Tag Archives: Australia

dB Magazine, Event, Interview, Writing

Enchanted 06 – MPK & Devious

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Since 1998, the Enchanted Forest rave parties have been an eagerly awaited event for thousands of people around South Australia. The excitement of secret venues, fabulous line ups and fantastic production values that has seen it be awarded party of the year time and time again. DJ Devious aka Chad Bergman and DJ MPK aka Daniel Michael are the promoters behind Enchanted Forest, and this year sees a bit of a change from the usual format of an all night rave at a ‘secret location’ in the middle of nowhere, which has been the par for the course over the last 8 years. This year the party will be held at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds in Wayville, starting at midday and progressing until 11pm.

“There are a lot of reasons we chose to do a day party”, Michael says. “Night Parties were good at the time we started, but we always try and find the best venues and they’re becoming harder to find. The Showgrounds are safe, have good parking, no dust but lots of grass, public transport and decent, reliable power for sound.” “And good toilets. Everyone hates portaloos,” Bergman chimes in. “And we can put on a lot more acts during the day,” continues Michael. “We’ve been to a few interstate parties, and culturally they’re no different to what we’ve been doing here, and they have successful day parties all the time.”

“We’ve got a totally blacked out room for people who like the dark”, he smirks, “and they can always wear sunglasses,” adds Bergman, chuckling. “We’ve heard of people booking hotel rooms who are planning on going to go to Enchanted, then one of the after parties, and that’s a lot safer than having that long, horrible drive at 5 or 6am. I do get worried about what can happen on the roads at that time of the morning,” Michael adds. “I think three quarters of the people are going to like the idea, and maybe a quarter won’t, but what’s important is that people will be enjoying themselves.”

Enchanted has had its fair share of controversy, mainly because of the decision in 2003 to begin pill testing after suggestion from Dr Caldicott of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It was a safety issue that the promoters felt strongly about, they were being briefed by a doctor, “and who are we to argue with a trained professional!” exclaims Michael. Other parties had pill testing, and the police generally turned a blind eye to it, until 2004 when the Advertiser had a slow news day and ran an “expose” and the dangers of raves and drugs. The police then had to take an interest “but they were just doing the job, I guess” Michael points out democratically.

He saves his anger for the press. “They’d ring me up for an interview at 6pm, and then the same people would ring up with the same questions at 7am the next morning. I’d be working all night DJing, and they would wonder why I’d be grumpy and refuse to answer their questions!” But furthermore Michael and Bergman had facts on their side. No one has ever died at Enchanted. Reports from previous Enchanted’s from police and first aid, who they get together with after every party, were quite minimal. “A Royal Adelaide Hospital report from a few years earlier showed that people were twice as likely to end up at hospital during a test match than during our raves!” the previously jovial Bergman says seriously. “Cricket is more dangerous!”

But both Michael and Bergman wish to steer away from controversy. “What’s important is people enjoying themselves in a safe environment, not what some middle age conservative journalist who has never been to a rave thinks.” To facilitate that fun, this year sees Peter Coomb join the ranks of DJs and MCs. An odd choice, perhaps, but Michael is correct when he says many ravers grew up with Coombs, and know his music as well as the latest from Pendulum or Keven Energy. “It’s so people will have a laugh,” he smiles. “I saw him at O’Ball and Shutzenfest and he rocked it. Absolutely rocked it!”

Even though the planning of Enchanter begins as soon as another is over, Michael and Bergman take it one party at a time. Though this is a day party essentially in the city, they don’t rule out having another ‘secret venue’ party in the future, and it’s certainly not the death of outdoor parties. “We’ve got Ultraworld in the Outback early next year,” they grin, although they hasten to add with a chuckle “good venues don’t grow on trees”.

Enchanted kicks off at the Adelaide Showgrounds on Sat 9 Dec and features a stellar line up including Peter Coomb, Pendulum, Tomcraft, Kosheen, Steve Hill, Keven Energy, Goldie, Jon B, Chicken Lips, CJ Boland and heaps more!

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Mystro

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The name Mystro is well known to Aussie hiphop heads, as he’s appeared on a slew of records which hit their hearts and local charts. Resin Dogs, Downsyde and Adelaide’s own Hilltop Hoods featured Mystro on their major releases, and he’s toured around the country, impressing audiences with his flow and dialogue. Now he returns the favour with his own album ‘Diggi Down Unda’, due out January, alongside artists such as P Money, Hilltop Hoods, Dazastah (Downsyde), DJ Bonez (Hyjak N Torcha), Phrase, Macromantics, Maya Jupiter, and more. Released in the UK and Australia, it will hopefully impress the UK punters in the same way Mystro has impressed Australian audiences.

Mystro got introduced to hiphop at the age of 12 through artists such as NWA, Public Enemy, and De La Soul. He was also introduced to ragga, and even dabbled in a little bit of jungle MCing. “There was a time when hiphop kinda droped out for me,” he laments. “It wasn’t as interesting as when I first heard it, around like early 90s. There was jungle, and that was all UK music, everyone in the area was heavy into it. I had a friend who had a local radio station and people were going “you should go on the radio show” so we did. I lost interest in it quickly because people didn’t care what you were saying, just going “yiidayyiddayidda” to the music, man,” he bursts into laughter, and I have to admit it’s one of the finest dnb MC impersonations I’ve witnessed.

Luckily his interest in hiphop perked up as artists like MC D and Blak Twang appeared with a uniquely UK sound. Mystro set about impressing people at open mic clubs and battles which eventually led to Deal Real signing his first single ‘Kiss That Arse Goodnight’. His rise is not too dissimilar to the way a lot of Aussie hiphop acts start, and it’s no surprise he won many fans not only in the UK but Australia as well.

That fan base wanted to hire him to play in Australia. “I originally got booked to play in Australia in 2004 and it was only a 3 week tour, hitting the major capital cities. The promoter basically introduced me to anyone I could meet at the time, and it went from there,” he says of how he got involved with many Australian artists. “I came back and toured for 3 months, and we hit Adelaide on that run – it was actually the Hoods who booked us to do the show. We stayed at Debris house and ended up recording the track on their album. When I had a gig in Perth Downsyde booked me to support them. Most of the time when I got to a city I’d be approached by the promoters or an act I was working with to do stuff with them.”

Originally ‘Diggi Down Unda’ was just going to be an EP, but the talent here and Mystro’s love for making music led to a full album. “Australian hiphop has its own identity. Everyone I’ve got on there uses their own accent. There’s no body on there who sounds like anyone else they (the UK listener) ever had heard of,” Mystro says of the artists on the album. “There’s a range of different voices and flows. Whether UK people get into it is another matter, but I think it will be easier with a familiar voice there. But that’s the goal – to let UK people know there’s talent all the way over there.”

Although both the British and Australian scenes have strong local following, it’s still rather underground, and hasn’t made a blip on the American Radar. “The people at the top still don’t take it seriously. There are still people in the industry saying “ah, nah, UK hiphop will never blow up” and there’re still probably rednecks in Australia who say the same thing about Aussie talent,” he laughs. “But I think it’s just a case of being marketed the right way. It’s sad to say it, but that is what it’s turned into now.”

“It’s not about just having a good album, you’ve got to have a good album, you got to push the album, hit all the radio stations and posters, flyers, magazine interviews, and now even you’ve got to pay to get the front page and get slotted in the right place in the store,” he sighs. “And this makes it harder especially for the independent artist and labels to get their name out there and get their promotion done as well as all these majors are doing. The majority of homegrown talent isn’t signed to major labels and I think that’s the backbone of the problem – no body really gets to hear it because it can’t be promoted well and there’s not that much talk about it because it’s not on the big billboards and that.”

However, he doesn’t see all gloom, otherwise he wouldn’t be still in the game, and the success of the Hilltop Hoods has buoyed his spirits. “The stuff the Hoods are doing is really good for the scene. It’s not like they’re making stuff that all of a sudden changed for punters or labels. It’s good that a group like Hilltops won the Aria and not some bubblegum rap that Sony have just signed or something,” he chuckles.

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Bass Kleph

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Stu Tyson is no stranger to accolades and awards. Having got a boost from winning the Triple J Noise remix competition with his awesome remix of Downsyde’s El Questro, he’s continued putting out choice singles under the moniker “Bass Kleph” on various local and international labels. This year he’s helped put the Aussie Breaks scene firmly on the map as he and fellow breaks jock/producer Nick Thayer won Best Remix at Breakspoll for their remix of Feelin’ Kinda Strange, originally recorded by the UK’s Drumattic Twins. He’s also been pushing breaks at home with his inthemix06 mix CD and subsequent tour.

“It was a bit of a shock really!” Tyson says of the Breakspoll win. “I mean, we work really hard, but I didn’t expect to get so much acknowledgment from outside of Australia as we have now.” This has of course led to many offers for both himself and Thayer to work with other people abroad, but Tyson has been happily busy in Australia. “I’ve had heaps of offers, but only had time to do a couple as I’m too busy finishing a couple of things including my debut album, ‘Breaking Point’. I think I’m only starting to have the time again now. But I’m really looking forward to travelling the rest of the world. I’ve had a lot of good feedback on my music and remixes from outside of Australia. Apart from the UK, the USA is definitely on the cards. I just got a very flattering email from Jason Nevins the other day actually. It said: “Holy Shit…. I just found an amazing bunch of music on MySpace….BASS KLEPH !!!!!  Amazing, wicked, bangin’ tracks!” he laughs

Like most music scenes, the breaks scene has had its ups and downs. It’s just starting to take of in Adelaide, whilst some Sydney punters are complaining about it being on the way out. “It’s definitely not going away anytime soon,” Tyson states. “The numbers at our new weekly night Break Inn are proof of that. It’s the best breaks night I’ve seen in Sydney since old Beat Fix on Pitt St. I think what’s happening,” he explains, “is that Breaks is stepping out of the fashion spotlight a little. It hasn’t lost its following, it is just becoming underground again, and so far that’s been very positive. That’s the way it was when I first fell in love with it, so I prefer it that way.”

“Globally is a different story,” he continues. “I don’t know how well the nights are going, but I’m not into a lot of the new breaks records coming out. There are a lot of tunes that sound like bad re-makes of older tunes that weren’t that good to start off with. There are still breakbeat gems out there; you just have to dig a little harder and further now. I think I get most excited about the breaks Australia is producing,” he smiles. “Everyone is looking at us now, I think we’re about to take the lead. Guys like Hook n Sling, Dopamine, Nick Thayer and The Street Punx are making some amazing music.”

The inthemix06 CD has also kept Tyson busy, as he’s headed around the country promoting the CD as well as DJing. “Overall it was awesome!” he exclaims. “There was one bad night in Brisbane were they booked it at a new venue, and it seemed like not a lot of advertising was done or something because there was literally ten people there. Which is weird because even when I go there by myself for a DJ set there’s several hundred every time. But all was back on track the next night in Melbourne with 1200 punters ready to have it. Actually all the other shows were dope. Melbourne was massive, Perth was rammed, and so much fun, Byron was a little quiet, but an amazing vibe, Sydney was just enormous then the last show in Canberra with Zabiela was also off the hook!”

Sometimes mix CDs cause a DJ some headaches as they struggle to find a groove for a home audience, but Tyson is happy with the way the CD worked out. “I’d say it’s representative of my live sets. I just did what I normally do, but I kept in mind the environment it was to be heard in, like in the car, or on the home stereo. When I listen to mix cds in those places, I prefer them to have a more up and down, attention grabbing flow than what is often played in clubs.”

You can catch Bass Kleph at Electric Circus on Fri 21 July with Luke Lombe, Noodle, Spark and Activist

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

The Hilltop Hoods

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The Hilltop Hoods shot to prominence with ‘The Calling’, becoming the first Australian hiphop act to gain a Gold record. The follow up, ‘The Hard Road’ has a hard act to follow, and not only in terms of sales, but also in of ‘keeping it real’ for the Hilltops. I’d heard rumours and stories that the new album was ‘commercial’, and that the band were tearing themselves apart from within. But talking to Suffa a day after the album was finished made me realise that the Hoods still have it very much together, and no matter what happens, they will always be The Hilltop Hoods.

I asked Suffa if there was any extra pressure to record The Hard Road. “It wasn’t a struggle to record it, but when we started mixing it Baz (Debris) went on holiday to Vietnam,” he laughs. “So that made the mixing down a little bit more difficult.” Of course not having heard the album, I asked Suffa to describe how it sounded. “It’s similar to The Calling but it’s sort of a darker version of The Calling,” he mutters. Dark hey… Could this be a reflection of the way the band is feeling the pressure? “I don’t know,” he chuckles. “It just turned out that way. We don’t plan albums. As the beats are made, as we like certain beats and the album makes itself. There’s a couple of party tracks on there, a couple of jazz influenced tracks, it’s not like it’s some kind of melancholy beast,” he grins.

The Calling’s most popular track is the Nosebleed Section, containing the Melanie Safka sample. Seeing as how she was apparently enamoured of the tune, I wanted to find out what Suffa thought of her and how she came into knowing about this little group from Adelaide. “She got sent the track by a fan she has here, but to be honest I’d rather not talk about that because”, he hesitates, “we’re not having legal issues, but it’s not sorted out completely and I really shouldn’t be talking about it,” he says, and fair enough too.

He does openly speak of how that whole exercise has changed the way the group approaches sampling, however. “We had to either use things on this album that didn’t need sample clearance, or the ones that did need sample clearance we had to chase after and get it,” he explains. “You can sort of take care of it in the processes (of making a track). If you’re sampling a funk artist, they’re sampled so much they’ve got the process in place to legally sample them. You just need to contact their people, they’re people tell you how much it’ll be and how much royalties they want, blah blah blah, and that’s sort of easy. If you go into other genres and sample someone not used to it, it can become difficult. And also during the process you try not to sample records you know you’re going to have trouble with,” he adds with a smirk.

Thanks to the efforts of the likes of Hilltop Hoods, Delta, Downsyde, the Triple J Hiphop Show, and the seminal Aussie hiphop label Obese Records, Aussie Hiphop has blossomed and become a lot more respected by the wider community. “Yeah, the scene, if you compare it to 5 or 10 years ago, the amount of exposure, the amount of groups, the amount of interest, the amount of media attention, it’s a lot healthier than it was,” Suffa exclaims. But when I ask him about the down side of it, he’s quite frank in his answer. “I don’t really want to say negative things about it, you know? I just don’t want to sound like one of those guys who’s gone all cynical,” he laughs.

Although I didn’t like to keep the interview on a negative vibe, I had heard rumours that there was some tension with in the group over creative control. Having chatted to both Suffa and Debris in the past, I found it hard to believe, and of course Suffa set those rumours to rest with a big laugh. “It’s absolute shit!” he cries. “The reason why those rumours come about, and we’ve even seen things where people said we should have a media coach,” he laughs incredulously, “is because we’re such close mates all we do is fucking hang shit on each other all day, so even if we’re being interviewed or there’s a camera there we’re still hanging shit on each other, it’s just the way we always have been. So you know, I don’t know why people want to turn it into some kind of… thing, maybe the people starting these rumours are trying to turn us against each other or something, but it’s just not going to happen. We know each other so well, we just don’t care what they say.”

To help the launch of the Album, the trio will be hosting ABC’s Rage. “We’ve always been so disappointed when hiphop artists go on Rage because for some reason whenever hiphop artists program one of these shows they try to show how open minded they are and play anything but hiphop,” he groans. “Our sole mission was to go on there and play nothing but dope hiphop. So we played 40 songs of just straight up hiphop. We were limited a little by what catalogue they had, but we tried our best to play clips that just don’t get seen and the artists we think should get a little more exposure.”

dB Magazine, Interview, Other, Writing

Tripod – “Gatesy”

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Tripod, the trio comprising of Scod, Yon and Gatesy, have been entertaining Australian audiences for over 10 years, and fresh from winning the 2005 ARIA for best Comedy album, Tripod returns to the Adelaide Fringe to make audiences laugh at their silly songs and on stage antics. Speaking to Steven “Gatesy” Gates was pretty much how I imagined him to be – funny, casual, and laid back, buoyed with the ARIA win and the imminent launch of their first DVD.

“Fucking stoked!” Gates exclaims when I ask him about the ARIA win. “We’ve been nominated a few times and the same people always crop up, like Rodney Rude… I think he’s taken one out,” he says going off on a tangent, the first of many in an entertaining fashion, “it’d be an absolute atrocity if he hasn’t taken one out, considering we all shared his tapes in the 80s as little kids… But I think it was our turn,” he cackles. “The Umbilical Brothers had an awesome DVD; I reckon that should have won, but we won instead, which was good. We were really pleased with that record too; it was a departure for us – it was a studio album we did with a band and things, but I’m glad the ARIA people dug it!”

I wondered if they had difficulties doing the studio album, considering they’re known more for their spontaneity and live performances. “With the recorded album, we took the best songs from the three seasons of the Skithouse show”, he says. “When we recorded them originally, I wouldn’t call it ‘shoddily’ but we did it ourselves in our bedroom. We got the best sound we possibly could with what little knowledge we had. It was funny doing a show to broadcast quality and we’d be recording with mattresses along the walls and standing in the toilet hallway,” he chuckles. “But some of the songs we liked and went into the studio with a proper band and producer and we did them properly. Because they were already done and people thought they were good or funny, and we had performed them live, we just thought lets make the music as good as we can.”

At the mention of Skithouse, which while not consistently funny had some fantastic moments, I lamented to Gates about the lack of comedy on free-to-air television. “It comes in waves, doesn’t it?” Gates agrees. “Like everything, lifestyle shows, cooking shows and shit, I think it comes down to network TV really. They just try to follow each other, jump on each other’s successes. Channel 7 has Deal or No Deal so Channel 9 has to do some fucking game thing… And that’s what happened with the sketch show thing – they decided ‘it’s time, we need comedy and we need local content – sketch shows are the answer!’ So everyone did them for a while, and it stopped, but it’ll come back, I think,” he adds, tentatively. “What’s really needed is, apart from Rove Live, there’s no live comedy show – we were brought up on the Big Gig, which was just ace TV, live stuff where it’s not a concern if someone fucks up and things go wrong.” But Gates thinks Network Television is scared of live shows, citing “I think it’s backwards scary fear thinking,” laughingly adding that he’s not even sure that’s a proper expression.

Just in time for the Fringe, Tripod has a DVD ready. “We’re pretty excited because we’ve never done a live DVD before. Every year since getting back from Edinburgh we’ve been doing these things called “Pod August Nights”, a bunch of gigs on Thursdays and Fridays in August. Last year we did it at the Northcote social club (in Melbourne) and we decided to make a DVD of it. We did it on one night, and now we have a record of actually what we do in a live situation… No one really understands (our live performance)– WE don’t really understand – which was really good, trying to work out what we did and what was funny in the editing suite and put in on film.”

As with all DVDs, there are some specials on there, but the most interesting seems to have been dumped due to fear of landing in hot water. “We had a whole bunch of ideas we couldn’t get clearance for – we went to this elaborate effort to do this animation using Lego set to one of our triple J songs, and everyone was freaking out and scared that Lego were going to sue us for using their image as a backdrop for drugs and sex. So we couldn’t use it,” he laments, but he does hints that it may find it’s own way onto the world wide web.

Something that did make it on to the DVD that Gates believes people will enjoy is footage of the lads in Scotland. “One of the biggest things for us,” he says excitedly, “there’s footage of us in Edinburgh in 1998, this was two years after we started, and we went to the Edinburgh for the Fringe because we had enough balls to do it, but we were pretty much under-prepared, certainly by today’s standards anyway. But there’s this amazing footage, shot after shot of three young, geeky guys trying to make their way in the world bouncing around in colourful outfits trying to make an impact on Edinburgh. I think it’s the most embarrassing footage of us ever seen by man!” he laughs.

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Bass Kleph

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Twenty four year old Stu Tyson was just an 8 year old when he caught the bug for drum breaks. “They had everyone in the school band to write down a list of the instruments we would want to play in order of preference. Being 1988, the first thing I wrote down was obvious… Saxophone! But I didn’t have a second choice. So, I actually looked at the guy’s paper next to me, and saw on his “Drums”. I immediately added that to the top of my list of now two instruments,” and in a twist of fate in losing out to drums, from that moment on Tyson was hooked to the sound of sticks banging canvas.

He found his way into numerous bands as a drummer, but like a lot of performers, found rock to be a little lacking, and moved into listening to dance music. “Initially, it was the drums that got me. Most of the dance music I’d heard was house and techno. I liked it, especially the production quality and mix style, as the drums were massive, but being a drummer, the old ‘4 on the floor’ couldn’t hold my attention for too long. It was actually drum and bass that got me first, and then breaks eventually took over. When I heard these huge broken beats and deep bass, I was hooked. See you have to remember; I was coming from rock music where that style is all about guitarists. Finally I’d found a style that was all about me,” he laughs.

Shaking the shackles of rock, Tyson began his career as Bass Kleph, which Tyson claims “is the medical term for leaving a watch inside a patient… and also a musical symbol to define all instruments in the lower frequency region,” he laughs. And his career has been on the up and up ever since winning the Triple J Australia wide remix comp of Downsyde’s El Questro. “Ah, Downsyde,” he muses with a smile, “that was so long ago. It’s so flattering that people still talk about it. It was great, especially for the national exposure. Before then I hadn’t released any of my original tunes, so being able to play a little bit of Bass Kleph (via that song) to the whole of Australia was a great introduction for me. I’m so thankful we have a national radio station that plays breaks!” he cheers.

Since the win, Tyson has burst on to the international breakbeat scene with a string of chart smashing releases; receiving rave reviews the world over. Wild Card was added to Triple Js daily rotation and since featured on Kid Kenobi’s “Clubbers Guide To Breaks 04”, Triple J’s “Home Grown” CD, “Future Breaks”, Ministry Of Sound TV commercials and more. His tunes with Boiling Point stable mate Nick Thayer Fucking The Groove and Fucking The Synth sold out in the first week in the UK, and their next release, the remix of Feelin’ Kinda Strange by Drumattic Twins, is soon to be launched on Finger Lickin’ Records. This came about from the Twins’ seeing how they used the vox from the tune looped in a set. “We’d just loop the breakdown, cut the bass and – instant acapella! They thought it was great and suggested we do a remix. There was never a guarantee it would be released, but we thought we’d give it a nudge anyway. Since then it’s blown up all over the world.”

Fantastic news for the Australian breaks scene, although I was surprised to hear that Tyson doesn’t have a club residency anywhere. “I play different places every week. There are clubs in Sydney I play at whenever I’m in town, like Hijack (which unfortunately was recently closed down), Kink, Chinese Laundry and so on, but I wouldn’t call them residencies. I prefer to take my music to as many different places as possible, and luckily for me there is enough interest to do this.”

Tyson is coming to Adelaide, so what can we expect? “I use mostly CDs these days, and still some vinyl. The CD players are so good now, and most of the freshest music I get is digital. Think about it,” he adds, “the people who wrote it are gonna have it on CD from the day its finished. It’s only on vinyl when it gets signed and cut.” I mention three decks, and he laughs, “buy me and drink and maybe I’ll do four! Trick wise there is plenty of stuff going on, but only in a musical sense. I’m only really into things that sound like part of the song, or sound like they are complimenting the song. As for scratching, I leave that to the professionals!”

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

DJ Friendly

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The funny and funky DJ Friendly, known to his DJing mother as Andrew Kornweibel, was well loved in Australia for his quirky take on breakbeat music, but about 2 and a half years ago, having worked his butt off making a name for himself in Australia, his record label were “keen for an alternative direction for me” as he puts it politely, so he left for sunny England to seek a different path. “I managed to achieved what I set out to do, I put 12 inches out, play in clubs, and changed from live performer to DJ, managed to get by and the rest of it, and now I’m doing quite well,” he says.

He’s made quite an impression on the English scene, and won the best newcomer award at Breakspoll this year. “I thought it was funny I got the best newcomer – I’ve got three albums out and I’ll be dead a hundred years before I get the lifetime achievement awards,” he chortles. “I was chuffed, and from outside of Australia’s point of view I was the new comer. But I feel like I’ve been doing it for a long time myself,” he says, chuckling. “Living in the UK is a lot more global. All of a sudden people are booking me for gigs all over the world”, Kornweibel says of the move to the UK. “In Australia I found it very hard to break out of the Australian scene. I could get a gig anywhere in Australia, but I couldn’t get gigs outside, no one had heard of me at all. Over here I’m a lot smaller relatively speaking, but I’ve got a much wider spread and my music seems to go a lot further.”

But it’s not all sunshine and roses. “The weather is shit. It’s absolutely appalling. The people are grumpy nine months of the year because the weather is so bad. Everything’s expensive,” he pauses. “Are we going to workshop this? Should I pay you for this therapy if I pour my heart out to you,” he chortles. “There’s good and bad, London is a hard city to live in sometimes,” he continues, “the people can be really closed off and it’s got that big city feel about it, but at the same time it can be so inspiring. The competition is so great, and the media from the UK gets spread around the world, and you get up on your soapbox and people listen.”

Having run into a lost looking Paul Arnold, the head of Fat Records, in Sydney, he slipped him a copy of his demo and it became his first release on Fat, and the beginning of a close relationship. With Arnold now being Kornweibel’s manager, Friendly has become the resident at the Fat Records club night called ‘Chew The Fat’. “The people who come down for the night are music lovers, there’s no attitude,” he exclaims, “it’s all about getting down and having a really good time! We get heaps of girls,” he giggles, “and all sorts of people from all different backgrounds. Some of the other nights in London can be blokey, or ‘Laddy,’” he says in a really bad accent, laughing, “and at other nights it might be young pill taking clubbers who don’t even know what breakbeat is. I like to think we draw a nice line between being there for the music and being there for a great time.”

The first Chew the Fat mix CD is Friendly at his best, being fun and funky, a true representation of the night Kornweibel says. It’s got many of his own tunes on the mix, as well as a few remixes. “I think with any musical style you need to inject a soul into it,” he says of the mix. “I’m not interested in hearing music that doesn’t have a soul, and in all genres there’s that soulless stuff, including breaks, but you can add a lot of personality with a vocal. I play this way because they kind of end up being my tracks, my own exclusive re-working of that track. And because you’re going to be listening to it at home, what works in a club with the big bass system won’t necessarily work on your tinny little shelf system,” he adds, “so I think adding vocals / acapellas lightens it up and makes it more enjoyable.”

“I definitely enjoy writing my own tunes for the simple fact that it takes me probably as long to do my own tunes because I generally totally re-work a remix”, he says when I ask if he’s got a preference for remixes or original tunes. “Some people just take existing beats and put the sample over the top, or simply shuffle it about, where as I will turn down remixes if I feel I can’t do anything with it, turn it into one of my songs. But remixing is important, because you do learn a lot using other people’s musical parts and you can get a wider audience. I’ve just done a remix of Positiva,” he adds “and I’m really happy about that. It’s a different market and I hope I can reach out and convert a few more people to breakbeat.” He’s not afraid of having his own work remixed either. “I’m happy with what Krafty Kuts has done with Bump and Grind; he’s turned it into a bit of a monster,” he laughs.

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Katalyst

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Ashley Anderson has been producing music since the mid 90s. Along with fellow producer Illpickl (Michael Wright), they recorded Moonrock together, and were invited to submit songs for the Café Del Mar compilations. After Write passed away in 2001, Anderson took the moniker “Katalyst” and released a few titles that were issued on the “Dope On Plastic” series. In 2002 Anderson produced Manipulating Agent, a tour-de-force of laid back Aussie scratches and beats. Anderson sites the release of this record as one of his greatest achievements. “The way it was received, getting airplay, the reviews I got were all really positive, and that was the culmination of a few years work,” he says.

Anderson is also known for his remix work, remixing a range of artists such as Portishead, Dynamo Productions, Gift of Gab (Blackalicious) and Machine Gun Fellatio. About six months after Manipulating Agent came the remix album Agent Manipulated. “The remix album came about by quite a few people approaching me asking if I was going to do any remixes on 12 inch or whatever,” Anderson explains. “Also I didn’t get to put all the tracks I wanted to on Manipulating Agent due to running time, so I was able to put those tracks with the remixes and make a full-length release.”

The collaboration with Portishead saw Anderson strike up a friendship with the main man behind Portishead, Geoff Barrow. Seeing a gap in the market, they formed Invada Records, based both in the UK and Australia, to be able to give them “a lot of flexibility in a lot of other areas. Geoff has got his office in the UK, and that allows him to have his finger on the pulse in Europe and sign acts based over there. We have our ear to the ground here, and sign mainly Australian artists, and release them in the UK and vice-versa. We have a lot of phone contact, emails, MP3s, that kind of thing.”

Invada’s next big project is Jamaican born Australian artist R.U.Cl’s (Pronounced Ru-See-El) album Let The Music Talk. Due out the end of May, Anderson is quite thrilled by this new talent. “We’ve put a lot of time and energy into this,’ He states, “so we’re quite excited. His background means he’s got a bit of a different style for an Australian lad. He’s really talented, and we used some great producers on it, it’s quite a diverse product,” ranging in vibe from hiphop to dancehall. Anderson sees R.U.Cl being able to perhaps cross into the lucrative US market. “I think Australian hiphop is really good that is out there, but it’s not up to the standard of what’s coming out of the US,” he says guardedly. “I think it’s on par with what’s coming out of the UK and Europe, but I think the cutting edge production and most talented MCs in the world are American. America is very insular, and it’s hard to break into. But,” he continues, “the level of Aussie Hiphop is getting better and better. There’s lots of great new MCs I hear pop up on different tracks, and lots of talented young producers out there.”

You can get a taste of R.U.Cl on Katalyst’s first mix album, Dusted. This double CD contains a mix of funk, soul, hiphop and reggae, and includes some of Anderson’s all time favourite tracks. There were a few that he couldn’t get due to licensing problems, but Anderson says he expected that. “It’s not always the fact that people won’t or want stupid money for it,” he says. “It’s often a case of simply not being able to find the owners. That was the case in some of the more obscure tracks I wanted to include, which is a bit of a shame. It moved the direction of the compilation in some small way, but at the end of the day I had enough tracks anyway.” Anderson is also quick to point out the fact that it is all from vinyl isn’t an attempt to be wanky and elitist. “I didn’t mean to make a big point about it really. I was a bit paranoid about it because some of the records are a bit noisy, and it bugs me out sometimes if there’s a crackle. So I just wanted to get the point across – if there’s any surface noise don’t worry, I couldn’t help it. Plus,” he adds with a laugh, “it is all off vinyl because I don’t have many CDs.”

Many times you’ll see Katalyst performing not at hiphop events, but at big shows such as Ben Harper, and the up-coming show with Jack Johnson, Xavier Rudd, G Love and Donovan Frankenreiter. “Obviously it’s a really different vibe,” Anderson says of these shows. “I’m there to play a different role too. I enjoy the Jack Johnson shows, because it gives me a chance to play different sorts of tunes that I feel I wouldn’t at a ‘Katalyst’ show in a club with a dancefloor vibe. I like to break up the sets, because they’re usually similar sounding kind of acts in the bigger picture, so it’s kind of nice to mix up different flavours for the audience in between them. I guess some members of the audience can’t relate to it, but if it broadens the mind of a few of the members who are there to see Jack and Xavier then that’s a good thing,” he beams.

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Crackpot

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It’s a bit of a strange thing that a band can be signed to a well-known label, have over twenty tracks licensed for various compilations around the world, been played by throughout Europe and the UK via Gilles Peterson on BBC1, but still be relatively unknown in their home country. Crackpot’s debut album Shelf Hypnosis is about to change all that as the funk-fuelled threesome bring their unique sense of music and humour home to Australia.

Each of the members of Crackpot; Martin ‘Moose’ Lubran, DJ Phil Ransom and Jade D’Adrenz, have had stunning careers. Lubran composed and produced music of some great Australian TV shows such as The Late Show, Funky Squad and films such as The Castle. Ransom has 2 DMC championships to his name, has performed at many of the major Australian Festivals, and toured, at the request of the Beastie Boys, with all Grand Royal acts visiting our fair shores. D’Adrenz, the singer-songwriter of the group has worked with acts such as Groove Armada, The Mad Professor and Tim ‘Love’ Lee.

Speaking from Melbourne, D’Adrenz talked of how the band formed a little over 6 years ago. “Moose and I had had been writing some tracks together and were programming drums, and couldn’t find the right sort of sounds. We’d been trying to find drum machines that sounded like old 50s Jazz kits with 70s subsonic kick drums,” she explains “and everything sounded stilted and programmed. Then one day we hooked up to write some tracks for another artist, and we met Phil (Ransom) and fell in love musically, and been together ever since,” she giggles.

The first thing you notice about Crackpot is that not only are D’Adrenz vocals beautiful, but very quirky. “Quirkiness comes naturally,” she enthuses. “The thing about Crackpot is all three of us had been frustrated previously about where we fitted in musically, so the whole point of crackpot is that we could all do whatever we wanted. But because of the way we all were, we didn’t offend each other too much in doing so,” she laughs.

Along with this come some quite outrageous samples, provided by Ransom. “If the song has a certain theme, I’ll talk to Ransom about his samples and have my input, but part of the fun is to let him do his thing… He often surprises me and I find them all funny!” she chuckles. On the album you’ll hear bizarre samples from people like physicist Steven Hawking. Being so strange and identifiable, I had to wonder if they any problems clearing them. “Tummy Touch takes care of the sample clearing, that’s their domain, so we have no problems at all!” she laughs. “We’re actually using less and less, and sampling ourselves… sampling our voices, and moose plays 10 instruments.”

Speaking of Tummy Touch, it’s quite a sweet deal they gained, as Tummy Touch is very well renown. “We didn’t really go banging on doors looking for deals,” D’Adrenz mentions. “We just were offered one about the time we were looking for one. It’s all been a fairly effortless ride as far as that sort of thing is concerned. We’d made a short list of 5 companies that we thought had put out a cool product, had a diverse and interesting music, and good packaging, and that kind of thing. We were delighted when Tummy Touch approached us!”

Their other projects have now become side projects, well and truly. “Crackpot’s always been the main thing for us, we’ve just been waiting for it to become the main thing in other peoples minds,” as D’Adrenz laughs. “We’re all pretty committed to it. We’ve had vinyl out overseas, and that’s kept us going. We had 27 tracks licensed around the world. We’ve played in Melbourne, but we’ve played interstate, ummm… never I think! I think the live scene is very important in Australia, but we’ve managed to stumble along our way, and yet still feel appreciated”, she chortles again.

No doubt Crackpot will surely endear itself to the Australian audience, as their clever lyrics, quirky samples and infectious beats travel across Australia Crackpot to follow up their debut. “For this tour we’re hooking up with a drummer, Leroy from Plutonic Lab, because we don’t want to play with too many backing tracks. It’s pretty hard for Phil (Ransom) to be laying down all the beats as well as samples and doing backing vocals. At times we’ve put our beats on vinyl and he’s cut them in, but it’s pretty exhausting. So it’s going to be good playing with a drummer and a bass player.”

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Infusion

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Infusion has been rocking Australia since the mid 90s, but has found their star rising ever quickly skyward, first being signed to Thunk Recordings and then their tune Dead Souls being picked up by Adam Freeland’s Marine Parade label. The Wollongong trio of Frank Xavier, Jamie Stevens, Manuel Sharrad are the current leaders of Australian Dance music, holding the torch proudly high as they tour around the world, performing blistering live shows to packed houses. I spoke to Frank Stevens after a quick tour of Argentina and Chile, and the big UK festivals.

Their most recent big date in the UK was Glastonbury. “We had two shows at Glastonbury, one which was live to air on Radio 1, and then we had another gig in the Glades tent, which is a bit like the Boiler Room tent at the Big Day Out, and it was really good. We had about 5000 crazy English people jumping and going crazy,” Xavier laughs. “Creamfields Argentina was amazing,” he gushes of last years’ festival. “We played for an hour and a half, and when we started there was about 150 kids there, and by the end of our set there were about 18,000 people there! We played Argentina and Chile this past weekend, and that was just incredible. I don’t know how they’ve found out about us, but news just travels fast around that part of the world.” Infusion is also big in Japan. “We’ve played Tokyo about five times, and the last time we played was in a club called Woo, to about 2000. The Japanese really love their music, will really give people a chance.”

Although they were featured on Triple J and played the traps in Australia, it took some time before they got a wider appeal. “We’ve been playing around Australia since, well I joined in 1996, and it wasn’t until 2001 that we went overseas. It helps when overseas people rate us, and we play some of the big festivals over there, then Australia goes ‘Oh, hang on, they’re doing quite well over there, let’s give them some more attention.’ Steven’s is quick to point out that’s not the whole of it, and is very loyal to Infusions early fans. The fan base that Infusion have crosses borders and genres, most obviously because the band refused to be pigeonholed. They combine breaks, techno, trance and progressive, and there are influences and similarities between them and a wide range of groups, from Icehouse to Pink Floyd. “Every band has influences and ours is from the late 70’s and mid 80s. I was into Depeche Mode, Beach Boys, Japan, Bowie, but we all listen to a lot of different things and I guess when we all get together there’s such a big range of differences it becomes a big melting pot.”

Another contributor to the wide fan base is the internet. “Even though I’m not a big fan of forums, forums have really helped us a lot,” Xavier states. “Kids from all different countries posting ‘you’ve really got to check these guys out’… the news gets spread around. We’ve just released the album in Argentina, Chile and Canada, and with the push of the bigger record label it’s just been getting bigger and better for us”. But Xavier isn’t so keen on File Sharing. “A lot of people seem to download the Radio One BBC files and I don’t really mind, because it’s on radio in the first place. Radio One is a promotional tool for us, so that doesn’t really bother me. But with the album we checked to see if it was on soulseek last week, and it’s not there yet, so lets hope it remains like that!” he chuckles “But it happens with every band, you can’t avoid it. It’s killing the industry, but what can you do, it’s going to get worse and worse.”

I mention to him that another person I interviewed had a similar view, and that they though file sharing would force the price of bands upwards so they could recoup their record sale losses. Xavier disagrees. “It won’t force the price of bands up; it will encourage bands to tour more,” he says. “It encourages them to get off their arses and not sit back and wait for people to buy their records, but get them out there and earn their money the good old-fashioned way,” he laughs.

Infusion has definitely shown they can earn their keep, with vibrant live shows that equal rock performances in energy and vibe. “With a live band there’s a whole lot more energy than what you can see on stage with a dance act. If you see people like Underworld and Chemical Brothers they’re stuck behind keyboards twiddling knobs,” he says, “and although it sounds live and it’s ‘big’ sounding, it still doesn’t have that appeal of when you have a drummer and guitarist going at it, there’s a few mistakes here and there that leap out at you, and people get a lot of energy from that. The way we play is quite similar, with got a vocalist, and the sounds and way we mix are quite live, and the energy as we’re all jumping around… we’re not sitting behind laptops and twiddling knobs.”