decoded_ Something for your mind… Something for your mind…

Tom Clark @ Pulse Radio Present… Tom Clark @ Kink – Nevermind : 01.11.2008 : Photo by FriniK from ITM.

Here’s a fantastic, well written review by holzmarktstr 25 (It looks like someone likes Bar 25 in Berlin) on ITM, check it out first then read my thoughts below…

http://www.inthemix.com.au/events/reviews/40363/Kink_feat_Tom_Clark_Nevermind_Sydney_011108

Nevermind is a newly renovated club at 163-169 Oxford Street, in Darlinghurst. There have been a lot of different and separate clubs (and club-nights) upstairs at this spot on Oxford Street over the years; ‘Suzie Q’s’, ‘Havana Club De Luxe’, ‘Mylk Lounge’, ‘Tantra Bar’, ‘Byblos’, and many more. I think this might even have been where the old ‘Zoom’ was in the early 1990’s. Before my time in Sydney, but I have friends who went, shouts to Justin and Murray.

I think 2005 was the last time I went to this venue, it was Suzie Q’s at the time, and I saw The Hacker [Live] & David Carretta [Live] who were both excellent. I also remember seeing James Holden at a Sweet Chilli night there a couple of months earlier, sneaking away from a Chris Liebing party at the Gaelic Club the same night, that was a musical contrast! Liked James Holden’s sounds better.

So, back to Tom Clark @ Kink. This night was co-presented by Internet radio station Pulse Radio. Pulseradio (as it used to be) has some history in this same venue, it’s where their launch party was held, back in 2000, the club was called Tantra at the time. I performed live as TECHiONE that night (photo at bottom of this page). That party was a huge success, the venue reached capacity at 11pm, with a long line of people still wanting to get in left outside. Times have changed huh! I had weekly DJ radio shows on Pulseradio from 2000-2007. It’s under new management now.

So, Nevermind… I was really impressed with how the club is set out and set up. It looks great, feels comfortable. Check out these photos of the renovation work, and how it turned out when completed. Some interesting artwork around the place. A good sized dance-floor space, nice bars, friendly staff. A++ would visit again for sure.

Minimal lighting, but not much needed with the excellent visuals/graphics they have setup in front of, and behind the DJ booth. Finally a club in Sydney, Australia catches up to the ubercoolische looking DJ booths in clubs and at parties in Europe. I imagine it’s a mesh/screen of 1000’s of small red, green, blue LEDs interfaced to a computer, emulating dots on a TV. It’s very impressive, very bright too! It would look even better if they kept those Oxford Street light blocking curtains behind the DJ booth area closed. I mention this because it distracted me. VJ Morph was doing a great job with visuals.

You can see the visuals/graphics in action at Nevermind in these YouTube clips below. Probably best not to take too much notice of the music in these clips. Can’t people clap in time with the music anymore?

So, how’s it sound? They have a Funktion-One sound system, with some satellite speakers around the venue. It’s decent, loud and clear, but not very bass heavy I thought. Not like the massive bass the Funktion-One system had at Mad Racket last time. Actually the volume and bass levels seemed to be up/down the whole night at Nevermind. I’m not sure if that was DJ mixer error, or lack of audio processing, compression/tuning etc. I’m sure they are still working the bugs out of the system, being a new club etc., but it has potential to be awesome.

We got treated to some horrible audio feedback when Tom Clark first started up, using vinyl records, unable to bring the volume level up. It sounded like the turntable needles were feeding back through the system/monitors. I wonder, with the amount of DJs using CDs now in Sydney, it’s quite possible the system was setup and tuned with CDs, and never had vinyl run through it before, I wouldn’t think so, but that’s what it sounded like. Anyway, a laptop was quickly setup, guessing either his or someone else’s Serato/Final/Traktor-Scratch system, the sound/volume was restored, and Tom got things under way.

As far as music… Tom Clark played a lot more darker, tougher, colder sounds than I expected. With him coming out of Berlin’s summer I was perhaps expecting more musical, deep-house style minimal flavours, or maybe that’s just what I wanted to hear, that’s not really his sound though. I’ve seen Tom play in Sydney a few times now, every time he’s been out I think, right back to his first gig at Crunch.

I didn’t know much of what he played on the night, but I liked it. It was fun to dance to, good, solid, minimal, techno/tech-house music. Unfortunately only about 30 people in the club felt the same and actually danced, which probably didn’t encourage him to set the floor on fire. A lot of it sounded like stuff that could be on his Highgrade label, although I didn’t recognise any tracks. I’m sure there was quite a bit of Format:B stuff played. There were no real stand-out moments for me though, where I had a burning desire to ask for track IDs, nothing that memorable. He finished up 30 minutes earlier than his 3 hour set time. I hope his set after at Spice was more appreciated.

The young/new-to-clubbing (I felt old here) ‘trendy’ crowd (see here) that were the majority of the 100-200 people there earlier didn’t seem very interested in the sounds/music, or in being in the club for very long, short attention spans? lack of patience? Probably not happy with the lack of MOS style sounds. The place was pretty much empty by 2.30am just as Tom Clark finished up. I’ve never seen a club empty out like that before, it was quite strange to witness.

I think it’s going to be a real challenge to get an older or music loving/focused crowd back to an Oxford Street club, and to change people’s perception of the Kink brand/sound. I was never a fan of Kink before (I doubt I would have got let into the Arthouse), but I like where they are going with their sound/style now. I’ve heard rumours of some good minimal/techno internationals coming up.

I hope Nevermind succeeds, it just needs to find a good supportive crowd. A lot of thought, time, money and passion has gone into putting this club together, and that deserves to be supported. I look forward to my next visit to Nevermind.

I just wish it wasn’t on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. It’s a scary place to be out at night on the w/ends now, such an aggressive, ugly vibe. There are packs of ethnic, roided up guys walking around seemingly just looking for, or to cause, trouble! It’s not good. This used to be the funky, trendy, gay friendly ‘place to be’ in Sydney back in the day. It’s sad what it has become now. What happened? Why is there so much violence around now? This happened just up the road, about 30 minutes after getting into the club, I’m glad I missed it!

http://www.clubnevermind.com

Deetron @ The Club Club – Chinese Laundry : 25.10.2008 : Photo by Hobietje from ITM.

So, it sadly seems not many Sydney techno people are interested in Deetron anymore. I think there were no more than maybe 8 people in the Cave at Chinese Laundry who knew who he was, and even less who had probably seen him play before amongst the 50 or so people in there whilst I was there. I think everyone was in the other room for DJ Hyper.

I remember Deetron’s first visit to Sydney way back in the early 2000’s, his records got lost in transit, and my record collection was called on to help him out, that was a great night/set!

Unfortunately on this occasion, he pretty much cleared the floor/room with his sounds, starting very deep with the lovelly nu-disco track ‘Afterski’ by Ytre Rymden Dansskola and then working his way through some deep, house, techno, tribal sounds. I just don’t think the usual young Chinese Laundry crowd understood the music, too many deep, rolling house/tribal grooves, not enough (electro-ish) musical hooks for them to mentally grab on to, to keep them interested. I know he’s been heading towards a more soulful house/deep-house sound for quite sometime, taking in disco/nu-disco, jazz, funk influences, but he’s still playing a lot of tribal, bongo, loops, which surprised me. He used them as bridges between melodic tracks, and as layers in the mix to cut against, which is cool, but I felt makes for too much variation in sound intensity and audio quality, especially when going from/to old (thin sounding) vinyl records, new (fat sounding) records and CDs, quite a dynamic range contrast.

I think the problem is with me though. I’m probably now too used to the sound of CDs being used, hearing compressed flat, minimal tracks blended together, with next to no dynamic range being experienced.

It’s worrying there is a whole new wave of kids clubbing now who have probably never heard that style of Jeff Mills, Derrick May, Ben Sims, multi-deck techno mixing, tweeking the EQs, cutting faders, using records as tools and layers, mixing up old classics with new releases, and lots of variations of intensity in a mix. It’s been a long time since any of those guys have played here actually. Plus, most of the punters who would know of those guys and have seen them play in Sydney in the past, probably don’t club much anymore, if at all.

Some track IDing on the night…

Ytre Rymden Dansskola – Afterski
Moodymann – I Can’t Kick This Feelin When It Hits
Moodymann – Shades Of Jae
Chez Damier – Untitled (KMS049)
MDIII – The Pressure Cooker (Phil Weeks Remix)
Deetron – I Believe
Dop – I’m Just A Man
Ralph Sliwinnski – Pox Rox (Johnny D Remix)
Idjut Boys – Sarbeni Drums
Sui Generis – Speaking Terms
Aural Distortion – Plasma (Peter Dildo Remix)

I’m guessing this below was played too, I’ve not heard it yet, but I’ve read Deetron is a fan…

Christian Vance – Tiger Snake

Nice tunes, but it just felt like the wrong music for the crowd, and the lack of numbers, lack of understanding and energy/support from the dance-floor didn’t get the best out of Deetron, who does have some amazing skills when fired up, and is a very talented producer.

I was only there for the first hour of his set, so things may have got better later on. I hope so.

I left behind those tribal, funky techno sounds about 5 years ago, and not being a huge fan of old-school house, funk, disco, jazz music, I was probably not going to get that much enjoyment out of this set anyway. I do still buy the odd Deetron production here and there though, I used to buy everything he released in years gone by. Most recently I bought the Henrik Schwarz remix of his “Let’s Get Over It”, which is a really nice track, and I’m usually not a fan of vocals.

I don’t think Deetron would have had a very memorable time this trip to Australia, gig wise. I feel sorry for the guy. A dull gig in Sydney, and I heard due to flight problems he missed his gig in Melbourne on the following Saturday, and his make up show on the Sunday in Melbourne at Ffour was not that well attended, but probably better appreciated than his gig in Sydney. I hope it wasn’t all that bad. Best of luck next time Sam!

My fave band for almost 20 years and I’ve never seen them perform live in the flesh.

I’m not sure if they ever performed in Adelaide South Australia, where I lived before moving to Sydney in late 1994. I think Depeche Mode’s last visit to Australia was in early 1994.

Awesome news! They’re doing a world tour in 2009… Tour Of The Universe! A new album in the works too.

I’m going to see them this time, even if it means travelling OS. I wish I got to see them in the 80’s or 90’s. I wonder if they will ever return to Australia?

http://www.depechemode.com

French, minimal techno producer Paul Ritch was awesome! He played out of an Apple laptop, guessing he was using Ableton Live with some kind of external MIDI controller. I couldn’t get close enough to see, too many people, and was too into the music to care! I’m not clear if he was playing only his own stuff (a live set), although it wasn’t hyped as a ‘live set’, or if he was just doing a computer based ‘DJ’ mix/set of his own and other people’s productions.

It was all solid maximal, minimal, techno, throbbing beats and bass, heavily shuffled 606 toms, and spun out/white noise breaks/builds. It all had a great intensity. I didn’t know much of what he played at the time. After checking out more of his productions and remixes afterwards on Beatport, and via his Quartz Music MySpace, I’m pretty sure I heard/remember him playing his tracks: Split, Walk The Line, Aquarel, Winter Ceremony, Nordbanhof and his remixes of Shonky’s – Time Zero, Bloody Mary & Sierra Sam’s – Day Light, and Kabuto & Koji’s – Butterfly, to name a few.

They had him playing in the smaller side room (Bump Lounge) of The Cross, which has much better sound than the main room anyway, all good, but, only problem is, it was rammed full, you couldn’t get in/out very easily. It was such a busy, sweaty party, well, apart from the disco bunker which everyone seemed to forget about on the night, or so I heard, probably empty until Spice started up. Tad was dissapointed the advertised Unabombers didn’t show. Usual deal with the messy, rude crowd, spilt drinks, bashed into, no apologies etc. I set myself on /ignore. I’m surprised so many people get into the dress up themes of these nights, there were circus freaks/clowns everywhere. I really didn’t take much notice of who else played, or what they played. Yousuf played the main room, same time as Paul Ritch was on. My ears did prick up not long after arriving hearing Miss Fitz – Colici (Sascha Dive Remix), Lee Jones – Safari (Stimming Remix) and Tiefschwarz – Liquid Cherries. Was really only there for and during Paul Ritch’s set. It was a fun night, I lost my baggage! Happy 1st Birthday!

http://www.myspace.com/paulritch
http://www.myspace.com/quartzrec

The next Lost Baggage party coming up, in November has Shonky, Style Of Eye and more, should be fun.