Underground, Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery
Subsonic’s ‘Sub Club’ offshoot returns to the Burdekin on Saturday July 13 for a bash headlined by highly touted French producer Thomas Muller. Muller cut his teeth laying down beats with compatriots Okain and Paul Ritch – who have similarly since gone on to ‘make it’ – before being signed by Ellen Allien to her BPitch Control label five years ago. Muller has subsequently chalked up noteworthy EPs such as Neurones and remixed the likes of Telefon Tel Aviv and Allien herself. In his forthcoming performance at Sub Club, Muller will be showcasing his live set, dishing it out to Sydneysiders only a week after performing at the renowned German clubbing colosseum that is Panorama Bar. A hefty DJ support cast has been assembled across two floors of the venue in support of the headliner, with New Zealand’s Logan Baker, the entrepreneurial Edoardo Perlo and Subsonic main men MSG and Marcotix all set to spin. Presale tickets are available online for $15, with Subsonic also preparing for their festival launch party, which according to my sources is slotted for August.
Elusive Montreal-based producer Marc Leclair, best known for his output as Akufen, will release his first full-length album under his less utilised Horror Inc. moniker, entitled Briefly Eternal, at the end of the month through Perlon Records. Leclair pioneered his own cut-up microsample heavy house sound through his work as Akufen in the early part of last decade, making music through a process he likened to “a child playing with scissors, paper, and glue…the results are extremely naïve and playful.” Under the Akufen banner, Leclair released the excellent album My Way and helmed a Fabric mix before going into a production hibernation that can be linked to the birth of his child (and the necessary prioritising of one’s personal life that comes with such a landmark). Given Leclair derived the Akufen moniker from “acouphène”, the French word fortinnitus that describes a ringing in the ears that torments many musicians and music fans alike, it is appropriate that he’s going to release his new album under a less self deprecating title, though the decision to release the LP under a different banner is more reflective of a shift in sound and sensibility. (Horror Inc. “is much closer to me than Akufen will ever be,” Leclair is on the record as saying.) Leclair has only released three EPs as Horror Inc. over the years, and none since 2010, though following his recent remixes of Brandt Brauer Frick and Canson, Leclair has now clearly decided to up the ante with the imminent release of the ten-track album. Leclair describes Briefly Eternal as a “very personal trip through the depths of ‘Booh’” – your guess is as good as mine on that one!
While weekly party Strange Fruit has built its following around delivering consistently impressive local DJ lineups every Saturday, it has been known to have the odd dalliance with an international headliner. In such instances, it only goes for the very best – remember it has hosted Mano Le Tough and Luke Slater this year, for instance. That list has now been added to, with Hamburg producer &ME and Sydney techno export Deepchild set for an international double-bill on Saturday August 3 within the familiar confines of the Abercrombie. &ME is the co-founder of the Berlin label/collective Keinemusik, and has cemented his standing at the forefront of the German house scene, notching up remixes of Tiefschwarz and Adam Port along the way. Meanwhile Rick Bull – AKA Deepchild – moved from Sydney to Berlin four years ago and has made himself aregular guest at two of Berlin’s foremost techno arenas: Berghain and Tresor. Last year Bull released his first album since relocating, Neukölln Burning, and is now returning home to tour the album, which was apparently a cathartic response to some of the producer’s personal struggles. Melbourne’s Volta and Strange Fruit main man Jordan Deck round off the bill, with presale tickets available for a mere ten crabs.
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through [email protected]
