Usher - Silverhum (John Talabot's Wilderness Remix)

B.D.I. - City & Industry (World Balloon Dub Mix)

Little Dragon - Fortune (World Of Apples' Cosmic Edit)

Bot'ox - Blue Steel

Straight outta Porirua

2010-02-01T21:58:00.000+11:00

There was a worry I had that the Sydney Festival closing night gig was going to be some sort of anti-climax. For some time now it has been de rigueur to expect local stalwarts Mad Racket to deliver a fitting last night at the Beck's Bar under the summer skies. With the likes of Herbert, Chris Duckenfield (he the greatest house DJ on the planet), Hot Chip and Moodymann being among the guests in recent years, the gig has generally been a synthesis of a loose party and serious artistic aspirations.

But as I bought tickets last November, my Festival program was noticeably sans Racket action. Maybe the happy marriage was over and there was to be a new coterie of Beck's collaborators? Happily, that was soon rectified, although I wondered if Recloose and Frank Booker were something of a consolation prize compared with past overseas guests—after all, Auckland is not as far away nor as glamorous-sounding as London or Detroit. And the ticket sales were certainly not up with the stellar ramming of the Hyde Park Barracks venue in previous seasons.

But the end result was something just a tiny bit special regardless of the hiccups on the way. Compared with the two other Beck's gigs I attended (this one and this one) this was easily the most consistent and thoughtfully programmed... kinda like most MR parties at the Bowlo, really. Or maybe it was the relative lack of high expectations which would usually be engendered by having *MAJOR NAMES* on the bill that created space for what was simply a great night out.

When I got there Simon Caldwell was keeping the vibe distinctly deep and chuggy, with recent faves like MCDE's "Raw Cuts #3" and Precious System's "The Voice From Planet Love", before taking a sharp turn into electro-funk territory with a Crispin J Glover stormer on the long-defunct Nuphonic label.

Then Recloose, Frank and vocalist Mara TK appeared on the main stage to smash out the live version of their Hit It And Quit It radio show. Working off two MacBook Pros, at least two turntables and a seemingly endless array of electronic and acoustic instruments, they delivered exactly that—in execution and spirit this was the staged equivalent of a very pacy, thrilling two hours of Black US radio circa 1979-89. The Hot Mix 5 they weren't, but this was a complete show, not just some DJs and knob twiddlers gazing at the ground, and any spotty transitions were more than made up for by the sheer joie de vivre of the performance (not to mention the exuberance of the punters).

Starting in resolutely boogiefied territory with Unlimited Touch's "Love Explosion" alongside newbies like Escort's "Starlight", they moved into more uptempo fare by dropping the likes of "Disco Circus" and the near-perfection of Black Joy's "La Stache". Then a sharp left into more electronic sounds, a smattering of hip house obscurities and a return to pure soul with Mara TK ably filling in for Joe Dukie on "Dust". With soulful disco back on the agenda there was a final foray into Recloose's back catalogue in "Can't Take It" before somehow fittingly closing the set with Was Not Was' politically-charged yet super-cute anti-Reagan diatribe "Tell Me That I'm Dreaming".

Then it was back to Simon, Ken Cloud and Recloose for a fittingly techy post-midnight B2B session for the swelling crowd. It was a salient reminder of what the Racket crew have created—the most consistent (and often most brilliant) dance music event in Sydney, still going strong after 11 years. Not every Racket is genius, but even nights like this where not everything goes to plan are still well ahead of the game. The Sydney Festival certainly has a good thing going here... it should stick to it.

Stunning output

2010-01-23T17:39:00.000+11:00

A year ago I reviewed Future Classic's Beck's Festival Bar event at the Sydney Festival, leaving pleased but somewhat underwhelmed (here or here). But with Trevor Jackson headlining in 2010 I snapped up tickets as early as the Festival presale last year, long before Vito DeLuca of Belgian duo Aeroplane was announced as support.

Jackson played a vital role in the development of my interest in music outside the house spectrum, especially when I heard Morgan Geist's flawless (yet rough around the edges) revision of The Rapture's "House of Jealous Lovers", an early DFA release distributed also on Jackson's seminal Output label. I still remember the first time I heard it, played in an early set by local DJ Michael X at the influential techno night, Crunch, in 2002. The sudden explosion of horns on the background of a gritty, jarring punk-funk rhythm was like nothing I'd heard before, and yet at one with my youthful attraction to the melding of post-disco and post-punk sensibilities in early 1980s NYC.

What Jackson, who always seems to have pursued tougher sounds, was doing associated with Future Classic I wasn't quite sure at the time. And yet when I thought about it, despite the label's glossier and more melodic vibe (even when releasing techier fare), FC has always connected with artists and DJs who are edgier than the mainstream of house and nu-disco. There are good reasons why FC is one of Australia's best electronic labels when they wear influences like those on their sleeves.

Before Jackson made it onto the main stage, a somewhat empty venue got to experience Yen, who managed to pique my interest with their mash of psyche-rock, Balearica and sweet pop. But while they played well, and had good ideas and interesting hooks, these locals never quite took off. It was, as one of my friends commented, a band in need of a good producer to bring out their best.

Following Yen, FC boss Nathan McLay played a set much like he did at last year's event: a series of what seemed like his big tracks and personal favourites of recent times, undercut by an unfortunate lack of flow. As he did, though, hundreds more people filled the Hyde Park Barracks venue, leaving it comfortably full and another popular success.

But within minutes of Trevor Jackson placing a needle on Traktor timecode vinyl any hiccups or disappointments on the night were quickly forgiven. Well, almost, as his first track (by Yacht) skipped twice because the subs under stage were heaving from its searing kick and bass.

In the next two hours Jackson delivered on the promise embodied in his legend. Only recently having restarted touring as a jock, and already having starred at such respectable clubs as NYC's Guggenheim Museum (don't laugh, the DFA crew tore apart MoMA a few years ago), he skilfully negotiated modern punk-funk, dubby deep house (John Daly's instant classic "This Is A Lonely Beat"), string-laden techno, snippets of old disco and italo (a cheeky line from "Funkytown" included), modern leftfield house (Noze) and even a cheesy pop classic (the restrained Bitshit re-edit of "Love Shack").

It was a vibe that allowed throbbing eighties electro-funk to consummate its long hidden love affair with glitchy, bleepy noughties tech-house. Smashing through tune after tune (his basic digital set-up seems to have given him the freedom to only play the best bits of tracks) there were occasional mixes that needed minimal technical skill but paid off in subtle or startling mood-shifts. Once again earning his reputation as a connoisseur, Jackson's set-list was only amenable to a smattering of trainspotting (what on earth was that crackling, heavy technoid take on the "Nutcracker Suite", anyway?) but that didn't stop it winning in the "hips" department—by God, this was music to dance to, and keep dancing to.

With DeLuca at the side of the stage itching to get on, Jackson raised an index finger to him as if to say "one more" and then dropped the heavenly Joakim re-edit of Severed Heads' "Dead Eyes Opened". It was a perfect finish to a brilliant and inspired set, one which read the crowd without for one second surrendering to it.

To follow such brilliance would be hard even for the most experienced of DJs, but Vito DeLuca was always known as the more studio boffin member of the Aeroplane team and it seems that he has only recently started DJing on a big scale. This came across with his hesitant and sometimes messy transitions, but with the venue filling up again after the gates were thrown open from 11.30pm (as is Beck's tradition) and the average age of punters dropping by at least 10 years he banged out an unashamedly populist selection.

In fact, for all my jokes about Aeroplane (the duo) inventing "Rave Balearica" as a new subgenre during their larger-than-life performance at last year's Parklife, DeLuca went further—mixing hyper-melodic italo with euphoria-inducing poppy nu-disco and one-dimensional French electro for an overall effect that one punter described to me as "Bang Gang, only softer". In amongst it all were some faster-paced Aeroplane hits (remixes of The Shortwave Set and Friendly Fires), storming French fare (Sebastien Tellier) and overt pop (Florence + The Machine).

The kids were loving it, but it was a case of "never mind the quality, feel the width" with some of the tracks, and a far cry from the subtle and at times devastatingly emotive qualities of the Belgians' own productions. It was only when the glorious Ewan Pearson re-rub of Junior Boys' "Hazel" filtered up through the mix that things seemed to be turned right. Yet for all the limitations of DeLuca's set, he was clearly enjoying it and connecting with the Friday night mood.

Unlike last year where I felt let down by uninspired performances from great talents, this year Trevor Jackson sealed the deal so well that nothing else could stain my appreciation of the night. Like festivals per se, the Beck's Bar is always something of a mixed bag. But Future Classic have delivered a truly superior mixed bag this time around. Great stuff!

Trainspotted—ten of the very best

2010-01-15T23:33:00.005+11:00

You can imagine I was chuffed when I got asked to contribute a "top 10 tracks of the noughties list" for the Spank Records Blog. So, like, here it is.

Kings Of Tomorrow Featuring Julie McKnight - Finally (Danny Tenaglia's Return To Paradise Mix) (Defected, 2001)

The best mix of the best house song of the noughties, Tenaglia delivers a big room tribal monster that transforms itself into a bittersweet celebration of Julie McKnight’s adoration for God. Danny feels the spiritual love and so do we. Never fails to send shivers up and down my spine.

Josh One - Contemplation (King Britt Funke Mix) (1-Off Recordings, 2001)

Taking an obscure hip-hop track into the deepest of deep house tangents, King Britt teases and plays with the haunting and sexy female vocals, which inevitably spin me into trippy reverie on the dancefloor. That groove could go on forever…

Tiefschwarz - You (Dub) (Classic, 2002)

The track that marked the Schwarz brothers’ transition point between copying US house and staking out their own, harsher, darker electronic style. Having come to electronic music through stateside house (whether discofied East Coast, jackin’ Chicago or trippy West Coast sounds) this track shifted my mindset further afield.

The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers (Morgan Geist Version) (DFA, 2002)

Like a shock to the system, DFA melded two NYC aesthetics—the punk-funk of The Rapture and the electronic disco redux being pioneered by Metro Area—in a moment of prefigurative genius. Raw, visceral and immediate, this was one of the early tracks that ripped apart the constraints of genre-specific DJ sets. For me, DFA was the label of the noughties.

Golden Boy with Miss Kittin – Rippin’ Kittin (Tobi Neumann Glove Tension Dub) (Ladomat 2000, 2002)

Probably the best—and definitely the creepiest—pop song of the decade, this should have made Miss Kittin a household name. Instead it’s about as definitive an underground Teutonic singalong electro track as you can get.

Moloko – Forever More (FKEK Vocal Mix) (Echo, 2003)

In Moloko’s dying days they produced this melancholy exploration of loneliness, as if to map their own impending split. But it took my American hero Francois K to bring out the song’s full emotional impact, surprisingly doing it against a decidedly European palette of electronic house sounds.

DJ T. – Philly (Get Physical Music, 2003)

If only the Get Physical of today was the same as the Get Physical of then: a melange of styles and genres created by a friendship circle of talented producers and ideas men. It was this early electro-house track—inspired by the disco and Italo of Thomas Koch’s childhood—that was first among equals in the label’s astonishingly consistent early output.

Black Joy – Moustache (Yellow Productions, 2005)

Before there was nu-disco it was called, er… new disco. Capturing the euphoria of a debauched night in an altogether too glamorous Rimini nightspot in the late 1970s, this sublimely melodic piece of French revivalism takes you high before letting you float back to the ground in a state of bliss. Irresistible.

Hot Chip - No Fit State (Audion Remix) (EMI, 2006)

The scene: a grimy warehouse party in East London. The time: 5am. The mindset: twisted. And so it was that this track insinuated and gnawed its way into my fragile brain, refusing to depart no matter how many times I played it. Dark, disturbing tech-house at its best and an antidote to the soulless, empty minimalism so dominant at the time.

Dolle Jolle - Balearic Incarnation (Todd Terje Extra Doll Mix) (Permanent Vacation, 2008)

Scandinavian nu-disco was a key part of my musical decade, but it reached its apotheosis with this flawless reimagining of an old Jean-Luc Ponty melody, so tender and enticing that the synths wash you straight into its arms. It shouldn’t work on the dancefloor: it’s long and languorous, seeming to lack punch or pay-off. But in fact this is musical foreplay that makes the sex redundant. Radiant.

That old fashioned house music vibe...

2010-01-07T16:40:00.006+11:00

Seems that for me summer is the season for DJ mixes and on a whim I cranked one out today, my first one using Traktor Scratch Pro (still using SL-1200s, thank God). After quite some getting used to, Traktor has reignited my interest in house music—although I'm much happier with a more discofied and melodic style than I have been in ages.

Thanks to Soundcloud you can listen via this widget or download. Hope you like it.

Tad's House of Melodies Mix 2010-01-07 by Dr Tad

TRACKLIST
Ronnie Dyson - All Over Your Face (John Morales After Session M&M Mix)

Neurotic Drum Band - Robotic Erotic Adventure

TJ Kong - The Centre Of The World

Tony Lionni - Found A Place

360 - Neon One

Mone - We Can Make It (The 'I Believe' Dub)

2000 And One - Spanish Fly

Vince Watson - A Very Different World (Funk D'Void Epic Remix)

Steve Bug Featuring Gigi - Like It Should Be (Ribn's Translucent Vox Mix)

Marshall Jefferson Vs. Noosa Heads - Mushrooms (Noosa Heads Remake)

Stereotyp - Keepin Me (Fauna Flash Remix)

Code 718 - Equinox (Henrik Schwarz Remix)

DPlay - Tschaka

The Source Featuring Candi Staton - You Got The Love (Fire Island Vocal Mix)

After Copenhagen—the genius of capitalism explained

2009-12-21T15:03:00.000+11:00

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.

The land of milk and cookies

2009-09-07T03:27:00.004+10:00

Travelling to North America is always a mixed blessing—it is where the biggest and worst excesses of unbridled capitalism can be seen, but it is also home to some of the most amazing cultural phenomena of our age. Just think about musical heritage of the United States... jazz, soul, funk, disco, electro, house and techno were all born within its borders.

So, off to a psychogeriatric conference in Montreal, and my cousin's wedding in Mississauga (near Toronto) before a brief trip to NYC to see world-class emergency psychiatry services in action, I decided to immerse myself in the good (and naughty) things North America has to offer.

Montreal was certainly a revelation: a modern European city located on the wrong continent. Walking the immaculate streets for hours or even exploring its amazing network of underground shopping malls, metro stations and tunnels (designed to protect you from the elements in both the heights of summer and depths of winter) this seemed such a liveable city, and without the neglect of public services and infrastructure that sadly blights Australia.

Interestingly, Montreal was reputed to be second only to NYC in its late 1970s disco scene—also a polysexual, multicultural, liberal melting pot. So when I hit the second hand record stores there were literally thousands of old 12"s waiting for me, often at stupidly low prices. I even scored a pristine, still-sealed copy of the Doobie Brothers' "What A Fool Believes" in a its rare, original dance remix 5:31 minutes version, among about a dozen other fantastic finds.

The city also seems to have an exciting electronic music scene, again very influenced by its European connections. In particular you can't help wondering if Tiga's Turbo Recordings has been so electro-influenced in part because of Quebec's connections to Gallic culture.

Sadly, Liz wasn't able to accompany me on this trip because of her work, but this city is now top of my list of places to drag her. And those wide boulevards, grid-like street network and fashionable eateries will be sure to tickle her fancy. It's like Melbourne, only much, much better!

In Mississauga for the wedding, I am once again reminded of the problems in North America. The recession has obviously struck Ontario (home to much of Canada's manufacturing base, including the auto industry... don't forget how close Detroit is to here) much harder than Quebec. There's also the size of the cars, the endless miles of freeway and the sense of all-encompassing suburbia. Mississauga itself is a rapidly-growing city—700,000 people at most recent estimate—dominated by shopping malls and towering blocks of condos (think Surfers Paradise but without the beaches or tourist trade).

Nevertheless, my family lives just 20 minutes walk from the town centre in a lovely house with a huge backyard in which they grow their own organic tomatoes and right next to extensive parkland laced with bicycle paths.

So Kris & Steph's wedding was beautiful, with the wry and witty Irish-Canadian Father Kelly on marriage duties. The reception, many hours later thanks to a photography session that by all accounts nearly killed the bridal party, was more of a mixed blessing. There were moments of sheer magic, sheer silliness and sheer torture—but has anyone ever been to a wedding reception without all three? Special shout-out must go to DJ Emporium (his name or that of his business?) who managed to bring tiny speakers for a huge hall and deafen us all. :(

But between wedding and reception was one of the highlights of my trip so far... sneaking off to the local supermarket to get a pack of Oreos and carton of milk with my cousin Anna, and then sitting on the grass by the roadside guzzling both. Spoiled for choice (see photo above) we went for the original type. The best of consumer capitalism, I say!

Off to NYC tomorrow, and to see Francois K spin at Deep Space at Cielo, with the legendary dub poet Mutabaruka on live PA! I'll keep you all posted...

Sydney Design 09: Young Blood Designers Markets—Fail!

2009-08-14T21:01:00.004+10:00

So, like, designers markets aren't my number one Friday evening pastime, but this one was apparently pretty great last year and so Liz and I trekked to deepest, darkest Ultimo to reach the imposing Powerhouse Museum. Word had obviously got around and so we stood waiting outside, with our friends, in the cold, in a gargantuan queue tonight.

And then as we snaked closer and closer to the entrance... just 10 people from the front... we were stopped.

First it was a 10 minute wait. Then 45 minutes. And then finally "sorry, it's full, we're closing".

So it was back to the Cross, to our favourite wine bar, and some amazing cocktails. Now that was a win.

Lacanian chaos

2009-08-09T17:08:00.004+10:00

Zizek! (2005)

Slavoj Zizek the man sometimes appears to be as chaotic and random as this barebones documentary, but behind the frenetically waving arms, scruffy beard and near-comical self-deprecation is a towering thinker with boundless intellectual (and physical) energy. The filmmakers capture some aspects of his thought, and accurately convey his explosive creativity, but it is he and not their film that commands attention.

2.5 stars out of 5

Now, for The Pervert's Guide To Cinema...

'Like a Ginsu knife'

2009-08-05T22:59:00.006+10:00

'I went to Chicago because a friend of mine said that I really need to see Leonard Cohen. Leonard Cohen is supposed to be the voice of his generation. He’s a poet, he made music and he did whatever. I won’t deny the brilliance of his poetry. Leonard Cohen is about 75 years old. The cool thing I thought about Leonard Cohen was that he was getting on his knees. He’s doing his shtick. His shtick is he’s doing this poetry with people playing music. The poetry was probably cutting through like a sword, like a Ginsu knife. Just the sharpest-ass shit but the music was like karaoke. He had a tight-ass band but no one went outside the lines. It was like paint by numbers. Staying within the lines. That’s how music has become.'

—Carl Craig, interviewed in Sup Magazine

Crimes against chinstroking

2009-07-23T20:21:00.006+10:00

My review of the very fun new Beatfanatic CD.

Beatfanatic — Vinyl Junkie Culture

Sometimes a guilty pleasure overtakes you, when you know something just isn’t that groundbreaking, meaningful or deep but you can’t help loving it. And that’s what the latest excursion by Swedish producer Beatfanatic is like: pitch-perfect euphoric nu-disco mining a largely obscure yet warmly familiar bunch of samples and themes.

Not that the man is anything less than a slick and proficient craftsman, but surely something this much fun must be bad for you.

In both this guise and a myriad of others (he’s also Beatconductor, Discoconductor and Jazzconductor—spot a pattern here?) Ture Sjöberg has produced an accomplished range of re-edits, remixes and recreations over the last half-decade, on labels like Raw Fusion, Soundscape, Spicy and G.A.M.M. And his output has certainly been varied—not scared to churn out traditional soul and funk sounds, broken beats or even slamming house rhythms.

But on this latest compilation it’s all smooth-as Balearic hedonics and he pulls it off deliciously. The CD quickly moves from the bleepy, low-slung "Automatic" to the soaring cheesiness of "Fly Away", before settling through the sweet vocal loops of mid-tempo groover "In This Life". Then it’s the funkified, hip-grinding delights of "A Soulful Mode" and the moody, John Carpenteresque cinematic chill of "In Heaven".

"Sharpskin Boogiestomp" pilfers Vangelis’ legendary "Let It Happen" (a track already brilliantly reworked by Beatfanatic a few years ago) while "Guide" is all nu-soul goodness. "Prince Of Darkness" wouldn’t be out of place in an Idjut Boys set with its combination of blaring brass section and dramatic, cosmic synths. On the other hand, "Berlin Calling" is deep, dubby, melodic tech-house and "Bombay Billie" tips its hat to the late, great Mr Jackson before veering off somewhere altogether different. Only CD closer "Nautonnier" strikes a bland note—a jazzy deep houser that runs too close its early-noughties formula.

If you’ve come to taste the latest masterwork by the likes of Lindstrom, maybe Vinyl Junkie Culture will come off a bit obvious and lacking in chinstroke potential. But an utter pleasure it still manages to be.

Guilty as charged.

Down the drain

2009-07-23T20:02:00.009+10:00

So Dimitri didn't go down all that well...

SHE featuring Dimitri From Paris @ Piano Room & Trademark, 26.06.09

How to explain my disappointment? You see, while never having seen him DJ before, I have been an unashamed Dimitri From Paris fan since the late 1990s when his amazing Mixmag CD was released hot on the heels of his debut artist album, Sacre Bleu. What grabbed me then was his effortless blending of disco motifs with a range of contemporary styles… trippy deep house and electronica on the mix CD and lush, experimental chill-out and trip-hop on the album.

Since then his career has climbed much higher, commercially if not always artistically. The Playboy discs have had moments of crossover genius even if they have often failed to create the same kind of jouissance as earlier efforts. And when looking further back to his underground edits of the 1990s or forward to his ability to oversee retro compilations with a keen ear for both the crowd pleasing and the obscure (that awful Cocktail Disco thing excepted), you just had to admire the guy. Right up to the latest, stunning release, Nightdubbin’, restoring faith for those who thought Dimitri is just a cash cow these days.

Finally, there were the reports of cleverly crafted DJ sets. Yes, sometimes erring on the side of just copying the tracklists of his latest mix CDs, but solid, fun and floor-grabbing performances.

So I think the letdown last Friday was particularly acute. Because, frankly, Dimitri was a bore.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t because he played “too commercial”. There were plenty of tracks I’d never heard. And he could hardly be accused of running a promotional tour for Nightdubbin’—boogie tracks were few and far between. It was that both his sets—disco in the Piano Room and a mixture of big-room disco and house in Trademark—lacked flow, relied too much on bland sounds and failed to create a mood or groove.

So here’s how the night went:

(1) Michael Jackson dies. World in shock.
(2) Get into Piano Room despite lack of collared shirt, lack of my name on their list (thanks Graham, thanks Al the door dude!).
(3) Sound in Piano Room pretty awful beyond the (miniscule) dancefloor. Rammed beyond human comprehension.
(4) Bobby Disco plays nice pitched-down house sound but then makes some mixing fuck-ups. Oops.
(5) Dimitri comes on and plays, barely getting the throng revved up until near the end. Promising start with Sharon Redd’s "Can You Handle It", but then apart from Tata Vega and a little Italo it’s all dullsville until a flurry of predictable big tunes in the last half-hour: "Lady Marmalade", the Todd Terje Bee Gees remix, Diana Ross’ "The Boss", a really awful re-edit of "Relight My Fire" and finishing on "Love Sensation". The mixing is OK, with a correct use of cutting rather than blends, but there’s no drama, no tension.
(6) Danny DeSousa takes over, straight away upping the quirkiness level with David Christie’s "Saddle Up" and Gino Soccio’s "Try It Out", making me realise that this is what Dimitri lacked in his 90 minutes.
(7) Swing into Trademark. Note that this is not the gentrified end of the venue. At least there’s more energy around.
(8) Graham Cordery playing big favourites—"Relight My Fire" (but the good, original version), SHE anthems, Fire Island’s version of "There But For The Grace Of God". Punters lapping it up.
(9) Dimitri comes on, looking more animated than in Piano Room. Crowd just as rammed and floor just as hard to navigate. Starts with piano-house version of "Keep The Fire Burning" before swinging through to Phyllis Hyman’s "You Know How To Love Me", and sending people higher with The Sunburst Band’s classic "Garden Of Love" and Ashford & Simpson’s "Found A Cure". But then he surprises with his new remix of Darryl Pandy’s "Just Came To Party"—all late 80s Chicago goodness—following up with a similarly jackin’ instrumental track and then Alcatraz’ "Give Me Luv" (when was the last time you heard that out?!?). Sure it’s not subtle, but at least there’s a buzz happening.
(10) I trudge home, pondering what went wrong.

So, how to explain my disappointment? Was he in mourning for MJ? Was he jetlagged? Was the venue the right place yet not the right place? You can hardly blame the promoters or the crowd… all reports are that last time Dimitri played SHE he was firing on all cylinders. So, maybe next time.

Or maybe I should stick to the CDs.

Sacre bleu!

2009-06-24T12:01:00.006+10:00

This Friday is looking quite the exciting night pour moi. Having been a fan for many years (since 1998 to be exact) I've managed to miss Dimitri From Paris on his many Australian jaunts. But now I not only get to see him play both a disco set and a house set, I also get to review it for inthemix.com.au and it's just doen the road from my place. Too good!

Of course, I'm not expecting this to be the late 1990s Dimitri, playing trippy deep house (but everyone should check his legendary Mixmag CD). No, I expect the mood will be overall brighter and more cheery to befit his reputation as the master of disco-house fromage. Nonetheless, lest anyone doubt his underground credentials, his latest compilation is called Nightdubbin' and features a brilliant selection of dubs, instrumentals and beat tracks from the boogie era, together with a DJ mix by re-edit pioneers The Idjut Boys.

Anyone who can milk cred from an old Wham track deserves either legend status or a good spanking, IMO.

The prodigal son returned...

2009-06-13T09:42:00.004+10:00

Quick review of Mad Racket with Yam Who? here.

Frontin'

2009-06-04T20:23:00.002+10:00

OK, sure, so I'll be on call at work on Saturday night. But a quick jaunt to the Bowl-O is unavoidable.... it's Yam Who?, after all!

These are the voyages

2009-06-03T21:33:00.008+10:00

Ever get in one of those scenarios where you promise to do a few things and then suddenly realise the due dates all fall in a 10-day period that will result in sleepless nights desperately trying to meet stupid deadlines? You too, huh?

Well, three major Powerpoints on psychiatric topics (one requiring outrageous amounts of stat crunching in SPSS) and one Marxist analysis of the 1992-2008 Australian economic expansion later, I finally re-emerged into the sunlight. And then plunged immediately back into the darkness by (drum-roll, please) going to the movies.

All that rushing about wasn't helped by first getting stuck on a South Pacific cruise on the P&O Pacific Dawn, swine-flu centre of Australian holiday life. Now, that's a whole other story but, suffice to say, even though we sailed prior to the outbreak it still felt like we were trapped in quarantine for 10 days. You know an adventure like that is bad when you reap untoward satisfaction from winning the disco trivia (a very useful P&O bottle-opener as the grand prize).

But onto the cinematic journey and its two Blu-Ray adjutants.

Star Trek

J.J. Abrams should really shit me much more than he does. His three highly-successful TV shows (Felicity, Alias and Lost) have all been handsomely made and displayed an increasing level of plot complexity that culminated in the incomprehensibility of his Island-based science fiction melodrama. Whereas there has been a trend in US television towards thematically mature and emotionally sophisticated drama that dissects past or contemporary social structures (think Mad Men or The Sopranos as high points), Abrams has opted to revise small screen conventions not by raising the intelligence but by packing it with so much detail that your brain spends all its time trying to untangle the knots. Alias, the best of his three efforts in my opinion, is attractive because of its outrageous resort to cross and triple-cross that keeps you firmly on the edge of your seat. But an emotionally true or socially incisive moment can't be found in its entire five seasons, despite endless high melodrama and political intrigue.

But with Mission: Impossible III and now Star Trek, Abrams has delivered somewhat different experiences. These are big-budget Hollywood actioners with surprisingly emotive centres. The Tom Cruise film is probably the more interesting, effortlessly propelling you through heart-stopping action setpieces without losing the centrality of agent Ethan Hunt's pain at the hands of a deliciously wicked villain played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

But Star Trek, a reboot of the original 1960s storyline, has plenty of delights also. Using a complex time travel ruse involving a rogue Romulan spacecraft and its unstable, vengeful commander (Eric Bana in fine form), Abrams delivers by subtly reformulating the lives of our familiar crew and throwing in some big shocks as well. With a young cast drawn largely from television, he adds new wrinkles to the pompous Kirk (now lacking focus because he lacks a father), the narcissistic Spock (busily constructing his grandiose, omnipotent self until the chinks appear in the armour), the grouchy McCoy (here even more cynical) and the ambitious Uhura (given a sensibly important role in this more modern treatment).

There's plenty to like here for a fan like me, with sly references to obscure plotlines and a general respect for the canon. Yet it's the emotionality that once again stands out: the key characters are battling inner demons and striving to get from youth to adulthood. Mostly it works well, but there's a drawback. Star Trek has always been a static and cerebral affair, keen to ponder and pontificate before breaking into requisite action. Even in the most affectively-charged episodes (like "City On The Edge Of Forever"), the drama plays out against a backdrop of analytic reason. It's talky science fiction on a foundation of liberal humanism, always political in the wider sense of asking the big questions.

Abrams is not up to that task. Instead he is interested in what makes the characters tick, and he manages to lay it out efficiently despite the size of the ensemble he has to work with. The closest he gets to the abstract philosophising so beloved by Trek fans is with the reappearance of the old Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who delivers a gravitas that the younger members of the cast are still working their way up to.

There are many joys in the new Star Trek, but it also falls short of the best the series had to offer. Abrams is playing with a new palette here, and it will take time to see if he can construct the kinds of powerful statements Gene Roddenberry was capable of delivering at his best.

It's Trek, Jim, but not as we knew it. That may not turn out to be such a bad thing.

4 stars out of 5

Valkyrie

An interesting complement to my efforts to get through Ian Kershaw's brilliant but long biography of Hitler. This tight political action-thriller is undermined through lazy use of a multi-accented cast and superficial historical analysis. It's hard to see what drives Tom Cruise's rebel German officer to hatch a complex elite coup against the Fuhrer. So cut off from the mass of people are the protagonists that one gets little sense of the horrors of the Nazi regime, leaving only well-staged and often tense setpieces without a moral centre or social critique. A disappointment that squanders its potential despite superior technical direction from Bryan Singer.

2.5 stars out of 5

Revolutionary Road

Sam Mendes adapts Richard Yates' examination of the broken dreams of a 1950s aspirational middle-class couple, played in a "look at me, I'm acting" style by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. The mannered performances are intended to contrast the superficial success and inner turmoil of the couple, an implicit critique of the American Dream in an age of prosperity and stability. But the theatricality also serves to undercut the potential for their plight (and the wretched social emptiness that both created and threatens to destroy their lives) becoming something more universally felt and understood. These people are too alien to relate to, and so we can imagine this is a tale of another world (not ours). Contrast the film with television's brilliant Mad Men and you can see that Mendes ends up submerging his critique of the US in period quirks, whereas the series is more uncomfortable to watch because it makes us realise we are living in a world not so different from the one portrayed.

3 stars out of 5

In a league of his own

2009-05-15T08:36:00.007+10:00

This is the original text of my latest review for ITM, which can be found here.

The Juan Maclean - The Future Will Come

With The Future Will Come, NYC denizen John Maclean reasserts the continuing strength of the city’s DFA collective, delivering a sophomore effort surpassing the not inconsiderable joys of its predecessor.

Even before his debut album as The Juan Maclean, he had come to attention with underground electroid funk like “By The Time I Get To Venus”. But on 2005’s Less Than Human it was robotic electrohouse like “Give Me Every Little Thing” that hinted at a talent recalling both a past career as a post-punker (in Six Fingered Satellite) and a feel for groove that ranked with the best of the indie dance of its time.

But it turns out that these were mere scribblings alongside the brushwork of The Future Will Come. While the initial reports may not have sounded convincing (a tribute-cum-pastiche of Dare-era Human League? You gotta be kidding!), the end result is strong enough to give label mates like Hercules & Love Affair and even LCD Soundsystem a run for their money.

Sure the second single, “The Simple Life”, might flip from Nancy Whang’s exhortations to Maclean (found on lead vocals throughout the disc) belting out his take on “Love Action”, but the use of 80s synth-pop tropes is more than gimmick or even homage. Instead it’s a platform for playful exploration, both musically and lyrically.

Bookended by singles “The Simple Life” and Dubtribe-plagiarising “Happy House”, the album is held together by the melancholic central track “Tonight”, a ten-minute epic of post-disco percussion and more modern synthetic melodies. As Whang and Maclean dance off vocally, it’s hard not to get swept up in their longing to “take you home tonight / or to the moon”.

At first glance it’s an album of contrasts. Title track “The Future Will” Come recalls an LCD-like aesthetic, all existential angst and portent. But then new single “One Day” shamelessly unites the hi-nrg sensibilities that made Phil Oakey and crew so popular with housefied strings more befitting late 80s Chicago.

There’s also more immediate electronica like “Accusations” (shifting from a stripped back start to a Wurlitzer-driven denouement) and straight-up pop joyfulness like “The Station” (“Should I beg your forgiveness / at the top of the hour? / Does it even really matter / if the taste is so sour?”), not to mention the acidic riffing of “No Time”.

Maclean’s voice, largely subverted by studio trickery in 2005, is given full scope here, exposed but not embarrassed on the beatless piano of “Human Disaster” in particular. He skilfully straddles the fine line between noughties indie cred and the edgy end of 80s retro. Just like the album as a whole, really.

Even “Happy House”, coming out of leftfield as an ecstatic reverie completely at odds with the darker edge of Maclean’s earlier output, now makes perfect sense. It’s all cowbells and pianos and silly-as-hell sentiments, but it’s also about resolving the romantic and personal travails of the previous nine tracks in euphoric fashion.

The only drawback to Maclean’s approach is that he is drawing on a musical legacy that is less fluid and soulful, and in many ways safer, than the disco and house that inspires LCD and Hercules. It is not surprising that as a DJ he has often mined not so much Paradise Garage obscurities but late 90s disco house monsters. Occasionally it means that he is not as successful as his label mates in pushing the boundaries. But it’s a helluva exciting ride listening to him try.

Down in the basement

2009-04-12T12:38:00.004+10:00

Looking to be May's best party, at the brilliantly sleazy La Campana venue in Sydney's Spanish Quarter. And apparently the Funktion One people will be making sure that there isn't even a peep of complaint about the sound quality.

Motorcitysoul have been behind some of the funkiest tech-house emanating from Germany in recent years--deep, shimmering and infectiously bouncy. Meanwhile, The Revenge is part of the OOFT collective who have churned out a ridiculously prolific array of chugging, houseified disco re-edits (their version of Hot Chocolate's "Heaven's In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac" landed in my mixtape late last year) and have now seen the light of day on labels like Mark E's Jiscomusic.

Bring it on!

Weird, yet compelling

2009-04-05T17:35:00.001+10:00

MAKING LAMBS ANGER (ok quality) from oizo mr on Vimeo.

One from the beards

2009-03-19T22:20:00.012+11:00

This is the original text of my latest review for ITM, which can be found here.

Future Disco: A Guide To 21st Century Disco (Azuli)

No longer the sole province of obscure, oddly named and bearded Norwegians, nu-disco and its deep house and indie-dance cousins have made a mark on the club scene that extends well beyond small sweaty cult nights and the darkened siderooms of heaving warehouse events.

And yet the scene is still small enough that you can pack many of the key tracks and artists of the year into one neatly programmed collection. This is exactly what mainstream UK house label Azuli has done in releasing Future Disco, aptly subtitled “A Guide To 21st Century Disco”.

Starting with Greg Wilson’s bumpy edit of “Secret Sunday Lover” the comp starts in deeper territories, milking the likes of Toby Tobias, Tensnake and Ilija Rudman to prove its taste credentials. Then, even after the misstep of the outrageously cheesy “Paris” by Friendly Fires (here unable to be saved by Aeroplane on remix duties), the mix moves in more uplifting directions, dropping the cheeky DJ Koze remix of the equally mischievous “Minimal”, and the insanely catchy Unabombers remix of Crazy P’s “Love On The Line”.

There is also tougher fare: Runaway’s “Brooklyn Club Jam” as well as Hercules & Love Affair remixing Chaz Jankel (more old school jack than new school disco, this one). And in true Balearic fashion the collection nudges some psyche rock influences before cranking the BPMs right down for a blissful and chilled concluding section.

Despite many of the tracks being big hits, at least by nu-disco standards, it’d be churlish to complain. Quality control remains high throughout and even the fact that this is a “mixed compilation” done not by a leading scene DJ but a nameless studio boffin doesn’t detract from the fact that a reasonable effort has been made to program the set.

As a work of art or trainspotter’s paradise (the latter a seeming prerequisite for being taken seriously in the disco underground), Future Disco falls well short of the mark. But as a useful and entertaining primer on the scene as it stands in 2008-9 it really wins out. Hopefully it will encourage listeners to dig deeper into a sound that is starting to really take off.

Tracklist

Ignition – Secret Sunday Lover (Greg Wilson Edit)
Panthers – Goblin city (Holy Ghost! Extended Disco Dub Mix)
Toby Tobias – The Feeling (Vinyl Version)
Tensnake – Congolal
Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane Remix)
Ilija Rudman – Ocean Colour
Matias Aguayo – Minimal (DJ Koze Remix)
Wild Rumpus feat. Beardyman – Rock The Joint (Reverso 68 Remix)
Chaz Jankel – Get Myself Together (Hercules & Love Affair Herc Bump Mix)
Runaway – Brooklyn Club Jam (L.S.B. Baqueira Jam Mix)
Crazy P – Love On The Line (Unabombers Vocal Mix)
Holy Ghost! – Hold On
Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Re-animation)
Motorcycle Boy - Motorcycle Theme (Fabrizio Mammarella Edit)
Low Motion Disco – The Low Murderer Is Out At Night
Marius Våreid – Skumle Planer

All along the watchtower

2009-03-11T22:06:00.007+11:00

It would, of course, be impossible to keep fans of the seminal (and genre-capping) graphic novel Watchmen completely happy. I should know because I'm one of them.

For a kid weaned on costumed vigilantes, this was a pivotal moment in my obsession with the comic book medium. It was also one of those "final word" experiences that killed superheroes for me, as I expect creators Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons wanted it to. Here were heroes taken to a realistic logical conclusion--complex human beings with deep character flaws and sordid motivations, and embedded in a world of real politics, social divisions and perpetual conflict. Yet a funny world because in it, to paraphrase Karl Marx, supermen make history but not in circumstances of their own choosing.

Moore and Gibbons succeeded not just in deconstructing the given notions of heroism and evil embodied in the genre, they also created an almost impossibly complex narrative structure by milking every last technical and artistic device that a comic book could deliver: symmetrical panel arrangements, overlapping dialogue, stories within stories, dense symbolic imagery mirroring the foreground action, and the decentralisation of the heroics in favour of detailed social and character observations. While on recent re-reading the effect is sometimes too much all at once, the artistry often being pummelled into submission by the technical genius, there is little doubt that Watchmen remains one of the great comics (er, "graphic novels") of all time.

So what about Zack Snyder's long and long-anticipated filmic adaptation? Well, it is nothing if not ambitious, successfully conveying most of the comic's complex 12-issue plot in 160 minutes. And it is visually spectacular, utilising CGI to replicate the sweeping vision of the original.

But there the praise must stop, because fidelity to source material soon becomes a dead weight for Snyder as he can only roughly sketch not just the complicated social and political commentary of the original, but the characters themselves. He allows them to remain at the level of cipher, with the notable exception of the disturbed Rorschach (Jackie Earle Hailey, a long way from The Bad News Bears here), who almost manages to hold the film together in a way he didn't need to in the comic.

Worse, Snyder's bombastic approach seems to contradict one of the central thematic drivers of both novel and film: that we are seeing real people in a weird but still recognisable world. He cannot resist making the fights so comic book that you would be forgiven for thinking the vigilantes all have superpowers. So Dr Manhattan, the only one with supernormal abilities, becomes just a more spectacular version of his comrades and his impact on geopolitics seems less plausible than the story tells us it is. And when Ozymandias pulls off an amazing feat to save himself in the final scenes it is less shocking because he already seems physically invulnerable.

Yet such changes (and the markedly altered ending) don't seem to be about a director interpreting a revered work, rather finding technical fixes for problems posed by the original. Unfortunately for Snyder the comic was a triumph of comic book technique, and no film adaptation was ever going to be able to tweak those "unfilmable" elements. Instead of taking a chance and making something that was true to his own vision as well as the comic's conceits and themes, Snyder has succumbed to the fans' anxiety that he would change too much.

He will now go down as having succeeded very well in a superficial sketch but delivered only a minimum of artistry. By being a slave to Moore and Gibbons' product he's betrayed their drive for artistic excellence, ironically selling himself short by refusing to try to escape from under their long creative shadow.

3 stars out of 5

Same as it ever was?

2009-03-01T22:11:00.003+11:00

Disclaimer: Talking Heads are my favourite band. Ever. But I never saw them live (their last tour of Australia was in the early 1980s), with the closest I got being Jerry Harrison's tour in 1988. And with David Byrne's later solo work leaving me somewhat cold there wasn't much to pull me to one of his many forays to Sydney.

But in the wake of his new collaboration with Brian Eno, Byrne's current tour promised a focus on all their work together... not just the legendary trio of Talking Heads albums Eno co-produced but their seminal and ridiculously brilliant My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. So in a last-minute rush of blood I stumped up for a good seat at the Opera House's Concert Hall. And I was not disappointed.

With Byrne, uber-tight band, on-point backup singers and three bouncy, energetic contemporary dancers (!) all dressed in immaculate white, the scenario was visually enticing--although, despite all the onstage action the main man is a performance artwork on his own. Ill-served by some sound problems in the notoriously acoustically-challenged venue (for the first half the music seemed to get lost in the rafters), Byrne nevertheless settled into alternating new material with classics, the vast majority bearing the Eno imprint.

This unfortunately highlighted the limitations of the new album: its winsome folky simplicity lacking the punch of the best Heads material. But it hardly mattered because the classics were more than enough to make up for any hiccups. From when "I Zimbra" was slammed out early, the energy, complexity and drive of vintage-era Byrne were in full evidence.

This was music made for dancing and thinking at the same time--a tougher task than walking and chewing gum, but the essence of New York's early 80s post-punk/post-disco collision. A heady stew of African polyrhythms, indie guitar and jittering melodies, a bridge between CBGBs, the Paradise Garage and early bloc parties, and yet something more. Byrne played the Heads material straight out of the Stop Making Sense handbook, when the band was at the peak of its powers. And dance we did, despite the restrictive seating and overly serious Opera House ambience.

It was great to hear some post-Eno numbers, as well as a track off Byrne's underrated Catherine Wheel soundtrack. And when "Once In A Lifetime" brought the crowd to their feet it was transcendent, the interpretative dancing onstage creating a link between the familiar concert movie arrangement and the bizarreness of the original music video. Through three well-judged encores, Byrne and his crew kept the excitement going and a satisfied audience lapped it up.

There was no nostalgia on the night (Byrne seems averse to such sentiments), and so this trip down memory lane, much like Grace Jones' recent effort, seemed as relevant and immediate as back in the day. Not quite scaling the heights Grace managed (she being blessed with stronger new songs and an unparalleled performative talent) but essential stuff indeed.

Songlist @ Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, 2.2.09

Strange Overtones*
I Zimbra
One Fine Day*
Help Me Somebody
Houses In Motion
My Big Nurse*
My Big Hands (Fall Through The Cracks)??
Heaven
Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
Poor Boy*
Crosseyed And Painless
Life Is Long*
Once In A Lifetime
Life During Wartime
I Feel My Stuff*

Take Me To The River
The Great Curve

Memories Can't Wait
Burning Down The House

Everything That Happens*

* Songs from the new Byrne/Eno album

Off balance

2009-02-16T18:57:00.013+11:00

Oops, no posts in a couple of weeks, because I've been too busy going out (as well as getting hooked on True Blood, the brilliant new US cable series created by Alan Ball). Among the acts I've seen have been David Byrne at the Opera House (review up soon), Joris Voorn, Pete Herbert (of LSB and Reverso 68 fame), the ever-brilliant Ewan Pearson and deep house DJ Manuel Tur.

While you're waiting, here's a review of Joris, whose new Balance CD is now out. As you will see, I was pretty disappointed, but it was nice to meet up with (Dave & Joanne), bump into (Ange, Dave C, the newly bearded Matt, Wowky) and meet (James) fellow music enthusiasts. Thanks also to Dave for help with the 'spottin g. And it's great seeing Scott putting his money where his mouth is with a night dedicated to serious tech-house.

Joris Voorn @ Kink, Nevermind, 7.2.09

Dutch producer/DJ Joris Voorn is something of a tech house hero. Weaving together the warm, melodic vibe of classic Detroit techno with modern production techniques and more than a hint of trance (in a positive sense), his productions and DJ sets have charted an accessible yet also intelligent direction for the genre.

At last year’s memorable Bread & Butter boat cruise, he slammed through three hours of house and techno sounds, skittling between sub-genres and styles while at the same time producing a set that worked as much more than the sum of its parts. And his new Balance CD, a complex arrangement of some 100 tracks over 2 discs, is by all accounts a minor masterpiece. So there was never any question I was going to front up to his return performance at the revamped Kink, especially the promise of his new Traktor Pro setup which allows him to layer up to four tracks at once, approximating the cut and paste approach of the CD in a live setting.

But a quick word about the Kink franchise to start: from its initial runaway success as an mainroom house night, it has evolved in a techier and somewhat more credible direction, also shifting from its original home at the Arthouse. It’s testimony to the promoters’ enthusiasm for the new direction that they have fitted wehat was once Byblos/Tantra with a modern yet distinctly urban style, complete with giant TV screen behind the decks and street-arty paintings oddly reminiscent of Keith Haring’s wall art at the Paradise Garage. They have stuck to their tech house guns, pulling an impressive array of international and local DJs since opening late last year. It’s a fantastic space (my only gripe the intentional lack of mirror balls, but you can’t have it all!) with a well-tuned Funktion One system.

When I arrived soon after midnight, resident Ben Morris was delivering a restrained set, thankfully avoiding the Sydney disease of overly pumping warmups. His style married stripped back tribal beats with forays into proggier territory, such as Gregor Tresher’s "Break New Soil", although I think his set lacked direction in spite of solid track choices.

When Voorn hit the stage, his laptop connected to two controllers (one touchscreen and one Allan & Heath) and mixer, my expectations were high. But there are always risks in using new technology, and in my opinion the following three hours lacked the inspiration of his performance last year. Weirdly, despite no longer needing to beat match, he held tracks almost intro to outro rather than the rapidfire assault he’d previously delivered on CDJs. Instead he chose to add subtle layers and effects that may have improved the music from moment to moment, but also seemed to distract him from constructing the set as a whole.

Starting in deep house territory with tracks like Kreon’s "Jauce", he soon began to jerk between classic house styles and techier shizzle, before moving closer to his trademark melodic techno sound and straight up bangers in the latter part of the three hours. It would be hard to criticise many of the track choices: Tigerskin’s "Peter’s Secret Weapon", Dosum’s "Beach Kisses (Rework)" and Sebbo’s "Watamu Beach", as well as classics like the District One remix of his own "Let’s Go Juno" and Plastikman’s "Spastik", and a smattering of his own remixes and productions (his mix of "Dark Flower" garnering one of the biggest reactions of the night).

But these were all interspersed with a large number of quite featureless (and forgettable) tools, and there was a jarring lack of flow that made finding a groove in which to dance difficult. Voorn himself was clearly into it, bouncing madly around the booth, but I felt distanced from what he was doing, almost as if the needs of the dancefloor were now secondary to his sophisticated command of the musical elements.

Don’t get me wrong: this was quality music played by a very good DJ. But I suspect the new technology was responsible for inhibiting what made Voorn so special behind the CDJs: energetic, and driven by the groove. And an approach that sounds great on a mix CD at home doesn’t always translate into the club setting. That’s not to say that he can’t move forward with the new setup – he is nothing if not a successful innovator. But on Saturday I left disappointed that he hadn’t scaled the heights I’d seen him climb before.

Oppressed by the figures of beauty

2009-02-01T18:30:00.015+11:00

The problem I've had with Leonard Cohen is that his songs were always been part of the background buzz of my life but never made it front and centre. My fault, really, for not exploring this Canadian poet-musician's oeuvre, which now spans more than four decades of recordings. So it was with more than a little naiveté about what to expect that I accompanied Liz to the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Thursday night.

What became apparent from the opening songs was that this was a "contractual obligations" show of the best kind. Cohen's financial problems may have driven him to tour for the first time in 15 years, but he and his coterie brought artistry, intelligence and emotional depth to almost three hours of a seemingly bottomless back catalogue.

His voice now a trademark growling baritone, his 75 year old frame betraying both frailty and the lightest of steps, and his selection of overachieving back-up singers and musicians each getting their own chance to shine, Cohen's performance transcended any of the diverse phases his career had passed through. The 60s folk was suffused with delicate Latin flavours, the 80s synth-pop modernised with an appropriately live disco feel and his more recent work in tandem with female singers brought to life with polite yet powerful duets.

That's not to say it all worked all of the time. The dark impact of "Everybody Knows", for example, was undermined by its transformation into an altogether too chirpy midtempo Latino-inflected country chugger. And the first half of the show had too many moments where retro musical choices were reminiscent of the cheesiest of 70s and 80s pop--in contrast to the thoughtful, impassioned and articulate vocal delivery.

The set list and arrangements, while meticulously constructed with musical director Roscoe Beck, had enough room to provide moments of surprise and spontaneity. Early on Cohen allowed his voice and hunched form to be dominated by proscenium and band, but he slowly emerged to project himself and steal attention from the mise-en-scene. And then, with grace and feeling he handed it back to them. It was fantastic to see Sharon Robinson, one of his key songwriting collaborators from the 80s on, sharing the stage and even belting out "Boogie Street" on her own. And flamenco guitarist Javier Mas delivered a series of spellbinding solos, as well as bouncing off Cohen's narrative journeys, the best of a terrific ensemble.

From the dramatic aural sweep of "The Partisan", to the hauntingly erotic spoken word of "A Thousand Kisses Deep", to the slamming kick drum of the politically-charged "First We Take Manhattan" the pieces fell into place. Appropriately, the second encore ended with "Closing Time" but only for a brief pause and then "I Tried To Leave You" really did mean it was time to shut up shop... the gracious rapture of the audience drawing real warmth from Cohen.

If any one song encapsulates the best of the night it would be the gospel-flavoured (Hammond included!) rendition of "Hallelujah". At first seemingly light in tone, the intensity of Cohen's voice rose with each chorus to the song's crescendo and a deserved mid-set standing ovation. Famously covered by a man many decades younger (though now gone) the song was teased by its owner rather than throttled, yet for an effect just as lyrical and enthralling.

I'm naive no longer.

Songlist @ Sydney Entertainment Centre, 29.1.09

Dance Me To The End Of Love
The Future
There Ain't No Cure
Bird On The Wire
Everybody Knows
In My Secret Life
(Spanish guitar solo)
Who By Fire
Chelsea Hotel #2
Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
Sisters Of Mercy
Anthem

Tower Of Song
Suzanne
The Gypsy's Wife
The Partisan
Boogie Street
Hallelujah
I'm Your Man
A Thousand Kisses Deep
Take This Waltz

So Long, Marianne
First We Take Manhattan

Famous Blue Raincoat
If It Be Your Will
Closing Time

I Tried To Leave You

Old disco in new bottles

2009-01-30T08:00:00.015+11:00

Liz and I saw Leonard Cohen last night. A mixed bag but pretty amazing overall. Review up soon.

In the meantime, here's my first ever "proper" review for Inthemix, of the recent Future Classic night at the Becks Festival Bar, which is part of the Sydney Festival each year.

Disco Nouveau @ Becks Festival Bar, 23.1.09

It’s a damn good thing, the re-emergence of disco, and the best sign of its growing influence on mainstream dance music is the fact it had a night devoted to it at Beck’s Festival Bar. Full marks for putting this on must go to Future Classic, who have proven their devotion to the ‘nu’ end of the genre by touring acts like Aeroplane and Todd Terje in the last 12 months.

The evening started well enough for me when I caught the tail end of the Canyons’ DJ set. Mixing classic house styles with DFA style punk-funk was exactly the right spirit. But the groove the boys were establishing almost immediately faltered with Theatre Of Disco taking to the main stage. I’d heard much good about this local outfit, especially their provocative theatricality. However, after an energetic opening number they fizzled into an indie-dance formula that was entertaining enough but failed to lift off, maybe also suffering from being ‘odd ones out’ music-wise on the night.

Future Classic supremo Nathan Macleay then recovered some of momentum by spinning recent nu-disco hits like Todd Terje’s remix of Dolle Jolle’s "Balearic Incarnation", Terje’s own "Eurodans" and Aeroplane’s remix of The Shortwave Set. It was a solid lead-in to Holy Ghost!, who have hit the big time with a fantastic run of remixes as well as their own tracks on DFA Records.

The two New York DJs got the energy of what had been a rather subdued crowd going. It’s a distinctive style they have, staying locked in a 120BPM groove while churning through big hits. Their selections ranged from re-edits of Shalamar’s "Right In The Socket" and Chic’s "I Want Your Love" to original disco like Candi Staton’s "When You Wake Up Tomorrow", and from 80s classics like New Order’s "Bizarre Love Triangle" and Joe Smooth’s "Promised Land" to house remixes of oldies like Prince’s "Controversy" and Talking Heads’ "I Zimbra". It was also nice to hear their excellent production work, especially their remix of Cut Copy and their breakthrough track "Hold On". Perhaps the selections were a little obvious, but they had undeniable dancefloor impact.

When it came time for the Idjut Boys to hit the decks the audience was pumped, but the Idjuts being what they are meant they were a somewhat divisive force. With a penchant for little known track choices, they smashed straight into the bizarreness of the original version of "Hills Of Kathmandu" by Tantra, fucking with EQs and effects like there was no tomorrow. From there it was obscure vocal disco and italo, acidic monsters and weirdo dubs of tracks like Sylvester’s "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" and Rare Pleasure’s "Let Me Down Easy". Energy they had in spades, but the relatively short set time they had meant there was more choppiness than they could achieve in a longer set, which is their preference (and which they had pulled off in genius fashion at a smaller gig the previous week).

Maybe if Holy Ghost! had been a little more adventurous and the Idjuts a little less, the night could have risen above the sum of its parts. There’s a tension inherent in introducing a mainstream audience to new (old) sounds while still trying to be forward thinking. Without a doubt there were many flashes of brilliance throughout the evening, and it was a very fun way to spend a Friday night under the stars. Just because it didn’t always work shouldn’t detract from Future Classic’s willingness to push boundaries. I look forward to next year’s effort.

A day in the sun, a night of cool

2009-01-25T17:09:00.010+11:00

Notes from the fires of hell, Saturday 24th January 2009...

Part 1: Heat (von) Stroke

"I'm melting... I'm meeellllltting..."

Not a scene from The Wizard Of Oz, but the Pulse Radio Yacht Club party on Sydney Harbour on the hottest day of the summer. Not since the torturous experience of Field Day 2006 has a party been this goddamn uncomfortable to endure. At least there was a harbour breeze and air conditioning to help us survive.

Unlike the last floating event tech-house/disco melange, this one was a model of good organisation and marked by a lack of promoter-initiated violence. And musically it was at least on par if not better--certainly in the main room, where Luciano had failed to overwhelm.

In fact, it really was the obverse of the hedonistic madness of boat #1. Almost too civilised. And so Mother Nature stepped in to make sure that it would still be a day to remember.

In the main room Emerson Todd started with one of his typical "I can't be assed playing a real warm-up" sets, banging out minimalistic proggy tech-house for 90 minutes. He was followed by Christian Martin, who almost seemed a let-down as he took foot off accelerator with a mix of traditional Dirtybird fare and more acidic journeys, even pulling out brother Justin's classic "The Water Song".

But that set the stage for Claude von Stroke's three-hour extravaganza. Turning the volume down at the beginning, he managed to pull the crowd close to him and then hit them with a slew of his biggest tunes ("Who's Afraid Of Detroit" getting a rapturous reception about half-way through the set), as well as farty electrofied tech-house with trademark ridiculously heavy basslines and drums that seem to erupt from beneath audible frequencies. It was also fantastic to hear his magical remix of local boys Poxy Music's "Warpaint".

As usual for CvS there was a tendency to mash disparate sounds to crank maximum party vibe out of the whole affair--there was even a brief foray into downtempo dubby breaks. At times I thought it was too all over the shop to hang together but the enthusiasm he brought to it meant it worked OK. Not as good as his Mad Racket set a few years ago, but superior stuff. One of the world's best party DJs without a doubt, as long as you can forgive his desire to thumb his nose at the pretensions of the tech-house scene.

If the main room rocked it was partly due to the fact that only the bravest of souls would be able to cope on the disco deck for very long without expiring. Which was a huge shame because the music kept up the high standard set by Greg Wilson last time around. James and Scottie from Better Days warmed up with cool-as-fuck Balearic-tinged nu-disco and italo before it was Luke Unabomber's turn to play. Weaving together downtempo funk, classic disco and modern nu-disco sounds, he was impressing the diehard disco-heads until the 41 degree heat caught up with him and he had to hand over to Ben Rymer of Gucci Soundsystem. A far cry from the tech-house sounds he was pushing with former partner Riton a couple of years ago, Ben strung together modern DFA shizzle like Shit Robot's unreleased newie with disco oldies and even some real yacht rock (Don Henley's classic "Dirty Laundry")!

If the excesses and catastrophes of the previous cruise had been unable to live up to the massive hype and expectation surrounding Luciano's first appearance on our shores, the less stellar build for this one meant that it could deliver, and in style. Full props to Jimmy, T-Boy and Wade for making it happen, and with a minimum of injury (although all the DJs on the top deck probably needed medical care by the end of the day).

Part 2: Random brilliance

So, this guy Garry Todd, he got it goin' on. To follow from the cruise I was assigned as advance party to secure a spot at the infamous Ladylux for my friends, Dave and Joanne. What were we, snobby music types, doing heading for a club that has often been pilloried for outrageous door policies and questionable clientele?

The answer, of course, was that with the relaunch of Garry's Bread & Butter night (now filling the prime Saturday night slot) we were going to see the Canadian-now-living-in-Berlin techno genius Mathew Jonson play live.

The night started early for me, watching Jimmy Posters and T-Boy from Pulse Radio play a mixed bag of house and tech-house, followed by a brief outing from Rif-Raf, who started a bit heavy before settling into some appropriately deep, melodic techno offerings.

As the post-boat crowd thinned a little it was supplemented by people coming for Jonson or just because 'Lux was their place to go. With Garry and John Devecchis concentrating on a very deep, underground tech-house sound (think labels like Oslo, Diynamic and 8bit, with a fair bit of 20:20 thrown in for good measure) this could've been a disaster. Instead, everyone connected with the sweaty, small-club vibe. Devecchis, in particular, played the most focused set I've heard from him for ages--a sign, perhaps, that he's feeling relaxed enough to play in his own style rather than feel the pressure of conforming to whatever the dominant sounds of the party are meant to be.

By this time Dave, Joanne and I had been joined by Ant and Lisa and, finally, after a long delay because of missing cables, Jonson hit the Allan & Heath mixing desk at around 1:45 am and proceeded to knock out over two and a half hours of his noodly techno. Using a laptop with Ableton, a drum machine and a midi controller (sans keyboard because no power adapter could be found) through the mixer he was like a conductor driving his large orchestra of instruments through their paces. Sometimes blisteringly hard and at other times ethereally melodic, he was unafraid to let loops run longer than they reasonably should or to allow tracks to peter out to silence before the next movement started. What he gained in the ability to improvise, however, he sometimes lost in a messy and almost haphazard looseness to the overall set.

I had to leave, exhausted, at 4:15 with Jonson still playing. By this stage the club was still heaving with blow-up plastic palm trees, crazy hats and bottles of Jager being passed around. The randomness of the crowd was mirrored in the randomness of the whole event... yes we've all been to loose and trashy parties, but rarely with music this satisfying. Last night Bread & Butter managed to have both. With a stellar list of internatonals over coming weeks and months, this could be the new Sydney night to watch.

Drama on the high seas

2009-01-22T20:03:00.020+11:00

With Saturday's Pulse Radio Yacht Party fast approaching I thought it was a great time to look back on the first Pulse boat party, featuring Luciano and Greg Wilson. This time around it'll be Claude von Stroke and Christian Martin of Dirtybird Records in the main room, with Ben Fat Trucker of Gucci Soundsystem and one half of the Unabombers on the deck. Support from Emerson Todd and the Better Days crew. Should be fun, but I doubt it can surpass the already legendary highs and lows of its predecessor. And maybe that's a good thing.

Here's an edited version of my review from the Inthemix forums to whet your appetites...

We live in a time when an epoch of excess is trying its best to come to a close in a very dramatic and painful fashion. But what of those who valiantly resist the tide, who carry on with their profligate ways despite the mounting evidence that the jig is up? Are they now just going through the motions, wearied and disheartened but putting on a facade of carefree hedonism?

The French have a term for it: Fin de siecle. Literally, the end of a century, but understood as the end of an era. And perhaps that's what those of us who braved the first ever Pulse Radio boat party were experiencing as the madness mounted on the not-so-high seas.

Rarely has such excitement been generated over one not-very-large party, headlined by a newcomer to our shores with a near-mythical reputation. "The Wait Is Over," the headlines screamed, and yet the weeks dragged on, the hype machine hit overdrive and another living legend was added to the bill, as if to prove this was THE EVENT OF THE YEAR.

If there was ever a metaphor for the bubble-like state of the capitalist system in the dance music world, surely the Luciano boat party was it. Expectations inflated inexorably to the point where something, somewhere, somehow had to go "pop".

I leave it to everyone else on the boat to decide when that moment of bursting occurred. For some it may have been when the bottled water ran out or the toilets were shut. For others it may be when Luciano started more than an hour late. For some it may literally have been the "pop" they heard when a punter was taken down on the dancefloor. And for many I'm sure it won't hit till at least Tuesday. But this party could never live up to all of its hype, much like the global financial system really.

Yet there was much to like about this party. The venue (boat and locale) was cool, the event wasn't oversold, the warm-up DJs on both floors were good and the weather was fantastic (if a little too hot at the start). I went with great friends, bumped into lots of people I knew and had a great time running between rooftop boogie and main room intensity.

The warm-up DJs in the main room (T-Boy and Jimmy Posters) did well, weaving nouveau tech-house like Johnny D's "Manipulation" and Ito & Starr's "Sudoko Kid" with classics like L'il Mo Yin Yang's "Reach", the latter sending the swelling crowd loopy. It was the correct tone for Luciano, whose reputation is for combing a retro sensibility with modern productions. However, as Emerson Todd slammed out the main lead-in, the waiting started and the time passed... but no Luciano.

Luckily, Greg Wilson (sans reel-to-reel because the pinch rollers had started to melt) was more than holding court on the roof with a euphoric mix of disco, boogie and early house classics as well as more re-edits than you could shake a stick at. This was altogether happier and cheesier than his selection on Thursday at Bondi, but like the archetypal British tourist he was lapping up the sunshine and good times. Starting with Imagination's "Just An Illusion" and blending it into his recent Missy Elliot re-edit was a perfect start and it only took off from there.

The peak of Wilson's willingness to let down his hair was when he dropped Hues Corporation's evergreen "Rock The Boat" to mass singalong action. Following it immediately with "Lady Marmalade" proved he had no shame but was reading clearly that we didn't either. But there was room later in his almost 5 hour set for more serious offerings--"Fool's Gold", "Voodoo Ray", "Orange Alert" and finishing with 808 State's "Pacific". There were also less well-known but completely bewitching classics like Geraldine Hunt's "Can't Fake The Feeling". And of course the hypnotic Ashley Beedle remix of "Running Up That Hill", which had me and whole bunch of others tranceing out.

Back in the main room, Luciano delivered a truncated set of big room tunes based around percussive loops, massive breakdowns and the occasional melodic riff. While I expected a retro sound, what surprised me most was that this was the sound of tribal techno, circa 2002, but slowed down for modern sensibilities. That he played perennial techno classic "Compound" not once but twice says something about the mood he created. Nice to hear Masters At Work get two workouts at a modern tech party ("Bangin'" following "Reach" earlier on) and also cool to hear the strains of Octave One's "Blackwater". I was surprised he didn't just whip out Umek & Valentino's back catalogue or some early Intec, but it was good clean fun, mixed with aplomb and, wow, the man has a charismatic and charmingly self-deprecating stage presence.

A year ago Luciano was strip-mining the late-90s Chi-town style of Sneak and Carter, now it's the Euro-tribal sound that soundtracked my introduction to proper techno. I think the recycling betrays a weariness in our scene. Here is a very talented DJ creating his own tropes on the achievements of a previous generation of jocks. Everything old is new again, but now much less altered and much more transparent. In that sense, Greg Wilson was no more a retro DJ than Luciano.

I had a fine time, avoided most of the worst debacles, and relied on fantastic people like Nataly, Dave, Joanne, Josie, Kate and Kimberley (who sold her Homebake tickets to come to this) to keep me company. And it was among an enthusiastic sea of punters who managed a high level of friendliness (but who the hell was that random girl who had her photo taken with me at the end?).

When we look back at this party, I think we may well decide that its "epic" qualities lay more in the dramas that played themselves out on board than the pinnacles of musical brilliance it promised. In some ways the problems with the party will become part and parcel of its legend. If anything the (ahem) "incident" will only serve to imprint this sunny afternoon in our minds more indelibly. And, after all, the hype promised us a spectacle so that's what we got...

Spotting Luciano's set

Dave's review and worthy-of-a-medal spotting list from the day

Spotting Wilson's set

Imagination - Just An Illusion

Young Dog Alien - Gotta Keep Workin' It (Missy Elliot Mash-Up)

Stevie Wonder - Superstition (Todd Terje Edit)

Blondie - Rapture

Chic - Good Times

Average White Band - Pick Up The Pieces

Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat

LaBelle - Lady Marmalade

Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper

The Whispers - And The Beat Goes On

Raw DMX - Do It To The Funk (GW Re-Edit)

Stone Roses - Fool's Gold

Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (Ashley Beedle Re-Edit)

Geraldine Hunt - Can't Fake The Feeling

Cheryl Lynn - Got To Be Real

A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray

Yaz - Situation

Metro Area - Dance Reaction

The Turtles - Happy Together

Teenage DJ - I Was A Teenage DJ (Pt 1)

808 State - Pacific State (Greg Wilson Mix)

Badder Santa

2009-01-20T18:23:00.009+11:00

I think there's something to be said for the de-glamorisation of Xmas. And not just the Bad Santa variety, where Billy Bob Thornton played a thoroughly psychopathic St Nick against a backdrop of suburban North American festive cheer. Sure, that punctures the sanctity around what is essentially a major focus of retail capitalism by making its chief marketing ploy into something unsavoury and repellent, but it doesn't get to the real nub of what goes on.

So we have Trent Parke, perhaps Australia's best living photographer, to thank for peeling back the usual layers of warm-heartedness and family spirit with his disturbing and painfully honest exhibition The Christmas Tree Bucket (ACP, Oxford St, Paddington, until Saturday). Here, among his own family's celebrations, he finds all that is banal, frustrating, ugly and, yes, sinister about late December. From the little children clawing at each others' throats to the creepy shadow of a toy Bugs Bunny cast across curtains, from the drawn faces of family members splayed across their beds to the ethereal glow of a television set in the dark, Parke captures something essential: Xmas is not the picnic it's made out to be.

But it's not a case of sneering at his hapless relatives--indeed, Parke includes himself (vomiting uncontrollably into the eponymous receptacle) and his photographer wife, the amazing Narelle Autio, among the wreckage he wants to survey. It's dark but also hilarious and I think achieves powerfully what Parke says he set out to do.... capture not just truthful look but the actual feel of a family Xmas.

Another link:

Parke's photos at Stills Gallery

Annihilating rhythms

2009-01-14T19:13:00.012+11:00

When, as a teenager, I first saw and heard the video to Grace Jones' career-retrospective song "Slave To The Rhythm", it was a bit like a being the victim of a perverse and forceful seduction.

Not only were Trevor Horn's maximalist production techniques in overdrive (a more lush 80s synth-pop tune would be hard to imagine, and that's saying something) but the imagery was similarly intense--a frenetic and jarring collage of unsettling, sexually charged and almost pornographic fragments of Jones' career and influences. Here was Jones as dissected by the Cubists; slices of photographs assembled to transcend the two dimensions of television and to suggest a dark, sinister energy. Some of it would now likely be deemed "unacceptable" in the wake of the moral hysteria that typified the Henson Affair.

The thing about Grace was that she was here to sell hedonism, yet at the same time make you feel uncomfortable about it. There was an unrestrained joy in her disco and calypso influenced tracks that had a defiantly transgressive side. Yes, you should be having this much fun, and yes, it really is as bad as your parents told you.

That naughtiness is what she gave us, in spades, at the Enmore Theatre last night. Not only was her 60 (or 56, depending on which DOB you believe) year old booty on full show thanks to slinky corset and thong, but the intense vocal delivery, saucy patter and tight musical backing oozed sex. The classics were tinkered with enough to modernise them, but then again the Compass Point sound is now all the rage, so not too much. The new tracks were also reimagined sufficiently to break free of the studio perfection of the Hurricane album ("Williams' Blood" in particular taking on a proggy nu-disco exhilaration pilfered from some of its better remixers).

In just under 90 minutes she cracked through 14 songs, a little wobbly for the first half hour but then feeding off the vibe of her captive audience to rise to brilliance for the rest. "La Vie En Rose", more torn from its roots in Edith Piaf's oeuvre than ever, was as heartfelt and overpowering as you could hope for (she preceded it by saying "Paris is love, and love is fucked up sometimes", so you get the idea). "Pull Up To The Bumper" was pure post-disco escapism, with Grace pulling 30 or so audience members on stage to gyrate with her. And "Love Is The Drug" was given the kind of angry beating it deserved.

If the music was great, the visual show was even better. Not just Grace's personal theatrics, but 13 changes of headwear--masks and hats applied offstage between tracks by her travelling milliner, while she drawled heavily into the mic with her musings--and a theatricality that should probably be called cinematic. A movie set wind machine, another fan blowing from below, and a zillion pieces of confetti sprayed over us all. Then there were the laser lights scattering off the disco ball hat and the hula hoop spun relentlessly, flawlessly, mesmerisingly about her waist through the entirety of "Slave To The Rhythm". At the end of the encore she battled her "Hurricane" until she finally disappeared, stage left, and denied the rapturous five minute ovation that demanded her return. Whoa.

For all the lewdness and humour, the confronting edge is still there. This is how I like to have fun on a weeknight, losing it to Grace Jones. Surely nothing could be more right. And surely I'll be punished for it all the same.

Songlist @ Enmore Theatre, Sydney 13.1.09

Nightclubbing
This Is Life
My Jamaican Guy
Sunset Sunrise
Libertango (I've Seen That Face Before)
Love You To Life
La Vie En Rose
Well Well Well
Williams' Blood
Amazing Grace (acappella interlude)
Private Life
Pull Up To The Bumper

(Encore)
Love Is The Drug
Slave To The Rhythm
Hurricane

More midweek goodness!

2009-01-12T17:57:00.002+11:00

Yes it's a school night, but how could you go wrong with this?

The 10 rules of Parklife (2008)

2009-01-10T23:27:00.010+11:00

First rule of Parklife: You have to queue to get in the queue that leads to the queue to get in.

Second rule of Parklife: I'm so underground I only emerge to complain about music festivals.

Third rule of Parklife: If you're Morgan Geist of Metro Area, look sullen and moody but play happy disco music.

Rule 3(a) of Parklife: Morgan Geist is "the whitest boy alive".

Fourth rule of Parklife: Bump into good friends who offer you bumps.

Fifth rule of Parklife: Tabasco sauce is easy to smuggle past security and enhances the tequila experience.

Sixth rule of Parklife: Look away quickly when you see young men masturbating in public.

Seventh rule of Parklife: Diplo sounds shit even when you are at a big festival, drunk and sitting in the VIP area.

Rule 7(a) or Parklife: Diplo even sounds shit from behind the speaker stack.

Eighth rule of Parklife: It would be much better if there were just 10 of us and we had a Private Parklife.

Ninth rule of Parklife: Goldfrapp are great but too slow to put on that late.

Tenth rule of Parklife: You actually have to queue to get OUT.

Smiles for Gilles

2009-01-09T12:05:00.013+11:00

Having Gilles Peterson in town is bonus enough for many people. The influence he has had on building the appeal of black dance music in the UK is nothing short of amazing, and it was wonderful to hear him play the stellar 4hero mix of "I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun" at the Days Like This festival last weekend.

But on Wednesday we were treated to a second round thanks to a missed flight. So, with his MC Earl Zinger in tow, Peterson played a hastily-arranged three hour set in the cocktail lounge of Sydney's best new club space, The Sugarmill's Kit & Kaboodle. To match Peterson's well-known penchant for eclecticism, K&K has been designed on the basis that the elements shouldn't work together but do. It's an intense blue-green palette that dominates the cocktail lounge, with flashes of gold and silver glamming up an already glamorous scene. No complaints really on the choice of venue (helped by the fact it's my local!) but I wondered why choose the carpeted cocktail lounge rather than the equally sized club (with dedicated dancefloor) one floor below?

Gilles' set was, as expected, a hugely mixed bag. I think that while on radio he is a genius for pushing disparate styles, in a club environment it can be hard to grasp the thread of what he's doing. We went from disco to funk to house to broken beat and hip-hop, with one atrocious euro-pop sounding tune in the middle. At times the segues (using every CDJ-1000 trick he had up his sleeve) were inspired, and at others the flow simply collpased and had to be recovered. Still, he played some blinders (Eartha Kitt! Omar feat Stevie! Herbert!) .

Once the hip-hop and broken beats became prominent after midnight, I felt that things had taken a turn for the wetter and eventually departed for some needed sleep. But it was a top night, with a nice crowd and lots of friends to bump into.

Kudos to Huw and the crew for putting this on, and for DLT, you've been lighting up my January so far!

Some tracks 'spotted on the night:

Anita Ward - Ring My Bell
Eartha Kitt - Where Is My Man
Barrabas - Woman
Innerzone Orchestra (???) - People Make The World Go Round
Richard Dorfmeister v MDLA - Boogie No More
Geraldine Hunt - Can't Fake This Feeling
Donny Hathaway - The Ghetto (Live Version)
Omar Feat. Steve Wonder - Feeling You (Henrik Schwarz Mix)
Hercules & Love Affair - Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix)
Chaz Jankel - Glad To Know You (Todd Terje Re-Edit)
Herbert - The Audience
Q-Tip Feat. Norah Jones - Life Is Better
Q-Tip - Gettin' Up

A day like that...

2009-01-07T20:21:00.010+11:00

AGCG and C2 at Days Like This, 4.01.09

Music festivals these days tend to leave me feeling ambivalent, with their fragmentary taste of numerous acts piled onto multiple stages. Not only do you have to run around madly trying to catch a glimpse of this performer or that, the programming is usually idiosyncratic (just trying to be polite).

I enjoyed Parklife earlier this year, but that was mainly thanks to finally seeing Metro Area, who managed to do a virtual megamix of 20 disco, proto-house and acid tracks in their foolishly brief one-hour set. The overall line-up included only a few artists who would pique my interest enough to traipse past 20,000 smashed punters to get to another stage, so I stuck mostly to one stage and had a good time. But We Love Sounds, while carrying a star-studded line-up, was a mixed bag with long bouts of ennui (ironically, the afterparty was much better). And Harbourlife was, well, Harbourlife.

I was starting to think that my festival-going days were coming to a close.

But, quite unexpectedly, Days Like This has come along to re-energise my interest in the format. And it has done it by stressing good acts, thoughtful programming and organisational smarts.

Not that I thought that as I arrived, just after 4pm, at Fox Studios. Morcheeba were dishing out a predictably wet selection on the main stage and the South Rakkas Crew were torturing eardrums with their raved up ragga breaks at the garden stage. Worse, they were both running outrageously late (the former apparently because of technical issues).

But it was all better after that. Radioslave decided that he couldn't beat the noisefest that had preceded him and instead set upon locking the now thinning garden stage crowd into one of his patented 4am tribal tech-house grooves. Starting retro with tunes that would've played well at late 80s techno raves, he then pushed us into the summery, conga-filled delights of Michel Cleis' "La Mezcla", and eventually finished with Elkin & Nelson's classic 1979 afro-funk workout, "Jibaro".

He was ably followed by Recloose, who moved from broken beats earlier in his set to some straight-up disco (Love Committee's "Just As Long As I've Got You") and house. Meanwhile, Fat Freddy's Drop were impressing on the main stage with their big band approach to reggaefied deep soulful electronica. Great to listen to and get lost in, but apart from the new addition to their crew (a tiny little kid with a trombone) their visual impact was a little light-on for such a big arena.

Mike Monday managed to get the garden stage going off with warm, melodic, and BIG tech-house, but while he's clearly a crowdpleaser the sound was surprisingly predictable for someone who has produced some excellent tracks in the last five years. It's almost like he's trying to do a cooler version of the more cheesy output of his early career, but then why not just stick with the original?

At the same time Sharon Jones was causing havoc on the main stage, prancing about and delivering some killer vocals. The Dap Kings are one tight nouveau funk band and this was quality stuff, even for someone like me who has never been hugely into the sound.

Then it was time for A Guy Called Gerald. Playing loops off two laptops, he constructed what may have been the set of the day. It was brutal analogology, recalling a past era while sounding fresh and unique. There was DnB, house and techno in equal measure, finishing off with three legendary tunes: his own "Voodoo Ray", former outfit 808 State's "Pacific" and a twisted, dubby remix of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love".

Which of course led perfectly into Carl Craig. Having heard about his legendarily spotty mixing and setlists packed with tired Detroit classics (and only having seen him play live before, on a massive array of analogue technology, in 2000) I was totally won by this densely packed, expertly programmed set with only one cueing error. There were some classics and some of his own productions, but the vibe he created with a jazzified, soulful techno-house jam was a perfect end to the night for me (interrupted by 25 minutes watching PE). Completing the set with his astonishing remix of Faze Action and then the looped tail end of Ron Hardy's brilliant edit of "Let No Man Put Asunder"--the bit that goes "it's not over" over and over again!--left the crowd both getting closure and screaming for more.

It was OK to spend most of my time watching C2, because Public Enemy were firing up the main stage like it was still 1993, when I last saw them. They have retained the energy, showmanship, wall of sound and presence that made them far and away the best hip-hop act of their era. And for those who have never seen them live or were wanting to relive those glory days there seemed little to complain about. But the edginess of that controversial time was missing, not really their fault but because the audience now lives in an era where some of the protest has been subsumed into the election of a Black man as US president. It's a contradictory thing, this mainstreaming of dissent, and PE haven't been able to transcend it in the way their original explosion onto the scene changed the face of popular music forever. That shouldn't take away from their talent, but perhaps it was all a little bit of history repeating...

And the little bits I saw of Mr Scruff and Gilles Peterson also impressed, although they were too short to say much about. But it felt good to know they were there if someone else failed to dazzle.

The crowd was a bit older, fun to party with and clearly into the music on offer. I bumped into at least two dozen people I knew--even my sister in law! The organisation was above average as well, with quick drink lines and enough toilets (as long as you knew about the ones in the Forum). I think the programming, a mixture of the old and new, but most importantly elements of the past being used to say something new, was what made the day so rewarding. Given the pre-event rumours that the event was going to flop (TV ads for a dance festival?!?), I think instead DLT is now the one to beat.

Let the music (use you)

2009-01-06T07:17:00.020+11:00

When Elizabeth and I bought our flat late last year one of the improvements on the places we'd been living in before was having a third bedroom, one that could be "Tad's music room". Suddenly I was off buying some good quality monitor speakers and hooking the mixer up to my computer. From that inspiration I produced this disco mix just before Xmas.

I get very impatient with recording mixes so mine (like this one) are almost invariably done in one take after I have worked out which records to play. As a result there are always little glitches, but I think that if you want it to be perfect you may as well get a computer to do it for you. But then that's not DJing anymore.

This mix represents some of the sounds I was playing alongside Greg Brooks when we did the Cosmic Disco night earlier this year. There is a mixture of re-edits and originals, with quite a few favourites thrown in for good measure.

Enjoy!

TRACKLIST

New York Citi Peech Boys - Life Is Something Special (Special Edition)
Inner Life - I'm Caught Up (In A One Night Love Affair) (Original 12" Mix)
Gino Soccio - Try It Out
Patrice Rushen - Number One
Love De Luxe - Here Comes That Sound
Hot Chocolate - Cadillac (The Revenge Rework)
The Popular People's Front - I Love Only You
Atlantic Conveyor - We Are
Chic - I Want Your Love (Tangoterje's Hello Kenny Edit)
Jimmy Ross - First True Love Affair (Eddie Tour Edit)
Sinnamon - Thanks To You (Instrumental)
Geraldine Hunt - Can't Fake The Feeling (Long Version)
Dan Hartman - Vertigo / Relight My Fire
Montana - Esto Parese Amor (Club Mix)
Talking Heads - I Zimbra (Peter Black Remix)
The Beat Broker - Warriors (In Space)
Telex - Moskow Diskow
Freez - I.O.U.
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Glossy - Last Night

Tad's Big Room Disco Mix 15/12/08

Another link

Here but for the grace of god go I

2009-01-05T11:08:00.020+11:00

This is my first attempt at a blog. Please be gentle.

My lovely wife, Elizabeth, suggested I do this because I was already spending hours writing reviews, but not having a stable home for them. In their interest (my children!) I will now give them a roof over their heads and three square meals of public exposure. If anyone reads this thing, that is.

This blog will be about disco (hence the title). But it will also be about other music and about the movies I see. Cinema and music have been my chief cultural passions since I was a teenager, and I've been writing about them on and off since then. There will be other kulturkritik in here also, but the other great interests of my life--psychiatry and politics--will not get a run, except as they impinge on the subject matter at hand.

I think I'm a born critic, which is useful to mask my innate lack of creative talent. My one area of creative expertise is in DJing, but in some ways that is a form of critique or meta-analysis, isn't it? After all, I'm imposing the music of others on an audience. I am the selector, I cut out the bits I don't want you to hear, I present a skewed, adulterated view of a series of tracks, and not as their makers intended them. I force you to see other people's art my way. It's like a review article in a scientific journal, only more fun. So you'll occasionally be subjected to my DJ mixes too.

So here but for the grace of god go I. Which segues nicely into what is a fitting subject for my first post, my favourite disco track of all time.

Machine's "There But For The Grace Of God Go I" was co-penned by August Darnell, legendary producer behind Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band and probably most famous for the post-disco funk workouts of Kid Creole And The Coconuts. The revived Strut label has recently released a compilation of some of his amazing output, available on CD and for download (although I think the Machine track is only on the CD version).

I first discovered the track on the excellent Jumpin' compilation that came out in the late 90s on Harmless. The point of that CD was to highlight original (and sometimes obscure) disco tracks that had been sampled or remade in the house era, and I had heard the unmistakeable horn riffs before. But the music, as uniquely in your face as it is, cannot prepare you for the charged political lyrics. For those who claimed that disco was only about having a good time, surely this was the riposte. "There But For The Grace Of God Go I" tells the story of bigoted parents who move to the 'burbs to get their baby daughter away from "the blacks, the jews and the gays". Of course, "she turns out to be a natural freak, gaining weight and losing sleep", and then runs off with a guy from the street.

Pete Heller and Terry Farley did a house cover of the tune in the mid-90s under their Fire Island guise, but inexplicably watered down both the confronting language and abrasive musicality of the original, thereby robbing it of most of its impact. Similarly, the repress version we have of the track includes the early 1990s remixes by New Jersey DJ Timmy Regisford, which retain the musical elements but slow the tempo and flatten the arrangement into a more house music style. They are nice but lack the raw power of the original 5:17 minutes.

The track has accumulated meaning for me since I was blown away by it in 1999, when I was first becoming entranced by house music and clubbing. It is Liz's favourite disco track also, and indeed the only record we both own copies of because if we were ever to split the argument about who would get it would likely end in murderous violence. And at a recent job interview I was asked what my favourite dance track ever was. I got the job, and I'd like to think that August Darnell was looking after me that day.

http://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/103695-01.htm

Some other links:

Machine's discography: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Machine

The August Darnell CD compilation on Strut: http://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/309193-01.htm