Gaza Freedom Flotilla Fundraising Party

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The situation in Gaza is abhorrent and unacceptable. Despite the complexity of the myriad of issues involved, a resolution to the problems would be remarkably simple but as we all know, a small number of powerful people and powerful interests seek to obfuscate the matter, purely for selfish interests, to the detriment of the whole middle east and the rest of the world.

The fact that a specific ethnic group in Gaza and the occupied territories suffer more than anyone is the most unfortunate and deplorable outcome. And their situation appears to only be getting worse. From the Israeli and US administration through to the Palestinians' own representatives, the real victims are being ignored.

Regular people have started to take action where government and representatives have failed to do so for decades. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla aims to provide much needed aid and supplies to the people of gaza as well as to bring attention to the conditions resulting from the Israeli blockade. You can read more about Gaza and the aims of the Free Gaza Movement and Flotilla here.

You can help out by coming to a party I'm involved with to raise funds for the next Gaza Freedom Flotilla. It's a great lineup of local DJs who have all donated their time and talents as well as generous others who have donated the sound system and other equipment. It's only $10 and all proceeds go to the cause.


Here's a very small sample of DJ mixes, tracks and links to give you an idea of what to expect:

Jonny Faith recently released an EP getting lots of airplay and DJ love all over the world. His Blue Sky On Mars EP is available on iTunes, Boomkat and whole bunch of other places. You can also download his recently aired mix for Ninja Tune's Solid Steel radio show.
Solid Steel Radio Show 25/2/2011 Part 3 + 4 - Jonny Faith by Ninja Tune

Edseven is one of Sydney's most reliable DJs, always bringing out something new and mixing up all sorts of different sounds from the past present and future. His list of international support slots and history of residencies is very long. Check out his most recent mix:

edseven - yellow mixtape by edseven


Western Synthetics (aka Rhyece O'Neill) has been mentioned on this blog before and was kind enough to take some time to put down his thoughts on Gaza and help plug the party through the Sub Continental Dub newsletter and blog which you can read here. You can buy the the Western Synthetics album May Day Radio here.

Sofie Loizou has been a mainstay on Sydney's electronic music scene and is always ahead of the curve from her production to great DJ sets. Check out her most recent mix below and follow her Twitter for lots of interesting political and musical tidbits.
Sofie Flicks the Switch DJ Mixtape 2 - Feb 2011 by sofie


As the flyer says, the party happens this Sunday 13th March at the Gladstone Hotel, Chippendale from 2-10pm. Facebook event page here.

Clark Nova's Picks of the Week - Hermitude, Western Synthetics, Oneman & more

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Hermitude
Hermitude have been producing solid output for close to a decade now which is quite a feat for what can sometimes appear to be a fickle scene. My favourite from them is Tales of the Drift, there's a few great tracks on that album. I haven't really kept up with what they've done more recently; judging from their latest track I probably should have been paying more attention.
The new track takes on a more wonky influence in comparison to the stuff I'm familiar with and they do it well. You can grab a free download of Hermitude's Get In My life via the Elefant Traks site.

Western Synthetics
Rhyece O'Neill, better known as producer Western Synthetics, has been making beautiful, deep dubstep for some time now and is finally releasing an album, May Day Radio, on Sub Continental Dub. Head over to Symbiosis for an interview with Rhyece and a free mix.
You can catch the Western Synthetics Sydney album launch at Index tomorrow night at The Phoenix.


Westernsynthetics feat. Charles Smith - The Machine (official music video) from mark reid on Vimeo.


Oneman
Over the past year I've been really digging Oneman's mixes and news has it he's heading to Australia early in the new year. (Also, his tumblr is great!) Check out his most recent RinseFM show where he digs into the garage crates and plays an awesome set. Be warned though, he does like to talk a lot... “Bouncey, bouncey”. Direct download Oneman on RinseFM here.

Brendan Moeller
I much prefer hearing a good DJ play a four hour set than a one-two hour set. On the other hand, a DJ that plays a bad four hour set is worse than anything, so I can see why it isn't done as often as it once was...
The good news is, Brendan Moeller (Beat Pharmacy, Echologist) has done a cracking 4 hour set. If you're expecting four hours of dub-techno, you'll be disappointed. If that's what you want to hear in a four hour DJ set you deserve to be disappointed.
It's really great stuff traversing a wide range of music (hip hop, reggae, techno and a whole heap of other genres), well selected and put together, and worth the almost 700mb download.
Thanks to Hank for putting me on to this one.


DJ set at www.deepspacenyc.com on Nov. 1st 2010 by brendonmoeller

Clark Nova's Picks of the Week

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Steve Sonius Mix
Steve Sonius is one of Sydney’s most well respected DJs, from the legendary Sydney Rat parties to a regular DJ around Sydney’s clubs for two decades (I’m guessing, it’s probably more).

He’s also behind the Bad Dog parties which I’ve always had intentions of going to but never do get round to it… I will make it one day, I promise!

Other than that Steve has slowed down the DJing side of things but still manages to make the occasional mix. They’re always great as he’s still ever on the hunt for new music and new sounds even after all this time. I guess that’s what makes him a great DJ.

The most important thing to know about Steve is he’s a great guy that I’m glad to have known through working with him for a few years.

Anyway, he’s done a new mix and it might surprise some. It’s great and well worth an addition to the iPod. Tracklist is available on his Soundcloud page.

Mr sonius' drop 0810 by steve_sonius

Bad Ezzy Mix
From the old (sorry Steve) to the (relatively) new. Bad Ezzy been bouncing around the Sydney scene for a few years or more now, playing on her own and also as part of the Hoops crew.

More recently she’s been part of the United Colours crew who put on occasional parties including getting Kingdom to play at Tone. Kingdom was one of the best DJ sets I’ve seen in years. They also had Solo play more recently… so kudos to the United Colours crew.

Anyway, I had the pleasure of meeting Ezzy through Carly along with her partner Spruce Lee (aka Toni Toni Lee). They're great people and they've managed to put up with me on occasions when morning has turned to day.

Check out the new mix on a tropical, house, party sort of vibe. Again, the tracklist is at the Bad Ezzy Soundcloud page.

Bad Gyal Club Mix by Bad Ezzy

Gentleforce is on the Cover of Wire Magazine
Well, not the cover, but the CD he’s on is! Gentleforce (aka Eli Murray) released his debut album earlier this year through Feral Media and it’s beautiful: lush soundscapes, muted beats and generally just a stunning vibe you can get lost in. It’s received plenty of support including an appearance on Triple J’s Soundlab. If I were to make a comparison I’d go with Pan-American but Gentleforce definitely has his own idiosyncrasies woven through the sound and mood.

He’s been busy having contributed the artwork for the cover of the current issue of Cyclic Defrost magazine as well as an in-depth run through of his favourite album covers. (Cyclic Defrost is a great, locally produced bi-monthly magazine covering electronic and more experimental sounds and you can download full PDF versions of the mag at their website.)

Gentleforce Cyclic Defrost #26 cover


As well, a Gentleforce track has made it on to the Wire Tapper CD for the latest issue of Wire magazine. Great international exposure that’s well deserved and will hopefully lead to some more interest.

You can purchase the Gentlefore album at Bandcamp.

And Some Not So New Mixes
It’s nothing new but worth a mention anyway. Dubspot is an electronic music production school in New York and they get a bunch of great guests in to talk production and it seems many of them also do a guest mix. You can find a whole bunch of mixes and other stuff on the Dubspot featured artists page of their website.

For mine, the mix Lorn (Brainfeeder) did for them is probably one of my favourite mixes of the year and he’s got some great production tips at the end – he keeps it pretty simple and does everything on computer with almost no samples. If you haven’t heard his album you should check it out.

Dubspot Radio Podcast: Ep 2 Lorn (mix set & interview) by Dubspot