Off The Record

If you fancy living out an Ibiza summer in a Sydney winter, this is about as close as you’re gonna get.

A regular at the infamous Vagabundos, German DJ Cesar Merveille has carved a name for himself in the most illustrious of tech house circles, with release on the likes of Visionquest, Cadenza Records, Modelmaker and Multi Vitamins. He’s coming to serve up a typically wonky techno feast alongside MSG, Ben Nott, Mark Craven, Tech No More and Persian Rug on Saturday June 4 at the Burdekin Hotel.

Sydney’s newest party purveyor – Moontanned Entertainment – is kicking off with a bang featuring Matthias Meyer [top]. Best known for his work at Watergate (the Berlin club, not the Richard Nixon thing), the German is renowned for his productions ranging from rolling techno, murky house and grinding minimal, finding homes on Cityfox, Do Easy Records, Soulfooled and of course, Watergate Records. He most recently delivered the 20th edition of the Watergate mix series, so give that a spin before you get down on Friday July 1 at Slyfox.

Fatima Al Qadiri[above] has announced her debut tour of Australia, taking place next month. Having first risen to prominence in 2014 with release of her record Asiatisch, the Kuwait-raised and US-based artist followed it up earlier this year with album Brute, cementing her spot as a staple of the famed Hyperdub family. She actually made a vow not to tour this year to instead focus on creating new music, so this announcement comes as a bit of a surprise. Expect things to get grimy on Saturday June 11 at Oxford Art Factory.

Let’s be real: there are two types of dubstep. The forward-thinking wonky UK garage-influenced sound that rose in the early ’00s, and the bullshit WUBwubWUBwubWUB ear torture that dickheads like Borgore and such put out. The Bristol-based veteran producer and DJ Rob Ellis AKA Pinch is a man who adheres strictly to former, and through his work running the Tectonic Recordings imprint he’s been at the forefront of the genre with his penchant for crafting otherworldly tempos and textures. Catch him alongside Cliques, U-Khan, John Glover, Letabruthaknow, Strafe and Dread Jensen on Saturday June 18 at the Burdekin Hotel. No lads allowed.

Tour rumour: tell you what, it sure has been a while since we’ve seen a visit from Richie Hawtin, hasn’t it? (Wink wink.)

Best releases this week: after giving a few seriously solid listens to DJ Koze’s Pampa Records Vol. 1 compilation, I’m hooked – with it featuring cuts from the likes of Roman Flügel, Funkstörung and Nasrawi. Other records that haven’t been leaving my headphones include Mihai Popescu’s Cause Of Being (on Soulsity), Barac’s Rawax Aira Series Vol. 4 (Rawax), M.Rav’s Common Purpose (L.I.E.S.), Stenny’sConsume IV (Ilian Tape), Limpid’s Shine(Metereze), Irazu’sTolerance For The Absurd (Soul Notes) and Sepp’sTimpuriu (UVAR).