It’s happened. The summer is well and truly over. With a bunch of festivals, sideshows and tours over the New Year absolutely blowing our minds, it’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye as it all drifts further and further back into our memory. However, before it leaves completely, there’s still some time to bring the heat.
Future Classic’s series of MCA shows have over the last few months seen some absolutely legendary performances. Kenton Slash Demon, Roland Tings, Harvey Sutherland, Tornado Wallace, Sampa The Great, Wafia, Anthony Naples, Pelvis and Kenji Takimi have all graced the MCA’s Sculpture Terrace with their presence, and crazy fun shows. So it’s only fitting that the mega-label is seeing it off with a bang, putting on a final show this Sunday packed full of Future Classic Allstars. They’re being super secretive about the lineup and not giving any hints until it’s actually happening, so we’re here to speculate and myth-bust as to who may be jumping behind the decks.
Our little dog friend is barking all over the northern hemisphere at the moment. He’s just done a bunch of shows in the U.S. and Paris, and his Saturday night is taking place in London. That’ll be the 9th of April, which, with time differences, is almost exactly when the FC Allstars show will be going on. We can sit on his latest track Chroma, to make him feel a little bit closer, but we won’t be able to see him do his thing at the MCA.
Since the release of Built on Glass in 2014, Chet’s been all over the world playing shows, and even making an appearance on Ellen. Towards the end of last year though, he released Work, an EP he produced alongside London’s Marcus Marr. It’s 4 tracks of beautiful house, which would be phenomenal to see played live. He’s proven himself to be very comfortable behind the decks, having a slap at the Ray Ban x Boiler Room show in Melbourne late last year, so we can hope we get to see it go down again.
His show alongside Cyril Hahn in late February is still fresh in our minds, and sadly, leads us to believe that he won’t be back to play so soon.
Though it’s been a while since we’ve heard from LA duo Classixx, their last album releasing all the way back in 2013, it’d make sense to get a surprise appearance from them on the Sculpture Terrace. They’ve just released their latest single Grecian Summer from their second album Faraway Ranch, and been announced as part of that absolutely mammoth Lollapalooza lineup, we imagine to tie in with its release. So, maybe to kick off what is to be an absolutely massive year for them, we’ll see them Sydney-side this weekend? Fingers crossed.
Though we’re on the precipice of the release of Skin, Flume’s second album, and yes it would make sense for a huge hometown show before it releases – it’s super unlikely. He’s playing Ceremonia Festival in Mexico on Saturday, so we can live in the hope that maybe his set is early and he could make a flight, but let’s not get them up.
Side-project of beatmakers Ta-Ku and Kit Pop, HWLS’ most recent release was two months ago with Ty Dolla $ign as part of Adidas’ #songsfromscratch series. They’ve played a few shows here and there, their last one in Sydney being the Laneway Festival afterparty with Hudson Mohawke. With them going quite for a while, it’d make sense to have them as part of the allstar lineup, but Ta-Ku is doing so much at the moment that he legit may not have the time. He’s debuting his live show with Wafia (who just released her own EP) at VIVID LIVE, and has a residency at the MCA starting next week – though maybe that’s in our favour set-wise?
It’s been quite a long time since we’ve heard anything from these two boys from Sydney. They’re playing quite a few shows in Europe over the next three months, starting in May, but haven’t done a Sydney show in quite some time. Reading between the lines though, Future Classic call specific attention to the fact that the Allstars are “jumping behind the decks”, and so we may not be able to get the full Jagwar Ma experience if they are to make an appearance. Maybe a lil DJ set though? Time will tell.
Not much is known about Midnight To Monaco, the project of Donnie Sloan, co-producer for Empire Of The Sun, and Ricky Ducati, but their sound speaks for itself. 50’s doo wop flung far into the future, Midnight To Monaco are set for big things the world over. Their latest single One In A Million was released on the latest Future Classic compilation, also called One In A Million, so we can clutch at straws and hope that they’re on the lineup, but would we consider them allstars yet? No doubt they will be eventually, but so far they’ve only been around a minute.
Panama have just come home from a tour across Asia, though their last release was a while ago with Jungle just last year. Unless they do a DJ set, we imagine they won’t be gracing the MCA stage due to the fact that they use live drums.
The boys are doing a bunch of European shows in September, and just last week did a DJ set in Berlin. They seem to be spending more and more time overseas at the moment, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if they were still kicking it European style, but they are definitely one of Future Classic’s most allstar teams, so it’s very possible they’ll come home to pay a visit.
Melbourne producer Thrupence has been flying under the radar for a while now, releasing New Light, his only track since Lessons all the way back in 2014, in September of last year. Though his lush and textured sounds would fit right at home at the MCA, if you follow his Instagram you’ll know that he’s been much more busy working in his design and art scheme of things.
Off the back of his remix of Flume’s Never Be Like You, Wavey is unfortunately, for those of us at home, also on tour. Taking his Flash Drive tour across North America, Saturday night sees him play Madison, Wisconsin, alongside Promnite. This Sunday won’t be as wavey as we’d hoped in Sydney, take care of him Wisconsin.
They’ve just wrapped up their Avocado Galaxy tour to promote their EP of the same name, but it’s unlikely we’ll be travelling through the Avocado Galaxy come this Sunday. Why? Instruments.
OTHERS
Now though everyone else has gotten their own section on why they might or might not play, there’s some very simple explanations for the ones in this section. Though we’d love to see them again, Kenton Slash Demon and Perth singer songwriter Wafia have already played as part of this round of FC x MCA shows, so we’re banking on them not making a return just to give others a red hot go. Sidenote: Wafia could maybe come back, but it’d probably only be to accompany Ta-ku like she will be as a part of VIVID Live. Now, you may have also noticed that Charles Murdoch, Flight Facilities, Hayden James and Touch Sensitive haven’t been mentioned till now. Though all these artists are phenomenal in their own rights, and definitely all a part of Future Classic’s Allstar roster – these boys are the real allstars. Allstars are the players who come back and play in the game day after day, or in this case, rock the house again and again. They’re our best bets for Sunday’s show, but we can’t wait to found out properly.