For the past couple years we’ve documented Sydney’s Secret Garden as our favourite small camping festival in the country. With just a couple weeks until the 2017 edition, we’re counting down the days with baited breath.
A lot of what makes this festival so fun is the atmosphere – the small-ish crowd who, for the most part, are one of the most laid back, tolerant and dickhead-free in the country; the magical mystery feel of it all, with decorated bushland, hidden stages and quirky activities; the dress-up theme which absolutely everyone indulges in (Royal Rave this year, in case you’re wondering), and the overall feel-good vibes generally do just make it a great weekend for all involved. But it’s also a music festival, and there’s a tonne of great Australian acts on offer across all genres. One thing I love is that even the biggest stage is pretty small compared to your average multi-day festival, so you get a much more intimate experience than the norm.
The lineup has been curated to feature some of the country’s favourite live performers, and here’s our picks for must-see sets at Secret Garden 2017.
B Wise
B Wise was our favourite new local rapper to emerge last year. Not only did he release his critically acclaimed debut EP Semi-Pro, he showed us his prowess as a live performer, with support slots for artists including Vince Staples, ScHoolboy Q and Freddie Gibbs. Each time we seem him live, we’re blown away by his energy, positivity and confidence – don’t miss it, we doubt he’ll be playing on small stages for much longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50j4P1cn8bg
The Cactus Channel
You may not be super familiar with The Cactus Channel, but that’s likely going to change pretty soon. Having already turned heads in the industry, nabbing collaborations with Chet Faker Nick Murphy and Sam Cromack of Ball Park Music, with whom they will be releasing a full collaborative EP later this year, their unique production, brassy rhythms and soulful, layered melodies will undoubtedly make for one of the most fun sets at Secret Garden – and who knows, maybe they’ll even bring a special guest or two.
Total Giovanni
If you’ve ever caught the on-stage party that is a Total Giovanni live set, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. The festival favourites bring the funk, the beats, the volume and a serious load of dancing. With matching outfits, an incredible stage presence and the obvious, immediate feeling that the band are having a tonne of fun on stage, it’s impossible to not get swept away into a musical frenzy when these guys are on stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnvooAATzbs
Urthboy
Hip-hop veteran Urthboy has long been known as one of the most dynamic and exciting live artist on the scene for years. He’s been around for longer than most, but his music and on-stage presence is as intense and energetic as ever, with a vitality unmatched by many of his younger peers. Having just released a killer new single, Urthboy is gearing up for a national tour in March, right after Secret Garden. As one of the only live hip-hop acts on this year’s bill, we can’t wait to see what’s in store.
Donny Benet
Donny Benet has been a constant force in the quirkier, more eclectic side of things in the Sydney scene for years. First coming to attention with Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders, he signed to Plastic World last year, and has since been showcasing his more funky, retro, bass-driven electronic side through remixes, festivals and other live dates. Get down to his set and get ready to sweat.
Tickets are sold out, but you can find more info, including the full lineup at Secret Garden’s official website. Check out a festival playlist below for more music!
Image: Instagram
Some of Australia’s best hip-hop artists have teamed up with NITV and Start VR for a powerful new track, Change The Date. With January 26 right around the corner, the conversation about changing the date of Australia Day could not be more relevant nor important. The track, which is not only powerful, but really great on a musical level, is bound to make people think twice before throwing “another genocide on the BBQ,” as Birdz spits.
The track and its accompanying video features some of Australia’s best talent with rhymes including Urthboy and Ozi Batla from The Herd, Thundamentals’ Tuka and Jeswon, L-Fresh the Lion, Nooky, Birdz (Nathan Bird), Kaylah Truth, Tasman Keith, both Erica and Sally of Coda Conduct, and Hau. The video is an impressive 360-degree affair put together by Sydney-based virtual reality studio Start VR in partnership with National Indigenous Television (NITV) and SBS.
Hip-hop has given a formidable voice to Indigenous MCs who are using their platform to spread the message and open our eyes to the life of their people. Last year in particular saw hip-hop jump leaps and bounds ahead in terms of really taking a stance, spearheaded by powerhouse duo A.B. Original and their phenomenal protest track January 26.
Change The Date is another big step towards educating the community to acknowledge that Aboriginal people consider January 26 to be a day of mourning for many obvious reasons. Each artist delivers a powerful verse, with no holding back or sugarcoating the message.
The video was released in conjunction with NITV’s Always Will Be Festival leading up to January 26th. Check out the video below, be sure to drag the video around the cypher to heck out everything going on. The lyrics to the track are also available on the SBS website.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4vf8uF1rq0
On the creation of the video, Start VR Managing Director Angus Stevens said, “when NITV reached out to us we immediately said yes. It’s exciting to be a part of something that you believe in and to be able to join the conversation by using our VR and 360 video experience to explore the debate to change the date has been fantastic.
“VR allows the viewer to really feel like they’re in the room with the artists, and this project encapsulates that sense of immediacy and intimacy,” Stevens added “It’s been a great experience to work with NITV and we can’t wait for everyone to check it out.”
Image: SBS
Everywhere we look, political plates are shifting and quaking. Across the seas we see the aggressive US presidential campaign and the fallout from the UK’s Brexit referendum, but this weekend, of course, will see our own country voting in new leadership.
As we prepare to line up at the polling booths and submit our selections (if you’re unsure, please, please read this handy guide to learn more about the new voting processes and how to make your vote count) four Sydney-based hip-hop artists have taken to the blog of hip-hop label Elefant Traks to share their own thoughts and decisions about tomorrow:
Urthboy
The best way to detect future behaviour is by identifying past behaviour and with this in mind it’s important not to take anything politicians say too seriously. Turnbull has shown he is incapable of navigating the maze of internal party divisions with any authority. He looks anything but a leader. This is one of the most powerful people in Australia, with a background of great corporate success and the towering arrogance that comes with it. Yet loony bit players like George Christensen and Cory Bernardi with their chirping influence, so easily undermine him. It’s baffling how little fight he shows. We’ve seen Turnbull’s short-sightedness on the NBN, stifling technology that should provide infrastructure for generations – this is a classic political compromise that will kneecap us for decades, particularly young people. He’ll be on his $100k + pension and won’t give a shit. We’ve seen a reluctance to tackle housing affordability – the chief reason being that older voters benefit from shutting young people out of the market. It’ll be the LNP that suffer most from the resurgent populism of Pauline Hanson – or whichever straight-talking dimwit captures the imagination of a battling population desperate for someone to blame.
Bill Shorten, I admit, has performed better than I expected. That’s not saying much. The backbone he displays in the occasional speech, is quickly dulled down by a desire to romance the middle. Who cares about conviction when you might actually win? The Howard era was partly defined by how effectively he wedged successive Labor leaders, perhaps that’s become part of the Labor psyche and it’s created an ingrained mentality of being anything but wedged. Don’t be surprised when people think you’re nothing. Part of me wants to believe in Labor, most of me can’t and it’ll take time for that to change.
I lean Green, but I’m not a member nor completely sold. They, alongside the independents, perform a vital democratic role of an alternative voice to the major machines. It’s self-evident that this can be problematic, but to remove this aspect of the political process, is a much bigger problem. I also have a soft spot for any political party that News Corp wants to destroy – they must be alright.
How does an armchair critic like me comment on the internal dynamics of government? What would I know? I’m just a stupid musician who should go back to writing music and stay out of politics.
L – Fresh the Lion
I haven’t decided yet. I know I’m definitely not voting Liberal and I’m very close to ruling out Labor as well. I don’t agree with a wide range of their policies but more than that, I don’t like the culture either of the two major parties perpetuate. I’ve voted Greens for the past few years but I’ve got more research to do before I settle on any particular party.
Solo (Horrorshow)
Tomorrow I’ll be voting for the Australian Greens. There are a whole raft of reasons to vote Green, but one that is particularly important to me is their policies on immigration and asylum seekers – and especially their commitment to getting rid of mandatory and indefinite detention and the abolition of offshore processing in places like Manus Island and Nauru.
I grew up in a Labor household and for a lot of my teenage years I thought of myself as a Labor supporter. However, since the ALP’s hardline decision to expand offshore processing, I have been unable to support either major party and have instead looked to the more humanitarian (and common sense) policies of the Greens.
Asylum seekers and refugees are people too! They’re human beings with rights that Australia has been abusing for far too long. It’s morally bankrupt of us to shirk our responsibilities to some of the most vulnerable people in the world and pass the buck to less developed countries when we have the wealth and infrastructure to take refugees in. It’s sickeningly hypocritical of us to deny the opportunities of living in Australia to others when we as non-Indigenous Australians have benefited immensely from those same opportunities. I want to see an end to this cruelty and madness, and for that reason I’ll be casting my vote for the Australian Greens.
Adit (Horrorshow)
This Saturday I’ll be voting for The Greens. There are many reasons why as you can see, but below is one that doesn’t often get mentioned.
The Greens have the best plan for guiding our economy into the future. They are the only party to recognise that running the country is about more than just balancing a budget. If that’s all it took a thrifty 8 year old could do it! To run a strong economy you must invest in its people, their ideas, and the infrastructure and services that support them.
This is the real job of government. The Greens’ policies are built around taxing those who extract the most wealth out of society, and investing that wealth back into education, health, technology, infrastructure, and social safety nets for everyone. They represent fairness and pragmatism and for this reason are the only party suited to lead us in the 21st century. #liberalsfallback.
I was lucky enough to be invited along to document the second sold out Urthboy show at Howler in Melbourne last weekend, Friday May 27, the beginning of his Second Heartbeat tour. It’s always a pleasure when you get to shoot some of the quieter behind the scenes moments before a show as well as all the elements that come together for a live show. Urthboy was joined on stage by special guests Kira Puru, Bertie Blackman, Okenyo and Jane Tyrrell, and was supported by Okenyo and L-Fresh the Lion.
Urthboy is on tour in support of fifth LP, The Past Beats Inside Me Like A Second Heartbeat. See the remaining dates below:
Friday, 3rd June: Sol Bar, Maroochydore
Saturday, 4th June: Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane (SOLD OUT)
Friday, 10th June: Academy, Canberra
Saturday, 11th June: Baroque, Katoomba
Thursday, 16th June: Oxford Art Factory Sydney (+B Wise, Bertie Blackman & Jane Tyrrell)
Friday, 17th June: Oxford Art Factory Sydney (+Montaigne & Bertie Blackman) (SOLD OUT)
Saturday, 18th June: Cambridge, Newcastle
Friday, 24th June: Rocket Bar Adelaide (+Timberwolf) (SOLD OUT)
Saturday, 25th June: Amplifier, Perth
Sunday, 26th June: Mojos, Fremantle
Tickets can be found here.
Okenyo
L-Fresh The Lion With Mirrah
Urthboy
All photos: Michelle Grace Hunder
It’s video roundup time! Once again, Howl And Echoes are coming in hot with the freshest, most eyeball-stimulating music videos to be dropped by the artists you love and some of the artists you don’t know you love yet this week. We do all the dirty work and herd them all into one convenient web-based location for you to enjoy every Friday so that you don’t have to. Have yourself a good old gander at the latest offerings from:
Club Cheval – Young, Rich And Radical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LtP9HzdqzY
Kicking proceedings off all the way from Lille in the North of France are electronic music collective Club Cheval and the latest single to be released from their debut album Discipline. The wonderfully-titled Young, Rich And Radical is a certified banger, slow-burning and methodical before the chorus cashes in, all driving beats and soft falsetto.
The video is an interesting concept, showing young people adopting a lifestyle of chastity and sobriety: swapping tie-dye for plain black, water for wine and generally just behaving very, very sensibly. I may disagree with the lifestyle choices but it’s still a wonderfully clever music video.
Discipline is out now via Bromance Records.
Ngaiire – Diggin’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9P7lilYw-c&feature=youtu.be
One of our favourite Australian artists going at the moment is neo soul star Ngaiire. She’s had a huge week, currently roving around rural Australia as part of the Groovin’ The Moo 2016 lineup, she has also announced her next album Blastoma as well as releasing the video for her current single Diggin’.
The song itself is beyond infectious, restrained percussion and throbbing synths, more stellar production with long-time collaborator Paul Mac. The chorus ups the intensity and showcases Ngaiire’s fantastic vocal range. The music video is awash in gold, a pair of contemporary dancers interpreting the narrative with movements convulsive and fluid at the same time, Ngaiire the rightful centre of it all. If Diggin’ on the back of debut Lamentations are any indication of Ngaiire’s trajectory, it’s undoubtedly skyward from here.
Blastoma is out June 10th via Maximilion Brown.
Urthboy – Daughter Of The Light (ft. Kira Puru)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVJm-5AnOYM
Sydney MC Urthboy is out with another single and the third from his huge fifth studio album The Past Beats Inside Me Like A Second Heartbeat. It’s the Kira Puru featuring Daughter Of The Light, a loving tribute to the sacrifices made by Urthboy’s mum and will uppercut you fair in your unsuspecting feels. Big dramatic synths and Kira Puru’s stunning vocal alley oop hammer it home.
The video is full of introspection, Urthboy rapping from a total of six different rooms, each with their own story and meaning to the narrative. Kira Puru belting out the chorus in front of a sea of bright lights, collaborators Broken Yellow (who were also behind the video for Long Loud Hours) have come up all kinds of clutch.
The Past Beats Inside Me Like A Second Heartbeat is out now via Elefant Traks.
Spit Syndicate – Know Better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsLAm_nrSyY
Sticking in Sydney and sticking within the realm of Australian hip-hop on this next one, the latest single from dynamic duo (Nick Lupi and Jimmy Nice) Spit Syndicate. Know Better is the name. It’s a party track encompassing all kinds of them, ragers, chilled nights with dinner and drinks and friends and everything in between.
If you’ve ever gotten down to any One Day Sundays (put on as part of the One Day collective the duo are a part of) then you might even have a cameo spot in this one, the music video being comprised of footage from some of those events.
Spit Syndicate are touring Know Better around Australia from early June.
Alex Cameron – She’s Mine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHBCMLrW-l4&feature=youtu.be
Not many people have a business partner who is also a saxophonist, but Sydney’s Alex Cameron (who you may know as part of Seekae) certainly does. It’s been a big week for Cameron, he’s just signed to Secretly Canadian and simultaneously released a brand new video for She’s Mine.
A punchy backbeat and some restrained synths form the backdrop for Cameron’s smoking lounge baritone. It’s very early Future Islands-y. The video features the singer-songwriter breaking out some vicious dance moves in front of (and on top of) what looks like an old Buick (I don’t know cars so don’t quote me) and a dreary skyline. Bloody brilliant. Also, few people can make sneans looks quite as cool as Alex Cameron does.
With this recent signing as well as US tour dates on the horizon, Alex Cameron looks about to have a huge year.
Tegan And Sara – Boyfriend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJOHoiPGpac&ab_channel=TeganandSara
Next is the greatest Canadian identical twin sister duo in the history of music in Tegan And Sara. With next album Love You To Death almost upon us, the Quin sisters have this week released the visuals accompanying their first single from that album; Boyfriend.
It’s a three minute synth pop tune full of fire and swagger. The video, directed by Clea DuVall (Chuck’s doctor on Better Call Saul) features the girls at the mercy of a director who just doesn’t quite get directing all that well.
Catch Tegan And Sara when they hit Australia for Splendour In The Grass later this year.
Moistoyster – Repetitive Strain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=ntTsIGrjL_U
Winning two of this week’s awards for ‘Tongue Twistiest Band Name’ as well as ‘Band Name That Sounds Gross But Isn’t’ are Perth surf rock outfit Moistoyster and their new single Repetitive Strain. It’s breezy as all hell and definitely the kind of song that has you lamenting the fact that Winter is coming and the beaches aren’t as inviting.
Speaking of beaches, the accompanying music video is set on an absolutely stunning one for this one-shot clip. The chilled out air of the song becomes juxtaposed darkly and dramatically with the antics of deranged-looking frontman George Foster. It certainly leaves a whole lot of questions unanswered.
If you’re on the West Coast you can catch Moistoyster at a couple of shows they’ve got coming up in June.
TOKiMONSTA – Giving Up (ft. Jonny Pierce)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoNVDKvXYQU
Just done rocking out her home state of California as part of this year’s Coachella, TOKiMONSTA has released a brand new single this week for the breathtaking Giving Up. Featuring Jonny Pierce (who you would know for his stellar work fronting The Drums), giving up is an ode to unrequited love.
With urgent, almost frenetic production and ethereal and evocative vocals throughout, Giving Up will put a lump in your throat. The music video for it documents one man’s spaced out and colourful descent into madness when he realises the love of his life doesn’t feel the same.
TOKiMONSTA’s fourth studio album Fovere is out now via Young Art Records.
Madness descended on Geraldton, Western Australia over the weekend as triple J gave the collective masses the best “One Night Stand” of their lives (probably). With Urthboy, Boy & Bear and Alison Wonderland all on the lineup with their own special guests, triple J once again pulled off bringing one hell of a live music experience to a small town that misses out. Coming from a town similar to Geraldton, I can attest to how special events like this are and how important they are for the creative scene and community as a whole. Nothing brings people together like live music, and the footage of Urthboy bringing out Sampa The Great is proof of this.
In the thick of his set, Urthboy had the whole town of Geraldton in his hand as he brought out Sampa. Fresh from , jumping on festival bills around the country and just days out from graduating university, Sampa made the stage her own as she helped Urthboy perform their track, Second Heartbeat. Quickly whipping the crowd into a frenzy, their energetic and infectious vibe was quickly picked up by the huge crowd, who gave it right back to them. Check out the video below:
https://www.facebook.com/triplej/videos/10156885296265160/
“Collectively lose their shit,” they did!
Image: Facebook
Urthboy has released his fifth LP, The Past Beats Inside Me Like A Second Heartbeat, and subsequently announced an album launch tour which will see him perform across Australia.
After selling out preview shows in both Sydney and Melbourne, Urthboy will be taking his much hyped album on the road, hitting everywhere from Hobart to Fremantle.
The album, which was recently showcased on triple j as their feature album of the week, has garnered a lot of positive attention, landing the rapper a spot on the radio stations infamous One Night Stand concert, which sees a different rural city or town hosting the event annually.
With sleek beats, and some impressive vocals from boy Urthboy and featured guest artists, TPBIMLASH looks to possibly be the artists best work to date, with the recent album single Loud Long Hours showing off the rapper’s impressive storytelling ability.
One thing to note when looking at this tour announcement is that Urthboy has chosen to travel to a number of smaller locations, which don’t always get many acts coming in to perform for them, so that’s pretty damn awesome.
The tour will be kicking off on the 27th of May, at the Howler in Melbourne, before making its way around the country, with the final show being in Fremantle, on June 26th.
Urthboy will be joined by L-FFRESH the LION who recently signed to the same label as him, Elefant Traks, and the show will be opened by OKENYO and up-and-coming artist who featured on the Urthboy single, Second Heartbeat (which is my second favourite track from the album).
Check out the tour dates below, and find your tickets using here.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNyDtGJ0Q6k]
Image credit: urthboy
Words by Alasdair Belling
After the years of touring, managing a label and becoming a father, Sydney MC Tim Levinson, better known as Urthboy, has dropped his latest single Loud Long Hours.
Based around a dark, murky synth line courtesy of the boys in Hermitude, as well as a beautiful chorus courtesy of fellow Sydney songstress Bertie Blackman, Loud Long Hours sees Levinson exploring a more pop-inspired sound.
As label Elefant Traks explains, the track, which details the escape of Australian Prisoner John Killick from Silverwater Prison in 1997, is “A true story and one for the ages: perhaps the wildest, most reckless gesture of love in modern Australia History”, and was the first product of a “…sprawling long project developed over three life changing years.”
A music video has also been released, capturing the essence of the story, including archived footage of news coverage of the event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gWPyYcD1pc
The song serves as the title track for what will be the rapper’s fifth album, to be released early next year.
The single comes after an epic 1100 hour countdown on his website, which saw the release of an additional three new songs; 1100 Hours (Comment Section), 765 Hours (W.A.R.) and 300 Hours (Get It Out Your System).