As the perfect addition to your long weekend plans, The Music People Sydney (website coming soon) will be hosting the above three boys at the Forum on the 25th January. I’ve got my schedule locked in for Big Day Out, and it looks like I’ll be frantically galloping all over the showground with too many sets to catch, so this will be a welcome respite from Friday’s madness. Actually, it will still probably end up being a bit mad too. Of course then we can all sleep in till noon on Australia Day and have our cats bring us tea and cookies.
And if you’re in Melbourne, you get the show a couple of days earlier (as usual) at Prince Bandroom on the 23rd. So visit Moshtix now to pick up your tickets.
I was reading the new Malcom Gladwell book, Outliers, recently. It’s about how environmental factors play an important part in the success of people we commonly refer to as geniuses… whilst it hardly discredits the talents of Billy Gates et al, it’s an interesting read that suggests that the unbelievable achievements of some are perhaps more lucky than we realise.
One section of the book touches on world-class musicians, and the amount of practice they have to put in in order to be at the top of their field. Apparently, this is almost-universally 10,000 hours (and this rule stretches to other disciplines, too). Which is funny, really, because it seems that in the overstaturated blogmarket that we find ourselves in today, it takes me about that amount of hours (converted into banner ad exposure and press-release reading) to even consider the latest great hype hope.
Surprisingly enough, I don’t really ever reach the 10,000 hours necessary to pay attention to the next best things. Consequently, I miss out on a the odd great track or two. That said, I don’t think that this is a particularly bad thing; there is something to be said for word-of-mouth successes… people that don’t get thrown in headfirst, and work hard for their fame. Finding one and holding onto them through their rise to fame is infinitley more rewarding than simply picking-up someone as and when the machine tells you too.
One such artist I’m clinging onto with dear life is Justus Kohncke. His story is long. His music is fantastic. As are his remixes… he’s recently put his golden-touch to Friendly Fires and Dan Black amongst others. Whilst he’s currently on Kompakt, his sound doesn’t really venture down the minimal/tech route, it’s more of a warmly electronic disco experience. Something that warm up DJs should be playing. Instead, they’ll no doubt be pumping out the new Proxy at 9:02 p.m; their loss.
I’ve kind of been neglecting my posting duties recently, which is a bit shit… I’d hoped to get back in the swing of things with an uber-lazy post of the decent things that landed in my inbox over the past few days. Sad times, though, when I found that I haven’t really been sent anything recently (Meredith, come back, all is forgiven!), never mind something of that satisfies the greatness-conditions required to be written about here. As a consequence, I’m forced to write about things that I like that I’ve found for myself. Who thought blogging would come to this?
Ok, first up is a little viddy-video, created by L-Vis 1990 for the latest release on Erol’s Phantasy Sound label. The track is called AA 24/7, by Dance Area. It is fantastic. I think it is a fair comment to say that the genius lies in the sort of naive production… it’s hard to describe, just listen. It’s on Beatport over here in the UK, with remixes from Skull Juice (photo above, credit: Badger) and a couple of others that I can’t remember.
Hmmm… what else. I’m silly-late on this, but here is a fantastic remix by up and coming producer Kid Cola… this one is of Secret Machines, IIRC it’s already been played on Radio 1 by Kissy Sell Out. Check out his myspace/hypem for others. Have a download here.
Finally, one of the most important Dubstep producers of recent years, Rusko, got to do a Radio 1 Essential mix the other week… I have no idea how big the genre is in Australia, but it is becoming more and more mainsteam over here in the UK, which is a good thing… Whilst I’m all for going to see your Ed Banger crew bash out banger after banger, there is something about the atmosphere at a garage/dubstep night that is missing from your average electro shindig… Go explore.
As you might expect (if you’re into this kind of thing), the mix itself is brilliant. You can find it here, and be sure to check out NewMixes.com for a lot of other good shit.
I went to see my brother’s band, The Detours, play at the Art Factory a couple of weeks ago, and was fortunate enough to catch unsigned FBi darlings,The Spirits’ opening set. I spent the entire time making the fairly obvious statement to everyone that, “Shit. These guys are awesome (and I’m getting another wine).” Formerly Chequered Leopards, this Sydney-based four-piece produces a complex mix of the moody and the ethereal with the rousingly melodic, their reverb-heavy sound enhancing their haunting, yet tight, aesthetic. Think Foals, but more ghostlike.
They’ve recently recorded the material for their yet-to-be-released debut EP with Damian Press (of Expatriate) in a reverberating house in Petersham, and are gearing up to release the first single from it soon. In the meantime you can visit their Myspace page to say hello, and be sure to catch their next show on the 9th January at World Bar (Sydney).
With all the festival madness going on at the moment I’ve managed to avoid most of the hype and focus on a few key acts I wanted to see. For December it was Whitest Boy Alive who I saw at Nevereverland on Sunday and it was incredible.
For January I’ll be checking out Lykke Li but more importantly I’ll be going to Metronomy. Nights Out was one of, if not the, best album of the year for me and I’m not about to miss out on this show.
Most people I’ve been talking to have missed the word that Metronomy are touring Australia in January. Not that I blame them, Meredith seemed to turn everyones attention to the comforts of home rather than the next big gig.
Until then check out this remix of “A Thing For Me” by Architecture In Helsinki. Oh so sweet.
Shit, guys, so now do you believe me that we’re not the only goddamn gigantors in this town? Good. Now look, these townspeople, I don’t think they’re all there. They seem to enjoy breaking giant things. Like us. Not convinced? Well, tell that to Gigantor Bell over there. Oh wait, you can’t, because part of his pelvis has been removed and now he’s dead. I bet a whole family of wasps are about to have an epic battle with a shitload of bats for that giant cavity over there. And you just know that tiny bitch is trying to figure out how to get that piece of pelvis home to mount on her wall and show all her friends at her next sleepover. So I’m guessing you’ll both be relieved to hear that I totally have a kickass escape plan. See Gigantor Conch up there? Well, that was me. You give a conch a bucketful of acorns and they’ll do practically anything for you. Fuck you, Stefan, this is serious. Anyway, while Gigantor Conch is up there, kicking it like a diversion, we could probably slip past all these townspeople unnoticed. What? Edmund? Oh no, he’s cool. I nuzzled his face in the park last night and he agreed to push the piece of pelvis onto those bitches if they see us. Fucking full-proof.
Butterscotch…? Heavens! What are you doing? You can’t eat… Oh. How about that. Nevermind then. Someone go tell Conch.
Those lovely Texans, Faux Fox, have been remixed again, and this time by Hail Social’s Dayve Hawk aka Weird Tapes. I love how Hawk has rendered this remix the polar opposite of Neon Coyote’s earlier Faux Fox remix, trading the latter’s cocky glam rock romp for a pretty, chimes-laced frolic.
Faux Fox have their debut album, “All That Remains,” out on Melbourne label, EXO Records, now, so head to their site to pick up a copy.
