After the disappointing cancelation of the Hype Williams tour it looked like June would be bereft of any beaty-housey-bassy goodness to keep us warm before a relative takeover in July. Another reason Computer Love is behind schedule this month is, quite frankly, if we missed the scoop on any of today’s
Parklife announcements we’d look like a bunch of goons.
There’s definitely a few gigs worth checking out this week across the country, starting with UK Dubstepper Swindle, whose ‘purple’ style (I don’t know what that means) is a lot more akin to early '90s era G-Funk than it is to Skrillex’s 'Bangarang'. His latest release, '
Do The Jazz,' on Mala’s
Deep Medi label does just that, with the man showing he is more than capable of injecting some musicality in to the brazen beats and crazy wobble that also exists in his spectrum.
SWINDLE (UK/Butterz/Deep Medi)
Friday 22 June - Family, Brisbane
Saturday 23 June - Gladstone Hotel, Sydney
Friday 29 June – Laundry, Melbourne
Speaking of Parklife, and well, good on Fuzzy for trucking on with the brand that seems to evolve and then regress every year in terms of testing the waters for large scale artists like Goldfrapp or egos like Missy Elliot and then bringing it back to two turntables and a microphone and an LED wall. This year we’re picking Wiley, Benga and Jacques Lu Cont as the ones to watch, though it’s hardly a retreat from situations fraught with danger when you have man like Wiley on the bill. Who could forget when he abandoned the Big Day Out tour a few years ago and hit the studio with Mark Pritchard to come up with
gems like this.
JLC might seem like an odd pick, but who could forget his Darkdancer album, which would precede the entire eighties fascination before electroclash and
the Wedding Singer and do it tastefully (listen to '
Take A Little Time' and '
Sometimes' and hear how well they stand the test of time). Parklife tickets go on sale next week but check your local best mate for a discounted presale incentive this Thursday.
PARKLIFE 2012
Saturday 29 September - Riverstage and Botanic Gardens, Brisbane
Sunday 30 September - Centennial Park, Sydney
Monday 1 October - Wellington Square, Perth
Saturday 6 October - Sidney Myer Music Bowl and Kings Domain, Melbourne
Sunday 7 October - Botanic Park, Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, Adelaide
Mark de Clive Lowe returns to Oz after a terrible incident in France where his passport and belongings were stolen. He’s by no means phoning it in, instead presenting his Remix: Live project where he DJs and chops songs live on his computer and plays keys over the top. Cor! Get on down and see an architect of UK Funky (it used to be called Broken Beat) and a master of Jazz.
MARK DE CLIVE LOWE
Thursday 21 June – Coniston Lane, Brisbane (All Ages)
Friday 22 June – Lioness Warehouse party (Location TBC), Sydney
Saturday 23 June – Croft Institute, Melbourne (DJ Set)
... and then there's
this remix from Opaque featuring Cherie Mathieson.
Finally, we’re wading through the jizz in anticipation of
the return of The xx and the arrival of Azealia Banks in July, mainly because their new material is sounding so good (not because I co-sign their live shows). The former, helmed by Jamie xx,
has a couple of sold out shows to tease the hell out of everyone before their new album drops and Jamie himself will be doing a few DJ shows. Azealia is a Splendour in the Grass exclusive, so up in Byron is the only place you’ll get to hear this deep house belter live for the foreseeable future.
Check out Azealia Banks’ 1991 EP in full on iTunes.
JAMIE XX
Tuesday 17 July - New Guernica, Melbourne
Thursday 19 July - Goodgod Small Club, Sydney
THE XX
Wednesday 18 July - The Forum, Melbourne
Friday 20 July - Metro Theatre, Sydney
WORDS: Huw Araniego-Ellis
Huw Araniego-Ellis is a Melbourne-born, Sydney-based husband, DJ and journalist who, when not wading through jizz is out doing radio on Mondays on Sydney 2SER and reminiscing about ‘back in the day’. Check him out at sparehands.wordpress.com if you like filtered basslines and scratched-in Eric Sermon samples.