The Word on EDM/Dance Music with Aegipan Samarawickrama
Your resident columnist and bass freak Pan here, coming to you for the second-last time this year. Which leads me to ask: How on Earth have we hit the home stretch of 2024 already?
This year has flown by, dear readers, and let me tell ya… it’s been an excellent one. It’s been even more excellent-er having the opportunity to deliver another column crammed with all the goss and goodness of electronic music.
Let’s Talk Gigs
First up, let’s talk gigs, and let’s hop to it because 2024’s last two months are absolutely STACKED.
NSW record label Mullum Madness, in collaboration with local DJ and producer Microbial, are celebrating the release of their 25-track V/A with a huge launch party on Saturday, 23 November.
The location is yet to be announced, but this is a wall-to-wall line-up of dead-set legends. To whit: Microbial, Tidy and Samwise, Burley Bassweight, Biscuit Bytes, Forrest Cult, Hydrasect, Luke Cannon, Solid Professor and more. >> EDIT unfortunately this event has been postponed. So keep your eyes peeled on the socials for updates! Mullum Madness.
For the fifth year in a row, Headz are Rolling are busting out their Jungle Bells bash at the Pot Belly Bar on Friday, 6 December. And this time round, they’re bringing the UK’s DJ Djinn back to our shores, breaking a Djinn drought dating back to 2018.
The rest of the line-up is TBA so far, but you know the Headz – it will be chock full of locals on support, and we’ll be partying all damned night to celebrate the end of the year. Save the date on your Facey calendar.
On Saturday, 14 December, we’ve got the first inaugural Vision Music Festival. There’s a whole heap of details on this festival in this issue’s cover story (penned by yours truly), but if you need a quick rundown…
3 stages, 25 international, interstate, and local artists across a diverse range of genres, food and, natch, the Territory’s best crowds lighting up Symonston Park from midday to 10pm.
The full line-up is too long to list here, but I’ll give you a quick peek… among the headlines, they’ve got Kippo (UK), Mood Swing and Chevy Bass (one of THE coolest names I’ve had the pleasure to hear), Don Darkoe, Paul Abad, Vorpal, and Waxlily.
The support acts are all local favourites who have been, and will be, mentioned frequently in my columns – 2 Stazy, Brittany De Marco, Burley Bassweight, Deejhammer, It’s A London Thing, Loose Cannon, Mariana Dub, Pann, Sweetheart, Tidy and Samwise, and more.
It’s rare to get a festival of this quality that combines the powers of numerous production crews and a vast wealth of talent, so make sure you promptly get down to the old greyhound racing track for what is sure to be A Proper Saturday in Canberra. Tickets are now on third release and are $80+bf via Humanitix.
Damn, if we haven’t had ourselves some real UK heavy-hitters out our way this year. Friction has got Stanton Warriors hitting Hopscotch on Saturday, 21 December to play a whopping 3-hour set, and will be ably supported by Mikah Freeman, Arkhon, It’s A London Thing ft JLP Peekz, and Dave Norgate.
It’s another midday kick-off for this ‘un, wrapping up at the very reasonable time of 7pm. The previous breaks offering at Hopscotch was a ripsnorter of an afternoon, so expect this one to be big, too. Final tix are a flying out the door via Moshtix.
New Releases
I’ll have to breeze through a few of the new releases this time since the column is packed with gigs, and, as is tradition, I will close it off with a super special non-EDM music recommendation.
I’m loving Like Sleep Without Dreams by The Archangel. There’s drum ‘n’ bass and jungle in here, to be sure, but there are also moments of ambient, proggy techno, cinematic soundscapes, and even introspective piano melodies.
The cover art is also stunning, although falling into a black hole is something none of us would be happy doing.
Amsterdam label Liquicity has released a dank little eight-track V/A called Orbit, featuring songs by Dossa, The Outsiders, Ripple, Jon Void and more. The tracks are full of great hooks and uplifting beats, all with high-quality production.
You might not be able to imagine me getting into dance-pop, but 3AM (LA LA LA) by Confidence Man is too infectious to ignore. Of course, my favourite track is Breakbeat, but the rest of the album is about as feel-good and high-energy as you will find in this genre.
Beyond the EDM Umbrella
Usually, I devote the end of this column to a few recommendations from outside the electronic music umbrella. I have only one this time, but it’s one of my favourite recent discoveries – YASSiN and Sean Terrio, an absolutely stellar duo from Oakville, Ontario.
There’s a non-zero chance that you might have already seen one of their viral clips where Sean Terrio sings a popular song in the voice of Donald Trump while YASSiN plays piano and tries to keep it together.
Their debut album, JUST, will be out by the time you read these words. I got to listen to it right before I submitted this column for publication, and I can tell you that very few artists come right out of the gate with such a massive debut.
Yassin and Sean Terrio are both fantastic vocalists and songwriters (with hairstyles that somehow outshine the mane of your intrepid columnist), and their tunes are powerful, emotional, uplifting, and fantastically produced. There’s some subtle genre experimentation, too, which I love to hear.
I genuinely cannot stop smiling when listening to All Summer and Take My Time, and found myself moved to tears by When They Don’t Feel The Same. The duo have put so much energy, passion, and effort into their debut, and they deserve the attention they will undoubtedly get from listeners and reviewers worldwide.
Right, that’s it from me for this column. If you see me out on the dancefloors, be sure to say G’day. As always, any goss on gigs and new releases, send it my way. AEGIPAN101@GMAIL.COM
Take care of yourselves out there, and see you again just before the year’s end!