decoded_ Something for your mind… Something for your mind…

I don’t think I’ll be heading out to anything in July myself, I’ll be staying in and saving $. I’ll be away in the USA in August. I would have loved to have seen Solomun, ahh well, should be seeing some great stuff in the U.S.A, including Depeche Mode, Steve Bug, John Tejada, Reboot and more.

Here are some club nights/events with international techno/minimal/deep-tech-house DJ/live acts coming up in Sydney…

JULY 2009…
18.07.09 : Worthy @ Lost Baggage – The Cross
18.07.09 : Kazu Kimura @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry

AUGUST 2009…
01.08.09 : Vincenzo @ Co-Op – Civic Underground
02.08.09 : Vincenzo @ Spice – *new venue* Kings Cross Hotel
15.08.09 : Thomas Schumacher @ Lost Baggage – The Cross
15.08.09 : Solomun, Isolee [Live], Arto Mwambe @ Berlin Sessions – Civic Hotel

Well, that’s all for now, updates as I hear more.

Party on!

~~~

Please note: I do my best to post up accurate info, but dates, artists, venues can change etc.

Also, if you’re after info on other techno/minimal club nights with more local flavour in Sydney, check out the Sydney Loves Techno blog.

Also, the InTheMix – Sydney – What’s On section lists a whole range of electronic music events/club nights, check it out here.

Hello, here’s my next ‘reflections’ post, with thoughts and comments about my club/music nights out in Sydney this year. I was considering doing them in sequence, but let’s bounce around in time instead, here’s what I got up to last Saturday, going out to two clubs/events.

H.O.S.H. @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry : 27.06.2009

It’s nice to see the guys from the Diynamic Music label in Hamburg Germany finally getting out here to play in Australia. I wish it had been a year earlier though. Stimming played here a few months ago, and coming up in August we have Isolée and Solomun. This past Saturday we were treated to H.O.S.H. playing for us.

I’ve bought a lot of these guys’ tracks, remixes, and releases over the last couple of years, a lot on the Diynamic Music label. ‘White Elephant’ by H.O.S.H. on Kindisch, is still one of my favourite tracks of the last few years.

There was quite a queue/wait to get into Chinese Laundry when we arrived at 11.30pm, but we made it inside just before H.O.S.H. started up in the cave around midnight, it was very full/busy, but not as rammed as it’s been on some nights there, so not too bad, room to groove.

H.O.S.H. was ok, mixing was decent enough, he played some nice tracks, working his way from the deeper side of tech-house, with some tribal flavours, through to more beat based minimal/tech-house/techno sounds. He mixed up many recent releases with tracks from a year or more ago, and a couple of oldies.

I knew (and have bought myself) the majority of the tracks he played though, so no unknown gems to thirst for unfortunately. I was also disappointed he didn’t play more of his own deeper, lovely melodic productions, and more from the Diynamic label, maybe there were some new forthcoming releases played, some of the tracks I didn’t know.

He got great crowd response, more so for the tougher sounds in the later part of his set. Dance floor remained busy. I’m glad I got to see him play, it was good, but not one of those nights I’ll remember for anything special really.

Here’s what I spotted in his 2 hour set…

M.in – Work That Body
Tom Clark & Daniel Dreier – 13 Cookies
Masomenos – Les Trois Petits Cochons
Julian Chaptal – Mamdaye
Butch & Virginia – From Above
Argy – Love Dose (Luciano Remix)
Shlomi Aber – Tokyo Shanghai
Marco Carola – Long Jump
Robert Dietz – Kanban
Guido Schneider & Andre Galluzzi – Albertino
Zombie Disco Squad – The Dance
Cristian Vogel – Xpute The Woop Woop
DBX – ?
The Sunburst Band – Journey To The Sun (Dennis Ferrer Dub)
Anthony Collins – I Wanna Give (Dubvox)

It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Chinese Laundry. The last time was for Deetron in October last year. There really hasn’t been any internationals playing there since, that I’ve been interested enough in seeing. Not that it really bothers me, I’m not much of a fan of being squashed amongst the type of young, over-excited crowd that venue attracts. I get the feeling it’s the first night-club a lot of these kids ever get out to.

Check out some H.O.S.H. productions…

Check out the sounds on the Diynamic Music label…

More Data:

http://www.diynamic.com
http://www.myspace.com/hoshme

Mike Shannon @ Deep As Fu*k – The Bunker : 27.06.2009

Leaving Chinese Laundry around 1.50am, I headed up to Kings Cross to the Bunker for a Deep As Fu*k night featuring guest Canadian minimal, techno/house DJ/producer Mike Shannon who was playing 2am till close.

As I expected may be the case, there were not very many people there, lack of hype and him being known by very few, plus so much else on the same w/end; Louie Vega, Dimitri From Paris, Kode 9, H.O.S.H. etc, all being the reasons why I would guess. There were maybe 50 people there at most, which isn’t too bad in the bunker because it’s a very intimate small space.

I really liked what Mike Shannon was mixing up, a nice variety of fresh/different minimal, techno/house sounds, some of it sounding quite funky. Mixing was tight. I think he was using both vinyl and CDs. He kept up a good paced flow of interesting music for the most part. I had a good boogie. For a while there he had everyone in the room dancing and cheering him on, but then there were quite a few sections later on, where he cleared the dance floor, from 3.30am onwards the place started to empty out, I left an hour later.

I didn’t know much of what he played. I remember hearing that new Santos – Hold Home track, and I’m sure there was some Lee Curtiss and Mark Henning stuff played, maybe some stuff from the Dial, and Frankie Records labels too, and no doubt his own productions and releases and artists from his Cynosure label.

I was keen to find out what a couple of killer tracks were during his set, so I asked him for a couple of track IDs, between mixes of course. He reluctantly gave me one ID, a remix he did of a Kenny Glasgow track (‘System Overload’ I later found out), but on asking for another ID much later on, this is where my positive vibes for him took a bit of a dive.

I thought the days of that old-school Detroit techno attitude of guarding your music, were long gone, I guess not. He could of just told me he doesn’t really like giving out IDs and I would have respected that, but to be honest he acted like a bit of dick, DJ ego huh.

Thanks to the D.A.F crew for having him play.

So, what’s been happening international techno/minimal/deep-tech-house party, event, club night wise in Sydney?

I’ve made it out to the red ones, thoughts and comments posted up soon.

APRIL 2009…
09.04.09 : Audiojack + More @ Lost Baggage – The Cross
10.04.09 : The Mole ** @ LadyLux (Good Friday) Boat Cruise – MV Lady Rose
11.04.09 : Daniel Steinberg, Marc Romboy @ Switch – The Arthouse
11.04.09 : Spencer Parker, Djuma Sound System @ Kink – Nevermind
12.04.09 : Tiger Stripes @ Paul Strange Presents – Favela
12.04.09 : Trentemoller (DJ Set) + More @ Killer Easter – The Metro
12.04.09 : Minilogue (DJ Set – Sebastian Mullaert), Marc Romboy, Daniel Dreier + More @ Easter Teknival ’09 (Deep As Fu*k & Likes Of You) – The Cross / The Bunker
13.04.09 : Daniel Dreier + More @ Spice – The Bunker
17.04.09 : Djuma Sound System @ SideRoom – LadyLux
18.04.09 : Djuma Sound System @ Bread & Butter – LadyLux
18.04.09 : Spencer Parker @ Wham (Office) – World Bar
18.04.09 : Tiger Stripes @ Kink – Nevermind
18.04.09 : Daniel Dreier @ Deep Impressions – The Bunker
19.04.09 : Spencer Parker @ Spice – The Bunker
19.04.09 : Djuma Sound System @ Little Miss Sundays – LadyLux
24.04.09 : Stimming [Live], Justus Kohncke [Live], Marcus Worgull + More @ Becks : Berlin Sessions – Civic Hotel/Underground
24.04.09 : Konrad Black @ Glitch – Nevermind
25.04.09 : Luztenkirchen, Martin Eyerer, Tomcraft + More @ 5 Years Of Great Stuff – The Arthouse
25.04.09 : Spencer Parker @ Bread & Butter – LadyLux (Closing For Renovations)
25.04.09 : Henning Richter, Luke Le Mans @ Deep As Fu*k – The Bunker

MAY 2009…
09.05.09 : Stacey Pullen @ Sneakerpeeps (Hardware/Paul Strange) – Favela
16.05.09 : Loco Dice, Hernan Cattaneo, Jesse Rose, Oliver $, King Roc + More @ The Likes Of You – The Metro
16.05.09 : Trus’ Me, Mic Newman + More @ Lost (Baggage) Disco – The Cross
23.05.09 : Motorcitysoul, The Revenge + More @ Co-Op – 53-55 Liverpool St (La Campana)

JUNE 2009…
05.06.09 : Justin Martin @ WLS Pre-Party – Favela
06.06.09 : Anja Schneider, 16 Bit Lolitas, Popof [Live], Dinky, Guy Gerber [Live], Justin Martin + More @ We Love Sounds : Winter Music Festival ’09 – Entertainment Quarter (Ends 10pm)
06.06.09 : Popof, 16 Bit Lolitas, Dinky, Guy Gerber + More @ We Love Sounds – Official After Party # 2 – The Cross / The Bunker / The Bourbon
06.06.09 : Yam Who? @ Mad Racket – The Cover Up – Marrickville Bowlo
06.06.09 : Riva Starr @ One Love – Tank
07.06.09 : Jennifer Cardini, Pan/Tone / Sid Le Rock [Live], Popnoname [Live], Chris Fortier, Magik Johnson + More @ Deep As Fu*k 6th Birthday & Kompakt Records Australia Tour – The Cross / The Bunker / The Bourbon
27.06.09 : H.O.S.H. @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
27.06.09 : Mike Shannon @ Deep As Fu*k – The Bunker

~~~

Some techno/minimal/tech-house type artists being advertised, and mentioned as playing here in Sydney in coming months, and towards the end of the year: Thomas Schumacher, Vincenzo, Worthy, Isolee [Live], Solomon, Arto Mwambe, Johnny D, Nick Curly, Steve Bug, Omar S, Ben Klock, Matthew Dear/Audion [Live], Oxia, Marcel Dettman, Format:B, Michael Cleis, Reboot, Luca Bacchetti, Alex Smoke, Shed [Live], Kazu Kimura, Sascha Dive, and more…

Please note: I do my best to get accurate info, but dates, artists, venues can change etc.

Updates regularly as I hear more.

Also, if you’re after info on other techno/minimal club nights with more local flavour in Sydney, check out the Sydney Loves Techno blog.

Also, the InTheMix – Sydney – What’s On section lists a whole range of electronic music events/club nights, check it out here.

Party on!

Welcome to the first of my ‘reflections’ posts. Written thoughts and comments about past minimal, tech-house, techno, house etc. music party/club events, featuring international DJ/producers and live acts, that I’ve been out to here in Sydney, and until now had not yet blogged about.

I’ve had most of these posts sitting in my drafts for months. I really have no excuses for the delay publishing them, other than being both too busy and too slack.

Let’s head back to the start of the year, when it was much warmer than it is currently here in Sydney…

Claude VonStroke, Christian Martin, Unabombers, Gucci Soundsystem @ Pulse Radio Yacht Party 002 – MV Starship (Sydney Harbour Cruise) : 24.01.2009

Claude VonStroke @ Pulse Radio Yacht Party 002 – MV Starship (Sydney Harbour Cruise) : 24.01.2009
Photo by Patrick Munoz from RA

Ahoy, me mateys! We were back again, cruising the waters of beautiful Sydney Harbour on the very modern, stylish, comfortable, multi-level ship/boat: MV Starship. And, once again it was another sweltering hot summer’s day, with blue skies and the sun beating down upon us, with 35-40+ (c) degree temperatures.

All the little problems from the previous party featuring Luciano on the same boat/ship (read about here) a month prior, seemed to have been taken care of. Everything was much better organised, less queues, less waiting, more staff/service, all made for an enjoyable, fun day.

I really don’t have any complaints, I guess just a little one. I would have liked to have heard some deeper, softer sounds to warm up into my day, but that’s just me and my old-schoool ways. The ‘up-for-it’ party vibe started from the second we we were all on board, and departing from the dock around noon.

The crowd was great, friendly, happy, lots of smiles, lots of babes in next to no clothing, lots of people there following the hype from the first party they didn’t attend, did attend, mixed in with the true music lovers and clubbers. Sound systems on both levels were Funktion One, once again. They are certainly loud, but I’m still not won over on their sound. I was thinking, they remind me of the sound people would get with mega Hi-Fi systems in the 80’s setting the multi-band graphic equalizers into a smile shape, with over boosted lows and tops, and nothing in the middle range.

San Francisco DJ/producer Claude VonStroke does a fantastic job of bringing the party vibe. This is the second time I’ve seen him play in Sydney. He layed down a great mix of fun, party, tech-house and minimal sounds, with some nice deeper moments. There were lots of buzzy, synthetic melodies and sounds, deep throbbing bass-lines and tones, white noise builds, and little sonic influences from electro-house, techno, drum’n’bass, hip-hop, house, r’n’b, reggae, and ethnic, tribal, Latin percussions all sneaking their way in, much like the sounds you find across his Dirtybird label, and with the darker tones from his Mothership label. I was impressed with the amount of his own productions, remixes and releases from his labels that he played. His great remix of Sydney’s Poxymusic – War Paint, brought a big cheer, nice to see recognition from the crowd. A few of his own tracks/remixes I remember hearing him play…

Claude VonStroke – Who’s Affraid Of Detroit?
Poxymusic – War Paint (Claude VonStroke Remix)
Claude VonStroke – Scarlet Macaw
Claude VonStroke – Deep Throat

I have to say, I’m not as much of a fan of those sounds as I used to be in years gone by, but he certainly had the dance floor jumpin’ and the boat a’ rockin’ and I had fun.

I wasn’t as into the sounds mixed up by his label co-founder/mate Christian Martin, who played prior, and leaned more towards the, dare I say, electro-house style sounds, and generally just sounded more buzzy and noisy in comparison. at times it was like breaks meets acid-house. The crowd loved it all though. There were certainly some good moments, a few tracks I remember hearing him drop.

Roel H. – Dancing Bears (Phil Kieran Remix), thanks to Dariya for the ID.
And.ID – Acapulco
Tim Green – Revox (Justin Martin Remix)

Unlike the previous party on the same ship/boat, this time I actually managed to explore more of it, and spent some time on the middle deck with open sides, chilling out. I even made it up to the very top level outdoor deck, checking out some disco/nu-disco type sounds amongst the sun worshipers, I only lasted a few minutes up on that hot plate though.

All in all, it was a good fun day shared with new and old friends with solid, fun sounds. Reading, editing and posting this up in June, makes me realise how much I miss that happy, warm, summer vibe. I really enjoy these day-time harbour boat cruise parties, makes for nice change from being out all night till early morning in night clubs.

More data:
http://www.myspace.com/claudevonstroke
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Claude+VonStroke
http://www.mothershipmusic.com/
http://www.dirtybirdrecords.com/

Here, you can check out some Claude VonStroke tracks, remixes, releases…

And his Dirtybird label…

And his Mothership label…

Here’s a link to the ITM thread all about the party.

Here’s a great photo I found on Flickr, of Richie Hawtin and the current digital DJing setup he’s using.

Richie Hawtin @ Nocturnal Festival 2008 – Los Angeles, CA : 13.09.2008
Photo by Caesar Sebastian from Flickr

I didn’t feel like spending $130 (or how ever much it was) to go to Future Music Festival 2009 last w/end, with Richie Hawtin being the only act on the line-up that I was interested in seeing. It seems we’ve missed out on a side-show party for him here in Sydney too, which is disappointing.

I heard Richie played well at FMF 2009, here’s what my minimal/techno DJ friend Matt Aubusson had to say about Richie’s set…

He had buuuckets of groove from start to finish. Rolling, relentless minimal techno. He started off with an errorsmith track and then went into a little bit of that clickety clackety minimal, but after about 5 mins he settled into a solid groove of proper minimal techno and never left it. He very smoothly took it up to techno for about 10 minutes in the middle, but then grooved it right out again. There were sections towards the end where he was playing kinda broken beaty stuff which was basically just bassline with a click and it sounded awesome on the system. Massively exceeded my expectations, after not being that keen on what he’s been playing recently. Given the festival setting, I was sure he was going to play that really noisey stuff they’re passing off as minimal at the moment with lots of big buildups, and pepper it with things like Spastik, Dios, Erotic City and No Control, but he never went near any of that stuff. Recognised bugger all of what he was playing – maybe half a dozen tracks. Very little ‘big techno’. He was pretty much continuously looping elements of the last track/s he had mixed before mixing a new one in. There was lots going on when he was playing the broken beat stuff – stuff that wouldn’t have been out of place on Closer, with a loop going at the same time. I think everyone there enjoyed it so much because he absolutely nailed it. And he laid off the effects too.

I’m excited about this party coming up on Friday, really looking forward to seeing Stimming live!

Stimming [Live] (Diynamic)
Justus Köhncke [Live] (Kompakt)
Marcus Worgull (Innervisions)

Civic Hotel – Sydney
Friday 24th April 2009

Becks Berlin Sessions Sydney
http://www.inthemix.com.au/berlinsessions/
http://www.futureclassic.com.au

More data: Konrad Black @ Glitch – Nevermind : 24.04.2009