Tag Archives: Adelaide

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

The New Pollutants

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The New Pollutants are about to contaminate your mind with their latest release “Urban Professional Nightmares”, a snapshot of their work of the last 18 months. I managed to speak with Mister Benjamin Speed, who provides the spoken component of this 8-bit wonder band from Adelaide. “We describe ourselves as an intelligent mash-up of 8-bit hip hop, beat driven experimental electronica, weird head-bobbing, banging beats and curious sound bytes which are reminiscent of 80’s and 90’s computer game soundtracks, dark themes from futuristic films and thought provoking yet baffling beat poetry,” Speed says of the Pollutants sound. “Hmm… that is a mouthful! We just think we make pop music really!” he jokes.

Coming together around 3 years ago, Speed met DJ Tr!p through mutual friend Red Rabbit, who plays experimental electronica at the Exeter. In late 2001 at the ‘This Is Not Art’ festival in Newcastle, a fortuitous accident led Speed and Tr!p to form a bond. “I had a broken toe and Tr!p has a limp so we were the ones walking way behind everyone because of our physical conditions, and we ended up talking and joking about together for most of the trip”. Both seem to have a love of the weird, which comes through in their music. “We are influenced by many things around us, not just music. As far as music goes, we do not care which genre of music we listen to, as long as it is good, and sometimes if it so bad it goes full circle and becomes good again. In fact we prefer it if we listen to as many different styles of music as possible.”

Something that makes them stand out is their use of 8-bit technology, through DJ Tr!ps’ Commodore Amiga. “The Commodore Amiga has only 8 bit sampling and 4 mono channel sequencing parameters. His whole sound is very lo-fi. Because I use a new computer for music, the nature of my sound is more hi-fi. We make songs on both computers but Tr!p’s contraption is definitely a defining sound. We bring finished songs from his computer and I always have to take them on to mine and hi-fi them up a bit,” Speed says of their unique production techniques. “It is a good mash I think,” he adds. “When we have composed what we describe as our ‘pop’ sounding songs they usually come out very different to what normal pop/electronic/hip hop music is today. This is just because of our backgrounds in music and where we come from. We also deliberately go out of our way to make weird tunes! We make some very experimental stuff but usually don’t play them at our gigs much. We make music people want to hear in their homes as well as when they want to have fun too.”

With the amount of lawsuits against artists and the public in general for copyright breaches, the use of sampled sounds could be detrimental to a rising young group. “Tr!p is a untraceable button man who wont even tell ME where the samples he gets are mutated from!” Speed says of their material. “He is so paranoid about being caught by the sample police, or ASIO or the FBI, or something, that his music studio and computer is like a top secret fortress of solitude. Me on the other hand, I don’t really care because really, unless we are selling more than 50 000 albums, (which we haven’t yet but are working on) no one actually cares because, as Underworld so eloquently put it – we live underneath the radar.” Speed is self confessedly brash. “If there are sample police out there I’m like, “You want me? Come and get me!” On that note, we obviously steer well, well clear of using obvious samples that are really bad… so much so we have gone full circle and put a song on our 12” with all of these bad samples on it! But don’t worry; it only goes for 40 seconds,” he adds.

With their critically acclaimed debut album and airplay on a wide variety of radio stations, they have been all over the country at various festivals over the last year or so. “Our live performances are a manic, fun and extremely energetic mash of live and recorded material that always kills me because I jump around so much”, Speed says. “So far the best show we have performed at was the Big Day Out this year. We got to meet Kraftwerk before our performance and chatted to them while we were setting up. We found out they bought our first album the day before they met us too! At the gig I was jumping around so hard I smashed the table and my computer fell off and my microphone broke… we pulled the computer back on and loaded up our last track and I used Tr!p’s headphones as a mic. After doing that we got a big cheer from the crowd to round off our set.”

dB Magazine, Interview, Music

Hooligan Soul

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The Hooligan Soul boys Grif and Pab have been causing havoc around Adelaide for a number of years now, DJing around town at various venues with various amounts of success, as well as playing live with some of the most important drum and bass DJs to visit our shores. These bad boys of beats look like they’re about to take off both figuratively and literally, with the continued promise of a new album, a possible tour of Hong Kong, Singapore and South America and with Pab just coming back from a successful tour of Bali with Aphrodite and DJ Rap.

We caught up with them fresh from an exhaustive night at Mojo West at the surprisingly popular Hooligan Jam. “Yeah, it’s going pretty smooth, the last vibe was absolutely rocking!” Pab enthuses. “It’s the only place in Adelaide you’ll hear proper UK Garage, and the last one we kinda got a bit adventurous and dropped a bit of Grime and 8-Bar in there too, and the crowd dug it! Nice and busy, it was cool.” Their other gig, Wednesdays at the Cumby, is also going along strong, and both the boys hope that this will continue over the summer months.

The boys have been hard at work on the album, due out soon through 618 records, out soon. “We’ve been promising it would be out for god knows how long now, but we SWEAR this time we mean it when we say it’s almost ready”, they vow. “Other then that, we’ve been pretty busy with shows and what not. We got our Wednesday night thing at the Cumberland, Mojo, Rukkas as well as various shows at Traffic. On top of that, Pab’s just come back from Bali, and we’re both going back in a couple of weeks, and Griff’s just recorded the new Beat Smugglers album, and they’re on fire at the moment as well. We’ve remixed Mobin Master recently, and we’re also working out a remix for the Jungle Brothers. We’re in the process of sorting out shows in Hong Kong and Singapore too at the moment, PLUS Pab is sorting out some stuff in South America. So yeah, we’ve been pretty busy lately.”

The Hooligans describe they’re sound as “Our own”, to raucous laughter. “I guess it’s a kind of like the link between the smooth, rolling “Liquid” stuff and the harder, gutsy sound. I know it’s a cliché but we don’t want to be classified as one thing. Guys like Marky, Stamina MC, Moving Fusion, Grooverider, Marcus Intalex, and Calibre, they’ve all given us really cool feedback, saying our sound is really unique. And I don’t mean in a “um… yeah… wow guys, that’s really… umm… unique” way, when people just say that because it’s shit,” they laugh. “I think Marky’s been playing Runaway, and apparently Rider was battering a tune of ours we handed him at Winter Enchanted last year. To be honest they probably don’t play much of our stuff though cause we’re too slack to send them new stuff!” On the local front, it’s a little different. “Some play our stuff, some don’t. Skyver & D-Jon play our stuff, Mark 7, MPK and Patch play it a bit… but it’s kinda weird. We guess they got their own tunes they want to play, cause they complain we don’t give them our tunes, but when we do they play them fuck all!” they laugh.

Their sound, like most performers, has developed as they’ve grown, and now they even dabble in a little hiphop and 2-step. But the boys claim that the main thing to change “is the sound quality. Our first tunes were musically watertight, but they were mixed like utter poo. We’ve got the mixing part sorted now; it’s just so much cleaner! That’s the only real thing really, our style has probably changed in subtle ways, but we’re still the same team of village idiots making what we like to make.”

The boys, and Lexy, the lead female singer, are looking forward to playing interstate and overseas. “I just returned,” Pab states. “I had two shows in Bali which I found out were the best two shows Bali has ever had, and they’re up for Event of the Year awards there. I represented Hooligan Soul, and the entire Adelaide Massive”. But the boys won’t be lugging their equipment around, as was so common in the past. With CDDJs, it has become a thing of the past to see Grif lug in two mixers and a PC. “It’s too much of a headfuck, and to be quite honest, we both like DJing and MCing more.”

 

dB Magazine, Event, Interview, Music, Writing

French Maid Alliance

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The French Maid Alliance consists of a bunch of mates, some of whom are some musical performers, some just regular punters, who know what they want in a good night out. Dale Tiver is the main organiser, and we spoke to him about the coming party simply called “Blind”, which is supporting the Royal Society of the Blind. The name French Maid Alliance is a nod to the Adelaide rave party crews. “You know the ones with super cool mechanoid Lego men, Transformer logos, and the like. I wanted to turn that on its ear a little bit and make it all about fun”, Dale says cheekily. “‘The French Maid Alliance’ just makes people do a double take, and I hope it encourages people to find out what we’re about.”

So what, exactly is the French Maid Alliance about? “I have had strong ties in the local club/music scene for years,” Dale begins. “I hosted an event just over a year ago called Deliverance with MK-1 and Yoshi, and I had a French Maid giving out free chupa chups, CDs and other treats all night. It was a night where I called in a lot of favours from friends and did everything I could to make it feel like a party, not just a regular club night. For some time I’ve been searching for a formula that could turn the love I and many of my fellow party organisers have into something completely positive,” he continues. “A night that supports musical talent over the established pecking order, and was more about having a good time rather than making money. After spending some time with Rotary, it dawned on me that fundraising for a charity was the perfect way to go.”

Organising any party is hard work, and organising one for charity must be quite a chore. Dale says: “in my experience people don’t mind giving their time to help others if it is well organised. When I put pen to paper and realised what I could create by channelling even a small portion of Adelaide’s musical talent into a charity event, I started the search for my charity. The Royal Society for the Blind were the first organisation I thought of and right from my first approach, they were completely supportive. They agreed that the use of French Maids and other fun devices was the perfect way to counter the stigma that charity events ‘can’t be fun’. They made available all their useful contacts and have been involved in approving every step in the promotional process.”

As for past charity events, the Adelaide dance community has strongly shown it’s support for this event, with all DJs and performers donating their time for free, and others offering free advertising. For example, DJ C1 and Noddy have designed all the flyers and magazine artwork. “There was a lot of work involved in that,” Dale says, “and they deserve credit for the time they gave for nothing”. Further support comes from the kind people at Cadbury/Schweppes and Diageo (the company that distributes Smirnoff/Archers) who Dale says, “have been great from the outset. Both have donated free stock and their time. As a result there will be a launch for a new Archers product on the night and the first 400 heads on entry will receive an Archers drink, Pepsi and a chupa chup”. Other help has come from Blake at Traffic for providing the venue, and “the rest are all my good friends from Adelaide Massive website (www.adelaidemassive.com). There are a lot of little things to do for a show of this size and I can’t thank them enough,” Dale adds.

Dale’s strongest musical passions lie in drum and bass, breakbeat and live funky acts, so that’s what will be represented at the first party. Yes, Dale has already decided to do some more shows for charity at a variety of different venues, to keep the idea fresh and fun. “To be honest, there are a couple of acts that couldn’t do this show due to other commitments and I can’t wait to roll out the next show,” he says enthusiastically. “I hope to be able to organise these kinds of shows three or four times a year. I have four or five venues I’d like to try, a long list of charities I’d like to assist, and a heck of a lot of talented musical performers I’d like to big up. Hopefully Adelaide gets behind the whole ‘having fun that helps people idea’… I think it’s a winner!” he adds.

The live area inside will consist of Kumfy Klub regulars the New White Sneakers and The Break, playing live funk. Mojo favourites and SA Dance Music Awards Best Live Act 2003 Hooligan Soul, and The Jupiter Sound Project will be performing live Drum n Bass with live vocals, live instruments including Saxophone and Classical Guitar. MC Hype and his brother Piers will do some beatboxing to alongside DJs John Doe, Lachlan Pender and Funky J, performing breaks sets. Techno will feature early in the night care of Fenetik and DJ Anarki, and Mal Chia.

The outside area has the cream of the Adelaide DnB crop, including the SADMA award winners MPK, Patch and Noddy, Canada’s DJ Static, Drumsounds C1, 5158 record guru Mark 7, D-Jon, inbound’s Filter and Fiction, Altitude’s Jayar, Adelaide’s producer extraordinaire Skyver, Turbine’s Khem and Ozone, Rukkas’ Phink, alongside Adelaide Massive favourites Solace, Lucas, Frost, Harass, IQ, Del, Trucker, and Spark. Lyrical accompaniment will be provided by MCs G-Swift, Pab, Stryke, Pase, Mennan, XPress, and Mission.

Also, thanks to the performers and the kind donations of many others, a team of highly skilled French Maids lead by Tasma will also be working very hard at giving out free CDs, tickets to up coming parties, lollies, fruit platters, and many other freebies throughout the night. They will also take care of any dusting that may become necessary! Visual effects will be provided by Yasmin, with Fire Twirling by Toby. There will also be special guest appearances and prices for best dressed and most enthusiastic are also on the cards!

dB Magazine, Event, Interview, Music, Writing

DJ Debris

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Adelaide has a unique hiphop scene that’s fuelled by the love and dedication of its fans and practitioners. Although we seem to miss all the larger acts that tour our fair brown land, the scene is still pretty large and healthy for a small town. Maybe it’s because the DJs and Acts we have here are as good as those that tour. One such act is the Hilltop Hoods, who have been lauded in international as well as local press. With 3 albums and a following from Gawler to Mt Gambier, they’re about to embark on a national tour with the 2003 DMC Technics World DJ Championship Heats, performing and judging. We spoke to DJ Debris (Barry Francis) about the state of hiphop and a few other things as well.

“Deep down I always had a notion that we’re going to get somewhere”, Debris begins, “because of the skill and dedication of the people I work with”. The Hilltop Hoods formed about 8 years ago, as most groups form, by someone hooking someone else up with common interests. This common interest centred on hiphop, and out of the South came three young hoods who knew how to rock a mic. “I think we’ve grown out of the Hood attitude, as has our music, although we try and make music for the ‘street’ that appeals to the Average B Boy,” Debris says.

With regard to the local scene, Debris has nothing but praise. “The hiphop scene in Australia has come a long way, a very long way, from where it was when I first entered the scene. It was very fragmented between state to state. There wasn’t very much communication between the states,” he says. “Now it’s very collaborative, mainly due to the internet and online community. Plus the availability of home studios… everyone seems to have one. There’s probably been a 20 fold increase in terms of local releases. I think dedicated followers of hiphop want to see hiphop remain underground, at the street level. And I don’t think Aussie hiphop and the Aussie accent will ever get accepted to the level of US stuff,” Debris muses. “If people live in Australia, and people know that its where they are from, and they’re rapping about guns and American issues rather than local issues, your average hiphop punter will see it as a load of crap really.”

The Hilltop hoods are fiercely independent. “We always want to keep it independent. We’ve never aimed to go commercial. We make music for ourselves, and our friends, and the people who like us.” It’s this kind of attitude that keeps Aussie hiphop ‘real’ and stops it sliding off the rails, like it seems to have done in the US. On this topic, I asked if there could ever be a dance remix of Hilltop Hoods. “We’re dedicated to hiphop, no disrespect to other forms of music, but that’s what we do. I don’t think we’d ever make a dance track. Maybe an instrumental track for a movie, that’s more our niche,” Debris says.

“We used to do a lot of collaborations with people in the past, but we’ve backed away from it with this album, tried to focus on ourselves and try to get our own sound without having too many people with their hands in the pie,” Debris says of their forthcoming album, ‘The Calling’, which should be out Mid-September. “But we’re always open to collaborations, we’d like to work more with Pegasus from Melbourne, Regent, Downsyde, Hijack & Bones, people we have in the past”.

DJ Bones will also be present at the DMCs, and I wondered how they go about judging such a competition. “I’ll be looking at Originality, skill, ability to beat juggle and scratch, variation, the ability to master of all DJ techniques,” Debris says. “Usually at a competition there’s someone who really stands out, who gets the crowds reaction”. The DMCs have been running for 17 years and cover 30 countries, with many currently well-known DJs and producers having performed in the comp, including Adelaide’s Groove Terminator and Brendon, EK, Ransom, plus overseas acts like Carl Cox and the late Tony de Vit. In 2000 Australia’s best ever placing was achieved by DJ Dexter from The Avalanches, who finished 2nd, which is no easy feat. Could this year be the year a South Aussie makes it all the way to the UK Finals? Find out by checking out the skills of the Hilltop Hoods, DJ Next and DJ Bones, as well as a heap of hopefuls who will surely tear the place up!

dB Magazine, Event, Interview, Music, Writing

Jayar

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Julian Rutt aka Jayar is one of those rare individuals you meet and think, “wow, what a sincerely nice guy”. Returning to Adelaide after being in the UK for a few years, where he developed his passion for dance music and vinyl addiction, Rutt turned his hand at promoting from a position of “pretty much seeing what can be achieved, getting inspired by these guys I knew doing similar, and noticing a few niches that weren’t already covered here”. Rutt is “impressed in fact with the amount of nights and visiting internationals coming to Adelaide”, but felt a need to fill in the gaps. This resulted in events such as Altitude (smooth drum & bass) & DeepFried! (Nu-school breaks) parties at Minke’s Skylab, and in a scene that’s known for it’s “if it’s not hard it’s not dance” attitude this was pretty gutsy for a relative new comer, but he has an enthusiasm and energy for the dance music industry that is infectious.

His latest event, PEACEBEATS, will showcase the best DJs and performers Adelaide has to offer in an attempt to show the claim that the ‘rave’ scene is apolitical, hedonistic and apathetic that many outside the scene level at it, is in fact untrue. Indeed, look at any of the dance music web sites such as inthemix.com.au, Adelaide Massive and System 6, and you’ll find heated debate on the causes and consequences of the (Iraq) war, where other forums have simply banned discussion of anything related to it. For Rutt, “this war is something I feel strongly opposed to, and instead of just getting angry or feeling completely powerless when our Government can so easily ignore what seems to be popular opinion, I decided to do what little I could to voice my (and others’) opposition”.

Instead of being dismissed as trivial or pointless, Rutt argues that “sometimes you have to focus on something positive to maintain the morale to deal with the scary reality”, and this is indeed the point of this party – to raise our awareness and to show opposition to the Governments position, whist having fun. “There are dance parties going on around the world all the time, most of them being pure escapism – which is fine. But this one is acknowledging what’s going on, and trying to contribute some positive energy to the situation, and at the same time, give real support to those groups who are working hard to change things for the better. I’m not putting this party on thinking that it will single handedly change government policy, its just one more peaceful, positive event for another section of the population,” he explains. “At the same time, this isn’t a propaganda push, it’s a dance party & fundraiser”.

With many approaching Rutt before he even asked, all performers are giving their time freely, and Rutt is promoting the event for free. “All of the money earned (after expenses for printing and sound hire) will be going to the not-for-profit groups NOWAR SA, Justice for Refugees SA, Urban Ecology Australia and Tall Storeez Productionz – the group who made the indie film ‘Holiday Camp’ about the Woomera detention centre riots and breakouts last year. As these groups have limited budgets for their campaigns (people may remember the inadequacy of the PA system hired for the 100,000 strong peace rally a month ago) and often rely on donations, the money raised will help future campaigns or in the case of Tall Storeez, help in distributing the film to a wider audience.”

The party has had “a good cross section of Adelaide’s top DJs respond and offer their services, which has been great, and my aim is being able to have representatives of some of Adelaide’s top club nights involved, getting a great line-up and covering a variety of styles.” On the night Rutt says “Minke and Skylab will crescendo, starting the night on a more cruisey tip, slowly building in tempo and intensity till its completely going off at the end! The Souk room is going to be a dedicated chill out room all night with couches and beanbags, while playing anything from experimental ambient to dub reggae to tripped out beats – a good landing pad for those not up for dancing but still want some good tunes.”