DJ Vadim to hit up the hip hop party of the summer

The fine folk at Soundcrash are putting on the hip hop party of the season at London's KOKO on the 18th of August. This event will feature some of the UK’s biggest and baddest acts; cats who have made history on the wheels of steel and who leave audiences slack jawed, sore and wanting more with nothing but  two turntables, a mixer, and a total mastery of that boom bap thang.

DJ Vadim is amongst the heralded few who can count themselves as true innovators and one of the hardest working men in show business. Never predictable, he rips the rule-book to pieces, unleashing a barrage of killer grooves from genres as varied as hip hop, soul, funk, grime, reggae, trip hop and bass music; he never runs out of ideas. Vadim draws upon several lifetimes’ worth of experience: his project is now approaching its twentieth year and has seen him tour across more than sixty countries and perform over two and a half thousand times.

One of the most highly regarded DJs to ever come out of the UK, DJ Format offers bombastic grooves, catchy basslines and body rocking beats. Never one to rest on his laurels, he’ll brandish the hallmarks of his Simonsound audio-visual set  - a collaborative project between DJ Format and Simon James described by DJ Spinna as “a refreshing mesh of the past, present and the future. It's like Mort Garson rocking shell toe Adidas with fat laces blasting into the galaxy in a funky space ship.”

Joining them is fellow heavyweight and the former DMC Champion Mr Thing, who has established himself equally as an absolute virtuoso behind the wheels and as one of most consistent purveyors of infectious grooves in the UK.

Tickets available from: www.soundcrashmusic.com / www.ticketweb.co.uk

Teebs, Nosaj Thing and Eskmo to play live at London's XOYO

You know how we brought you news of that tear-inducingly excellent Gonjasufi gig last month? Well, the dudes at Soundcrash are putting on another awesome show on July 12th. Head along to XOYO to see three first-class beatsmiths live and direct from the USA. After selling out the Village Underground earlier this year, Teebs returns to London. Joining him as co-headliners will be Low End Theory regular Nosaj Thing and Amon Tobin collaborator Eskmo.

Teebs' set on July 12th will no doubt be one to remember. After signing to Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, he released the critically acclaimed Collections 01 plus various collaborations with Daedelus and Prefuse 73 amongst others.

Add to this a rare London show from Nosaj Thing, who returns with his unique blend of psychedelic hip hop. After releasing an incredible body of work himself, Nosaj has remixed Islands by the XX plus the amazing co-production with Kendrick Lamar.

Innovative as ever, Ninja Tune’s Eskmo completes the triple headline line-up, serving up an ever-evolving cross-genre set, featuring live electronics cut to his own live vocals. With a new LP on the way, expect some exclusives as well as classic material.

Needless to say this will be a very special night! For ticket information, head to the Soundcrash website.

Last chance to see Matthew Day's Intermission in Sydney

Acclaimed Melbourne-based choreographer Matthew Day is presenting the final installment of his solo series, TRILOGY to Sydney audiences this week.

Titled Intermission, the new work extends Day’s unique interpretation of choreographic forms. The show, focused around themes of time and body, builds on the minimal nature of the first two works in the series, Thousands (2010) and the sensory tension of Cannibal (2011). The result is a prolific and engaging body of work.

Thousands saw Day being nominated for the Green Room Award 2012 while Cannibal is to be presented by Dancehouse in November this year.

Against a minimal live sound score by James Brown, Day’s Intermission navigates a surrendering of the body to rhythm and momentum. Tension and relief are jointly created via repetitive circular movements and the beautifully hypnotic nature of Day’s dancing.

With his TRILOGY series, Day has established himself as an advocate for exploring and experimenting with new choreographic forms via an intensely physical and emotionally affective platform.

INTERMISSION runs until this Saturday 30 June at PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, 107 Railway Parade, Erskineville, Sydney.

Tickets $20 / $15 concession available through PACT. Get more information here: http://www.pact.net.au/2012/02/intermission-2/

Get $25 off your Parklife ticket with Bobbysix!

UPDATE: THE BOBBYSIX TICKET OFFER HAS NOW CLOSED. YOU CAN STILL CLICK THE ABOVE LINK THOUGH TO GO TO THE PARKLIFE TICKET PAGE: 

The epically awesome Parklife festival returns to Australia this September/October, and this week an appetite-whetting line-up was announced, not least the long-awaited return of electronic royalty, The Presets. As well as their unmissably massive performance, you can see the likes of Nero, Passion Pit, Citizens and Brighton's Rizzle Kicks. Also, we're especially looking forward to catching Tame Impala, Chairlift, that sweary scoundrel Plan B and electro pop queen, Robyn. 

And the best news? We've teamed up with our mates at Fuzzy to bring you a ridiculously good deal. Click on the above picture or click this link to get $25 off the cost of a ticket. For reals! 25 Bones! All you have to do is follow the link and enter the promo code SIXER to take advantage of this insane generosity.

Grab your ticket now (the offer wil expire at midnight on June 25th). We'll see you at Parklife and will gratefully accept you buying us a beer with some of the 25 bucks we just saved you.

Check out the full line-up for the festival - which visits Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide - on the Parklife website.

Electric Guest interview

Vinisha Mulani has a chat with Matthew Compton of the bangin’ and soon to be tourin’ Electric Guest:

So here's the history lesson on Electric Guest. The band is made up essentially of two guys, Asa and Matthew. Asa’s brother is Jorma, of Lonely Island (Dick in a Box, anyone?). Jorma is friends with Danger Mouse. Danger Mouse is a magical producer who has worked with the likes of the Black Keys, Beck, Gnarls Barkley and The Shins. He heard them, he liked them, they moved in, they hung out, they recorded.

So tell us a bit about your debut album, Mondo. Having Danger Mouse as a producer must be exciting.
Yeah, I mean it kind of happened a while ago. Before Asa moved to L.A. he was living in Brooklyn, and his brother Jorma is friends with Brian (Danger Mouse's real name). One day his brother played [our music] on the phone, and Brian liked it. We moved to LA, Asa took Brian’s room and Brian had made a studio in the basement, so we started recording there.

We worked for years on the album, we both kinda had our things, and we worked on things together, then we got a bit more serious about it. It wasn’t real until we were mixing the album and Brian said ‘You guys gotta put your band together’.

Tory and Todd Dahlhoff play with us live. Todd’s amazing. He just moved to LA with his brother- we rehearsed for a year before we started playing together.

I read that you cite some of your influences as 60’s era French pop and Indie Rock. Anything you’re listening to right now in particular?
Yeah, it definitely influences my bass. I listen to everything, but I really like Michel Colombier, who is a composer. And there’s another guy, Francois de Roubeaix - he’s one of my favourites. He does mainly films scores, and he actually records by himself, writes the scores himself, he does everything.

So you’re the drummer live, how about when you’re recording? 
Yeah, live I do drums. While recording I do a few of the bass parts, a few of the guitar parts, just kind of whatever.

So you’re a bit of a Francois yourself? 
(laughs) You could say that. Or trying to be, anyway.

What did you do before Electric Guest? 
I’ve been touring for 10 years, or something like that. I played in a band called Cursive for a while. I played in a lot of rock hardcore bands, but I didn’t really enjoy it. I always wanted to play in a band with more like electric bass lines, more like this one.

Do you and Asa write together? How are your styles similar and different?
Yeah, I mean a lot of the ideas we have to make a good song are the same. We worked on Mondo together for years. We come from different places, from different backgrounds. He’s more into hip-hop and I’m more into indie rock but we love that. We both agree on what works about music, and we both like the same things about songs – we both like the same pulse about the song. We agree on what works and we find a common ground between the two styles.

You’ve been touring for a while now – and still have a lot of touring to go, with a lot of fun festivals coming up. Where are you looking forward to going? 
I’m the most excited about Australia (the band is playing Splendour in the Grass this year).

Good answer. 
No, really! Because I’ve never been. I’ve been talking about it all summer long. I was really hoping to go, I’ve heard really good things about it, and I heard Splendour in the Grass is a great festival.

One of the guys that plays in the band with us has been before, and I’m really looking forward to it. Someone told me that people in Southern California and people from Australia have the same attitude, same way of life.

Finally, what’s a dream collaboration for you? Who would you love to work with one day?
Blonde Redhead. They’re one of my favourite bands.

You can check out Electric Guest's tour dates over at their Facebook page.

Interview by Vinisha Mulani.

Elizabeth Rose interview

Carol Bowditch grabbed a few words with Elizabeth Rose about her current Australian tour:

How are you feeling about your first headline tour? 

I'm really excited to be on my first headline tour! With excitement comes also nerves. I get worried about the number of people turning up to the shows, but so far it hasn't been that bad!

What can people who attend your shows expect?

In my live show it's just me up onstage with my keyboard, laptop, sampler and me singing. I try to spice things up a bit with quirky outfits and makeup! The music I play live is slightly varied from the recordings, I like to experiment with new melodies and extended edits of the songs with obscure intros and outros.

You recently joined Chairlift on a national tour. How was that experience?

Touring with Chairlift was so incredible. I've been big fans of them for a couple of years and getting to meet them was just so surreal. Caroline and Patrick are so down to earth and they are so creative in their songwriting. I had a few good chats with Caroline about bands we're into and now I'm working on a remix for them!

Your video created with Ben Wilson is insane! How did you come up with the concept and do you think that video clips are an important tool to compliment your music? 

The video clip is trippy, hey? The concept came about when we realised we didn't have the time to shoot a proper clip from scratch. I wanted to use live footage from my single launch at GoodGod [in Sydney] but didn't want it to look like a 'live' show, if that makes sense? And that is where the crazy effects and overlaying of images came in! Video clips are a very important tool to compliment the music, they amplify the meaning/vibe/energy of the song and they are also really another fun tool to use to further express yourself as an artist.

Tell us a little about the collaborations you've been working on...

I've been working with some exciting people lately. A track with Flight Facilities should be coming out in time for summer later this year, and a track I did with UK producer Sinden will be on my EP. I've also been working on a track with a fellow Sydney producer Frames.

What have you been listening to lately? Can we hear any of these musical influences within your music? 

Lately I've been getting into the new Simian Mobile Disco album, Unpatterns. Also listening to Patrice Rushen, an 80's soul singer. Her album Straight From the Heart is great!

After the tour, what else have you got planned in 2012? 

After the tour I'll be madly preparing for the release of my EP! I'm in the middle of producing it at the moment. After that I have a few festivals coming up, including Mackay Festival of Arts which is a sci-fi dress-up theme! At the end of the year I want to start working on another release, possibly an LP....

Tell us something that it would surprise us to learn about you...

I love to go fishing. Ha! Bet you really didn't see that one coming.