this is one of the best explanations/descriptions i’ve heard of dubstep/grime… southern steppa/eli murray put me onto it, but the original chatter about the rephlex grime lp can be found here.

“dubstep’s sonic palate describes a new tempered middleground between the two extremes of d&b and house n g (surely dubsteps closest ancestors). this middle ground fits perfectly with the tension, the vibe of living in London right now. no one leaps around like a goon on dancefloors, or smiles like a misguided gurner because things dont feel like that living here. there’s no oceanic ‘taking you away’ synths because that lushness is unrealistic when faced by these surroundings and the pressured realities of london living.

i often take friends to dubstep nights and they often ask when it’s going to “go off.” it won’t. that’s the point. sometimes though, they stick around long enough and start to get it. what an amazing Hatcha set can do is take hold of you and drag you under, just as say d&b would. but instead of the huge releases from the d&b breakdowns or “oceanic” synths, hatcha sets just hold you there, overwhelming you with the sub bass, indefinitely. instead of the enjoyment of release, i’ve found to learn to love the pressure, just as i’ve learned to love the pressure of living in london.”

it’s still subject to some change, but the lineup is crystalising! i dare you to look at this and not get excited…

Mike Paradinas (Live – UK)
Boom Bip & Jeremiah (US Live AV)
Rhian Sheehan (Live/VJ – NZ)
Scott Horscroft Ensemble (Melb)
Dsico That No-Talent Hack (Live)
Ben Frost (S.E.E.) (Melb)
Greg Davis (Carpark)
Ollo (Live/AV – Sydney)
Aki Onda (Japan)
Todd Hyman (Carpark Records, US)
Eric Singer (US)
Nmn Dorkbot (Belgium)
Twotone (Brisbane)
Bleepin’ J. Squawkins (Live, Syd)
Lorna Clarkson (DJ) (Syd)
Dogboy Lover (Newcastle)
Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device (Sydney)
Sub Bass Snarl (DJ/FX) (Syd)
Faber Castell
Toydeath
DJ Kato + Auxiliary (DJ – NCL)
Blastcorp (Darwin)
Seymour Butz & Gemma (Syd)
Ben Harper
Ben Byrne & Jasper Streit
Joel Stern & Peter Blamey & Anthony Magen
Rawbone (Perth)
DJ Ed Seven (Syd)
Svenenglaas (Melb)
DJ Prince Valium (The Herd, Syd)
DJs Bec Paton + Low Ki (Canberra)
Toecutter
Audio Cephlon (Perth)
Hydatid (Brisbane)
Chromer (Bris)
Robin Fox (Melb)
Disjunction Reunion (Live – Sydney)
Unkle Ho (The Herd, Sydney)
Wake-Up And Listen
Chris M and Fenris (Perth)
Module (NZ)
OVA
Dark Organics (aka Itch) (Ncl)
Transcendental Headache Optional
Beyond The Veil vs Affected (Live)
Ele-Mental (Kieper, Perth)
Dot-O-Dot (Canberra)
Tweak & Destroy
DJ Eli Murray (Syd)
DJ Sofie Loizou (Southern Outpost)
4 Layers of 9 – Ross Manning
Orange Lozenge (Ncl)

adorable live at tom tom club ’93
cat stevens – was dog a doughnut
dr who repeats
orange humble band – humblin’ (across america)
yesterdays new quintet – stevie
pepe braddock – 5500 a/r
rotating assembly – natural aspirations
raymond carver – cathedral
funkstorung live at rex club ’02
sonic youth – confusion is sex

ooops. edit… the popfrenzy site is now up and running, the top ten can be found here.

on friday i was offered a job writing about science… i feel light as a feather after giving 2 weeks notice to my supervisor at work yesterday.

still the pressure is returning – i have to wrap up almost 3 years worth of work in a couple of weeks, plus tina gigs in just 3 weeks, a couple of feature stories, and plenty of djing…

this week i’m playing my regular thing toast on thursday night, then driving over to play with velure and bec paton at the ground floor in belco (2/6 oatley crt). then friday night i’ll be doing a back to back set with bec paton at cube, then heading over to help lex finish off our radio show therapy.

busy! it’s good but tiring…

favourite records at the moment:
inverse cinematics on pulver
troubleman lp on far out
fink lp on ntone
dj rells diggin in brownswood on stones throw
brooks’ cover of pj harvey’s mansize on soundslike

damn! almost time for the art school ball.

i’ve wanted to go to it every year since i arrived, but it’s never happened for some reason. i arrived on the ball weekend the year i moved to canberra, so i missed it for lack of local knowledge. the next year i was out of the country, and last year it was at the holy grail for some weird reason, and i couldn’t be bothered going there…

anyway… it’s back on! and back at the art school. and the lineup for the night is looking awesome.

Agency Dub Collective
Recipe
Bec Paton
Stalker
DJ Nathan
DJ Sy and Chris Rodgers (Syd)
The Bigots
The Henchmen
Nick Ratsaphong
Sam Karmel
Calico
Urban Atmospherics
The crafty glam girls demonstrative
Lowki
Dreamcatcher
Cerebral Posse
Big Al
Dragon Kite Mischief
Changeble Dan
DotOdot
Digital Citizen
Disco Pigs
The burbs of boom
Thin Tie Suicide

i’m not sure whether it’s my age and relatively late involvement in the world of politics, but i feel as though this is shaping up to be one of the more closely fought and high stakes elections in australian history. who knows, keating being pushed out by howard, whitlam and fraser, hawke, maybe they were just as fraught, whatever the story, this election’s got me totally glued.
subscribe to crikey and keep an eye on the abc election site. they look like having the best coverage of the leadup.

in an interview with dominic stanton (aka domu) the other day i mentioned dj abstract, who is one of my favourite producers from the dubstep scene – he’s released tracks on tempa and vehicle (among others probably) – and domu said the following…

“Well DJ Abstract’s in a rock band now, I went to San Francisco in March and some guy he used to live with, you know he’s got two or three CDs worth of that kind of stuff that’s never come out and it’s great, awesome stuff and I love Abstract’s stuff, but now he’s in a band for some reason. Which band? God knows, like a punk/garage band. He’s mega-talented.”

2 questions:
why’s he joined a band and what is it?
where can i get hold of those CDs?

this week the show started all calm like… much the same as most weeks with therapy. but it soon descended into the randomness we’ve come to expect. and with a cast of thousands on board, who would have expected anything else?

anyway tracks we played were:

velure – walk home – shock
dj zeph – (track 6) – earshot/inertia
gus gus – david (luke chable mix) – hussle & bussle/emi
juse – slowdown – round trip mars
fat jon – wood grained love stain – counterflow/creative vibes
phillipe zdar & etienne degrecy – poisoned – super discount/creative vibes
armand van helden – my my my (ashley beedle’s ny fam mix) – southern fried
scribe – not many (dogboy lovers bootleg mix) – cdr
max sedgely – happy (fatboy slim mix) – sunday best/shock
the hacker – fadin away (dima mix) – goodlife
soulwax – ny excuse (new remix) – white label
i wolf feat cesar – never leave – klein
resin dogs – gunshot dub (salmonella dub mix) – hydrofunk
the herd – 77% (orange lozenge bootleg mix) – cdr
klaus ‘heavyweight’ hill – tantrum – hussle & bussle/emi
dj zeph – (track 11) – earshot/inertia
urthboy – the last chance – elefant traks/inertia

well the past week’s seen fortune grey in a brief fling with another blog format, but just couldn’t get with that style.

i’m super busy… ended up interviewing selwyn face to face style last week, interesting, and nowhere near as awkward as i imagined. straight to the other end of the spectrum, i interviewed adam from alchemist on monday which was equally cool – i didn’t actually meet him face to face, but i’m imagining someone kinda like steve irwin, it was a superlative packed conversation!

new music… i love the new cd by dj zeph – no need for overly experimental beats, just wicked musical awesome underground hip hop, now there’s a handful of adjectives for you.

other things i’m digging… from the cover of the cd 4AM looks like being a bit weak, never fear, put the cd in and you’ll be hit by something that’s halfway between a dj mix and an artist album, excellent moody hip hop sounds.

warmup at toast was relaxed last night, gave me a chance to mess about with instro hip hop and dubby tracks… especially cool with a couple of hip hop and chill gigs coming up.

i’m playing records with velure on september 16th at the ground floor in belconnen – they’re a kinda mellow trip hop group who draw comparison to massive and portishead.
mid-october i’ll be playing records at the urthboy cd launch. if you haven’t heard random sense of distant menace, do. it’s fantastic, and i’m not just raving madly about my brother’s cd, ok well maybe i am, but it is lyrically incisive and musically enticing stuff. also on the bill will be hermitude, ozi batla, newsense and mexi.

plus i’m at cube again in a couple of weeks. i wasn’t keen to go back after being pestered by the manager for pop tunes for the entire two hours of my set last time, but bec paton convinced me to do a back to back set and i love her music, so here goes (that’s the night after velure).

plus my favourite label atm is pulver… the website’s not exactly operational at the moment, but their releases are somewhere between house, broken beat and the sort of musical dance jams that troubleman does so well.