3D World - Brisbane Issue #1042 by TheMusic.com.au

END of THE LINE?

BRISBANE•GOLD COAST Issue 1042

WEDNESDAY 22 DECEMBER 2010

SHPONGLE: DMT & Biscuits With Raja Ram PROPHET RAYZA: The Bookworm BEATS ON THE BEACH: ZoukOut 2010 Reviewed TRAVEL Berlin: A Clubbing Odyssey

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CREDITS PUBLISHER Street Press Auﬆ ralia Pty Ltd GROUP MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Maﬆ EDITOR Kris Swales EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Amber McCormick ARTS EDITOR Daniel CrichtonRouse SENIOR CONTRIBUTORS Cyclone, Daniel Sanders CONTRIBUTORS 5sprocket, Andrew Wowk, Angus Paterson, Anita Connors, Baz McAliﬆer, Ben Kumar, Blaze, Brad Swob, Bryget Chrisﬁeld, Carlin Beattie, Clare Dickins, Darren Collins, Dave Dri, Dave Jory, DJ Stiﬀ y, Gloria Lewis, Guido Farnell, Guy Davis, Holly Hutchinson, Huwﬆon, Jane Stabler, Jann Angara, JC Eﬆeller, Jean Poole, Jeremy Wood, Johnnie Runner, Josh Wheatley, Kierﬆen Seeto, Komi Sellathurai, Lawrence Daylie, Lee ‘Grumpy’ Bemrose, L-Fresh, Liz Galinovic, Luke McKinnon, Matt O’Neill, Matt Unicomb, Melissa Weﬆ, Monica Connors, Nick Connellan, Nina Bertok, Nic Toupee, NHJ, Obliveus, Paz, Richie Meldrum, Rip Nicholson, Ritual, Robbie Lowe, Roo, Russ Macumber, Ryan Lungu, Sasha Perera, Scott Henderson, Steve Duck, Stuart Evans, Tash Fraser, Tim Finney, Tom Brabham, Tom Edwards, Triﬆan Burke

Alexis Dewick, Ben Maccoll, Carine Thevenau, Corey Brand, Cybele Malinowski, Dave Dri, Kane Hibberd, Koﬆas Korsovitis, Luke Eaton, Terry Soo

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SUSHI SNAPS GETANIGHTLIFE.COM 1 Blaze Tripp @ Monaﬆery 2 Friday @ Birdee Num Num

5 Mobin Maﬆer @ Elect El ctric i Playground Pl d 6 Saturday @ X & Y Bar

3 Friday @ The Met

7 The Love Club @ Alhambra

4 GPO Turns Five @ GPO

8 Vandalism @ Family

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BRIEFS

EPIC&FAIL

RICH CURTIS

EPIC RICH VEIN

Local boy Rich Curtis got massive props on InTheMix recently with Infusion’s Jamie Stevens touting him as a producer to watch in 2011. We’re going to go a ﬆep further and declare fellow Brisbane boy Insilico’s remix of Curtis’ Maybe Soon as classic a slice of prog as you’ll ever hear…

GOOD HUNTING

Cracked.com’s recent “10 Mind-Blowing Eaﬆer Eggs Hidden in Famous Albums” ﬆ ill has us scratching our heads – if you thought Radiohead’s OK Computer and In Rainbows were next level shit already, this will blow your mind…

THRASHES TO ASHES

Alright, so Mitchell Johnson might live in WA now and Ryan Harris originally played for South Auﬆ ralia, but we’re ﬆ ill claiming them after they tore the Poms a new one on the weekend. More Queenslanders are needed in the Aussie cricket team, clearly…

FAIL WHITE OR MAD HOUSE?

We have a late contender for press release headline of the year – “President Obama Announces Intention To Appoint Jon Bon Jovi To White House Council On Community Solutions”. Because Big Arnie did such a bang-up job in California the USA needs more entertainers in positions of power…

UNITED THEY FALL?

Poor old Gold Coaﬆ United. They can’t get people to pay to come watch them, so they throw the gates open for all comers – and the game is promptly called oﬀ after 20 minutes due to torrential rain. And owner Clive Palmer thought removing minerals from the ground was tough…

GO WEST

Can we ﬆart the Kanye Weﬆ backlash yet? Or do we have to wait two years when the man himself decides to apologise for the Fantasy set on Twitter?

MORE THAN A few hip hop fans were particularly envious of the young ﬆ udents at Sydney’s Canterbury Boys High laﬆ week who were treated to a surprise visit by rap superﬆar Jay-Z. The Big O also dipped into her pocket and donated a million dollars to the school for new computers. Very cool… IF YOU’RE ALREADY plotting and scheming a visit to Serbia’s Exit Feﬆ ival next year, there are Chriﬆmas specials on for tickets until 9pm on Chriﬆmas Eve – which is even later for us given the time difference. Spread some Xmas cheer your own way at www.etickets.to/ exit-xmas... BILLY RAY CYRUS has tweeted that he is “so sad” after a video showing his daughter Miley Cyrus smoking a bong hit the internet. Well Billy, when you let your daughter pose nude for an “artiﬆ ic” photoshoot at age 15 you can kind of expect she won’t be at home knitting socks by 18. Fingers crossed Miley is not the new Britney… MELBOURNE CLUB BRAND Onelove continue to pump out the compilations, with the recent Dubﬆep Invasion set followed up by Onelove Sonic Boom Box on Tuesday 11 January. And with Calvin Harris, Andy Murphy and Acid Jacks on the mix this is one not to sleep on, especially given it’s Harris’ firﬆ official compilation release in Auﬆ ralia…

ROGER SANCHEZ

THE S-MAN COMETH

Sydney and Melbourne audiences already knew they were getting a taﬆe of Roger Sanchez as he heads down under to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his Release Yourself events and compilation series, but he’s now revealed club shows for Queensland fans plus a feﬆ ival sideshow in Melbourne. Commerically Sanchez is beﬆ known for his big room house anthems Another Chance and Turn On The Music, but hardened clubbers also know he can work an extended DJ set like few others, traversing big vocals, elect ro, tribal and more along the way. The 10 Years Of Release Yourself comp will feature tracks from Rene Amesz, Baggi Begovic and the S-Man himself, and you’ll get some idea of what it sounds like when he plays Rush (Geelong) Thursday 20 January, Trak (Melbourne) Friday 21, The Hot Barbeque (Portsea) Saturday 22 and Kink at The Arthouse (Sydney) later that night, Platinum Nightclub (Gold Coaﬆ) Tuesday 25 and Elect ric Playground (Brisbane) Friday 28. STANTON WARRIORS

WAR ENSEMBLE

Revered by breakbeat aﬁcionados for their Stanton Sessions series of compilations, and laﬆ seen giving the clubs and feﬆ ivals of Auﬆ ralia a thorough work-out in November 2009, the Stanton Warriors are set to return to our shores in the New Year. The good news is their crates/wallets/ hard drives will contain tracks from their freshly minted Warriors longplayer (coming soon on Central Station), including the bass-heavy lead single Get Up, to share with fans, so if you count yourself as a member of the Warriors’ army get yourself down to Great Northern Hotel (Byron Bay) Thursday 20 January, Brown Alley (Melbourne) Friday 21, Garden Party at Chinese Laundry (Sydney) Saturday 22 and Wollongong’s Grand Hotel later that night, Academy (Canberra) Friday 28 and Barsoma (Brisbane) Saturday 29. GARETH EMERY

LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE

It’s been promised for many years now, and while it might not quite be of Holy Grail importance to the wider musical world the arrival of Northern Lights – the debut artiﬆ album of UK trancer Gareth Emery – is pretty big news if reaching for lasers is your thing. The ten track eﬀort sees Emery team up with like-minded producers like Jerome Isma-Ae and Act iva, plus vocaliﬆ Lucy Saunders on the anthemic Sacntuary (among others), to explore progressive house, full-on trance and beyond. His skills behind the decks have seen him anointed the position of seventh moﬆ popular DJ in the world in the 2010 DJ Mag poll, so if he got your vote don’t miss him at Platinum Nightclub (Gold Coaﬆ) Friday 4 February, Home (Sydney) Friday 11 and Colonial Hotel (Melbourne) Saturday 12.

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STARS

GENERAL OUTLOOK Keep a ﬆ upid smile plaﬆered on your face all week. At leaﬆ no one can accuse you of being some kind of misery guts, even if you are high on horse tranquilisers. AQUARIUS (20 JAN TO 18 FEB) Your problems aren’t going to go away juﬆ because you dance to the Grease Megamix every morning. Grow up. PISCES (19 FEB TO 20 MAR) What you thought was “Oprah Fever” turned out to be a dreadful case of shingles. Bed reﬆ is crucial now. ARIES (21 MAR TO 20 APR) It’s official. Morgan Freeman’s lawyers are coming after you for everything you’ve got. Hide your money. TAURUS (21 APR TO 20 MAY) Binge drinking is the leaﬆ of your worries right now. You need to concentrate on learning how to read and write. GEMINI (21 MAY TO 20 JUN) Are you really expected to care if ‘Horny Warney’ is sleeping with Liz Hurley? No. Only if you are Hugh Grant or Mrs Shane Warne. CANCER (21 JUN TO 21 JUL) A pat down at airport security will devolve into a frisk, then a feel up. Eventually it will lead to full sex, fi lmed and poﬆed online. LEO (22 JUL TO 21 AUG) Th is week you need to remember that you should NEVER get out of your car in a road rage incident. Your car is your beﬆ weapon. VIRGO (22 AUG TO 21 SEP) A reunion with an old lover will lead to a trip down memory lane. But you’ll get a weird vibe off them, before realising they’ve had a sex change. LIBRA (22 SEP TO 22 OCT) Unable to pay your debts to Jabba The Hutt, you will be captured and frozen in carbonite. And during the Summer no less. Bummer! SCORPIO (23 OCT TO 21 NOV) Be honeﬆ with yourself for a moment. That Inception movie really wasn’t that good was it. I mean, it was OK, but hardly a classic. SAGITTARIUS (22 NOV TO 20 DEC) When Carrie Fisher insinuates that you are a closeted homosexual, you will have to decide what is really important to you. CAPRICORN (21 DEC TO 19 JAN) A one night ﬆand with a rare Panda bear will leave you pregnant, broke and alone. Fucking Pandas. I hope they all die.

IT WAS THE day all Short Stack haters had been waiting for when bass player Andy Clemmensen apparently cobbled together a Kanye Weﬆ album review for Channel [V] from a variety of global sources. Short Stack fans couldn’t care less, as one Facebook follower commented “I love you Andy... Fuck that plagerism [sic] shit...” Right on brother… SPEAKING OF KANYE, he’s dropped a Chriﬆmas tune titled Chriﬆmas In Harlem. The jolly tune features a whole heap of his protégés including CyHi Da Prynce and Teyana Taylor... IT’S NOT JUST Yeezy jumping on the Chriﬆmas song bandwagon, with veteran UK housers Saint Etienne recently diﬆ ributing the decidedly less chipper No Cure For The Common Chriﬆmas – check it at the RCRD LBL blog... WE MENTIONED A couple of weeks back that PNAU would be back with a new long-player in 2011, and you can hear a snippet of lead track The Truth if you type the appropriate keywords into the YouTube search engine right now. Might be handy if you want to know the words when they play Big Day Out... 3D WORLD HAVE known all along that Katy Perry was onto something special with her Teenage Dream album, and it seems we were right. Ms Perry-Brand is the ﬁ rﬆ female artiﬆ in 11 years to score three number on singles form the same album on the Billboard Hot 100 with California Gurls, Teenage Dream and Firework respect ively. What a gal...

SUPA SIZED

TAIO CRUZ

Trumpeting itself as one of the world’s largeﬆ urban music feﬆ ivals, Supafeﬆ 2011 has certainly upped the ante on the line-up front from their fi rﬆ outing in 2010. Iconic hip hop figure and serial gueﬆ verser Snoop Dogg is the obvious headline act, having earned inﬆant cred from his debut on Dr Dre’s The Chronic and moved into the mainﬆ ream through a ﬆarring role in the Starsky & Hutch fi lm plus gueﬆ verses for Katy Perry, Jessica Mauboy and many more. Fellow chart-topper Nelly also plays on the back of his 5.0 record, while dynamite newcomer Taio Cruz and former child ﬆar and now very much adult Bow Wow complete the fi rﬆ announcement. The quartet play ANZ Stadium (Sydney) Saturday 9 April, RNA Showgrounds (Brisbane) Saturday 16 and Melbourne Showgrounds Sunday 17. Tickets for all shows through Ticketek now. MOWGLI

DIRTY DANCING

Raised on a ﬆeady diet of everything from hip hop to house to drum’n’bass, Italian producer Michele Savaﬆa has gathered all of that acquired knowledge into his own output as Mowgli. It’s clearly working for him, with artiﬆs as diverse as Martin Solveig and X-Press 2 calling on his services for remix duties over the years, and that’s no forgetting his cheeky bootleg of The Chemical Brothers’ Do It Again which copped a smashing through 2008. He’s sure to have plenty of fresh elect ro bombs to shred speakers with when he hits Monaﬆery (Brisbane) Friday 14 January, 151 Nightclub (Wollongong) Saturday 15 and Chinese Laundry (Sydney) later that night, Revolver (Melbourne) Saturday 22, Barking Dog (Geelong) Sunday 23 January, Platinum Nightclub (Gold Coaﬆ) Saturday 5 February and ﬁnally Trinity (Canberra) Sunday 6. CAT POWER

THE POWER OF ONE

When Atlanta-born songﬆ ress Cat Power takes to the ﬆage, you never quite know whether you’ll get an incendiary performance or a meltdown – and that’s part of the appeal. It’s been nearly two years since her Jukebox album dropped on the eﬆeemed Matador label but she’ll be back in Auﬆ ralia in January to show oﬀ its sounds for a series of theatre shows, ﬆarting at The Forum Theatre (Melbourne) Friday 21, then Theatre Royale (Caﬆ lemaine) Saturday 22, Brisbane Powerhouse Friday 28, Coolangatta Hotel Saturday 29 and Sydney Opera House Sunday 30. HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY

STILL HUNGRY

2010 was a watershed year for Brisbane indie kids Hungry Kids Of Hungary, their debut album Escapades dropping on EMI to much love and their grueling touring eﬀorts not slowing down. It’s looking like 2011 is going to be another year of road warrior antics for the quartet, with a ﬆack of feﬆ ival and club shows through the early months of the year. They play The Hot Barbeque (Portsea) Saturday 22 January, Brass Monkey (Cronulla) Tuesday 25, Baroque (Katoomba) Thursday 27, Mona Vale Hotel (Sydney) Friday 28, Fitzroy Hotel (Sydney) Saturday 29, Joe’s Waterhole (Eumundi) Thursday 3 February, Laneway Feﬆ ival (Brisbane) Friday 4, The Loft (Warnambool) Saturday 12, St Kida Feﬆ ival Sunday 13, Playground Weekender Friday 18 and Good Vibrations Feﬆ ival (Gold Coaﬆ) Saturday 19.

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CALENDAR DECEMBER DIRTY SUNDAY MINI FEST: BAG RAIDERS – Sunday 26, Titanium Bar SEBASTIEN LÉGER, STAFFORD BROTHERS – Sunday 26, Platinum BLAH BLAH BLAH @ RIVERLIFE: DIGITALISM, SOUL OF MAN, KOOLISM,THE FUNKOARS, THE FREESTYLERS, HORRORSHOW AND MORE – Tuesday 28, Kangaroo Point ALAN BRAXE, TOMMY TRASH – Friday 31, Family CLAUDE VONSTROKE – Friday 31, Barsoma NO YEARS FESTIVAL: THE SHOUT OUT LOUDS, NEON INDIAN, THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS, JONATHAN BOULET AND MORE – Friday 31, The Powerhouse THE BLU EXPERINCE NYE 2011: DJS FROM MARS, FLYGIRL TEE, VINCE HARDER, SGT SLICK, MIND ELECTRIC, TENZIN, BABY GEE – Friday 31, Electric Playground MOULIN ROUGE NEW YEAR’S EVE 2011 – Friday 31, Zuri HEY NOW MASQUERAVE – Friday 31, Monastery VAN MIERT, CHARLIE HUSTLE, TOOSHOES AND TOM GAZAL – Friday 31, Uber DAVE SEAMAN, STAFFORD BROTHERS & TIMMY TRUMPET – Friday 31, Platinum Nightclub BROTHERS, OCEANICS, SOUNDTRAFFIK – Friday 31, Elsewhere JANUARY CARL KENNEDY – Saturday 1, Platinum Nightclub SUBTRAKT NYD – Saturday 1, Barsoma SUMMER DAZE R&B NIGHTS WITH REVEREND JACKSON – Saturday 1, Fusion Villa Noosa BREAKBOT – Sunday 2, Elsewhere DAYLIGHT/TWILIGHT: FREEMASONS, KATHERINE ELLIS AND MORE – Sunday 2, Cloudland/Family FLYING LOTUS, HUDSON MOHAWKE, THE GASLAMP KILLER – Sunday 2, Tivoli SUMMAFIELDAYZE: BOB SINCLAR, BOYS NOIZE, N*E*R*D, EROL ALKAN, TINIE TEMPAH AND MORE – Sunday 2, Doug Jennings Park SUMMAFIELDAYZE AFTER PARTY: DENNIS FERRER, STAFFORD BROTHERS – Sunday 2, Platinum Nightclub SUNSET SOUNDS: PUBLIC ENEMY, INTERPOL, JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, KLAXONS AND MORE – Wednesday 5 – Thursday 6, Brisbane Botanic Gardens CARL KENNEDY

AUSSIE HIP HOP legends Hilltop Hoods and APRA will once again be teaming up in 2011 for the Hilltop Hoods Initiative. It offers a $10,000 grant to an aspiring artiﬆ or act who is yet to release an album professionally to help kickﬆart their development. Laﬆ year’s winner was Melbourne’s 1/6 - this year’s judges include Hau, Nish, Ran-Dee and Raph. Apply via www.apraamcos.com.au before 22 February for your shot at the title… WANT TO LIFT your Facebook chat game? A new survey of online fl irting by dating website Badoo.com has found that the beﬆ internet chat-up line for men to use is: “You have beautiful lips.” Seems a bit personal to us... WELL NOW IT’S official. TRON: Legacy has reached cultural blockbuﬆer ﬆatus now that Playboy have commemorated the fi lm with a TRON inspired spread featuring Playmates painted in glow-in-the-dark paint to simulate the lightsuits worn in the fi lm... IT’S THE COMEBACK we didn’t know we had to have. Sweden’s late 80s/early 90s chart conquerors Roxette return from nowhere when Charm School drops on 11 February. We hope they ﬆ ill have “the look”... 80S RAPPER, FASHION icon and now social media ﬆar – MC Hammer’s career is unﬆoppable. The incredible Hammer, who has close to two million followers on Twitter, was recently awarded Social Media Marketer of the Year Award by The Gravity Summit...

KASKADE

KASKADING DOWN

The exact details are a bit sketchy, but what we do know is that San Francisco-based house veteran Kaskade will be working his particular brand of magic at The Met in the New Year. Beﬆ known for pushing the typical deep Weﬆ Coaﬆ sound earlier in his career, he crossed over into elect ro house main rooms with his Move With Me and I Remember collabs with Deadmau5 in 2008, so you’d imagine it’ll be pretty packed when he ﬆops through Brisbane on Auﬆ ralia Day Eve, Tuesday 25 January.

TRIPPING IN

The 7whatevers crew are continuing their mission to bring a new party vibe to Byron Bay with the second anniversary celebration of their Trip Kicks Indoor Feﬆ ival. They’ve been prepping this one for three months and has assembled their moﬆ epic lineup yet, with tuneage this time round coming from Trial & Erra, Loﬆ Gamble DJs, Aniki, Brett Sellwood, Daniel Webber, Deegs, Captain Kaine and Buzz. You’ll also get performing arts from BASE, Spectacle Art, Tuxtla, and Vman & Cruz when the party hits The Back Room Saturday 8 January. Be warned – the paﬆ three events have sold out, so get in early!

SUMMA LOVING

Summaﬁeldayze is almoﬆ here for 2011, and the local caﬆ has been announced for the big party which hits Gold Coaﬆ’s Doug Jenning Park as it has every year since 2003 on Sunday 2 January. The Faders, Surecut Kids, Miseré, Rock Pop & Ju, Vinyl Slingers,

Too Shoes & FEF, Daniel Webber, Ryan Rushton, Nick Galea, Habebe, Baby Gee, Genre Slut, Danny T, Mr Sparkles, Gerry Morales, Tim Fuchs, Joey Mojo, Stretch, Giv, Audun, Gemﬆar and many more join David Guetta, Armand Van Helden, Armin van Buuren, N*E*R*D and many, many more headliners for an epic day of fun in the sun.

SHOUTING LÉGER!

If you’ve had enough of the family and the cricket by Boxing Day night, Platinum at Broadbeach might be the place for you – especially if you’re a fan of French elect ro house crossover specialiﬆ Sebaﬆ ien Léger. The producer of such timeless bombs as Hit Girl and Saturn has appeal with dancefloor fans and pickier clubbers alike, so you’ll want to get in early to reserve your spot on the floor at Platinum when he fi lls the room with bombs Sunday 26 December with support from the Stafford Brothers, Gerry Morales, Craig Roberts and Joey Mojo.

THE BOX OUT

Another Boxing Day bash on the Gold Coaﬆ has a much more local flavour. Auﬆ ralian heroes the Bag Raiders have had a superb year on the back of their debut self-titled long-player, and will be celebrating in fine ﬆ yle with the Dirty Sundays crew at Titanium Bar Sunday 26 December. With two rooms, three ﬆages and ten DJs, the Mini Feﬆ kicks off at Midday and rolls through til 1am Monday morning. Firﬆ 100 through the door score themselves a Dirty Sundays singlet.

B THERE

If you like your Ausie hip hop delivered with uncanny wit and a helthy larrikin spirit, Aussie icon Matty B might juﬆ be the rapper for you. He’ll be supported by underground veterans the Rukus Crew and emerging duo Azov + Recon for a pair of local shows in January. Catch this triple-threat at Club Envy (Sunshine Coaﬆ) on Saturday 8 January then Miami Shark Bar (Gold Coaﬆ) on Saturday 15.

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CALENDAR TENSNAKE

PROMOE, COSMIC – Thursday 6, Beach Hotel (Byron Bay) THIRSTY THURSDAYS – DJ BANKSY – Thursday 6, Fusion Villa Noosa LORD FINESSE, BOOGIE BLIND, OZI BATLA – Friday 7, Step Inn MATTY B, RUKUS CREW, AZOV + RECON – Saturday 8, Club Envy TRIP KICKS INDOOR FESTIVAL – Saturday 8, The Back Room TENSNAKE – Saturday 8, Barsoma MOS DEF – Thursday 13, The Tivoli 4 STRINGS – Thursday 13, Family MOWGLI – Friday 14, Monastery MATTY B, RUKUS CREW, AZOV + RECON – Saturday 15, Miami Shark Bar SUPER POCKET MUSIC SHOWCASE: HUNZ, POTATO MASTA, MAHAL KITA, DOT.AY – Wednesday 19, X & Y Bar STANTON WARRIORS – Thursday 20, Great Northern Hotel DEAD LETTER CIRCUS & SPECIAL GUESTS – Friday 21, Fusion Villa Noosa MASIF FRIDAYS: BIOWEAPON– Friday 21, Family TY SIMPSON, PHAT KAT – Sunday 23, X&Y Bar RATATAT – Monday 24, The Hi-Fi KASKADE – Tuesday 25, The Met VANDALISM – Tuesday 25, Fluﬀ y ROGER SANCHEZ – Tuesday 25, Platinum LAIDBACK LUKE – Friday 28, The Met ROGER SANCHEZ – Friday 28, Electric Playground TV ROCK, ACT YO AGE – Friday 28, Family ANDY C, MC GQ – Friday 28, Monastery LAIDBACK LUKE – Saturday 29, Platinum STANTON WARRIORS – Saturday 29, Barsoma FEBRUARY FOALS – Wednesday 2, The Great Northern Hotel GARETH EMERY – Friday 4, Platinum LANEWAY FESTIVAL: CUT COPY, DEERHUNTER, HOLY FUCK AND MORE – Friday 4, Alexandria Street Fortitude Valley MOWGLI – Saturday 5, Platinum THE BOOKS – Saturday 5, The Zoo VINCENZO – Saturday 5, Barsoma EARTH FREQ FESTIVAL – Friday 11 – Monday 14, Venue TBC DOVES – Tuesday 15, The Hi-Fi FOUR TET, CARIBOU – Tuesday 15, The Zoo LAMB – Friday 18, The Hi-Fi GOOD VIBRATIONS: FAITHLESS, SASHA, ERYKAH BADU, RUSKO, NAS, DAMIAN MARLEY AND MORE – Saturday 19, Gold Coast Parklands TRICKY – Sunday 20, The Zoo

MARK ZUCKERBERG MAY have been portrayed as a spiteful yet pitiful genius in this year’s acclaimed fi lm The Social Network, but that hasn’t ﬆopped him from being voted Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year. Wikileaks honcho Julian Assange was also a contender for the top spot. Clearly uniting the world is more important than allegedly attempting to divide it… LIKE LYKKE LI? Like the Beaﬆ ie Boys? Well Mike D of Beaﬆ ies fame has remixed Lykke’s new single Get Some, Google that shit... IF YOU LOVED 8 Mile then you will be pleased to know Eminem is returning to the silver screen. The rapper’s product ion company Shady Films is reported to be in talks with Dreamworks to produce Southpaw, a fi lm about a welterweight boxer... YOU MIGHT HAVE heard Armin van Buuren play it on his A State Of Trance radio show, and now Sander van Doorn’s Love Is Darkness has a release slated for February 2011 via his own Doorn Records. Featuring Carol Lee of Dutch band Bettie Serveert, it’s SvD’s fi rﬆ official vocal track release – and not surprisingly, suitably laserreachingly epic... JENIFER LOPEZ IS to be sued by Claudia Vazquez, the girlfriend of her ex-husband Ojani Noa, for $10 million dollars. It is alleged that J-Lo mis-ﬆated facts to the court to obtain a reﬆ raining order againﬆ her former spouse. You can take the girl out of the block...

CLAUDE VONSTROKE

STROKE OF MIDNIGHT

In case you weren’t aware, Claude VonStroke will be sending oﬀ 2010 under the roof of Brisbane’s Barsoma Friday 31 December. It’s the ﬁ nal Auditree party of 2010 and a perfect year-end to their liﬆ of toured artiﬆs (Gui Boratto, James Holden and Joakim). Scott Walker, Cosmo Cater, Habebe, Danny T, Jad & The Ladyboy, Youth, Tim Dart, Alto, Chriﬆopher Brooks, Patrick Stewart and White Tiger round out a ﬆellar local support caﬆ, with Niles on visual duties. Final release tickets on sale through Moshtix now. Don’t miss out!

BRIGHT FUTURE

The ﬆamina of Platinum Nightclub regulars will be teﬆed over a three-day slamfeﬆ as 2010 gives way to 2011, ﬆarting on Friday 31 December when UK progressive legend Dave Seaman joins Stafford Brothers & Timmy Trumpet for New Year’s Eve, before Carl Kennedy cleans up the New Year’s Day mess Saturday 1 January and the official Summafieldayze After-Party hoﬆs US houser Dennis Ferrer and a repeat offence from the Staffords and their brass-toting sideman Sunday 2 January.

KEEP IT AT FAMILY

Family ﬁends have a couple of big parties to look forward to as 2010 shakes hands with 2011. On Friday 31 December, French house legend Alan Braxe and Sydney enfant terrible Tommy Trash will clear the cobwebs from the PA with an elect ro house thrashing, then Fluﬀ y has its turn with the Daylight/ Twilight event

Sunday 2 January. It kicks oﬀ at Cloudland from 2pm til 10pm featuring live performances from Nat Dunn, Alexei Paige, Decoda Secret and DJs Kitty Glitter, Dan Murphy and Harry K & Friends. From 9pm proceedings shift focus to Fluﬀ y’s traditional home around the corner at Family, and in the headline slot the Freemasons and their diva Katherine Ellis slam out their hits alongside Decoda Secret, Kitty Glitter, Harry K, Karma, Ish, Coxy DJ, Chris Wilson and Ikin Dance.

If New Year’s Eve clubbing is no longer your idea of a good time, you might want to hold oﬀ until New Year’s Day with the Subtrakt crew. Your hoﬆs Rikki Newtown and Adam Swain will hoﬆ a 12 hour shindig in the Barsoma courtyard Saturday 1 January, with the ﬁneﬆ in deep to tech house and techno being delivered by Alex James, Logan Baker (NZ), Dan Abbott, Wadza + Jay Berry, Digital Divide, Robohan, Leon Farrell, Jerry Drew, CJM and Dave Worth. Entry is free.

OOH LA LA!

ELSE PARTY

Brisbane’s sexieﬆ boutique venue Zuri will bring a touch of French sophiﬆ ication and decadence to its acolytes with it’s Moulin Rouge New Year’s Eve 2011 celebration. Artiﬆ, dancers, ﬆ ilt walkers and the Zuri residents will all ﬁ ll the venue with joy on the night, with tickets $25 per person or $50 with a dinner package – but if you get there before 9pm you won’t pay at all, and it’s open til 5am.

DEEP DAY

Bands, DJs and a view of the ﬁ reworks from new annex Pennylane are on the cards for Elsewhere’s NYE bash Friday 31 December, with Brothers, Oceanics and Soundtraﬃ k on live duties alongside DJs Audun, Giv, Thomas J, Stretch Paper Cranes and a rumoured myﬆery gueﬆ. $40 ticket price includes two hours of Elsewhere hospitality, and they’re on sale through Oztix and the venue now.

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LAST DANCE? HE’S OVER THE HILL, YET HAS JUST MADE THE RECORD OF HIS LIFE; HE WRITES TRACKS THAT MAKE YOU WEEP AND DANCE AT THESAME TIME - BUT DOESN’T CONSIDER THEM APPROPRIATE FOR WEDDINGS. JAMES MURPHY TELLS TRISTAN BURKE WHY THIS IS THE END OF LCD SOUNDSYSTEM AS YOU KNOW IT.

AMES MURPHY IS A MAN OF FLIPSIDES, AND AFTER A DECADE WITH THREE INCREASINGLY BRILLIANT RECORDS, STILL CAN’T SEEM TO DECIDE WHICH WAY’S UP. Suited and sideways, the dapper, curiously askew gentleman gracing the cover of LCD Soundsyﬆem’s lateﬆ, and potentially laﬆ, album is a far cry from the more commonly recognised man-bear with the unruly thatch of don’t-give-adamn hair and tendency to get hammered at gigs on a self-prescribed tonic of champagne and whiskey. There’s advantages to both, as he points in Pow Pow, This Is Happening’s eight-minute meditation on ins and outs. And never have the many facets of James Murphy – cooler king, clown, poet, goofball – combined on an album to better effect. If it is indeed LCD Soundsyﬆem’s laﬆ hurrah, it’s the perfect swansong. “I didn’t really think about it until I was doing the vocals; when I was in Los Angeles making the record I wasn’t thinking about it at all,” Murphy reveals, asked whether a conscious decision was taken prior to recording the new record that it would be the fi nal one. “I realise now that somewhere in my brain I muﬆ have known, because recording in this big, ﬆ upid mansion in LA was a perfect way of doing it, y’know. So it wasn’t like I decided, more like I realised, ‘Oh, ah, okay…’” The mansion in queﬆ ion served as the perfect rock ‘n’ roll retreat. Rather than the upﬆate New York farm at which LCD’s eponymous debut and Sound Of Silver were recorded, Murphy summoned his collect ive to the Hollywood Hills, insiﬆed they wear white for the duration of the record’s production, and embraced making music in a space that, depending on who you talk to, was the site of The Beatles’ fi rﬆ experimentation with LSD and haunted by a gay ghoﬆ. Living a life of arreﬆed development wasn’t some ﬆab at Murphy reclaiming his youth, but turning 40 during This Is Happening’s making did partly inform his decision to call it a day. “I juﬆ definitely remember when I was 30 ﬆarting with this I was like, ‘I juﬆ want to do this for ten years.’ It wasn’t like there was anything sad about 40, it was more like ‘oh, this is when I said I’d be done’, so I tried to get the record done by my birthday, but I loﬆ my voice so it was act ually two weeks after.” It was Dance Yrself Clean, the higheﬆ vocal regiﬆ ry of any LCD track, and laﬆ to be recorded, that was responsible for breaking him, leading Murphy to ﬆeroids and to proudly proclaim: “I juiced for this record.” The lack of sentimental fanfare for reaching the mileﬆone age should come as no surprise to LCD Soundsyﬆem fans. “I find sentimentality kinda repulsive,” says Murphy. “Sad, happy – I try to

make those two things happen at the same time as often as possible. I think sad things without humour are very often really shallow; I mean you can make sad-sounding songs, with certain ﬆ upid words, but it’ll be this kind of emotional tone poem that makes me want to pull my eyeballs out and ﬆ uﬀ them in my ears so I’ll never have to look at, or see or hear anything again. I think humour is one way of allowing yourself to be more brutal and more real about yourself – it’s like a disinfectant for sentiment.” This Is Happening carries a romantic quality lacking from its predecessors, but that’s less down to content, and more the fact that James Murphy act ually allows himself to sing on the record. “Singing is always going to feel more romantic than yelling, except for a few people with certain issues,” he laughs. “When I wrote All My Friends I was like urgh, it’s too poppy, this is juﬆ terrible. But I realised later, when the song connected to a lot of people, that melody coupled with emotional content has power and that I should let myself write songs with melodies a bit more. It wasn’t that they were connect ing to it because

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PICS BY Kane Hibberd

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I FIND SENTIMENTALIT Y KINDA REPULSIVE...”

they underﬆood what I was saying, it was a combination of a couple of lines meaning a lot more to certain people than they necessarily meant to me when making them, and the melody.” The evolution of LCD Soundsyﬆem’s songwriting was particularly noticeable on Sound Of Silver. While the debut record presented hipﬆer anthems like Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, its followup saw tracks like All My Friends and Someone Great showcase a depth liﬆeners thought Murphy was too much of a smartarse to go to. Even he had undereﬆ imated how difficult such songs would be to conceive. “I had made the fi rﬆ record pretty easily. I did Losing My Edge amazingly easily; it was all juﬆ written off the top of my head and I thought ‘ah, this is fucking great, I can write songs all the time’. The fi rﬆ album I went in the ﬆ udio and made in a couple of weeks. It wasn’t until I went in to make Sound Of Silver that I realised I had nothing and I had to ﬆart from scratch, and I had to ask myself ‘is this as good as the laﬆ record?’ and all that sort of shit, which I hated asking myself, so it was really brutal experience.” While LCD’s more melodic tracks may have been more difficult to write, it continues to amuse Murphy that people equate the sound to something more personal to him. “It’s a little bit confusing to others, I think. People see Losing My Edge as a funny song, but that was a song where the moﬆ personal information, the moﬆ embarrassing ﬆ uff, the moﬆ specifically about me than any song I’ve ever made, it’s juﬆ how it’s interpreted. A song like I Can Change on the record is primarily not about what it seems to be about. It’s not about thinking you can change, it’s more about being pathetic, being sung from the position of what you do and how you act when you feel desperate. Some person was like ‘we’re going to get married to that’ and I was like ‘please don’t get married to that’. That song is literally about how desperate and pathetic you get when you lose sight of yourself, it’s not really a warm song, y’know. Sometimes I think that ﬆ uff gets mixed up: what seems funny isn’t necessarily funny and what seems serious isn’t necessarily serious.” WHO: LCD Soundsyﬆem WHAT: The London Sessions (DFA/EMI) out Friday 29 January WHERE & WHEN: Big Day Out at Gold Coaﬆ Parklands Sunday

23 January, Sydney Showground Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 January, Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne) Sunday 30 January

KERMIT, I LOVE YOU... OR “WHY I MADE A MUPPET OUT OF MYSELF IN A NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU BUT YOU’RE BRINGING ME DOWN” VIDEO, BY JAMES MURPHY .

ERE’S THE FUNNY THING, I’d coincidently been videotaping our fi rﬆ show ever in London years ago, and shoved this guy Simon Owens off the ﬆage. Later, at a bar in Brooklyn, he walked up to me and was like, “Hey, I hope this doesn’t offend you, but I’m making this little art project for myself: I’m shooting a video to your song, with a Kermit puppet. I juﬆ think you sound like Kermit on that, I hope you’re not insulted…” I said, “Of course I’m not insulted”. When I sang the song the fi rﬆ time, I realised it sounded a bit like Kermit The Frog, and so sang it again. Then I realised no, I need it to sound more like Kermit again, so sang it a third time – purposefully more like Kermit. Kermit to me is like a super New York thing, because of Sesame Street, which is all New York City. He’s like, “Well, I’m doing this puppet thing…” And I’m like “Well, I’m a puppeteer…” I was as a kid; I really loved puppets. He’d already shot a whole bunch of the footage around the city, with someone else doing the Kermit puppet, and I did the one shot by the Eaﬆ River in Brooklyn, so it’s me at the end, which I thought was pretty funny. Weirdly enough, my friend Saam [Farahmand, director of Soulwax’s Part Of The Weekend Never Dies] sent me another Kermit, unrelated, New York, I Love You video that he had made. So clearly the unconscious Kermit that I was trying to sneak in there got through to someone, and if I’m Kermit, Pat’s animal, Nancy’s Janice, and Gavin’s Dr Teeth…

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AMBIENT PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE MASTERS,1996-PRESENT AS THE LIVE INCARNATION OF HIS VAUNTED SHPONGLE PROJECT PREPARE TO MAKE THEIR AUSTRALIAN DEBUT, AUSTRALIA’S COOLEST EXPAT SEPTUAGENARIAN RAJA RAM GRANTS CLARE DICKINS A 90-MINUTE AUDIENCE WITHIN HIS WEST LONDON APARTMENT TO DISCUSS HIS PSYCHEDELIC AWAKENING, HIS BAND’S GENESIS AND HOW SIMON POSFORD HELPS TRANSLATE EACH TRIP INTO A NEW MUSICAL ADVENTURE.

f ever you needed any proof that music was a family affair for Raja Ram, a visit to his multifloor apartment in the Weﬆ London suburb of Kensington proves the point. Upon entering, 3D World is greeted by not juﬆ a hospitable Ram, but the three foremoﬆ members of his tribe, as wife Nita, daughter Saﬆra and pint-sized granddaughter Bella all gather around the apartment’s ﬆairwell offering welcome. They could very nearly be your average multi-generational family, except Raja Ram (born Ronald Rothfield) is anything but your normal grandfather – or musician for that matter. Of all the colourful ﬆories that characterise modern music, Ram’s is surely one of the moﬆ remarkable. Born in Melbourne in 1940, he left Auﬆralia

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in 1958 to follow the hippie trail and wandered wide-eyed through Old Delhi, later hitchhiking from Piraeus in Greece to Ibiza to hang out with jazz musicians and world travellers long before Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling ‘discovered’ the party island in the late 1980s. Ram remembers it as a “ﬆrange world”. Later that year he’d find himself in New York City hanging in Greenwich Village, meeting Bob Dylan and other key music figureheads and discovering psychedelics. “That’s when it really ﬆarted,” Rothfield recalls.

“I was juﬆ meeting people and finding the way. That was such a fantaﬆ ic adventure to be so young and in New York taking LSD in 1958. It was quite an eye-opener.” Rothfield would go on to form psychedelic rock outfit Quintessence in 1968 at London’s Notting Hill Gate and play Glaﬆonbury in 1970-71. With the 80s came the advent of synthesisers, but it wasn’t until a trip to Goa in 1988 that all of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Together with Graham Wood, Ram birthed early proto-psy outfit The Infinity Project and threw London’s firﬆ ever Goa trance party, Relentless, on 16 December 1990. The partnership with Wood would ultimately lead to the formation of Tip Records (now TIP World) and lay crucial foundations for the nascent psy-trance movement.

Ram wo would go on to form 1200 Mics (with Riktam and Bansi from GMS and DJ Chicago) and The Zap! (with Benji Vaughan), but it was through his partnership with Simon Posford as Shpongle Shpon that the music world was gifted with true tru genius. The pair’s firﬆ album Are You Shpongled? was a landmark release in 1996, marrying twiﬆed psy with ambient and world music elements, as Ram – a classically trained musician specialising in woodwind inﬆ ruments and a penchant for mind-altering hallucinogens – paired with Posford’s next-level product ion prowess. With their 14-year partnership ﬆill going ﬆrong and with 2009’s fourth long-player Ineffable Myﬆeries Of Shpongleland ﬆill fresh in the minds of fans, Ram and Posford are anticipating a trip to Auﬆralia to showcase the Shpongle sound with a 10-piece band for the very fi rﬆ time. It’s an experience Ram describes as “icing on the cake” after a career spanning over 40 years. WHAT WAS THE GENESIS OF THE SHPONGLE PROJECT? “I went to a party one day and I was ﬆanding out in a field in the rain and I had this sort of vision. It would happen with Quintessence, too. It came in a flash – Shpongle. Someone juﬆ came up to me and said, ‘What’s going on with you?’ and I said, ‘I juﬆ feel so Shpongled.’ He asked, ‘What does that mean?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know what it means, but that’s how I feel,’” he laughs. “Si of course is a genius, he is amazing. But he couldn’t do Shpongle by himself because he has his own direction. It was good that I came in and the chemiﬆry worked. It juﬆ sort of evolved like that.” WHERE DOES THE SHPONGLE SOUND STAND IN 2010? “We’ve done this thing on the Hadron Collider in Switzerland; they try to find the origins of the universe and they have about 10,000 scientiﬆs working in this laboratory under the ground. We used a lot of the act ual sounds that they got in Switzerland because we knew a few people who worked on the project and they gave us the act ual frequencies and everything. We fed all those through the computer and built the track up from these amazing sounds. We put probably 300 layers of different tracks on top of each other. And the result [called The God Particle] is really different. It’s a bit weird.”

( WHO: Shpongle WHERE& WHEN: Forum Theatre (Melbourne) Friday 14 January, Enmore Th

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HOW MUCH OF SHPONGLE’S MUSIC IS WORKING AROUND THE CONCEPT OF ‘VISUALSCAPES’ OR DREAM SEQUENCES AND TRANSLATING THESE INTO MUSIC? “Well, that’s how we work. I’m classically trained and everything, but we never talk in musical terms. I never come in and say, ‘We’re going to do this time sequence or this key.’ What usually happens is that I come in with a visual idea of something I have seen and I explain that vision to him and then we go about interpreting the particular images. It’s a ﬆrange way of working. I don’t know anyone else who works like that with the visuals. I’ll go in and say, ‘I see a blue lake and the sky is reflected in the lake and underneath the lake there are fishes swimming in the lake,’ so we’ll get these different levels. And he’s sort of like an artiﬆ and he pinpoints these particular things and comes up with brilliant sounds.” I KNOW THE DMT EXPERIENCE HAS LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR THE SHPONGLE SOUND TO A CERTAIN DEGREE. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT IS ONGOING? “I haven’t taken DMT for a while now. I ﬆill have some here. It’s quite a difficult one to digeﬆ. I never take drugs juﬆ like that for kicks, it’s more an inveﬆigatory purposes… I ﬆ ill take acid on occasions when it’s right, but I always take it as a tool in that way, whereas a lot of people juﬆ like to take it to get high, which is fine, I’m not critical of that. It’s a powerful experience where one pulls in on one’s spirituality and one’s visionary experience and tries to translate that into something that other people can get the experience without taking the drugs basically. I’m the guinea pig in a way. Si doesn’t take many drugs – he has to navigate the spaceship, whereas I can kick back a bit.” WOULD YOU EVER SIT DOWN WITH HIM AND TAKE A TRIP FOR THE PURPOSE OF CREATING SOME SHPONGLE MATERIAL? “He has done that and we have done that together, but basically I’d say I’m the one that takes it much more than him… I might go to Brazil and go and take Ayahuasca in the jungles and then I’ll come back with some samples that I’ve recorded and I’ll play him the samples and tell him what I’ve seen and we’ll build it from that.”

INEFFABLE MYSTERIES OF SHPONGLELAND

or many Shpongle fans, the duo’s fourth longplayer came out of leftfield. Posford and Ram had maintained Nothing Laﬆs…But Nothing Is Loﬆ to be their final offering, likening it to the concept of a trilogy – juﬆ like the movies. Inﬆead, Posford completed his maiden trip to India, an inspired journey that would ultimately lay the foundations for Ineffable Myﬆeries Of Shpongleland.

WHERE DID THAT ALBUM COME FROM? “The second album was very influenced by Brazil and this laﬆ album that we’re talking about, Si had been to the India for the very firﬆ time. So he’d never been there, but I’d been to India like 100 times and beenup the Himalayas and gone on pilgrimages. So when he came back he had a lot of samples and was really fired up about India. I’d been fired up about India for about 30 or 40 years, but I never wanted to lay my trip on him and say ‘let’s go India’, but he was in that mood, so a lot of that laﬆ album has more of an Indian

WILL THE AUSTRALIAN SHOW BE A CULMINATION OF ALL THE SHPONGLE ALBUMS, WITH PERHAPS MORE OF AN EMPHASIS ON THE RECENT ALBUM? “Probably more tracks from Ineffable Myﬆeries – hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess. We will probably play four to five tracks from it, so probably 12 or 14 tracks per show. Also we’re thinking of doing a jam based on early material and reinventing it live on ﬆage and maybe doing that. And I want to play this new ﬆ uff; Simon isn’t act ually convinced we can do it, but I really want to play the very lateﬆ ﬆ uff we’ve done, but we’re sort of in discussion about it, because it’s very hard to play.”

Theatre (Sydney) Saturday 15 January, Rainbow Serpent Feﬆ ival Friday 21 – Monday 24 January )

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inﬂuences than maybe some of the other albums.” HOW DOES THE PRODUCTION PROCESS GO FOR YOUR BOTH? “He’s got the beﬆ house I’ve ever been to. He’s in Berkshire next to Greenham Common and we juﬆ lock the door and don’t let anybody in ever and juﬆ buy all the food and ﬆay there and work. We work 15-20 hours a day, then go up and sleep and then come down and work again. It’s quite a monk-like exiﬆence. We do have a lot of fun, it’s a laugh working with him and all of that, but it’s juﬆ intense. It’s like driving at a very high speed because if you lose your concentration it’s very easy to go oﬀ the road. It’s very easy to get diﬆ racted in this world, because there are a lot of diﬆractions. So we both sort of hold each other together so we’re good that way, because we know we’ve got to do it. And try and keep all his girlfriends away!“

WEAPONS TESTERS WHEN GERMAN LIVE ACT BOOKA SHADE TAKE A RARE STEP UP TO THE DECKS, ARNO KAMMERMEIER LETS DANIEL SANDERS KNOW THEY BRING A STACK OF GADGETS AND A SENSE OF MUSICAL HISTORY WITH THEM.

it the release of More! – Booka Shade’s fourth LP – in the early days of 2010, German product ion powerhouses Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier re-eﬆablished themselves as a dancefloor force to be reckoned with. Though its predecessor The Sun And The Neon Light had its moments, the album unified critics and fans alike in discord – sure it was ambitious, but where were the hook laden hits? Merziger and Kammermeier have an especially rich musical hiﬆory under a wide variety of aliases which ﬆ retches back to the mid/late 1980s. Though their earlier work bears little resemblance to Booka Shade, it’s no less relevant – a major chart hit as synth pop group Planet Claire and the eﬆablishment of Perky Park Music laid the foundations for their eventual, much later shift into the wider dance music world. Though Merziger and Kammermeier scored a hit in Una Musica Senza Ritmo as Degeneration back in 1993, it was the founding of Get Physical with Thomas Koch (DJ T), Phillip Jung and Patrick Bodmer (M.A.N.D.Y.) and the subsequent eﬆablishment of Booka Shade which catapulted them even further into the dance music world’s collect ive consciousness. It’s as if they’ve come full circle with More!, returning with the same pulse, bump and infect iousness which made tracks such as Body Language and Mandarine Girl so effortlessly popular. It’s this sensitivity to what audiences like about their music that Merziger and Kammermeier seem to carry with them in all their musical endeavours and onto the ﬆage. Whilﬆ they’ve typically done so as a twoman band in the paﬆ, the duo have taken to DJing like ducks to water – despite Kammermeier’s admission that they’ve avoided it in the paﬆ. “Ever since, after the end of the laﬆ tour I believe, we ﬆarted this DJing every now and then and had a DJ residency at Space for example over the summer in Ibiza and headed to Mykonos and some of these smaller places and clubs,” Kammermeier recounts. “Th is is what it was intended to be for the DJ shows but then we got the offer and invitation from the Big Day Out to bring the DJ show also. Th is is a different thing for us and we’re very excited about it. Apart from the DJ shows we couldn’t resiﬆ to do two live shows in Sydney and Melbourne – at leaﬆ we do those two, we couldn’t come to Auﬆ ralia without doing that.” By no means the fi rﬆ fi rﬆ chaps to grace the decks in the Boiler Room, they’ll be bringing a great deal more panache and detail to the artform. Equipped with a horde of effects units and small synthesisers, their set is more akin to a live PA than a typical DJ set. Despite this is, it’s the fundamentals which Kammermeier seems moﬆ focused on. “Some DJs already call this a ‘live show’ in their DJ world but for us this is ﬆ ill juﬆ DJing,” he says teasingly. “That’s the nice thing – there’s a lot of spontaneous ﬆ uff going on when we do the DJ shows and we can fiddle around with all the ﬆ uff. It’s a different way of working and for a long time we said we’re not DJs and that it’s a completely different artform, which it is, but taking other peoples music also, combining it and seeing

what comes out is a great pleasure for us. “I ﬆ ill believe in this artform of DJing; [where] if you give a DJ enough time he takes you through a whole night or so. Not a lot of DJs I believe nowadays are able to do this because they normally do only an hour and a half or two hours. When we went out to see DJs in the 90s that was the thing – [to] create music that takes you through the whole night and brings you through different moods. In a way when we do the DJ sets we don’t do one sound for the whole time, we juﬆ can’t do this because also when you know Booka Shade and the music we do, it’s also not the same thing all the time. We… go in different direct ions; we bring in some classics, some ﬆ uff that some kids don’t know any more and combine them with up to date grooves, [so] something new comes out of it.” A more cynical critic could quite fairly call Kammermeier and Merziger’s complimentary move into DJing as a cash grab, yet it seems anything but. After all, if the duo are making music as much for DJs as for themselves, what better way to road teﬆ music? Thankfully they bring a good deal more to the table than others, choosing inﬆead to treat it as a fun way to entertain different audiences. Though they suffer no such problems, Kammermeier cites the death of record ﬆore culture as the prime cause of declining DJ skills. “Record ﬆores have died everywhere, I don’t know how it is in Auﬆ ralia but in Europe and especially in America vinyl is gone and you only have a couple of digital platforms. On these a certain sound is pushed in a big way and I remember once we had been at an aftershow party with some other DJ – who has been around for while – and he didn’t have his records with him. He went to the local DJ and said ‘alright give me your records. I’ll do something with your records’. He fl ipped through the CDs and said, ‘well there’s only ﬆ uff from the laﬆ twelve months or so, there’s nothing older and there’s no variety’. Probably that’s a bit of a problem.” WHO: Booka Shade WHAT: More! (Get Physical/Bandroom Records/Sony) WHERE & WHEN: Big Day Out at Gold Coaﬆ Parklands Sunday 23 January, Sydney Big Day Out at Sydney Showground Wednesday 26 January, Big Day Out at Sydney Showground Thursday 27 January, Manning Bar (Sydney) Friday 28 January, Saturday 29 January at The Forum (Sydney),Big Day Out at Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne) Sunday 30 January, Prince Bandroom (Melbourne) Monday 31 January

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DENNIS FERRER HAD A BREAKOUT 2010 THANKS TO THE SUCCESS OF VOCAL HOUSE BOMB HEY HEY, BUT KRIS SWALES DISCOVERS ON A SINGAPORE BEACH THAT THERE’S MUCH MORE TO THE NEW JERSEY NATIVE THAN HIS GLOBAL CHART TOPPER. LIVE PHOTO BY DAVE DRI.

SIMPLY UNPREDICTABLE

t’s 9am on Singapore’s Siloso Beach and laﬆ drinks have juﬆ been called on the tenth anniversary running of the ZoukOut feﬆ ival – but not before Dennis Ferrer ﬆepped up at daybreak to deliver the set of the entire event. Ferrer is ﬆ ill vibing and deservedly so, having kept a full floor of people who’d been dancing on the beach for up to 12 hours in front of him even while Singapore’s oppressive heat ﬆarted to have a noticeable impact over his set’s twoplus hours duration. “It was a great time,” an animated Ferrer says. “I always have a great time when I come out to Singapore. It was fantaﬆ ic because we had the misfit ﬆage [laughs]! All the misfits were playing on this ﬆage – we had me, Seth [Troxler], Dubfi re, we had a great time. “I juﬆ got on the train and kept going,” he continues of a set which ﬆ retched well paﬆ its scheduled two hour running time. “[The crowd] weren’t giving me anything to make it easy, sometimes you juﬆ have one of

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I NEVER STAY IN ONE PLACE FOR TOO LONG, I’M ALWAYS MAKING MOVES HERE AND THERE. THAT’S THE KEY TO STAYING CURRENT AND HAVING SOME LONGEVITY, IS BEING ABLE TO FLIP THE SWITCH WHENEVER YOU NEED TO.” those nights where they make you work, you know – so I tried to work! I enjoy playing and it’s a business as well as being fun. And I’m paid to entertain so that’s what I tried to do for everybody tonight – entertain.” It’s a refreshingly humble approach from a house music veteran who has every right to reﬆ on his laurels, particularly given the achievements of the paﬆ 18 months. Though act ive from as early as 1994 with ambient trance outings under his early Aurasfere guise (he’s also more recently explored deep to tech house as Son Of Raw), it was the November 2009 release of Hey Hey on his own Objektivity imprint which arguably lifted Ferrer into a diﬀerent league. The vocal anthem was subsequently licensed by Defected (among many others) and given the remix treatment by artiﬆs as far-ﬂung as Crookers, giving Ferrer the impetus to spend 2010 globetrotting – but he promises there’s plenty more to come from his ﬆ udio yet. “Hey Hey was November [2009], Red Room was this year, and I’ve been working on some other

deeper ﬆ uff also,” Ferrer reveals. “I never ﬆay in one place for too long, I’m always making moves here and there. That’s the key to ﬆaying current and having some longevity, is being able to fl ip the switch whenever you need to. And that’s what I like doing – I like being unpredictable.” But before he settles back in front of his monitors in Union City, New Jersey, Ferrer has some highly-anticipated DJ dates down under. “I’m doing a couple of cities in one day if I’m not miﬆaken…” he trails off. “I could be, I don’t really know, I’m sorry! It’s really busy – [I’ve] been [playing] every weekend, every other weekend, it’s really ridiculous. But it’s been fun. That’s the main thing, that we have fun doing what we love to do. It’s a blessing.” WHO: Dennis Ferrer WHERE & WHEN: Harbour Party at Luna Park (Sydney) Friday 31 December, Summadayze at Sidney Myer Music Bowl (Melbourne) Saturday 1 January, Summafieldayze at Doug Jennings Park (Gold Coaﬆ) and Platinum Nightclub (Gold Coaﬆ) Sunday 2 January

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BROWNIES IN BERGHAIN

LIKE MANY BEFORE HIM, DANIEL SANDERS WAS LURED TO THE FORMERLY WAR-TORN CAPITAL OF GERMANY BY THE THROBBING BEAT OF TECHNO – BUT HE FOUND BERLIN CLUBBING TO BE A MIX OF THE SURPRISINGLY FAMILIAR AND THE UTTERLY OTHERWORLDLY.

oﬆ locals will tell you Berlin is typically better in summer, but without the convenience of leave to sample the city’s more act ion packed months, I was left with the option of enjoying the cooler October weather. As a mad techno fan, I could hardly give a shit if it were 40 below: I was headed to Berghain after all and even the moﬆ miserable conditions in the world were unlikely to ruin the experience. Contrary to popular belief, every second Berliner is a not a vinyl loving club-nut. Whilﬆ the city has more quality underground clubs per capita than you could ever hope to see in any Auﬆralian equivalent, you’ll ﬆill plenty more fans of Pink than Ben Klock in this German metropolis. Not that this should be much of a surprise. Perhaps the moﬆ defi nitive cause of the Berlin clubbing boom is the availability of dirt cheap fl ights with airlines such as Easyjet. The near conﬆ ant influx of Elect ronic music mad Europeans ensures a consiﬆent revenue ﬆ ream for local clubs, which in some cases have reputations which far outﬆ rip that of long-gone mid to late nineties superclubs. However, there is a great division growing between some, which will undoubtedly become

as dark, murky, and yawningly wide as the city’s legendary Spree River. Such is the case with Watergate and Berghain/ Panorama Bar, and rarely has the expression “chalk and cheese” been so appropriate. Nevertheless, fantaﬆ ical descriptions of Berlin as a clubbing mecca cannot detract from the oppressive weight of hiﬆory which hangs over it. Maybe it’s the late autumn gloom, or perhaps the many landmarks which hint at a dark paﬆ ; either way, a pervading feeling of seriousness is inescapable… until you hit the clubs.

Though the Wednesday to Monday party schedule is dulled somewhat, the clubs are no less busy in Autumn. In fact, the frigid weather seems ﬂ ing many locals further into the hedoniﬆ ic spiral within their favourite club. After all, what better way to escape the cold than by dancing with a horde of sweaty revellers? It’s the opinion of Oﬆgut Ton label manager Nick Hoeppner that the lack of feﬆ ivals can only mean more act ion for the clubs – and the end of the year is usually more fun as a result. That said, as a Berghain/Panorama Bar resident he does

have a slight bias, and the impetus to encourage us to head along. The fi rﬆ ﬆop of this weekend clubbing tour is Horﬆ Krzbrg – a smaller club located near a tributary in Eaﬆ Kreuzberg. Getting off the U-Bahn at Hallesches Tor Ubahnhof, it takes a good while to act ually find the place which despite being located on a relatively busy road, is sufficiently sheltered from view by evening. Headlining the Clique It party this Friday are Danish duo Kenton Slash Demon, whose Schwarzchild Solution series of singles have eaten up plenty of column space. With a ceiling full of hanging LED lighting panels as accompaniment, local support cmCarl does a ﬆerling job of warming the floor with heavy house ranging from the likes of Matt Edwards’ Cabin Fever Trax Vol 1 to Mike Dunn’s Phreaky Motherfucker. It’s ﬆereotypical fare at times but the feet never lie. On the other hand, Kenton Slash Demon are anything but by the book. Their background as band members of When Saints Go Machine is evinced in their song by song Live PA ﬆruct ure which relies more on the ﬆrength of their productions than smooth segues. Despite the jerky ﬆart-ﬆop pacing, the Horﬆ crowd devour tracks

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THE LOCAL TIP

Two friends on seemingly opposite sides of the Berlin club scene, ex-My My members Nick Hoeppner and Lee Jones are veterans nevertheless. It’s easy to get caught up in the attempt to see every possible landmark and miss what really makes a city tick. Who better to ask than a local who can tell you exact ly what to go for?

FACTS & FIGURES BOX Population: 3,440,441 (31 March 2010) Language: German National Drink: Beer Average Annual Rainfall: 571mm Currency: Euro (EUR€1 = AU$1.34)

such as Sun and Runaway with guﬆo – they juﬆ don’t seem to dance so enthusiaﬆically. It’s always the net result for crimes of unconventionality. Well before the sun has even threatened to rise, we call ﬆ umps to pay Watergate a visit. Located on the banks of the Spree and adjacent to the caﬆ le-like Oberbaumbrucke bridge, the club could hardly be located in a more picturesque location and yet remain so curiously inconspicuous. I had in fact walked ﬆ raight paﬆ it earlier in the day without even realising it. By 3am it was decidedly less meek; sporting a snaking queue and barely indiﬆ inct boom that quite give it away. As usual, a popular German label takes point in an effort to fi ll the dancefloor and tonight, it’s Robag Wruhme’s Freude Am Tanzen. The crowd is predictably much trendier as a result, far less varied and a good deal more dolled up than the pleasantly rag-tag lot at Horﬆ. Not that this presents a problem of course, but by the time we hit the main room, several others presented themselves; moﬆ notably – an incredibly oppressive heatwave which, after being outdoors in below zero conditions, comes as a mighty rude shock. The energetic bounce of Krause Duo is to blame, and blame them

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we shall, despite enjoying every laﬆ facet of their bouncy tech house grooves. Tracks of their own (Wurm) sit lazily beside similar fare such as Ruede Hagelﬆein’s Emergency and the effect is unmiﬆakably infect ious. The wild hooting of punters within the heaving mass of bodies is incessant, and the fabled floor to ceiling LED lighting syﬆem only promotes their mania. There is, however, the inescapable feeling that it’s reminiscent of mainﬆ ream Auﬆ ralian clubs – the only difference is that the music is far better and the punters slightly better

“If you’re a meat lover and you want to experience grassroots level German cuisine, then you should check out Fleischerei Domke on Warschauer Strasse,” Hoeppner says. “[It’s] a very old traditional Butcher and they’re open until ten at night. You can get meat, potato, gravy and red cabbage, sausages, Bratwurﬆ, meatballs, goulash, whatever. It’s really, really cheap and it’s quite famous, not very oﬀ the beaten path but sometimes if I’m working late I’ll work over and it’s the perfect German soul food. You can get a huge plate of potatoes, brown gravy and a piece of slowly cooked pork and red cabbage for like four Euros. It’s really taﬆ y, like Grandma would do it.” By contraﬆ, Jones looks at Berlin from a much more indeﬁnable perspect ive, inﬆead recommending a gentle ﬆ roll around one of its more popular suburbs. BERLIN, GERMANY

behaved. Resident DJ Lee Jones is certainly on the money when describing it as a place where anything goes, and the fun factor is high. A few hours of feverish dancing in and we decide to call ﬆ umps. The cab ride back to Baxpax Backpackers – which is more like a hotel with dorms than a hoﬆel – is typical of others before it. The Turkish born driver is friendly, chatty and helpful, which is a damn sight better than you can expect in Paris. Though in retrospect it may have been beﬆ to ﬆay in Kreuzberg, our Mitte digs are more than amply equipped

“I juﬆ love the ﬆ reet life really,” he enthuses. “I think the beﬆ thing to do is juﬆ walking around, especially in Kreuzberg – I love this area. On a nice day it’s a pleasure to juﬆ go from one cafe to the next and go do some cultural ﬆ uﬀ. When I’ve had friends visit I juﬆ hang out with them here and show them the neighborhood because it’s a really nice place to be. Moﬆ cities have this pace and energy about them and it’s good when you get caught up in it, but Berlin has this lack of energy about it. It’s fairly chilled here, I love the pace… it’s easy.”

IF YOU LEFT TODAY?

Qantas flys to Berlin with connect ions. Return Airfare: $4454.66 (from Sydney) / $4466.42 (from Brisbane). Air France flys Melbourne to Berlin with connect ions. Return Airfare: $3419.25. Note prices refer to peak Chriﬆmas season. Cheapeﬆ Hotel Room – Room only accommodation from AU$121 (per night twinshare) via www.expedia.com. Current Foreign Affairs Status – Exercise Caution. See www.smartraveller.gov.au for updates. Entry/Exit Requirement – Germany is a party to the Schengen Convention, along with 24 other European countries, which allows Auﬆ ralians to enter Germany without a visa in some circumﬆances. Make sure your passport has at leaﬆ six months’ validity from your planned date of return to Auﬆ ralia.

TAKING THE FOCUS OFF THE HYPE OF FREQ NASTY AND ONTO THE WELFARE OF OTHERS HAS FRESHENED DARIN MCFAYDEN UP FOR A LONG OVERDUE RETURN ASSAULT ON AUSTRALIAN DANCEFLOORS, AS JANE STABLER DISCOVERS.

GIVING BACK AGAIN

peak to fans of Freq Naﬆ y and it seems it’s not his frequency that’s naﬆ y. Nor is the man behind the name, Darin McFayden, frequently naﬆ y – in fact he ﬆarted the musically geared Giveback.net charity in 2007 to bring together his love of music and helping others. So what is it that makes this Freak of the beats so Naﬆ y then? A love of old comics, it seems. “When I firﬆ ﬆarted Freq Naﬆ y, I was reading lots of 50s and 60s comics and they were full of superheroes,” he laughs. “It wasn’t about the music, it was based around the idea of a superhero. If you look at the artwork from the fi rﬆ albums the covers are all based around that. Everyone had crazy names and I came up with Freq Naﬆ y and it kind of ﬆ uck. It’s funny like that, your fans choose at the end of the day and if they choose to like you, then you can keep the name!” A truly international artiﬆ, McFayden was born in Fiji, raised in New Zealand, spent much time in Auﬆralia and now calls London and California home. The intro to the Americans was a slightly trickier one however, given the ﬆreet meaning of the works freak and naﬆ y on their soil. “When I came to America it has a totally different meaning,” he giggles. “I have to explain it doesn’t mean that in England!” Which may explain why he feels moﬆ at home in the UK – although being truly international, the man is a bit of a wandering minﬆ rel. “Musically I identify with London,” McFayden says. “It’s where I’ve lived for so long and it has so much music coming up. I am in LA a lot now though, and moﬆ people think of the city, but I spend a lot of time by the beach and it’s a lot like Auﬆ ralia. “Wherever I am tends to be home for me to be honeﬆ. I find that because I’m around people so much for my job I don’t mind going to a new place and being by myself, but I tend to meet people all the time [and it’s] important to be able to feel at home where ever you are.” His love of people explains the DJ’s desire to

ﬆart a charity and he says it was a great way to bring two of his passions together, even if it does mean sometimes one is at the expense of the other. “I noticed in myself and in a lot of other artiﬆs, we really wanted to do something,” he recalls. “With the media and the press showing us all these images of difficult situations in terms of food issues and wars... it’s a generalisation but artiﬆs tend to be passionate and open-hearted to what’s going on around them because we tend to travel a lot. The idea was to provide a platform for musicians to integrate and give back. “It has been difficult to focus on both,” he admits. “Setting up Giveback was really juﬆ getting that going, and then you realise you want to focus on another aspect of it, so for a while music took a back seat. It was kind of good for me, I’d made records for 10 years ﬆ raight so it was nice to take a break and coming back into the ﬆ udio now I’m working on some new records that’s totally different from ﬆ uff I’ve done before. “So it’s kind of a balance really and there are times in your life you have to shuffle things around to achieve what you want to achieve. You can get loﬆ in all the hype and the bullshit and it’s good sometimes to take the focus off me for a while.”

“

YOU CAN GET LOST IN ALL THE HYPE AND THE BULLSHIT AND ITS GOOD SOMETIMES TO TAKE THE FOCUS OFF ME FOR A WHILE.”

WHO: Freq Naﬆ y WHERE & WHEN: Blah Blah Blah at Riverlife (Brisbane) Tuesday 28 December, Peats Ridge Feﬆ ival (Glenworth Valley) Thursday 30 December, Truﬆ Us NYE At Brown Alley (Melbourne) Friday 31 December, Great Northern Hotel (Byron Bay) Thursday 6 January, Chinese Laundry (Sydney) Friday 7 January

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HOP ON BUY

AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE ELCTRO-HOP CROSSOVER BEFORE THE WORLD EVEN KNEW WHAT IT WAS, JAMES WILTSHIRE OF UK DUO THE FREEMASONS TELLS NINA BERTOK THEY QUICKLY MOVED ON – BUT WHAT COMES NEXT SHOULD “SURPRISE AND DELIGHT”.

ccording to James Wiltshire, one half of the UK DJ/product ion tag-team Freemasons, the duo’s dance remix of Beyonce and Shakira’s bootyshakin’ Beautiful Liar did more than smash global charts around the world in 2007. While it proved to be a turning point for the friends who soon became household names back home in England, the remix itself managed to change up record labels’ perceptions of club music and ushered in a new trend of urban/ dance crossovers. “Our version was massive all over Europe,” Wiltshire recalls. “It got to number one in quite a few countries and, as we heard recently, it shook up the US labels’ underﬆanding of club music. They couldn’t initially work out why their R&B versions were being ditched in favour of dance music remixes… But they seem to get it these days, though. We’re used to things changing very quickly in the UK. Over here music changes with trends and it can happen incredibly faﬆ sometimes.” Finding themselves in the midﬆ of a new trend which they helped create – a hybrid of house, urban and elect ronica, as Wiltshire describes it – in 2009 Freemasons made the radical decision to come back with a new sound rather than continue in the same urban/dance vein. A collaboration with songﬆ ress Sophie EllisBextor on their sixth consecutive hit Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer laﬆ year officially marked the beginnings of a brand new direct ion. “We also got into the ﬆ udio with Wynter Gordon about a year ago now after being contacted by Wynter’s record company and management,” Wiltshire says. “Believer was the track that came out of that session. The track ﬆarted off as something completely different – it took us a good few months to get it to this current product ion before we put it out in the UK laﬆ Auguﬆ. We would love to work with her again, she has everything that you need in this business to become a huge artiﬆ.” Yet again, according to Wiltshire, in 2010 he and product ion partner Russell Small are setting off on their next path with a handful

QLD

of new mixes that will get their ﬁ rﬆ public trial on Freemasons’ upcoming Auﬆ ralian jaunt. “We have been very carefully choosing our next direct ion and we hope it will surprise and delight,”

”

next year. At the moment we are working on a few mixes for our Auﬆ ralian tour so we are looking forward to road-teﬆ ing them.” And Wiltshire reveals they’re bringing their very own diva and close personal friend Katherine Ellis along for the ride following a collaboration on Freemasons’ 2008 single When You Touch Me. “I think people know that they’re going to get a good mix of uplifting music and vocals from us,” Wiltshire says. “We always tend to

...IT SHOOK UP THE US LABELS’ UNDERSTANDING OF CLUB MUSIC. THEY COULDN’T INITIALLY WORK OUT WHY THEIR R&B VERSIONS WERE BEING DITCHED IN FAVOUR OF DANCE MUSIC REMIXES… BUT THEY SEEM TO GET IT THESE DAYS, THOUGH. WE’RE USED TO THINGS CHANGING VERY QUICKLY IN THE UK.” Wiltshire ﬆates. “Music has changed almoﬆ monthly this year and what with the collision of commercial dance and urban there is more music now with 4/4 than ever before. We have been working non-ﬆop this year, but moﬆ of our own product ions are ﬆ ill in demo form ready for us to ﬁ nish

road-teﬆ our material in Auﬆ ralia. I don’t think this year will be any diﬀerent and we will be landing with several taﬆ y exclusives. However, we’re bringing Katherine who we have known for a few years now. She wrote and sang on one of our singles and she’s juﬆ a fantaﬆ ic performer who has worked with many legendary producers. Also, she’s become a real friend – someone we care for and enjoy her company. But when she’s glammed up and ready though, there’s always a wonderful diva explosion!” WHO: Freemasons WHERE & WHEN: Fluﬀ y Twilight at Family

Sunday 2 January

MENTAL COMBAT Hip Hop With BLAZE

APOLLO BROWN

Earlier this year producer Apollo Brown dropped his collect ion The Reset. It was a fantaﬆ ic effort featuring an array of MCs that would make anyone take notice – Finale, Oddisee, Ken Starr, Buff 1, John Robinson, Big Pooh, Grap Luva, MED, Declaime and Prince Po. It also featured an act by the name of The Left with the tune Real Detroit. Well now it turns out that The Left’s November debut release Gas Masks is already becoming a ﬆaple inclusion on many end of year liﬆs of beﬆ albums. It includes Apollo on the boards with Journaliﬆ 103 on the mic and DJ Soko on the decks. They are the lateﬆ incarnation to come from the fruitful ﬆ reets of Detroit yet they don’t venture into the more familiar Dillaesque ﬆ yle that has grown ﬆ rong in that city, inﬆead their sound is entirely soaked in the art of sampling a hefty amount of soul music. Not only does this reiterate the background of the musical hiﬆory of their motor city, it also reminds us of a classic mid-90s ﬆ yle that screams puriﬆ hip-hop. There are only a few gueﬆs, but they couldn’t be more appropriate. Kool G Rap is a surprise, but the likes of Finale and Guilty Simpson leading the charge makes sense, with Hassaan Mackey, Mu, Marvwon, Paradime and Frank Weﬆ coming from behind. The album was also available on vinyl in a smoky marble wash as well as including a link to an inﬆ rumental version download. Solid and consiﬆent. Finally, a decent British long-player to finish off the year. Kashmere ﬆeps out with his third LP with a thematic venture as Galaktus: Power Cosmic. Now he’s a slightly bent MC who carries a wry angle with his lyrics, but this time he’s coming from outer space with this DJ Jazz T and Zygote produced effort that contains loads of samples from Marvel Comics records such as the much loved Power label. Now I love this ﬆ yle of kooky puriﬆ hip hop, especially from the lads from across the pond. It’s definitely not for everyone, but the lazy, very downtempo beats juﬆ crawl around in my head. Th is is released on one of my favourite UK labels, the under-appreciated Boot. Hmmn, he goes Kool Keith with his cosmic penis on Metal Moleﬆer, then akin to a humourous drug-addled Necro for Bang! Splat!, but he moﬆ ly keeps it on some superhero future world galaxy tangent.

WHIP IT NICOLAS SCARAVILLI MIGHT EARN PROPS FOR HIS DJ WORK AS KID CRÈME, BUT HE TELLS JANE STABLER HE PREFERS TO WORK HIS MAGIC IN THE EGO-FREE ZONE OF THE STUDIO.

rom a place that sounds like a vegetable (Brussels) with a name that sounds like a dessert, Nicolas Scaravilli, aka Kid Crème, has acted more like the latter association and has risen to the top of his trade through some impressive mixing – but not in any food related way. Seemingly always geared towards music, the internationally in-demand DJ has progressed from hip hop through to house and it’s a career that doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.

Speaking from his European ﬆ udio, Scaravilli says it’s “quite cold” in reference to the snow on the ground, which is underﬆandably depressing when he has an annual headline residency in Ibiza – a gig he admits nowhere else really comes close to. “It’s the Mecca for house music,” he enthuses. “We’ve been all around the world and to the places that are called the new Ibiza, and I’m not a promoter of Ibiza, and you love it or not, but the party is completely different. People come there to party. Every night, every week, you can have a party, there is no day off, it’s all the time. Where do you find that? Nowhere on Earth!” Having been on the scene since the 1990s and with a few years behind him since his moﬆ recent visit to Auﬆ ralia, Scaravilli admits that there have been changes both in the scene and the music that the scene is demanding. Having made the transition between genres as well, the DJ can admit that although necessary, change has not always been a happy scenario for him. “The music sadly changed for me,” he says, “but the laﬆ time we came to Auﬆ ralia, people were already so happy to hear happy house. People were tiring of the minimal music and the sound changed, and we evolved with the change. But we [have] ﬆ ill got our soul, it’s kind of tribal, it can be minimal, it can be a bit techno, its’ everything we like. “It’s a complicated ﬆory,” he continues of the changes he’s witnessed. “Now, not like more than 10 years ago, everyone can make music. You buy a computer and two weeks later you’re online and you can sell your track. I have nothing to say about that other than young people want to

make music, and it should be accessible to everyone, but 10 years ago if you produced some tracks you had to go to an independent label and they had a ﬁ lter on it and today moﬆ of the DJs around the world want to be known, and they don’t wait – even if it’s shit music.” The sadness comes from Scaravilli’s genuine love of music and what he does, and wanting to be good at it – winning accolades for his DJ skills is an added bonus. “It changed nothing,” he says. “We are ﬁ rﬆ producers, we never planned to be DJs – it was the market that pushed us to be DJs and now we earn money but if I had to choose, I’d produce music. Playing in front of people is really nice, but it’s even better to produce your music and see people react to your music. I can spend months producing tracks. Music is music, so there is no ego.”

WHO: Kid Crème WHERE & WHEN: SHE Pool Party at Ivy (Sydney) Monday 27 December, Betterdays at Albert Park Lake (Melbourne) Friday 1 January, East Nightclub (Gold Coast) Friday 7 January, Pure Ivy at Ivy (Sydney) Saturday 8 January

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make music I tend to ﬆ udy other people’s music and not juﬆ liﬆen to it. I analyse other sounds and try to incorporate certain elements into our product ions.”

ANYTHING GOES TONIGHT STUART EVANS TALKS SHOP WITH ASTON HARVEY – PART OF THE FREESTYLERS BY NAME AND VERY FREESTLYE BY NATURE WITH HIS MUSICAL APPROACH.

t wasn’t long ago that Freeﬆ ylers Aﬆon Harvey and Matt Cantor appeared on the now defunct UK TV inﬆ itution Top Of The Pops. On the back of the mammoth 2004 hit Push Up, the Freeﬆ ylers were lauded as champions of both breakbeat nd bouncy house music. Notwithﬆanding Push Up, singles B-Boy Stance and Get A Life positioned the English boys as an elect ronic musical power that appealed to both the commercial and underground divide. The success and subtle composition of Push Up was largely ignored or, worse, misunderﬆood. The slight reference to ‘80s elect ro pop was missed. Push Up wasn’t new – it was simply the music Harvey and Cantor had been making for years. “We’ve always tried to be a little different and make our music act ually ﬆand out from the pack,” Harvey offers. “I love liﬆening to old records and using some of that in our music.” The Freeﬆ ylers formed around 15 years ago and have released four ﬆ udio albums – We Rock Hard, Adventures In Freeﬆyle, Raw as Fuck and Pressure Point – as well as numerous mix compilations. For Auﬆralian audiences, the Freeﬆ ylers have remained immensely popular. “I don’t really know why we’ve been popular with Auﬆralian audiences. I know that breaks have taken a bit of a dive [in Auﬆralia] but the crowds have always been amazing.” Harvey reckons the idea of the duo being rooted in the breakbeat paradigm is fl awed. Push Up demonﬆ rated a mixture of influences and paﬆ singles revealed a tendency for innovation and a desire to explore new territories. He explains their lateﬆ material proves their product ion resourcefulness. The single, Cracks, which featured Belle Humble, had elements of musical adaptability. “It’s all about being as current and as relevant as possible. I always liﬆen to other people’s music. When I

Still, they’ve been described as chameleons – musicians who can easily change. “I guess we’re chameleons as we adapt to environments. Dubstep is popular at the moment but you won’t see us making a dubstep track. What we’ll do is incorporate it into our own style of music.” Since their primitive days as DJs and producers, the Freeﬆylers have expanded. Using guitar, drums and bass, the live band experience has taken shape – juﬆ don’t call them a band. Harvey reckons their “decks and effects” live show contains live scratching and sounds effects. “We’ve been working and perfecting the show for the paﬆ year. Our aim is to go back to our roots so the crowd can see what we’re doing and not juﬆ us ﬆanding there pressing buttons on a computer,” he explains. He says to expect a few surprises during their forthcoming tour of Auﬆ ralia. “They’ll be our familiar older records that people will hear. The difference is that people will hear them played and performed differently. People want to see something different. Our show is very freeﬆ yle!” he laughs.

WHO: Freeﬆ ylers WHERE & WHEN: Sunburnt Xmas at Bondi Pavilion (Sydney) Saturday 25

December, Peats Ridge Feﬆ ival (Glenworth Valley) Thursday 30 December, Truﬆ Us NYE at Brown Alley (Melbourne) Friday 31 December, Great Northern Hotel (Byron Bay) Thursday 6 January, Chinese Laundry (Sydney) Friday 14 January, Grand Hotel (Wollongong) Saturday 22 January, Trinity Bar (Canberra) Sunday 23 January

NAT

OGFLAVAS OG Urban news with CYCLONE

NICKI MINAJ

Major label bios contain little by way of controversy, yet Nicki Minaj is her own chick. In acknowledging how femcees have traditionally excited hip hoppers, she relegates her rival Lil’ Kim to the canon. “I know I was always excited by whatever female was hot at the time.” Oh, so cold. Minaj is one of 2010’s break-out urban acts – but her debut, Pink Friday, is surprisingly pop. Lil Wayne’s protege has opted for Flashdanceﬆ yle elect ro-rap (cue: Bangladesh’s Did It On’Em). The minimal Annie Lennox-enhanced ballad Your Love is incongruous in contraﬆ. However, the product ion on Pink Friday is very cool (Save Me, which Minaj sings, has drum‘n’bass beats, Here I Am is ambient, and a playful will.i.am samples Trevor Horn’s Buggles for the guilty pleasure Check It Out). Minaj held her own on Monﬆer with Kanye Weﬆ and Jay-Z and here she’s a real match for Eminem – Roman’s Revenge is fierce, Minaj coming off like a femme Buﬆa Rhymes. The ballad Fly, helmed by JR Rotem and featuring Rihanna, is defiant poﬆ-emo. Of course, RiRi has juﬆ delivered her fifth album – in five years. Alas, Loud finds the ﬆarlet plateauing following the powerful Rated R. It lacks narrative and so RiRi falls back on sexed-up themes previously exploited by Madonna et al (S&M). There’s no gamechanging – the singles (including StarGate’s What’s My Name? with Drake) are generic disco-trance. Many tracks are derivative of RiRi’s back catalog. Minaj joins her on the song-swap Raining Men. California King Bed is overblown alt rock, although Cheers (Drink To That) is worse, sampling Avril Lavigne. RiRi even cuts a ‘Pt II’ to the smash Love The Way You Lie (Part II) with Eminem. The beﬆ on offer? The subversive (and murderous) dancehall Man Down. ‘R’ for ‘retrograde’? Ciara’s 2009 Fantasy Ride was an imaginative concept album – but, despite the funktaﬆic Love Sex Magic with Juﬆ in Timberlake, it bombed. Now CiCi is returning to her urban (not crunk‘n’b) roots with Basic Inﬆinct – and, like her nemesis RiRi, she’s all about clubhopping. Primary producers Tricky Stewart and The-Dream bring inventive ideas, yet the tunes are missing. CiCi’s ballads sound like Janet Jackson’s old duds. Lyrically, too, she reveals no personality beyond the rapped intro – and readily descends into cliches.

BUSINESS MUSIC

Serious Underground Business With PAZ

CDJ-2000

The noughties embraced the merging of music and technology and in turn inspired terms like “promoter DJs”, “rocking the 1s and 0s” and “can’t you download it?”. Parties were promoted through online friends and text invites turned into Facebook events. Raves became outdoor events, Garage became Funky. Our new decade ﬆarts with emo influencing musical trends like jerk, witch house and Kid Cudi. Trance is the new elect ro, dubﬆep is the new d‘n’b and boombachero act ually becomes a ‘tag’ on SoundCloud. Serato merges into a virtual touring ﬆ udio, so now you act ually have to look and sound like Daft Punk in a Spielberg thriller. The biggeﬆ disappointment so far is from hardware/technology leader’s Pioneer. They named their worﬆ ever product after one of the beﬆ technological decades, the “2000”. Pioneer changed the game in the decade paﬆ. The CDJ syﬆems were as common as bad requeﬆs, and ﬆ urdy enough to handle “Jack ‘n’ Poﬆmix” spillage. The DJM-800 mixer is frequently requeﬆed by trance’s elite touring artiﬆs. It is the ﬆaple for clubs, and tops the Xmas wishliﬆ for private school wannabe DJs. Ultimately the 800 changed the face of DJ mixing altogether. They “dropped the pressure” (great 00s pun) with the release of the 2000. The 2000 has a “white noise effect” which was banging for part of the 00s, but it was equally shared by Vuvuzelas, backpackers and VE Commodore burnouts. Why not go the whole hog and make a “Guetta” or “Dutch house” module? The core effects unit in the 2000 has been confused as a social networking app that invited the DJ to initiate punter interact ion via Twitter, downloads the moﬆ requeﬆed tracks and auto cues it for you. No longer would the DJ have to bring anything to the event besides an index finger to turn effects on. The 2000 clearly needs more iPhone recharge points, breathalysers, auto requeﬆ cueing (especially during Xmas funct ions), a Wikileaks announcement LED, Bluetooth enabled to play punters songs from their phones, EPA detectors to turn down levels when neighbours complain, auto-trance adjuﬆ when the inebriated want you to “pick it up” (as signaled with upward, open palm movements).

A RAVE ABOUT NOTHING STAGE DIVING, GENRE CROSSING, RAVE JUICE? ALL IN A RAVE’S WORK FOR SYDNEY COLLECTIVE HEY NOW, AS ANDREW ROSE TELLS NINA BERTOK.

ow beﬆ to describe Sydney’s super DJ collect ive Hey Now? According to Andrew Rose of the crew, think of a 10year-old kid who juﬆ got his fi rﬆ bike – all he wants to do is ride it, no matter what direct ion it takes him in. With a knowledge, reputation and love of so many different ﬆ yles of music, Hey Now’s motto seems to be quite simple: if it sounds good, play it. “We’re very ‘on the fly’ with whatever we want to play,” Rose explains. “We are basically improvising the whole time. That gives us the opportunity to take the set in whatever direct ion the crowd is feeling. From elect ro to hip hop, dubﬆep to tech… we juﬆ play whatever works. We come from a band background, so half of the show to us is visual. A little bit of eye contact or crowd participation can go a long way. We always want to make the crowd feel like they have a say in where the set goes and they always feel like they’re right there with us.” In turn, Hey Now have become fans of their fans. At a typical show, the audiences egg the DJs into doing ridiculous and sometimes regrettable things that are more akin to a Kahlua commercial than a gig, as Rose elaborates. “Like crowd surfing to the bar for a shot, then crowd surfi ng back to the ﬆage,” he laughs. “Or juﬆ getting the entire crowd to sit on the floor then to go berserk when the song drops. We always try and make our parties unique in a way. We have our own Rave Juice that we only sell at the party. If you have three of those you’re bouncing off the walls.” And with the Hey Now MasqueRave celebrations coming up this New Year’s Eve, things are gonna get “weird” – in a good way, of course. “The room is going to be packed full of people wearing masks,” he says. “We’ll have hundreds of balloons and glowﬆ icks to give it that old school rave vibe. But it’s going to get ﬆ range though, that’s all I can say. The rave ideas are a collaboration between us and the amazing booker of Monaﬆery. Tim has supported us from day one and no idea has ever been too crazy for him. He is the reason we have the following that we do in

Brisbane… because he believed in us.” It’s been the 2010 Hey Now rave parties at the Monaﬆery, which he describes as absolute mayhem but with the moﬆ loyal of crowds, that have served as some of the year’s highlights for Rose and his “boys”. “We’ve always dreamed about having our own party but we only wanted to do it when it felt right,” he says. “Laﬆ year’s highlight was the Stereosonic afterparty where we played with Crookers, an unmasked Bloody Beetroots, Surkin and Drop The Lime was also a bizarre experience.” Since 2007 it’s been one a hell of a ride for a bunch of lads that Rose compares to the oddball characters from Seinfeld. “We were all auditioning for the same interpretive dance group when we realised that we could wear a lot more leather if we became a trendy elect ro group,” Rose jokes. “Ever seen that scene in Seinfeld where the four of them are loﬆ in the carpark? It’s kind of like that.”

WHO: Hey Now WHERE & WHEN: Hey Now Masquerave at Monaﬆery Friday 31 December

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KUMAR’S CAPERS

All Th ings House with BEN KUMAR

TOM NOVY

STILL GROWING

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT’S SPEECH FILLS RUEBEN HALE IN ON THE TURMOIL GENERATED BY HIS BAND’S EARLY SUCCESS, THEIR REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC, POLITICS AND GETTING THINGS BACK TOGETHER.

aking some time out from working in his ﬆ udio in Atlanta, outspoken Arreﬆed Development frontman Speech says he has juﬆ finished a new solo project, hot on the heels of their late 2009 ﬆ udio album Strong. “It’s a very musical time for me,” Speech expands. “I’ve juﬆ finished one and it’s called The Grown Folks Table, which I’m really proud of because I think it’s my beﬆ record yet. And with AD, I think our lateﬆ is the beﬆ album we’ve done in years.” He then goes on to say he normally moves between projects depending on where his creativity is beﬆ placed for the moment. “Whatever comes to my mind at the time, I juﬆ ﬆart working on it. When the group hears it, it sometimes ends up being for them or another artiﬆ. Other times it could end up being for me. You know I juﬆ tend to let the creativity flow.” AD experienced widespread success in the early 90s from the release of their multi-platinum selling debut 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... in 1992. The album spawned songs like Tennessee about his upbringing in the poverty-ﬆ ricken side of Milwaukee, as well as the social awareness-raising classics People Everyday and Mr Wendal. The title of the album referred to the extended period it took for the band to land a recording contract. Ironically, in the wake of some well-documented infighting and subsequent lawsuits between several members, AD entered an extended hiatus shortly after. Speech says the time out was not entirely self-imposed, with the induﬆ ry ﬆeering clear of the band after their very public issues. “In the end we were left with little choice,” says Speech. “The labels in the US became resiﬆant to us for well over a decade.” But in the new millennium, it was decided amongﬆ band members that Arreﬆed Development ﬆ ill had a role to play and previous differences were put aside to allow them to reform. “I had my part in the whole thing,” admits Speech. “What happened between me and Headliner was really dramatic and hard for me at the time. But we’ve managed to heal some wounds and we are all more tuned into each other now than ever.” After a conversation with group dancer, Montsho Eshe, Speech says they

agreed they all had plenty more to say. “We all got together and ﬆarted to formulate some ideas of what we wanted to do and how we would do it. You know what? The whole thing juﬆ turned out to be really fun. In fact, today, I think I’m having more fun with AD than I think I ever have my entire career. I really love it more now. Time heals; it’s juﬆ time.” Speech believes the world is going through dramatic change and the new album covers many of these issues in a ﬆ raightforward way. “The topics that we address surround hip hop losing its way, and needing to find its way again,” says Speech. “Where did it go and why did it disappear? I think we are one of those groups that have been around long enough and ﬆayed together long enough to offer a kind of uncle viewpoint. It’s like that wise uncle that’s done a lot of ﬆ uff and lived a lot of life and you know has a few things to say. I think that is where we come in.”

WHO: Arreﬆed Development WHERE & WHEN: Woodford Folk Feﬆ ival Tuesday 28 December

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The year may be winding down, but the world seems to be winding up. There’s more Wikileaks than a plumber can handle, the Auﬆ ralians cricketers play well off the field but not on and Santa Claus has yet to bring Kumar his David Guetta cardboard cut-out for boxing pract ice. The music world though, has not taken a backwards ﬆep. Any notion that traditional music induﬆ ry/radio pract ices dictated in previous years has been hoiﬆed on its own petard. The silly season is bringing a chance to let go and experience a raft of great music and events. It’s our party and we’ll mix if we want to. While we’re at it, let’s party like it’s 2004, because that moﬆ unlikely of genres, progressive breaks, is back. Leading the charge is Polish producer Monojoke, alongside Hungarian producer Aeron Aether. These are juﬆ two of the names cropping up on a number of predominantly progressive house labels at present. They are producing magic, and doing it with minimal fanfare – unlike the ‘Dutch house’ showponies that are parading the fact that they’ve discovered white noise and a fi lter. Progressive breaks was previously the domain of a lot of Global Underground fans, but the brand (now owned by Miniﬆ ry of Sound) has again angered fans by having Tom Novy mix the lateﬆ inﬆalment in the GU series. Whilﬆ having some redeeming features, Novy’s mix misses the mark more than the Federal Government’s proposed internet fi lter. The brand, ﬆ ruggling to maintain relevance, really needs to put its thinking cap on and explore different ways to reach its market. Back to those kicking goals, and Auﬆralia’s Jaytech continues his run of success with a great December podcaﬆ. Jump on the web and search for it, you’ll be well-rewarded. Jimbo, while located in London, is doing Auﬆralia proud. It seems every international DJ wants to tour here during summer, and there are some great artiﬆs heading to Oz. A contract ual dispute with the Canberra Raiders prevents me from mentioning Tensnake too much (see the Beﬆ of 2010 Capers next week), however he slides onto the Capers approved liﬆ beside Aeroplane, Chromeo, Leftfield, Dixon, Faithless, Sasha and more! It’s going to be one incredible summer!

THE ALBUM OF WEEK

ALBUMREVIEWS

DEADMAU5 4x4=12 (EMI)

TEEBS Ardour

(Brainfeeder/Inertia) Even if Flying Lotus hadn’t put out a single tune this year, his contribution to the musical landscape in 2010 via his label Brainfeeder would have been enough to cement his reputation as the figurehead of an entire musical movement. Having already released the amazing Lorn album earlier this year and EPs from Daedelus and The Gaslamp Killer, Brainfeeder returns with an album two years in the making – Ardour by visual artiﬆ and beatsmith Mtendere Mandowa (better known as Teebs). Mandowa created his own gorgeous artwork for this record and at one ﬆage shared an apartment block in Los Angeles with Flying Lotus and Samiyam. All the Brainfeeder elements are there – psychedelica, experimentation and eclect icism all wrapped in a headbobbing hip hop framework. But there is something about this album that’s all of its own. Ardour is defined as “great intensity and warmth” which goes someway in describing the beauty of this album. From the opening track You’ve Changed there is a depth and lushness to the atmospheres on Ardour that are perhaps more subtle yet juﬆ as intense as some of its label mates. Repeated liﬆening reveals juﬆ how much is truly going on these tracks. The almoﬆ ambient vibe of Burner contains layers of what sounds like bells and hammers being dragged on concrete. Even a seemingly ﬆ raightforward beat like Why Like This? contains intricate synth washes and samples of loose change. Long Diﬆance features bird-like sounds and a ﬆ icky beat built around the genuinely affect ing vocals of Gaby Hernandez. One of the real highlights on the album is the simply titled Moments. The track oozes with textures falling almoﬆ like rain over a side-chained R&B beat that turns on a simple drum fi ll. Mandowa’s greateﬆ trick is making such lush and beautiful music so intense and challenging by virtue of the traditional elements of sampling and chopping. A truly unique album. BRAD SWOB

He wears a hefty fabric mouse head onﬆage and no one knows if he wears the same outfit when alone in the ﬆ udio. Deadmau5 – the mouse-man musician – has made part of his reputation based on his fascination with furry rodents. Now that the superﬆar DJ has made a slight comeback, the Toronto producer born Joel Zimmerman nicely ﬆ raddles the superﬆar and commercial line, even if he prefers to keep a low profi le. For Lack Of A Better Name was Zimmerman’s 2009 big, and surprise, hit. 4x4=12, his third album, was touted as his fi rﬆ “proper” artiﬆ album and was supposed to signify transparency for the man behind the mouse persona. Inﬆead of transparency, 4x4=12 is Zimmerman simply going through the motions with scarcely a nod

KID CUDI Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr Rager (Universal Motown/Universal)

Juﬆ as Cee Lo Green sings “This is a journey into the horizon, you can see paﬆ, if it’s real to you, we can meet on the other side”on Scott Mescudi Vs The World, this new album is a ride into Kid Cudi’s hazy mind. Th is “self-deﬆ ruct ive version” of its predecessor, The End Of The Day, explores a darker place or personality which Cudi has defined as the Rager. The tracks are transpositions of wordy themes (ﬆ ill relatable to all the lonely ﬆoners out there) over “scene forming” noise. The Mood uses eerie echo effects, an evil laughter sample and space and time arrangements to create an animated trip. He introduces us in third person to his new found personality in the verses Mr Rager, where in the chorus he fi rﬆ

to creating anything pioneering. It ﬆarts off promising with the inventive Some Chords and Sofi Needs a Ladder – the latter featuring an odd vocal performance from Sofia Toufa. Raise Your Weapons is without doubt the pick of the pack with it lurching from ambient, vocal-led house to something more akin to dubﬆep. The eight-minute epic Right This Second is nothing more than a typically 80s-ish collision of house beats, build-ups and synths. City In Florida and Cthulhu Sleeps are measured and traditional Deadmau5 efforts that are ﬆandard club fodder, while Animal Rights is really an electro record that’s trying to hard to become contemporary. Given the hyﬆeria that follows the mouseman, 4x4=12 is disappointing. Although Zimmerman’s reputation has been made to create something from little, this effort displays his limitations. STUART EVANS

speaks to him and then answers as him. These Worries feat Mary J Blige is another track he seems to have written to himself fi rﬆ expressing his mind ﬆate, then talking himself out of it – and all this over celeﬆ ial key riffs. There are a few lighter moments to take a breath. Erase Me feat Kanye Weﬆ is a catchy rock tune while Marijuana is a self explanatory ode with a cosmic Bone Thugs sound and The End is purely an old school hip hop track. Cudi has maintained his unique appeal with Man On The Moon Ii: The Legend Of Mr Rager. Whether you underﬆand his secret inner world or not, the neurotic ride is definitely an intereﬆ ing one. JANN ANGARA

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ONE TRACK MIND SHONKY Les Shonkettes (Contexterrior)

Summer’s finally here, and French house favourite Shonky’s music is officially in its element. It’d be criminal to play this indoors: everything about it juﬆ oozes sunshine and happy vibes. The old school bass and 909 percussion give it a 90s feel, while the spacious dub chords and lush synth ﬆabs cause involuntary smiling and fiﬆ pumping.

SPIRITCHASER 1440 (Guess Records)

With so much dance music at the moment taking cues from the paﬆ, you could easily be forgiven for thinking of Mark Bamford and Richard Earnshaw’s debut album as a homage to early 00s progressive house. Yet the UK pair known as Spiritchaser (not to be confused with the Belgian house duo Spirit Catcher) are not so much playing revivaliﬆs as simply pushing the same old ﬆ yle of prog-inﬂected deep house they’ve been producing since the sound was in vogue. Whilﬆ their catalogue of 12-inch releases over the paﬆ decade on labels like Niche Blue and Guess Records have ultimately aimed to get bodies moving on dance ﬂoors, 1440 inﬆead owes as much to vagabond daydreaming as it does to arse-shaking; a calculated journey into ambient textures and downbeat chillout

through to ﬆ raight up, sun-drenched Ibicencan house. Abundant in sparkling melodies, soulful piano chords, earneﬆ female vocals and spoken word pieces, 1440 sounds as though it was recorded with old Café Del Mar and the more house inclined Global Underground compilations in mind. So much in fact that it rarely ever feels diﬆ inct ly its own. It may be very polished and possess that cohesiveness that’s missing in a lot of dance albums, but underneath all the glitz belies a tried, teﬆed and rather tired formula that often ﬆ ruggles to tickle the neurotransmitters. In an age when every man and his laptop are making music – where ﬆanding out from the pack is of utmoﬆ importance – it seems odd to be content in turning out the sounds of yeﬆerday without putting your own ﬆamp on things. HENRY JOHNSTONE

GEORGE FITZGERALD Don’t You (SCB Edit) (Hot Flush Recordings)

Hot Flush continues to cement its place at the top of the dubﬆep/techno crossover food chain with every release and label owner Scuba’s (under his SCB alias) edit of Don’t You is quite possibly its beﬆ release to date. Tough, mechanical beats punch through mesmerising, pitched-down vocal chants, atonal ﬆ ring plucks, hypnotic chords and a rugged bassline.

SKEPTICAL Another World (Exit Records)

Fans of dark, minimal drum‘n’bass beﬆ get their hands on this ASAP. Needing only a deep, heavy kick, reverbed snare and metallic hits plus a seriously ﬁ lthy bassline to grab your attention, this is perfect for crowds who are willing to follow the DJ through some obscure detours. ANDREW WOWK

3DPLAYLIST 3D TREY SONGZ Passion, Pain & Pleasure (Warner)

If you’re not a fan of the slow jam you may think that all typical R&B albums mind-numbingly sound the same. You might think that they’re cheesy inﬆead of romantic, or creepy inﬆead of sexy – juﬆ like a bad pick-up line. Passion, Pain & Pleasure is one of those typical albums. It features baby-makin’ tunes over crisp mid beats with a few club tracks thrown in and an undeniable vocal talent (you know those ones that can sing so faﬆ they’re pretty much rapping with a tune and can sing one word up and down 20 or so notes). If Love Faces or Massage doesn’t set the mood (even juﬆ from their title) then “baby kiss me til’ your lipﬆick’s gone” (Red Lipﬆick) should get things rolling. Trey takes it from the bedroom to his heart with the soulful keys and

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the dramatic echo harmonies of Made To Be Together and the heartfelt power vocals of Please Return My Call. You Juﬆ Need Me ﬆ rays from conventional R&B with its clap beat, elect ro samples and dance sound. The dominant beat, catchy hook and gangﬆer ﬆep element of the token club track Bottoms Up feat Nicki Minaj will deﬁnitely get people to the ﬂoor. It’s reminiscent of much loved club tracks from 112, Jagged Edge or B2K. So while the R&B album may be a little boring at times, at leaﬆ they’re occasionally good for winding down to a sieﬆa. And it may juﬆ be that soothing quality that gives Passion, Pain & Pleasure its appeal. JANN ANGARA

1. The Time (Dirty Bit) BLACK EYED PEAS 2. Fabric 55 SHACKLETON 3. U Know JET PROJECT 4. Six Books PROPHET RAYZA 5. Get Some (Mike D Remix) LYKKE LI 6. New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down LCD SOUNDSYSTEM 7. Empty Spaces PINK FLOYD 8. Percofonik ROBERT BABICZ 9. Calliﬆo (Joris Voorn Remix) STEPHAN BODZIN & MARC ROMBOY 10. Claps (Little Fritter Remix) DEEPCHILD

DOUBLE TRILOGY THE MORE WADE MCINTYRE THOUGHT ABOUT THE NEW PROPHET RAYZA EP, THE MORE CLEAR IT BECAME THAT THE NUMBER SIX WOULD BE AT ITS HEART, WRITES RIP NICHOLSON.

oing through the grades of hip hop culture, Young MC Wade McIntyre aka Prophet Rayza had graduated into one of Boomtown’s sharpeﬆ rappers in the shop. Out on display with his brand new EP Six Books, McIntyre has done the math and all signs are pointing him into the right direct ion. “I wanted to do six songs, plain and simple,” McIntyre explains of the EP, newly released off Born Fresh Records. “And I ﬆarted researching the number six and everything kept pointing me into the direct ion of sixes. It’s the moﬆ perfect number mathematically, other than one. And there’s six axes of the zodiac that can link the universe and everything pointed around to me working on the number six. And I didn’t want to juﬆ say ‘here’s six songs’ but make every track into six books to push it as a total package. Each book is set in an order, like the writing is split, and it can ﬆand alone but it reads as books that go together to make the work complete.” The tracks feature six beatsmiths lending to the final sextuplet – DATS (The Optimen), Tommy Illfigga and DJ Butcher (The Crate Creeps), Cam Bluff (Vegas Aces), Daneja (from New York) and McIntyre himself. “It was an idea that I ran with and little things along the way kept showing me that I’m heading in the right direct ion. It ﬆarted to work the way I wanted it and it kept itself moving, in a sense.”

His fi rﬆ mixtape Spits And Pieces, upon which McIntyre showcased his lyrical flex over some of the hardeﬆ international beats mixed up at the Bloody Abbetoir, sold out 5,000 copies within the fi rﬆ two months and over 650 downloads since its release. Keeping the ball rolling was an important factor for McIntyre going into running Six Books out. “I thought, ‘I’m gonna push this mixtape, juﬆ go ahead with it and get it to as many people as possible’,” he says. “So while the buzz is ﬆ ill there and people are aware of [Prophet Rayza], if they are intereﬆed in checking on me, a year later I’ve got the tour dates, the EP, so that keeps the momentum up. Otherwise, it’s waﬆed.” The talent of Prophet Rayza has not been loﬆ – in fact he expresses talent with an Ironlak juﬆ as well as he does with a mic. Though a resident artiﬆ at The Fort (Fortitude Valley), McIntyre believes his true calling is as an MC.

I STARTED RESEARCHING ” THE NUMBER SIX AND EVERYTHING KEPT

POINTING ME INTO THE DIRECTION OF SIXES. IT’S THE MOST PERFECT NUMBER MATHEMATICALLY, OTHER THAN ONE.” “I really decided to pursue that avenue more than the others. It’s changed over the years where rapping was sort of the hype to begin with when I was breakdancing. But I saw MCing as the element that I really wanted to push and take it as far as I could.” And going through the ranks, McIntyre admits, “It’s given me a greater respect for the culture of hip hop, how it works and where it ﬆems from. I don’t necessarily think that someone has to go through the ﬆeps to become an MC. But it’s respect and paying homage to the culture that has helped shape my ﬆ yle. “The biggeﬆ feedback I’ve been getting have been people saying that I’ve improved in leaps and bounds, that they can see in a lot of work that I’m trying to progress. And that’s what I wanted people to notice, and they are.” WHO: Prophet Rayza WHAT: Six Books (Born Fresh Records/MGM) WHERE & WHEN: Step Inn Friday 7 January

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LICKED BUT NEVER BROKEN LEE ROUS OF BREAKBEAT FIGUREHEADS PLUMP DJS CHATS TO TROY MUTTON ABOUT LEAVING THE FINGER LICKIN’ STABLE TO AGAIN RUN THEIR OWN LABEL AND THE SLOW AND STEADY EVOLUTION OF THE DUO’S SOUND.

n the early years of the 21ﬆ century, the Plump DJs and their breakbeat superﬆar brethren were almoﬆ twice-yearly visitors to Auﬆ ralian shores as the sound they and their cronies pushed threatened to take over the world from its adopted southern base. Lee Rous (along with partner-in-crime Andy Gardner) know this and, not surprisingly, making their way down under again after a relatively lengthy (for their ﬆandards) two year hiatus is an exciting prospect. “We can’t wait to make the pilgrimage,” Rous says, muﬆering up a large dose of enthusiasm given the early hour. “Especially with some of the acts like Freeﬆ ylers [also being in the country], it’s gonna be immense.” Funny he should mention the Freeﬆ ylers, given it was back in the late 1990s when Gardner worked with the group’s Matt Cantor who connected them all together under independent label Freskanova. And they’re act ually returning to those early roots since their contract with seminal breaks label Finger Lickin’ Records expired in 2009. It’s a project Rous is clearly pretty chuﬀed about. “We were heavily involved in the excitement of working with that small, independent record label in London, and I think it’s something we’ve always wanted to be part of again. With our contract ﬁnishing it seemed natural for us to do that now,” Rous reveals of he and Gardner’s new independent label Ghoﬆ Hotel Records. “We ﬆarted it about 12 months ago and we’ve juﬆ been working really hard to set up the foundations of that label, and things are rolling now so it’s good.” It’s something Rous looks forward to expanding when (see: if) the touring aspect of Plump DJs

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ever slows down. “You don’t know where it’s gonna take you, but at the moment, ultimately, we’ve done a lot of hard work setting everything up and signing acts and getting support from others to help run it. In the future it’s something we can maybe expand, and it might be a little bit easier to deal with physically,” Rous oﬀers, before admitting it might be a while before a label becomes the full-time job. “At the moment we’re ﬆ ill loving the touring and making music and being in nightclubs, so I don’t see that changing.” While running a label may soak up some of the lads’ free time, what it has created for them is plenty of freedom to tinker with their sound. “I think having the freedom to produce something on your own label means you’re allowed to experiment with a lot of diﬀerent ideas, which means we’re getting into a nice new direct ion now after having quite an experimental year musically. We’re really excited about that – it’s turned out to be a good thing.” The good thing he is referring to is the lateﬆ tune they’ve juﬆ released on the Ghoﬆ Hotel label, a track Rous is particularly amped about when discussing how much they’ve been enjoying hitting the ﬆ udio over the paﬆ year. “Yeah, it’s juﬆ trying to come up with something new. That’s the biggeﬆ challenge for us and bothers us the moﬆ I think. We ﬆ ill get that excitement. We’ve made the new track Light Fantaﬆic, which is really hitting the nail on the head for us – I think it’s the beﬆ thing we’ve done for a good while. “So we’re juﬆ ready to get it out and play that record in front of audiences. You know, we can’t wait.” Whilﬆ primarily popular among breaks

crowds, the Plumps have always been very open about their willingness to blend genres and add different sounds to really blur the lines between, say, breaks and house. When breaks was at its peak, this kind of tinkering may have led some to turn away in disguﬆ, but given the current climate it seems like they were act ually ahead of the curve, and it’s not a point loﬆ on Rous. “Well, the support for us seems to be as ﬆ rong as ever. I think even though the breakbeat scene in a lot of countries isn’t as ﬆ rong as it used to be, support for us seems to ﬆ ill be there, in some cases growing,” considers Rous. “We went to America for the fi rﬆ time this year and had some great shows there.” A big part of that appears to be their willingness to not be confined to the breaks genre, and letting their skills as a product ion duo do the talking. “You know... people have never quite underﬆood us a hundred percent. We’ve always had, you know, a great, passionate show and then a slightly perplexing or confused show. It’s juﬆ the way it’s gone ‘cause we’ve always tried to make intereﬆ ing, underground music, and I hope we get to keep performing that way.” It’s clear Rous wouldn’t have it any other way. “We don’t really consider genres too much, we juﬆ try... the two of us juﬆ get an idea in our heads and juﬆ run with it. I suppose it’s up to other people to put artiﬆs in genres, not to put themselves in them. I don’t know if you can really pigeonhole some of the ﬆ uff we’re making at the moment, but we’ve always liked it like that anyway.” WHO: Plump DJs WHERE & WHEN: Summafieldayze at Doug Jennings Park Sunday 2 January

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JASON ROUSE

WHERE AND WHEN WAS YOUR FIRST SET? “End of 1992 on the awning of The Site in The Valley playing to Brunswick Street. ” WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ALL TIME 12”? “Thompson Twins – Play With Me (Jane) (Full On Mix 92).” WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE DJS? “Derrick Carter, Mark Farina,Katch.” FAVOURITE CLUB TO PLAY? “Loving Zuri, The Met and Alhambra at the moment.” WHAT’S YOUR BEST ALL TIME GIG? “The ﬁ rﬆ Headfunk with Derrick Carter.” WHAT’S THE FUNNIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN FROM BEHIND THE DECKS? “A girl screaming the lyrics to a Prince song (which wasn’t being played) whilﬆ doing a pirouette in an empty club and subsequently throwing up on herself... true ﬆory!” WHAT’S THE WORST REQUEST YOU’VE GOT? “Can I have a go mate?” WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF WHAT YOU DO? “My mum is very proud that I make a living sharing my love of music.” WHAT DOES THE LOCAL CLUB SCENE NEED MOST? “More dancers, less prancers.” WHAT GIGS HAVE YOU GOT COMING UP? “Zuri every Friday, The Met every Saturday, Alhambra every Saturday, The Elephant and Wheelbarrow every Sunday.” PIC BY TERRY SOO AT LARUCHE

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DJ STIFFY’S WIDE WORLD OF SHORTS LICK MY ASSANGE So, anyways, it has in fact become patently obvious, as described in one of my earlier columns, that Julian Asasnge basically does what he does to pull chicks, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean, moﬆ DJs would happily agree that the only reason they ﬆarted DJing was to get their dicks sucked by shitfaced (but nonetheless pretty) bogans with self-eﬆeem problems – and possibly have a conversation with a member of the opposite sex that laﬆed longer than 60 seconds. But what’s even more revealing is that there is clearly a relatively large proportion of the female population that is more than happy to fall for it. What does this say? It says that education might make you more qualified, but it doesn’t make you smarter. To wit: you might have an undergrad in political science and a maﬆers in international relations, but when it comes down to it, people are ﬆill suckers for former nerds with high profiles and big egos. In other words, the difference between a middle-class well-educated activiﬆ-groupie and a dick-sucking bogan is, precisely, nothing. MY DEADLINE MAKES THE NEXT COMMENT SUPERFLUOUS So, anyways, at the time of writing, Ricky Ponting, was, as usual, looking like a sad sack of shit, as he tends to when playing England and completely deserves to. Ponting is a little bit like the idiotic truﬆ fund kid who was handed the keys to the successful family business and completely fucked it up. I mean, taking the captaincy from Steve Waugh with Warne, McGrath, Gilchriﬆ and the reﬆ of that team was a little bit like taking Microsoft from Bill Gates at its peak. I mean, the team basically drove itself; all he needed to do was ﬆeer, and like some sort of beer-andamphetamine-addled Tasmanian hillbilly, he managed to ﬆeer it into a tree called England. Someone please, please sack him before he makes a Van Damme-ﬆ yle comeback. JAIL WATCH: DMX Oh my god. DMX is going to jail again. The real myﬆery about DMX is, however, that he somehow can’t translate jail ﬆ ints into record sales. It is possibly because rather than the rap-buying public associating his jail ﬆ ints with ‘bad-ass’, the associate them with ‘lack of competence’. JAIL WATCH II: WHERE IS JA? Hooray. Ja Rule is finally going to jail for two years. I assumed it was for generally being immensely shit and ‘‘Livin’ It Up’’. But it’s because his record sales aren’t as good as Lil Wayne’s, who could afford a better lawyer and only went to jail for eight months.

DANCE MUSIC HUB CHART 1. Kernkraft 400 ZOMBIE NATION 2. Get Fresh MOGUAI 3. Operation B 2010 ROYAL ARTISTS 4.Music Sounds Better (Extended Mix) DAVID MORRELL 5. Synaeﬆ hesia (Alex MORPH Remix) THE THRILLSEEKERS 6. Smash The Pressure DEEKLINE

7. Zombie 2K10 (Max K Remix) ANDREW SPENCER & THE VAMPROCKERZ 8. Timebomb (Gordon & Doyle Remix) KARL S FEAT MVL 9. Make You Scream DJ KINX 10. Wake Up Call STEVE AOKI AND SIDNEY SAMSON

YOUTUBE OF THE WEEK

KANYE WEST MONSTER PREVIEW A ﬆandout track oﬀ Kanye Weﬆ acclaimed album My Beautiful Dark Twiﬆed Fantasy – Monﬆer is six minutes of Thriller-inspired spooky sounds, snapping beats, and monﬆer verses from Weﬆ, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Jay-Z. Weﬆ has given fans a sneak peak of what is sure to be an epic music video to accompany this wild tune. Th is preview certainly has us wanting more. Check it out at www.hiphopconnect ion.com.

“

I DONT ASK, DON’T TELL NOW APPLIES TO ANYONE WHO WATCHES TWO AND A HALF MEN” CHANNEL V BLOGGER AND PRO TWEETER BRENDAN MACLEAN INTERPRETS CONTROVERSIAL US MILLITARY POLICY FOR THE PEOPLE. THANK YOU SIR.

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WHAT INSPIRED YOUR DJ NAME? “I wanted my real fi rﬆ name to be incorporated in some way, shape or form. It also has to do with the appearance of the word; it’s symmetrical and flows off the tongue.” IN A NUTSHELL, DESCRIBE WHAT YOU PLAY? “It varies, depending on the time slot or the venue, but in a nutshell – I enjoy playing house/tech house.” WHAT TRACK TURNS YOU ON RIGHT NOW? “Monkey Safari – Those Dancing Days [Jaxon! Pixoff ! Remix].” WHAT MADE

DJBOOTH BENIBEE

YOU START DJING? “I have always had a great passion for all types of music and performed from a young age. As a youngﬆer watching Tiëﬆo was deﬁnitely an inspiration!” WHAT’S THE WEIRDEST THING YOU’VE SEEN IN A NIGHTCLUB? “Krusher Kempson and Noah Homowill.” WHAT’S THE WORST BOOTLEG YOU’VE EVER HEARD? “Any Sexy Bitch bootleg.” THE MOST IDIOTIC REQUEST YOU’VE HAD AS A DJ? “Jessica Mauboy.”

WHERE & WHEN: FF Boxing Day Bash at Elect ric Playground Sunday 26 December, Summerﬁeldayze 2011 at Doug Jennings Park Sunday 2 January, Future Music Feﬆ ival at Doomben Racecourse Saturday 5 March

INDUSTRY WATCH NEW YEAR’S EVE 2011 AT ALHAMBRA LOUNGE

THE IDEA BEHIND OUR NIGHT IS… “Celebrate the New Year with some of Auﬆ ralia’s ﬁneﬆ house acts and musicians.” WE’LL BE PIMPING THE SOUNDS OF… “House, tech house, nu disco.” THE TALENT WE’VE GOT LINED UP TO PLAY INCLUDES… “Baby Gee, Derek K, Brett J, Aydos, Andrew Lynch, El Nino, Sharif D.” THE OTHER TRICKS UP OUR SLEEVE INCLUDE… “Special celebrity gueﬆ appearances.” CHECK OUT OUR NIGHT IF YOU’RE THE KIND OF KID WHO LIKES… “Alhambra Lounge Saturdays.” THE THING WE PROVIDE YOU CAN’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE IN TOWN IS… “Great crowd and a fun party atmosphere.” WHERE & WHEN: New Year’s Eve 2011 at Alhambra Lounge Friday 31 December

“ ROCKING HORSE CHART 1. Magnetic Man MAGNETIC MAN 2. Ultralaboratory Stories ULTRAMAGNETIC FOUNDATION 3. Good Th ings ALOE BLACC 4. Drama To The Finish THE STATESMEN 5. Giant Steps BIGFOOT 6. My Beautiful Dark Twiﬆed Fantasy KANYE WEST 7. Six Books PROPHET RAYZA 8. 4x4x=12 DEADMAU5 9. Dubﬆep Invasion VARIOUS/KID KENOBI & GLOVECATS 10. Producer #1 VARIOUS

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IT’S JUST YOU AND ME MOSQUITO... JUST YOU AND ME. ONE OF US AIN’T LEAVING THIS ROOM ALIVE, AND I AM PRETTY SURE IT AIN’T GOING TO BE ME.” SYDNEY RADIO HOST SHANTAN ICHIBAN DOCUMENTS HIS FINAL MOMENTS BEFORE BATTLING A HUNGRY BLOOD THIRSTY MONSTER. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.

SUSHI SNAPS 5

1 Frat Club @ Regatta Hotel

5 Saturday @ Gilhooleys

2 Saturday @ Chalk Hotel

6 Saturday @ Hot Gossip

3 Saturday @ Exchange Hotel

7 Saturday @ Limes Hotel

4 Saturday @ Fridays

8 Saturday @ Story Bridge Hotel

1 6

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1 5

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GUESTLIST

D CUP

TUESDAY

HI-FI Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant. 7pm. $70 + bf.

WEDNESDAY THE REGATTA Frat Club: DJ Tom Walker, DJ Paul Bell, DJ Scotty R. 9pm. Free. UBER Whatever Wednesdays: Danny Cool, LL Cool James, Van Miert, DJ Juicy vs DJ Vita, Tom Gazal, Morgan Baker, Hey Now, Rockfaud, Bi Polar Whore. Free. X & Y BAR Dave Mc Christmas Special.Gentle Ben and his sensitive side. DJ Maggie Collins. ZURI Sushi Remixed. Free. BABY GEE

Zito, Andre Rodrigues. X & Y BAR Boys & Girls Xmas Party: Never Lose Sight, Take Us To Vegas, Dead Riot. 9pm. $12/$15. ZURI Glamorou$: DJ Tom, Junior, Mr Sparkles. Free.

FRIDAY ALLONEWORD DotDotDot. ELEPHANT AND WHEELBARROW Locky, Berst. 5pm. ELSEWHERE Silent Night: Grivs, Thieves, Stretch Paper Cranes. 8pm. FAMILY Closed. FUSION VILLA NOOSA Sarenda. 8:30pm. GPO Residents. 9pm. Free. LALA LAND Arthur Baker. THE MET Closed. MONASTERY Residents. 8pm -Midnight. $5. PRESSURE LOUNGE DJ Metal Jacket, DJ Ricky D. 9pm. $8. THE REGATTA Oarsome Fridays: Paul Bell, Mark Z. 9pm. Free. SQUEEZE CLUB DJ Climate. X & Y BAR DJ Van Merit. Open till midnight. ZURI Provocateur: Matt Kitshon. 6pm. Free. MATT KITSHON

SATURDAY ELSEWHERE Secret Love Heroes: Thomas J, Stretch Paper Cranes. 12am. FAMILY Closed. THE MET Closed. MONASTERY Habebe v Baby Gee. Danny T v Noy. Midnight. X & Y BAR Closed.

SUNDAY BARSOMA Jerome Isma-Ae. ELECTRIC PLAYGROUND Fuck Fluro: D-Cup. ELSEWHERE Sunday Night Royale: Giv and friends. 10pm. FAMILY GLAM: Wayne G, Harry K & Karma, Starfuckers, Chris Wilson, Ish, Prinnie, Alexei Paige. Velvet Motion. 9pm. $10 before 10pm/$20 after. LALA LAND Easy P & Discrow. PLATINUM Sebastien Leger, Staﬀord Brothers, Gerry Morales, Craig Roberts, Joey Mojo. X & Y BAR DJ Van Merit .Open from 8pm. PLEASE SEND ALL GUESTLIST LISTINGS THROUGH TO BRISBANE@3DWORLD. COM.AU BY MIDDAY THURSDAY PRIOR TO PUBLICATION. NOY

THURSDAY BIRDEE NUM NUM Ivy League presents: Birdees Student Night. 9pm. Free. THE CLUBHOUSE El Guincho, Toy Balloon, Charlie Why. 8pm. $31.15. FITZY’S Vita, DJ Climate. 8pm. Free. FUSION VILLA NOOSA Th irsty Thursdays: DJ Banksy. 9pm. Free. KALIBER Kaliber Open Decks. 8pm. Free. LALA LAND Rhys Bynon & Buzz. MERMAID BEACH TAVERN Rewind: DJ Nik Conomos. Free. MONASTERY Dirty Thursdays: Elmo is Dead, Baby Gee, Noy, Alex terrell, Sketti, Censor Th is! 9pm. $5. PLATINUM Secret Garden Xmas Special: Lica,

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BEFORE THE LEAK WAS PLUGGED

Melburnians Hugh Farrant and Giordano Nanni uploaded Episode 4 of Rap News to YouTube in July 2010 – a funny overview of Wikileaks and the issues it raised. Their witty editing earned an invitation to meet Julian Assange, resulting in his cameo appearance in Episode 5 (27 October), nobody yet aware of the political chaos that would unfold a month later. 3D World’s Jean Poole recently spoke to Nanni about their brush with notoriety. HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO CO-ORDINATE SHOOTING A VIDEO WITH “THE WORLD’S MOST WANTED MAN”? “He managed to fit us in to an extremely hectic schedule. We were pretty sure he’d only have a couple of hours to spare, but at the end of the day’s shoot he told us he’d be happy to come back the next day and re-shoot some of it. Messing around in front of the camera definitely helped get his mind off more serious things for a few hours. He’s a great guy with a wicked sense of humour and the calmeﬆ demeanour of any person we’ve ever seen.” DID YOU GLEAN ANY INSIGHTS ABOUT WIKILEAKS FROM THE CONTACT? “We got to see the project as it was about to enter this current WikiTrickle phase. We could tell that they were building up and unleashing progressively larger and more impact ing data, but we have to admit that we were blind-sided by this ‘Cable-gate’ phenomenon. I mean, this is a real game-changer. It’s gigantic, and it’s juﬆ not ﬆopping.” GIVEN YOU’VE TALLIED HALF A MILLION YOUTUBE VIEWS, WHY REFUSE THEIR OFFERS OF REVENUE SHARING FROM ADS? “We loathe advertising so passionately that the loss of a potential revenue ﬆ ream is a small price to pay to keep the channel free of marketing. We have a donations syﬆem for people to visit, and since Episode 5 dropped, plenty of people have been expressing their support with some cash. Donations keep Rap News going and let us pay for ever more elaborate wigs and make-up.” WHAT DO YOU THINK OF AUTO-TUNE THE NEWS? “Seriously talented musicians, extremely funny, and Hugo has something of a man-crush on Michael Gregory. That guy’s got a lot of soul.” WHAT OTHER MEDIA INSPIRES WITH A BLEND OF POLITICS AND ENTERTAINMENT? We both enjoyed Starship Troopers – hilarious and kick-arse sci-fi act ion movie, with some excellent calls about humanity’s interplanetary relations. We love South Park, and Team America is a high point of culture. Koyaanisqtasi by Godfrey Reggio and [scored by] Philip Glass is a fi lm which really inspires and opens one’s eyes to the world we live in. Videos of comedians Bill Hicks and George Carlin definitely taught

NAT

us a few things. The greateﬆ example of combining entertainment and politics is Jonathan Swift’s maﬆerwork Gulliver’s Travels.” GOOD NEWS – HAVE WE HAD ANY LATELY? “There’s never been a better time in hiﬆory to be creative with access to a global audience. Wikileaks is excellent news. It was about time things got shaken up a bit. Evo Morales is excellent news for South America. Local band [Me] juﬆ signed a UK record deal. Also, Tool are visiting in January. Very good news indeed.” FUTURE MUSICAL PROJECTS FOR HUGO? “One day - some form of live Rap News format, initially within solo shows and build up from there – a full live touring Rap News musical extravaganza would be amazing. Keep your eyes out for new Branksome film clips, and the sci-fi farcical epic film clip We Are The Humans.” FUTURE WRITING / JOURNALIST PROJECTS FOR GIORDANO? “Finishing touches to a book I’ve juﬆ completed, and embarking on a theatrical project – Coranderrk – in collaboration with Ilbijerri Aboriginal Theatre. And of course, future episodes of Rap News. Robert Foﬆer’s could become an important voice. Stay tuned.”

UNDER SIDE

KEEP IT CLEAN There’s no room in life for regret, but it’s worth remembering that the sleazy ﬆ uﬀ you do in your younger days has a way of catching up with you. To put it bluntly, do what you want, but don’t get yourself addicted to pornography and don’t ever pay for sex. Speaking as a conservative middle class guy, I can tell you that your porn obsession and your secret trips to brothels will come back to haunt you later on. It all goes on your permanent record. It may seem private to you and it probably seems like an excellent idea at the time. But one day you’ll meet someone special, fall in love and you’ll want to tell each other everything. And then when you leaﬆ expect it, she’ll ask – “Have you ever been to a brothel?” And even if you deny it, the look on your red face will give you away. Some things are never in fashion. Billy Joel music. Bald men with ponytails. And guys who visit brothels. Fonzie never did it and neither should you. You might agree with me on the brothel thing but ﬆ ill defend your pornography collect ion as juﬆ a bit of harmless fun. But the porno thing can get out of control very quickly. My house is totally porno free and has been for years. Pornos are like cigarettes: one is too many, a thousand is never enough. It’s better if you juﬆ never ﬆart. I’ve never even been into an adult bookshop. There’s one around the corner from my house and I can’t imagine what goes on in there. They have a sign out the front that says “We Sell: XXX DVDs, XXX Magazines and Novelties”. I’ve often tried to fathom what would conﬆ itute a “Novelty” in a shop like that and I think if you’re the sort of guy who spends his time riﬂ ing around in adult bookshops buying pornography, a novelty would probably be... an act ual woman. I might sound like a prude, but think of it like this – if you want someone to share your bed, you keep your bedroom clean. So if you want someone to share your life, you should keep that clean as well. No one expects you to be a saint, but keep your nose clean for God’s sake. DAVE JORY

AUSTRALIAN TOURISM THE BEST AND WORST PAUL HOGAN – COME AND SAY G’DAY (1984) During the early 1980s, there was no better man to promote Auﬆ ralia to the world than Paul Hogan. The ﬆar of Crocodile Dundee fi lmed a series of ads encrouaging Americans to take a “fair dinkum holiday”. An ad featuring the phrase “shrimp on the barbie” which aired from 1984 was particularly successful. ELLE MACPHERSON – SOME PLACES HAVE ALL THE LUCK (1987) In 1987, at the height of her career, golden girl Elle Macpherson lent her sparkling smile to an ad campaign for Sydney tourism, marveling at the city’s affordable seaside dining. The supermodel later produced a series of highly successful commercials for Weﬆern Auﬆ ralia which positioned the ﬆate as world’s beﬆ nature-based deﬆ ination. JOHN FARNHAM – NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME (1990) Sporting a fetching mane and radiant tan, a young(ish) John Farnham sits in a deck chair in the shallow water of a pool when a floating device delivers him a cordless phone. “Ring Now! Free Call!” scrolls along the bottom of the screen as Farnsey encourages viewers to book a holiday down under ‘cause there’s “never been a better time to have a good time”. LARA BINGLE – WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU? (2006) Auﬆ ralia’s moﬆ controversial ad campaign coﬆ ing $180 million dollars made headlines worldwide for its use of the word “bloody”. While Tourism Auﬆ ralia had hoped to lure visitors from Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States, it was discovered much too late that the word “bloody” was offensive rather than alluring. BAZ LURHMAN – COME WALK ABOUT (2008) After doing such a great job of glamourisng Auﬆ ralia’s dark hiﬆory in his epic blockbuﬆer Auﬆ ralia, Baz Lurhman signed on to create a commercial

for Tourism Auﬆ ralia featuring the Aboriginal child ﬆar of the ﬁ lm – Brandon Walters. Walters lights up the screen once again, although the commercial did have its fair share of critics – including Paul Hogan. OPRAH - NOTHING LIKE IT (2010) Taking the caking and eating it all, this year’s ‘‘Nothing Like It’’ campaign raised the bar by inviting super amazing chat show queen Oprah Winfrey down under to spruik the many wonders of our country. While it coﬆ us about $3.5 million, the campaign has been touted as the moﬆ successful ever for Tourism Auﬆ ralia who are expect ing aﬆ ronomical returns. Thank you Oprah.

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MCBOOTH BOOTH MATTY B A B C D E F G HI JKLM N O

PQRSTUVWXYZ

3D WORLD’S A-TO-Z OF DANCE MUSIC GENRES THIS WEEK: PROGRESSIVE HOUSE

Progressive house, or “prog”, was the dominant dance genre from the mid-90s on. The poﬆrave era music emerged in the UK as house and trance converged and was championed by future DJ superﬆars Sasha and Digweed. Renaissance was the fi rﬆ prog nightclub (and brand), opening in central England in 1992. While progressive is perceived as a rupture from house’s disco (and black) roots, it did have antecedents in Italo disco. The early, and more underground, progressive is inﬆ rumental, the music defined by dubby, rolling basslines, synth riffs and layered percussion – and the tracks are extended. Progressive is trippy, deep and often dark, countering the euphoria of trance. The progressive DJs’ mixing ﬆ yle was also diﬆ inct from that of American house and techno pioneers, with the newcomers favouring seamless mixing as opposed to a choppier or funkier approach. Th is seamlessness was achieved through harmonic (or key) mixing. It’s suggeﬆed that Mixmag’s Dom Phillips coined the term “progressive house” in 1994, no doubt in reference to prog rock. Many of the 90s’ crossover elect ronica live acts had a progressive sound, from Underworld to Leftfield (who released their seminal debut Leftism in 1995) to Faithless. Underworld’s Born Slippy .NUXX is a prog classic. Auﬆ ralia spawned a prog super-DJ in Anthony Pappa,

SASHA & DIGWEED

GIVEAWAY

DEEP DISH

who moved to the UK to further his career. Techno puriﬆs hated prog. In fact, the US house and techno contingent looked on it with contempt – and Danny Tenaglia was criticised for converting. He wasn’t alone: Deep Dish went prog, too. Prog’s critics dismissed it as “trance”, by now a dirty word. Yet prog was diﬆ inct from trance, being subtler – although, with songs like Faithless’ Insomnia, some of the music was more epic (hence epic house). Still, Simon Reynolds is as disdainful of the “dubious” prog in his book Generation Ecﬆasy as he is of Detroit techno and other “intelligent” genres, all of which he considers elitiﬆ. “Terms like ‘progressive’ or ‘intelligent’ trigger alarm bells; when an underground scene ﬆarts talking this talk, it’s usually a sign that it’s gearing up to play the media game as a prequel to buying into the traditional music induﬆ ry ﬆ ruct ure of auteur-ﬆars, concept albums and long-term careers. Above all, it’s a sign of impending music debility, creeping self-importance and the haemorrhaging away of fun.” There was a prog backlash in the late 90s with even Sasha repudiating any association – but the music endures. Steve Lawler brought a tribal element to progressive. Ironically, a peace was brokered between techno and prog crusaders through minimal – with James Holden among the ﬁ rﬆ to ﬆ raddle both.

LOGITECH GIVEAWAY Calling for an end to the boring black mouse, Logitech have unveiled a limited edition range of patterned computer mice which feature brilliant colours and eyecatching designs inspired by trends in fashion and pop culture from around the world. Features include an ergonomic design, economic battery life, and optimal cursor control. Each mouse comes complete with a cordless, USB nano-receiver, which is always ready for use. With Chriﬆ mas juﬆ around the corner this juﬆ may be a very trendy ﬆocking ﬁ ller! 3D World have three limited edition Logitech mice to giveaway, simply email your name and address to giveaways@3dworld.com.au with MOUSE in the subject line for your chance to win. Entries close Wednesday 22 December.

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HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR MC NAME? “My ﬁ rﬆ name is Matt my laﬆ name initial is B.” HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN RAPPING ? “Forever.” ARE YOU AFFILIATED WITH ANY CREW? “Syllabollics and Rukus crew.” WHAT CAN YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR FIRST GIG? “Can’t remember.” YOUR BEST SHOW AND WHY?

“Byron Bay 2005 supporting Optamus and Draft. The weather was hot and it was a Sunday session at the Beach Hotel mid January. The crowd were in to it, really good vibes.” WHAT’S THAT ON YOUR SHIRT THERE? “Nap sauce – I love cooking and I’m a grott.” FAVOURITE COMEBACK LINE? “Take it easy buddy!” WHAT’S YOUR DREAM COLLABORATION? “Damian Marley featuring Matty B.”

WHERE & WHEN: Club Envy Saturday 8

January, Shark Bar Saturday 15 January

3 DEGREES OF SEPARATION THE FIRST DEGREE

CLUB CLASSICS CAPTAIN KAINE

WHERE & WHEN: Trip Kicks Indoor Feﬆ ival at The Back Room Saturday 8 January CASSIUS 99 RESET REMIX (Cassius Records), 2010. “Th is track has enough slap bass to leave a hand print on your ass. Bootsy Collins would be proud to see so much funk in the trunk in 2010. Also to top it oﬀ it’s got a Donna Summer sample that was, without a doubt, made in disco heaven.” FMZ GET DOWN TO THIS (Ibiza Club), 2010. “You juﬆ can’t go paﬆ the Latin horn breakdown that features in this tune. It’s juﬆ so jiggy and wiggy all at the same time. Very twiﬆed indeed. Bent out of shape you might say. Me so horny.” LAYO & BUSHWACKA LOVE STORY (Rise), 2002. “I don’t really know how to describe this track in a way that would do it juﬆ ice. It’s all about the love and the music of course. I could tell you a tall ﬆory but that couldn’t even come close to expressing the feeling I get when I hear it.”

S CLUB 7 S CLUB PARTY (Polydor), 1999. Back when Paddle Pops were 90 cents and we were all donning halter neck tops and playing with Tamagotchis, “There ain’t no party like an S Club Party” was a familiar phrase. Capturing the fun, but epitomising the tackiness of the era, moﬆ of us can remember dancing along to this smash hit. The second hit single oﬀ the debut album by British pop group S Club 7, the track reached number two in the United Kingdom, where it was certiﬁed double platinum.

THE SECOND DEGREE

RIHANNA RUDE BOY (Def Jam), 2010. The second international single from her fourth album Rated R, Rude Boy was an inﬆant success. It topped charts in the United States and Auﬆ ralia, as well as reaching the top ten in Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland and United Kingdom. The video clip to the song also won an award at the MTV Music Video awards after critics praised it for its Jamaican Dancehall theme. The ragamuﬃn-inﬂuenced track was co-written by Norwegian record producing and song writing team StarGate who were also responsible for writing and producing S Club Party!

THE THIRD DEGREE

DEADMAU5 FEAT ROB SWIRE GHOSTS ‘N’ STUFF (Ultra), 2009. The single Ghoﬆs N Stuﬀ of Deadmau5’s album For Lack of A Better Name was made speciﬁcally for Pete Tong’s BBC Radio 1 Essential Selection show. The song made it into the Triple J Hotteﬆ 100 in 2009 and was #12 on the UK charts. It has been used in various TV shows and video games. The track features vocals from Pendulum front man Rob Swire who also co-wrote/produced Rhianna’s Rude Boy with StarGate. Swire and Zimmerman (Deadmau5) decided to make the track after bumping into each other time and time again atevents and promising each other a collaboration.

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BLOG STANDARD

THIS IS WHY YOU ARE FAT Overview: If you can deep fry it, roll it in cheese, coat it in chocolate, ﬆ uff it with over processed meats and deep fry it again, it’ll be in this blog. Readers are encouraged to submit their own “creations”, some of which include Pop Tart Sushi, Heart-A-Mac and Cheese Deep-fried Reese’s Cups Wrapped in Bacon. Highlights of the website have also included the “30,000 Calorie Sandwich” made of minced beef, bacon, corn dogs, ham, paﬆ rami, roaﬆ beef, bratwurﬆ, Braunschweiger, turkey and fried mushrooms with onion rings and five varieties of cheese, served on white bread. As the tag line says, this is “Where dreams become heart attacks”. Design: You will be too mesmerised by these over-indulgent culinary creations to notice the tacky background and less than impressive font. Recent Poﬆs: BBQ Pulled Pork Donut Sandwich. “A BBQ pulled pork sandwich with two homemade glazed donuts for the bun, peach guacamole, roaﬆed tomato salsa and Chipotle Cheddar Cheese Wiz.” Quality of content: Nutritional value: zero. Novelty factor: off the charts. Viewers will find themselves hypnotised by the pages and pages of what some have referred to as “food porn”. Frequency of updates: Every four-five days. Downloads/Streaming: None. Audience: Hungry people? People who want to feel healthy? Fatties who need cooking inspiration? The possibilities are endless. WWW: www.thisiswhyyourefat.com

VOCALBOOTH ANJE WEST (THE VIEW FROM MADELEINE’S COUCH)

WHERE AND WHEN WAS YOUR FIRST PERFORMANCE? ‘‘1998 at Indigo, a cafe in New Farm, Brisbane. It was a little bit scary and my Portuguese was terrible!’’ WHAT ARE YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE SONGS? “I love Brazilian music above all else and will probably always have tunes like Chega de Saudade and Flor de Lis as favourites because they’re so glorious to sing. But also on my faves liﬆ is And Then I Knew by Pat Metheny, No Rain by Blind Melon, Aldiea de Ogum by Joyce, a Brazilian singer I’m greatly inspired by. And my own song Beijos no Sol – juﬆ because I’m so very proud of it!” WHAT IS YOUR DREAM COL-

LABORATION? “There’s a liﬆ a mile long of Brazilian artiﬆs I’d love to work with – Joyce, Lenine, Bossacucanova, Marcio Bahia, Marcos Suzano and plenty more. The great thing about it though, is that if you spend enough time in Brazil, these things can become a reality pretty easily.” WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF WHAT YOU DO? “They love it and have always been completely supportive of my decision to make my life about music. My dad is a musician, so it’s what I grew up with. WHAT DOES THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE NEED MOST? “For musicians to be paid properly. There needs to be a complete re-think about licensing conditions and fees, so that venue operators can not only survive and prosper, but they can ﬆart paying musicians what they are worth and deserve.” FAVORITE VENUE TO PLAY? “Oh, that’s easy – the Concert Stage at QPAC – the moﬆ brilliant, beautiful sound ever! And we also had semi-resident ﬆatus for about eight years at The Press Club and had some cracker shows there. Brissie Jazz Club and The Powerhouse are up there too for great sound and vibe.” WHAT’S YOUR BEST ALL TIME GIG? “Our Saturday night show at the Bellingen Global Carnival a couple of years ago. I will never forget it. It was, up to that point, our biggeﬆ ever audience and they were having a brilliant time of it.”

WHERE & WHEN: Woodford Folk Feﬆ ival Monday 27 December – Saturday 1 January

QLD

SLINGING IN SINGAPORE WHEN SINGAPORE’S ZOUKOUT FESTIVAL CELEBRATED ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY EARLIER THIS MONTH, KRIS SWALES WAS THERE TO SURVEY THE SCENE OF AN EVENT WHICH CAPTURED THE ELUSIVE SPIRIT AND FEELING OF THE ALL NIGHT RAVES OF YESTERYEAR. PHOTOS BY DAVE DRI. FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER – IN THE CLUB Well before ZoukOut, there was Zouk. Ranked #10 in DJ Mag’s 2010 liﬆ of the world’s beﬆ clubs, it’s spoken about in hushed tones by all who have played there (whether for business or pleasure) since founder Lincoln Cheng returned from a trip to Ibiza during the late 80s/early 90s Balearic boom with a vision to bring the music he heard there back to his people. Located innocuously down a back ﬆ reet behind a high rise apartment tower right next to the Singapore River, the club (which opened its doors in 1991) doesn’t betray its origins as a warehouse. 3D World is whisked in through the servant’s entrance ﬆ raight onto the Member’s balcony. The dancefloor below – though more sparsely populated than usual with moﬆ regulars saving themselves for the big one tomorrow – is rocking in fine ﬆ yle with a big room elect ro sound not completely unfamiliar to anyone who spends any time in the main rooms of Auﬆ ralian clubland. The interior looks like it could have been torn ﬆ raight from a Spanish Villa with its predominately white, rounded edges (infamous Spanish architect Gaudi was reportedly an influence when Cheng fit out the room), but a mammoth lighting rig covers the tiered dancefloor and a compressor/ limiter free sound syﬆem pumps with ample volume and cryﬆal clear precision – you can not only hear yourself think, but refreshingly also hear others speak. One of Zouk’s iconic figures, known only as The Doctor, has been a fi xture in Zouk’s main room for as long as anyone can remember and is in fine form on the dancefloor below. Clad in sunglasses, dark jacket and gloves (one black, one white), The Doctor sets up camp on one of the main floor’s podiums and is a pict ure of underﬆatement no matter how big the drop, but whatever zone he’s in is respected by punters at leaﬆ a third his age watching on from nearby. Beyond the main room, the Zouk catacombs also house the lush Velvet Underground (pitched at older clientele with upcoming DJs

DAVID GUETTA & ALDRRIN

including Osunlade, Tiefschwarz and Dimitri From Paris) and Phuture (a long rectangular room which tonight is ramjammed with people getting their funk on to commercial R&B sounds), while the Wine Bar outside caters for those for whom too much humidity is never enough – even well paﬆ midnight, ﬆeamy is an underﬆatement. After we briefly bask in the awesome of the main room and try to pict ure what upcoming sets from Roger Sanchez, Luciano and Ferry Corﬆen might feel like, we’re whisked through a doorway tucked behind an ornate tiled fountain which doubles as a unisex hand basin and through the Zouk offices, where even at 3am an army of ﬆaffers continue laﬆ minute preparations for the one day of the year that Zouk is taken out of the club into the great outdoors. SATURDAY 11 DECEMBER – ON THE BEACH The Amara Sanct uary

Resort, situated on the island of Sentosa juﬆ south of Singapore City, is the epicentre of act ivity as ZoukOut officially kicks off at 8pm. Artiﬆs are fed and watered before the logiﬆ ical nightmare of ferrying them to and from the Siloso Beach location juﬆ ten minutes way begins – and with only one road onto the island from the mainland and to the feﬆ ival site, the traffic jams have become as legendary as ZoukOut itself. 3D World shares a car with Dennis Ferrer, a Singapore veteran but clearly excited ZoukOut debutant handed the unenviable task of keeping the dancefloor pumping from 6am til closing time two hours later. A golf buggy ride from the feﬆ ival perimeter to the main ﬆage later and we’ve entered feﬆ ival nirvana. The sound is immaculate as Zouk veteran djB keeps things relatively deep for an already impressive main ﬆage crowd – in fact Marketing Manager Mari Muramoto

says the feﬆ ival has never been so full at such an early hour and smashing the 2009 record attendance of 27,000 seems a formality. The three ﬆages are positioned on the edge of the beach facing the ocean waters south, spread out side by side along an area roughly a third of the length of Bondi Beach. The humidity is ﬆill oppressive but the occasional lick of sea breeze helps, while the organisers’ requeﬆs for people to turn up in their beach wear are heeded for practicality as much as titillation. It’s a friendly, courteous crowd who seem to be mindful that there’s not only a long night ahead but that they’ll be sharing it with 30,000 new friends, so the unbridled looseness and boorish behaviour which have come to characterise the worﬆ parts of Auﬆralian feﬆival culture are noticeably lacking. After local hip hop big band Sixx have delighted a small pocket of their fans with an energetic display, the Midnight Juggernauts take the ﬆage for what is their final international performance of 2010. There are a handful of the already converted joyously singing every word of Auﬆralian feﬆival ﬆaples like Into The Galaxy ﬆraight back at Vincent Vendetta, while Andrew Szekeres taking the vocoder for Tombﬆone is also a highlight – until the band’s roadie Dale takes the ﬆage sax in hand to help the band blaﬆ through Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, then Daniel Stricker ﬆeps out from behind the kit to collapse on Szekeres’ drum module in a delay drenched finale. Back at the main ﬆage Afrojack is bringing the rave in a big way, slamming down remixes of the Black Eyed Peas and Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction with fiﬆ pumps at every drop which are mirrored by the throbbing mass of humanity before him. Meanwhile Lindﬆ røm is loﬆ in his own world back at Arena B, but everyone has a ticket for his spaceship – if they can only find the control bay doors. “I wish I had more hands so I could do more,” reads his bio in the ZoukOut 2010 programme, but the Norwegian disco aﬆ ronaut ﬆ ill works his

BOOKA SHADE

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control panel like a demon. Grand Ideas from the spectacular Where You Go I Go Too album pulses away before off-kilter toms tumble out of hyperspace, then a pair of 303s duel for supremacy over unquantised yet propulsive rhythms, Lindﬆ røm all the while ducking and weaving with each tweak of his iPad. He gets one tap on the shoulder from the ﬆage manager and then another, waving him away so he can get the final bed of tech house ﬆabs juﬆ right before taking a bow to an audience not quite sure in what solar syﬆem they’re disembarking. Tonight marks the second ZoukOut appearance for Booka Shade, and with the biggeﬆ crowd to gather in front of the Arena B ﬆage for the entire event, it’s clear they made some friends laﬆ time. Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier launch ﬆ raight into a highly energised version of the classic Darko and the hit parade continues from here – Charlotte and Body Language neﬆ ling snugly beside new bombs Teenage Spaceman and Regenerate. The marathon set really takes off with fresh takes on In White Rooms and Mandarin Girl, before O Superman provides a blissed-out finale for a dancefloor happy to have been cooled by a downpour mid-set. The main arena is rammed as an enthusiaﬆ ic Laidback Luke delivers a set of elect ro ﬆ raight out of the big room handbook, complete with an unexpectedly slamming dirty dubﬆep sect ion and then a fi reworks display seemingly leaping from the ocean itself right on 2:30am – Luke is so excited he leaps on the mic and declares his love for everyone involved with Zouk. It’s a sentiment many seem to share. Next comes Tiëﬆo. There’s a reason he’s one of the biggeﬆ DJs in the world – he’s a crowd pleaser who knows how to deliver. Opening with an epic ambient take on Kaleidoscope, his set traverses elect ro and trance in equal

MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS

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measures, the beneﬁts of a dedicated light and visual show clear as a female vocaliﬆ appears to give an onscreen voice to one of this tracks while each build and drop is given added impetus by his lighting guy. And as expected Tiëﬆo’s remix of Delirium’s Silence is a moment, hands aloft everywhere as pyrotechnics cover the front of the ﬆage. By now the feﬆ ival has broken its banks, the temporary fencing separating the crowd from the water swept aside in some areas as many get respite by sitting at the water’s edge, watched on by a small line of security guards never at risk of a large scale throng swimming en masse into the diﬆance. Local hip hoppers Andrew Chow, Eclipse and Ghetto are dishing up the classics (Ice Ice Baby is universal it seems) at Arena C while Vincent and Dale from the Juggernauts have discovered a wave pool which

Dale unsuccessfully navigates several times before 3D World wishes him well and returns to Arena B – at which Dubﬁ re is slamming out the same one-note white noise techno he has been since 2007. And at 5am after a hard night’s work nothing could sound better, with even the Radio Slave remix of his own Grindhouse lifting the spirits despite being rinsed and repeated a million times over since 2008. “I don’t want to be credible…” David Guetta says on billboards around Singapore. “I want to be incredible.” And few of the 20,000 punters crammed into the space in front of him at the main ﬆage are here to argue as he unleashes an onslaught of mainﬆ ream bangers, including a brace from the Black Eyed Peas (The Time (Dirty Bit) and their collaborative I’ve Gotta Feeling in a rousing ﬁnale) and

his Rihanna-fronted Who’s That Chick. When it’s all over Guetta shares a brief but touching word with Zouk patriarch Lincoln side of ﬆage before being whisked oﬀ surrounded by Popelike security as ZoukOut veteran Aldrin takes his familiar sunrise closing slot – and opens big with Madonna’s Hung Up into the Dirty South remix of Evermore’s It’s Too Late. But the real party is happening down at Arena B with Dennis Ferrer and everybody ﬆ ill ﬆanding is invited. The sun is up and the heat is on, especially on the danceﬂoor with Ferrer throwing down the funkieﬆ of jacking house like his life depends on it (“I’m soaked!” a beaming Ferrer tells 3D World afterwards). Guetta and his minder have turned up side of ﬆage and are grooving happily along with a smattering of crew to the set of the feﬆ ival, while Seth Troxler dances in a horse mask in between regaling anyone who’ll liﬆen with ﬆories perhaps too fantaﬆ ical for print (Guy Gerber, P Diddy and music made for K-Holes do get a mention). The 8am curfew comes and goes and Ferrer looks like he’s juﬆ getting ﬆarted, but somewhere around 8:40am the plug is pulled and the journey down that long, hard road back to reality begins. For Singaporeans it’s a 12 month wait until the dance music feﬆ ival world lands on their doorﬆep. For any Auﬆ ralians looking to capture the essence of the all-nighters they’ve attended or been regaled about by people who were front-and-centre “back in the day”, it’s 12 months you’d beﬆ spend planning how you’re going to get yourself and your crew to a magical night under the ﬆars on Siloso Beach. 3D World would like to thank Zouk Management for their kindness and hospitality at ZoukOut 2010. Stay tuned to www.zoukout.com for information on the 2011 inﬆalment.

A TUBETIME CHRISTMAS

FILMREVIEWS

The incredible world of television with 5SPROCKET

And so it is Chriﬆmas, that special time of the year when you sit with your loved ones and share hilarious conversations about how you “can’t believe it is Chriﬆmas already!” So it is time to turn on the television and celebrate the day as it should be celebrated – in awkward silence. Nothing quite captures The Spirit Of Chriﬆmas like “The Carols”, which is certainly the television event of the three hours it is on. Th is year, Channel Seven presents Carols In The Domain. All the ﬆars will be out – Troy Cassar-Daley! Stan Walker! Juﬆ ice Crew! Don Bradman’s grand-daughter! Between songs about snowmen in an Auﬆ ralia summer, there is usually an appearance by crowd favourites The Wiggles (so rich they own a dinosaur) and, if we scream loud enough, David Koch dressed as Santa. There will be a cutaway to a three-year-old in the crowd falling asleep on his mother’s shoulder, his hair being gently singed by the candlelight. That three-year-old is Grant Denyer. On Chriﬆmas Eve, Channel 9 does their take with Carols By Candlelight. Hoﬆs Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson will be flexing their considerable botox grins, praying that their eyes don’t bubble under the spotlight crossfi re. After a year of early morning ﬆarts and providing us with up-to-the-minute information about Jeff Goldblum’s lateﬆ death, it seems only fitting that they do a soulful and feﬆ ive rendition of Smack My Bitch Up in this special time. How could we miss MaﬆerChef winner Julie Goodwin’s singing debut on national television? Chriﬆmas carols aren’t quite the same without the ghoﬆs of Ray Martin, paﬆ, present and future. It’s all so much effort to put on a show to wish happy birthday to a magical baby that was born in a barn. It is time that we look to the ﬆars and wonder what is in ﬆore for 2011. Will Auﬆ ralia act ually Get Talent? Who will be placed fi rﬆ in 20 To 1? Will the woman that hoﬆs Weekend Today find a way to uncross her eyes? If you put a roofie in Santa’s milk you will get all the other children’s presents. And then you get Santa. Have a tolerable Chriﬆ mas. Love, 5sprocket.

ANOTHER YEAR

If you’re gonna make the same ﬁ lm repeatedly, make it a good one. Ozu knew it, Woody Allen once knew it, and Mike Leigh knows it too, provided you’re not of the mind that he condescends to his characters and/ or lets his actors veer into caricature. Another Year is Leigh’s lateﬆ slice of working class life, and as the title suggeﬆs, it’s as slice-of-life-ish as ever. It’s also one of his beﬆ and moﬆ emotionally panoramic ﬁ lms. Seasonal chapters may seem like a hoary device, but they’re perfect ly apt here. As usual for Leigh, character interact ion dictates the plot, with longmarried couple Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and Tom (Jim Broadbent) providing a loose centre of which other characters orbit around. Among them are their son Joe (Oliver Maltman), Tom’s lifelong friend Ken (Peter Wight), and moﬆ memorably, twice-divorced, self-proclaimed free spirit Mary (Lesley Manville), a work colleage and frequent visitor of Gerri’s. As with Secrets And Lies’ Brenda Blethyn and Happy-Go-Lucky’s Sally Hawkins, Manville’s high-ﬆ rung turn is sure to be one of those polarising performances/characters, that’ll rivet some viewers and ﬆ rike others as an actor’s workshop experiment gone berserk, but either way, she’s impossible to forget. It’s perhaps easy to ascribe a certain conversatism to the contraﬆ between Mary’s loneliness and Tom and Gerri’s relatively blissful marriage. But an early scene featuring Imelda Staunton as the world’s moﬆ miserable housewife looms over the proceedings as if to refute such a thesis. As such, Another Year is ultimately a catalogue of moods and behaviour more than a Message Movie. WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas in the new year IAN BARR

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GAMEON With SCOTT FITZSIMONS

GRAN TURISMO 5

(PS3) (Polyphony Digital/Sony) Five years since Gran Turismo 4 – not including half-arsed “we’re ﬆ ill here” games and PSP releases – the fifth inﬆalment in the pioneering motorsport simulation series had to be great. In reality, it’s good. In its downtime there have been a range of racing games – internet and console based, hardcore and comical – that have taken away GT’s mantle – Forza, GTR2 and iRacing for example. And while Gran Turismo 5 is certainly polished enough, its funct ionality juﬆ isn’t that brilliant. Always a big point of sales and discussion, but really never the moﬆ important feature in this genre, the graphics are near flawless. Even on the menu screens the backdrops are about as breathtaking as you can expect from virtually rendered scenes, especially on a good TV. What it does mean is that each part takes a small age to load, be it a race, online lobby, settings or menu screens. Once you do get into the racing it’s definitely enjoyable, with physics and sounds that you’d hope for from this length of development. The classic gameplay model is in place, earn a license through some easy teﬆs and then work your way through races, accumulating

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money and buying/ winning better cars as you level up to higher races. The B-spec model has been expanded to its own separate game as well, somewhat needlessly. You play as a pit crew manager – presumably – and inﬆ ruct your driver to speed up, slow down and pass. It would be fantaﬆ ic for a competent endurance racing model (you know, motorsport with ﬆ rategy) but it takes so long to unlock those races that it’s hardly worth the boredom. And honeﬆ ly, 12 entrants do not make a proper race around the NürburgringNordschleife or Le Mans, no matter how beautiful the tracks are rendered. While there are enough elements to ensure long intereﬆ (the ﬆandard A-spec traditional gameplay, introduct ion of the Top Gear circuit, go karts, decent online play) the quantity of irrelevant content and “features” could have been positioned far more eﬀect ively. That would have made a truly amazing racing simulator. Th is is juﬆ a good one.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD

(XBOX 360) (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft) Following on direct ly from Assassin’s Creed II, itself a triumph in modern gaming, Brotherhood does rely somewhat on the player’s knowledge of the previous game. Given that so much of the appeal lies in the narrative and the allure of exploring renaissance Italy, there’s an assumed familiarity of the game and its layout. On the upside for those who haven’t, perhaps foolishly, played the previous Assassin’s titles, Brotherhood doesn’t add too much to the game – especially in the single player “ﬆory” mode – so it’s not unthinkable to go back and pick up on what you’ve missed. Few queﬆ ions are left answered for Ezio Auditore – the character whose persona you take up back in time again – from the end of II and a siege of his home city early in the game leaves it in tatters, undoing one’s work from the previous title and wiping the slate clean for the next adventure. Again the ﬆoryline pitch is fantaﬆ ic as literal hiﬆory weaves in an out, missing gaps in records we know ﬁct ionalised by assassinations and banishments in this ﬆory. The detail here is also in the cities and maps themselves – not the biggeﬆ we’ve ever seen in a game but considering the way you move above and below the ﬆ reets perhaps the moﬆ complex. The physics and controls that allow you do to this tweaked and improved ever so slightly to make movement even smoother. The multiplayer mode is Brotherhood ’s big selling point and like Red Dead Redemption is fulﬁ lling should you be surrounded by serious players – otherwise it’s a bit messy. The whole modern-day alternate ﬆoryline ﬆ ill isn’t being sold properly (it’s left open for part four) but when you play to its ﬆ rong points, boy is this game good. And only getting better.

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QLD

AY WHAT?! IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME ALREADY? And you still haven’t dedicated any time towards making thoughtful purchases for your loved ones, friends and co-workers? Well never fear, we have stumbled across a collection of charming stocking fi llers courtesy of the quirky minds at Kidrobot. Founded in 2002 by designer Paul Budnitz, Kidrobot is the world’s premier creator of limited edition art toys and apparel. A blend of sculpture and popular art, designed by the world’s most talented artists and designers, Kidrobot’s exclusive toys are extremely rare collector items – The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City even acquired 13 iconic Kidrobot toys in late 2007. Artists often create a series of only a few hundred to a few thousand pieces, so once a toy is sold out, it’s sold out forever. Kidrobot toys retail anywhere from $5 to $25,000, and many appreciate in value over time. (So basically you are purchasing a toy that can be traded in for a car down the track). The brand also produces an exclusive apparel line of caps and t-shirts that mirror the company’s unique pop art aesthetic. While Kidrobot stores are located in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and London you don’t need to travel halfway across the world to acquire these collectables – Laced.com stock a huge range of super cute critters (among many other fabulous things) including the super limited Dunny 2 Tone line. Now imagine the look of sheer joy on granny’s face when she unwraps her very own Dunny 2 Tone Kid Robot instead of that Micheal Boltan CD she was expecting! Pure Christmas magic. www.kidrobot.com ~ www.laced.com.au

Mor Soap Opera gift set ~ $39.95. www.morcosmetics.com

All Abo internation gets two v tanks, wee dresses incl a modern da is a girl She wear festiva

Luna Sailor Stripe Tee ~ $59.95 02 9690 0218

Arnette Blow Out sunglasses ~ $149.95. www.arnette.com

Nat Sui Braided re

Giorgio Armani Rouge dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Armani Gold Rush coral red lipstick ~ $30. www.giorgioarmanibeauty.com

Fossil steel ring ~ $99. www.fossilaustralia.com.au

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LureBriefs

ChristmasEve

out Eve offers wardrobe staples and bold prints with wearable designs. Inspired by nal street culture and vintage treasures, the label’s second summer collection for 2010 very enthusiastic thumbs-up for the holiday season. The range includes commando ekend shorts, beach pants, crop tops and, of course, a delicious selection of summer luding this particularly sexy Primitive dress featuring a fun, bold print reminiscent of ay Pocahontas. So the big question remains – just who is Eve? Well, apparently Eve who is comfortable with whom she is and loves to mix and match her wardrobe. rs her threads with strength and confidence finding inspiration through music, art, als and vintage avenues. Be sure to visit www.allabouteveclothing.com and treat yourself to a Christmas shopping spree.

Kim

Angelina Jolie

Total Tron

Sci-fi thriller, Tron: Legacy, the 3D sequel to the 1982 cult favorite, Tron, has dominated the box office and now diehard fans can geek out with Hurley’s limited edition Tron: Legacy fashion line unveiled this month by pro skater Bob Burnquist at the X-Games. Hurley has partnered with Disney to create a range with futuristic themes, dark finishes and colour blocking. The collection includes a selection of tees, board shorts and caps and is now available now from select retailers. Prices start from $45.99. For nearest stockists call 1300 139 719.

Punk’d

ed watersnake sandal ~ $229. www.nat-sui.com.au

Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne A L’Extreme 50ml ~ $150. www.ysl.com

Following in the footsteps of Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, punk singer Avril Lavinge is intent on making her mark on the fashion world. Two years ago the pop princess launched a tween line called Abbey Dawn now the brand has been re-launched internationally via AbbeyDawn.com. The expanded collection will include sportswear, denim, dresses, loungewear and swimwear. The line will be stocked at highly inﬂuential stores such as Trash and Vaudeville in New York and the Blue Banana chain in the United Kingdom. Farewell Skater Girl!

O Yeah

Billionaire talk show Oprah payed tribute to the talent of our local designers during her trip down under, wearing a number of show stopping Australian creations. Most notable was a vibrant electric green kaftan by Camilla Franks, worn to her lavish welcome dinner at the Botanical Gardens, and a fuchsia silk top with a column-style gold satin long skirt by Collette Dinagan worn at a twilight taping of show at the Opera House.

Epic

Ice queen Angelina Jolie looking particularly amazing in a jeweled Versace gown with ﬂowing black velvet at the premier of her new ﬁlm The Tourist in Madrid last week.

Fail

Wanna get laid? Send products and info to lure@3dworld.com.au

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The entire Kardashian family dressed up in a variety of expensive gowns for a very extravagant (and very air brushed) family portrait style Christmas card sent out friends and relatives. The overall eﬀect being very spooky.

THE FINAL CHRISTMAS WRAPPING THE WAITRESSES

SIZE MATTERS? It’s on 12”.

FEATURES?

This 1983 US new wave cut has a jingle bell intro, quickly gives way to a very non-Xmasy angular guitar and deadpan chick vocals. Plus, the lyric: “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas but I think I will miss this one this year.”

PROS?

It’s from hip NY ZE label (once home to Suicide, Material and Kid Creole) and there’s the A Christmas Record comp that this also appeared alongside all the label’s top acts.

CONS?

If you try to download it, don’t accidentally grab Spice Girls’ inferior cover.

COST? $1.69.

FROM? ITunes.

CHA CHA HEELS EARTHA KITT & BRONSKI BEAT

SIZE MATTERS?

The Bronksi boys and Ms Kitt were always fond of a good 12 inches.

FEATURES?

The 1989 hi-NRG disco burner has the line: “Are you ready heels? Start stomping!”

PROS?

It was inspired by John Waters’ 1974 fi lm Female Trouble where drag queen Divine trashes a family Xmas tree when she doesn’t get the cha cha heels she wanted from Santa.

CONS?

The song was written for Divine but he died before even the demo was recorded.

COST?

Depends if you are the type to steal a car or not, otherwise anywhere between $1 and $20.

FROM?

The interwebs or your local second-hand vinyl dealer.

AIN’T NO CHIMNEYS SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS

SIZE MATTERS?

At 2.40, it’s all about how you use it.

FEATURES?

Sharon Jones’ voice and The Dap-Kings’ soul stylings and brass.

PROS?

Jones singing: “When I was child I used to wonder how Santa put my toys under the tree/I said ‘Momma can you tell me how this can be when there ain’t no chimneys in the Projects?’.”

CONS?

Tracking down the original 7” vinyl released in 2009 takes some effort.

COST? $19.95.

FROM?

Buy the latest Mojo and this is included on their special Xmas-themed CD mount.

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