You have been in Australia for a while now and played at a stack of parties. Which one has been your favourite so far?
Their have been so many parties that I have been honoured to play at and help promote, Such as 4th Quadrant which was the first crew to introduce DNB Boat Parties to Sydney, No Frills as we where the only crew in Sydney putting on Monthly DNB parties. Also the other promoters I have played for like, Foreign Dub, Chinese Laundry, Nasty Tek, Loaded Dice.

Who is the favorite International or Local you have played with.
I have been blessed to play with some of the premier locals and internationals that have come past, their have been a lot. Andy C for obvisous reasons, Survival was pretty special also, commix, Chook, Evol Intent and the special one which was last yer on my birthday Phace.

MC Antic will be joining you in Canberra. How did you and Antic come to know and work together?
Antic and I have known each other for a long long time, I used to watch him when he played at a party called Connect 4 and from their other big parties, his mic presents is just brilliant !!! He is not their to overtake but more compromise with what I do, which is hard to find these days, Another one to look out for though is MC Rush, great guy and very talented.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
Well I don’t wish to answer this as everyone does, but I do need to get into the studio and start laying some tracks down, I am crap house at doing stuff like this and do not have patients to sit their for 7-8 hours trying to vibe out on the one track, but I have too I know hahahahahahaha. Apart from that do some more shows around Oz mi thinks.

Catch Dj Reload and MC Antic at the Clubhouse 10 February

After stunning audiences across Australia with his devastating turntable massacre over the 2010-2011 new year season, Los Angeles producer-DJ Gaslamp Killer returns to Sydney with his uncategorisable show deftly blending Turkish psych, southern Crunk and the most bone shattering Dubstep youre likely to hear, all the while hosted with the best microphone technique of any DJ out there.
In late 2010, GLK brought listeners in to his world with his Death Gate EP for Flying Lotus Brainfeeder label. Since then, he has been touring the world, adeptly rocking any party be it a European electronic music festival like Sonar or a sunny afternoon bash like Do-Over.

Gaslamp Killer returns to headline his own show that is immediately more intimate and likely to be just as packed out as previous performances so don’t miss out on tickets to this one.

A huge supporting list including: Master of Ribongia (SYD), Paqman (MEL), Roleo (SYD), Onetalk (CBR/SYD), Deaf Cat, 2Fuddha, JPS (MEL), Faux Real & live visual art from Think About Surgery will make it an unmissable night!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=205640389507547

http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=51712&ref=moshtix&skin

What first sparked your interest in the drum & bass genre?
I first heard drum & bass through a school colleague in 1996. He was a DJ at the time and he used to play his mix tapes in the common room. I remember walking in one day and hearing the amen break tearing out over some deep subby bass with little vocal snippets echoing over the top and I was just drawn to it so I had to ask if I could borrow the tape. I was pretty much a fan ever since. Hearing drum & bass in a club for the first time is another story entirely but that is what really solidified drum & bass into my musical vocab.

How long have you been making music?
I’ve been producing music since about 2002 but its only been over the last 2-3 years that I’ve been really getting into it. Listening to how the sound has evolved over the years really helped push me into the right direction in terms of learning the technical side of production such as EQ, compression etc.

Who are some of your favourite producers and what inspires you?
Off the top of my head some of my favourites have to be Alpha Omega, Source Direct, Photek, Konflict, Usual Suspects, Digital, Loxy & Ink, Future Cut, C4C, MISTI:CAL, Break, Fierce…. I guess I like it all in one way or another. As far as inspiration goes I think my main source comes from knowing what I like to hear on the dance floor myself. I also go through phases where I’m cycling through a full spectrum of vibes such as one day I’ll feel like kidnapping someone, murdering them and dragging their body out into the woods so a tune like “Termination” is the result, then the next day I might feel like being nice to everyone and not even toot the horn or get angry when someone cuts in front of me while driving so a tune like “Fear in itself” is the result.

http://soundcloud.com/johnny-kon/johnny-kon-termination
http://soundcloud.com/johnny-kon/johnny-kon-fear-in-itself

Over the last couple of years you’ve had a bunch of releases with labels like Soul Deep Recordings, Intelligent Recordings and Silk Recordings. What else is on the horizon?
I have a little Jungle number coming out on Bass’Flo Recordings which is my latest signing so there maybe a few more Jungle bits are on the horizon.

What do you get into outside of producing music?
Battlefield Bad Company 2  ….and soon to be Battlefield 3 so don’t expect many tunes from me when this game comes out.

Catch Johnny Kon at Mercury Bar 14 October

You have been around for a bit, when did you start djing and how long have you been making tunes?
I first started playing around on my brothers decks when i was about 14, and started dabbling in production with friends like, Fourthstate and Tidy around the same time. But only the last 5 years i have really started taking producing seriously.

Who are some of your influences both now and when you were starting out?
Starting out i was strongly influenced by jungle tapes i aquired off my brother – dj ratty, micky finn, hype, roni size. These days i get influence from all sorts of people, from bb king to dj spooky.

How did your release on Inna Riddim come to be?
The Lads heard a couple of my tracks online, we all met up properly and I went in and played a couple of times on their radio show on bondi fm, later on they hit me up saying they were really liking my tunes and want to release a few!

You run a regular night in Sydney called Reload. How would you best describe the night and what kind of sounds are you showcasing?
Reload is a fun, friendly awesomeo regular local night (one of the only ones) that knowledged heads and artists really appreciate. It showcases the best in all things BASS music, in a truely underground and natural perspective. We basically cover Jungle to Dubstep with a focus on Grime.

What can we expect from you in the future?
I got a new single coming out on an INNA RIDDIM compilation, collabs with FRAKSHA, SCOTTY HINDS. A few beats coming out on SMASHBROS E.P, Beats for GARGOYLES new album, collabs with SWARMY and LEANE RUSSO and also the next RELOAD - grime international - TEDDY MUSIC! SEP 3RD! and of course more reloads were u can expect to see more of your fav canberra djs playing at!

Catch Juzlo playing at Mercury Bar, Friday 2 September

The Clubhouse & blahnket are very excited to be showcasing Tokimonsta

Born and raised in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, TOKiMONSTA (Jennifer Lee) was anunfocused pupil of classical piano. However, she has come to use this background to create vasttextural soundscapes through utilizing live instruments, percussion, digital manipulation, and dustynoise. Through her musical creations, she is able to fuse vintage sounds with progressive styles intosomething unique.

Her music has been recognized and praised by the very best in avant-garde and mainstream media.TOKiMONSTA has been featured on various large scale radio programs such as: BBC Radio1, NPR,BBC World Service, J Wave (JP), Studio Brussels (BE), Radio Nova (FR), KCRW (USA) to name a few.Subsequently, she has been featured in DJ Mag, Pitchfork, XLR8R, URB, Paper, LA Times, SPIN, and is listed as the #1 female DJ in Los Angeles by LA Weekly.

Not only has she caught ears of many as a different dimension of Los Angeles-based music, TOKiMONSTA is notably the first female to join crew/label BRAINFEEDER headed by Flying Lotus— celebrated as the most exciting LA music label by LA Weekly. In addition, she is also a 2010 Red Bull Music Academy alumni, allowing her to join the ranks of other elite taste maker alumni. Her live performance is engaging as well as intricate—using a laptop, other pieces of instrumentation and multimedia to orchestrate a truly interactive experience. She is a fearless and energetic performer who tours regularly around the world from LA to NY, London to Tel Aviv, Singapore to Tokyo. Some notable past performance were at DEMF, Sonar Barcelona. With the increased exposure and positive response, she is scheduled to perform at Coachella, WMC, SXSW, Sonar Tokyo, Wakarusa, and more in 2011. She will also be joint headlining with Daedelus on a 32 date US tour.

Downlink plays Dub by Day at Trinity bar on June 26th

Downlink has been punishing dancefloors all over the planet with his heavy brand of dubstep.

With roots in Jungle & DnB, he is no stranger to the vile side of subsonic dance music. Growing up in a cold industrial town in British Columbia, Canada, he was first introduced to dubstep in 2007 and soon after took to production. While maintaining an appreciation for the sparse and laid-back vibes of the old school, Downlink set out to explore a more frantic, adrenaline fuelled style, influenced by everything from heavy metal to astrophysics. It wasn’t long before his music found its place on Rottun Recordings.  While consistently coming up with sick material time after time, he has gained DJ support from all of the biggest names in the scene.

His success on the Beatport charts has been extraordinary. He managed to hold down 4 of the top 10 chart spots at one time and his songs “Emergency” and “Crippled Camel” hit #1 and #2 respectively. Along with Excision on the Subsonic tour, he slayed huge crowds across America, leaving people in awe time after time with his DJ sets. Downlink is not one to be pigeon-holed and is constantly on a quest to evolve and refine his sound. With this in mind, one thing will always remain constant – a pure unadulterated heavy listening experience…

Downlink – Halloween 2009 – DJ Mix

Escha in the mix @ Academy

Escha’s dj bio taken from the True Jungle Souljahs archive.

Escha started listening to electronic music back in 94, soon after he and his friend scraped enough money together to by some cheap ass belt drive turntables from Cash Converters. At about the same time his sister came back from the UK with her boyfriend in tow and it turned out this boyfriend was a bit of a Junglist and decided to buy some 1200’s. As Escha had always been into hip hop, he was instantly drawn to the Jungle sound and was lucky enough to learn fundamental mixing techniques from this old school Junglist

After months of practice Escha had his first gig at his friend’s house party where about 150+ people decided to turn up, including some well know DJ’s from Sydney and the dog squad. After getting props from the Sydney DJ’s and his mates for his skills, and almost having his sister’s boyfriend’s turntables confiscated by the cops, he really got into the DJ culture and especially Jungle Drum and Bass.

Escha continued to mix DnB for several years playing at many Canberra night clubs, Raves and also in Sydney. Escha’s most memorable gig was held at the National Aquarium with 1000+ people in attendance. There are even rumours of Escha killing fish with his baselines that night. Escha doesn’t confirm or deny anything.

alex getting hugs from cris

In 2000 Escha travelled to London, the home of Jungle, to experience the culture first hand. While only playing one DJ set in London, Escha spent a majority of his time and money looking for and buying DnB records all the way from Bristol to Brighton, especially the old school Jungle that Escha had been raised on.

After many FIED nights in London, Escha returned to Canberra in 2002 and hooked up with long time friend DJ Paf from Synapse and was helping promote DnB in Canberra once again.

More recently Escha has hooked up with fellow Junglists, Ben Jammin’ and Eska who run True Jungle Souljahs and supports most of the international DnB artists that come to Canberra.