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Deep Impressions
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Dance And Electronica with Chris Honnery
Following a prolific 2013, Vancouver ambient/ dub techno proponent Jordan Sauer, best known as Segue, has just released a new album entitled The Here And Now on French label Sem. Last year, Sauer completed three separate releases, including the serene Pacifi ca album, an LP imbued with immersive layers of subtle melodies that evoke the beautiful natural landscapes of the Canadian west coast, which inspired the release. “The sounds of the Pacific are that of nature, forest and ocean. Space, tranquility and a pulse that lets you know everything is alive around you,” Sauer offered, adding, “Even if the album was inspired by nature and scenery, maybe it helps some guy in working in an office tower somewhere to calm down and focus on his work”. Indeed, Pacifi ca is aural escapism at its finest, and mandatory listening as a precursor to The Here And Now, which is similarly laden with field recordings and ethereal melodies created from live instrumentation.
LOOKING DEEPER FRIDAY MARCH 21 Boo Williams Club 77
SATURDAY MARCH 22 Recondite Club 77
SATURDAY APRIL 5 Hunee Goodgod Small club
SATURDAY APRIL 26 Fred P Marrickville Bowling Club
from the likes of Larry Heard, Robert Owens, Lil Louis, Marshall Jefferson and Glenn Underground,” Williams reflected recently. “When you listen to a Chicago artist back in the day that sound can not be copied and it’s a trademark of a lifetime – so that’s why my music is ahead of its time.” The next batch of remixes of tracks from DJ Koze’s acclaimed 2013 album Amygdala will drop next week on Koze’s own Pampa imprint. Following the reworks by Matthew Herbert and Efdemin, the latest refashionings arrive courtesy of another pair of considerable stature in techno circles: Roman Flügel and Robag Wruhme. Flügel, the co-founder of the hallowed Playhouse imprint, has remixed the track ‘Amygdala’, but it is Wruhme who steals the show with his version of ‘Nices Wölkchen’, which Robag appropriates with the kind of hazy melodies and crunchy percussion that imbue his original productions and remixes alike (Robag’s Olgamikks compilation is highly recommended for a snapshot of his formidable remixing ability). In short, this EP confirms that Koze getting Robaged is one of the better combos in German techno, a combination to rival Efdemin getting Kozed. DJ Koze
Acclaimed Chicago producer Boo Williams will make his Australian debut at Club 77 on Friday March 21, an appearance that coincides with the release of his forthcoming album, The Boo Williams Explosion, Williams’ first LP since 2001’s Universal Limits. Part of the ‘second wave’ of the city’s underground producers along with the likes of his mentor Glenn Underground, Gemini and Paul Johnson, Williams has been churning out house cuts since ’94, most recently on labels like Rush Hour and Chiwax. “I just have my own style of music that comes very rooted
14:03:13 :: Chinese Laundry :: 111 Sussex St Sydney 8295 9999 OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER
What we've been out to see...
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An eclectic night of music was in order as future soul queen Ngaiire hit the Oxford Art Factory for the last show of her Uranus Tour. Kicking off the night with an a cappella version of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe’ was Melbourne’s Hailey Cramer, whose brand of soul-meetship-hop highlighted the power of intricate harmonies and vocal styling to lift songs out of the ordinary. Following Cramer was Stereogamous, who took the party to Detroit circa the ’90s with their uplifting house vibes that demanded the audience dance. The vastly different support acts would not work in any other circumstance. But when leading up to the eccentric and unique Ngaiire, it all made sense. Ngaiire may be tiny physically, but she packs a punch that is goliath. With her hair suitably thebrag.com
BOADO :: ASHLEY MAR ::
What we've been out to see...
live review Oxford Art Factory Saturday March 15
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live review
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NGAIIRE, STEREOGAMOUS, HAILEY CRAMER
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he HAHA crew will celebrate nine years in the game on Saturday April 5 with a birthday bash at Goodgod Small Club headlined by Hun Choi, AKA Hunee (which, for everyone reading this column aloud to a crowded room, is pronounced ‘who-knee’). The Korean-born Berlin resident established himself on the production front via EPs on labels like Ostgut Ton, Permanent Vacation and Rush Hour, while as a DJ, Hunee is known around the traps as a respected selector who trades in “warm and sensuous” sets that traverse an eclectic spectrum of disco, techno, acid and soul sounds. “I feel most promoters know what they’re getting into when they book me,” Choi stated earlier this year. “Sometimes I get asked to play a more ‘organic’ set or even ‘strictly techno’ for a few hours. I actually enjoy both – the freedom to build a journey through a variety of styles and genres, but also the challenge of boundaries and building a journey with a more limited scale of sounds.” Knowing the HAHA crew, Hunee will be given carte blanche to play the music he wants – it is this commitment to the artists they book and the music they love that has established HAHA as an underground institution in Sydney for the past decade. So happy birthday, and here’s to many more…
styled to mimic a crown of sorts, Ngaiire commanded the crowd’s attention. She captivated with her distinctive voice that ebbed and flowed effortlessly against the backdrop of synth-heavy beats. Whether painting a picture for the audience that it’s OK to be quirky on ‘Uranus’ or reaching deep into hearts on the haunting ‘Count To Ten’, one thing for sure was that she and her band never became complacent or gave anything less than 100 per cent. By the end of the show, when she closed off with the lead track ‘Dirty Hercules’ from her album Lamentations, there were no lingering questions about whether Ngaiire deserves the title of queen of the future soul movement. With her band piecing the elaborate layers together musically and Ngaiire completing the puzzle with her inimitable persona, the show could not be faulted. While this tour may be over, there’s little doubt we’ll be seeing much more of Ngaiire around. Kristie Nicolas
FLYING LOTUS, SILENT JAY Sydney Opera House Sunday March 9
It’s got to be a tough call to support a ‘Cosmic Bass Visionary’ and kick off the party at 10pm on a Sunday night, not to mention transform the Opera House Concert Hall into anything close to a smoky club, but Silent Jay played it cool and managed to do almost that, despite glaring houselights and the chatter of the audience. His teasing R&B tracks built smoothly before a twinkling yet satisfying drop and it was easy to imagine in a smaller club space minus the outward distractions his sets would be even more absorbing. The music that Flying Lotus creates is immersive and transcendent on a purely audio level, but in adding multiple visual layers the experience of a FlyLo gig becomes sublime. This Layer 3 show was a celestial trip through a colourful galaxy that felt like Pink Floyd had run into Mario and Luigi on the Rainbow Road. The staggering visuals by Strangeloop and Timeboy featured swirling topographic line drawings that echoed Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album artwork, flickering monochrome test patterns, a dizzying rainbow vortex, the twinkling late-night wander of a dancer through slicked downtown streets, and sci-fi inspired machinery, all projected
across two transparent screens. The third layer was the man himself. His booth between the screens was the nerve centre of the production and he bounced around stitching all the pieces together, sometimes even grabbing the mic and venturing onstage to throw down some of his Captain Murphy material. Staccato strobes gave way to pulsing, shifting molecules in the visuals that corresponded with the maestro’s rearrangement of elements, reassembling them into new musical formulas. When he mixed Clams Casino’s ‘I’m God’ beat into ‘Between Villains’ from Ideas+Drafts+Loops and then hopped down from the decks to rap his Captain Murphy verse it was next level. For ‘Putty Boy Strut’ there were robots marching through a city chatting to each other until the kill mode was switched on and flames swirled around to reveal a projection of the eyeless Yeezus from the mixtape cover, and his ‘Black Skinhead’ rework brought those who’d sat down back to their feet. Layer 3 was a magical conversation between sound and visual. The bass god held sway for over an hour and wrapped up with an extended ‘Do The Astral Plane’ and humble thanks, leaving the audience to trickle back to their real (but now slightly flatter) world. Natalie Amat
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