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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3q_Pr9hYzo
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.
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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?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UQ3WHMfcD8
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP8k6fmxWe4
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.
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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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1m0mceKkx4
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Since bursting onto our airwaves earlier this year with their irrepressibly catchy tune King, trio Years and Years have taken audiences by storm with their idiosyncratic brand of synth-pop. Fresh from their Splendour appearance the day before, where they reportedly flew in 7 hours before they were scheduled to play, the ensemble made it their business to give Sydney’s Metro Theatre a taste of what they could do.
Having heard less than stellar reviews of their splendour performance (which from the many Instagrams listed under the SplendourInTheMud hashtag looked like a literal quagmire) I was slightly unsure, yet elated, to be seeing such a up-and-coming band.
Years and Years have been instrumental in bringing gay artists to the forefront of the social consciousness and proving that they can be just as successful and marketable as their heterosexual counterparts, evident by the fervent turnout on the night of their performance.
After a predictably awesome opening set from homegrown locals Panama, Years and Years took to the stage shortly after 9:45pm to an excited Sunday crowd. Alexander, with his newly bleached mop of curly peroxide blond hair, opened with a personal favourite of mine Foundation, the prologue to the rest of their commercially and critically acclaimed debut album Communion.
The song is a gradual crescendo of soaring vocals and ghostly, echoing synths; the prefect prelude to an album. It requires quite a degree of vocal gymnastics, and while on the album it sounds very polished, Alexander didn’t quite hit the mark in real life, his voice bordering on screeching at some points, causing my eardrums to cringe in pain.
Next up was Take Shelter which, despite the album only being out a short while, everyone already knew the words to. Alexander greeted the crowd warmly, with a demure and appreciative “Thank you so much!” in his polite English accent, before launching into one of their better known hits Desire, a punchy pop banger that got the crowd jumping up and down.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0atZQSUE80&w=560&h=315]
In between songs, Alexander awkwardly (albeit adorably) fumbled his way through some crowd banter, admitting he was “really not good at it” while he stalled for time as fellow bandmates Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen handled the technical stuff. He explained that the day before at their Splendour performance, most of their equipment hadn’t arrived with them, making for less than suitable performance conditions. One of my friends who had attended their slot said that they even admitted that “we don’t normally sound like this”. Yikes.
Performing a series of their more high energy medleys, like Worship and Gold, they slowed it all down for more plaintive performances of some of the ballads on Communion, such as Memo and Without, perfectly suited to the melodically sweet pitch of Alexander’s vocals. The slower tempo allowed for Alexander to show off his vocal ability a bit better than when he was jumping around energetically on his other tracks.
But of course, everyone was holding out for more revered hits, like Shine, which transformed the room into a jumping mass of flailing limbs, the excitement was so palpable. The temperature in the room turned up, so off came Alexander’s colourful-looking jumper so he could better jump around and get into it. The audience even got treated to a cover of Sean Paul’s Breathe.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXTAn4ELEwM&w=560&h=315]
Despite being relatively fresh to their newfound fame, Years and Years certainly has strong following. When it came to the hit that made them famous, King, they absolutely blew everyone away, finishing on a high note (literally) and bringing smiles to the faces of everyone there.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_uoH6hJilc&w=560&h=315]
Although obviously still a bit green when it comes to performing live and things like crowd interaction, Years and Years are a genuinely talented band and their musical career trajectories can only be headed skywards if their latest album and concert performance is anything to go by.
Sydney-based duo Panama (Jarrah McCleary and Tim Commandeur) have just given us their first track in a year, ahead of their spot supporting Years & Years in July. Following from last year’s offering Stay Forever, the new track was mixed and produced by ARIA award winner Eric J. Dobowsky (Chet Faker, Flight Facilities).
Equal parts 80s nostalgia and warm pop-electronica, Jungle showcases fluid, layered synths and soft, echoing vocals, accented by punching, popping beats. The track is set for release on June 5th via Future Classic. The video for Jungle is already out, and you can watch it below. The video focuses on film crews and actresses over the course of shooting.
Taking the nostalgic sounds of Panama and running with them, the video was created by German collective A Nice Idea Every Day and is filled with washed out tones and the repetition of static cutaway footage. It acts as the final installment of a three-part series spanning as many years, tying the clips for It’s Not Over and Always together with the new track.
Catch Panama supporting Years & Years:
Sun, July 26: The Metro Theatre, Sydney (tickets here)
Thu, July 30: Max Watt’s House of Music, Melbourne (tickets here)