Off The Record

The North Carolina-born artist Travis Stewart AKAMachinedrumhas locked in a Sydney headline show.

Since his first independent release in 1999, Stewart has produced over a dozen albums under various aliases, collaborated with the likes of Sepalcure, Jets and Dream Continuu, and produced for Jamie Liddell, Jesse Boykins and, err, Azealia Banks. He’ll be joined by Melbourne’s Planete and local legend Preacha on Saturday January 2 at Goodgod Small Club.

The legends over at Astral People are next week bringing to town one of the finest producers to come out of Bristol, Kowton. Ever since bursting onto the scene in 2012 with his groundbreaking mix for FACT Magazine, his dark brand of techno, house and heavy dub-influenced bass has seen him go on to work with Julio Bashmore and score countless coveted Boiler Room spots. Alongside Peverelist and Asusu, he also formed the highly regarded Livity Sound imprint. He’ll be supported by Cliques and EK Collective when he takes on Goodgod Small Club on Friday December 11.

What are you doing this weekend? I’ll tell you what you’re doing; you’re going to see goddamn Dense & Pika at Chinese Laundry. Made up of Chris Spero (know to some as Glimpse) and Hypecolour co-founder (together with Jamie Russell) Alex Jones, together the duo make some of the hardest-hitting warehouse techno around, and are regulars on the seminal Hotflush Recordings label. They’ll be flanked by Lo’99 and Mike Metro this Saturday December 5.

Some really good reading material: electronic music bible Resident Advisor has just launched its new ‘opinion’ series and the first instalment is damn good. Citing incidents such as Ten Walls’ homophobic Facebook comments and Berceuse Heroique founder Gizmo’s now-deleted misogynistic tweet that read “following a girl for 3 hours around London cause she has the best ass EVER is not a crime”, in the piece Angus Finlayson argues that the outrage that follows certain social media posts can be used as a positive force for change. Highly recommended.

Tour rumour: we’ll be seeing the return of Seth Troxler over the NYE break. The announcement should be dropping any day now.

Best releases this week: ahead of his tour this month, I highly recommend giving a spin to Floating Points’ Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1, which is streaming for free on the BBC website. As for official releases, I’m digging Leif’s (not to be confused with the rapper Le1f) Taraxacum (on UntilMyHeartStops), alongside Petre Inspirescu’s beatless new album Vin Ploile (Mule Musiq). Oh, and DJ Dodger Stadium have done the unthinkable and made Adele’s ubiquitous ‘Hello’ dancefloor-friendly with a fire (and free) remix up now on their website.

[Main picture:Machinedrum by Andrew DeFrancesco]

Recommended:

THURSDAY DECEMBER 3

Gilles Peterson@Oxford Art Factory

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4 – SUNDAY DECEMBER 6

Subsonic Music Festival: KiNK, Dop, Rick Wade, Roman Flügel + more@Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort, Barrington Tops

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5

Margaret Dygas@Civic Underground

Dense & Pika@Chinese Laundry

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11

Kowton@Goodgod Small Club

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12