DANCE: THE DROP Dance music is a wonderful thing. It fuels your attempt at alcoholic aerobics, it’s a tuneful taser in the backside of bureaucrat banality and true heartstarter for weekend warriors and alcopop alchemists alike. The time has come to once again bow our heads down to the electronic gods of noise with another round of local party action as April fills up quicker than my bank account on BMA payday.... Crooked Sound System presents the third instalment of the successful drum ‘n’ bass, dubstep and dirty beats night Shockwave at Monkey Bar on Thursday April 9. This time around the lads have secured the services of massive international rudeboy Seven (UK) who will be ripping the lid off with the help of local talent Crooked Sound System, Bohl and Scissors and Poser, with the event hosted by Harlequin MC. For those who aren’t layed out with chocolate poisoning or rabid rabbit allergies, Easter Sunday April 12 heralds the Canberra debut of Nordic progressive princes Djuma Soundsystem from the venerable Get Physical record label. These guys are mental and I highly recommend you take advantage of the Monday sleep-in and check them out. The gig is at Lot 33 and the supports include the Pang! debuts from Biggie and Jahla Gato with regulars Hubert, Cheese, Gabriel Gilmour, Scottie Fischer and King James rounding off an epic night for fans of deep sexy electronica. Do you like it hard? Do you like it rough? Well then call me on… Wait, I’m still talking about music here people! The Canberra Indoor Rock Climbing Centre hosts another edition of Lighter Massive’s Hard to the Core on Saturday April 25 with a line-up that would leave any respectable hard dance fan salivating, including interstate visitors Matrix, Fenix, Tempa, Spinout and Selby with locals Nomad, Nasty, Loose Cannon, Enerv8, Peekz, Haks, Cotts and more to be announced. So don your best and brightest and reach for the lasers - then try to get home before your mum wakes up for her morning coffee because it’s just too hard to explain walking in the front door at 9am wearing a yellow council vest and sucking a fluro orange dummy, now isn’t it kids? Tickets are available from Landspeed records for $30 plus BF. Finally, I had the chance to catch up with Ryan Phillips from Lexington Music for an exclusive update on the preparations for the Warehouse Winter Music Festival 2009. “Preparations for the festival are going great!” the man exclaimed. “They have been underway since the final track of last year’s event. It has been exciting to be able to plan for bigger crowds, knowing how much people really enjoyed last year’s show and how much they are pumped for this year. Friction and Lexington Music have been working closely with the AIS Arena on an expanded set-up and much time has also been spent assembling a line-up that is truly as deep in talent as it is diverse” This year's event also promises to be bigger and better than last year, which is hard to believe considering the scale of the 2008 event. “We have massively increased the budget this year on both audio visual elements, as well as on the line-up itself. Last year’s event was themed around technology with patrons really enjoying the unique ghetto blaster show on the arena stage. This year we have chosen a new theme, ‘Space into the Future',’ and are encouraging those coming along to dress with that in mind. The show itself will blow people away… Canberra has never seen a festival like this before!” The first round announcement of artists has been announced and first release tickets are on sale from www.lexingtonmusic.com.au . That’s all for another issue. Until next time, just remember to do what all the cool club kids in Europe are doing and “Tanzen Sie wie ein Roboter”. TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au
bma magazine 16