Calling in Sick boys have done it again. Mass props to the lads as the original + remixes weren’t doing it for me, but this shit’s huge. TIGHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! If this doesn’t get you moist then get back to listening shit like this. Get it while its hot and steamy.
Oh and some news from their camp: They will be playing their very first live show in around 2months time delivering a shit load of fun (as expected). We will keep you posted on more details at a later date.
We managed to catch Gus da Hoodrat, one sixth of the Bang Gang Deejays, just before he boarded a flight with Jamie Doom to Europe for their epic 100% Mega Dance Tour for Modular. Gus has been part of the Bang Gang dj posse ever since their weekly nights at the infamous Club 77 in Sydney and has since taken the party around the country for monthly raves at Third Class in Melbourne and more recently around the globe, from Miami to Fabric in London.
Gus tells us about his new Finger Prince mix, the new releases coming out on their Bang Gang 12’s label and his personal hair styling tips…
Waves: What were the first records in your collection when you started djing? Gus: I distinctly remember buying my first “modern dance” record at central station when I was young and it was Pete Heller’s french filter interpretation mega hit ‘BIG LOVE’ , and it has this dope Keith Haring image on the front of a big love heart (funnily enough)…. after that it was Stardust and then it was Rappers Delight (I think this was bought because i thought that if all else failed this would always work - I saw an 80 year old jammin’ to this at a wedding when I was a kid and instantly knew it was an all time classic boomer….for all ages.)
Also I had inherited my grandmothers collection of dope Ravi Shankar and Trinadad steel drum band records and my dad’s Beach Boys and American Graffiti soundtracks….they kept me in check.
Waves: What were the last three records that you purchased? Gus: Im gonna give you 4, cos one is an album, and that doesn’t count, that is more me in my car kinda thing, or maybe with a girl or something, or just watching tv, and not actually watching the tv, just listening to the record…you know??
Metronomy - Heart Rate Rapid (peep the primary 1 remix - whackattack!!) Telespazio - Galileo (totally adventurous electronic disco boogie vibe going on here…all the way from the outside to the last groove) The Mole - Baby You’re The One (this is a straight up techno record with a crazy disco vibe going on, reminds me of some Roulé records, its on Wagon Repair - these guys are probably French Canadians so they can get away with it.) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (this album is amazing, like doing backflips in space while flying a kite)
Waves: Have your musical tastes broaden over the years? Gus: Maybe…I do enjoy pop music more than I ever have in the past…I think some of it is amazing…I suddenly realised that all the old music I love was once “pop” music, and therefore I should be more accepting of those boy bands out there making my shopping at Woolworths a more pleasurable experience.
Waves: Any particular tracks that you just can’t help playing at each gig? What records never leave your bag? Gus: Here some of my all time favs; Beatles - Day Tripper, Bob Sinclar - Ultimate funk, Plastik Man - Spastik, Tiga - Burning Down, Bag Raiders - Fun Punch, etc etc etc … man way too many to go through…
Waves: Who are the artists these days that are capturing your ears with a new or individual sound? Gus: I love all the artists working on our label - Bag Raiders, Like Woah, ZZZ, Whitenoise, Spruce & Kato and all the other amazing locals - Cutters, Juggers, Presets, Van She, Bumblebeez, Soft Tigers, etc etc etc…you know the score.
Internationally I am touched by people like Breakbot (cos he makes smoochy dance music), Hercules and Love Affair (smoochy gay dance music), Siriusmo (gay dance glitch music), and then of course Mr. Oizo - the man behind the man that keeps on reinventing himself…. always a huge inspiration for me.
Waves: Who are the dj’s that you look to for inspiration or enjoy watching play? Gus: Boys Noize, Jaime Doom, Andee Frost, U-Go-B, and DJ Craze….many others though.
Waves: What has the future got install for the Bang Gang Posse? Any future releases or raves? World Domination? Gus: The future holds many possibilities, as a posse we are going to fight the warriors down at coney island for our small place in history…. of course we will kiss and make up after as they are a bunch of cool dudes who got pinned for something they didn’t do…that is when we will have a rave - monthly in melburn - at 3rd class…our favourite dance den.
No releases planned as we have discovered that we are djs - not producers.
Waves: How does the rest of the world embrace the Bang Gang deejays?
Do you get similar crowd responses when you dj overseas? Gus: It is different everywhere you play - sometimes they hate you, sometimes they love you but the most important thing is that you always have fun in your own little cosmic world. I think people have started to except us, ill let you know when i get home in a few weeks…
Waves: Have the roles within the group changed from when you first started out? Gus: Oh they haven’t really ever changed, I think we are all just alot more busy now and it just means we do things differently.
Waves: Any new releases coming up from the Bang Gang 12 inches label?
Have you got your eye on any up and coming local talent? Gus: We have some stuff coming from ZZZ, New Bag Raiders, New Like Woah, Death Set remix release, Toecutter, and many many more…all we have to do is get organised and they may come out before the end of the year (fingers crossed).
Waves: What was the inspiration behind ‘Disko Robot Cocks’? Gus: It was me learning how to use pro tools with Christopher Brave, him and Brainzar taught me everything I know about that program, unfortunately I have now forgotten everything, that song was our original form of experimentation.
Waves: Favourite food to eat before a gig? Gus: Oysters..
Waves: What can the kids expect from your Prince Fingers Part 2 mix? Gus: More disco, less techno, and another hour of their life they may want back after they listen.
Waves: If you weren’t djing, what other occupation would we find you working? Gus: Oooooooh.. Definitely a custodian of the arts.
Waves: And finally, Patch wants to know the secrets of maintaining a maine like yours? Gus: Never Shampoo. Always Kondition.
You can listen/download Gus da Hoodrat’s lastest Finger Prince mix installment over at www.banggangpodcast.com and for those of you in the UK and Europe be sure to get down to one of the 100% Mega Dance Raves near you.
And for those of you who need your music fix, here’s the Juggers remixing the Cutters for the upcoming release of Hearts on Fire.
One of my favourite groups, Hot Chip, never failed to astound me with anything they touch and these two reworks are nothing short of amazing. The first is a short little remix of a Stones classic, which easily captures the spirit and warmth of the original, perfect for those kite flying afternoons in the park.
The second is a remix that i’ve been in love with ever since Annie Mac first dropped it a few weeks back on her Radio 1 show. It’s a very uplifting tune with dreamy vocals, searing keys and horse claps. Also check out the Hot Chip Dub and Bird Peterson Remix!
Finally the blog is back rollin & scratchin’ again. While writing this I am listening to Mashed 4 which I was anticipating a tad since the last compilations in the series were pretty cool (having Ajax and even Bang Gang doing mixes). But still I’m not one for Ministry releases and despise them greatly. And yes this one does disappoint; Kissy Sell Out does a nice job but Aston Shuffle’s attempt of mixing the “indie” tracks is fucking dismal. Fuck, I would rather have Steve Aoki take a diarrhea dump in my ear then to listen to _that_ again. Fuck.
Anyway, Stewart Rowell & Louis Gaston make up Streetlife DJs: a UK DJ’ing/production duo sharing between them 30 years of turntable experience. They are compassionate with their music and their attitude is bold: ‘this is the music industry, so we want to entertain’. So, with that being said, they aren’t afraid to mix different genres around. DJ Mag even claiming them to be the UK version of 2 Many DJs.
They recently caught my eye after hearing some fine remixes/edits but what put the icing on the cake was seeing a release of theirs on Kitsune; I knew they had to be special, right? Buy their Kitsune 12″ ‘Gunn Crime’ (a nice adaption of the Peter Gunn theme) from Spank Records.
Back into it. Being at work 6 days a week is tiring. Barely had time to listen to anything new in the past couple of days. One thing that really has caught my attention though is a band out of California called Pocahaunted. Awesome name. They play some amazing psychadelic, ambient folk. Think something along the lines of Magic Markers or Robedoor. Their new album, Island Diamonds, is absolutely fantastic and perfect for those cold nights to lie in bed and fall asleep to.
Next up is a few boys from Melbourne, The Process, who are actually about to drop their next EP and play a couple of shows supporting Mercy Arms when they come down to Melbourne later on this month. May 22nd at Pogo to be precise.
Another Melbourne band, Bachelor Of Arts with my favourite track off last years Signal Receiving EP. I hadn’t seen this posted anywhere and these guys deserve a bit of coverage.
Now heres something that everyone can appreciate. Stumbled upon the RAC (remix artists collective) latest release. It’s the SEGA vs Nintendo EP, and they’ve taken it upon themselves to remix some classis 8 bit tunes. My favourite by far (mostly because its one of my fav games) is the Link to the Past theme remix. Never thought Id hear it like this.
Last up is a track from the French band, Turzi, released last year on Record Makers. Its such a refreshing mix of sounds too. You can hear the French electronica influence, but also splashed with plenty of driving drums and guitar rhythms. I like.
I didn’t take long for Australia (and the UK) to fall in love with the intergalactic foursome that is The Galvatrons. In just under 12 months these synth-bearing mavericks from the future (or past?) have conquered the indie-dance world with their addictive 80’s movie soundtrack melodies and power ballad anthems. They now have a shiny new EP entitled ‘When We Were Kids’ in stores which includes some fun disco hits and a couple of killer remixes. You can catch these interstellar kids playing all over Australia throughout May and then taking on the UK crowds in June and even rocking the O2 Wireless Festival, you show em lads!!
Here’s the always impressive Bag Raiders with their neon remix of ‘When We Were Kids’…
While on the topic of the Bag Raiders who, i’m told, are almost finished with their own debut EP. We have yet another remix of their ever so popular track ‘Fun Punch’, this time by rising Sydney producer Toecutter. He puts a glitchy, hacked up spin on the original while keeping the bounce and fun contained within. Also check out a Toecutteroriginal, which i believe is getting an official release later in the year on Bang Gang 12 inches, it’s a very catchy distorted disco/pop tune which cleverly uses a vocal from Kool and the Gang and turns it into something that can you jive to for hours. This is the extended dub mix, expect the original to be much shortly!
Man I wish I was there…but then uber self-absorbed American douchebags would have wrecked it for me. Please come to Australia so that I don’t have to keep hearing from my dad about how he watched them in Sydney. Even then, it was with Wolfgang! Blast.
All blogs are tré homo, especially music ones with shitty writers who have opinions that are particularly, to put simply, fucking cunty. Ok cunty is not a word. But fuck, i’m apparently an example of my own contention. Please take this into account in the next couple of paragraphs.
If you haven’t caught on yet, i’m just validating what JD wrote. Yeah wow amazing, like pow! Right in the kisser yeah? “fuck you waves” right? No.
I still love this Blog, although its path has gone ‘ash tray’ (sound it out). There is a general idea that if something is good; lets play it fucking heaps! “fuck yeah! justice wow!”
Doing this is killing it. We need to except it was great but to move on to new things. The Ed Banger thing was amazing but by remixing everything to the end of its breath isn’t going to make it come back.
But you know, luckily…the most amazing thing about music is that you can act all fucking cool about it and immediately obtain self-gratification by putting down old genres of music. (Minus Bowie or sonic youth of course) get the hint? do you understand what im trying to tell you?
But then again I could take that all back after listening to the volume III teaser with sebastiAn – Dog. Fuck.
I guess what im trying to say is…
No more jock bullshit! More noise! less music! Lets move away from house, fluro and the French.
Ok, official Brian Jonestown Massacre update. Those of you who have waited so long to catch Anton and whoever the fuck else is backing the band these days, this is your chance:
“2008 Australian Dates Announced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
27th in Brisbane @ The Arena
29th in Sydney @ The Metro
30th in Melbourne @ The Hi-Fi Bar
Perth and Adelaide…PLEASE forgive us for not coming to visit…we would if we could…It’s hard to convince the right people that it’s worth it if you’re not selling as many records as, say The Divinyls or…Barnsey!!! HOPEFULLY NEXT TIME!!!
NEW ZEALAND!!! IF YOUR READING…CHECK BACK WITH US REAL SOON!!!
ALOHA
BJM”
Ahh. Gush gush gush. I had to rewatch DiG! after hearing the news. Such a good film.
This post is also quite important for zac (oscar milde) and I, as we would like to take this opportunity to officially denounce our faith. Well…at least half of it. I just dont feel it in my bones anymore. Just the saturation of fluorescence and the feeling like I never really hear anything new and fresh. Just the same old processed cheese compressed electro remixes etc etc. I will still always love The Presets, Cut Copy, Daft Punk etc, but I know the end is nigh and feel the need to escape the ‘jockish cult that surrounds the genre’ as Guy Blackman happened to put it. So, hopefully from now on Ill be trying to post as much more diverse sounds as I can for anyone who’s willing to listen and have a chat about what they think. Whether its anything new or just something thats just good. Theres always going to be the occasional DFA track (because I still love them) and Presets remix cos you always have to have something to dance to, huh.
Anyway, thats my rant for the night. So…yeah. Dig, in my humble opinion, the best track off the new album ‘My Bloody Underground’, and get tickets asap whenever they get properly announced.
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