Dance and Electronica with Chris Honnery

Californian-born, Austria-based producer Johannes Auvinen, renowned for his output as Tin Man, will perform live at the Agincourt Hotel in Ultimo on Friday November 22. Auvinen has accumulated a diverse oeuvre as Tin Man, making off-kilter dance music that traverses acid, house, pop and “moody classical themes” in what are often lyrically-driven productions. His albums such as 2012’s Vienna Blue LP meld ambient, classical and dance music paradigms in a homage to his home city Vienna. Auvinen began his career by releasing acid house-influenced EPs on Finnish label Keys of Life and has since released on labels such as Absurd, remixed the likes of Donato Dozzy and Audision, and been remixed by heavy hitters like Tobias Freund and more recently G-Man and Christopher Rau on the Chimes EP that dropped earlier this year. Oscillating between brooding songwriting and more robust club-friendly tracks, Auvinen says that “Tin Man is techno imagining a world where techno is pop,” explaining that his moniker is based on a character who is defined by his struggle to “become more human, to find a heart”. (For those after a tangential anecdote on the subject of the Tin Man, Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan had a Tin Man doll that he conversed with at length during the nadir of his drug addiction. “It was basically psychotic behavior, which of course now I can see. But at the time I thought, ‘Doesn’t everyone have these things?’”) Auvinen’s live set will be a moody techno-leaning affair interspersed with his own live vocals and is a must for discerning fans of experimental electronica. Presale tickets available online for $15.

Fresh from releasing his seventh artist album, Beautiful Rewind, Kieran Hebden, AKA Four Tet, will play a night-long DJ set at Goodgod Small Club on Thursday February 6. Hebden, a London-born producer of Indian lineage, first made his mark with his band Fridge, who released their first album Ceefax on Trevor Jackson’s label Output Recordings back in ’97. Hebden has since crafted masterful solo albums such as Rounds and There Is Love In You, accumulating a diverse discography that has also yielded a FabricLive mix, collaborations with Burial and Thom Yorke and memorable remixes of Kings of Convenience, Radiohead and Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard. Having played live in previous Australian appearances, the forthcoming tour will mark the first time that Hebden has performed as a DJ Down Under. The concept continues Hebden’s increased interest in club music, which has imbued his more recent releases – ‘For These Times’ is a certified dancefloor destroyer – and follows on from sets at renowned clubs like Plastic People, Berghain and Fabric. But if you’re after the best indicator of what to expect from Hebden’s Goodgod all-nighter, perhaps you should look to his recent eight-hour show on Rinse FM, which incorporated house, jazz, garage and electronica. However, since trying to forecast what such an eclectic selector will play is a futile task, the prudent course of action is to score your ticket and find out for yourself.

Veteran Essex techno producer Ben Sims has helmed the 73rd chapter in the Fabric mix cannon, with the final compilation set to release before the year’s out. Sims hasn’t released a commercial mix for five years, but has seemingly made up for lost time here; he’s crammed in 44 tracks (18 of which are unreleased) into the mix, which was initially recorded live before Sims added edits and stitched it all together using Ableton. The tracklist for Fabric 73 comprises cuts from luminaries Robert Hood, Kirk Degiorgio and Marcel Dettmann, with the final product apparently laden with “samples folded, creased, and crammed into the spirited techno in a way that suggests a raucous party inside the tunes themselves”. Fabric 73 drops in early December and if you’re after a Christmas stocking filler for your technophilic friend, it’s doubtful this will disappoint.

Looking Deeper

Sunday November 17

Tama Sumo

The Spice Cellar

Thursday November 21

Carl Craig

The Spice Cellar

Friday November 22

Tin Man

The Agincourt Hotel

Thursday February 6

Four Tet

Goodgod Small Club

Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through [email protected].

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