decoded_ Something for your mind… Something for your mind…

2000 And One and Ewan Pearson @ Lost Baggage – The Cross : 25.01.2009

Let’s get into 2009!

I had a really fun Saturday night on the 10th of January. Started my night hanging with friends watching Grace Jones perform live at the Domain for Sydney Festival First Night, she was fantastic and sounded excellent. My mate Tad saw her play at the Enmore Theatre later in the week, his great review here. We had to sit through The Cat Empire and Mr. Scruff play prior as well, not so into those sounds, but it had to be done, getting there early to score a patch of grass for us all to laze on.

Afterwards we walked through the city streets (blocked off to traffic) with thousands of people, to get a train to St.Peters, and had a bunch of great cocktails with new friends at their place, whilst they argued with their neighbour about noise issues, then sometime after 2am we drunkenly made our way up the road in taxis to the Deep As Fu*k – Warehouse Party in Tempe. The party was held in an old-school, dark, warehouse space, with about 200 people, which was just the right amount of people for the space, and featured UK techno DJ Simon Baker, who was finishing as we arrived, bummer, but we got to see D.A.F local DJ Rif Raf, play a great set of maximal/minimal techno, followed by another UK techno DJ guest, Radio Slave, who we felt played much better at this than on/at the Spice Afloat NYD boat cruise/party, a lot more solid all round! This was probably the best warehouse party I’ve been to in Sydney, everything was great; music, sound, crowd, vibe! I had an awesome time! More please!

Hello, welcome to 2009!

I hope you all had a fantastic Xmas and fun New Years Eve celebrations. Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

Sydney Harbour Fireworks NYE 2008/2009 By Tracey Nearmy AAP Image

I had great fun celebrating NYE at my home with a few friends, mixing up some choons, washing down tasty tapas Spanish food, with way too many cocktails, Mojito madness! And the trip to Long Island (Iced Tea) almost pushed me over the edge! Then at 2.30am we headed off to the city (scored a taxi no problems) for Spice Afloat a Sydney Harbour cruise/party aboard the MV Lady Rose boat/ship from 3am-10am. Which featured guest UK techno DJ’s Simon Baker and Radio Slave and Future Classic, Lost Baggage and Spice local DJ supports. I had a really fun time! Great music, great crowd. The night/morning is all a bit of a blur to be honest! I’m having trouble remembering some of the great tracks I heard/knew, and danced for hours to. The sun-rise was pretty special, out between the north and south heads, where Sydney Harbour meets the South Pacific Ocean. We were out on the top deck, grooving to the sounds of Simon Baker, cheering the first sun-rise of 2009! Woo!

So, the silly season continues! Here’s what’s on my radar so far, coming up, over January, event and international techno/minimal/deep-tech-house wise in Sydney, not everything is 100% confirmed, things can change etc. More updates soon…

04.01.09 : Carl Craig, Recloose, Radio Slave, A Guy Called Gerald + more @ Days Like This! Festival – Entertainment Quarter
09.01.09 : Jamie Lidell [Live/Band] @ Mad Racket Presents… – The Forum
10.01.09 : Various @ Sydney Festival 2009 – First Night – Sydney CBD
10.01.09 : Mike Monday @ Kink – Nevermind
10.01.09 : Radio Slave, Simon Baker @ Deep As Fu*k Warehouse Party – Secret Location
10.01.09 : Simon Baker @ LadyLux
10.01.09 : Oliver Huntemann, Cicada [Live] @ Switch – The Arthouse
11.01.09 : Simon Baker @ Spice – The Bunker
11.01.09 : Simon Baker @ Little Miss Sundays – LadyLux
23.01.09 : Holy Ghost, Idjut Boys @ Disco Nouveau – Sydney Festival 2009 – Becks Festival Bar
24.01.09 : Claude VonStroke, Christian Martin, Gucci Soundsystem, Unabombers @ Pulse Radio – Yacht Club 002 (Sydney Harbour Cruise) – MV Starship
24.01.09 : Rhythm & Sound (Tikiman), The Bug, Steve Spacek, Mark Pritchard @ Hyper-Dub – Sydney Festival 2009 – Becks Festival Bar
24.01.09 : Mathew Jonson [Live] @ Bread & Butter – LadyLux
25.01.09 : 2000 And One, Ewan Pearson @ Lost Baggage – The Cross
26.01.09 : 2000 And One @ Spice – The Bunker
30.01.09 : Jimpster @ A Reckless Fuss – Civic Underground
31.01.09 : Unabombers @ Bread & Butter – LadyLux
31.01.09 : Paul Woolford @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
31.01.09 : Tom Middleton @ Lookin’ Good – The Cross
31.01.09 : Mathew Jonson [Live] @ Deep As Fu*k – The Bunker

Plus, all the fun of the Sydney Festival 2009 Jan 10-31 on top!

So things went a bit crazy at the end of last year, with visiting international techno/minimal/deep-tech-house DJs/live acts partys/events here in Sydney.

I made it out to the ones in red, click them for my blog posts/comments.

20.09.08 : Oliver Koletzki @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
20.09.08 : Tigerskin AKA Dub Taylor [Live] @ Deep As Fu*k – The Bunker
21.09.08 : Oliver Koletzki @ Spice – The Bunker
28.09.08 : Bjorn Wilke @ Spice – The Bunker
05.10.08 : Paul Ritch @ Lost Baggage 1st Birthday – The Cross
11.10.08 : Samuel L. Session @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
18.10.08 : Mr.C @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
18.10.08 : Herbert @ Mad Racket (10th Birthday) – Marrickville Bowlo
25.10.08 : Deetron @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
25.10.08 : Tim Sweeney @ HaHa Industries – Discoteca Psicodélica
01.11.08 : Tom Clark @ Beware The Cat – Nevermind
01.11.08 : Hauke Freer @ A Late Night Shuffle – Macquarie Hotel
02.11.08 : Tom Clark @ Spice – The Bunker
08.11.08 : Alexander Robotnick [Live], DJ TLR, Yokoo @ Deep As Fu*k – The Bunker
14.11.08 : Joakim @ Future Classic – Civic Underground
15.11.08 : Shonky, Style Of Eye @ Lost Bagge – The Cross
16.11.08 : Style Of Eye, Shonky @ Spice – The Bunker
22.11.08 : Kazu Kimura @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
22.11.08 : Booka Shade [live] @ Stereosonic Satellite v1.0 – Enmore Theatre
22.11.08 : Carl Cox, Eric Powell @ Stereosonic Satellite v2.0 – Arthouse
28.11.08 : Pepperpot, Oliver A @ Le Fuss (Minimal Fuss) – Civic Underground
28.11.08 : DJ Hell, Vitalic, DJ Funk + more @ Stereosonic Satellite v4.0 – Manning Bar
29.11.08 : 16 Bit Lolitas @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
29.11.08 : Bjorn Wilke @ Kink – Nevermind
30.11.08 : Pepperpot, Bjorn Wilke @ Spice – The Bunker
30.11.08 : Kraftwerk [live], The Orb, DJ Sneak, Kazu Kimura + more @ Global Gathering Festival – Entertainment Quarter
04.12.09 : Greg Wilson @ Sundowners – Swiss-Grand Hotel Bondi
06.12.08 : Luciano, Greg Wilson @ Pulse Radio Yacht Club 001 (Sydney Harbour Cruise) – MV Starship
06.12.08 : Robert Babicz [live] @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry
06.12.08 : Luciano @ Kink – Nevermind
13.12.08 : Paco Osuna, Audiofly @ Lost Baggage – The Cross
13.12.08 : DJ Assault @ Oxford Art Factory
14.12.09 : Paco Osuna, Audiofly @ Spice – The Bunker
19.12.08 : A Guy Called Gerald @ Future Classic – Civic Underground
20.12.08 : Sammy Dee @ A Late Night Shuffle – Macquarie Hotel
20.12.08 : Alex Kid @ Deep As Fu*k – The Bunker
21.12.08 : Sammy Dee @ Spice – The Bunker
31.12.08 : Carl Craig + more @ The Club Club New Years Eve – Chinese Laundry
01.01.09 : Simon Baker, Radio Slave + more @ Spice Afloat – (Sydney Harbour Cruise) – Lady Rose

I’m looking forward to buying this Mix CD when it comes out! Check out the track-listing! That’s a lot of music!

Disc 1: Mizuiro Mix
Tadeo – Circunbalation I (Alex Under View)
Mikael Stavöstrand – Stol
Minilogue – In A Distance
Minilogue – Loud
Minilogue – We All
Forss – Journeyman
Yagya – Snowflake 2
Basic Channel – Remake (Basic Reshape)
Basic Channel – Q 1.2
Gel Abril – Your Face Is A Mess (Itamar Sagi Remix)
Ici.eme – Gran-Dii-Ree
Matthias Tanzmann – Rugby
Minilogue – Ghost (Dub)
Heiko Laux – Waves Ahead
Robert Babicz – Enjoy
Prompt – Ambee
Matthias Tanzmann – Keep On (Boris Werner Keep On Truckin’ Mix)
Vitalis Popoff – Lethe 1
Westley Matsell – Diffusion 27
Model 500 – Starlight (Echospace Dub)
Prompt feat. Onuba – Zora
Dub Kult – Crypt (District One Remix)
Julius Papp – Bole Beats
Kenneth Graham – Fire, Water, Machine
William Kouam Djoko – Hard Loving (Acapella)
Johnny D – Déjà Vu
Je Dávu – I Zebra
Dosem – Beach Kisses (Joris Voorn Edit)
Linus Quick – CopyPasteCut (District One Remix)
Cobblestone Jazz – W
Tigerskin – Peter’s Secret Weapon
Solomun – Black Rose (Trickski Remix)
H.O.S.H. & Stimming – Radar
John Thomas, Barbara Goes – Mother’s Dance #2
System 7 / Derrick May – Altitude (Mayday Mix)
The Martian – Star Dancer
Ambivalent – R U OK (Acapella)
Polder – Topdrop
Dubfire – Ribcage
Emmanuel Top – Stress
Silicon Soul – 3am (Balance Beatless Version)
Jerome Sydenham, Tiger Stripes – Elevation (Radio Slave One More Kiss Remix)
Elon – Snorting Pinky (Justin Maxwell Remix B)
Sascha Funke – Mango (Berlin Calling Edit)
Paul Kalkbrenner – Moob
Sascha Funke – The Fortune Cookie Symphony
Goldie – Timeless
Joakim – Peter Pan Over The Bronx
Secede – Born In A Tropical Swamp
Quiet Village – Gold Rush
Sensorama – Aspirin (Global Communication Remix)

Disc 2: Midori Mix
Âme – Doldrums
Imps – Bubble And Squeek
Nick Solé – Children
Les Chocolats – Ride The Beat
Kaoru Inoue – The Secret Field (Todd Terje Remix)
Nova Nova – Prayer
Elitechnique – Electric Evening
Elitechnique – Spectral Escape
Len Faki – My Blackapella
Len Faki – My Synthapella
Prawler – Phat Laces (Harada Remix)
Paul Nazca – Flash
Mood II Swing – Move Me
Prawler – Phat Laces (Harada Remix)
Henrik Schwarz – Leave My Head Alone Brain (Acapella)
Ricardo Villalobos – Easy Lee (Smith n Hack Remix)
Minilogue – Ghost (Dub)
Sean Deason – Psykofuk
Agnès – Daaahhhh
Agnès – Treat Me Bad
Radio Slave – Tantakatan
Blamstrain – A Song For Jonas
The Aloof – Going Home
Christian Smith & John Selway – Illusion (Version)
Yagya – Change
Feline 9 – Heavy
Gegenheimer – Spiritual Love (Acoustic Raw Demo Version)
Kettel – Coddle
Carl Craig – Attitude
Flying Lotus – Brainfeeder
Joris Voorn – Moog Bits
Poni Hoax – Faces In The Water
Joris Voorn – Additional String Bits
Robert Babicz – Dark Flower (Joris Voorn Magnolia Mix)
Joakim – Are You A Vegetarian?
Tantra – A Place Called Tarot (Idjut Boys Re-Edit)
Joakim – Peter Pan Over The Bronx
Leftfield – Rhino’s Prayer (Album Version)
Rhythm & Sound – King In My Empire
Marc Romboy – Elif
Minilogue – Old Water
Markus Dolic – Blood
Martin Landsky – FM Safari (Patrick Chardronnet’s Silent Snake Remix)
Jimpster – The Last Tape
Marcello Giordani – Respect Yourself
Carl Craig – At Les
Innerzone Orchestra – At Les
Radiohead – Nude (Ripperton $9 Mix)
Aphex Twin – Heliosphan
F.U.S.E. – Into The Space
Spinvis – Mare Frigoris

~~~

From: http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=9982…

Most of the tracks used have been heavily edited, and according to Voorn, sometimes he “only used the break or the intro.” Speaking about the mix on his MySpace, Voorn said that “the process of making this mix has been more like painting with sound rather than mixing the end of one track with the beginning of another. Working this way has been very interesting for me and made the project into something very different than a conventional DJ mix CD.”

Long-term fans of Voorn won’t be surprised by his approach to the mix, as his FUSE compilation from 2005 saw him use a similar methodology. This time around, however, he’s using a higher frequency of smaller loops to create a sound collage that relies less on the individual tracks themselves. Continuing on his MySpace blog, he added that he “won’t be pleasing everyone with these mixes, some listeners will be happily or uneasily surprised, but at least it’s pushing my own boundaries in a technical, but even more so, in a musical and artistic way.”

http://www.balance-series.com

~~~

He’s playing in Sydney at Kink @ Nevermind on the 7th Februrary 2009!

His set in March 2008 on the MV Lady Rose (Sydney Harbour boat cruise) was one of my fave sets/parties in 2008. I’m looking forward to hearing him play again.

Wir fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n auf der Autobahn…

Went to the Global Gathering event on Sunday here in Sydney, held at the Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park, in the Hordern Pavilion, Royal Hall Of Industries, Forum and concrete surrounds.

Kraftwerk. Awesome, once again! Such a unique, minimal, fantastic live show, quite theatrical with the curtain closing/opening during the show to reveal new costumes and robots! Simple, beautiful, pure, electronic music. They were the main (only) reason we went to this event. I never would have thought I’d ever get see them live, and now I’ve seen them twice, very happy!

Starting with ‘The Man-Machine’, also playing ‘The Model’, ‘The Robots’ (performed by actual robot versions of themselves, f**king cool!), ‘Numbers’, ‘Trans-Europe Express’, ‘Radioactivity’, ‘Showroom Dummies’, ‘Computer World’, ‘Computer Love’, ‘Tour De France’, ‘Boing Boom Tschak’, ‘Musique Non Stop’. I got spine tingles from ‘Autobahn’ again. I listened to that album 100’s of times as a kid in the mid-late 1970s, yeah I’m that old! And I think they also played ‘Home Computer’ and/or ‘It’s More Fun To Compute’ and possibly a couple more. They didn’t play ‘Pocket Calculator’ though. Was odd most people stood motionless watching them, those sounds had me moving with a huge grin. Fantastic!

The Orb. Great to finally see them live. I wish I got to see them in the very early 90s when I was really into them though. I used to love chilling out to the ambient, psychedelic sound-scape, dub/dance sounds of their ‘The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (Deluxe Edition)’ and ‘Aubrey Mixes: The Ultraworld Excursions’ CD albums.

They performed live, four guys on stage, a drummer, a rapper/MC on the mic, and then two other guys (one of them being main man Alex Paterson) behind decks, laptops, synths/controllers etc. A fun mash up of noises, sound-scapes, breaks, deep basslines, and slow techno beats. Starting with a cover of Eminem – ‘Without Me’ which was funny/bizzare. Also heard ‘The Muppet Show’ theme cut up with Electric Six – ‘Gaybar’ over some serious frantic beats, the ‘Star Trek’ theme, a guitar riff from a Pink Floyd song (can’t remember it’s name) floated in and out of the mix. It was really nice to hear their tracks ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’, ‘Perpetual Dawn’, ‘A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld’, and I think ‘Toxygene’ was played as well. I liked! I don’t think much of the crowd had any idea who they were or what to expect, not helped by playing between trance acts.

DJ Sneak. You always know what to expect from him, that same old, jackin’, boompty, old-school, house music, with vibes of hip-hop, with some girly vocals, and splashes of latino piano and percussions. Fun to hear some blasts from the past too, Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You, followed by Daft Punk – Around The World. I had a boogie to his set. Yep, the kids don’t understand rolling house grooves, they can’t dance continuously, they just want to go from big breakdown to build every few minutes, or they lose interest, which they did. The act on before, that went over time, that I’m not even going to name, was such horrible cheese, I expected it was going to be bad, but it was even worse than I thought possible. I’ll tell you where you can shove that tumpet. I can’t believe the kids like that crap.

Fisherspooner. Was one of the guys, not sure if it was Warren Fisher or Casey Spooner, being quite funny on a mic, with female DJ Lauren Flax on CD decks. As expected lots of buzzy, synthy, stonkin’ electro-house sounds were played, tight mix though. They played their track ‘Emerge’ with live vocals, which was cool. They didn’t play ‘Just Let Go’ though, which I would have loved to hear, about the only two Fisherspooner tracks I like/know.

Some un-expected blasts from the past got mixed up during their set, in remix form… Outlander – ‘Vamp’, Reese (Kevin Saunderson) – ‘Rock To The Beat’, also heard Darryl Pandy’s vocals from his and Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk track – ‘Love Can’t Turn You Around’, and another classic female vocal from an early house song I’m having mental blank on, something like ‘Finally’, or ‘We Are Family’. It was all a strange mix of sound/styles but it somehow seemed to work. A bit of an odd warm-up for Kraftwerk though.

Seems to be a big nod to older music happening at the moment.

Heard about 15 minutes of Sasha outside whilst Joanne ate a German sausage (the food that is) in the food area at the back. It’s good to see nothing has changed in the world of plod, sorry prog, with more time without beats than with, or maybe it was just the lack of bass on that outdoor system. Although people in the crowd complained of too much bass, not a well setup system I guess. I don’t think that style of music suited being outdoors in the sun. Heard a bit of Gorillaz Sound System whilst having a sit down in the Hordern Pavilion, I wish I hadn’t, heard them that is. I couldn’t resist asking Joanne a number of times, in my Nigel (Spinal Tap) accent… ‘Is This A Joke?’, they are basically just a bad commercial dance cover band.

It was an ok event, nothing special apart from Kraftwerk and The Orb, but I had fun. I’m glad it wasn’t a sell out event, I think they got maybe 10,000 people, and were expecting double that. So it was pretty easy and quick to get in, get around, get drinks, get in toilets etc. You could tell production costs had been cut, but it didn’t spoil my day or the acts I saw. Any negative thoughts were wiped clear once Kraftwerk started. It was great having them play last, made for a happy exit.

A small turn out, but makes for a much more comfortable night in this venue. I really like the Civic Underground, it’s probably my favourite club in Sydney. Lots of great minimal/house music was played by Matt Aubusson, and French guests Pepperpot and Oliver A for the couple of hours we were there. Infact we heard more excellent music here within 20 minutes than we did our entire night at the last Lost Baggage.

Meh! What a crappy night.

Not well attended, not much vibe, crowd seemed younger than usual for a LB party. Style Of Eye played bangin’ electro-house type stuff, full of massive white noise breaks/builds, which is what I expected, but not really a fan of, he had that room going off though. Shonky was dissapointing, playing unmemorable, pumping, tech-house choons, pushing the mixer beyond it’s limits, making for bad sound. I was hoping to have heard some of his original deep, bleepy, minimal goodness, the sounds that put him on my radar, but it wasn’t to be, left after 45mins, after waiting hours for him to start.