only a week to go til the high-concept low-rent i heart nye. i suspect i won’t get much of a chance to post here before then, though i could be wrong.
anyway i heart nye is a popfrenzy/frigid collab at the old newtown rsl (@newtown) from 9pm til 4.
the frigid cats are touting it as a soundclash end-of-year title fight, but i think popfrenzy’s description of it as the ultimate blind date is closer to the truth.
music will be from frigid djs sub bass snarl, prince valium, sir robbo and ollo as well as popfrenzy selecters jinx, enari, calico, red peugeot, thepopmanifesto and fflloyd quinlan.
if you don’t like the dj, another one comes on in half an hour!

this is the way it’ll work in time stylee.
900Enari
9.45thepopmanifesto
1030Ollo
1100Jinx & Femineminem
1130Sir Robbo
1200Thommy
1230Prince Valium
100Fflloyd Quinlan
130Ollo
200Calico
230Sir Robbo vs Prince V
300Sub Bass Snarl

$15 dollars only from moshtix

on the subject of i heart, i really loved i heart huckabees. it’s a perfect xmas movie – feelgood to the maxx, but not at all cheesy – i recommend.

well they’re not quite eyes, but blogs are a rare insight into the people you know. i spend most of my blog reading time on words by people i’ve never met, and probably never will. the ones by people i do know are usually ones they’ve publicised in their own way.
the other day saw a link to one that was obviously a friend of mine – despite no obvious names (and the best efforts of the writer, apparently). after a quick peruse, my interest turned to a weird sort of humbling reflection when i saw what a small part i play in her life. most references to me were inanimate type comments – eg. ‘they’ or references to organisations or groups i am part of.
i find myself wondering if my blog could ever create that sort of feeling. i mean there are plenty of great friends of mine who’d never appear in here.
anyway, that’s enough self-reflection. that’s not what this blog’s about.

107.3 fm was just about the only radio station i listened to going to uni in sydney.
shows like all funked up, paradigm shift, mothership connection, electroplastique and the uber mosaic mix were a window into a world of other music.
the key was not just talking, but also playing. a big part of the problems faced by community radio stations (everywhere) at the moment is the internet. it’s so easy to listen to playlists by your favourite djs from around the world, why would you sift through the various ethnic and community programs, when you can just download a set.
anyway, it seems as though 2SER is in trouble at the moment. go here to keep track of what’s up with the station.

it’s that time of year when obsessive people start putting together lists. they’ve been all over the radio and street press in the past few weeks, so i thought i’d do mine. it was mostly inspired by trying to come up with a top 20 for the ARIA dance chart, which i contribute a weekly chart to – this means most of the tracks are dancey type things. but i am reading high fidelity at the moment, so i’m getting back to that high school obsession too.

various – rebtuz ep – bootleg
killer hip hop bootleg with quantic and tru thoughts crew blowing up tracks by g unit, mark ronson, etc.

diplo – rhythm – big dada
diplo gets on a dancehall tip and spreads his rhythm out with the newsflash and vybz vocals.

creative use – rummage through a stack of photos/even stevens – bootleg
dope re-edits of cat stevens and sakamoto

squarepusher – tundra 4 – warp
pure brilliance. twisting turning junglist business.

yotoko – all creation ep – delsin
domu and crew playing detroit the only way they know.

dave clarke feat mr lif – blue on blue – devils
lif is a fantastic mc, but set against this harsh industrial electro beat it was by far the standout on clarke’s album. thankfully someone (clarke) bootlegged it.

keepintime – infinity of rhythm – (ammoncontact mix) – up & above
i still haven’t heard the entire keepintime session. but this remix from ammoncontact is fresh. sounding like several tracks in one it jumps from hip hop to house in a love hangover stylee.

urthboy – no rider – elefant traks
he’s my brother. so i was bound to like it. but i *really* like it. anyone for ska-hop?

fym – moonshine dolphin – boogizm
this is the kind of music that makes me excited. crazy beautiful deep techno that’s also free and fucked up. brilliant

abe duque feat blake baxter – what happened? – abe duque
what can i say about this jacking gem that hasn’t been said

spymusic – cloak – 2000 black
incredible single from the brooklyn-based duo. i’m hanging out to hear their lp, the start of something big

three kings featuring jaygun & bashy – shake dat booty – (pal joey interpretation) – coco machete
about as great as it gets for deep house. deep hip house. funk runs in their bones.

troubleman – strike hard – far out
another person with funk instead of blood. former jedi knight mark pritchard comes with the heavy drum track.

matthew dear – dog days – spectral
beautiful electro pop from this techno producer who seemed set to blow up, but didn’t quite

ollo – the lunatics (have taken over the asylum) – groovescooter
sydney guys take on fun boy 3 and win. this should have been a triple j favourite

daniel merriweather – she’s got me – (calculators remix) – fmr
bizarrely 8bit and the calculators flip nu-soul boy merriweather’s track, to make an inspired pairing.

andrew edward brown – growing stronger – people
stuttery soul from people. they started broken beat and damn they’re still responsible for some of the best tunes.

bell – black helicopters – soul jazz
dark, basic track, that’s totally hypnotic in a similar way to chiapet’s westworld (although quite different sounds)

inverse cinematics – detroit jazzin’ – pulver
this is one of the best tracks from one of the cooler labels this year, detroit funked up big beat flavour

tzu – summer days – (mad professor dub) – liberation
the melbourne hip hop crew get dubbed out proper courtesy of the uk master

brooks – mansize – soundslike
when i first picked this up i didn’t think anyone could do pj harvey’s original justice. they do.

mu – paris hilton – output
mu’s album last year was insane, fantastic, electropunk crraziness. this tribute to everyone’s favourite is even cooler.

on the album tip. tv on the radio’s album desperate youth, bloodthirsty babes is probably my favourite all year. i loved the mf doom albums (madvillain + mm food), plus his conspirator madlib’s other releases (dj rells, shades of blue). on a similar tip, i discovered the counterflow label, which trades in brilliant, musical hip hop (check the ‘a sides of counterflow’ lp). heavy broken beat releases came from horsepower productions (to the rescue), tim wright (thirst) and domu (enter the umod). on the local tip, i was into albums from brisbane’s twotone (cinecity) and sydney’s decoder ring (the st for somersault).

toast closes down for 3 weeks over xmas/ny. so this thursday is your last chance to get some of that goodness. it’s my regular thursday haunt, so i’ll be djing there (al will be too), and meem is hiking up from sydney for a 5 hour live set. only $5, hard to see any reasons not to attend kicks off at 6, so come down early.

it’s been a busy few weeks. gross motor was really great. i would say that, being the organiser, but i was really impressed – highlights… well, probably the biggest was low ki.
i asked all the djs to play two half hour sets instead of the usual one. this gave everyone the chance to play a late or early set and a peak time one, as well as playing two distinctly different styles.
low ki played a set at about 8 of beautiful ambience and downtempo (later on he rocked it with boompty off kilter house – crazy for a junglist cat!). dot0dot followed him with an equally impressive set of live electronics. shunji dropped esg and got super jacking when he followed stalker later in the night. stalker was brilliant too – deeeep dubby techno that had heads nodding about the room.
it was bec paton’s last gig as a canberran, and true to form she played a couple of fantastic sets – she’s already locked in for quite a few gigs in sydney. kreme karmel rocked it in his customary style. disco, space jazz and tech rhythms with the help of a drum machine, damn fine.
ollo came up from sydney to play. they had quite a few technical difficulties, meaning they weren’t quite up to the level of their set in newcastle, but it was still a great set from the two guys who charmed their way around the room.
the other cool thing about the night was having non-technical djs rocking things. levins came up from sydney, phong from 2xx and the abandonerz (aka polly + leo) all played cool sets that had people just as bubbling over as anywhere.
unfortunately we kinda left the vjs to their own devices for the night. and when paul didn’t show and michael had to leave following relationship issues, it ended with scotch fingers and skatter holding the fort all night. sorry guys. though the results were beautiful as always. shunji’s sister, hana, made some great stencils for us too – what would we do without them!