3D World - Sydney Issue #1048 by TheMusic.com.au

SYDNEY

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( Issue 1048 ~ TUESDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2011 )

The Secret Life Of JEMIMA LAMB: Numbers Game GOODVIBRATIONS Reviewed MAYER HAWTHORNE’s Guide To Better Living

NSW

NAT NAT

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, Alanna Bishop, Aleksia Barron, 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, Djengel, DJ Stiﬀ y, Fern Greig-Moore, Gloria Lewis, Guido Farnell, Guy Davis, Holly Hutchinson, Huwﬆon, Jake Sun, Jane Stabler, Jann Angara, Jean Poole, Jeremy Wood, Johnnie Runner, Josh Wheatley, Komi Sellathurai, Lawrence Daylie, Lee ‘Grumpy’ Bemrose, L-Fresh, Liz Galinovic, Luke McKinnon, Maria Lee, Matt O’Neill, Matt Unicomb, Melissa Weﬆ, Monica Connors, Nick Connellan, NHJ, Nic Toupee, Obliveus, Paz, Richie Meldrum, Rip Nicholson, Ritual, Robbie Lowe, Russ Macumber, Sasha Perera, Scott Henderson, Stuart Evans, Tim Finney, Tom Brabham, Triﬆan Burke

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SUSHI SNAPS 1 2 3 4

Chinese Laundry Fridays Doll House @ The The Bank Fridays @ Ryans Bar Laﬆ Night @ Purple Sneakers 5 Saturdays @ Bar 333

6 Saturdays @ The Orient 7 Ultimate Party Venue @ Jackson’s On George 8 Wednesdays @ The Eaﬆern 9 Wham @ World Bar

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NSW

BRIEFS

EPIC&FAIL

THE TING TINGS

EPIC THE VIBE IS HIGH

Despite incessant rain and a signiﬁcantly less than expected attendance, the 2011 Good Vibrations line-up delivered one of the ﬁneﬆ days of music witnessed at a mainﬆ ream feﬆ ival in a long while. Promoters of the dance music world, more like that please…

GUERILLA, NO MIST

Sasha and Bag Raiders doing their thing Silent Disco ﬆ yles, The Ting Tings dishing out the favourites in acouﬆ ic mode – if every Thursday afternoon had a Channel [V] Guerilla Gig in the afternoon sun we reckon the Sydney CBD would be an inﬁnitely happier place…

BEST LAID PLANS

Media commentator/radio personality Marieke Hardy returned to TV by penning new ABC series Laid. Its debut laﬆ week proved smart fun. And we got to see the guy from that annoying Volkswagen ad splattered across a windscreen. Juﬆ ice for all.

FAIL

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE

We’re putting a bounty on the head of whatever bright spark at NRL headquarters decided that securing a Bon Jovi B-side as the game’s oﬃcial theme song for the next three years was a good idea. Even Blow That Whiﬆle Ref would be welcomed back…

EGG + FACE

In another of her increasingly pathetic attempts to shock and awe the world, Lady Gaga was carried into the Grammys inside a plaﬆ ic egg. Sorry siﬆer, but that sort of antic is much cooler when it’s The Flaming Lips’ frontman Wayne Coyne walking atop a crowd inside a plaﬆ ic bubble…

WURLEY. REALLY?

Seriously, we are now referring to Shane Warne and Liz Hurley as Wurley? Kill us now – preferably by beating us alternately with a cricket bat and ﬆ iletto. 12 3DWORLD

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW open for the 2011 edition of The Seed, John Butler’s program of grants for young music induﬆry professionals. Go to www.theseedfund. org for all the info on how to get involved – applications are due Friday 8 April, with winners notified Sunday 15 May… THE PURPLE ONE Prince has re-affirmed himself as the king of cool by kicking Kim Kardashian off ﬆage at his gig at Madison Square Garden. Kimmy tried to soften the blow on Twitter: “Went up on ﬆage AGAIN! This time I redeemed myself! We all danced while Prince played the piano! Wow! What a night!” Sadly the unceremonious booting will moﬆ likely ﬆay on the reality TV cutting room floor... AUSSIE RESEARCHERS HAVE found a way to temporarily change how we view the world with a “thinking cap” that ﬆimulates the scalp with electrical pulses. Subjects teﬆed were three times as likely to solve complex problems while wearing the cap. We need some round these parts... TRUMPETED AS THE new single from “the moﬆ influential music artiﬆ in the world today”, Born This Way from Lady Gaga is here. The album of the same name drops Saturday 23 May… BASKETBALL FANS CAN get their noﬆalgia kick on their iPhone/iPod Touch with NBA Jam – you can not only play as one of 30 NBA teams, but also a variety of US presidents paﬆ and present…

DEADMAU5

SECOND SERVING

The success of UK Feﬆ ival Creamfields was teﬆed on Auﬆ ralian audiences laﬆ year to great success. It’s no surprise, then, that Creamfields Auﬆ ralia returns in April for a second bout of elect ro/trance mayhem. Headlining the bill for 2011 is enigmatic Canadian Deadmau5, bringing his live show (complete with LED “Mau5” head) to our shores, along with Martin Solveig, Skrillex, Chuckie, Simon Patterson, Gabriel and Dresden, Wynter Gordon, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May (aka Hi Tek Soul), Bingo Players, Skazi, Surkin, Dada Life, Nadaﬆ rom, Round Table Knights, Sandwell Diﬆ rict, Tim Green, Bart Claessen and Mumbai Science. Creamfields hit Melbourne Showgrounds Monday 25 April, Showring & Hordern Pavilion (Sydney) Saturday 30 and RNA Showgrounds (Brisbane) Sunday 1 May. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased from Ticketek and Moshtix. THE HERD

YEARS HERDING

Auﬆ ralian hip hop outﬁt The Herd are on the cusp of celebrating ten years in the music game. It’s been a long and joyous haul for the collect ive – consiﬆ ing of MCs Ozi Batla and Urthboy, beatmaker Unkle Ho, multi-inﬆ rumentaliﬆ Trakswet, Sulo, Toe-fu, Rok Poshtya and Jane Tyrrell – who have released a whopping ﬁve albums under The Herd moniker since their 2001 inception. Now, after two years since their laﬆ live show, The Herd have announced an Auﬆ ralian tour with the added bonus of a new single to be released in March. You can catch the Aussie rap ﬆorytellers at The Cambridge Hotel (Newcaﬆ le) Thursday 31 March, The Corner (Melbourne) on Friday 1 April, The Zoo (Brisbane) Friday 8 and The Factory Theatre (Sydney) Saturday 9, with tickets available from Oztix. Joeliﬆ ics from TZU is on national support duties. GADI MIZRAHI

ONLY LAMB

The product ion/promotion/ diﬆ ribution team that is Wolf + Lamb has dramatically evolved since their debut onto the house music scene in 2001. Since their inception, the US duo that consiﬆs of Gadi Mizrahi and Zev Eisenberg have created an eﬆeemed imprint (aptly named Wolf + Lamb) and performed around the world. As a solo artiﬆ, Mizrahi produces some of the moﬆ “playful” house music and DJ’s with the same ﬆ yle. In his solo sets, the New Yorker manages to delve from light and breezy, all the way to the deeper and more abﬆ ract end of music in only a short period. Mizrahi is journeying to Auﬆ ralia next month, preceding the duo’s DJ-Kicks mix alongside Soul Clap, and you can catch all the aforementioned Wolf + Lamb traits at Barsoma (Brisbane) on Friday 18 March, Agwa Yacht Club (Sydney) Saturday 19 and the Royal Melbourne Hotel on Sunday 20.

BRIEFS

UNKLE

THE TAKEOVER

With four ﬆ udio albums proper under their belt, UK outﬁt UNKLE are two of the moﬆ renowned collaborators, producers and musicians in and out of the recording induﬆ ry. The duo, led by ﬁgurehead James Lavelle, collaborated with a huge roﬆer for their lateﬆ album, including former Queens Of The Stone Age vocaliﬆ Mark Lanegan, Autolux and TV On The Radio. UNKLE’s live show takeover begins with their addition to the Groovin’ The Moo feﬆ ival as announced laﬆ week – at Bendigo on Saturday April 30, Townsville Sunday 1 May, Maitland Saturday 7 and Canberra Sunday 8 – plus headline sideshows at Billboard (Melbourne) on Friday 29 April, The Hi-Fi (Brisbane) Tuesday 3 May and concluding at Sydney Opera House on Monday 9. Presented by Street Press Auﬆ ralia. For ticketing info, head to www.civilsociety.com.au. OMAR SOULEYMAN

SOULEY FOLK

Whether you enjoy sampling foreign culture, have a diverse music taﬆe or juﬆ like to p-ar-t-y, you’ve got to check out Syrian ﬆ reetfolk guru Omar Souleyman when he hits Auﬆ ralia next month. Sampling a range of middle eaﬆern sounds, coupled with Arabic singing and overdriven keyboard solos, Souleyman’s music can only be categorised as “art” due to its assorted sound-blend. Since 1994, Omar and his travelling band have been collaborating across Syria, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon – and it’s after many years that the group has decided upon Auﬆ ralia. The folkloric dance party commences at Northcote Social Club (Melbourne) on Sunday 6 March, followed by The Hi-Fi (Brisbane) on Wednesday 9 and the Annandale Hotel (Sydney) Saturday 12. Supported by “special gueﬆs” at all shows, Omar Souleyman will have you dancing like a Syrian possessed. Ticketing and artiﬆ info is available at www.cusotmmade.com.au. OH NO

OH YES

We announced the Oh No Sydney show to New South Wale-ians in the laﬆ issues; and now we can share the love to the reﬆ of ya’ll, as Oh No is touring the entire country. Who is Oh No, you ask? The brother to proliﬁc MC Madlib, son of cult 70s soul-man Curtis Jackson and nephew to Jazz tumpeter Jon Faddis, it’s clear that Cali resident Oh No was always deﬆ ined to shine through the music induﬆ ry. Since 2004 he’s been producing hip hop beats in collect ives and as a solo artiﬆ through Stones Th row Records. Oh No has adopted a funk-sounding ﬆ yle more recently and will showcase his delightful productions with supports from various Auﬆ ralian hip hop artiﬆs, ﬆarting at Tone (Sydney) Thursday 24 February, Roxanne Parlour (Melbourne) Friday 25 and X & Y Bar (Brisbane) Sunday 27. For a liﬆ of supports and ticket prices, visit the Oztix and Ticketek websites. THE CAT EMPIRE

OLD CAT

There’s only a handful of Aus acts from the early noughties ﬆ ill giving the mainﬆ ream a run for their money – one such act is The Cat Empire. 2011 marks ten years in the business for the six-piece jazz-pop danceﬂoor rockers,and they’re celebrating the decade with an enormous th ﬆ ring of shows. The 10 Birthday Tour begins at the the Byron Bluesfeﬆ on Sunday 24 April 24 before moving on to Bennett Lane Wednesday 4 May, The Night Cat Thursday 5, Palace Theatre Friday 6, The Corner Hotel Saturday 7 and Prince Bandroom Sunday 8 (all Melbourne), then through to Sydney at The Annandale Thursday 12, Metro Theatre Friday 13, Enmore Theatre Saturday 14 and The Basement Sunday 15.

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KIWI ROOTS LEGEND Tiki Taane has signed to EMI offshoot Stop Start, with his new record In The World Of Light out in March... IN OTHER EMI news, the label’s catalogue of dance music will finally be available for digital download via Beatport. The fi rﬆ release will be of Alex Metric and Steve Angello’s Open Your Eyes through Positiva, with the back catalogues of The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and Kraftwerk also part of the deal… JUST WHEN YOU thought Sex And The City was finished, word about showbiz town is that producer Michael Patrick King is toying with the idea of filming a prequel, though Sarah Jessica Parker is likely to be left out of the equation. The antiaging special effects budget would have been something else... FILM MAKERS KEEN to have their work screened at the 12th Melbourne Underground Film Feﬆival should get along to www. muff.com.au for all the details right now. Entries close Wednesday 15 June… 20TH CENTURY FOX is reported to be making a feature film based on Roger Hargraves’ Mr Men series, famous for characters like Mr Happy, Mr Tickle, Mr Slow and Mr Clumsy. Charlie Sheen is rumoured for the role of Mr Hotel Trashing Alcoholic (too soon?)… LADY GAGA TOLD US Vogue magazine that performing on ﬆage is her ultimate turnon, commenting “being on ﬆage is like having sex with my fans”. Ewww…

STARS

GENERAL OUTLOOK I need everyone who reads my column to send me $900 each. If that happens and the money clears by Thursday, maybe I can pay my gambling debts. AQUARIUS (20 JAN TO 18 FEB) Wearing a clown mask into a bank and waving a replica piﬆol about probably isn’t the smarteﬆ thing to do. But you’ve done ﬆ upider things. PISCES (19 FEB TO 20 MAR) You need to ﬆart travelling everywhere behind a human shield. Nothing protects you from a bullet like another person’s face. ARIES (21 MAR TO 20 APR) When life throws a bag of self-raising flour at your cat, it’s probably time to get a new cat. But check your lease – are you even allowed to have pets? TAURUS (21 APR TO 20 MAY) They say the worﬆ move you can make in show business is to drop dead. That’s probably true unless you have the ﬆarring role in a snuff movie [Or are Tupac Shakur – Ed]. GEMINI (21 MAY TO 20 JUN) When your “little black dress” (a wardrobe essential) catches on fi re while you’re wearing it, you’ll be forced to change in to a pair of urine-soaked overalls. CANCER (21 JUN TO 21 JUL) Stealing from old people and from charities has a really bad reputation. Try to make it cool again by doing it while dressed in leather. LEO (22 JUL TO 21 AUG) You may ﬆ ill be glowing from your unexpected Oscar nomination, but your dream run will come to an end when you are assaulted by a mall security guard. VIRGO (22 AUG TO 21 SEP) Your mother’s insiﬆence on entering you in children’s beauty pageants is becoming increasingly inappropriate as you enter your 20s. You have to talk to her. LIBRA (22 SEP TO 22 OCT) With all your ﬆars in alignment this week, it could be a good opportunity to pull that service ﬆation robbery you’ve been planning. SCORPIO (23 OCT TO 21 NOV) A close personal friend and former business associate will give you a vicious piﬆol whipping this week. He will then send you an apology via email. SAGITTARIUS (22 NOV TO 20 DEC) Trying to bilk money out of your insurance company will become difficult when you fall madly in love with your sexy claims officer. CAPRICORN (21 DEC TO 19 JAN) Right now you need to ﬆay utterly focused on clearing your credit card debt and learning how to fi re a gun. Preferably in that order.

BRIEFS

CALENDAR THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS

FEBRUARY FORT KNOX FIVE – Wednesday 16, Tone TRICKY – Wednesday 16, Metro Theatre FOUR TET, CARIBOU – Thursday 17, Metro Theatre EWUN – Thursday 17, Candys Apartment PHATCHANCE, COPTIC SOLDIER – Friday 18, Oxford Art Factory KOOL & THE GANG – Friday 18, The Enmore SASHA – Friday 18, The Forum PURPLE SNEAKERS DJS – Friday 18, Terrigal Hotel TOM PIPER – Friday 18, Hotel Metropole MASIF FLOOD RELIEF: STEVE HILL, SUAE, PULSAR, NIK FISH, AMBER SAVAGE, ARBEE AND MORE – Saturday 19, Space Nightclub DJ SKAE, THE CENTALINKAZ, SERECK, TORCHA + B-DON, SCEPTIC & DSEEVA AND MORE – Saturday 19, The Wall, Bald Faced Stag DNBBQ: BIG BUD – Saturday 19, Valve Bar GOODWILL – Saturday 19, Soho ÂME, FUTURE CLASSIC DJS – Saturday 19, Civic Underground MAYER HAWTHORNE & THE COUNTY – Saturday 19, Manning Bar UTOPIA: FIRE AND ICE: LUNA, ACTIVATOR, JOSH & WESZ, WASTED PENGUINS, NITROGENICS, DAY-MAR, DOZER AND MORE – Saturday 19, Acer Arena THE GENIUS OF J DILLA: SHORTEE BLITZ, NAIKI – Sunday 20, Ching-a-lings ROY AYERS – Sunday 20, The Basement TORO Y MOI – Tuesday 22, GoodGod Small Club TORO Y MOI – Wednesday 23, GoodGod Small Club ALPINE – Thursday 24, GoodGod Small Club OH NO – Thursday 24, Tone PHATCHANCE, COPTIC SOLDIER – Friday 25, Oxford Art Factory STRANGER COLE, KING TIDE, FIREHOUSE – Friday 25, The Basement ROSKA, LORN – Saturday 26, Tone COPYWRITE, PLANET ASIA – Sunday 27, Tone CALVIN HARRIS – Sunday 27, Greenwood Hotel SUNHAZE: EWAN PEARSON – Sunday 27, The Alexandria Hotel RIHANNA, CALVIN HARRIS, FAR EAST MOVEMENT – Monday 28, Newcastle Entertainment Centre MARCH THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS, ART VS SCIENCE, ZANE LOWE, DJ JAMES HOLROYD – Thursday 3, Sydney Entertainment Centre

CREATORS OF ONLINE dating site lovely-faces. com have come under fire from Facebook for pulling profile pict ures off the social networking platform to use of their own site, which hoﬆs 250,000 people searchable in categories that include nationality, gender, funny, smug, and, umm, “climber”… CHINSTROKER ALERT #1: Art Department, the tech house production duo responsible for 2010 breakout club bomb Without You, drop their debut album The Drawing Board through Crosﬆown Rebels 25 April. “Not since the likes of Daft Punk’s ‘Homework’ has there been such feverish anticipation for an album” apparently... CHINSTROKER ALERT #2: 6th Borough Project, comprised of Craig Smith and Graham “The Revenge” Clark and undisputed darlings of the Juno Download disco/ house charts, release their debut album drop One Night In The Borough through Delusions Of Grandeur Monday 9 May… FAMED AS A kind of European version of Burning Man, Kazantip Republic has set Saturday 30 July to Saturday 27 Auguﬆ as the dates for this year’s month of partying. Check kazantip-republic. com for all the info, including how to submit an entry in the Kazantip anthem competition… FANS OF US houser Derrick Carter should sign up at derrickcarter.com, which has juﬆ had a subﬆantial facelift, to keep abreaﬆ of all things DC...

LEFTFIELD

EPIC AWAITS!

Electronic maeﬆros Leftﬁeld – now juﬆ Neil Barnes and a team of crack musicians with original member Paul Daley out of the pict ure – will be sneaking away from Future Music Feﬆival duties for a live Sydney sideshow at Enmore Theatre on Thursday 17 March. With support from prog gouse DJ/producer veteran Kasey Taylor and live act Infusion, Barnes and co will please diehard fans and the curious amongﬆ you with the sound of classic albums Leftism and Rhythm And Stealth and impromptu live jams, all to the tune of $69. Tickets available from Ticketek.

MORE PROG

If you missed prog lord Sasha making waves at Good Vibrations – or at the Channel V secret harbour gig – be sure to catch his sideshow at The Forum on Friday 18 February. That’s The Forum, folks – the venue change was made by popular demand laﬆ week; you can now enjoy him from one of The Forum’s many mezzanines for his three-hour set with support from Matttt and Robbie Lowe. Tickets are ﬆ ill available from Moshtix for $45 plus booking fee.

CHOOSE 80s

UK elect ro-pop pinup Calvin Harris will be playing a DJ set at Greenwood Hotel on Sunday 27 February. Presented by Not Myself and Platinum One Entertainment, Harris will grace the decks of GH courtyard, supported by John Glover, Matt Nukewood, Cadell, Ember, Steve Play, Ben Morris, Joey Kaz, Sancho and hoﬆed by MC Loﬆ y. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketek.

ENCORE!

Not content with a single Mount Kimbie show, Future Classic are treating Sydneysiders to an encore event at Oxford Art Factory on Thursday 10 March in response to the ﬁ rﬆ show haﬆ ily selling out. Supported by Seekae and Future Classic DJs, shame on you if you miss them twice. Tickets are available from Moshtix, doors open at 8pm.

goon sacks, elect ronic connoisseurs Adult Disco are renowned for bringing the ﬁner forms of dance music to Sydney, with their next event being no exception to the rule. FC play hoﬆ to Berlin techno/house duo Âme (pronounced “Ahm”) at Civic Underground on Saturday 19 February. Supported by Future Classic DJs, tickets are going for $20 (pre-sale) through Resident Advisor and Moshtix.

EWE BEAUT

MAD PROPS

Ticketholders to laﬆ week’s Ewun gig are well aware that not everything went smoothly – due to circumﬆances beyond everyone’s control, the Californian producer’s ﬂ ight was delayed, ultimately extinguishing the event. Fear not, though: Subterra and Music People have moved the show to Thursday 17 February at Candy’s Apartment. Any pre-purchased tickets can be used for the rescheduled Ewun show. Yipee! The bass kicks oﬀ at 8pm.

ÂME UP

Like a ﬁne red wine amongﬆ a sea of

After the resounding success of Octave One at the Barracks during Sydney Feﬆ ival, Mad Racket are reviving the crew along with some international ﬂavour for Der Grobe Fantaﬆ iche BerlinKarneval-Partie (translation: The Big Fantaﬆ ic BerlinMardi Gras Party). Featuring Berlin’s own Tom Clark and Guido Schneider (wunderbar!), Mad Racket’s Mardi Gras party will be held at Marrickville Bowling & Recreation Club on Saturday 5 March – with local supports on the night. Tickets available from www. spankrecords.com.au.

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BRIEFS

ONE BETTER

EWAN PEARSON

MOVE ON

VOID’s unfortunate move from Phoenix bar hasn’t ﬆ unted the momentum of Sydney’s ﬁneﬆ bass-heavy collect ive, with a long liﬆ of impressive shows in the coming weeks. Firﬆ up is London dubﬆep producer Cyrus at Hermann’s on Friday 11 March, then, UK’s Shitmat is bringing jungle techno to Club 77 on Friday 25 March. Both gigs are supported by a bevy of local DJs, and pre-sale tickets for either shows are $15 at Moshtix.

THE BIG O

University O-Feﬆs are a rite-of-passage – for UTS fi rﬆ-years, though, there’s not a lot to hate in regard to Uni ritual as this year’s O-Feﬆ is hoﬆ to a mob of fine Auﬆ ralian talent. On Wednesday 24 February, UTS are bringing Miami Horror, Grafton Primary, Potbelleez, Sam La More, Stafford Brothers, Timmy Trumpet, Tenzin and more to the famous university grounds in Sydney’s CBD. Tickets are available from UTS info desk.

NSW

Sunhaze – another classy Future Classic initiative – are one-upping themselves on Sunday 27 February, when they’ll play hoﬆ to international dance music producer Ewan Pearson for free at The Alexandria Hotel. As a producer, Pearson is wellrespected within the induﬆ ry, lending a hand to Tracey Thorn, Delphic, M83 and Auﬆ ralia’s Loﬆ Valentinos. Pearson is also a world class DJ, and will showcase his skills alongside the Future Classic DJs for your Sunday pleasure.

JUST GENIUS

Often expressed as your favourite producer’s favourite producer, Jay Dee aka J Dilla is a name revered in the hip hop society. The Main Ingredients are commemorating the ﬁfth anniversary of Dilla’s passing with a celebration of the producer’s music – coined The Genius Of J Dilla – at Ching-alings on Sunday 20 February. Featuring Shortee Blitz, Naiki and more, it’s $10 minimum donation on the door with all proceeds going to J Dilla’s Mother.

DOOM DAY

Hip hop legend Daniel Dumille aka DOOM’s ﬁ rﬆ ever Sydney show is only a few weeks away. Praise the havens, then, that DOOM’s support acts have ﬁnally been announced: UK’s DJ MK – tour DJ for Dizzee Rascal and Roots Manuva – and Adelaide rapper Simplex, from hip hop group Terra Firma. Dumille’s virginal show is at Metro Theatre on Wednesday 23 March – tickets are ﬆ ill available from Ticketek.

NO DANGER

The sounds of Jamaica are coming to The Basement next week, courtesy of roots/reggae legend Stranger Cole, King Tide and Firehouse. Cole is a Ska originator and Jamaican legend, having recorded with pretty much every famous reggae artiﬆ (Lee Perry, Duke Reid, Joe Gibbs), and is a solo musician in his own right. Catch Cole on his second visit to Auﬆ ralia on Friday 25 February. Tickets available from Moshtix for $40.

STEP UP

Colombians Sideﬆepper are neﬆ led somewhere between dubﬆep, drum‘n’bass, dancehall, hip hop and Caribbean folk. If you’re wondering if there’s even such a niche, be sure to check their show at Metro Theare on Tuesday 15 March, with support from Tropicante Sound Syﬆem, The Cumbia Muﬃns and more. Sideﬆepper’s enigmatic live show will prove to Sydneysiders the burgeoning Colombian music scene is now among us.

VETERAN POP STARLET Chriﬆina Aguilera is certainly not America’s sweetheart anymore after the 30-year-old ﬆuffed up the American national anthem at the Super Bowl by apparently singing incorrect lyrics from Wikipedia. If only she’d set off a wardrobe malfunction to diﬆract people… UPMARKET TRAVEL WEBSITE Business Traveler has reported the survey results revealing which airline has the moﬆ attractive flight attendants. Virgin Atlantic came out on top with Singapore Airlines crew and Emirates also ranking highly... VETERAN D’N’B PRODUCER Marcus Intalex has finally satisfied fans with his debut artiﬆ album 21 set to drop on Soul:R on Monday 18 April. Named for his 21 years of service to drum’n’bass, its centerpiece is a cover of Radiohead’s Climbing Up The Walls alongside Lynx and Danny Fierce… IN SOME SORT of musical frequent flyer scheme, Splendour In The Grass are continuing their tradition of offering pre-sale tickets to loyal attendees. If you can prove you’ve attended five or more Splendours, you’re in. Juﬆ head along to splendourinthegrass. com for more info… VETERAN HOUSE PRODUCER DJ Sneak continues to explore sounds well outside his usual comfort barrier, with his lateﬆ release After Touch on the Be As One imprint seeing him and sparring partner Shlomi Aber both turn in their own versions of the collaborative track…

CALENDAR LARRY TEE

MGMT, POND – Thursday 3, Beach Hotel (Byron Bay) RIHANNA, CALVIN HARRIS, FAR EAST MOVEMENT – Saturday 5, Acer Arena MAD RACKET: TOM CLARK, GUIDO SCHNEIDER – Saturday 5, Marrickville Bowling & Recreation Club THE OFFICIAL MARDI GRAS PARTY: SEAMUS HAJI, FRANKIE KNUCKLES, LARRY TEE AND MORE – Saturday 5, Entertainment Quarter TOM PIPER AND GOODWILL – Saturday 5, King Street Hotel MOUNT KIMBIE, SEEKAE, FUTURE CLASSIC DJS – Wednesday 9, GoodGod Small Club ILL BILL, DJ ECLIPSE, SABAC RED – Thursday 10 MOUNT KIMBIE – Thursday 10, Oxford Art Factory MARK RONSON – Friday 11, Enmore Theatre CYRUS – Friday 11, Hermanns PLATFORM HIP HOP FESTIVAL – Saturday 12 March – Saturday 2 April, Carriage Works OMAR SOULEYMAN – Saturday 12, Annandale Hotel AFRO CELT SOUND SYSTEM – Monday 14, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall DEAD PREZ – Tuesday 15, Oxford Art Factory SIDESTEPPER – Tuesday 15, The Metro HORACE ANDY, DUB ASANTE – Wednesday 16, Metro Theatre LEFTFIELD – Thursday 17, Enmore Theatre TOM PIPER – Friday 18, Academy BASSNECTAR – Friday 18, Chinese Laundry PAUL KALKBRENNER – Saturday 19, Chinese Laundry GADI MIZRAHI – Saturday 19, Agwa Yacht Club DOOM – Wednesday 23, Metro Theatre SHITMAT – Friday 25, Club 77 LANEOUS & THE FAMILY YAH – Saturday 26, The Annandale Hotel USHER – Monday 28, Acer Arena USHER – Tuesday 29, Acer Arena FUNKDAFIED: SIMON CALDWELL, GIAN ARPINO, DJ CREATE, JC – Saturday 26, The Bella Vista OS MUTANTES – Wednesday 9, Enmore Theatre APRIL E-MOTION FRANTIC BOAT PARTY: STEVE HILL, YOSHI, STEVE GIDDO AND MORE– Saturday 2, Sydney Casino Wharf MASIF SATURDAYS – Saturday 2, Woodport Inn THE HERD – Saturday 9, The Factory SUPAFEST 2011: SNOOP DOGG, NELLY, TAIO CRUZ, BOW WOW – Friday 9, ANZ Stadium

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

AFTER TRAVELLING THE WORLD AS A DJ FOR JUST OVER HALF A DECADE, 2010 SAW RICHIE HAWTIN BLOW THE DUST OFF HIS MOST REVERED VERED PSEUDONYM – PLASTIKMAN. DANIEL SANDERS QUIZZES THE TECHNO ENTREPRENEUR ON GOING BACK TO THE FUTURE AS THE WIZARD PREPARES TO BRING HIS SPECTACULAR LIVE SHOW TO OZ.

ITHOUT DECADES OF HYPE TO IMPEDE THEIR PROGRESS, SECONDWAVE DETROIT TECHNO ARTISTS MANAGED TO NEATLY TAILOR A SPACE FOR THEMSELVES ALONGSIDE, AND IN SOME CASES BEYOND, THE PROGENITORS OF MOTOR CITY MECHGROOVE. ASIDE FROM CARL CRAIG, ONLY RICHIE HAWTIN HAS MANAGED TO SO CONSISTENTLY OCCUPY PAGE SPACE, BYTES AND AIRWAVES TO REMAIN MUSICALLY ACTIVE AND, HENCE, MORE THAN A HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE. IT’S FAIR TO SAY HE OWES A DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO THE BELLVILLE THREE DERRICK MAY, JUAN ATKINS AND KEVIN SAUNDERSON FOR OPENING HIS EARS AND CREATIVITY TO AN UTTERLY UNIQUE FORM OF EXPRESSION, YET HAWTIN’S AFFINITY FOR IT HAS TAKEN HIM FURTHER INTO ARTISTIC REALMS OF HIS OWN IMAGINATION. Though we now take his all-conquering presence for granted, it is, in fact, largely the result of mid-to-late 00s hard graft as a DJ rather than Plaﬆ ikman. To explain the dark alter-ego is to invoke memory of an elect ronic dance music scene far removed from the somewhat corporate world in which it finds itself today, and it was with this fi rmly in mind that Hawtin – who’d not act ively taken the mantle since 2004 – decided to bring his hiﬆory to the fore. “I wanted to get back out there and see how far I could take my own creative ideas,” he enthuses. “I’ve been pushing and pushing the DJing, modifying the records I play, adding layers fi ltering, looping… you know, doing whatever I can to put my ﬆamp on it. But, going into Plaﬆ ikman live, you really can ﬆart from the ground up and build whatever you want. “I think moﬆ of the other live elect ronic acts who are doing shows on the scale of what we’re doing are a little more commercial perhaps… a little bit more underﬆandable. Our show kind of goes up and down, left and right, and all over the place you know? As a DJ, for sure I have an idea of opening people to new music, but that’s always in a dance context. I feel that a Plaﬆ ikman show can get away from that easier than during my DJ sets. At leaﬆ with mine, I’m held hoﬆage somewhat by the records that are being produced. I can go and produce and play my own records but when you’re playing extended, long DJ sets, you’re ﬆ ill handcuffed a little bit. Yeah you can go all over the place but if it’s not out there and it’s not being made, you can’t do it. With a live show you can tweak and twiﬆ and do exact ly what you want.” Shortly after the 2010 announcement of Hawtin’s return to the ﬆage as Plaﬆ ikman came another regarding his mileﬆone Arkives box set release. The dauntingly large collect ion of raw ﬆ udio session recordings, remixes, originals and videos is perhaps the moﬆ ambitious retrospective collect ion yet seen from any elect ronic dance music artiﬆ. However, though it incorporates a fresh remixes from Moby and Dubfi re (amongﬆ others), it wasn’t a release conceived to tie in with the Plaﬆ ikman tour.

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“I THINK ELECTRONIC MUSIC, EVEN AS IT GAINS POPULARITY, IS STILL A BIT OF A WIZARD BEHIND THE CURTAIN, SMOKE AND MIRRORS TYPE ACT.” “I can’t even remember any more which came fi rﬆ,” Hawtin candidly admits. “There was definitely already an idea for this remix collect ion called Replikants lying around for a couple of years, but I didn’t really want to do a remix collect ion by itself – that juﬆ seemed like it was too typical. As I ﬆarted going back through all this ﬆ uff I ﬆarted to think about the live show and then reintroducing the whole project, with the amount of new fans I gained over the paﬆ couple of years with Minus and my DJ sets it seemed like you couldn’t go half-assed on this. The scene has changed so much, there’s been such a huge influx of young people and new territories getting into it, this seemed like the only way forward – to bring everyone back to the future in a way.” Key to Hawtin’s Plaﬆ ikman revival is his fi xation with interact ivity and bringing the audience closer to the ﬆage; a gap bridged by his Plaﬆ ikman Synk iPhone application. Whilﬆ Hawtin believes this aproach to be largely peculiar to himself rather than a wider elect ronic dance music trend, he feels it to be the way forward – for himself at leaﬆ – nonetheless. “I’m very intereﬆed in the transparency of what I’m doing on ﬆage and how I can break down the communication barrier between myself and the audience and what happens when you do that,” he explains. “We invite people closer on ﬆage, not physically, to interact with the outcome of the show. I don’t think I’m building a new wheel here because that’s what has always made a great show a great show – interact ion between the ﬆage and the audience. The anticipation, the screaming, the shouting, people throwing ﬆ uff, whatever… I’m a big fan of using technology to explore these things in new ways and that’s exact ly how I found myself creating the iPhone Synk application. “The application gives live real time feedback of what is happening on some of my syﬆems, the tempos, what song I’m going into; it also at certain points opens up a conduit between the audience and myself with the computers on ﬆage, to act ually control some of the decisions that make the audio they’re experiencing. I like to challenge myself as much as the audience and kind of experiment. Sure you’re out there to entertain and put on some sort of show, but if you’re not kind of pushing, experimenting and playing with the audience, it gets boring pretty faﬆ. “I think elect ronic music, even as it gains popularity, is ﬆ ill a bit of a wizard behind the curtain, smoke and mirrors type act. Now I put myself behind a curtain of LEDs it’s like, ‘Where the fuck is Rich? What’s he doing?’ It’s trying to bridge that gap and give people a little bit of that connect ion – a virtual way of seeing me hit the dum and then hear the sound.” Whilﬆ Hawtin has further matured as an artiﬆ in his own right, so too has the Minus family. Home to artiﬆs such as Magda, Marc Houle, Ambivalent, Click Box and Troy Pierce – whom Hawtin likens to his “kids who are taking the family car and getting up to crazy no good” – the label has consiﬆently gone from ﬆ rength to ﬆ rength, only briefly losing momentum during shifting trends, all of which it seems to have absorbed with aplomb. Though originally (and unsurprisingly) identified mainly by Hawtin’s chilly brand of minimalism, Minus and its sub-labels now cover a great deal more musical ground than often given credit for. Now trending towards a 2011 release schedule full of artiﬆ albums, there’ll be plenty of varied treats to come from the Minus crew. “We’ve been bugging everyone for years to do albums and you keep telling people that’s where you’re going towards but there’s no specific timing as to when it’s right for an artiﬆ to make that plunge into an album,” Hawtin muses. “Laﬆ year and the beginning of this year it seemed like it became the right time for a number of people… it’s incredible to see the gang ﬆ retch their wings because an album project is completely different to getting into the ﬆ udio to throw out a great single. “I think people look at elect ronic dance music as being juﬆ hit singles and things you want to hear at a club, but the success of dance music is in these long beautifully played sets by DJs that take you through different moods and dynamics and to me, a great DJ set is like a great album. That’s what we try to get our artiﬆs to do. Some people don’t see the difference.” WHO: Plaﬆ ikman WHAT: Arkives (Minus) out Monday 28 February WHERE & WHEN: Future Music Feﬆ ival at Doomben Racecourse (Brisbane) Saturday 5 March,

Randwick Racecourse (Sydney) Saturday 12 March, Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne) Sunday 13 March

TRANSFORMING PLASTIKMAN FROM ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL

HILST THE LARGER PORTION OF HAWTIN’S NEW LIVE SHOW CONSISTS OF OLDER MATERIAL, THE RE INVENTION OF IT IS NOT TO BE IGNORED. SURROUNDED BY AN ENORMOUS CURTAIN OF LEDS AND MANNING WHAT SEEMS TO BE SEVERAL STUDIO’S WORTH OF EQUIPMENT, HE HAS SOMEHOW MANAGED TO RETAIN A SEAMLESSNESS THAT DEFIES CONVENTIONAL EXPRESSION. THAT SAID, HE ATTRIBUTES HIS CAPACITY TO OPERATE THE RIG TO A GOOD DEAL OF BLIND LUCK AND PERSEVERANCE. “There was a hell of a lot of work that went into figuring out what I wanted to use,” he explains. “It looks like a lot but it’s easier than it would have been doing this type of song 20 years ago, I don’t have all the old inﬆ rumentation like 909 drum machines… I have a lot of it in the computer. “I can program the old machines with my eyes closed, but as much as I’m using the newer technology, I haven’t spent as much time with it as in the early days when I was locked into the ﬆ udio for four or five years not seeing the light of day. So doing this whole project gave the time to experiment and learn my old ways in new ways.” More intereﬆ ingly ﬆ ill, and in typical Hawtin ﬆ yle, the challenges presented ended in the creation of unique new tools. “One of the challenges [was], how to gain access into all the different parameters [of my set],” he reveals. “That’s why in the end we ﬆarted a company called Liine to turn one of the applications I use – Griid – into a commercial product. There’s always a lot of technical challenges in any of these projects… I don’t necessarily go out and look for these. I have a broad underﬆanding of a lot of things, broad enough to think everything’s possible but not deep enough to think anything’s impossible.”

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NSW

JEMIMA

PLAY SCHOOL MATRIARCH, 1966-PRESENT THERE’S A BEAR IN THERE, AND A CHAIR AS WELL… AND, OF COURSE, A ROSY-CHEEKED RAG DOLL WHO HAS OBSERVED THE GOINGS-ON AT PLAY SCHOOL FOR OVER 40 YEARS. THE DOLL IN QUESTION IS JEMIMA, THE FEMALE LEAD AMONGST PLAY SCHOOL’S INANIMATE SUPPORTING CAST, AND ALEKSIA BARRON INVESTIGATES HER BRILLIANT – AND MUTE – CAREER.

lay School launched on the ABC in 1966, based on a British show of the same name. While the UK version also boaﬆed a Jemima, she was a fussy, overly prissy-looking thing with the excessivelyrouged cheeks of a medieval harlot and the ﬆ riped legwear of an unimaginative emo. It was clear that Jemima’s character would need to be rethought in order to help her connect with Auﬆ ralian audiences. She was re-imagined as a spunky young Aussie girl with brunette pigtails and overalls. It was a clever move. Tomboyish young girls took an inﬆant liking to Jemima’s no-fuss attire and attitude, while less tomboyish young girls simply liked her by default, due to a lack of other dolls to admire. (Jemima’s makeover was not the only smart move by the ABC creative team at the time; they had the good sense to make Humpty a nice shade of eggshell white, inﬆead of the British Humpty’s diﬆ urbing Dr Seuss-ﬆ yle moss green.) The exact origins of Jemima are unknown. Some have whispered throughout hiﬆory of a beginning shrouded in myﬆery, where a doll of unnatural power was forged from a myﬆerious, otherworldly cloth. Others have told tales at fi relight of a broken-hearted war widow knitting a rag doll in the dark, twiﬆ ing her hopes and dreams for her never-to-be family into the yarn. However, the ﬆory with the moﬆ credence is that Jemima was created in the ABC art department. (The other explanations are better, though.) Of course, nowadays Jemima’s power is contained not within one single doll, but in an entire army of Jemimas – sort of like Cylons, only less violent. While the original Play School toy caﬆ were intended to be special, one-of-a-kind entertainers, the ABC learned their lesson after Little Ted absconded from the set in 1973. Laﬆ seen with a ﬆaging assiﬆant (who left the country shortly afterwards), the original Little Ted was subsequently replaced by a replica. That said, it’s unclear whether Jemima ever truly warmed to Little Ted II, and gossip columns have regularly pondered whether she ﬆ ill carries a torch for her long-loﬆ companion. It may have been this incident that forced Jemima to occasionally attempt the odd wardrobe update. After all, while primary-coloured overalls have unparalleled pract icality and a certain appeal, they are not what moﬆ would call ‘feminine’. As a result, Jemima has experimented with a couple of “new looks”, including a blue dress and a ballerina coﬆ ume. The blue dress was admired by critics for its flattering colour and classic lines, although her decision to wear her English counterpart’s unfortunate ﬆ ripey tights drew some cutting remarks from the fashion press. The ballerina outfit was considered charming if impract ical, although the success of Black Swan has indicated a likely resurgence. Jemima has survived the ups and downs of Play School, including the lesbian scandal (Play School: “Look, she has two mummies!” Auﬆ ralia: “NO, SHE DOESN’T”) and “the Noni years”. The famed Windows, Clocks and presenters have all changed, but Jemima, along with Big Ted, Little Ted, Humpty and their ilk have remained. With her 50th birthday only a few short years away, all of Auﬆ ralia can look forward to raising a glass of orange juice to Jemima’s enduring health.

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OTHER PUPPETS/ DOLLS SOOTY

Everyone loves a teddy bear, especially one that you can wear on your hand and manipulate at will. Originally plain yellow, Sooty’s ears and nose were made black “by soot”, according to his creator Harry Corbett, giving him a better televised appearance and a highly imaginative name. The Sooty Show launched in 1955, with the world’s moﬆ adorable dirty bear accompanied in his adventures by a sausage-ﬁ xated dog called Sweep and a token female panda called Soo. Sooty has recently been subjected to a number of negative feminiﬆ readings due to his suggeﬆed role in encouraging eating disorders in young girls, after an episode where he refused to catch Soo after a ballet leap because “she weighs a tonne”.

FRANKLIN

GOB’s partner in ill-fated crimes againﬆ ventriloquism, Franklin, is considered the undisputed breakout character of Arreﬆed Development. Okay, that’s a lie. Still, from Franklin’s firﬆ appearance in the show, audiences began to wait with bated breath for his next appearances, which were true comedy gold: precious, rare and sometimes difficult to swallow. Even though Arreﬆed Development is gone (save for the on-again, off-again fi lm project), Franklin’s legacy remains in the form of highly inappropriate coﬆ ume party appearances by interracial couples.

LAMB CHOP

One of the moﬆ enduring fabric characters of television, Lamb Chop made her screen debut in 1957 alongside creator Shari Lewis. Despite her rather unsettling name, which really hammered home the connect ion between cute little sheep and slabs of meat on a dinner plate, Lamb Chop and her feiﬆ y attitude won hearts and minds worldwide, right up until Lewis’ death in 1998 (Lamb Chop was cleared of any involvement). Rather than being consigned to the attic of sad memories, Lewis’s daughter Mallory now performs with America’s favourite sheep.

NSW

FIVE STARS FROM DISBANDING IN 2004 TO RELEASING THEIR FIFTH ALBUM ON THE FIFTH OF MAY – APPROPRIATELY NAMED 5 – LAMB ARE A BAND WITH A PLAN, AND A LONG GAP TO ACCOUNT FOR. ANDY HAZEL ASKS LOU RHODES TO ELABORATE.

“W

ell it was more than a gap,” singer and songwriter Lou Rhodes says of Lamb’s gap between album four and 5. “When we split in 2004 it was a proper split and we went separate ways. For me I was yearning to go off and make acouﬆ ic music and I’ve been really enjoying doing that over the laﬆ few years. Andy [Barlow], for his part, has been producing other people and has been working on Lowb, which is his solo record. He was joking yeﬆerday that it’s taken five months to write the new Lamb record and five years to do his solo album,” she says with a laugh. No ﬆ ranger to solo albums herself, Rhodes is releasing her third in March, juﬆ two months before the release of Lamb’s new album. Clearly, there are some different paces at work here. “We push each other I think... I think there was something that had got to a point…” she pauses, choosing her words carefully. “When Lamb split, making music and everything had become quite challenging and there was confl ict between us and the direct ions we wanted to go in. The initial direct ion of Lamb was very much about Andy and his technology and me and my lyrics. Then it got diluted over the years with a live band and pressures of a major label and them wanting us to write hits and all that. It was juﬆ definitely time to move away and it was very clear for me that that’s what I wanted to do. “We did some live shows out of the blue in 2009 when we were asked to play at The Big Chill feﬆ ival in Herefordshire. We’d been considering playing live shows after that, and I’d said I’ll do six shows and that’s it, and it turned into a 24-date world tour that ended tour in Auﬆ ralia. The rollercoaﬆer ride was great fun.” Long held in the hearts of many Auﬆ ralian feﬆ ival-goers, Lamb have been renowned for their live show, one that is far more intereﬆ ing and nuanced than that of many predominantly elect ronic bands. The Auﬆ ralian shows, she haﬆens to add, are not album launches, rather sneak peaks. “We’re not act ually officially launching the album until May fi fth. We’re ﬆ ill finishing the album right now; in fact, I was doing a vocal for the laﬆ song for the album right before I picked up the phone for this interview. There wasn’t a plan to come to Auﬆ ralia; we juﬆ didn’t want to turn down the opportunity when we were asked. It was like ‘what the hell, let’s do it’, so now it’s all a bit of a panic. We will be playing some of the new songs, and it will be a chance to let Auﬆ ralians get an exclusive liﬆen to the new album.” Th is new album follows on from 2003’s Between Darkness And Light and perhaps their moﬆ famous album, 1999’s Fear Of Fours, on which Lamb ﬆ udiously avoided using the 4/4 time signature and track four from the album was rendered a two-second segue between tracks three and five. “We’re getting a bit obsessed with numbers now,” Rhodes laughs in a way that seems to play down their true significance. “Basically it’s our fifth

record and five is Andy’s lucky number. He was thrilled to bits when he realised it was the fi fth album, I kind of tried to put up resiﬆance to this number thing of his, but it was futile!” Though Lamb are beﬆ known for their 1997 torch song Gorecki, which has turned up everywhere from the soundtracks of Moulin Rouge!, I Still Know What You Did Laﬆ Summer and Tomb Raider to several hundred weddings, there was never the sense the band reﬆed on their laurels or sought to recreate whatever magic occurred when the song was written. With its accompanying self-titled album entering charts around the world and ensuing albums doing the same, 2011 finds Lamb very much deciding their own pace and not at all beholden to audience expectations. Indeed this reunion only occurred because, as Rhodes says, “Lamb would only come back if there was something fresh to say. It seems that time is definitely here.” She also adds that 5 is very much a follow on from that successful debut. Though much has changed, the songwriting dynamic of the two has remained remarkably consiﬆent, though, as Rhodes is the firﬆ to point out, it’s very different from the largely acouﬆ ic solo work she’s done during intervening years. “The songwriting has been undergoing quite a change, for me coming back to writing in the context of Lamb, it’s very different to writing for a solo album. With Lamb because we live at opposite sides of the country and we spend short blocks of time together, obviously we’ve had a very focused way of writing the album. Each has it’s own pressures so it’s very different. With Andy, it’s more like we both turn up and ask the other ‘so what’ve you got?’, and the album comes from there.” WHO: Lamb WHERE & WHEN: Prince Bandroom (Melbourne) Thursday 17 February, The Hi-Fi (Brisbane) Friday 18 February, Playground Weekender Sunday 20 February

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THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAIL DON PEPIJN SCHIPPER INFORMS JANE STABLER HIS CAREER AS DON DIABLO ISN’T ALL ABOUT DJ SUPERSTARDOM – THERE’S ALSO THE ODD NAKED 76-YEAR-OLD GERMAN MAN TO CONTEND WITH.

on Diablo, born Don Pepijn Schipper, is a self-confessed oddity, albeit a highly successful and talented one. Wearing 3D glasses as he speaks from his native Netherlands about his upcoming tour with Future Music Feﬆ ival, the four-decked wonder speaks at a rapid pace and seems to cover as much ground as he does when travelling. “No, I’ll take [the glasses] off again,” he laughs. “The creator should have thought of it before to make the world so when you put them on, it could be 4D. That’s okay, I’ll go back to 2D.” There’s little that’s two dimensional about this Dutchman, or his rise to international DJ fame. But despite the accolades, the massive tours and the famous folk who cite him as genius, Schipper says he doesn’t feel very famous and ﬆ ill thinks of himself as a bit of a beginner as far as music goes. “I see it like I’m juﬆ ﬆarting,” he admits. “So if you would look into my computer or ﬆ udio or apartment you’d see that I have so many things lined up for 2011 and 2012 that for me it’s juﬆ ﬆarting. The foreplay was good, but let’s get this thing on the road now! For me it was really important to get a certain ﬆ reet credibility or something before I released these random singles. I thought it was important to create a following on the internet so I wasn’t depending on one single, one video, one product that would define me. It’s very hard for me to defi ne myself, so for other people they’d get dizzy trying to do that.” Dizzying goes some way to describing Schipper’s journey to his current ﬆatus, although the many who have labeled his rise as rapid aren’t entirely correct. In more recent years his name may have ﬆarted being bandied about a lot more, and in a lot more countries,

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but the man has been making music since he was 14. With the length of time that’s passed, he’s also realiﬆ ic and humble when it comes to his international profi le, regardless of how hard he’s worked to build it. “I’ve worked insanely hard,” he considers, “and I’ve had a lot of luck as well so I feel like a blessed man. For me over here [in the Netherlands] it’s different – in my own area, my profi le will be slightly different than in Auﬆ ralia. A lot of people don’t know that much about me, but in Holland it’s slightly different. You have people juﬆ ﬆanding in front of your house and it’s very confusing. Kanye Weﬆ is famous all over the world. I’m not! I agree on the ‘do it yourself ’ part [of his reputation as a DJ] but I mean, I think I’m ﬆ ill relatively new but I’ve been working to get to this level for

years. It’s never been an extremely serious matter, it’s been about following my heart and it [doesn’t feel like] a job. That pretty much sums up what I do. “I don’t see me as being famous,” Schipper continues on what has become almoﬆ an outpouring about where he’s been and where he’s at. “I see me as I’ve gotten a fair amount of recognition from people I respect. That has amounted into things that have had a worldwide impact, like the Blackberry campaign [using his Make You Pop collaboration with Diplo]. Or I’ll be sitting in the cinema watching Inception and I’ll hear my music and no one else will know it’s me. In some cases I’m the guy behind the music and other times I’m out there like when I do the feﬆ ivals.” Schipper is indeed a music man with many facets – so many in fact that even he

considers his own ﬆ yle and focus difficult to define. One thing he is definitive about is his workaholic nature, and his willingness to seize opportunities that present themselves. “For me the recognition you get and the fact you can work with people you respect, that makes my life intereﬆ ing,” he proffers. “It makes me who I am because I see opportunities everywhere and I’m a workaholic and I have very eclect ic taﬆe which means I’m very confusing.” Despite admitting he may not be the easieﬆ musician to label, one thing that does continually surprise Schipper is the other labels that some press seem hell-bent on applying to him – labels that don’t necessarily have anything to do with music. But, as with moﬆ things, he has a sense of humour about it. “Sometimes when I read these things you ﬆart to doubt yourself and think ‘ha ha yes I do have a nuclear bomb somewhere and one day I’ll push the button’,” he says with a laugh. “Everyone has an opinion about everything, especially when it comes to music. They all think musicians are out there to get as much sex and money as possible, I think they don’t really underﬆand the creative process. You do the beﬆ you can do and you want to share it with the world, and then people are like ‘I want to deﬆ roy you!’ and you don’t know why... It’s amazing the affect you have on the outside world, it gets ﬆ ranger and ﬆ ranger. Every day I open my email and I’m rubbing my hands thinking ‘what’s there today?’.” WHO: Don Diablo WHERE & WHEN: Future Music Feﬆ ival at Doomben Racecourse (Brisbane) Saturday 5 March, Randwick Racecourse (Sydney) Saturday 12 March, Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne) Sunday 13 March

AFTER SEEING HIS BRISBANE APARTMENT BLOCK “INUNDATED” IN JANUARY, 3D WORLD’S DAVE DRI HEADED NORTH TO TOWNSVILLE FOR SOME R&R – AND MADE A NEW FRIEND CALLED YASI IN THE PROCESS. HE SHARES THE WISDOM GLEANED FROM DAY-UPON-DAY OF INTROSPECTION CAUSED BY LIFE OFF THE GRID.

HOW TO SURVIVE A NATURAL DISASTER (OR TWO)

t sounded almoﬆ like a twiﬆed team of primary school children whiﬆ ling through a battered megaphone, with the mattress perched atop the dining table that we wedged into the bathroom doing little to muffle the howl. Above, the roof complained in drawn out moans of a fear of being torn away in the tempeﬆ. As a diﬆ ract ion from the diﬆant threat of doom (and the nearer dangers of boredom), I casually poﬆed to my Twitter account a mocking commentary of our move into this temporary ﬆorm shelter, dubbing it the Fortress Of Awesome. It was anything but. In reply, those wags on the @3D_World account warned anyone in my vicinity to be careful, as I seem to be drawing disaﬆer with me on my travels. And right they are, with this being my second cyclone in Townsville in as many weeks, and only a fortnight on from being caught in the middle of my generation’s worﬆ flooding in my hometown of Brisbane. With the power cut, and my iPhone battery dwindling away under the depressive red warning sign, I lay in a pool of perspiration, under a table under a mattress under a roof moaning for freedom. Unable to sleep, even unable to tweet, I wondered if there was perhaps anything to be learned from this. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR The firﬆ lesson is that the life of a travelling writer is one that can be punct uated by Intereﬆing Things. As I learned in 2010, for every week spent sipping coconut juice on an Asian island, there’s a ferry waiting to sink. For every mountain trek through equatorial miﬆs, there’s a motorbike accident ahead. For every incredible overseas feﬆival, there’s food poisoning or credit card fraud. In the same vein as the ﬆeadfaﬆ rule of “what goes on tour, ﬆays on tour”, this ﬆ uff isn’t meant to follow you home. But it did. Which, only a few weeks

before Tropical Cyclone Yasi swirled its way paﬆ my bathroom-based cubbyhouse, I lay pondering during another disaﬆer, as the power cut and my batteries dwindled in the Brisbane floods. WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS Like moﬆ, I had been glued to the television, to Twitter and to the Queensland Police Facebook updates as the flood crisis unfolded. Based in New Farm, the flood projection maps (which we crowd-sourced via social media networks after the official Brisbane City Council site failed repeatedly) caﬆ an uncomfortable blue shading over the two ﬆ reets my complex ﬆraddled. Sure enough, the floodwaters rose through our building, spilling into our bottom floors and washing out the dreams of a number of small business owners. Without power, and surrounded by an impromptu riverway where once the road lay, we felt ﬆranded. A ﬆrange feeling given the relative ease of wading through the calm brown ooze to the nearby Teneriffe ﬆretch that was already buzzing away on generators in an induﬆrious effort to satisfy the suburb’s demand for caffeine and diﬆ raction. As the waters subsided, an army of volunteers assiﬆed in upending a week of mud and misery, with many of us spilling over into regional areas to continue to clean up – I had already missed my deadlines after all, and it was better to be of use than to sit in an unpowered apartment and bemoan the week’s worth of work loﬆ, or the feelings of guilt to be so focused on my small setbacks, as entire lives lay rotting on the sidewalks of any given suburb. The lessons learned are many and varied. For my part, my intereﬆs in trekking yielded all the gear I needed to live in an unpowered apartment – ranging from a select ion of well-ﬆocked fi rﬆ aid kits to trangia ﬆoves, vaﬆ amounts of water containers and ample lighting. And yet I lacked a simple battery

powered radio. An embarrassing admission from a technology reviewer and admitted gadget enthusiaﬆ. The simple omissions are the important ones. Make a note, right here in the column space, to go and review your emergency kit today – inclusive of lighting, fi rﬆ aid, water and communications. As I found, a room full of synthesisers and drum machines won’t replace a humble handheld radio when the power is cut. GOT ME RUNNING IN A CYCLONE Proud of my organisational efforts, and having leant some muscle to the clean up, I resumed what was left of normal life and headed north to Townsville. Regular 3D World readers might recall my article in late 2010 titled “The Extreme North”, as I scootered over Magnetic Island, white water rafted down Tully gorge, ate a mouth watering pie on Cardwell beach and drank beer on the warm sands of a Mission Beach skydive landing. As if I painted them with a target, these are the locations that suffered greatly in the landfall of Tropical Cyclone Yasi. As I lay in my Fortress Of Awesome only a short drive to the South, the winds tore through these beautiful locations, leaving the scale of devaﬆation that we are ﬆ ill coming to fully underﬆand on nightly news reports and in real-time social media updates. Unlike the floods, there isn’t so much to learn from this experience on a personal level that shouldn’t already have been attended to in previous months. As a nation, regardless of location, we should all have an emergency kit. We should all have thought about insurance, about the numbers to contact in an emergency, and about who to turn to for help. We should be recognising the importance of neighbours, and of our support networks on a local and extended scale.

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NSW

OLD, NEW, BORROWED, BLUE SEX? DRUGS? ROCK‘N’ROLL? NONE OF THE ABOVE SAYS ANDREW MAYER COHEN – AKA MAYER HAWTHORNE – TO JANE STABLER. HE’S ONLY IN IT FOR THE FOOD.

he multi-talented Andrew Mayer Cohen aka Mayer Hawthorne & The County is notorious for making ladies and record labels alike swoon due to his crooning and old-school soul sound. With a talent that saw him signed upon pretty much fi rﬆ hearing by Stones Th row’s Peanut Butter Wolf, Cohen is heading back to Auﬆ ralia to take fans on a new journey into an oldschool sound thanks to his new album. But the unnervingly optimiﬆ ic all-rounder says that it’s not juﬆ the smitten ladies of down under who are bringing him back to Oz in the not so diﬆant future. In fact, as excited as he is about heading back he’s juﬆ as excited about almoﬆ everything. “I’m having the beﬆ day of my life!” he exclaims before even making it into Sydney’s sunshine. “Every day is the beﬆ day ever. [And yes,] I’m always this positive! I’m coming back [to Auﬆ ralia] for a combination of the beaches, the ladies and the food. I’m a big food guy. The music is fun and all but I’m really in it for the food. I had a lot of good food there. The burgers are really good..” Despite his love of the burger, Cohen is realiﬆ ic that a tour schedule as frenetic as his doesn’t really allow for that many bad habits. It could explain why faﬆ food, as one of the lesser evils of a rock ﬆar lifeﬆ yle, has such an appeal. “I definitely have had to lead a different lifeﬆ yle as far as your health goes,” he admits. “When you’re touring doing 300 shows a year, your health is everything. If I get sick, I’m done, if I can’t sing, I’m out of a job. I gotta make sure I ﬆay healthy. I ﬆay up on my vitamins, I drink a lot of tea and water, but I have fun out here. It’s not quite as rock ﬆ ar as you’d think.” So despite this soul singer living out his rock ﬆar fantasies via his Auﬆ ralian burger cravings, his real reason for returning is of course to please adoring fan of his own unique version of blue-eyed soul. Cohen says even travelling as far as Auﬆ ralia from his current hometown of Los Angeles is worth it because we’re juﬆ so damn fabulous. “I think the Aussies are fantaﬆ ic,” the blue-eyed superﬆar reveals, incredibly pronouncing “Aussies” correct ly unlike many of his

countrymen. “They know how to party out there. When they come to a show, from my experience, they come to party. That’s the beﬆ kind of crowd.” But the local crowd aren’t the only ones wanting to party.“The benefit of being a soul singer is I get a fantaﬆ ic workout every show on ﬆage,” he continues. “We really work our asses off up there. We make sure we deliver the beﬆ show you’ve ever seen. It’s all about having fun if I ever got that way I would ﬆop. If it ever gets to that point I’ll ﬆop, I’ll take a break. It seems like we’ve been touring ﬆ raight for two years [but] we’re not tired. You know what, every time I ﬆart to get tired, something sparks me again and I’m right back and ready to go. I get to make music for a living. That’s my job, that’s my dream and it’s something a lot of people don’t get to say” Signed to the cooler than cool Stones Throw Records, Cohen’s sound is often miﬆaken as a new take on something old – so funky is his oldschool groove. Cohen says the Mayer Hawthorne & The County sound wasn’t necessarily intentional, but was definitely inevitable. “I’ve always been kind of a ﬆrange guy,” he considers. “Hence the album title [2009’s A Strange Arrangement]. I like ﬆrange music and I think it’s juﬆ natural that I’d make ﬆrange music. When I was a kid, you’re juﬆ being a kid, but I think I’ve always had eclectic taﬆes musically. My favourite Motown act has always been The Marvelettes which is not the ﬆandard Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder that moﬆ people would say. It’s not the usual answer. My favourite is The Marvelettes because they’re a little weird.” Speaking of weird, Cohen is not shy about claiming his next recorded output is also little on the odd side. “[The new album is] definitely weirder,” he says. “I think you’re really gonna get more of a feel for my individual personal ﬆ yle. A lot of my

love for Frank Zappa and the Doobie Brothers and The Beatles, you’re going to hear a lot of those inﬂuences. “I think it’s better,” he continues. “When I recorded the ﬁ rﬆ album I really had no prior experience singing, or composing an album of soul music, so I’ve learned so much about everything, about every aspect of singing in the paﬆ year and a half. It’s only natural that this album is better than the previous one. I always say I make music for my family and my close friends, and if everyone else happens to like it then that’s fantaﬆ ic, and if they don’t, then that’s cool too.” WHO: Mayer Hawthorne & The County WHERE & WHEN: The Hi-

Fi (Melbourne) Friday 18 February, Manning Bar (Sydney) Saturday 19 February, Playground Weekender Sunday 20 February

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HAVING EDUCATED NORTH AMERICA IN THE WAYS OF UK FUNKY SEVERAL TIMES OVER, WAYNE GOODLITT TELLS BRAD SWOB HE’S KEEN TO RINSE THE ROSKA GOSPEL IN OZ.

RINSING THE FUNKY

he UK funky scene has exploded in recent years with its amalgamation of garage, house, dubﬆep and everything in between. One figure that has consiﬆently been in the eye of this musical ﬆorm is South Londoner Wayne Goodlitt – better known to the world as Roska. When 3D World catches up with Goodlitt via the phone on the eve of his fi rﬆ tour down under, we find him “working hard and keeping the music flowing”. Goodlitt act ually ﬆarted his journey in the UK underground as an MC rhyming over garage and grime beats. “I was an MC from 1998 to about 2005,” he explains. “My cousin kinda ﬆopped DJing so I ﬆopped MCing, but through that time I always producing. The transition was literally easy – I juﬆ ﬆopped writing lyrics and carried on making music.” In the winter of 2007, a tune called Feline blew up in certain circles of London and it wasn’t long before word got out who was responsible for the beat. From this initial recognition, Goodlitt proceeded to launch his signature, mutated ﬆ yle using one of the UK’s biggeﬆ underground radio waves. “Fingerprint was one of the main guys in the scene at the time and he managed to get a show on Rinse FM,” he says. “He was act ually trying to get me a show on Rinse at the same time. I ﬆarted doing one or two cover shows but I thought I wasn’t going to get one. But then I ﬆarted doing like three or four cover shows a week and managed to get a slot on Rinse around early 2009 on Tuesdays 11pm – 1am. You can play anything [on the radio] and it’s like pract ice really. You’re juﬆ teﬆ ing out tunes and I can bring a tune ﬆ raight off the computer I made

VIC & NSW

this morning, play it on the radio and see how it sounds..I carried on doing that on Rinse for about a year and in between that I got asked if I wanted to do an artiﬆ album with them as well.” The opportunity to release an album on Rinse was a big opportunity for Goodlitt who had been self-releasing all his music up to that point on his own imprint Roska Kicks & Snares. “I act ually didn’t want to do a label at all,” he says. “Before I was even releasing or anything like that I tried to see if I could get myself on a label. When I was doing garage and grime I was sending out demos. To be able to sell your product , you’ve got to have a label or an output or something. So I had to set up Roska Kicks & Snares at the time juﬆ as an outlet to put my ﬆ uﬀ

out until something changed or whatever. I think I’ve done six releases on that label and that was ﬆ ill the same time I was on Rinse when they asked me to do an album.” The debut self-titled Roska album was released in May 2010 and featured collaborations with several vocaliﬆs and MCs. One big name that Goodlitt had been looking forward to working with didn’t end up panning out. “For my fi rﬆ album funnily enough, I was meant to work with Wiley and he blew me out at the laﬆ minute,” he says. “The funny thing is he called me to work with me. We were act ually gonna do a swap where I give him a couple of tracks and he can do something for himself and he does something for me. But he blew me out, so I would like to work with Wiley but the way he is, it kind of puts me off. “I’m always up for taking risks and obviously not everybody is going to enjoy your ﬆ uff but the people who bought the album and supported it, they really enjoyed it. I’m happy that Rinse took it on and made a big project out of what I’ve been doing for a little while because I was juﬆ releasing EP after EP. I’m ﬆ ill signed for another two albums so I might have something out later on this year..” Funky is definitely a UK-centric scene and sound, but like all art these days it’s rapidly been embraced around the globe. “As time has gone on, the vibe has definitely gone up a few notches where people act ually know who I am and there is more than a few people who know,” he says. “When I went to North America the firﬆ thing I thought was it will be like an introduction or education. People may know about funky or know about house so I’ll go back to some of the older funky tracks or house tracks, then come

back into the new ﬆ uff to familiarise people with what’s going on. When I went there in April that’s what I was doing and I when I went back again in July it worked out a bit more, especially in Canada. People knew about me and they could tell other people about me as well.” Goodlitt is particularly looking forward to his fi rﬆ run of Roska shows in Auﬆ ralia. “It’s a new territory and I know there are a few people out there waiting to hear me live so definitely looking forward to it – and the weather as well.” WHO: Roska WHERE & WHEN:

Playground Weekender Sunday 20 February, Heavy Innitt!! at Brown Alley (Melbourne) Friday 25 February, Tone (Sydney) Saturday 26 February

MENTAL COMBAT Hip Hop With BLAZE

BINGETHINKERS

Forget about Where Are They Now..., it should be more like, It’s About Friggin’ Time. Sydney lads Bingethinkers finally drop their debut album on Obese Records four years after they dropped their mixtape release in 2007 after Next Level Records had morphed into the original incarnation of Soul Clap Records. They are part of the LookUP crew (Scott Burns, That’s Them) as well as a part of the extended fam of the Basic Equipment mob. Rinse is on the mic whilﬆ the more than charismatic 2Buck dominates the ever present turntable antics, whilﬆ Aeon (of experimental elect ronic act Decoder Ring) and PSYKEone provide the sonic background. The product ion is either shared between those two or separately, though 2Buckﬆer shreds with his four joints and Calski is allowed to shine with his own Bollywood sampled effort. Aeon’s production for Get The Picture would easily get my vote as the beﬆ tune of the 16 available. Easy! It’s a beautifully realised summery joint with some lickable guitar loops and some well placed vocal backups in the background. It should have been the lead single, but that was left to the excellent Dialect rix gueﬆed The Buﬆ which contains more energy in four bars than a corpse in a pub crawl. Newsense turns up with fellow Melburnian Mantra for News Report, on which heavy rock ﬆ yled drums fuck with some violins for a swirling attack of microphone coverage. Chasm’s recent collaborator Vida-Sunshyne provides the chorus while Rinse incorporates Aussie hip hop labels into his lyrics for AUS Stylin. 2Buck goes balliﬆ ic on the cuts for Real Light and for the flute driven Yeshwar, where he also proffers his completely owned verse, albeit in a rather obtuse lyrical performance. But it’s the 70s TV show music of Sick in which Overproof ’s Swarmy pummels the cauliflower for a barrage of words. Check the odd London Ska-afied outro attached for a “what tha’?” moment. The more subdued Juﬆ Some Shit includes the sped-up soul vocal ﬆ yle, while the Stealth Compilation CD track Son The World gets displayed with a Spanish guitar remix. The album hits more peaks than dips into troughs, so the six year wait has been more than worth it. Appreciate the fact that Rinse isn’t one of those MCs who buries his lyrical content inside a crypt.

BOOTS AND ALL STEFFEN “DIXON” BERKHAHN MIGHT BE RENOWNED FOR HIS DEEP HOUSE AND DISCO TENDENCIES NOW, BUT CYCLONE LEARNS FOOTBALL AND BREAKBEAT WERE HIS FIRST LOVES.

ermany’s Steffen “Dixon” Berkhahn might have played professional soccer had he not suffered an injury. Music diﬆ racted him, Berkhahn DJing in Berlin even in the early 90s. Today he’s a leading taﬆemaker in the decadent realm of underground house, yet he ﬆ ill fancies the odd football game. In fact, there are a few soccer players in dance. “I’ve played with Tobias Thomas, DJ Hell and Sascha Funke,” Berkhahn reveals. “Tobias Thomas from Kompakt was the beﬆ of them!” Berkhahn’s roots lie in breakbeat – a teen fl irtation. He’d soon fall in love with a deeper ﬆ rain of house. In 2005 he ﬆarted the monthly party Inner City at Berlin’s Weekend club to foﬆer the local scene. And he’s committed to the sound even as Mixmag hypes up Berlin’s dubﬆep movement. “It’s not big at all,” Berkhahn says of the latter. “It’s a small scene that does one to two important parties a month. A month! There is some intereﬆ ing music in that scene, but the hype is way too much for what it really is. It’s juﬆ a sign of our time that something gets hyped-up extremely faﬆ – and is very often forgotten after two years.” Along with Âme’s Frank Wiedemann and Kriﬆ ian Beyer, Berkhahn launched Innervisions, then a sublabel of Jazzanova’s Sonar Kollektiv, also in 2005. Innervisions eventually became independent. As part of the concern, Berkhahn opened a coffee shop. “I was involved very much in the beginning – even working there to serve coffee three times a week – but now my partner is running the shop and I speak with him on a monthly basis.” And, no, Innervisions music isn’t the cafe’s soundtrack. Somehow Berkhahn has found time to produce. He crafted an eclect ic album with Georg von dem Bussche as Wahoo. He’s issued material, too, with Âme and Henrik Schwarz. They created music for the silent fi lm The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari, an early horror fl ick, ﬆaging it live at Germany’s Time Warp feﬆ ival. Was it well received? “[It was] a very great response,” Berkhahn replies. “That made us extremely happy, ‘cause

it was a brand new experience for us. We will perform the music again live this fall at the ADE in Amﬆerdam and at the ZKM in Karlsruhe.” He also has fresh music in the pipeline. “There will be an EP coming in spring and I am sitting on two remixes right now. Besides this, we will release the music we wrote for The Cabinet... later this year. And there will be a new mix-CD coming. It is the final inﬆalment for the Robert Johnson Live series – it will come out at the end of June.” Berkhahn has mixed a volume of Get Physical’s Body Language – and devised Innervisions’ own compilation series, Temporary Secretary. But he’s far from sanguine about the future of the mix-CD. That aforementioned Live comp will have the secondary title Nothing Stays The Same Forever – and Berkhahn envisages it as his final commercial set. Berkhahn’s buddy Schwarz is enthusiaﬆ ic about collaborating with classical musicians, predict ing more such exchanges in the elect ronic world. Berkhahn’s tips for the future? “It’s a simple fact that a lot of people who now are 30 to 40 grew up with elect ronic music. So it’s normal that curators in diff erent fi elds want to integrate an elect ronic aspect because they grew up with it... Or fi lm scoring – a lot of things will happen there.”

WHO: Dixon WHERE & WHEN: Playground Weekender Saturday 19 February, Incognito River

Cruise (Brisbane) Sunday 20 February, The Likes Of You at Royal Melbourne Hotel Sunday 20 February

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would be warmly welcomed, I think.”

SCARRED FOR LIFE TONY LOWNDES (BETTER KNOWN BY HIS DJ HANDLE TONY MONTANA) TELLS CYCLONE THAT ALTHOUGH HE HAS RARELY DARKENED THE DOOR OF A STUDIO, HIS GLOBAL ADVENTURES HAVE WELL AND TRULY MADE UP FOR IT.

hough Brit Tony Montana (real surname: Lowndes) shares his gangﬆer handle with multiple US DJs, Lowndes digs soulful house, not Mafioso rap. “These other guys are black hip hop DJs in the Los Angeles area, moﬆ ly, and they all wear big gold chains,” he jokes of his Google rivals. Lowndes’ nickname was beﬆowed on him by mates. “All my friends were completely crazy about Scarface and they watched it religiously – several times a week, even.” Lowndes has juﬆ mixed the firﬆ compilation from the paradisiacal Cocoon Beach Club in Bali, where he’s been based for around three years, consolidating his profi le across Asia. Cocoon, which touts itself as “a sanct uary for the hip and happening”, opened laﬆ July in Seminyak and, among other things, entails a poolside DJ booth. Lowndes’ ﬆ unningly packaged Transformation Volume 1 is a rarity today with its blend of sexy nu-disco, groovy vocal house and Balearica. “It’s not in-your-face ravey beats – it’s ﬆ ylish, it’s sophiﬆ icated, it’s chic, it’s cool, it’s now, it’s summery...,” he enthuses. It’s free, too, of tech house bangers. “House music really went to the dark side a few years ago now – [and] it’s kinda ﬆayed there. My background is very much soulful house. That kind of warm feeling you get from house – soulful house especially – has all but disappeared over the laﬆ few years, so I’ve tried to keep a bit of that alive with my work and what I do. “I was very ﬆ rongly influenced by the New York soulful house DJs of the 90s. It was such an uplifting sound, it was so beautiful, and it’s been phased out in recent years. A lot of people accuse it now of being like elevator music – it became boring... [But] hopefully we’ll see the reintroduct ion of disco-based house music after this year or next – which

Originally from Briﬆol, Lowndes began DJing seriously in 1988 – during the Second Summer Of Love – and eﬆablished himself in London. He’d spin at members-only spots like The Met Bar – “posh gigs”. Lowndes has DJed at private parties for the likes of Juﬆin Timberlake as well as a BAFTAS event. At the same time, he’d play “dirty warehouse parties”. “I was usually juﬆ paid in beer or something.” Now Lowndes is again touring here. “It’s been six years. I’ve missed Auﬆralia – I’m really looking forward to coming back.” As with the iconic Greg Wilson, whose remix of The Way You Move by Social Disco Club & Maia is on Transformation, Lowndes has produced little original music. “To be honeﬆ, my passion was always in playing music and not making it. A lot of my close friends who I grew up DJing with got into the ﬆ udio and they went on to become very famous. Two of my closeﬆ friends are Jesse Rose and Dominic Butler from Stanton Warriors and they’ve done very well for themselves – they’re truly on the global ﬆage now. But they spent a large part of their youth in dark ﬆ udios, bashing away at these tracks, whereas I was always into being outdoors and travelling and having adventures!”

WHO: Tony Montana WHAT: Transformation Volume 1 (Shock) out Saturday 19 February WHERE & WHEN: onesixone (Melbourne) Friday 18 February, Tramp (Melbourne) Saturday 19

February, Sand Bar (Melbourne) Friday 24 February, Eaﬆ (Broadbeach) Saturday 25 February, Ivy (Sydney) Saturday 26 February, The Bank (Sydney) Sunday 27 February, The Arthouse (Sydney) Saturday 12 March

NAT

OGFLAVAS OG Urban news with CYCLONE

DIDDY DIRTY MONEY

Sean “Diddy” Combs presaged the elect ro-hop revolution with 2003’s Kelis-gueﬆ ing Let’s Get Ill. But, myﬆeriously, he shelved his Divided Souls ‘dance’ album, despite having liaised with a Who’s Who of elect ronica. (Some tracks did surface, moﬆ memorably Felix da Housecat’s Jack U.) Nevertheless, will.i.am, not Combs, is today credited with pioneering the urban/dance fusion. And only now is the Bad Boy mogul finally unveiling a very different urban-dance project in Diddy Dirty Money’s Euro-fabulous Laﬆ Train To Paris, which features, not dance, but urban producers like the underrated Seven Aurelius. In fact, since 2006’s Press Play, which spawned the hit Laﬆ Night, Combs has virtually retired from music. As such, he’s loﬆ ground (though signing Janelle Monáe was smart). For a younger generation, he’s perceived as less an artiﬆ than a personality – occasionally even a caricature. Still, compared to will.i.am’s output, Laﬆ Train... is avant-garde. Felix’s influence is very apparent. Diddy Dirty Money is a group with two female singers: Dawn Richard (ex-Danity Kane) and songwriter Kalenna Harper. What’s more, Laﬆ Train is a (self-consciously) eccentric concept album centring on a love affair. Combs caﬆs himself as a New Romantic playa. Everyone from Tinie Tempah to Flo Rida to Nelly is emulating superclub trance, yet Combs mines the much cooler Italo disco, glitzy synth-pop and cinematic elect ro house. After all, long before he discovered Ibiza, Combs was partying at The Sound Factory in New York. Combs is tagging his new ﬆ yle “train music”, which, two years ago, he described to Mixmag as “elect ro hip hop soul funk: the new black”. The album’s intro is Detroit-doesKraftwerk, courtesy of Israeli techno don Guy Gerber. Yeah Yeah You Would is chic breakbeat with Grace Jones cameo-ing. Onetime Combs protege Usher elevates the sleek synth-hop Looking For Love. Combs is joined by The Notorious BIG’s ghoﬆ (and Rick Ross) on the spect ral soul Angels. But the ﬆand-out is the piano house I Hate That You Love Me, which Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins helms. As ﬆ ylish as he is, Combs doesn’t have Ye’s defiant musical imagination. Laﬆ Train is the closeﬆ Combs will ever get to ‘cult’ – but, for that, it’s dope.

TIME TO TRACK

Tech Underground with ANDREW WOWK

MSTRKRFT

After reading an interview with MSTRKRFT in which they basically said that will.i.am and the “bandwagon jumpers” have “ruined” elect ro, by taking the sound they, Juﬆ ice and Digitalism “created” and turning it into “commercial garbage”, and immediately thinking “now you cunts know how the likes of Afrika Bambaataa and Arabian Prince feel”, I went on an expedition to find some new proper elect ro vibes. I figured I’d share the fruits of that research with you fi rﬆ up this month. Moﬆ exciting of all is a recently released live recording of Egyptian Lover’s set in Brisbane from late laﬆ year! It’s all good baby, but the beﬆ part is when he plays Planet Rock backwards. You can grab it at www.coldcrush.com.au, which, for the record, is act ually an excellent blog worth reading to further your knowledge about the funkier, freakier side of elect ro. Plant43 and ERP are two names to check out if you dig the early Cybotron sound. These guys are flying the flag for the moody, melodic, and robotic sound in the 21ﬆ century. And if you want to discover pretty much every fathomable microcosm of the elect ro sound that exiﬆs, check out Napalm Enema Records (*giggle*). On the techno front, there are some great gigs on their way. Kazu Kimura is playing Church Of Techno Saturday 19 February, and Auﬆ ralia’s answer to Detroit Chriﬆ ian Vance and Claire Morgan will be making the trek up from Melbourne to play Loosekaboose’s fi fth anniversary celebrations Saturday 5 March. Paul Kalkbrenner is playing live at Chinese Laundry Saturday 19 March, and of course excitement is building around the imminent Plaﬆ ikman live show which is going down at Future Music Feﬆ ival (and there are a few whispers of a Richie Hawtin/Sven Väth sideshow, too). As for tunes, the deeper, more melodic sound is really leading the way at the moment. Aril Brikha has juﬆ re-released moﬆ of his backcatalogue, including Groove La Chord, while DJ 3000 keeps going from ﬆ rength-to-ﬆ rength. Hatikvah’s remix of Shakes by Nadja Lind is a deep, rhythmic trip complete with lush dub chords and heavy bass, and the new Frozen Border release FB07 is of their usual high quality. But if you like it dark, grinding and very, very scary, Tommy Four Seven’s new EP on CLR is definitely worth checking.

LEAVING A FOOTPRINT KEVIN GRIFFITHS ISN’T JUST THE BRAINS OF TSUBA RECORDS – HE TELLS HARRY PEARL HE’S ITS FACE AS WELL.

ince its inception in January 2006, Tsuba Records has navigated the changing terrain of the music induﬆ ry with aplomb. Pegged at number 16 on Resident Advisor’s Top 100 All-Time Charted Labels within a few years of its fi rﬆ release, the London-based label was always deﬆ ined for great things. Now, with celebrations set for the label’s fi fth anniversary, founder and sole director Kevin Griffiths is wondering where all those years went. “It seems to have flown by,” Griffiths says from his home in London. “But to reach five years, for any label in the current climate, is quite an achievement.” Pursuing the deeper side of the house spect rum, Tsuba has built its reputation on a ﬆring of releases that read like a who’s who of underground house: Peace Division, Moodymanc, Okain and of course Griffiths himself are juﬆ some of the artiﬆs that have contributed to discography flush with talent. Although Griffiths has 15 years under his belt as a DJ and several now as a top fl ight producer, his motivation for ﬆarting the label has always been bigger than juﬆ releasing his own music. “I was juﬆ passionate about building a brand really, rather than releasing my own music. So I guess I was coming at it from a different angle. And I suppose the way the induﬆ ry has changed juﬆ in five years, you earn more money from DJ bookings, and to get DJ bookings you need to be producing music. Th at wasn’t why I ﬆ arted producing solely, but I didn’t really intend to [release my own music] if I’m honeﬆ at the ﬆ art of the label.” Prior to founding Tsuba, Griffiths had been running Fine Records, a sub-label of German imprint Four Music. After being made redundant, the Londoner transferred his years of induﬆ ry savvy into his own venture, buoyed by the prospect of running things on his terms. “I juﬆ really wanted to be my own boss and have complete freedom to sign the records I wanted to sign. That was one of the reasons for ﬆarting the label. It can be quite a lonely sort of job, ‘cause I sign everything, I make all the decisions, so when it goes well its great but when things don’t work you’ve only got yourself to blame. I like that, I like to be able to make the final decision – or the only decision act ually.” Around the time he was made redundant, Griffiths ﬆarted to make forays into product ion himself. “I kind of got the bug act ually, and with Ableton it’s quite intuitive and you can get ﬆarted quite quickly.” But, tellingly,

Griffiths also saw another chance to advance the profi le of Tsuba. “I think to really kind of give your label an identity, you almoﬆ need a bit of a face behind it as well. So I think that was probably the primary reason really, so people would associate Tsuba with me and me with Tsuba.” Considering he’s only been producing for a few years, Griffiths’ achievements behind the boards are all the more impressive. With a bevy of deep, shimmering house cuts to his name, along with equally impressive collaborations with long time friend Juﬆ in Drake (Peace Division), it’s clear Griffiths’ talents run much deeper than A&R. Still, there’s no doubt his career as a DJ and producer is seen as juﬆ one facet of Tsuba’s advancement in the clubbing world. “It really helps with Tsuba as well ‘cause I play quite a bit now – to see things work, what doesn’t work, or what can be changed in tracks maybe. So it’s really helpful from that point of view.”

WHO: Kevin Griﬃths WHERE & WHEN: House Inspect ion + 1 at Civic Underground (Sydney) Friday 18 February, Spice

at Home Terrace (Sydney) Sunday 20 February, Tramp (Melbourne) Friday 25 February

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STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

A RELATIVELY QUIET RELEASE SCHEDULE ONLY TELLS HALF THE STORY OF THE CURRENT HAPPENINGS IN THE WORLD OF PRODUCTION VETERAN TOM MIDDLETON, AS DANIEL SANDERS DISCOVERS.

hilﬆ Tom Middleton sports an impressive discography ﬆ retching back to the early 90s under a variety of aliases, and including work with Aphex Twin and Mark Pritchard, he’s been curiously quiet in recent years. Though his present release schedule seems to be bare, there are many promising ﬆ irrings from the Middleton camp that cover a characteriﬆ ic swathe of different angles. With such broad musical taﬆes, skills and inclinations, it’s likely that Middleton will never ﬆop making or playing music – the only queﬆ ion is which form that collect ion of future sounds will take. For the time being, his ever exploratory club escapades largely revolve around a sound he’s dubbed “liquatech”, which he explains, “fuses a love of deep and tech house and elect ronica with drum’n’bass subsonic basslines”. Though this sounds an odd confluence of ﬆ yle, in pract ice it bears plenty in common with progressive house’s better moments – beautiful, grooving and euphoric arrangement pinned together by familiar cyclical patterns. Plans are allegedly in the works to release a compilation centred on the ﬆ yle, though Middleton remains mum on when we can expect it. As for his technical approach to sewing up beats, Middleton is experiencing something of a quantum leap from the more traditionaliﬆ approach chosen by some of his peers. “I’m loving the single USB key and pair of CDJ2000s linked with a LAN cable combo,” he enthuses. “But equally, I enjoy a Traktor set -up and would probably go for an S4 control surface now.” Likewise, his product ion approach is a similar fusion of the familiar and the novel, ﬆanding teﬆament to an adventurousness which has followed him throughout his career. “I’m conﬆantly looking for new ways to express myself with the technology,” he explains. “Everything is a result of R&D and exploration then focused to a brief or self initiated project. I’ve juﬆ signed a record that uses specific harmonic overtones

that when played in sequence creates an audio illusion of ever ascending notes. And this Shepard Tone scale has a visual counterpart, the Penrose Stairs illusion that was also used my MC Escher in his famous Lithographic print.” Indisputably his moﬆ forward-thinking – and indeed, well known – release is the seminal ambient album 76:14, created alongside Sydneybased beatsmith Mark Pritchard under their Global Communication moniker. Though they’ve not act ively worked together for some years, 2011 marks their return to the ﬆage, and shortly after, the ﬆ udio. Middleton doesn’t seem to have an entirely concrete idea of what this will entail juﬆ yet, joking that it’ll “possibly [be] a spin on neo-retro-Detroit techno and artiﬁcial intelligence”. Given his current intereﬆs extend to work from Vincenzo, James Blake, XXXY, Silkie, Mount Kimbie, Gold Panda, Lone, Jon Hopkins and Fourtet, we can quite comfortably say that his description is probably on the money. In the meanwhile, he’s also got plenty of solo material on the go. “I’m compiling and editing a Tom Middleton Anthology of unreleased material that spans my entire career, a lot of which is ambient,” he reveals. “There’s also the Lifetracks REDUX edition that features unreleased tracks as well..”

WHO: Tom Middleton WHERE & WHEN: Trinity Bar (Canberra) Friday 18 February, Chinese

Laundry Sunday 19 February, Playground Weekender Sunday 20 February

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ONE MORE DOSE Local Flow with MATT UNICOMB

MAUNDZ

The winners of the 2010 edition of OzHipHop.com’s annual awards have been announced. Regular One More Dose readers would remember my brief dissertation on the early round nominations earlier this month, where I mused on the various categories, inclusions and surprise entries. Maundz has taken out three of the awards’ moﬆ coveted categories: Beﬆ Album, Beﬆ Solo album and Beﬆ Male MC. It couldn’t have gone to anyone else, really. The young Preﬆon, Melbourne resident had one of the beﬆ year’s an Auﬆ ralian artiﬆ could ask for, dropping one of the moﬆ original full-lengths the country had seen early in the year, and was subsequently picked up for some pretty high-profi le shows in his home city. There were a few Sydney residents repping across the various categories. Sky’High took out the Beﬆ Female MC spot, which is good for getting some of the spotlight back on Sydney, but seems a odd considering she hasn’t really dropped any official releases recently aside from a few YouTube-only tracks (one of which, The Anthem, is about to tick over to 28,000 views) and the Something Borrowed… mixtape. She’s a solid MC, but I think the beﬆ from her is ﬆ ill yet to come. Someone needs to sling her some decent (original) beats and we’ll then see what she’s really capable of. There’s a video of her spitting at in the FBi Radio ﬆ udios floating around the net, and while it might not be the MC’s beﬆ appearance, it gives you a good idea about what we can expect in 2011. You can head to sydhop.com/downloads/ skyhigh.html to grab the mixtape. We also have a local DJ included in the awards: 2buck. The dude has been one of the few ﬆaple artiﬆs in Sydney for much of the ‘00s, so it’s good to see the award go out to him. All you need to do his hear the cuts on the new Bingethinkers release to underﬆand why he’s held in such high regard, or catch him at a show where you’ll see that he’s one of the moﬆ enthusiaﬆ ic performers on the circuit. Finally, local crew That’s Them came through with the Beﬆ Free/Downloadable release award for their The G-Up, beating out Jake Biz and his Purgatory EP series. The guys are deserving winners, especially as releasing a free LP can often be a very thankless process.

THE ALBUM OF WEEK

ALBUMREVIEWS

CHASE & STATUS No More Idols (Mercury/Universal)

VARIOUS 20 F@#&ING Years - We Ain’t Dead Yet (Planet E)

The modern – Jona’s horn driven Altiplano and Attias’ altogether more traditional Analysis – melds with classic shades of Carl Craig in this 25 track retrospect ive from his lauded Planet E imprint. Techno heads will need little reminder of the Detroit based label’s impact on the wider elect ronic scene, yet 20 F@#&ING Years - We Ain’t Dead Yet will serve as a timely educational piece for those who don’t. Fans of the label shouldn’t expect much in the way of new material, the only unreleased cut being a C2 remix of Kenny Larkin’s well worn We Are. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining overview of the chopping, changing Planet E sound, which has been as ﬆ yliﬆ ically reﬆ less as the label boss himself. Newcomers will find plenty of unique and timeless tracks to delve into: whether it’s the clauﬆ rophobic water-tank reverb of Lazy Fat People’s (Mirko Loko and Ripperton) Club Silencio or the tongue in cheek Carl Craig/Laurent Garnier collaborations as Tres Demented, there’s such a variety of texture, depth and ingenuity on offer as to render short expression useless. Naturally, Martin Buttrich’s 12 minute plus epic Full Clip is also present, as is the uncharacteriﬆ ically pounding Dem Young Sconies from Moodymann. If simply revisiting classics doesn’t sound intereﬆ ing, Craig has also organised a battery of remixes for a monthly digital/vinyl release schedule that will see Ricardo Villalobos, Dubfi re, Sven Vath, Loco Dice, Seth Troxler, Psycatron, Paul Woolford, Radio Slave, Chris Liebing, Luciano and more retouching much of the material featured on 20 F@#&ING Years – the latter artiﬆ leading off with his revamp of Recloose’s Can’t Take It. T here will also be a limited edition vinyl box set to come – so though this digital celebration of the mileﬆone is a ﬆart, there’s plenty more to look forward to. DANIEL SANDERS

For all the praise and recognition that has been heaped upon the London duo in the years since its release, Chase & Status’ 2008 debut album More Than Alot (sic)was act ually quite a ﬂawed liﬆen. While blessed with a handful of now-classic product ions, the record nevertheless showcased a critical lack of focus and a fundamental lack of underﬆanding in regards to the arrangement of memorable pieces of music. No Problems, opening the pair’s long-awaited follow-up No More Idols, would seem indicative of an act who have acknowledged such shortcomings and successfully banished them from their repertoire. An aﬆonishing piece of work, it successfully brings together disparate aspects of tribal percussion, dancehall vocals. Unfortunately, the remainder of No More Idols

FLO RIDA Only One Flo Part 1 (Atlantic/Warner)

The hype man of the new generation brings us his third sample-based release. Only One Flow Part 1 features only eight songs, with its sequel set to be released later this year. Now you would think the Flo Rida may have reached a new level of artiﬆ ic eﬆeem to release an eight song, mini album. But as you can tell by the ﬆalling use of word count in this review, he moﬆ deﬁnitely, without a doubt undeniably and unqueﬆ ionably has not. Club Can’t Handle, which had kids jumping for a good part of laﬆ year, is a collaboration with fellow club anthem rep David Guetta. Currently he’s got them jumping to Turn Around (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) which samples Yello’s Oh Yeah from way back in the Ferris Bueller days. Come With Me is a music box version

is indicative of an act who have acknowledged such shortcomings and embraced them to the point of career suicide. Where the eclect icism of More Than Alot merely threatened to undermine Chase & Status’ undeniable product ion talents on occasion, No More Idols sees that same eclect icism sabotage the pair’s good work almoﬆ beyond the point of redemption. Over the course of the record, Chase & Status throw absolutely everything they can into their d‘n’b/hip hop/dubﬆep hybrid – from heavy metal guitars and ﬆ ring sect ions to Cee Lo Green and Dizzee Rascal. In truth, one could almoﬆ imagine them getting away with it but, tragically, the pair simply don’t have the ﬂair for arrangement required for such fusion. The majority of the album’s tracks sound like nothing much more than highly polished product ion sketches and vocal hooks. MATT O’NEILL

of Pac’s Hail Mary from the highly respected Killumitati: The 7 Day Theory. The adaptation may be labelled by fanatics as utter sacrilegious, but the song act ually has some appeal with its sweet lyrics and its fluid melody. Plus, the majority Flo Rida liﬆeners would have no idea about Hail Mary in the fi rﬆ place. Who Dat Girl is yet another jumpy, club anthem featuring the nasal vocals of Akon. The song has more of an elect ro-pop feel much like Katy Perry’s California Girls. He goes a bit gangﬆer for Why You Up In Here with Ludacris and Gucci Mane. But no matter how faﬆ he raps, Flo’s flow is ﬆ ill clearly more for the hype than for the battle. JANN ANGARA

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ONE TRACK MIND FUNKYSTEPZ Fuller (Hyperdub)

GARETH EMERY Northern Lights

(Central Station/Universal) Recent Auﬆ ralian visitor Gareth Emery secured an entry into the upper echelons of the DJ Mag Top 100 laﬆ year, something he cemented with the release of his debut artiﬆ album – with the outspoken DJ/producer emphasising, as always, how differently he does things. Certainly, his sound is diﬆ inct – falling somewhere between trance, progressive and elect ro house, it’s full of twinkly melodies and bubbling elect ro basslines. There’s a tendency towards fluffiness that’ll endear him to plenty but will probably grate on others, but whatever the case, his trademark sound has been buffed and polished and he uses it to craft some excellent tunes on Northern Lights. The opening collaboration with Jerome Isma-Ae leads appropriately into the progressive-focused

fi rﬆ half of the album, heavy on the melody and eschewing any faceless techno rhythms. His ambitious attempt at an elect ronic power ballad, complete with a two-minute piano solo and his own siﬆer on vocal duties, is embarrassing ﬆ uff, but it’s redeemed by moments like Full Tilt, a progressive bomb that puts aside the fluff y melodies for some Michael Cassette ﬆ yle 80stinged melancholy. There’s also the powerhouse trance of Sanctuary and Citadel, showing how much he knows how to craft an anthem. With his tendency to blow his own horn so much, Emery sets the bar pretty high for his own music, so it’s no surprise he doesn’t quite get there. Nonetheless, Northern Lights is ﬆ ill an accomplished attempt at an artiﬆ album, packed full of excellent tunes and foreshadowing greater things to come for someone who dares to dream big. ANGUS PATERSON

A release on Kode 9’s poﬆ-dubﬆep label oﬀers UK funky heroes Funkyﬆepz their beﬆ chance at crossing over to a cashedup new audience. Fuller is a reﬆ lessly asymmetrical tribal workout driven by pinging, whining synths, like The Black Dog refashioned for the danceﬂoor. B-side Hurricane Riddim is even better, a ﬆern, ﬆ urm and drang cross of pounding dancehall and wintery grime. Unbeatable.

DRUMS OFF CHAOS & JENS-UWE BEYER Drums Oﬀ Chaos & Jens-Uwe Beyer (Magazine/Kompakt) Th is expansive EP (LP?) from the new band of legendary Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit’s answers my longﬆanding thought experiment “What would Can be doing today?” The answer, unsurprisingly, is inﬆ rumental, hypnotic, tribal drum workouts backed by drifting, disquieting ambient drones. It’s pretty gripping ﬆ uﬀ.

GIL SCOTT-HERON & JAMIE XX NY Is Killing Me (XL/Remote Control)

Commissioning Jamie xx (of The xx) to remix Scott-Herron’s defiantly difficult comeback album is an oddball but clever idea, and on NY Is Killing Me, Gil’s bluesy mutter nearly disappears under Jamie’s fitful dubﬆep bleeps and lurches. It’s rather dancefloor-unfriendly, but as unsettling mood music it’s spectacular, TIM FINNEY

MACEO PLEX Life Index

(Crosﬆown Rebels/Inertia) Beﬆ known for his product ions as Maetrik, Eric Eﬆornel makes a regular habit of working under numerous pseudonyms and Maceo Plex is prime among those. As his ﬁ rﬆ solo outing for Damian Lazarus’ Crosﬆown Rebels, Vibe Your Love – eﬀect ively a cover of Stevie Wonder’s For Your Love – set the tone for what was to come. By no means a radical departure from his grinding techno as Maetrik, the more underﬆated Maceo Plex output is welcome nevertheless. Textured, often deep and invariably grooving, the house-centric Plex template sees Eﬆornel ﬆ raying into far sexier territory which neatly dovetails into the current Rebels ideology: keep the kids dancing and the reﬆ is all gravy. Th is extends to the reﬆ of his brand spanking LP for the label, Life Index. By

NAT

no means a perfect representation of the form, it’s ﬆ ill a ﬆ rong collect ion of dancefloor bombs that should be regarded as such. Liﬆen to it end to end unmixed and you may well fatigue or otherwise bore of it rather quickly. Overall, there’s a syrupy feel to the album which gives more than a gentle nod to Detroit influences that should leave tech house fans at leaﬆ in no two minds as to where Eﬆornel is aiming. Tracks such as Silo, Arise and Dexter’s Flight ﬆ ray little from the Maetrik/ Plex template (and are alone worth the price of admission as a result) yet the funky ﬆ rut of You & Me and Sleazy E – both of which seemingly hinge on heavy sampling – show an altogether different approach from Eﬆornel. Whatever the case, there’s enough on offer for a multitude of house fans from varying sides of the fence to sink their teeth into. Juﬆ don’t come looking for anything ground breaking. DANIEL SANDERS

3DPLAYLIST 3D 1. Illuminate (Charlie May Remix) ORBITAL 2. Juﬆ Like Fireworks MIND OVER MATTER 3. Alive CHAIM 4. Fabriclive.32 VARIOUS/TAYO 5. Fabric 56 VARIOUS/DERRICK CARTER 6. 21 MARCUS INTALEX 7. Street Legal 3 RENNIE PILGREM 8. We’re New Here GIL SCOTT-HERON VS JAMIE XX 9. ET (Noisia Remix) KATY PERRY 10. Untrue ORBITAL

A FRACTION TOO MUCH PHIXION WILLIAM BRAUNSTEIN MIGHT BE DEEMED GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION WITH HIS CONTROVERSIAL DEATH RAP BROTHER NECRO, BUT HE TELLS CYCLONE HIS WORK AS ILL BILL IS A DIFFERENT KETTLE OF FISH ENTIRELY.

t’s taken several attempts but hardcore rapper/producer Ill Bill, aka William Braunﬆein, is finally touring Auﬆ ralia. He’ll be accompanied by his old Non Phixion ﬆalwarts Sabac Red and DJ Eclipse. “It’s three out of five of the dudes from Non Phixion, basically,” Braunﬆein enthuses. “It’s gonna be cool ‘cause we can do some Non Phixion ﬆ uff that I don’t usually do. Me and Sabac don’t really get to tour that often – it’s been maybe, like, three years since I’ve been on the road with Sabac. So it’s gonna be dope.” The New Yorker won’t be causing the same kind of mayhem as his notorious younger brother Ron – better known as Necro – back in 2009. The “death rap” Necro shocked journaliﬆs in pre-tour interviews. (In a Music Feeds ﬆory Necro called Kanye Weﬆ “an undercover faggot” and, aside from other misogyniﬆ ﬆatements, revealed that he wanted to “make a whore out of ” actor Kriﬆen Stewart). He was eventually arreﬆed for assault in Perth. Yet Braunﬆein, married with a daughter, is more diplomatic (and politically-correct). He’s professional – and affable. Th is dude confines any controversy to his angﬆ y music. Today Braunﬆein ﬆ resses that he is not like his brother. “A lot of people think that, because we’re brothers, we’re the same person – or that our music is the same. If people pay attention and look at my music, [then] look at his music, and not juﬆ liﬆen to the music I’ve done with him, I don’t think [they] would put me and him in as much as the same box as they do.” What Braunﬆein does have is serious musical cred – and a hiﬆory. He grew up in Brooklyn’s Glenwood housing eﬆate, his background Israeli and Romanian. As a teen, Braunﬆein played bass and sang lead vocals in the death metal band Injuﬆ ice, with Ron on guitar, but he gravitated to rap music – his sibling following. He was pivotal to the hip hop posse Non Phixion, mentored by 3rd Bass’ MC Serch (who also gave a leg up to Nas). In the late 90s a shrewd Braunﬆein launched an indie, Uncle Howie Records. He’s maintained the label’s viability despite the digitalisation of the music biz. How? “By not really spending a lot of money – by doing a lot more in-house and juﬆ cutting corners... I think that’s probably what we did from day one. It’s part of why we’re ﬆ ill around. A lot of other people who were doing it bigger than us, and were considered ahead of us, are out of business now – and we’re ﬆ ill here.” Braunﬆein’s solo debut, What’s Wrong With Bill?, dropped in 2004. He followed with The Hour Of Reprisal (led by the single White Nigger) three years ago. For The Hour..., Braunﬆein rapped over beats from the likes of Non Phixion fan DJ Premier, while the Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon cameoed. Laﬆ year he teamed with DJ Muggs for Kill Devil Hills. The pair promoted the project with videos, yet it slipped under the radar – something Braunﬆein partly attributes to the GFC’s effect on music retail. “The record came out in Auguﬆ but, after a month, it was already considered old, so I juﬆ don’t think people gave it enough time,” he says with a hint of resignation. Non Phixion having disintegrated, Braunﬆein threw himself into the supergroup La Coka Noﬆ ra with Everlaﬆ, Danny Boy and DJ Lethal (all of House Of Pain fame) plus Slaine. Their A Brand You Can Truﬆ

was released in 2009. Braunﬆein is uncertain about another LCN LP. “We’re supposed to work on a record at some point, but right now that’s not happening because House Of Pain is act ually gonna be doing an album and they’re going out on tour – so that’s what they’re working on right now.” Even his collab with Heltah Skeltah legend Sean Price is on hold as Price has his own album. In the meantime, there’s talk a third Ill Bill outing. “I haven’t really done much on it – I’ve juﬆ ﬆarted working on it.” His desire is for Muggs to contribute beats. Still, moﬆ likely the album won’t appear until early 2012. Next Braunﬆein will be issuing his Heavy Metal Kings album with ItalianAmerican rapper Vinnie Paz in April. Braunﬆein has spoken of his maturing as a man – and an artiﬆ. “I’m

20 years in the game, so my life has definitely changed a lot – and that’s gonna be reflected in the music. I mean, if I’m gonna be honeﬆ about what I’m talking about, it has to come through in the music.” Nevertheless, his image is intimidating to mainﬆ ream media peepz, with misconceptions inevitable. Braunﬆein has overcome such problems by harnessing the Internet to ensure his accessibility to fans. “I can’t read people’s minds. I don’t know what people think. I juﬆ think the way things are with the Internet, everybody’s the media now, ‘cause everybody can have an opinion now. Everything is so touchable, everybody’s more tangible and reachable now – with Facebook you juﬆ write to people direct ly. People juﬆ need to not take that for granted. I’m the type of artiﬆ who does interact. I do have a Twitter page, I have a YouTube channel, and I interact with people on there. I juﬆ think people need to appreciate [the music] and not go overboard with it.” Braunﬆein sees himself as outspoken, and believes in freedom of expression, but he doesn’t offer opinions for the sake of it. Quizzed for his views on Wikileaks, and the furore surrounding Julian Assange, and he demurs. The American admits to not really underﬆanding Assange’s “motives” or the nature of the leaked documents. “I don’t wanna be ‘pro or con’ towards him, or Wikileaks, ‘cause that’d be irresponsible,” Braunﬆein says. “[But] it’s intereﬆing, it’s crazy – he’s definitely a crazy dude! He’s an intereﬆ ing dude, that’s for sure! I would like to hear more about what’s going on and to find out more about it.” WHO: Ill Bill WHERE & WHEN: The Gaelic (Sydney) Thursday 10 March, Step Inn (Brisbane) Friday 11 March, Corner Hotel (Melbourne) Thursday 17 March

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JBEETZ WHERE AND WHEN WAS YOUR FIRST SET? “Blaxland Tavern, Summer 2004.” WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ALL TIME 12”? “Jan Driver - Ladies Want It.” WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE DJS? “Ajax, A-Trak, Krafty Kuts, Plump DJs.” FAVOURITE CLUB TO PLAY? “Toss up between World Bar and BAJA Coolangatta (RIP).” WHAT’S YOUR BEST ALL TIME GIG? “That would have to be the back room at Embassy nightclub Penrith. 300 people crammed into a danceﬂoor the size of a shoebox going nuts, like really nuts!” WHAT’S THE FUNNIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN FROM BEHIND THE DECKS? “I play in Katoomba a fair bit so not much surprises me anymore, but I’d have to say a friend (remaining nameless, you know who you are) visiting mother nature all over the booth ﬂoor!” WHAT’S THE WORST REQUEST YOU’VE GOT? “The classic ‘can you play something we can dance too?’ – what about the 200 people behind you dancing?” WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF WHAT YOU DO? “I think there is a sort of respect there. Don’t know if they underﬆand the scene fully... but yeah.” WHAT DOES THE LOCAL CLUB SCENE NEED MOST? “Less promoter DJs or friends of promoters that have owned decks for two weeks. I remember when DJs were chosen from what they knew, not who they knew.” UPCOMING GIGS? “Dubrave at Chinese Laundry Friday 25 February, Jaunt at Blaxland Tavern Friday 4 March.” PHOTO BY CARINE THEVENAU

NSW NSW

DJ STIFFY’S WIDE WORLD OF SHORTS

DANCE MUSIC HUB CHART 1. Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Rauhofer vs Ozborne Remix) STEVEN LEE, GRANITE 2. She Makes Me Wanna Dance KABAMAN

6. Everybody Surrender (Club Mix) ERIC CHASE

MUSICALS ACTUALLY JUMPED THE SHARK A FEW YEARS AGO Speciﬁcally when they decided to make Debbie Does Dallas into a musical, which completely retained the ﬆoryline, but somehow didn’t think the sex scenes were important, which is kind of like removing DDD’s raison d’etre in the ﬁ rﬆ place, which is not unlike saying that you could adapt a TV show like Get Smart into a movie, but you have to take out all the jokes. The reason I mention this is that it seems someone decided to make a Spider-Man musical precisely in order to act ually jump the shark, and therefore get headlines around the world about how absurd an idea of turning SpiderMan into a musical act ually is. In which case, I issue a challenge to directors of said musical: turn Anal Academy 12 into a musical and see how far you get then.

YOUTUBE OF THE WEEK

LUTHER CAMPBELL RUNS FOR MAYOR Possibly the greateﬆ news I have heard for the paﬆ decade is that Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew is now in the running to become Mayor of Miami. His ﬁ rﬆ policy initiative will be to increase taxes for ﬆ rippers to increase city revenue, which is possibly the worﬆ news I have heard for the paﬆ decade. Th is is precisely what is wrong with governments around the world today. Solution to everything? Put a tax on it. Greenhouse gas? Carbon tax. Mother nature completely fucked your country? Flood tax. Males of working age spending too much time looking at pornography and deﬆ roying national product ivity levels? National maﬆ urbation levy. Well, I say, people should act ually attempt to solve some genuine fucking social problems with taxes. Too many bogans? Ed Hardy t-shirt tax. Too many psychotic weirdos maﬆ urbating in public? Meth tax. National taﬆe in music is annoying and insipid?

DOUBLE DREAM HANDS! They say if you’re seeking to reach the masses you muﬆ appeal to the loweﬆ common denominator. Whatever that means, we think that this video encapsulates the idea. Meet John Jacobson. Who is he? We are not entirely sure, but he has managed to accumulate juﬆ over 2,107,490 hits on this YouTube video of himself teaching the original choreography for the song Planet Rock. Th is guy puts The Wiggles to shame.

TROPICAL DESTRUCTION The name Cyclone Yasi sounds like the name for a novelty rapper from Sudan. Or possibly a journaliﬆ for this magazine. IF/WHEN EMINEM WINS A GRAMMY FOR ALBUM OF THE YEAR... It will act ually pretty much signal the fact that popular music is act ually completely over in terms of representing any level of teenage social rebellion – ie you could pretty much go and take a shit on a life-sizedreplica of the Pope, but if it’s part of a music video, people will think that’s somehow reasonable, and you’ll probably end up winning an American Music Award for your work a few years down the track.

3. Say My Name PORTER ROBINSON 4. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. RLP AND BARBARA TUCKER 5. Ghoﬆbuﬆers (David Freedom Mix) SUNRIDER

7. A Boy A Girl (Sven Kuhlmann Dub Mix) DALORIAN & PIXIE ROSE 8. 75 Brazil Street DAVID MORELL 9. Dial Up (Remix) (Pig&Dan Old Skool Remix) DJ SUBSONIC 10. Tear Goes Up ODED ADAM & MATAN VERED

“

BIGGEST DECISION TO MAKE TODAY, WHAT BIKINI TO WEAR....UGH ;).” THE NEXT TIME YOU START TO FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF DURING A HARD DAY AT WORK SPARE A THOUGHT FOR MISS LARA BINGLE AND THE DILEMMAS SHE FACES EVERY DAY AS A SWIMSUIT MODEL. LIFE IS JUST NOT FAIR.

38 3DWORLD

NAT

HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR MC NAME? “Juﬆ a bunch of letters that worked well together when I used to write it on walls. Nothing too special at all.” HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN RAPPING? “Not sure how long all up, but my ﬁ rﬆ recorded track was back around 2000, so yeah recording for ten or so years now. Th ree albums, a mixtape and a vinyl release.”

THERE? “Look are you trying to ﬆart something?”

MCBOOTH SARM (THAT’S THEM)

WHAT’S YOUR DREAM COLLABORATION? “I’d like to work with some overseas acts, maybe Wiley or P-Money but to be honeﬆ I’m pretty happy with juﬆ me and Nebs and the people we work with. I ﬁnd working with people always seems to feel forced and a bit meh.”

ARE YOU AFFILIATED WITH ANY CREW? “That’s Them and LookUP Records.” WHAT CAN YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR FIRST GIG? “I remember looking at the ground an awful lot and feeling pretty nervous.”

FAVOURITE COMEBACK LINE? “I’ve never retired so no need for any comeback lines yet. Baboom tish.”

EVER EXCRETED ANY UNUSUAL FLUIDS BEFORE ROCKING A SHOW? “Excuse me?”

SHOW AND WHY? “The beﬆ show we have performed at would be Re-Up 2 Feﬆ ival in 2010 , because the crowd and vibe were on point, it was wicked to perform to a packed room that was bouncing oﬀ the walls.”

YOUR BEST

WHAT’S THAT ON YOUR SHIRT

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT THE LOCAL HIP HOP SCENE? “Us! Everyone else is ﬆ ill doing the same boring shit, I’m sick of hearing the same old watered down recycled ﬆ yle that the whole scene does. No diss to no one, I juﬆ think the scene in general could pick it up and try and do something diﬀerent.”

WHERE & WHEN: Sandringham Hotel Friday 25 February, The Wall Friday 18 March,

ANU Bar (Canberra) Saturday 19 March

SPANK RECORDS CHART 1. I Want It / Next To You DJ HARVEY PRESENTS LOCOSSOLUS 2. Oﬁ (Space Dimension Controller / Bullion Remixes) MODEL 500 3. Hi-Lo / Room In Your Heart (Art Department/Wolf & Lamb & Slow Hands Remixes) WILL SAUL & TAM COOPER 4. Work (Prins Thomas/Marcel Dettmann Remixes) JUNIOR BOYS

NSW

5. Trax Re-Edited VARIOUS 6. Anne Will/ Starship Discotheque MOVE D/ SERAFIN 7. Hip Love (Jamie XX remix) FALTY DL 8. Romanticos/Beef DR DUNKS/ BASTEDOS 9. Anthem BLACK ROSE (HENRIK SCHWARZ & JESSE ROSE) 10. Separat / Izolat COSMIN TRG

INDUSTRY WATCH NOT MYSELF PRESENTS CALVIN HARRIS AT GREENWOOD HOTEL

THE IDEA BEHIND OUR NIGHT IS… “We ﬆart the gig at 4pm and ease into the night with some unreal tunes. The idea behind this night is to bring the beﬆ DJs we have together and top it oﬀ with an international superﬆar – Calvin Harris to show people what Not Myself is all about, what it does and what it sounds like.” WE’LL BE PIMPING THE SOUNDS OF… “We have all bases covered. That is all we’re saying here. By the end of the night we’ll have you begging our DJs for mix CDs.” THE TALENT WE’VE GOT LINED UP TO PLAY INCLUDES… “International superﬆar Calvin Harris mixed with Auﬆ ralia’s beﬆ – John Glover, Matt Nukewood, Ben Morris, Cadell, Steve Play, Ember, Joey Kaz, Sancho, hoﬆed by MC Loﬆ y.” THE OTHER TRICKS UP OUR SLEEVE INCLUDE… “We thought it would be an awesome idea to bring the beﬆ of R&B together, and have ‘the chapel’ as the R&B room. So we have G-Wizard, Troy T, Eko, Def Rok, Lilo and hoﬆ MC Jayson.” CHECK OUT OUR NIGHT IF YOU’RE THE KIND OF KID WHO LIKES… “If you like big beats, massive names on the bill and are a Calvin Harris fan then this is it for you.” THE THING WE PROVIDE YOU CAN’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE IN TOWN IS… “Here is the recipe: you get one of the biggeﬆ names in the music induﬆ ry and invite him for a killer DJ set at a venue that is made for an event like this, then ﬆart putting together a bulletproof line-up of Auﬆ ralia’s moﬆ renowned DJs and you get Not Myself! Greenwood Hotel will be the home to Sydney’s biggeﬆ Sunday night event.” WHERE & WHEN: Not Myself at Greenwood Hotel Sunday 27 February

BOWL, BABY BOWL

AS VANS BOWL-A-RAMA PREPARES TO BRING SOME OF THE WORLD’S BEST SKATERS TO BONDI BEACH, 3D WORLD CATCHES UP WITH AUSTRALIAN SKATEBOARDER AND TV PRESENTER CORBIN HARRIS TO FIND OUT MORE. TELL US ABOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN THE EVENT? “Bowl-A-Rama is the biggeﬆ skateboarding conteﬆ in Auﬆ ralia. It’s been built up and this is it’s the seventh year. I’ve been in the conteﬆ pretty much every year but I’m having this year oﬀ cause I am working on a couple of other project s but I will deﬁ nitely be at the conteﬆ hoﬆ ing the live show and doing all the interviews with all the riders for Fuel TV.”

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN SKATING? “I ﬆarted kind of late – I was heavily into rugby union and surﬁng from about eight-years-old. Then a skate park opened up down the ﬆ reet from where I grew up and I remember riding down there on a BMX one day thinking this is the beﬆ thing ever... [at] 14 I ﬆarted. By about 15 I was sponsored and by 16 I ﬆarted travelling around doing all the Big Day Out tours. I was competing professional by 17.” HOW DOES THE AUSTRALIAN SKATE SCENE COMPARE TO OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD? “Well it’s massive in America… it’s juﬆ part of their culture. Skateboarders are in music videos and on cereal boxes. With skateboarding in Auﬆ ralia people are juﬆ not as educated about

it. It has changed a lot over the laﬆ ten years and surﬁng and skating is getting a lot cooler.” WHAT IS IT LIKE TO TOUR WITH SKATERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD? “There are a lot of eccentric people in skateboarding that’s for sure. I think it’s awesome travelling around with people like that. Some are types who seem like they are from a rock bands then you have other types that are into yoga, like proper athletes. I think that’s the cool thing about skateboarding it’s not juﬆ for one type of person.” WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT AT BOWL-ARAMA? “It’s an invitational conteﬆ of the world’s beﬆ skaters. It’s pretty full on to watch. Guys really push themselves and some are doing ﬆuﬀ that they have never even landed before, tricks no one has ever seen. It’s gonna be crazy.” WHERE & WHEN:

Vans Bowl-A-Rama at Bondi Beach Skatepark Saturday 19 February

GIVEAWAY

NO STRINGS ATTACHED TICKETS No Strings Attached is a romantic comedy teaming up Natalie Portman as Emma and Aﬆon Kutcher as Adam who come close to deﬆ roying their friendship after having sex one morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep their relationship ﬆ rict ly “no ﬆ rings attached”. “No ﬆ rings” means no jealousy, no expectations, no fighting, no flowers, no baby voices. It means they can do whatever they want as long as they don’t fall in love. The queﬆ ion is – can you have sex without love getting in the way? And can their friendship survive? 3D World have five double passes to giveaway for No Strings Attached. To enter simply email your name and contact details to giveaways@3dworld.com.au with NO STRINGS in the subject line. Entries close Friday 18 February. 40 3DWORLD

NSW

P41 CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

I’ve always thought of being a fi rﬆ aid officer as a noble pursuit – the sort of thing Jesus would have learnt if he’d had the time. I thought that knowing fi rﬆ aid would give me magical life-preserving skills. I imagined myself simply touching someone’s forehead and bringing them back to life, I imagined healing people of leprosy, I imagined that people would follow me around juﬆ to hear the wise things I said to them. After doing a fi rﬆ aid course, I was horrified to discover that fi rﬆ aid is moﬆ ly juﬆ “clearing the area of hazards”. All this means is that if someone has hurt themselves, your job is to use your foot to kick away any elect rical wires in the area. So I found myself asking the queﬆion: Is there anything that the fi rﬆ aid course can teach you that is of use? Well yes, there is, and it’s CPR. With CPR, you can breathe for someone for as long as it takes to get them to a hospital. In one case two men performed CPR on a man who had had a heart attack and ﬆopped breathing for a full five hours before being rescued, and he lived. But beyond CPR, I learnt that the only skills you really have are to see if someone is dead and call someone with act ual medical skills to come and help if they’re not. It’s as though you are danger’s secretary – your only real useful function is to call the authorities. In the end, the only person who needed to have fi rﬆ aid adminiﬆered to them was me when I suﬆained serious burns at work. I was making a coffee when I spilt boiling water down my thigh – perilously close to my genitals – and due to the skin tight jeans I was wearing, the water sunk into the denim and immediately ﬆarted burning my skin off. I refused to take off the pants because people were watching, so when I finally made it to the bathroom and tore my pants off, the skin went with them. At the end of the day, at leaﬆ I can say what anyone would want to say in these sorts of situations – at leaﬆ I ﬆ ill have my genitals intact. But I didn’t need a fi rﬆ aid course to teach me that boiling water and genitals should never meet. HOLLY HUTCHINSON

NSW

GUESTLIST

TRICKY

TUESDAY

THE BALD FACED STAG Matt Hoare (DJ), Xanthopan, The Autohoare, Dave Austin, Andosound. 8pm. $12 (pre-sale) - $15 (at door). BEACH RD HOTEL Deveaux, Kid Crumpet, Tull Kidron. 8pm. Free. THE VALVE DJ Underground Tables: DJs Myme, ATO, Gee Wiz. 8pm. Free. WORLD BAR Karaoke, DJs Cris Angel, Mad Honour (Neon Hearts), Andy & Mike.

WEDNESDAY BEACH RD HOTEL High Places, Hell City Glamours. 8pm. Free. CIVIC UNDERGROUND Darryl Beaton. 9pm. Free. TONE Fort Knox Five. 7pm. $10. THE VALVE The Deltorers. 7pm. Free. WENTWORTH HOTEL Uni Night: DJ Nicky M, Dream One. 8pm. Free. WORLD BAR The Wall. Good Art Good Heart, QLD Flood Disaster Fundraiser. $12.

THURSDAY BEACH RD HOTEL Bowlarama: Mad Racket DJs, Infusion. 8pm. Free. CANDYS APARTMENT Ewun, Dauntless, Mazza, One-Niner & Sytrax, Yayogi & More. 8pm. HOME TERRACE Unipackers: John Young. 10pm. $5 – $10. METRO THEATRE Four Tet, Caribou. 8pm. $47.50 +bf (pre-sale). OXFORD ART FACTORY Glass Towers. 8pm. Free. OXFORD ART FACTORY Hard Knocks Tour with Gold Fields + Bleeding Knees Club. 8pm. $10 +bf (pre-sale). RIO DEL RIVERSIDE RESORT Playground Weekender: Lamb, Tricky, Kool & The Gang, De La Soul, Kate Nash, Caribou & more. $199 (ﬁrst release 3 day ticket) - $249 (second release 4 day ticket). TOKIO HOTEL Blues & Roots Revival: Soul Nights. 8pm. Free. WORLD BAR Urby, Monkey Genius, Johnny Segment, Nik V.

FRIDAY 202 BROADWAY Jamrock: Everyone Pres. Ken Cloud & Mark Craven. 9pm. ANNANDALE HOTEL Tone Defeat: The Mavens, The Dead Heads, Archerbolds, Rufus. 7:30pm. $8. BEACH RD HOTEL Philadelphia Grand Jury, Bang Gang DJs, Love & Guts Art Show. FORT KNOX FIVE

CANDY’S APARTMENT Liquid Sky: Detektives, Cunningpants, Wizzﬁzzkids. 8pm. COHIBAR DJ Shamus, DJ Jeddy Rowland, DJ Mike Silver. 5pm. Free. ENMORE THEATRE Kool & The Gang. 7pm. $98.40–$156.20 THE FORUM Sasha, Robbie Lowe, Matttt. 10pm. $45 (+bf ). THE GAELIC Last Night - The Late Edition: DZ Deathrayz (live), King Cannons (live), Red Riders DJs, Danny Clayton, Jane Gazzo & more. 10pm. $10. JACKSONS ON GEORGE DJ Michael Stewart. Free. KIT & KABOODLE Falcona DJs. 10pm. $10. LE PANIC Box Social: MYD, 3Hundreds, Soritis, Jamie What, 14th Minute, Jordan F. 9pm. $10. HOTEL METROPOLE Tom Piper. HOME Sublime: Peewee, Nasty, Nick Farrell, Dirty Stopout, Person 3, Flite, IKO, Losty. 10pm. $25. MACQUARIE HOTEL Austin Busch. 8pm. OXFORD ART FACTORY Phatchance, Coptic Soldier. 8pm. Free. OXFORD ART FACTORY Guineafowl, We Say Bamboulee, Cameras. 8pm. $10 +bf (pre-sale) - $12 (at door). PHOENIX BAR Bootie Sydney: We Love Mashups: DJs Marty Batfreak, Mr Chad, Earley Curley. $5 (before 11pm) - $10 (after 11pm). PONTOON Nic Philips. 9pm. Free. THE RED RATTLER Purdy: Deviant Nature Launch. 8pm. $15-$18 at door. TANK NotMyself: G Wizard, Eko, Troy T, Def Rok, Lilo, Mc Jayson, I AM SAM, Cadell, Ben Morris, Matt Nukewood, Mista Kay Sancho, Joey kaz, Franky Jay & Puma Doors open 10 PM, Guest list $15, General $20. TERRIGAL HOTEL Purple Sneakers DJs. 8pm. Free. TOKIO HOTEL Rock Glam: Turn It Up and Soul Nights. 8pm. Free. Q BAR Pash Summer Series: Made In Japan & Drawn From Bees. 9pm. $10 at door. THE RED RATTLER The ‘Deviant Nature’ Launch: Purdy, DJ Sir Robbo, DJ Lars Chresta. $15-18. 8pm. THE WATERSHED HOTEL Bring on the Weekend! Club Miami. Free. WORLD BAR Mum: DJS Miss Clarence, Nic Yorke, 16 Tacos, Jack Shit, Jenny Kong, Mush, Lonewolf. 8pm - late $10 Before 10pm, $15 after.

SATURDAY ACER ARENA Utopia: Fire and Ice: Luna, Activator, Josh & Wesz, Wasted Penguins, Nitrogenics, Day-Mar, Dozer. 9pm. $65 (early bird)–$120 (premium). BALD FACED STAG DJ Skae, The Centalinkaz, Sereck, Torcha + B-Don, Sceptic & Dseeva. 8pm. $10 (pre-sale), $15 (at door). BEACH ROAD HOTEL Bad Shit & LS Demons. 9pm. BELLA VISTA Temple of Dance: Sunset Bros, Alex K, Steve S, Mickey D, S Dee, Pulsar + more. 6pm. $45 +bf (pre-sale). THE BANK DJ Nino Brown, FlyGirl Tee, DiscoKid, Willi, Damn. 9pm. Free before 10pm. CANDYS APARTMENT Big Guns, Doraktronique, Lights Out!, Zomg! Kittens!, Disco Volante, MooWho, Pretty Young Things. 8pm. COHIBAR DJ Mike Silver, DJ Jeddy Rowland. 5pm. Free. ESTABLISHMENT Sienna: G wizard, Eko, Troy T, Def Rok, Lilo. Doors open 8:30pm. $20. THE FACTORY THEATRE Syndicate. 8pm. $15 +bf.

HOME Homemade: The 808’s, Aladdin Royaal, James ‘Saxman’ Spy’, Matt Ferreira, Hannah Gibbs, Ben Morris, Illya, Tony Venuto, I.KO, Flite, Dave Austin, MC Suga Shane. 9pm. $25. HOTEL CHAMBERS Red Room: Troy T, K-Note, Mac, Mike Champion. 8pm. $20. IVY Pure Ivy Saturdays: John Glover. 5pm - 4am. $20. JACKSONS ON GEORGE DJ Michael Stewart. Free. KIT AND KABOODLE Alison Wonderland, Miss T, Gabby, Cassette. 8pm. MACQUARIE HOTEL Darryl Beaton Band. MANNING BAR Mayer Hawthorne & The County. 8pm. $37.50 (student) - $42 (+bf ) METRO THREATRE Tricky. 8pm. $49.90 OXFORD ART FACTORY Royal Chant Residency + The Ivys. 8pm. Free. OXFORD ART FACTORY Tunng. 8pm. $41.80 (+bf ). PONTOON Phil English, Nobby Grooves. 8pm. $10. SOHO NIGHTCLUB Goodwill. 10pm. SPACE NIGHTCLUB Masif Flood Relief: Steve Hill, Suae, Pulsar, Nik Fish, Amber Savage, Arbee, Sdee, Dover, JTs and More. 10pm. $20. THE NIGHT OWL DJ A13 & MC VidaSunshyne. 10pm. $15. TOKIO HOTEL Alphamama. 8pm. Free. VALVE BAR DNBBQ: Big Bud. 3pm. $10 before 10pm. $15 after 10pm. THE WATERSHED HOTEL Skybar. Free. WORLD BAR Light Year: Kato, Levins, Adam Bozzetto, Illya, Moneyshot, Foundation, Venuto, Bad Ezzy, Harry Cotton, Ennsu, Temnein, Daigo, Say Whut!?. 8pm $15 before 10pm, $20 after.

SUNDAY THE BASEMENT Rod Ayers. 10pm. $50 (+bf) - $60 (at door). BEACH RD HOTEL Bowlarama: Firehouse Sound System. 6pm. CHING-A-LINGS The Genius of J Dilla: Shortee Blitz, Naiki. COHIBAR DJ Matt Roberts. Free. ENMORE THEATRE M Ward. Holly Throsby. 8pm. $67.60. GOLDFISH The Martiini Club: Johnny Gleeson, Tom Kelly. JACKSONS ON GEORGE Aprodisiac Industry Night: House DJs. Free. THE ROUGE Cheap Thill$. 8pm. Free. TOKIO HOTEL Live Soul, Jazz, Grooves. 8pm. Free. THE WATERSHED HOTEL DJ Matt Roberts. Free. WORLD BAR Disco Punx. PLEASE SEND ALL GUESTLIST LISTINGS THROUGH TO SYDNEY@3DWORLD. COM.AU BY MIDDAY THURSDAY PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.

42 3DWORLD

NSW

SEPARATE STATE FROM CHURCH(ES WE DON’T LIKE) When Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle attended the opening of the new Scientologiﬆ HQ at the end of January he made headlines. Reports in the Sunday papers could barely contain their disdain for his visit (which also boaﬆed the presence of former planning miniﬆer, and ex-footballer, Juﬆ in Madden). News articles pointed out that Scientology is classiﬁed as a “sect” in some countries and also made mention of its unorthodox pract ices. And, a poll in The Age found 94 percent of respondents thought Doyle shouldn’t have attended. Odd then that for years these same papers wrote very little about the Coalition’s close relationship with the Exclusive Brethren sect when Howard was in power (the Greens have long queﬆ ioned the public funding of their schools). And few editorial eyebrows were raised when the Pope dossed down with Opus Dei during his ﬆay in Sydney (articles made no mention of this group’s unorthodox pract ices or its queﬆ ionable links to dodgy dictators over the years). In fact, the same news outlets who derided Doyle for hanging with Scientology celeb Kate Ceberano totally lap up our leaders attending various Chriﬆ ian-brands of Xmas and Eaﬆer services – never using these seasonal reports as a place to air any dirty laundry that these religions may be airing at the time. Note too how little you hear about politicians who may visit services at synagogues, mosques or local satanic hangouts. Doyle couldn’t diﬆance himself quick enough – he said on 3AW, “there shouldn’t be any other imputation taken from [the visit],” adding, “I certainly didn’t praise the church in any way.’’ Can you imagine a similar backdown if a news commentator asked why a politician would be attending a Catholic service while some of its clergy were ﬆill under inveﬆigation for child sex charges? And would they report if he attended a convention of Jedi followers (remembering that 70,000 Auﬆralians claimed

Jedi as their religion in the 2001 census)? Our local news media has never been that big on calling for the separation of church and ﬆate. Unless, of course, that church prefers volcanodwelling-aliens over miracle-makingnuns. They seem to prefer churches with celebs who are drunken raciﬆs rather than loopy couchjumpers, or their leaders as former Hitler Youth rather than sci-ﬁ authors. Well, mainﬆ ream media folk, you really can’t have it both ways. Make up your minds. Our political reps are either okay to roll with both believers in thetans and believers in virgin-birth or they are not okay to roll with either. How about next time Doyle gets jiggy with Catholocism, you ask how he could support a church whose leader lives in such swish digs that if cashed-in it could likely feed the world’s ﬆarving masses but who inﬆead chooses to dress in drag while purporting to be able to conjure bread into human ﬂesh (for people to then cannibalise, no less)? If not, let the guy hang with whatever religious followers he likes, be they Santa Muerte-worshipping gang-bangers, crossdressing Siﬆers Of Perpetual Indulgence or believers in the Flying Spaghetti Monﬆer.

NAT

UNDER SIDE

YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! I was delighted to read reports of people fainting and having seizures during screenings of the new “man cuts his own arm off ” movie 127 Hours, ﬆarring James Franco. It’s good to know that, as a group, human beings can ﬆ ill be sufficiently moved by a piece of art to at leaﬆ have a react ion. In a world where we are checking our phones conﬆantly and twitching to move on to the next thing, anything that can hold our attention for its duration and provoke a genuine response is probably worth a look. Back in the old days, when there weren’t so many diﬆ ract ions lobbying for our attention, people reacted to ﬆ uff juﬆ like they were meant to. Girls would go to see The Beatles in concert and get so excited that they would act ually piss themselves (which would severely hinder their chances of meeting The Fab Four after the show. What Beatle would want to diddle a groupie who has wet her pants?). Cultural phenomenons were commonplace before the internet brought everything to us in one hit. A movie like Jaws or Star Wars would open and the whole world would line up to see it. It would ﬆay in cinemas for a year because there was no home video. Now a movie is juﬆ a way to kill 20 minutes before something else comes along. So if a movie about a guy pinned under a rock can keep people pinned in their seats and can provoke a physical react ion, well that’s quite an accomplishment. It’s hard to give your full attention to a movie in a world where Charlie Sheens, Matthew Newtons and Lindsay Lohans keep flushing themselves down the toilet for our approval. I haven’t seen 127 Hours yet, but I want to see what all the fuss is about. It’s been a long time since a movie has made me cry, or squirm, or faint. I wet my pants and passed out during Knocked Up, but that was on an overseas fl ight and I was drunk and I’d taken a Temazepam so that hardly counts. I want to be ﬆone cold sober when I watch James Franco cut his arm off in 127 Hours. And if I don’t have a seizure, I’m going to demand my money back. DAVE JORY

GIVEAWAY

CLUB CLASSICS DJ ABILITY

FOTOFONE GIVEWAY Fotofone is a unique new product that enables anybody to create their own personalised mobile phone cover in less than two minutes. You can put anything your heart desires on the cover in full colour – your beﬆ mate, favourite person, your children, your grandchildren or even Juﬆ in Bieber. You may even want to go creatively nuts and design your own personalised cover if you feel so inclined. 3D World have 10 Fotofone mobile phone covers to be won valued at $29.95 each. For your chance to win email giveaways@3dworld.com.au with FOTOFONE in the subject line. Entries close Friday 25 February.

WHERE & WHEN: Playground Weekender Friday 18 February, DNBBQ Back to Basics at Valve Bar Saturday 19 February, Duﬆ Tones at Tone Friday 25 February, Sunday Niceup at Bondi Beach Road Hotel every Sunday THE NEXTMEN FIRE WALKING REMIXES (Scenario Records), 2003. “Huuugeeee! I love tough guitar ﬆabs as much as I love massive bassline wobble. Provided with A and B sides offering both of these with Crispy Rodney P, Dynamite MC and Cutty Ranks flows – this is a ﬆaple 12-inch for me.” AUDIOWEB POLICEMAN SKANK STORY OF MY LIFE (Mother Records), 1998. “Another track of clashed bassline culture. I really love tunes that you can’t necessarily categorise but make you want to lose your shit. Countless times I have played this tune at the peak of my set and even though it’s not something that everyone is familiar with, it goes bananas – as do I.” NIGHTMARES ON WAX 70’S 80’S (Warp Records), 2003. “It boaﬆs five killer versions alongside a capellas perfect for live mash-ups on half or double time. LSK vocals warm the soul, Roots Manuva is timeless, Rodney P verse is rad. It’s fair to say this is a true wax gem.”

FLOORED

DE LA SOUL ENMORE THEATRE: 10.2.11 After catching the tailend of a typically “nothing but fi re” Dialect rix set, Dizz1 was next, and played some ragga and dubﬆep jams live on his MPC while his two companion MCs laced his heavy beats with spitfi re flows. It was loud. It was energetic. And it set the vibe for what was to follow. Prince Paul followed next, reminding the audience of his credentials and his ﬆatus in the hip hop induﬆ ry. He engaged in conversation with the crowd throughout his set, playing old school classics from The Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson to the Beaﬆ ie Boys, A Tribe Called Queﬆ and Wu-Tang Clan. De La Soul rocked it. Hands down. Their energy was magnetic. They could have had the crowd’s hands up all night if they wanted. They’ve been around the global hip hop scene for over two decades, maintaining their relevance in a scene that is brutal to many. Their

entire set was based on a suﬆaining relationship with the audience. De La Soul reminded us why they keep coming back to Auﬆ ralia. They feel as though hip hop is on the rise in this country and that they feel the love each and every time they perform here. And it’s true. We know our shit. The audience rocked it live with De La Soul as they took us back to classics from 3 Feet High & Rising and De La Soul Is Dead. The audience also responded with nothing but love when respect was paid to the legendary J Dilla (RIP), who would have celebrated his birthday earlier this week. One disappointment was the lack of Maseo’s presence due to a ﬂ ight cancellation. However, Prince Paul did more than enough to keep the show live, providing the jams for Posdnuos and Dave to rock it. De La Soul know how to rock a party and they continue to bless us with live entertainment to remember. Those who attended the always-majeﬆ ic Enmore Theatre deﬁnitely got their money’s worth. De La Soul is far from dead. L-FRESH

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A B C D E F G HI JKLM N O P Q R S T

UVWXYZ

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

Is it hip hop? R&B? G-funk? Hip hop soul? Neo-soul? Crunk? “Urban” is a catchall term for all. Partly it’s for reasons of economy – “R&B and hip hop” is laboured. But “urban” is often employed because the lines between R&B and hip hop are so blurred. “Urban contemporary” originated as a radio format, the tag attributed to legendary radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid-70s. He was a program director at New York’s WBLS. Then, urban encompassed R&B, disco and gospel. Urban programming was always aimed at an AfricanAmerican demographic. The format became increasingly broad in the 1980s, taking in reggae – and, inevitably, rap music. Hip hop was its own entity until the late 80s when producers like Teddy Riley began to bring a hip hop sensibility to R&B, resulting in the New Jack Swing phenomenon. NJS was tougher, harder and both more beat-driven and blatantly “ﬆ reet” than the old soul. Puﬀ Daddy further confused R&B and hip hop diﬆ inct ions by popularising the R&B hook or sample. There was disdain for his “rap and bullshit” in hip hop ranks. Still, even the Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man teamed with Mary J Blige for I’ll Be There For

JESSICA MAUBOY

MARY J BLIGE – PHOTO BY JESSE BOOHER

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

You/ You’re All I Need To Get By. (Puff y, then an Uptown Records exec, also presaged hip hop soul, guiding Blige’s debut What’s The 411?). Urban is contentious in some quarters as a euphemism for “black” music. Those black musicians who specialise in techno or rock might underﬆandably be circumspect. Auﬆ ralian DJ Nino Brown, who compiles the Blazin’ compilations, isn’t too enamoured of the term but appreciates its usefulness – some liﬆeners are confounded by micro genres like hip hop soul. “I don’t really like the word, but it makes it easy for people to describe ﬆ uff,” he says. “For some clubs, words like ‘hip hop’, ‘R&B’, etc, can scare them, ‘cause they think it will bring trouble, but ‘urban’ seems to keep them happy.” In 1997, Auﬆ ralian mainﬆ ream radio was reluctant to play Janet Jackson’s Q-Tipfeaturing Got ‘Til It’s Gone. Times have changed. Now urban is the dominant form of pop – something for which Puff y, his protege Ma$e, and Mariah Carey can claim credit. And urban isn’t juﬆ created by black artiﬆs. Poﬆ-’N Sync, Juﬆ in Timberlake reinvented himself as an urban popﬆer, hiring The Neptunes. Lady Gaga’s music is urban. Aussies are in on it, too. Jessica Mauboy segued into urban with her current album, Get Em Girls, with Snoop Dogg and Ludacris cameoing. Urban continues to evolve. Timbaland introduced a drum‘n’bass-like triple-beat with his product ions for Ginuwine, while lately Kelis dropped a ﬆ reetwise disco album, Fleshtone, with will.i.am’s patronage.

MA$E

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FLOORED

ERYKAH BADU

GOOD VIBRATIONS FESTIVAL CENTENNIAL PARK: 12.02.11 Big feﬆ ival events have gradually transformed from the fun-fi lled playgrounds of hedonism they were ten years ago into what’s now often an exercise in hard work and fruﬆ ration – poor sound, overcrowding, all topped off by subﬆandard infraﬆ ruct ure and organisation. The Sydney edition of Good Vibrations has been a serial offender in the paﬆ, but despite the weather seemingly being againﬆ them this time round promoters Jam Music have ticked all of the organisational boxes – including, moﬆ importantly, assembling a ﬆellar line-up of performers – to deliver a fantaﬆ ic feﬆ ival experience for a crowd which sadly seems to fall well short of previous editions numbers-wise. The pouring rain probably gives Erykah Badu a bigger crowd than she could have expected had the sun been shining outside but she doesn’t pander to them – or get diﬆ racted by the audible front of house din which bubbles under her set. Badu is not juﬆ an artiﬆ but an artiﬆe, wailing through soulful diva vocals, buﬆ ing out Ice Cube’s verse from NWA’s Gangﬆa Gangﬆa and dropping (sometimes wonky) beats on a Roland percussion pad as her band follows her shifts through time and space. Window Seat gets the moﬆ crowd recognition, but Love Of My Life and some jaw-dropping a capella vocal caliﬆ henics on Believe In Yourself are the high points. It’s clear the Rusko sound appeals to a rougher kind of crowd under the Laundry tent, with pushing, shoving, aggro and plenty of shirts off on the dancefloor. Veering towards “broﬆep” his wobbly take on dubﬆep may be, but there’s no denying the UK enfant terrible knows how to bring the party as rave, breakbeat and elect ro flavours merge into one big mash-up of fun. In between hyping the crowd (not to mention himself) with mic work that proves there is a place for professional MCs in the dance music world, he rips through his own Woo-Booﬆ (and a house remix of the same), Excision and Datsik’s Swagga and bootlegs of Dire Straits and Skunk Anansie which are almoﬆ impossible to hate on because of the irrepressible cheek they’re delivered with. Proceedings are much more refined over at the Roots Tent with kiwi troupe Fat Freddy’s Drop doing their beﬆ to caﬆ a spell of enchantment on a crowd who are by now looking to forget the inclement weather and enjoy the party. Th is is perfect ly executed jam band fare of the higheﬆ order, and their hour slot passes in the blink of the eye – but for those who ﬆ uggle to get loﬆ in it all, the Bag Raiders live show of synths, sequencers and digital percussion draws a sizeable crowd out into the elements in front of the Mr J ﬆage while Friendly Fires bring their main ﬆage set to a rousing finale with the tribal workout of Kiss Of Life. With local lad Club Junque having expertly brought the energy back to manageable levels after the fury of Rusko, Welsh progressive legend Sasha ﬆeps up to the decks. An extended ambient intro featuring the vocal

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FAITHLESS

from UNKLE’s In A State gives no real indication of what’s to follow as The Man Like unleashes one of the moﬆ pitchperfect feﬆ ival DJ sets one could ever hope to witness. After setting a cracking pace with big rolling grooves through his opening 20 minutes, Sasha pulls back for 20, almoﬆ as if to lull his danceﬂoor into a false sense of security. Before moﬆ know what’s hit them he then unfurls a suﬆained assault of tunes – moﬆ of them unfamiliar – purpose built to tear feﬆ ival danceﬂoors apart, peaking with The Loops Of Fury’s Rack Em which sees the front third of the tent leaping in unison with each drop. And juﬆ when you thought it was safe to

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go back out into the water falling from the sky outside, he lets loose The Chemical Brothers’ Escape Velocity to seal what is a set for the ages. The feﬆ ival enters the home ﬆ retch, and there’s a euphoric vibe in the air as the energy peaks for the day. The entrance of Phoenix is preceded by soft synths that rise into Lisztomania as the lights boom and the band is greeted by an impressively large and rapturous crowd considering how much act ion is going down elsewhere. It’s a warm performance that’s injected with plenty of soft emotion, but meanwhile over at the heaving Roots Tent the crowd is white knuckled over the late entrance of

Ludacris. There’s probably more people here than anywhere else, and when he hits the ﬆage he comes with plenty of presence, machismo and hip hop poﬆ uring. Meanwhile over at the main ﬆage, a crowd finally befitting the occasion awaits the arrival of one of elect ronic dance music’s moﬆ enduring acts for what is quite possibly their laﬆ Sydney hurrah. Maxi Jazz and his cohorts in Faithless ﬆ ride onﬆage to deliver a snippet of the operatic Drifting Away which melts into new track Happy, its syncopated halftime grooves sounding like they could be coming ﬆ raight out of 1999. The wiry front man is far from a pict ure of health but his dedication to the cause can’t be queﬆ ioned as the fi rﬆ run of anthems for the evening takes in Sun To Me, God Is A DJ, Feel Me and a slightly ramshackle Mass Deﬆ ruction. And that is juﬆ what the line-up of drums, percussion, bass, guitar and queen of the epic synth leads Siﬆer Bliss seem intent on wreaking on a field of punters finally spared from the rain which has been a feature of the day’s proceedings, with each anthemic blaﬆ topping the laﬆ – especially when Tweak Your Nipple gives way to a much-anticipated Insomnia, featuring the riff which launched a thousand gurns and a build and drop which few of the band’s peers could ever hope to match. The front of house sound seems to lose definition as the set wears on, ensuring the “moments” don’t quite have the impact you’d hope for, but as I Want More begets Salva Mea (via a snippet of Back In Black) which leads into the set closing Not Going Home there are too many hands-in-the-air moments to quibble with the fi ner details. We Come 1 unites the entire floor for an encore which sees fingers pointed to the sky as Siﬆer Bliss fi res off the final weapon in her arsenal. As far as feﬆ ival closing salvos go, it’s hard to imagine many act s in the world delivering something to match it. With any luck the Good Vibrations team will take the poor turn-out on the chin and deliver an equally amazing end-to-end experience next time round. ANGUS PATERSON, KRIS SWALES, PHOTOS BY KOSTAS KORSOVITIS

TUBETIME The incredible world of television with 5SPROCKET

Sex. A monosyllabic word that is like an elect ric blaﬆ to the baculum. “Sex Sells!” is what Kevin Rudd used to say, and it can hardly sell itself any skankier than in The Joy Of Teen Sex, a short documentary series that has juﬆ screened on Channel 4 in the UK. It caused a minor ﬆ ir with critics deriding its examination of young love as exploitative, simpliﬆ ic and not nearly naked enough. With a wicka-wow soundtrack, a shot of a chick’s arse, and a good dose of side boob in the opening ten seconds, the television show comfortably positions itself before diving into to one of the fishieﬆ issues around. The show comes at a time when “teenagers are under pressure from the media, pornography, and their friends to have more adventurous sex than ever before”. It is a frightening era for kids; going to school knowing that every person around them is naked under their clothes, the threat of a surprise boob flash always present. With a voiceover throwing around generalisations like M&Ms at a zoo, it becomes apparent that now is the time to worry – Britain has the higheﬆ rate of STIs and pregnancy in Europe, and young people have more sex than they do showers. The sexocalypse is here and it smells like ﬆains. Thankfully, there is a helping hand to see people get the relief they are looking for. It’s the Sex Advice Shop, a charming little corner ﬆore where specialiﬆs can talk to adults and their ﬆ ray offspring with the sensitivity that delicate topics such as S-E-X deserve – all in the privacy of a television camera crew. There is a wall covered in cock shots so unsure boys can can see that “everyone’s different!” If your 16-year-old needs key info on ﬆ rap-ons, whips and the grammar of dirty talk, then a good dose of “SAS” is what you need. Like a cheap edu-version of Skins it becomes obvious that young people are acne-scarred volcanoes of love, romancing by licking the Clearasil off each other’s faces. The team of crack specialiﬆs helps a girl that doesn’t like to catch the downtown express, a fellow whose ballsack feels like a “bucket of worms”, along with all the lateﬆ vajazzling tips (glitter and glue are your friends, too). Th is is the televisual equivalent of chlamydia: something deeply naﬆ y and uncomfortable, you juﬆ have to give it to everyone you know.

FILMREVIEWS

OSCARS WATCH: THE KING’S SPEECH

Bertie (Colin Firth) has problems. He is second in line to the throne, muﬆ deal with his bullish father King George V (Michael Gambon), and he has a temper problem. More than this he has a ﬆammering problem, problematic for someone whose life is in the public sphere. After a disaﬆ rous speech at a horse track, Bertie’s wife Elizabeth (a particularly gaunt Helena Bonham Carter) ﬁnds potential help

in Lionel Logue (Geoff rey Rush), a kooky Auﬆ ralian speech therapiﬆ. With the threat of World War II looming and Bertie’s older brother (Guy Pearce) being an absolute dick, the imperative for Colin Firth to become a good public speaker escalates. Will he be able to believe in himself, find the value of friendship and ultimately deliver a winning speech that will unite a nation in a time of absolute crisis? With seven BAFTA award wins and 12 Oscar nominations it is easy to say “Yes, he will”. The King’s Speech is a neat fi lm, where the charming performances easily diﬆ ract you from the contrivances of the plot. It is a crowd-pleaser, where you want to hurl things at the villains that pick on Mr Darcy. For a movie about a speech impediment it has a lot of dialogue, and is shot with requisite conﬆ raint by Tom Hooper (The Damned United, HBO’s John Adams). The double act between Rush and Firth is endearing, reminiscent of Rain Man or Midnight Cowboy or other Oscar grabbing hits about odd couples. It’s easy to see why it is a front runner to sweep the Academy Awards – with a hopeful ﬆory about overcoming the odds, it makes you believe that any person can find it themselves to do the remarkable and not be completely repulsed by Helena Bonham Carter. WHERE & WHEN: Screening in cinemas now

5SPROCKET

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GAMEON With TOM BRABHAM

MASS EFFECT

MASS EFFECT 2 (Bioware/EA) (PS3)

Another of the big releases held over from the Chriﬆmas period for maximum exposure, Mass Effect 2 carries on in the world set up by the series’ opening game, released in 2007. A sequel in every sense of the word, it definitely helps to have played the original, be familiar via an online synopsis or be prepared to ask a whole lot of queﬆ ions within the opening sequences. Brought back to life by those you were fighting againﬆ in the fi rﬆ game, Commander Shepard’s adventures two years down the ﬆory are as developed as you’d hope a four year wait would be. Without going into the narrative detail too much (it’s worth spending some time to immerse yourself – and a player’s identity and relationships are determined by the choices the user makes) you spend your time inveﬆ igating missing human colonies throughout space for answers, all under the inﬆ ruct ion of the poorly but fittingly named Illusive Man. The manner in which you explore situations is moﬆ impressive. There’s a freedom of movement and the possibility that you’re going to miss things if you don’t make the effort – not that it’s too arduous a task. Combat has been improved and ﬆ reamlined – after befriending characters and introducing them in to your touring party, direct ing them in gun fights and utilising their abilities is achieved in a sensible manner. Automatic healing is another aspect

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which drives the focus to the game’s ﬆ rong points, which are thinking about what you’re doing and enjoying some of the beﬆ cinematic gameplay scenes since we all got sucked into the Halo series. At times it can feel a bit too tied to its own ﬆory (the second of a trilogy, it’s left far more open than the second was) and if you’re looking for a ﬆ raight Borderlands-esque shoot-’emup the exploration is going to take its toll on your patience. But Mass Eﬀect 2 is refreshingly unique and atmospheric when too many others are familiar and monotonous.

DEAD SPACE 2 (Visceral/EA) (PS3)

Thanks to predecessors and the internet, there’s not much that video games can do to scare you anymore. It requires cinematic effects of the higheﬆ order and a willingness of the player to immerse themselves in the world. Within ten minutes of playing sci-fi gore and survival thriller Dead Space 2, it’s obvious that it’s going to try and keep you on edge. Once again playing as Issac Clarke – a character you neither grow to love or despise – you’re fighting your way out of a ﬆ raight jacket and then through a seemingly endless barrage of aliens. The opening level is bland and not unlike a range of games before it, but the latter ﬆages do widen the scope. If used honeﬆ ly, the user-defined darkness level is one of Dead Space 2’s fineﬆ achievements, the use of a flashlight

and the game’s ability to make you jump then thoroughly believable. As those familiar with the series will know there’s no in-game HUD, only holograms, and that serves well in clearing the player’s way to accept what they’re fighting through as genuinely captivating. The new multiplayer is a little bit chaotic. Teams of humans and necromorphs – juﬆ four a side, and that’s quite enough – are designated on familiar maps, the soldiers with an object ive, the aliens with a blood-hunger. Played well with ﬆ rategy and teamwork, it seems a little weighted to the humans as it’s very easy to let your team of necromorphs turn into a rabble and be picked off by opposing – and willing – players. Level based to unlock new weapons and accessories, tight levels are something of a leveller of skill, as well. As fruﬆ rating – and yes, even scary – as it may be to be tracking one pissed-off space zombie with your flashlight when another pops up from beside or behind you to eat your head and send you back to a checkpoint, these type of dynamics and challenges are the way this genre has to be. As good a sci-fi title it is though, you’re really going to need to be in the mood for dark corners, sneaking around and for an experience where gore is central to the appeal. DEAD SPACE

TECHNO SCAPE

ISTOP MOTION 2 PRO REVIEW Fruit and vegetable dance choreography (or claymation zombie wars) juﬆ got easier with version 2.5 of iStop motion. VAT IST? Stop motion animation creates the illusion of movement by photographing objects in new positions for every frame. iStop motion is software dedicated to ﬆ reamlining that process as much as possible, offering a range of previews, adjuﬆ ments and relevant effects for monitoring a camera connected to your computer and ensuring accurate controls over the movement of your objects. FEATURES? While there are for more powerful (and expensive) animation software packages available, the beauty of iStop motion is in it’s dedicated focus, and the feature set is tailored and trimmed to specifically suit the needs of ﬆop motion animators, avoiding other animation complexities. Below, some of the ways ﬆop motion life becomes easier: * Image capture adjuﬆments (fl ip or rotate image/ olour correct ion and presets/use of overlays and grids for guidance) * Onion skinning (overlays of each frame to allow underﬆanding of how a sequence of movements will look) * Built-in chroma (or green/blue) screening * Cuﬆom foregrounds and backgrounds can easily be inserted * No in-built painting/editing of frames, but it does support easy transferral of frames to Photoshop for that purpose and then adjuﬆs the frame to suit the new edits * Support for using a soundtrack and/or other layers of video as animation guidance * Support for the Apple remote control, to capture images from your animation work-table * Support for multiple cameras at once And cutely, there’s an option for printing animation sequences as a Flip Book. REQUIREMENTS? OS X (it’s Mac only software), Snow Leopard recommended, but earlier versions ﬆ ill available for use on earlier syﬆems. COST? $49 for home version, $99 for Express version and $499 for Pro version (major differences are the maximum resolution size, and integration with FCP). Free demo available. VERDICT? No, it’s not After Effects, but for ﬆop motion enthusiaﬆs, this is a great way to ﬆ reamline and focus animations. @JEAN_POOLE

INTHESTUDIO INTHE STUDIOWITH...

DERRICK CARTER

FABRIC 56 IS YOUR FIRST COMPILATION SINCE THE SESSIONS SET FOR MINISTRY OF SOUND BACK IN 2005 – WHY SO LONG BETWEEN DRINKS? “I was waiting out the elect ro phase that had everyone going mad. Didn’t want to release something at the wrong end of a trend which would juﬆ get loﬆ in the shuffle. Plus, I always want the things that I do to come from the right place. Not being juﬆ react ionary or some flag planting exercise but to fit into the greater pict ure with good timing, a proper situation and a quality set-up.” IS FABRIC 56 THE SORT OF SET THAT YOU WOULD SPIN IN FABRIC ONLY, OR A REFLECTION OF YOUR MUSIC ANY PLACE, ANY TIME? “The mix – as I feel all of my mixes are – is meant to be a representation of the way I play and how a set can incorporate different time periods, influences, and without trying to sound too wonky, emotions into a whole piece. When I play live, it’s generally a bit more body/ dance focused whereas the mixes I make tend to be a little more mind/mood focused.” YOU’VE HAD A BIT OF FUN WITH THE LAYERING, PARTICULARLY ON THE INTRO – HOW HAVE YOU USED THE STUDIO AS A TOOL ON FABRIC 56? “I really haven’t used the ﬆ udio that much on this project. I had three CDJs hooked up and believe me, it took multiple takes to get that intro down properly! I don’t really make mixes where I put a bunch of tracks into Ableton or mix inside of the computer and press ‘render’. Th is mix was made in real time. I did have to edit it a bit because it ran a little long...” YOU SAY YOU PRODUCE ALL THE TIME – WHAT ARE YOU WORKING

ON AT THE MOMENT? “I work ‘cause there’s workout that needs doing. Moﬆly remixes or tracks I make for me to play in my sets. I am working on a larger project but that’s ﬆaying low until I’m ready to ﬆart speaking about it. Lately though, it’s been some intereﬆing remixes – Cajmere and Green Velvet tracks, a Daniel Steinberg thing for Made To Play, a new Hercules & Love Affair single, a remix for Lil’ Louis, trying to get an angle on this thing for DJ Sneak… work that needs doing.” SO WHAT DOES YOUR STUDIO COMPRISE THESE DAYS – ESPECIALLY IN COMPARISON TO WHAT YOU STARTED OFF ON? “My ﬆ udio is pretty full function. Mixing board, patch bays, analogue synths, vintage gear, an act ual room to sit in and make magics. It’s pretty much the only place I do ﬆ uff. Writing on the road isn’t really an option for me because of how I’m used to working. I need proper monitors and sonic options to work with. Also, I need a certain amount of physical space and a place without diﬆractions..” THERE ARE A LOT OF YOUNG PRODUCERS LIKE SCOPE AND JOHNNY D ON YOUR MIX – DO YOU LISTEN TO WHAT THE NEWER TALENT DOES AND TAKE IN THEIR INSPIRATION? “As a DJ I generally am ﬆ uck playing other people’s music. It comes with the territory but this is why I do a lot of edits, remixes, and various re-mouldings to make hot shit for my set. I do liﬆen to new ﬆ uff. I get promos. I check Traxsource, Beatport, Juno, Stompy. The thing is, I’m juﬆ looking for tools to help me keep them kids dancing.” WHO: Derrick Carter WHAT: Fabric 56 (Fabric/Balance Music/

EMI) out Monday 14 March

WHERE & WHEN: Deconﬆ rukt at Pretty

Please (Melbourne) Friday 18 February, Playground Weekender Sunday 20 February

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LAC LACED LA UP L

ACE HAS RE-EMERGED AS A RED HOT TREND THIS SEASON, MAKING AN APPEARANCE IN THE COLLECTIONS OF A NUMBER OF HIGH-PROFILE DESIGNERS INCLUDING DOLCE & GABBANA, COLLETTE DINNIGAN, ONE TEASPOON AND SASS & BIDE. Glamour girls Katy Perry, Rihanna and Michelle Williams have all been rocking lace on the red carpet of late and our very own Megan Washington dazzled onlookers in a show-stopping Alex Perry lace creation at the last ARIA Awards. There is certainly something enticing about lace, but as Ethan Hawke’s Reality Bites remark, “You Look like a doily,” reminds us, there is a fine line between wearing lace well and wearing it like Winona Ryder. Enjoy experimenting with fun colours and patterns this season but definitely steer clear of head-to-toe lace, washed out white and anything else that resembles bad ‘80s bridal wear.

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FLAT LAID.

Zoemou Skull & Crow Pendant & Necklace ~ $110. www.zm925.com or www.shockmansion.com

Shakuhachi Lace & Mesh Cropped Tee ~ $180. mycatwalk.com.au

Zahara Mai Earrings ~$215. www.zaharamai.com.au

Bearbrick Speaker System for iPod - iPhone ~ $249.95. www.amazon.com

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Keds Champion Brogues Black Waxed Canvas Shoes ~ $89.95 www.keds.com.

Lure Briefs A Real Lady Prince William’s bride to be, Kate Middleton, has kicked Lady Gaga of her throne as the world most talked about fashion icon. The Global Language Monitor, a company that tracks and analyses word usage trends around the world, recently released its annual list of “Top Fashion Buzzwords” considering the most talked about fashion topics and styles. The number one buzzword is none other than “Kate Middleton”. Apparently imitations of the royal blue Issa dress worn at her engagement announcement sold out online within hours of the couple’s televised interview.

Noir Pave Metal Pyramid Braclette ~ $245. www.noirjewelry.com

Skinny Can New York Fashion Week, which kicked off last week, has seen not only the debut of this seasons latest garments but also PepsiCo’s new Diet Pepsi “Skinny Can”. The updated design for the zero sugar, zero calorie and zero carb soda will be distributed at New York’s Fall Mercedes Fashion Week, from 10-17 February with the company positioning the product as a celebration of “beautiful, confident women” with “a taller, sassier new Skinny Can”. An interesting move amidst the ongoing controversy that the fashion industry places to much focus on underweight body types.

Fine Form

Mavi ‘Serena’ Tye Dye Skinny Leg Jeans ~ $139.99. www.mavi.net.au

Fossil Multifunction Ceramic Dial watch ~ $299. www.fossilaustralia.com.au

Congratulations to all involved in the recent Fashion.To.Aid online auction which saw Australia’s top designers including Alex Perry, Nicola Finetti, Sass & Bide, Kirrily Johnston, Cerrone and Carla Zampatti donate some of their own designs to raise $50,000 for victims of Queensland’s floods.

EPIC Burlesque starlet Dita Von Teese rocking the runway for The Heart Truth’s Red Dress show at New York Fashion Week in a sensational satin Zac Posen number.

FAIL Fontaine Arrest Tee ~ $79. www.fontaine-designs.com

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Designer Barbara Tfank, who dresses the likes of Vanessa Redgrave and Michelle Obama, commissioning eight Justin Bieberinspired wigs for models to wear at her most recent runway show.

TH THE HE CRICKET WORLD CUP HEROES T FINAL F FI INAL DAVID “BOONY” BOON, MBE

TOURNAMENT? India, 1987.

SIZE MATTERS? Small of stature but a giant among men.

FEATURES? Right-handed batsman, right arm off-break bowler, short leg specialist.

PROS? Everything about this magnificent athlete is special, but his 75 against England in the final saw him declared best on ground and helped Australia secure its maiden World Cup victory.

CONS? Is still yet to confi rm or deny his mythical score of 52 beers consumed on a flight from Australia to England in 1989.

FROM? Tasmania.

ADAM “GILLY” GILCHRIST

TOURNAMENT? West Indies, 2007.

SIZE MATTERS? 1.86 m (6’1”).

FEATURES? Left-handed batsman, right arm off-break bowler, wicket-keeper.

PROS? Almost single-handedly batted Australia to victory in the 2007 final against Sri Lanka by belting 149 off 104 balls.

CONS? His integrity was subsequently questioned when it was revealed he batted with a squash ball in one of his gloves – which is just plain weird.

FROM? Australia.

DWAYNE “SLUGGO” LEVEROCK

TOURNAMENT? West Indies, 2007.

SIZE MATTERS? At 127 kilograms in the peak of his career, Leverock is regarded as the second heaviest international cricketer of all time behind Australia’s own Warwick Armstrong.

FEATURES? Right-handed batsman, left arm slow orthodox bowler, lightning-fast fielder.

PROS? The nickname “Sluggo” means an endorsement for swimwear in Australia is his for the taking if he wants it.

CONS? Like most cult sporting heroes, he wasn’t actually very good.

FROM? Bermuda.

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