Electrorash

Every time I look at the title of this blog, my mind flies back to the heady days of 2007; the year when electro first exploded into the mainstream, propelled forward on a wave of stomping house beats spliced with synth-rock and electroclash sensibilities. I remember thinking at the time how amazing it was that good dance music had managed to recapture melody from the all-consuming shit-mouth that was anthem trance and disco house. After all this time mired in the subwoofer, there was melody. Melody was going to save us all.

And then I’m back in the present and I think to myself ‘thank Christ, bass is back’. It was like we all hit 2008, got halfway through and realised that dance music without bass is, well Top 40 really. And we’re better than that. Fidget, kuduru, UK funky, dubstep, bassline, ghettotech – they all seem to be on a mission to bring dance music back to the dark, dirty and booty-shaking subterranean chambers where it belongs. And Melbourne promoters Strobe are welcoming it with open arms. After tearing Melbourne to shreds back in February with a Proxy/Thomas von Party double header, Strobe are taking it up a notch this Friday the 22nd with a decidedly massive triple bill featuring Jesse Rose, Zombie Disco Squad and Oliver $. And we have tickets to give away to it. See the bottom for details.

Jesse Rose should need little introduction by now. The man was one of the major players in the fidget scene when it swept the world early last year (and apparently one of the guys who coined the term as a joke in the first place), and nowadays finds himself at the forefront of this new brigade of bass-heavy house music mercenaries. Currently signed to the genre-defining Dubsided label, he’s recently completed an Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 (available here) and has a brand new album due out the day after the party. It’s called ‘What Do You Do If I Don’t?’, and best of all you get a free copy of the CD with entry. It’s stomping, surprisingly jazzy and pretty awesome, and you can check out a track that is all three of those things below.

Jesse Rose – Touch My Horn

Zombie Disco Squad are one of the pioneers of the so-called (and potentially racist…) Zulu house sound. Melding fidget with baile, bmore, hip-hop and African tribal funk, the ZDS boys push a relentless, mind-destroying brand of house music that oscillates wildly between clipped hip-hop samples, quirky synth stabs and pounding house beats. They’re just about to drop their new double A-side ‘Esperanto’/'Eurovision’ on Jesse Rose’s own Made To Play imprint and I assure you, it is reliably massive:

Zombie Disco Squad – Eurovision

And, finally, Oliver $. I must admit that up until recently I hadn’t really heard of the man, but he’s doing big things in Berlin at the moment and has a fairly esteemed position as one of Jesse Rose’s primary proteges. Straddling the fine line between booty house and minimal, Oliver $ is being championed by both sides of the spectrum due to his unique and decidedly understated approach to making some of the funkier dance music of the last year. Dubstep worthy bass, snatched vocal samples and bouncing kicks. This is just, in a phrase, fucking cool.

Oliver $ – Watcha Gonna Do

It’s all happening this Friday, May 22 at Billboards in Melbourne. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased from Moshtix and Ticketek. I can thoroughly recommend it. I’m almost positive this party is going to be batshit mental.

Even better though, we here at Electrorash have a double pass to give away to one oooooooh so lucky reader. How awesome? So awesome. Simply send an email to music@electrorash.com with STROBE in the subject line, and tell us in 10 words or less how you’re going to deal with the coming zombie invasion (the real zombies, not the Disco Squad). Get onto it! I’ll see you there.

-luke