I’m going to be a bit self-indulgent in this month’s column, so please bare with me (if not skip ahead to the gigs below)…
A few weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of putting out a new EP with Late Night Records; three tracks of atmospheric progressive house. What was awesome, though, is that I decided to put on a fairly short-notice, impromptu launch party on a Thursday night at Knightsbridge. Now, that’s a pretty big ask of people; putting on a party on a school night – especially as a fair amount of the crowd was over 30 with serious jobs to go to in the morning.
But it was truly awesome – such a nice feeling to book a gig to play some new music, and have a small room full of people who deliberately came out just to hear it. Not a massively long party, not an especially big social occasion, or high production party. Just friends and peers from the Canberra music community.
There’s not much else to say about it, but thank you. Thank you everyone who cut shapes on the dancefloor, gave me a hug or sent me a message (and to Fourthstate and T:mo as well for spinning tunes). So to everyone who was part of that, thank you – it meant a lot.
[Hey all, Bossman Allan here, interjecting because although our dear Peter O’Rourke claims to be self-indulgent, he’s too humble to give you details of his release. So I’ll be shameless on his behalf. Kazuki’s new EP Obit can streamed on Spotify or Soundcloud and is available for purchase on iTunes and all major digital music platforms]
And now to some gigs!
One of the best boutique electronic music summer festivals Subsonic is going on the road for some launch parties, and they’ll be stopping by at Mr Wolf on Friday, 24 May. Headlined by New York City house legend Joeski and a host of supports including MSG, Jungle Jerry, Fourthstate, Peach, T:Mo, plus yours truly, it should be a cracker of an evening!
Mr Wolf has some other gigs definitely worth checking out, including Sydney’s Cassian on 31 May – he’s just finished a tour with Rüfüs Du Sol, so he should be in fine form. Also check out NYC’s Thieves on Friday, 7 June, and Australian trap queen Godlands who’ll be showcasing her new EP 4 U Only on Friday, 21 June.
We’ve got a couple of long weekends coming up, so new superclub Fiction has some great Sunday gigs for bass and tech-house fans. Wuki & Torren Foot will be on 26 May, and Michael Bibi on 9 June (yes, I’m sure he’ll play Hanging Tree).
Sideway as always has a packed schedule of the weird and wonderful. My dance picks for the upstairs bass trap would be Pitt Stop on 24 May – with Melbourne’s Hybrid Man and Sydney’s Nat James – for some deeper housey sounds, or 25 May with Merve and Noise In My Head. 31 May looks fun too with the wonderful Honey 2 Honey, or 1 June for Throb, the new queer night!
D&B fans have had a plethora of choice selections these last few months, and that isn’t likely to let up with the Headz crew back at the Pot Belly in Belconnen with Sydney’s Royalston on 14 June, with a heap of cool local supports.
It also wouldn’t be the June long weekend without us getting excited about Australia’s best winter doof, Psyland! HEAPS of names for all psychedelic tastes, but some choice selections include prog techno legend K.A.L.L.I. (Brazil), along with Tetrameth, Evil Oil Man (UK), Staunch and Shadow FX. It’s also in the ACT, so no dramas there! Tickets and info online.
Oh yeah – this is an odd one, but a good one. Megamix superstar Nick Skitz will be at Balthazar as part of Asylum Saturdays on 25 May. Darn straight you should go.
Get amongst it, pay your respects.
