Well hello there. Meet the newest festival on the Australian summer calendar: Tell No Tales. Run by the Hardware crew, the event is “inspired by the European summer” – whatever that means. Marketing/promo bullshit aside, the lineup speaks for itself. Headlining will be minimal techno maverick Ricardo Villalobos (let’s hope he doesn’t repeat the “car crash” set he performed last year at Cocoon In The Park – you know what I’m talking about) alongside Pan-Pot, Audion (AKA Matthew Dear), Agents Of Time and Nastia. Noice. Very noice. It’s going down on Saturday December 3 at the Flemington Racecourse.
Oh my! It’s the return of a DJ so good that the last time he was here his set stopped my girlfriend and I breaking up (well, at least for a month, long story). Yep, having not returned to Australia since 2010 when I was dating Katie, the Chicago head Chez Damier is coming back our way. Having worked with the likes of KMS Records, The Music Institute, The Bellville Three (AKA Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Sanderson), alongside his seminal productions with Ron Trent, Damier is one of the few remaining pioneers of deep house that hasn’t sold out and relinquished the art of their craft for Ben Franklins. Catch him on Friday September 9 at The Night Cat.
Straight-up one of the best DJs in the world, Jackmaster, has locked in a Melbourne headline show. One of the most in-demand selectors of the past five years, the Glasgow don is one of the only names in the game who has never even touched upon an original production or remix. Dude DJs – and that’s all he does. Dude DJs well. The Numbers co-founder (of which the label has released the likes of SBTRKT, Deadboy, Redinho, Jessie Ware, Sophie, Jamie XX and Mosca) is a favourite of Ben UFO, Mike Servito, Seth Troxler and Jamie Jones, and is a regular at the world’s most revered clubs such as Berghain and fabric. Head to his Soundcloud and give his 2015 Mastermix a rinse for a proper schooling. Catch him on Friday November 25 at Brown Alley.
Tour rumours: If you’ve even just stepped foot into a club this year then you’ve no doubt heard Midland’s track Final Credits (on ReGraded). Those diva vocals, damn son. You’ll get to see the lad spinning it himself mighty soon. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see John Talabot coming our way in the near future. Oh, and a headline show from techno kingpin Function in January? You better believe it.
Best releases this week: what’s that? You’ve realized that the record from Frank Ocean that has taken over the internet is kinda bourgeois and want to listen to something worthwhile? I gotcha covered. Will Long’s deep house debut Purple / Blue on Comatonse Recordings is luuuuuuush. Both tracks are accompanied by an overdub from DJ Sprinkles, making this shit one of the most fire records of 2016 thus far. Highly recommend. Ukrainian deep house cat Vakula’s Cyclicality Between Procyon and Gomeisa (on Dekmantel) is well worth your time, as is Kareem and Huren’s Le 17 Janvier Los Angeles, USA (on Noiztank).
