Brisbane John Doyle lookalike Robert Forster played a gorgeous set in Sydney in August, mostly from his latest record The Evangelist. As usual ‘Surfing Magazines’ got a once over too. He’s been in the states ever since, reprising his Velvet Underground covers set as well as touring the new record.

Forster played a show at super intimate Joe’s Pub, and nyctaper got it direct from the sound board.

Jeff Burch was our guest on Canvas this morning.

(Jeff Burch and I in the FBI studio)

Born in New Zealand but living in Sydney, he’s released LPs (NY’s Magic Markers and his own band Songs‘ pop debut EP) and books by Max Doyle and others on indie publisher/label The Spring Press.

(Magic Markers - ST LP)

He works with fashion designer Therese Rawsthorne, he designs websites and record covers, writes interviews, makes films. Basically Jeff Burch is prolific.

Here’s a record Jeff originally released on the now defunct Brothers label:

Jeff Burch - As I remember, if I remember correctly, I arrived sweetly (51.8MB)

Jeff’s band Songs played at the Hopetoun last night - intriguing, that’s for sure - and they’ve got a few more shows this coming week in Sydney (more details here).

(Songs, live at the Hopetoun, May 3, 2008)

No Evil - Luciano
Not Fair - Skullsquadron
The Length of Your Breath - Matt McBeath
Hesitation Nation - David McCormack
August (Aeriae remix) - Catcall
Rise to Glory - Earth
Time to Pretend - MGMT
Totally Debase (feat Babymachine) - Suckafish P. Jones
Pumpkin - Tricky
Communication Pact - Traps
Relax In a Panic Free Atmosphere - Magic Markers
Keeping It Clean - Songs
Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground
A Parade in Littleton - Tom Verlaine
Open - Kahn Brothers
Rockist Part 1 - School of Language
One Blood One Source (feat Rudey Lee) - Pinch
Beautiful Gloom - Padded Cell
Skinny Love - Bon Iver
Warm Rising Sun - Radar Bros
I’m Now - Mudhoney
Re-arrange Us - Mates of State

I always mean to record mixes. It just doesn’t happen that often, things get in the way. Magazines to be printed, radio shows to be broadcast, jobs, etc. Here’s a Sunday afternoon mix. Relaxed grooves, light-hearted and optimistic hip-hop, jazz and beats.

[Apres] (128kbps MP3)

01. J.Dilla feat. Dwele ‘Think Twice’ from The Beat Generation [BBE LP, 2004]
02. Pharaoh Sanders ‘You’ve Got to Have Freedom’ from Journey to Find the One [Theresa LP, 1980]
03. SK Radicals ‘I’m Reachin For the Farside’ [People 12", 1999]
04. Joanna Law ‘First Time Ever (Mellow Groove Mix)’ [Beggars Banquet 12", 1990]
05. De La Soul ‘The Mack Daddy On the Left’ [Tommy Boy 12", 1989]
06. Astronomy Class ‘A Bright Tomorrow’ from Exit Strategy [Elefant Traks LP, 2006]
07. Secondo ‘Watch What You’re Saying’ [Dreck 12", 2003]
08. Prefuse 73 and Tommy Guerrero ‘Storm Returns’ [Warp 12", 2003]
09. Cesaria Evora ‘Angola (Get Down Dub by Pepe Braddock)’ [BMG 12", 2003]
10. Common ‘Come Close to Me (Blackbeard’s Summer Madness Vocal)’ [white label 12", 2003]
11. El Diez ‘El Diezco’ [white label 12", ??]
12. Slum Village ‘Do U Re Edit’ [white label 12", ??]

Cyclic Defrost #19 guest cover designer, maker of lovely music, and little beknown to me DJ of some repute Dylan Martorell played this set at a Melbourne night called Collectors Set.

It’s a musical free for all as you’d imagine from the Snawklor/Hi God People music maker.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Joel Stern’s Audiopollen nights up in Brisbane of late. It’s a Sunday nighter that sprung from Stern’s radio show of the same name. And with local bands The Deadnotes and Blank Realm, it’s become a hub of activity that balances Lawrence English’s Room40 label nights. Last month’s Wire has Jon Dale covering the OtherFilm festival and Audiopollen scenes, and online a selection of tracks for download. Keep an eye out for a Blank Realm interview in the next issue of Cyclic Defrost.

Hear this. A new Comfort Fit mix for Monday Jazz (”jazz for the working classes”) featuring tracks from Ammoncontact, Flying Lotus (in Sydney Friday week), and the man himself, Comfort Fit. Bad jokes aside - the mix is called “Yellow Snow” - he’s really pretty great.

I’ve been rambling on about this Sydney Festival gig supporting Caribou, Mountains in the Sky and Jamie Lloyd at the Hyde Park Barracks for ages. It finally happened on Thursday night. Despite the rain, and the sheets of red dust flying everywhere and especially all over the records (as they played), it was a blast. Loads of great people in attendance, great bands, great people running things. My mum even came. What more could you want?

I fell off my scooter on the way home from work beforehand, so I loaded up with ibuprofen and played records for a couple of hours (before and between bands), and then took yesterday off to recuperate, giving me a chance to record some of the songs from Thursday’s set. A few didn’t make it in: Crayon Fields, Os Mutantes, Architecture in Helsinki, Incorporated Thang Band, Ballistic Brothers, John Cale, Gregory Isaacs, Dizzy Gillespie, Sheila Hylton, Caetano Veloso, but the rest did… I’ve split it in two.

I hope it soundtracks something great.

[Part 1 - With Caribou] (128kbps MP3)

01. Butthole Surfers ‘Barking Dog’ from Hurdy Gurdy Man [Rough Trade 7", 1990]
02. The Dream Syndicate ‘When You Smile’ from The Days of Wine and Roses [Slash LP, 1982]
03. Tooth ‘Shift’ [Soft Records 12", 2002]
04. Primal Scream ‘Loaded’ from Screamadelica [Creation LP, 1991]
05. Fat Jon ‘Wood Grained Love Stain’ from A Side of Counterflow [Counterflow LP, 2004]
06. Terry Callier ‘Love Theme from Spartacus (4 Hero Main Mix)’ [Talkin' Loud 12", 1998]
07. Del Dongo ‘Samiscience’ [F Communications 12", 2002]
08. The Y2Ks ‘Sydney Harbour Bridge’ from Nicht Sushi EP [LADO 12", 2000]
09. Scattered Order ‘Sheer Remix’ [Volition white label 12", 1992]
10. Ryuichi Sakamoto ‘Riot in Lagos (Creative Use re-edit)’ [white label 12", 2004]

[Part 2 - With Caribou] (128kbps MP3)

11. Captain Comatose ‘Pricegun Baby’ from Acapulco 2001 [Playhouse 12", 2001]
12. Uter ‘Ohm Sweet Ohm’ from Tomorrow’s Clown’s [OSCARR 12", 2003]
13. The B-52s ‘Loveland’ from Mesopotamia [Warner Bros LP, 1982]
14. Joakim ‘Teenage Kiss (vocal)’ [Kitsune 12", 2005]
15. Air ‘Don’t Be Light (Neptunes Remix)’ from Everybody Hertz [Source LP, 2002]
16. Can ‘Soul Desert’ from Can Soundtracks [Liberty LP, 1971]
17. Soul Kid Allstars ‘Take 1’ from Turntables on the Hudson Vol 1 sampler [Rhythm Love 12", 1999]
18. Eddie Henderson ‘Inside You’ from Heritage [Blue Note, 1976]

Dating back to the 1890s, a radge is someone who is mad, violently excited, furious, wild, obstreperous - in the current parlance, to radge is to get real mad. Shouting, kicking and/or hitting inanimate objects.

This new mix from the boy, Radge, is a little more subtle. No tourette’s action, little to no violence, just lots of delicious 80s pop and disco, old school house and techno, hip-hop and other stuff. Nice.

A little too nice, really.

The major labels strike an increasingly hysterical line about what’s legal and what’s not in music filesharing.

But it’s happening, and I’m more interested in whether internal controls, like a developing ethics of filesharing, are appearing.

Some things I hear are:

• Won’t trade indie artists
• Buy things afterwards if they like them
• Only give low bitrate files so downloaders have to buy the decent version
• Not linking to leaked albums
• Only overseas stuff
• Only local stuff (promoting locals, who aren’t making money anyway)

I read a thread on M+N promoting a blog called Sure ’nuff ‘n yes I do. The blog’s sole purpose is providing free album downloads from artists like Ash Ra Tempel, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, John Fahey, The Congos and Arvo Pärt. Aside from their good taste in music, I was a bit disturbed by comments like:

I don’t believe in selling music personally, I think it is something that should be shared. Not everyone has hundreds of dollars to spend on CDs. Don’t you think that poor people deserve to hear music too?

That’s nice, but the reality is someone will search for, say Mick Turner’s record, find the blog and download it, instead of going and buying it from whatever online store where it’s actually quite cheap.

And as Emmy posted:

it’s not just audiences who are poor, it’s artists too. An artist like Mick Turner isn’t rolling in cash, you know. He lives in suburban Melbourne with two young children and a partner who is also a musician - it’s not exactly a financially stable lifestyle.

It does feel cheap and mean. With the music by dead people, and the stuff that’s commercially unavailable, I say big ups. But many of those listed are amazing records by people who are still alive, and I think that sort of blog/fileshare situation disrespects the artists it purports to be about.

The alternative, and pretty seductive viewpoint (quoted from forum regular Blake3030) goes like this:

I don’t mind the Dirty Three. I’ve never heard Mick Turner’s solo music. Usually people from bands’ solo work isn’t as good as their bands work. I wouldn’t risk $25 of my money on it when I have a list of about 30 records I do like and want to own that i’m trying to find. However, I would download it for free and if I enjoyed it, I would buy it.

I tend to think that’s too idealistic. I mean could you imagine going into a restaurant, asking for a meal, and then paying if and only if the meal was a taste-bud sensation (and in the real world, most people not even paying for a mind blowing three chef hats 10 course spectacular).

My last mix (for Radio Waves From Space) is diasporising. I know that’s not a real word, but I’ve been getting hits from edmsets.com and now Blentwell’s got it linked, which is amazing.

I’d better start thinking about the next installment.