What I've been up to

Life has been a little crazy of late hence the lack of posts on my blog. You’ll be happy to know though I have been finding lots of little gems worthy of posting and some not so much (but I’m going to tell you about them anyway.)  The first gem being that of Jerome Isme-Ae, I’ve never really paid him much attention before but 959 is a pretty awesome track.  

James Zabiela is one amazing man.  I’ve seen him on two separate occasions and both times I have been left mesmerised by his sets (and possibly his good looks.) His 20 years of Ministry of Sound DJ set is exactly what the title suggests – 20 years of excellent music. Covering everything from Bjork to Deep Dish it’s exhilarating from start to finish.

I’ve also ventured out of the house and have attended a few gigs. I am partial to the odd trance session so thought I’d go and check out Tydi last time he was in Canberra.  We got there early to see peekz, a local DJ who always impresses. He played the ultimate set to get you into the mood for the night, only to be ruined by Tydi who played utter poo. His set was some sort of electro trance junk filled with lasers. Now I’ve seen him play before and it’s been impressive so I don’t know what happened. Needless to say I won’t be so keen on seeing him next time.

I also had the pleasure of seeing D.I.M at Trinity Bar last weekend. Having never seen him before I didn’t know what to expect but I’d heard rumours he taught Boize Noize everything he knows.  His set was full of energy and made why wonder why I stopped going clubbing….until the drunk guy fell over me trying to shuffle covering me in alcohol. Call me old but I just don’t enjoy going out anymore…in Canberra anyway.

I came across a Nero remix of I’ve got a crush on you, not sure how old it is but triple J have been playing it a fair bit of late. God knows why….it is fucking horrible.

That’s all to report for now.. peace!

Gym music Vs everything else music.

The gym requires a certain type of music. I find angry music like Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down or Marilyn Manson often do the trick in getting me through a work out. Why? I don’t know…. It just helps. We’re not talking about running on a tread mill or a pump class, we’re talking cross fit.  Generally I find this is a great song for getting shit done..

Remember these?

good vs bad music

Today I find myself wondering why all of a sudden main stream artists have been teaming up with DJ’s/producers and making terrible music.  First David Guetta and now Afrojack. Is  it that its easier to make shit music? Or is that you make more money from shit music? Both are very likely.

Now I know what you’re thinking – It can only go up from here. But you would be wrong, now we have to listen to people like Beyonce and Jason Derulo singing over amazing dance music songs and generally making them shit. You’re probably thinking well, show me some good music then.  So here are some pretty good songs, enjoy!

Boy 8 Bit

Live in Canberra and have nothing to do this Friday? Head down to Trinity Bar in Dickson and you'll find Boy 8 Bit destroying the place. Here's a taste of what you'll hear if your brave enough to leave you house in the middle of the Canberra winter.  Oh and its free before ten.

Vegas!

So, I was recently in Vegas where I was served my mango Mimosa’s by a Shaq look alike while laying by the pool at the Palms. It was these alcohol fuelled mornings which normally planned what we were going to do that same evening.  Upon reading various what’s on guides we discovered we arrived in somewhat of a dead spot for gigs. Nevertheless we persisted and found a Skrillex gig on at the Hard Rock Café on the strip. The same night Diplo was playing at Rain night club in the hotel we were staying in. So we had it planned Palms pool party, followed by Skrillex then back to the Palms for Diplo.  

We made our way across to the strip for Skrillex, where we were greeted with punk kids and ravers. Well, they looked like ravers in their fluffy flared pants, glow sticks and body paint.  We got inside after a few security checks to find people crowded around the stage bobbing their heads like they were at a Jack Johnson concert. Don’t get me wrong, Jack Johnson is great… I just thought with the music Skrillex produces the crowd would have been a little more receptive. I quickly came to the conclusion that people weren’t actually there for skrillex’s music, they were more there because he is a little alternative himself.  The ravers didn’t appear to even know what a rave was except for their flashing lights which they twirled constantly at the back of the crowd. Sadly the crowd was actually facing them and not the stage. Regardless of the boring crowd we decided to embrace the music and have a good time. Skrillex was amazing and delivered a great set.  After he played we decided to get straight in a cab to go over to Diplo.

We arrive at Rain and make our way to the bar where we ask the bar tender what time Diplo be playing.  She replies “in an hour” so at 1am.  We thought excellent we’ll have a few more drinks and have our selves more of a good time.  We discovered the DJ who was playing hadn’t updated his CD wallet from two years ago and couldn’t even beat match using Serato. FYI I’m not claiming I can mix either, but in a club you would think the person could actually not make a train wreck out of two songs.  The crowd didn’t seem to mind so I thought to myself maybe I should be less judgemental.

After numerous drunken conversations with my partner, he bumps into the people standing next to us and strikes up a conversation (is there a better way to meet new people?!) The music was loud and they were from Belfast, add this with alcohol and you get a group of people pretending they could hear and understand the other person.   I look down at my phone and see its ten to one and I say to our new friends “Oh Diplo is on in ten minutes” To which their response was “He cancelled earlier today.” I was devastated but still had hope so we waited.  1:30 came and I declared he wasn’t coming; the music was terrible so we called it a night.  On the way out I asked the people selling the tickets why he had cancelled. The lady responded with “who the fuck is Diplo?!” I was taken back but proceeded to tell her it was the person she was selling tickets for.  She looked puzzled and declared it was only her job to sell ticket not to know who was playing or not playing.  I thought at this point it was best to walk off instead of continuing our conversation.

The line for the club curved around to where our lift was for the room so I told people if they were lining up for Diplo don’t bother because he’s not playing. Turns out we and our friends from Belfast were the only four people in the place who even knew who Diplo was.  We still had a great time and got up to our room and had a good giggle about how the night turned out.  

SBTRKT

Wildfire off the recently released self titled  debut album by "SBTRKT" has been stuck in my head since the day I heard it.  Featuring Little Dragon's Yukimi, it's soulful with intricate baselines and generally makes you want to listen to the smooth synths all day long.

SBTRKT mentioned in his radio interview with Triple J he would be heading to Australia later in year making him definitely one to watch out for on the festival lineups.

You can find the album on Itunes and full tour dates will be up on his website page soon.