The HAHA crew will celebrate nine years in the game on Saturday April 5 with a birthday bash at Goodgod Small Club headlined by Hun Choi, aka Hunee (which, for everyone reading this column aloud to a crowded room, is pronounced ‘who-knee’). The Korean-born Berlin resident established himself on the production front via EPs on labels like Ostgut Ton, Permanent Vacation and Rush Hour, while as a DJ, Hunee is known around the traps as a respected selector who trades in “warm and sensuous” sets that traverse an eclectic spectrum of disco, techno, acid and soul sounds. “I feel most promoters know what they’re getting into when they book me,” Choi stated earlier this year. “Sometimes I get asked to play a more ‘organic’ set or even ‘strictly techno’ for a few hours. I actually enjoy both – the freedom to build a journey through a variety of styles and genres, but also the challenge of boundaries and building a journey with a more limited scale of sounds.” Knowing the HAHA crew, Hunee will be given carte blanche to play the music he wants – it is this commitment to the artists they book and the music they love that has established HAHA as an underground institution in Sydney for the past decade. So happy birthday, and here’s to many more…
Following a prolific 2013, Vancouver ambient/dub techno proponent Jordan Sauer, best known asSegue, has just released a new album entitledThe Here And Nowon French label Sem. Last year, Sauer completed three separate releases, including the serenePacificaalbum, an LP imbued with immersive layers of subtle melodies that evoke the beautiful natural landscapes of the Canadian West Coast, which inspired the release. “The sounds of thePacific are that of nature, forest and ocean. Space, tranquility and apulse that lets you know everything is alive around you,” Sauer elucidated, adding, “Even if the album was inspired by nature and scenery, maybe it helpssome guy in working in an office tower somewhere to calm down andfocus on his work”. IndeedPacificais aural escapism at its finest, and mandatory listening as a precursor toThe Here And Now, which is similarly laden with field recordings and ethereal melodies created from live instrumentation.
Acclaimed Chicago producerBoo Williamswill make his Australian debut atClub 77onFriday March 21, an appearance that coincides with the release of his forthcoming album,The Boo Williams Explosion,Williams’ first LP since 2001’sUniversal Limits. Part of the ‘second wave’ of the city’s underground producers along with the likes of his mentor Glenn Underground, Gemini and Paul Johnson, Williams has been churning out house cuts since ’94, most recently on labels like Rush Hour and Chiwax. “I just have my own style of music that comes very rooted from the likes of Larry Heard, Robert Owens, Lil Louis, Marshall Jefferson and Glenn Underground,” Williams reflected recently. “When you listen to a Chicago artist back in the day that sound can not be copied and it’s a trademark of a lifetime – so that’s why my music is ahead of its time.”
The next batch of remixes of tracks fromDJ Koze’s acclaimed 2013 albumAmygdalawill drop next week on Koze’s own Pampa imprint. Following the reworks by Matthew Herbert and Efdemin, the latest refashionings arrive courtesy of another pair of considerable stature in techno circles: Roman Flügel and Robag Wruhme. Flügel, the cofounder of the hallowed Playhouse imprint, has remixed the track ‘Amygdala’, but it is Wruhme who steals the show with his version of ‘Nices Wölkchen’, which Robag appropriates with the kind of hazy melodies and crunchy percussion that imbue his original productions and remixes alike (Robag’sOlgamikkscompilation is highly recommended for a snapshot of his formidable remixing ability). In short, this EP confirms that Koze getting Robaged is one of the better combos in German techno, a combination to rival Efdemin getting Kozed.
Looking Deeper
Friday March 21
Boo Williams
Club 77
Saturday March 22
Recondite
Club 77
Saturday April 5
Hunee
Goodgod Small club
Saturday April 26
Fred P
Marrickville Bowling Club
Deep Impressions: electronica manifesto and occasional club brand. Contact through [email protected]
