dance music news
free stuff
club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Honnery
FREESTUFF@THEBRAG.COM
five things WITH
Alison Wonderland
EGYPTIAN LOVER (USA) Kingdom’ by Twilight 22, doing my incredible mixing with vinyl – like playing ‘Planet Rock’ backwards, while mixing in ‘Electric Kingdom’ at the same time. Then I’ll play my 808 live, and perform my own hits, like ‘Egypt Egypt’ and ‘Freak-A-Holic’. It’s one of the best oldschool shows ever! The Music You Make I guess you can say my music is a mixture 4. of Prince and Kraftwerk. A sort of electro funk, but with a lot of beats. Music is my one and only job. I run my own record label, Egyptian Empire Records, and have done since 1984. I’m always in the studio recording or doing remixes, and I do shows all over the world. Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. I am 48 years old, and I love the old school.
1.
Growing Up My mother and father loved music. I enjoyed everything from Dean Martin to the O’Jays. My little brother played the saxophone, and he’s the one who taught me how to listen to and make music. He was the one who said, “Don’t just listen to the lyrics – listen to the bassline and the horns, and the guitar, and the keys”. That taught me how to put together a song.
2.
Inspirations I first heard Kraftwerk when a high
school friend wanted me to put an album she was given on a tape for her. I said of course, because she was so beautiful. After listening to that album (Computer World), I was hooked to the futuristic sounds and electronic beats. When she came to pick up the tape, I asked her if I could keep the record, and she said, ‘Sure’. I listened to that album a thousand times. I married her ten years later. Your Set I will be spinning an ‘80s set, like ‘Planet 3. Rock’ by Soul Sonic Force and ‘Electric
I don’t listen to much new music these days – I only hear what the groups who are on the shows with me play. Like Peanut Butter Wolf, DâM-FunK and AUX 88, but most of the time I’m listening to old-school stuff. It’s what inspires me to keep making music; keep making my kind of music. That funky electro Egyptian Lover dance music. With: Nicky Da B, Prince Zimboo, No Zu, Geoffrey O’Connor, Donny Benét, Straight Arrows, Levins and more Where: Vivid LIVE – GoodGod Danceteria! @ The Studio, Sydney Opera House When: Saturday June 2
predecessor as Lindgren narrowed his sound, building the LP around bouncing boom-bap grooves and retro-futuristic samples. Doors open at 8pm, with support from Expensive Looks (USA) and Astral DJs.
MARY’S BASEMENT FT JOEY THE SAINT & BAD JACKSON
This Friday, Joey The Saint & Bad Jackson headline Mary’s Basement at GoodGod Small Club, a space-themed event dedicated to “feverish funk music and its true believers”. Joey The Saint & Bad Jackson are set to play “crates full of wild funk cuts and rare grooves”, and will be flanked by GoodGod main man Toni Toni Lee, who will be playing a DJ set and a live set on his 808 drum machine. The revelry commences from 11pm, with things running well into the morning for the truest of the believers.
ALISON WONDERLAND
More in demand than time on the way to a tea party, Sydney DJ/producer Alison Wonderland has spent the last year playing with all the cool kids at Pacha and Café Mambo in Ibiza and at Stereosonic and Field Day festivals. Last Friday brought us the release of Welcome To Wonderland, her debut compilation album featuring a smorgasbord of mixed artist goodness, including Lykke Li, Arrested Development and The Chemical Brothers. To be in the running to win one of five albums, name another Aussie artist with a pun-ny name.
FACIENDO
Desyn Masiello and Tom Morgan will be touring Australia under the banner of their newly formed collective, Faciendo, and will play at One22 on Saturday June 2. “We are going back to that original feeling. We want the music to be able to represent itself,” an apparently nostalgic Masiello says of the project. “When we connect ourselves and play as Faciendo, we have hundreds of man years of record-buying and a much wider range of music...” – you get where he’s going with that one. Masiello is a muchloved specialist DJ who also spins alongside Omid16B and Demi as SOS, while Morgan arrives in Australia amid much hype from those in the know. In fact Morgan’s biggest fan is arguably Masiello himself, who hired Morgan in an A&R capacity for his Alternative Route label a while back – and the rest, as they say, is history. Presale tickets are available for $20 through Resident Advisor.
Parachute Youth
Ghostface Killah
DOOM
GHOSTFACE KILLAH + DOOM + CHINO XL
Founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah, is returning Down Under as part of a triple headline bill that also features DOOM and Chino XL courtesy of Rap City, which is slotted for the Enmore Theatre on Saturday June 2. Ghostface and DOOM have been working together under the moniker DOOMStarks, releasing their first single ‘Victory Laps’ last year ahead of their Swift & Changeable album, which is apparently going to be released later this year. Puerto Rican rapper Chino XL – who is also an avid bodybuilder – will arrive on our shores at around the same time as the release of his forthcoming sophomore album, a 38-track double album called The RICANstruction, which features guest appearances from Big Pun, Bun B, Kool G Rap, Tech 9 and Immortal Technique among others. Presale tickets to the tripleheader are available online.
STRANGE FRUIT
There’s a new club night in town: Strange Fruit, a weekly affair that will be held every Saturday night from 9pm at The Abercrombie. There are a few crucial factors that separate Strange Fruit from your ‘average’ club night, such as the fact that it’s free – you got it, maestro, it costs absolutely nothing to enter. This factor needs to be considered alongside the calibre of DJs on rotation at Strange Fruit, too. Simply put, the event aims to give the cream of Sydney’s underground DJs a minimum of two hours to do their thing on a Funktion One sound system in the cosy confines of The Abercrombie. Take the launch party this weekend for instance: Mad Racket’s Simon Caldwell, Future Classic’s Jamie Lloyd and Space Ibiza regular Ben Korbel will all be spinning, along with the chap behind the whole concept, Jordan Deck. Not 36 :: BRAG :: 463 :: 21:05:12
bad for a free event, eh? And given the DJ lineups planned for the next month, Strange Fruit is a safe bet for techno fiends to launch – or indeed round off – their Saturday nights.
MUX MOOL
Minneapolis producer Brian Lindgren, who produces as Mux Mool, will perform at GoodGod Small Club on Wednesday June 13 as part of his debut Australian tour. Lindgred’s first official beats came via Moodgadget, a launchpad label of Seth Troxler and Outlier, before he dropped an EP on Matthew Dear’s Ghostly International ahead of releasing his debut LP Skulltaste in 2010, an album “steeped in tinny, IDM-tinged electro”. He will take to the stage of GoodGod following the release of his second full-length album earlier this year; Planet High School differed from its
CAKES FT PARACHUTE YOUTH
Parachute Youth headline Cakes on Saturday June 2, playing live in the club room of World Bar as part of the official launch tour for the new single ‘Can’t Get Better Than This’, which doubles as a Sweat It Out label party. The label owner Ajax, a chap once crowned as Australia’s number one DJ in the ITM pole, will also be playing, along with What So Not and Airwolf. Meanwhile, Illya is doing a four-hour vinyl set in The Apothecary – and you’ll have to discover for yourself which crevasse of the World Bar that’s referring to... Entry is $20 all night.