Chillwave Godfather Chaz Bundick of Toro Y Moi had a killer 2016. His inventive concept album Live In Trona, a live album performed in the desert with no crowd, offered another unique insight into the artsy world that Chaz lives in. The mix of his perpetual work ethic and a seemingly laid back attitude has always been a point of intrigue, particularly when observing how his work can be so consistent, and so consistently everchanging. At the end of last year Bundick wrapped up a tour with The Mattson 2, identical twins Jared (guitar) and Jonathan (drums), who were on Bundick’s Live From Trona. The trio works so well they have decided to put out an album, which is due out at the end of March.

We were lucky to speak to Bundick over the phone at the very end of 2016 about his new album and how he keeps motivated.

 

How’s 2016 treated you, it’s been a busy year?

Good, I guess. It’s been crazy. I’m getting through it, you know, it’s hard. But for the most part I’ve been working on music. That’s kind of what I do, when life throws shit at you, you just make music out of it.

You’ve put out a lot this year, and are always announcing new projects.

Yeah, dude. Just putting out music. The Trona thing was fun and the whole album that came with that. I’ve also recorded a bunch of stuff for Company Records. I’ve been working on their artists records. And just doing some art stuff on the side.

You do so much! How do you stay on top of it all?

I don’t know *laughs* It’s seriously like I have to find myself something to do. I get bored so fast, so I like tinkering and making stuff. When you can find a way to survive off of it, it just becomes even more habitual. Why not just make everything I want?

You’ve recently wrapped up a tour with The Mattson 2, how was that? Did you road test any of the new material?

That tour was really fun, but we didn’t play any of the new material. Just being on the road was a good test drive to what the tours going to be like. We have played really well before. The record was super fun to make, it will kind of liberating to perform it, in shows based on the project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdnInkpGbw4

 

You’ll be out in Australia in March. What keeps you coming back every year?

Well, people keeping asking for me to come back out there. And we love going to Australia, so yeah, let’s do it. It’s paradise, it’s so exotic.

You’re playing Pitch Music Festival, for which the tagline is, “it’s as much about the setting as the sound.” Given the Live From Trona album was set out in the wilderness, are you excited to play a festival with a similar vibe?

Dang! That’s awesome! I’m stoked on that then. That’s going to be amazing, I didn’t know that.

Did you have to adjust the kind of music you played when you were out in the open? Do the acoustics change?

No, I thought recording outside would be pretty dead. That’s kind of the sound we were going for. The only issue was making sure we didn’t get too much wind in the microphones. We had plenty of wind screens around the mic. Pretty much we went dry, so it was pretty easy to get the sound we wanted.

I read that you were paying a lot of attention to the colours when you put that project together. Is that something you often pay a lot of attention to?

Yeah, the desert definitely has amazing colour. The whole mystic of the title was pink. So we kind of wanted to emphasis the colour pallet of the desert. The desert colours have always been my favourite. It’s the best colour pallet.

Does that show in your paintings?

Not too much. My colours in painting aren’t desert colours, but for that style of music that was the pallet that we wanted. My paintings aren’t really that style though.

 

Can you tell me a bit about your work as Plum?

The Plum stuff is really good. It’s my outlet from ambient music.

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Are we going to see more from Plum?

Possibly. It’s kind of like each day I might mess with my art a little or make some ambient music. That’s how it happens.

Your music has often been classed as chillwave, what do you think of the need to describe music by genre? When someone like your self blurs to many genre lines and has tons of influences and styles?

I feel like, especially with chillwave, it’s a plus. To be considered part of that movement is almost like an honour. The fact that you’re listening to something on the radio and someone will say, ‘oh it’s like chillwave.’ and you’re like ‘what?’ I know how it happens too, you know it’s so easy. You’ve got Travis Scott, he sampled Toro on Washed Out. So chillwave people know what it is now, so crazy how it came about, but it’s cool. I mean I got really lucky.

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Toro Y Moi Tour Dates

March, 5th – Perth, Australia – Perth Festival
March 10th – Melbourne, Australia – Pitch Music Festival
March 11th – Melbourne, Australia – Pitch Music Festival
March 12th – Melbourne, Australia – Pitch Music Festival
March 13th – Melbourne, Australia – Pitch Music Festival

Image: NPR

A year ago Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor promised NIN would return in 2016. Just in the nick of time, it looks like he will make good on that promise, announcing that a 5-track EP, titled Not the Actual Events, will be out this week on December 23.

Not the Actual Events is the follow-up to NIN’s 2013 album Hesitation Marks. The EP features “now official bandmate” and longtime collaborator Atticus Ross.

Image: John Crawford

Image: John Crawford

Reznor stated, “It’s an unfriendly, fairly impenetrable record that we needed to make…It’s an EP because that ended up being the proper length to tell that story.”

Vinyl fans will be happy to hear that not only can you cop Not the Actual Events on vinyl but Reznor is also releasing a limited edition 4xLP vinyl version of the 1999 NIN album The Fragile, containing 37 bonus tracks. Unfortunately, for the NIN fans without a turntable The Fragile: Deviations 1 will be available on LP only.

“The Fragile occupies a very interesting and intimate place in my heart. I was going through a turbulent time in my life when making it and revisiting it has become a form of therapy for me. As an experiment, I removed all the vocals from the record and found it became a truly changed experience that worked on a different yet compelling level. The Fragile: Deviations 1 represents Atticus and I embellishing the original record with a number of tracks from those sessions we didn’t use before. The result paints a complimentary but different picture we wanted to share.”

Reznor has also announced that he and art director John Crawdord are embarking on a reissue project for NIN’s entire back catalogue, creating “definitive editions of all the major NIN releases on vinyl.” Broken, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile are already available to pre-order. So quickly add a turntable and NIN vinyl to your Christmas lists.

You can preorder your copy of Not the Actual Events on NIN website.

Image: Twitter: @NineInchNails

AB Original’s landmark album Reclaim Australia is one of the most powerful albums of 2016. The hip-hop duo of Briggs and Trials have already started countless conversations with their in-your-face aggression and political lyrics that challenge “people’s perception, their preconceived notions of race and justice” (read the rest of our album review here).

The track titled January 26 is about exactly that, Australia Day. Not only is it one of the best tracks on the album but it has already shown to have real potential to make positive change in the way we consider – and reconsider – what Australia Day means.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ9qeX4gUeo

“If you ain’t having a conversation, well then we starting it,” Trials raps at the end of his verse in the track.

Earlier this year, triple j was petitioned to move its Hottest 100 countdown from Australia Day, and although the bid was unsuccessful, many are still protesting in any way they can. One Facebook group has now been started to ask voters to choose January 26 for the Hottest 100 as a form of protest (which we were already voting for, but here’s a little extra encouragement):

Earlier this year, triple j finally listened to the thousands of voices calling for respect and had a review into the date they hold the Hottest 100 countdown. Unfortunately, they decided the whining of a noisy minority of racists on the internet was more important than showing a bit of empathy towards Australia’s first peoples and left the celebration on that day, perpetuating division and hurt.

Most young Australians don’t have Australia Day parties, because we’ve begun to recognise that ‘celebrating’ invasion, dispossession and genocide is what is commonly called a Major Dick Move. But because triple j holds its Hottest 100 countdown on that date, thousands of people across the country celebrate on a day which is one of mourning for Australia’s first people.

By voting for a song which is both an explanation and rejection of the idea of January 26 as a day of celebration – and which also happens to be a thorough banger, thanks to the effort of Briggs, Trials and Dan Sultan – we have the ability to send a message to triple j. Let’s end the division and change the date.

Vote for AB Original’s “January 26″ in the Hottest 100.

If you don’t believe that we should change the date, or at the very least move the countdown, then I recommend you listen to Reclaim Australia. Vote January 26 for triple j’s Hottest 100 here.

Dialogue Is Great, Action Is Better: The Case For Moving triple j’s Hottest 100

Image: Supplied

Members: 4

Given Names: Darren, Rivers, Nate and Cale

Aliases: Ll’vo, River Deep, thelovelyme and KL

Hometown: MLB

Label: Independent

Socials: @RaRaMLB

Years in the game: 5

Influences: Everyone ever. But some are Animal Collective, D’angelo, DOOM, Erykah Badu, Future, Gorillaz, Kanye, FKA Twigs, Kid Cudi, Neptunes, OutKast, Radiohead, Roots Manuva and Young Thug.

Local influences: Fortunes, Remi, Milwaukee Banks, friendships, ALTA, Yaw Faso, Lossless, Average Rap Band (o.g N.Z but W.E) and list gets longer…It’s a very exciting time for Melbourne right now.

ABOUT RaRa

Melbourne’s hip-hop scene is perhaps the most diverse of any scene out there. At the forefront of this sprawling underground scene is alt hip-hop group RaRa, as proven in their latest single under/current, self described as “down-to-earth deterministic shit.” Every single/body of work they drop hits hard and breaks down many hip-hop stigmas, like machoism and particularly the ‘Rap Aliens’ have always tried to break away from the ‘skip-hop’ stigma. You might recoginse the boys from RaRa from their time on stage with Alice Ivy at Melbourne’s Listen Out back in September.

Their experimental hip-hop has always remained fresh, and they deserve to land on everyone’s hottest hip-hop of the week list. We hit them up to find out more on what they’re working on at the moment.

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Can you give us a quick run down of who does what in the group? 

Lovely: Firstly Ll’vo turns out beats like a fucking sick dog. Then we’ll hop in the studio, see what we catch a vibe to and develop it further. Then we’ll all run thru it with hot bars and ice flow.
Riv: If the energy ain’t there a Mario Kart intermission is a must.

How did you guys all link up?

L: Riv and I have been in the same circle since high school. We got hell tight one time we all had shrooms and everyone bar us wigged out and thought they were going to die, so we were left alone and bonded like Milo n Otis. KL and I went to primary school together, then we fell off but cliqued back up after high school, pooling our change for weed and recording demos in Windows Movie Maker. Darren (Ll’vo) came into it a couple years later. He knew we could rap so one party he got Riv to drive him home to get his beatpad and we set up in a spare room, no mics, just screaming freestyles over the speakers. The room filled up and got hot so we set up a studio in Riv’s garage and starting plotting.

What got you interested in rap and hip-hop culture?

L: The front cover of Liquid Swords. My bro had it when I was young and I would stare at it for hours, long before I understood the music. But also rap’s transparency in how it vividly depicts things you might not have experienced. And how the culture is an evolutionary thing not exclusive to location, like a pre-internet AI.

I dig your style, bit of electro, bit of Milwaukee Banks, bit of Flatbush Zombies, bit of everything. How does the creative process work?

R: Our process is always changing. At first we would come together to create, now we’ve all developed the vision to start concepts and song ideas independently. Our Dropbox stays maxed out, and we get lost in message threads about where things are at and what version is where. The internet is smart though.

Can you tell me a little about this rap alien persona?

L: When we came out we delved into issues that weren’t common in local hip-hop at that time. Our sound and vibe were challenging, so we always felt on the outer. Also Darren got visited and probed in high school.

Your first mixtape was huge, as far as capturing the social norms of machoism and why people are afraid to talk about their feelings. In more recent times we have had artists like Kendrick Lamar and Earl Sweatshirt speak up and say it’s okay to have feelings and talk about depression. Do you think the whole macho and braggadocio behaviour is slowly leaving hip-hop?

R: I don’t think the artistic device of approaching hip-hop braggadociously will ever leave, because an integral element of the culture is the battle context. As for the macho vibes, for a long time it was the only option, like fans expected masculinity on mass. Now ideas of what defines masculinity and femininity are being challenged on a daily basis. These days a rapper who identifies as female, is just a rapper (who is female), rather than a ‘femcee’. Spaces have opened up, and part of that also enables men to talk. Men need to cry more. Straight up. That’s the importance of Kendrick for hip-hop and pop culture in general. And also, Yung Lean and the Sad Boys made feels hella habanero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zk8bEFLi8s&feature=youtu.be

Your last EP PLANT2016 had a different, really uniqur sound. How do you go about keeping it fresh and always pushing it forward?

R: Always know what we want to say, our intention for a track and striving to bring something new.

L: And awareness of history and the current landscape to not fall into pre-existing pockets.

KL: At the same time, having no fear in going for something that’s tried and true, either, because when you do that on a genuine vibe 9 times out of 10 if you trust your intuition you’re going transform that lane into a superhighway anyway.

What are you working on at the moment?

L: Just hot songs. Trying to catch an energy on records and not think ‘body of work’.

R: We have a few tracks ready to drop, the first was under/current it’s on some down-to-earth deterministic shit. The others will follow pretty close behind like, jab, jab, hook, and then expect the emergence of the solo dolo works.

Ll’vo: Collabs, hot collabs.

So we won’t be seeing a new EP in the near future?

L: Na we’re just gonna flex out some singles like a roided up swingers party.

Ben (manager): I predict that the works will want a body eventually. Parasitic wasps don’t lay eggs out in the open.

What solo projects is everyone working on?

L: Cale (KL) and Darren have been working on something for a while now but that’s hush hush till you hear it. I’ve been working with friendships a bit and am about to announce myself as the biggest post hot boy in the country. Rivs is making a mixtape about 911 conspiracy theories and quitting weed.

You’ve recently worked with Alice Ivy, Almost Here is one of my favourite releases of yours. How was it working with her? And seeing her on the Listen Out bill?

R: She is the biggest legend. Such an invested creative energy and her vibe in the studio is infectious. We were really stoked to work with her and see that the track got the buzz that it did. Getting on stage with her at Listen Out went off like a convoy of blow-off valves – word to Geelong.

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How did it feel to put out the last EP through Zero Through Nine?

R: They’d caught our previous EP Pink and Teal and were keen to suss what was next. Three coffees later we had negotiated this experiment and had a release date. Those industry cats learned us up good.

Keep an eye and ear out for RaRa in 2017 – Ll’vo, River Deep, thelovelyme and KL are sure to bring more fire in the near future. Check out their past EPs at RaRa’s Bandcamp here.

All images: Lucas Brown via hedsbent

It has been some time since we heard a solo album from M-Phazes, but last week the award-winning producer dropped Messiah with Alison Wonderland. It is the first single to be taken from his forthcoming album as a solo producer, and was co-written with Alison Wonderland and Treyshun Campbell.

Messiah sees M-Phazes stepping away from the distinct hip-hop sounds we’re more familiar with, showing off a hard hitting sound that has reportedly been going off during many of Wonderland’s recent live sets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vmmdbqRHX4

“I’ve grown a lot as a producer and particularly as a songwriter so I think it’s a pretty big departure from the last record,” M-Phazes told triple j‘s Richard Kingsmill. “It’s hard to escape the sound that I’m accustomed to making and that’s the hip-hop: the drums being loud and the mix being in your face but as far as the actual genre of the music, it’s pretty far removed the hip-hop style that I’m known for.”

“I made the beat almost a year before we made the song, and it dawned on me that Alison would be perfect for it,” M-Phazes explains. “The lyrics come from a real emotional place for her, so I wanted to capture that feeling while also making it a song she could play in her sets.”

Having worked with some of Australia’s best, such as Bliss N Eso, Drapht, Meg Mac, Hermitude, N’fa, Pegz, and Illy, as well as several U.S artists including Eminem, Talib Kweli, Royce 5’9”, C. L. Smooth, Pharoahe Monch, Redman, and Oddisee, this album will surely boast one of the biggest guest line-ups the country has ever seen.

M-Phazes has already made his mark in the music world. Since taking out Sha Money XL’s prestigious 2008 One Stop Shop Beat Battle, which was judged by DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz, Sha Money and Denaun Porter, M-Phazes has produced gold, platinum and double platinum work across Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. He also has a handful of albums, including the ARIA award-winning album Good Gracious, Phazed Out with DJ Rhettmatic, Land Of The Crooks EP with the late great Sean Price.

Overseas, M-Phazes has already received Billboard and Grammy awards for his co-production work on the track Bad Guy from Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP2, and also received the 2015 Urban Work of the Year APRA award for his co-production on the track Tightrope, taken from Illy’s album Cinematic.

With such an epic resume and a new sound to play with, Messiah opens up so many possibilities for this album. The album is touted to contain a ridiculous selection of guest features, and we have no doubt that 2017 will be the year of M-Phazes.

Image: Supplied

One of Melbourne’s best songwriters Cash Savage has spent 2016 celebrating life and thinking “It’s fuckin’ awesome to be alive.” Her latest album One Of Us vividly depicts the highs and lows of the previous year. Cash Savage And The Last Drinks‘ ability to portray such beauty in sorrow makes One Of Us one of the best releases this year.

After an awesome album tour Cash Savage And The Last Drinks (Joe White, Rene Mancuso, Chris Lichti, Brett Marshall and Kat Mear) returned to Europe to drink beer and play music. It was the band’s second trip in two years to Europe. We spoke with Cash about how Europe was and their upcoming Australian festivals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWzCNcvEWJ0

Last time I spoke with you Cash you had just returned from a European tour, and this year is the same. How was Europe this time around?

Amazing! Really amazing! We went over there to hopefully drum up some stuff for summer. That’s happened now and we have had a bunch of festival offers, which is good. So we are going back again in seven months. Which will be nice, because winter was very winter over there.

Was it snowy over there?

Yeah, a few places we went to it snowed. Which was pretty exciting at first, and then kind of scary because we had to drive around in it. It was pretty fun, the first morning it snowed we all ran outside like school kids, running around throwing snow at each other.

I lived in the snow for a while and always that first week was amazing and then after that it just becomes cold and wet and you want it to go away.

*Laughs* Yeah it’s something they don’t convey in the movies is how wet snow is. It only snowed a few times on us. Our last week was in France, so we didn’t get any snow there, as their winters aren’t as bad. We had one night in Prague where we had to walk home from the pub on a night off in minus 5 degrees which was pretty hilarious. It was actually a lot of fun, we would just walk 5 minutes then go into another pub and have another beer and warm up. And then walk another 5 minutes, which also meant we were quite drunk by the time we got home but the journey was really good.

Last time we spoke you had mentioned recording over there, did those recordings make it onto One Of Us?

Yeah, that was Rat-a-tat-tat. We also recorded another version of My Friend but for whatever reason we recorded it really fast and I wanted to do it again a bit slower. It was a good recording, it just wasn’t quite right. But Rat-a-tat-tat was fine. It was quite a big production too, so I thought I’d leave that as it is, but re-do My Friend.

Was it exciting to go back over there and play Rat-a-tat-tat in front of the places where you wrote and recorded it?

Yeah, it was really fun. We had a film clip to go with it and it got used for a lot of promo. Rat-a-tat-tat isn’t English or French or Czech or German so people sang along which was lots of fun. Anyone can sing along with Rat-a-tat-tat. A lot of them actually heard that first line “I hear the sound it’s deafening” they all knew that line, whether they understood it or not, which was pretty fun. So when the music stops and the band sings along, the crowd would often be singing as well, which was pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngsd6mWAWBU

Did you guys fund this trip again by yourselves?

No, we got a grant from Creative Victoria this time which was amazing. We didn’t find out about our grant until six days before we left *laughs*. We were funding it whether we got money from them or not. The money didn’t actually come through until the 14th of November, which was almost two weeks into the tour but it has made a massive difference. Especially, coming home because there was much less financial pressure. We were going to fund it out of the band’s money, but now that money can pay for other things like more recordings, which is good. It might not sound so helpful finding out so close to the date, but it really was very helpful.

The thing I always think when I’m overseas or anywhere that any problem that arises can be fixed with money. We would have been over there and it would have been very tight, so to have the back-up of Creative Victoria meant that it was all but worry free, but nothing went wrong. In hindsight we probably would have been OK, but its a much better situation to have some help from the government.

I saw you played a gig in the Staropramen Brewery, how was that?

It’s actually a fuckin’ fantastic beer! You won’t believe at the gig they ran out of beer! We were at the source, and we were like ‘what do you mean you’ve run out of beer?’ They brought us all out another Belgian beer, I can’t remember the brand, and then after the show people were coming up and going ‘you know when you play in Czech, you drink Czech beer.’ Because you know, they are very proud of their beer and so they should be, they make amazing beers. And we were like ‘that’s not our fault, we didn’t ask for that, we wanted your beer, we love your beer.’ They were like ‘really good show, but you should drink Czech beer, you’re in Czech.’

I didn’t even realise the beer we were drinking was Belgian, but they all knew. We are actually really big fans of the Staropramen beer, and I’m not getting any money to say that, we are just big fans of Czech beers full stop. So that show was pretty fun, and we got to go in the back way, which is through the brewery. It was outside but we saw all the equipment which was pretty cool. It was a festival and our first gig in Czech, and our first gig overseas, it was super fun. We landed there and we had a day off just to get used to the snow and then that night that was that gig. It was very fun, but it seems like a very long time ago now.

The Staropramen brewery in Czech is fucking massive it’s huge it goes over multiple streets.

Oh wow, that’s my favourite thing about traveling through Europe, is going to all the unique breweries. I love trying different beers.

Trying different beers, yeah! They always say ‘do you want a local a beer?’ and we are always like ‘yes! give us a local beer’ so we have drunk so many different sorts of beers.

The best beer I tried over there was in Svalbard, Norway which is basically the top of the world. It’s made from glacial water and you can only get the beer on the island, it’s so amazing.

The best beer I have ever had I drank in Poland and none of us can remember what it’s called. I’d recognise it by colour, though, it was almost orange. If I ever see it again, I’d recognise it but it’s a Polish beer and I am pretty sure you can only get it in Poland. We weren’t there this time, so we didn’t see it.

Oh, you should have added an extra show in Poland…

*Laughs* We are hoping next year that’s what happens, we gotta find that beer again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF1bkY7_7Y0

How was working with Mistletone? Are you signed with them or was it just a one album thing?

It’s just the one album deal when we set it up, which is good for everyone. They are really good guys in the business, not that I have really met many bad guys. They have just been really welcoming and the support we have had from them is what the difference was. The process of making the album was no different, they said ‘bring us an album.’ So we talked about what we wanted to do and they said ‘great.’ There was a lot of mutual respect there.

So we brought them an album. I was then on the edge of my seat for a few days, but they got back and said they loved it and wanted to work with us. I basically floated around the world for a few days feet off the ground. The big difference was just the support we had from them, it has been really unbelievable.

So you did all the recording and mastering yourself before giving it to them?

We gave them a finished album. They said that having input in the album is not what they do, which is perfect for me. I think it might have been un-mastered, but it was about to be mastered when they got it. From what I can tell about Mistletone is they are about letting musicians be musicians. It feels a little bit more natural that way.

That’s the way it should be, the reason you are gaining attention and being offered these kind of deals is because of what you have done on your own.

Yeah, that’s exactly right. The reason they are getting Cash Savage And The Last Drinks is because we are Cash Savage And The Last Drinks.

The base of the album comes from, I guess, a sad place, was it hard to not let the sadness effect the tone of the album? You’ve really done an amazing job of keeping it a quite lively album.

Because the overriding emotion for me was how special life is and how nice it is to be alive. When you contrast your own life against someone who has mental illness or someone who has suicided, for me it was important to realise how lucky I am to be alive and to have a mind that I trust. I didn’t want it to be a heavy album, but I did want those themes there and at times it was challenging.

The song One Of Us took me a year and a couple of weeks to write and it went through a lot of different versions, there is probably a minimum of ten. That song had a real purpose for me, so it went through a lot of different versions and I didn’t finish it until the day before recording. And if we hadn’t recorded it, maybe I still wouldn’t have finished it. The verses were written, but what was going to happen in between wasn’t written until the day before we recorded it. It was important for me for it to be a positive album. It’s fuckin’ awesome being alive, for me it is! So that’s how I kept it, not so heavy.

It’s an amazing album, especially the title track One Of Us that is just stunning. I know you said you might not have finished it but what you have done with it is just incredible.

Thanks, thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzLa1akBS6U

I’ve been listening to the album digitally and it starts the album again when it’s finished and you’ve got that high pitched guitar feedback at the end and also in the first track as well. It seamlessly blends the album together.

If you have it on the vinyl it never ends. It stays in a locked groove, on the feedback and it doesn’t end until you pick up the needle. So yeah that was intentional, the reintroduction of how it starts. The feedback at the end is actually the feedback that is taken from Joe’s guitar on Falling. Landing. So if you listen to it, it should seamlessly go back to the start, so that’s awesome that it does.

Now that you guys are back home, you’ve got a few big festivals coming up. What’s it like to get billed for these?

When we got booked for Sydney Festival, I didn’t know who else is on the bill. You never know whenever you get booked for a festival who else has, you’re just excited to be booked. And then when you see your name next to PJ Harvey and Nick Cave it’s pretty ridicules.

My violin player, Kat Mear said to us the other day when we were at a radio station going live to air in France, ‘what are we even doing? How is this even happening?’ and I said ‘well it’s a lot of hard work,’ and she’s like ‘yeah, but it’s pretty ridiculous.’ *laughs* It’s pretty incredible. We’ve got NGV Friday nights coming up in Melbourne on the 30th of December. Then Sydney Festival on the 18th of January. And Golden Plains in March. So It’s pretty amazing to come back to the summer festivals.

Have you played many local festivals?

Yeah, we have played a lot. Which we did after The Hypnotiser, and then last year we had a few here and there, but this year it’s pretty loaded. Which is cool because the festival stages are a little bit different to the small stage, but only slightly. The biggest difference is that there is always a barrier. I hate that fuckin’ barrier, I like people to be next to the stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-pAq6tFCc

Between now and your next trip will you be working on new music?

Umm, yeah, it’s all just starting to come back for me. I didn’t realise what a toll making One Of Us would take on me until after I toured it. After the album tour I was kind of happy to be done with the shows where we were playing the whole album. We didn’t do Song For A Funeral but we did do the rest of the album. Now that I don’t have to play them, I am happy to play them. Having to play them was quite mentally taxing for me. Now that the tour has gone I can let it go a little bit and that’s been really wonderful. To go and play in Europe and just enjoy it a bit more without the pressure of it being the One Of Us tour, that’s been awesome. And now I am back I am stoked to be playing it again.

I just needed a little bit of mental space from that album, and I feel like I’ve had that. Because of that, I’ve started noodling around with stuff and I can feel songs coming again, which is really good. I don’t know when we will record again, but there is a potential that when we are overseas we will. But there is no pressure for me at the moment. I respond well to pressure but not for a start, I need to let that creativity build up again and then it will come up. So I’ve got no pressure on myself right now.

You can get Cash Savage and The Last Drink’s new album from here and catch them at the festivals below.

  • NGV Friday Nights – December 30, 2016
  • Sydney Festival – January 18, 2017
  • Riverboat Festival – February 17-19, 2017
  • Golden Plains – March 11-13, 2017

Image: Herald Sun

Illy has long been one of Australia’s most successful MCs; his second studio album The Chase was nominated for an ARIA, his third album Bring It Back won one, and his last album Cinematic was certified gold among other accolades. There is no denying his commercial success. Even the lead single from his latest album Two Degrees, Papercuts featuring Vera Blue, has been nominated for no less than six ARIA awards this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyPkpXZNbK0

 

Throughout the album Illy refers to either finding himself, or moving on from who he used to be. The theme of the album is very much moving forward; the album title Two Degrees is inspired by forward mover, President Obama. “President Obama was asked whether he viewed his presidency as a success, having faced such fierce opposition throughout his two terms,” he told Triple J in an interview. “His answer likened society to a ship, where you can’t steer 50 degrees at once, but if you move two degrees, then another two degrees, and continue like this, years later you end up in a very different place from where you began. And as long as you’re steering in the right direction, and progressing, your impact is made over time. This album is a celebration of moving forward, two degrees at a time.”

Recently we’ve seen a progressive musical wave on both a local and global level with hip-hop. Hip-hop isn’t just sampling other genres anymore, the lines are simply blurring. Of particular note is the amount of rappers who are singing too, to varying degrees of centrality to the record. Many artists we typically consider to be hip-hop are producing tracks, both with and without rapping, that sound like R&B, soul, blues, EDM, etc., and in this since Illy’s album often feels more like a pop record (pop’s not a dirty word, by the way). Hip-hop in 2016 is becoming increasingly limitless, like what happened with electronic music some years back (although I think it’s more because of curiosity and the increasing triviality of genre boundaries than just technological advancements). It’s exciting to see how many directions artists are heading, regardless of where they end up.

The album kicks off with a heartbeat on opening track Forget It. The fast-paced beat immediately gets the good feelings flowing, while also acting as a brief catch-up, explaining who Illy is today, and where he’s been for the last three years.

There’s a lot of hype to live up to, but the album doesn’t always get there. It’s the middle of the album that we find him in his prime, delivering rhymes atop pop hooks sung by guest vocalists with lighter lilts. This is familiar territory for Illy, his smash hit Tightrope featured Scarlett Stevens on the hook. Two Degrees features Vera Blue on the SIX-time ARIA nominated Papercuts, Anne-Marie on second single Catch 22, and Jenna McDougall on Oh My – all excellent, if unchallenging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8laCbHBOrw

Extra Extra backs off from the poppy electronic sounds. The track features Melbourne’s Mike Waters, who brings a beautiful acoustic atmosphere to the fore. Combining Waters’ guitar and singing voice with Illy’s lyrical dexterity makes for one of the best tracks on the album.

As a whole, Two Degrees is solid, and certainly radio friendly. It’s enjoyable, and it’s clear that a lot of hard work into it. However, it’s hard to see it up there among the particularly strong, memorable hip-hop releases we have been gifted in 2016. It’s a good album, one that I’m sure will do really well commercially. I think Illy created this album with the intention of making himself more accessible for the masses. Evolution and experimentation is a beautiful thing to see in an artist, and while it is undoubtedly an impressive product in many ways, I personally can’t really connect with it like I could his others. But perhaps that’s not the point right now; every morning I’ve still been waking up, looking in the mirror, saying “if looks could kill” and have a dance as I get ready.

Two Degrees is definitely worth a spin; it’ll no doubt be heard on the radio for months to come, and you can grab a copy here.

Illy has just wrapped his sold-out album launch tour, but you can still catch him at a few festival dates:

 

Thursday 29 December – Falls Festival, Lorne, VIC – SOLD OUT
Friday 30 December – Falls Festival, Marion Bay, TAS TICKETS
Saturday 31 December – NYE Street Party, Newcastle, NSW TICKETS
Sunday 1 January – Falls Festival, Byron Bay, NSW – SOLD OUT
Saturday 7 January – Falls Festival, Fremantle, WA TICKETS

Image: Supplied

Twenty years ago I was just getting into basketball. I had hand-me-down Charlotte Hornet everything: jerseys, shorts, caps (still got one), tracksuits, t-shirts, everything. I was heavily into NBA Jam and was dominating my friends (still can) with the Hornets tag-team of Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson.

Then Space Jam hit cinemas.

Just in case I didn’t love the Hornets enough already, here we have a movie where aliens from outer space come to earth to steal the powers of two Hornets players in order to help them win a basketball game. Even though the aliens are painted as the bad guys in the movie, I was secretly backing the Monstars over the Toon Squad (not sure I should admit that…) because I wanted my Hornets to win.

When you really break it down, they have a far superior warm-up song. Toon Squad has Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic, whereas the Monstars come out to Hit Em High by the all-star line up of B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man. If you’re having a hard time believing me which song is better, just check the soundtrack – you will find the Monstar anthem, but no Technotronic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewOzi5-AZXU

I was a bit young for hip-hop, but a picture of Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan on an album cover can really help sway a parent’s decision to buy you a CD. Every time I shot hoops in the backyard on my 9-foot rim, I would recite the Space Jam soundtrack and try and dunk that basketball.

The soundtrack to Space Jam is as good, if not better than the movie. R Kelly, Barry White, Seal, Salt ‘n’ Pepa, Monica, The Spin Doctors and Biz Markie, D’Angelo, Coolio, plus all the collaborative tracks makes this soundtrack one of the best CDs I own.

It’s hard to actually say where my musical tastes originally stem from, although I often credit my best mate’s older brother for bringing hip-hop into my life. But, revisiting this gem has me thinking that Space Jam might have actually been my first glimpse into hip-hop.

One of the best tracks is Basketball Jones by Barry White and Chris Rock, which appears a few times throughout the movie. My opinion on this track has changed over the years. The track works best while played during the film, and although I used to find Chris Rock’s bits funny, today, I find Chris Rock a hindrance on a what could be an amazing track in full. So sometimes I play the Cheech and Chong version instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiBR6NC8pT4

The one song everyone knows is the Space Jam theme song by Quad City DJs. If Space Jam wasn’t considered a kids movie and therefore lame to pick, this song would have made it onto all my warm-up track requests throughout my basketball career. I have vivid memories of waiting for this song to play in the movie and slam dunking and subsequently breaking my mini basketball ring above the door. The soundtrack truly made me a savage in the paint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIeETR_HJ3Y

Listening to this album as an adult gives me a greater appreciation for just how amazing it is. D’Angelo is incredible. Jay-Z is on All Of My Days with R Kelly and Changing Faces. Not only that, but he actually wrote the rhymes for the Bugs Bunny track Buggin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K_1ooC27JI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80KRoHISSuM

What I am about to say next is going to sound corny as, but I used to listen to R Kelly’s I Believe I Can Fly and Seal’s Fly Like An Eagle and just dream I could dunk a proper 10-foot rim. Not just a classic European dunk either, but a proper windmill/360/the D Brown Dab. I was eventually able to do these dunks, but I never quite mastered the Michael Jordan stretch arm dunk (or many of Jordan’s insane dunks).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIQn8pab8Vc

Although I have been retired from basketball for nearly four years now, the songs in this soundtrack still have the same effect on my today. I just want to dunk the basketball every time I hear one of them. I have (successfully) slam dunked about 10 balled up clear-wrap into the dumpster outside and only have one small graze on my wrist, talk about ups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v09H0A9q1mA

I wonder how far I would have gone in basketball had it not have been for the songs on the Space Jam soundtrack. It got me amped from a young age to fly and slam dunk. It is responsible for a lot of the type of music I still listen to today, and my parents almost encouraged it (unlike Blink 182’s Enema Of The State) as it was a kids movie and therefore a PG soundtrack.

If you haven’t watched Space Jam – do it! If you already love Space Jam, do yourself a favour and re-listen to this amazing soundtrack.

Image: Wikipedia 

Tech N9ne’s live performance at Prince Bandroom featured special guests from his Strange Music roster, chopper style lyrics, crazy fans, and sexual harassment.

I was really pumped to be going to see Tech N9ne. His chopper style lyrics, face paint, and hoards of loyal fans (known as ‘Technicians’) have interested me since I first got into the enigmatic artist.  Having the opportunity to interview Tech earlier this year was a real highlight ahead of the live show, which was everything I had hoped it would be – except for his blatant and uncomfortable sexual harassment.

Upon entering the Prince Bandroom in St Kilda, the first thing I noticed was the crowd. The crowd were from all walks of hip-hop life, creating a pretty interesting dynamic; from the hardcore Technicians dressed in red with Strange Music merch, to the weed-smoking chillers blazing up in the corner, to the energetic moshers, up front from the get go, not stopping for a moment throughout.

There were some great support acts which kept up an incredibly high energy. Local MC Zhane White kicked the night off with his fresh take on trap-style hip-hop, followed by Nooky and his pull-no-punches culturally relevant themes. A crowd member offered Nooky an Aboriginal flag, which he proudly donned up on stage. Nooky then brought out fellow Bad Apples heavyweight Birdz, before the full Strange Music team arrived on stage. First came Stevie Stone; everything he did, especially the hype track Jump, set the crowd crazy. After Stevie Stone, DJ Picasso started teasing the crowd by playing Tech N9ne tracks, which, coupled with the lighting guy dimming the lights and focusing them on the stage, made the crowd very antsy.

Tech finally bounded on stage, delivering his high intensity chopper style lyrics that he is so famous for, and the place went off. Tech introduced fellow rapper Krizz Kaliko and left him the stage, returning to drop Am I A Psycho and launching next into Riot Maker. Tech and Krizz shared the stage pretty evenly throughout – Krizz features in a lot of Tech’s songs and it was a refreshing change to see the hype man role fulfilled by someone with such a singing/ rapping talent. Every now and then, Krizz got to do his own songs and Tech left him the stage. Tech leaving a few times did seem a bit weird until he mentioned that he had been drinking since 10 a.m. and was still drinking now (which explained the need for Krizz to do his own songs: Tech needed another drink).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v1zuIYNoFw

There was something odd that I noticed about Tech – when he rapped, only the bottom half of his jaw moved, as if he was a puppet. Then it hit me: the mask. When I spoke with Tech in July, he mentioned that he was working with Slipknot’s mask maker to get a Worldly Angel mask made so he didn’t have to endure the hours of face-paint before each show. I was excited to see the mask, but it did take a certain element away from the performance. Not being able to see his face and facial expressions was weird; cool, yes, and unique, but weird all the same.

Tech is an remarkable performer with incredible mic control. His ability to spit at that velocity (especially after a supposed 10 hours of drinking) was phenomenal. I’ve seen Bone Thugs do it, but they share each track. Tech does the whole track on his own, and it is remarkably impressive. The night was going so well – until it got awkward.

Krizz thanked everyone for buying his CDs, and said that he used to be bullied, but that now he is famous, he can ‘fuck their girlfriends’ – wait, what? His story started off almost emotional and uplifting, but then I felt like he was just being a dick. Lots of people laughed, but it was uncomfortable for many more. Krizz then invited all the girls up on to the stage while he sang Talk Up On It, and the crowd started to dance and stomp to the beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvLpB9rqr-c

Tech then re-joined Krizz and asked the crowd for ‘all the fine ass females to get on some shoulders.’ Once a few women were up as requested, cheering, he then asked them to ‘show him their titties’. When nobody complied, he – and I forget his exact words – said something to the extent of, ‘if you aren’t going to show me, then sit your ass down.’ A few women dropped back down, but others stayed up. Tech focused his attention on one woman in particular who had stayed up on someone’s shoulders, repeating again that she should ‘sit her ass down’ if she wasn’t going to flash. The women all eventually climbed back down – Tech just wouldn’t leave them alone.

The bit was explained moments later when Tech went on to sing his track Areola, for which women have been known to throw their bras on stage (Tech has donated the bras he received to a domestic violence organisation). Women flashing their breasts during this song has become his signature performance during his live shows – but it’s a fine line between something which is a bit of fun for a crowd in the moment, and continuous blatant harassment, which is what I witnessed at his Melbourne show last week. It was appalling and immensely awkward, permanently shifting the atmosphere of the night.

There was definite discomfort in the crowd, and while it predominantly recovered when he followed Areola with Speedom and WWC, two of his most popular tracks, I couldn’t shake the bad moment. Tech and Krizz then brought Stevie Stone back and the trio performed Hood Go Crazy, which the crowd loved. Tech then finished up with a speech, saying he will never change, referring to his mask and persona and non-commercial status. He closed the show with his new single, Erbody But Me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY0Mk9kTs8M

I have been to a lot of hip-hop shows and yes, it is true that there are many derogratory lyrics and stage banter in hip-hop. But these days, I find artists tend to be leaning away from performing their particularly degrading tracks – this year, none of the shows I have been to have featured their most offensive songs. Tech N9ne live was one of the great hip-hop experiences; his talent is undeniable, but his unnecessary harassment of women is unnacceptable. I know that the setup for Areola seems to have worked at a number of his shows, but there’s a less offensive way to do it, and that is not harrassing and humiliating women who just want to enjoy a concert without being objectified or pressured into taking off their clothes.

Image: Supplied

All-round good guy Chance the Rapper has had a busy few days, donating most of his time to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and encouraging people to get out and vote. It is not a new venture for Chance, he has been a proactive voice throughout the US election, encouraging voter registration on his Magnificent Coloring World Tour.

The past Saturday Chance joined Jay Z, Beyoncé, J. Cole, and Big Sean at a Get Out the Vote in Cleveland, where Jay and Beyoncé introduced Hillary Clinton. Before Chance performed No Problem he said “I’m here to celebrate our next and first woman president in the history of the United States of America.”

Now back in his hometown Chicago, Chance performed at another Get Out the Vote concert. After the free concert Chance led the crowd on a #ParadeToThePolls, which was exactly as it sounds. Chance lead reportedly thousands of people to early voting sites. The event was organised by Chance’s nonprofit, SocialWorks.

With thousands of people in attendance, it meant thousands of early votes and thousands of videos and tweets of the event. Check out some of them below.

The attendance helped break records for early voting in the region, and the videos below are really incredible; it looks more like a huge street parade or music festival than a voting line. Thank you, Chance.

https://twitter.com/JoshhTerry/status/795788635664744448

Chance will be in Australia for a number of New Year festivals including Origin NYE in Perth, Beyond The Valley in Melbourne, and Field Day in Sydney. He will also be performing two sold out side shows on January 3 at The Big Top, Sydney and January 4 at Festival Hall, Melbourne.

Image: Chicago Sun Times