Death of Some Freak pt.1: The Birth Of Some Freak

Hehehehe gimme that fuckin red book cos this is my life!

it’s this man’s fault

So, some freak was definitely born in a volcano BUT he actually genuinely came into existence after Rob Fangle read this.

It’s a review of a party I went to that Rob put on. I had bought my first set of turntables about a week before this party and blagged my way onto the decks at the very end of the night. When writing about the party I didn’t really want to mention the fact that I’d played at it as well so I just referred to myself as some freak.

It got capitalised by the subeditor and Rob read the review and as I’d just got decks and didn’t have a DJ name, he said ‘Well then Si, that should be your DJ name then.’

And Some Freak was born. Thankyou Rob Fangle!

PS This was a big night in more ways than one – I met Sofie that night for the first time, who became my mentor and dear friend. And later on, in the pub the following morning, Dub Cricket was born. What a momentous 24 hours indeed!

Return to Amsterdam: A photo essay of the last 24 hours…

YES!

Dâm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did a party last night  with the fantastic Hoya:Hoya crew – we brought the one and only Dâm-FunK to Manchester and he FUCKIN SMASHED IT… I played a bunch of disco early on which I enjoyed, everyone played rad tunes…

The show was a roadblock, we were over capacity and turnin ppl away… inside a wicked crowd lost their shit to Dâm’s crazy stylings. GREAT NIGHT!

Bloooody long one aka HELLO STRANGERZ!

Invisible Motorbike

GODDAM it has been an AGE since I updated this fucker… jeez… ok let’s go chronologically…

Right then, June saw quite a few trips around; I was in Leeds for the RBMA info session which featured Joe Bataan and James Pants, both having some pretty interesting things to say. The gig that followed was a scream – Joe backed by a full band, with Mr Pants on cowbell. No shit.

Joe Bataan and James Pants

The week after I was back in London for a couple of special gigs – first up was Four Tet and Steve Reid playing live together at the South Bank centre, supported by Dorian Concept and none other than Moooooooooken who kindly stuck me and Tiago on the door (what a man, he put us both on the door PLUS THREE I mean seriously I have NEVER been +3 before, not even at my own parties) and so we invited some beautiful ladies and went on down, boy it was a great show. VERY chinstroky/wire-reading crowd – everybody was sat down on the floor cross legged! HIGHLY appreciative mob though – I was really enjoying Dorian Concept (this being the first time I’d seen him live) and was a little anxious that the crowd wasn’t feeling his twisted business, but at the end of his set he got some major applause.

Dorian Concept @ South Bank Centre

And then it was the Kieran and Steve show, again first time for me witnessing old Four Tet and boy what a great show it was. To be honest, Hebden’s electronics were completely upstaged by the drumming of this living legend. That being said though, the sound system at the SBC was pretty pants and the acoustics of the space not so great and that doesn’t really help electronics but you see some dude banging on a drum kit doesn’t matter what the acoustics are like, does it? Reid had himself a couple of natural advantages I guess. Hopefully I’ll get to witness the whole thing again in a better sounding environment. And maybe with less people sitting on the floor!

ANYWAY

After this mega show it was time to hotfoot it to shoreditch via chinatown (yum) to a carpark on hearne st where the BRAINFEEDER party was goin down. Oh yes, my dear old friend Flying Lotus was having a little party there with fuckin mad lineup – Dorian Concept once again, GLK, Joker, Kode 9 etc etc etc etc etc etc

Headz at the door @ Brainfeeder

Got there quite late and so missed samiyam which upset me a little cos I haven’t seen him before but Kode 9 was nearly over when I arrived. Got to meet up with Dorian Concept after years of emailing which was cool… Flylo came on and played a pretty good set, quite tough and ravey, he is definitely gettin into the UK sound a LOT… he played that mad DMT tune again, it’s just these beautiful big chords that sound like they were played on that crazy synth weapon out of the He-Man movie. Hmmm… should sample that.

Then Dorian jumped on and jammed with Flylo for a bit which was actually pretty exciting… they were clearly both playing/sequencing live and at first it was a bit wobbly but they found a groove soon enough and then it was pretty fun for a while… and they finished it before it got TOO noodly which was smarrrt.

Dorian played a KILLER solo set, DESTROYING the crowd and potentially upstaging FlyLo to be honest, and then it was time for Joker to take the carpark massive to a dark, ravey place, not as synthy or as purple as I was hoping for so we left…

Phew, this is a LONG recollection…

Well, after that weekend I stayed around in the south schlepping from here to there and THEN I went to goddam GLASTONBURY…

Yes, that there is Blur having it on the main stage… what a great show they put on!

Not really sure what to say about Glastonbury really. It blew my mind, I really like it, I will be going back. It definitely holds that alternate reality vibe that Burning Man has but in a different way, in a very English way. And you can buy stuff. NIIIICE food. But you also have to hike fucking miles with ALL your gear to get from car to campsite. And I can see how a really rainy one would be fucking oppressive. And Jeeeesus Christ I have never seen so many bulbs being nailed, non-stop. It is a fucking nangfest. So I fit right in obviously. 

Musically, well, fuck, who knows where to begin… good shit was Nick Cave, Blur, Spinal Tap, the whole of Shangri-La and Trash City, Easy Star All-Stars doing Sgt Peppers, Horace Andy, Little Boots DJing, Four Tet DJing (yes I saw him twice in a week!), fuck… so many good ones…

BUT

The standout for me was ANIMAL COLLECTIVE. Shit yeah it was. I have never seen them live before and they are fucking excellent. It was pretty much the best hour of music I’ve experienced all year. Serious. Their set was recorded and is downloadable – I am gonna make a separate post after this with the link. IT’S AMAAAAAAAZING.

So yes, Glastonbury chewed me up and spat me out oh yes it did… I took another 10 days off work and was originally going to hit spain for the nowhere festival but ended up staying at home – bought some monitor speakers, made some tunes, rode my bike and cooked nice food… it was a great time…

And now we’re here, a fucking wet cold Sunday in Manchester – it is slap bang in the middle of summer and it’s 14 degrees and we have the central heating on. This is why I am finally writing in the blog! Last Friday Theo Parrish came to town and I went along with a mate, oh boy what a fucking party that was – totally sold out, rammed, GREAT crowd – older, knowledgeable but plenty of pretty girls and party folk too, sense that it’s a lot of the old electric chair crew.

And Theo played all night and he was as dependable as ever and he played that LCD soundsystem remix and ohhhh he’s bloody good…

And now to the future… next Saturday is a great party – Hoya:Hoya VS Space Is The Place, with non other than DâM-FunK all the way from fuckin LA to come join us… me and Mooken and Ryan and Jonny and bloody DAMFUNK YEAH YEAH YEAHHHHHHH…. very excited about this, the Roadhouse is a special place for me, so it’s an honour to be playin there…

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is THAT… 

More Omar Droolin

Here’s a little composite of some mobile phone video I took of Omar Souleyman the other night. I really actually like this mobile video for this, it adds to the grainy 21st century lo-fi aesthetic…

Cos make no mistake – this is proper Blade Runner music except this time is not Vangelis sitting behind the most amazing synths ever, no. It’s some dudes with shop-bought electric keyboards on settings they’re not supposed to have, crazy electrified traditional instruments and then Omar up front all gold sunnies with his mate – the Syrian mad futurefolk version of Bez – just hanging around in jeans and a cheap leather jacket, whispering poetic inspiration into Omar’s ear from time to time and generally enjoyin himself, lookin at the crowd, singing along…

SERIOUSLY heavy.

Much love, BTW, to Faktion for putting this on…

Maaad update

Tiago at the controls

Fark, has been quite a mad week, better bring you up to speed with last weekend!

YES! It was finally time for the mothership to land in Manchester and boy we did in fine style, with Tiago and Cinnaman both bringing AMAZING heat to help the launch of Space Is The Place MCR get off to a great trajectory.

It was great fun putting on a party after a full year of not doing so (last one was the Lovefingers Bodega last May…) – I almost got all teary when I was running round B+Q buying gaffa tape and cable ties… yes, good to be back.

A nice crew to work with here in Manchester as well – beginning with hiring lights from the drummer out of the Durutti Column which was a bit mad; I forget that I’m in a town with a rich musical heritage – there are so many musos here that it’s hard NOT to run into them! Dom the sound guy is, well, a sound guy and he has some wicked gear. Martyn Mooken who’s the SITP co-pilot here in MCR is the MOST fun to work with and has the best attitude. Our CAPCOM is the mighty Samrai who provided critical analysis and colour commentary throughout the night.

And everyone was so friendly, and so encouraging and enthusiastic! Like, a million times more than Sydney/Melbourne. I was blown away by the love shown by everyone to some weirdoes throwing a little party in a pub in Manchester, I figured that same musical heritage which produced rock star lighting hire people would also carry along a degree of jadedness that would be stifling and intimidating but NO! Lots of MCR love for SITP, so another (and another, and another) is for certain!

OUR MISSION CONTINUES…

So the party was great. It was really lovely to hang out with my RBMA alumni, and great to hear what they’re up to. Cinnaman is doing really well for himself, he’s like the Dutch Benji B or some shit…

Of course, there was no rest for us after a great party, as 4 hours later we were caning it down the M6 to get Cinnaman to Rinse FM for an appearance on Alex Nut’s show. It was a fuckin hectic drive, punctuated with an epic blowout in the fast lane (we thought it was a helicopter until we saw the smoke pissing off the back wheel) but we made it to the studio in time – boy it’s proper pirate styles, 2SER is bloody NASA HQ compared to the Rinse FM setup!

The show was great, and Alex and his MC were both gracious enough to give SITP some quality shout outs – the whole thing is podcasted so download it here and check out the sounds of the future - Cinnaman comes on about halfway through and plays mostly what he played at the party the night previous… PROPER next shit, put yourself 20 minutes beyond your rivals and school up on this bizzo…

The rest of London was a bit of a blur really, some nice times with Tiago + Cinnaman, also got to catch up with dear Ed and also lovely Emma who’s just arrived in Londres on an extended stay. I raced back to Manchester on Sunday evening and spent the rest of the week relaxing, recovering and trying to organise the pressing of an Edit 12″…

Cos yes, it’s time to announce RECORD NUMBER 3! I have managed to secure distribution for an Edit 12″, so hopefully it will go well and I can then start up a nice Edit label, a good little hobby to have I think… got some nice future releases lined up…

I did get to one INCREDIBLE gig during the week – Omar Souleyman supported by Group Doueh. The flyer describes the music best – ‘Ultra-vivid street-level folk-pop, over-driven psychedelic meditations, desert blues and Syrian party bangers’ – two incredible groups pushing some fucking super fresh shit… Souleyman got a good writeup in the Wire last month which ensured a great crowd at the gig, oh man, nice to get that 3rd eye cleaned in such a forceful, unusual, FRESH manner… I highly recommend, though I doubt they’ll be in Aus any time soon.

And now it’s the weekend again. Hopefully I’ll get some time in the studio after so many busy weekends, but DMX crew are on tonight and Benji B’s playin tomorrow night so I don’t know how successful I’ll be!

MIND BLOWN

 

Nuage Vert by HeHe

 

At the moment here in Manchester we’re in the middle of the Futuresonic festival, which is bloody marvellous. Loads of spaces across town have been given over to this ‘Urban Festival of Art, Music & Ideas’.

Last night I was at the Urbis for a big party, featuring Daedelus (fucking brilliant), Neil Landstrumm (really good but too banging for the time he was playing), Toddla T (not bad but not good either, and with a diabolical MC) and Hudson Mohawke (I fucking missed him cos they put him on well early but I got to have a nice chat with him).

There was something a little bit cool about partying in a museum, even if the vibe was somewhat lacking.

HOWEVER

The music is just one part of it. There’s also a bunch of talks, and plenty of art and stuff. It’s sort of like the This Is Not Art festival but without so much emphasis on Aussie/Youth/Emergent artists. Today I went to the CUBE Gallery to check out a bunch of the art, which was really great. They had a whole bunch of stuff all focused on the environment and whatnot, including some photos and videos of HeHe’s fantastic piece ‘Nuage Vert‘, where the artists used green lasers to light up the polluting smoke billowing out of an industrial chimney.

The most incredible work, however, was Akousmaflore by a duo from France called Scenocosme. OH BOY. Somehow these maniacs have managed to turn a plant into an electrical switch. They have a bunch of plants hanging from the ceiling. Touch one of the plants and some sound comes out of a speaker. As far as I am concerned, this is done by magic. It’s just mindbending. Check the video to see what I’m banging on about; don’t forget to close your mouth so all the drool doesn’t get over your keyboard.

Time to dash now though – more music tonight. This time it’s Floating Points, Alex Nut, Kode 9, Zomby, Move D, Actress, HATE and much much more… YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Exciting…

A VERY cool thing just happened…

I got an email from Chris Duckenfield with a link to a yousendit.

Clicking the link brought me a zip file with remixes of a track I’d made.

Remixes were by Chris himself, Leozero and the motherfucking Unabombers!

I am a happy man. More info soon enough…

In other news, Budapest is one of the coolest cities in the world… I was lucky enough to go there last weekend where I met up with the always wonderful Vanessa, part of my gorgeous Sydney family… ahh, was so good to connect with the fam once again, especially in such ace surrounds. Beautiful warm weather, breathtaking architecture, dope thermal bath action and the coolest squat bars in the whole wide world… oh and it’s cheap as chips and the goulash is amazing. GO TO BUDAPEST NOW IF YOU CAN…

ALSO here is a video from the squat party 2 weeks ago… what a great night that was (feels like a lot longer than 2 weeks ago also) – witness the bike-powered light sculpture and dancefloor, and plenty other weird stuff…

W O W

Just had a fuckin brilliant weekend, got involved with a killer squat party in Hackney and then raced up to Manchester after 1 hour’s sleep in a carpark to play alongside the lovely Eclair FiFi at Technicolour…

More on that later though, this is just a quick moment to rave about the fact that when I was in Sounds Of The Universe on Friday I was lucky enough to spot a copy of the new Burial x Fourtet 12 that’s disappeared out of every shop before it’s even gone on sale.

Not only that, but I also got to play both sides out, and not only are they beautiful amazing pieces of music, but they also work really well. WOOOOHOOOOO….

Some people are suggesting that ‘Moth’ is Burial’s track and ‘Wolf Cub’ is Four Tet’s, though it sounds to me like there was a bit more collusion going on than that, and in a VERY good way. A wonderful 12 and fuck yeah I got a copy! BUT somebody already youtubed them so have a listen here before they disappear….

YooooHoooo

(sick party that I am playing at)

Hmm, been a little while since a post so time to offer some commentary but no pictures cos even though I got my camera back from the repairshop (YES!) I keep forgetting to take it out (NO!)…

So, no photos from a couple of killer gigs - Gaslamp Killer on Saturday night was great… I have a highly secret recording of his set at Space Is The Place last year and the set he pulled out on Saturday was comparable in energy but the man is clearly TOTALLY in love with Dubstep at the moment cos it was much more heavy on the 140 bpm business… all your favourites, mixed impeccably, new track every 16 bars, hit after hit after hit, just one massive hook mixed into the next one, non-stop, tore our heads off…

GLK @ Space Is The Place… photo by Lina

And last night got to check an early set from good old Flying Lotus. 3rd time I’ve seen him in little over a year, and third continent I checked him on as well (what a good polluter I am)… his set gets better every time – really sounded great, no distortion, plenty of new gear from him that sounds AMAZING, the mad DMT track is just gorgeous, you can hear the hyperspace elves in it… He likes the dubstep too as well…

SOOOO… some great news forthcoming – SPACE IS THE PLACE Manchester is nearly ready to launch, just waiting on some artwork and then we’ll get some proper announcing going on up here…

AND AND AND some more RECORDS! Just waiting on a few confirmations and then there’ll be news on that…

This coming week I’m VERY excited as:

1) This Thursday I am going to see ARPADYS live

2) ON Saturday I am DJing at a secret warehouse party in Hackney

3) ON Sunday I am DJing at Technicolour at Common, together with Eclair FiFi from LuckyMe

YES!!! I AM FUCKIN BACK!!! TIME TO UNLEASH SOME EVIL TUNEAGE ON THESE UNSUSPECTING ENGLISH!

OH yes

4) I bought a bike…

 here is my trusty steed. she/he needs a name.

AND

5) I am going to Budapest next week – hopefully some good obscure Hungarian records to be found wowzers (any recommendations besides Gábor Szabó?)