baby baby baby

Mount Kimbie, Maybes

From an Abbey Road debut recorded mere weeks ago. Watch it: absolutely haunting.

I've been bruising really easily of late. Literally and figuratively. Current count is at four: the back of my calf, thigh, on my hip and shoulder. I don't think I have anything to worry about . My head hurts. Panic is beginning to set in.

Anyway.


--

1. Make a list of 5 things that you can see without getting up.
A set of drawers, Logitech PC speakers, various music-related posters, a bookshelf crowded with DVDs, CDs, novels, textbooks and a MIDI controller, and a clothes rack.

2. What was the last album you listened to in full?
Crooks and Lovers by Mount Kimbie.

3. What are you wearing now?
Levis 501 cutoffs I purchased for the reference in Dirty Epic, a Tiffany's necklace from my father, a borrowed black t-shirt, Bonds sloppy joe, tights.

4. What's your dream occupation?
My life would be a lot easier if I could answer that.

5. What do you hear right now?
Inspiration.

6. Who was the last person you hugged?
A boy I know.

7. Place yourself into one of your favorite shows. What would be your job/role on the show?
Intelligence analyst in Section D, MI5.

8. What did you do today?
Lazy day: no work or uni. Breakfast in Prahran, the train home, a session in Ableton, hanging out with James and listening to the Killers.

9. Dog person or cat person?
Both, please?

10. What's something you're looking forward to?
Semester break. James Zabiela at Brown Alley (media pass, excellent). The next time I see your face. Visiting Ikea and record stores in a few paycheques' time.

11. What was the last thing that you bought?
10 x two-hour Metcard.

12. If you could afford to go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
New York, Tokyo, London.

13. Where do you see yourself in five minutes?
Still in bed.

14. Last book you've read?
The Consolations of Philosophy, Alain de Botton.

15. Next movie you plan to see?
Unsure.

16. What's your favorite color?
Blues and dark greys.

17. Favorite word?
Fuck.

18. What is one thing about you most people don't know?
My biggest regret in life is giving up piano at the age of ten.

19. Name a hobby you enjoy.
Music production.

20. Did you replace many questions?
I wasn't aware I was able to.

"in the beginning, there was the word."

Day Three: a song to dance to.

The Chemical Brothers, Swoon

The best things in life, for me, are: the thump of a kick drum. The way my body feels when I'm shaking my arse with my hands in the air, shouting out lyrics into a midnight-coloured sky, dizzy and laughing. The way you smile, the sound of your voice.

"Just remember to fall in love: there's nothing else."

innerspace

Day One: a song for sadness.

Goldfrapp, Gone to Earth

lights in my eyes

Panhead#002 from Zachary Saitoti on Vimeo.

In new music we trust.

concrete heart.

Cyantific, 'Empty Streets'

What are you looking for?

chemical brothers live at rod laver arena, 09/03/11

The Chemical Brothers, 'Hey Boy, Hey Girl'

Before headlining Future Music Festival, still riding the highs from the release of their 2010 big-beat/psychedelic effort ‘Further’, the Chemical Brothers were kind enough to grace Melbourne with a full-length sideshow at the Rod Laver Arena on the ninth of March, supported by Art vs Science, James Holroyd and Zane Lowe of BBC Radio One. I got there about an hour after doors opened and caught the tail-end of Art vs Science, who sounded pretty tight and had the crowd going.

Don’t even get me started on James Holroyd: a total dickhead dropping appallingly bad commerical electro and top-forty rubbish with inane MCing over the top. Didn’t have a working subwoofer, either. Awful, awful. Was vaguely concerned by the fact that the crowd seemed to genuinely be getting into it – Future Entertainment gigs always seem to pull the most obnoxious kind of crowds, but in any case… Zane Lowe played for about forty-five minutes, from memory – musically speaking, a complete breath of fresh air. Rolling basslines; heavy, relentless cuts of deep house and minimal. Moody, evolving and always surprising, but not overwhelmingly so: an excellent build-up for the main act of the night.

The Chemical Brothers started around nine-fifteen and literally did not stop their aural assault for a full two hours. Aural assault of says it all about their set, really: a nonstop, absolute riot with a crowd of bodies that couldn’t stop dancing madly for the whole set. They’re the kind of electronic act that really know how to get a crowd off. One of the main weaknesses of most dance music acts who play live is that their performances can seem really stale and hackneyed – they don’t seem like they’re putting in any effort, it’s just pushing start and stop in front of a laptop or two. Not these guys, though, and I think that’s one of the main drawcards of the Chemical Brothers that puts them up there with the best in live dance music – their ability to respond to the feel of a crowd and work off them was incredible, a total joy to be a part of.

Two straight hours of watching them mix it up, playing both the old and the new with seamless transitions between tracks – everything from Exit Planet Dust to their latest album got love. ‘Block Rockin’ Beats’, ‘Leave Home’ and ‘Chemical Beats’ were highlights that had the old-school ravers rocking out hard, and hearing material fresh from Further was similarly incredible – ‘Horse Power’ had Rod Laver Arena completely letting loose to its roaring synthesisers and immense beats; the heady, unbridled joy of ‘Swoon’ had an ecstatic audience chanting “just remember to fall in love – there’s nothing else” as one, eyes closed and hands in the air.

‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’, ‘Star Guitar’, ‘Galvanise’, ‘Do It Again’ – hit after hit complemented perfectly by the stage setup they’ve developed for their Further tour, featuring video projections and clips from their music videos responding in time with the music, as well as an insane light show. Watching the lights slowly brighten as they made their presence on stage known, surrounded by a cage of lights – whoa.

A complete pleasure and an inspiration to watch – the brothers gonna work it out, indeed.

(Originally posted at Radio Monash.)

choose life on radio monash: episode #1

Choose Life On Radio Monash, Episode #1 by Autoimmunity on Mixcloud

Join the biggest party happening on Radio Monash this semester - Bill Murphy and Miki McLay are taking over the airwaves to bring you Choose Life, a fun and filthy mix of gratuitous shit-talkin' and the freshest in new music.

Your hosts are Bill, a second-year Science student at Clayton, whose comprehensive knowledge of indie music is rivalled only by his talent for finding a cheeky yet relevant 4chan references for almost every situation; and Miki, loudmouthed, hard-partying quintessential Arts-student cliche and Radio Monash's resident expert on all things in electronic music.

Tune in at 9AM on Wednesdays weekly for an hour-long, no-holds-barred aural assault consisting of the best in everything from techno to trip-hop, indie rock to IDM, dubstep to riot-pop and more. Excited? We sure as hell are, too.

Missed a show? Never fear: we'll be podcasting episodes here on The Whisper-Stream for listening at your leisure, with tracklistings included.

Choose your future: Choose Life on Radio Monash.

unanswered questions

Kito, 'What If'

Grey days. Where does it all end?

here i am, and there you are

UNKLE, 'Unreal'

A dyed blonde with a leather jacket and a tan standing on a corner in the depths of the city lights up a cigarette carefully with fingers like glass, waiting for lights to turn green. Junkies and cold hearts on the last train home. Urban living.

hands of silver, hands of gold

cut copy, 'pharaohs and pyramids'

--

Blinding lights and cold nights. The days are growing shorter and colder but I can't stop dancing.

it comes out above my head, close to you, close to you.

photo from OLEJNICZAKmatthew_swin.

A change in pace. You aren't screwed if you don't know anything. You're screwed if you don't know anything and you've lost the passion to learn.

I've finished my very first remix ever. Dance music website Beatport are known for running remix competitions and when I saw that they had released the stems for a song off Underworld's recent effort Barking, called 'Bird 1', it was the kick in the arse I needed to fire up Ableton, force myself to learn it's ins and outs, and get something made. Not that I particularly care about the fact that it's a competition (like any person out there, though: I wouldn't say no to thousands of dollars of new production equipment!) - to be honest, the opportunity to remix an artist like Underworld I'm so in love with and inspired by was something I'd hate myself for passing up. Here is the result:

Underworld - Bird 1 (Autoimmunity Mix).

Inspired by many of the emerging post-garage and dubstep artists I've found myself listening to lately (Scuba, Distance, Vaccine, Burial - and more), I wanted to take the original track and remove many of the elements that annoyed me about the original (that fucking four-to-the-floor beat, ugh!), stripping it back to a clean, minimalistic piece where the focus was on the syncopated rhythms of each section interacting and shifting with each other. The vocals were, for some reason, a struggle for me to work with - which was the perfect excuse to rip most of them out and keep the focus remain on the slowly-evolving and shifting beats.

I also took the liberty of referencing Underworld's earlier work not only in terms of structure and sound, but there's a brief snippet of me speaking that happens to be borrowed from a Second Toughest in the Infants track - I'll be pleased if somebody gets it!

Despite the obvious flaws (the kick-drums have a strange echo to them, the flange applied to the hats doesn't sound right in places - and the pacing could be better, among other things), I'm terribly pleased with the mere fact that I've finally finished something, learnt a thing or two about a very powerful piece of sequencing and recording software, and know now I've got the potential to learn and achieve some really cool things - despite only owning a MacBook and the intro version of Ableton.

Watch this space.

slowly.

The light of day is slowly bleeding away into the streets. The world is silent, waiting for you to move. No birds. Just you.

wishful thinking.

Naked beneath your gaze. Watching me through glass. Fragile, steady. The train is leaving. Be careful with me.

morning comes.

Every second is electric around you. You're a golden haze on the horizon above the buildingtops in my eyes, the gentle kiss of twilight across the suburbs. You think my life's a dream - I dream my life away.

silence is returning your voice.

I like watching you, watching you.

2AM.

Another cigarette out on the back doorstep in the middle on a freezing Melbourne evening. In this chill, it becomes difficult to tell where smoke ends and condensation begins. I shiver, wrap my free arm around myself a little tighter. The only light on in the house is my bedroom's, cutting through the darkness with a weak glow; the world is still and waiting for something - the sound of your voice riddled with interference, but still there, maybe. A notebook filled with scribble and half-thoughts, fragmented poetics. The perfect silence of the night begs to be cut through. I am patient and I wait for you to take me in.

and it's okay - you give me everything i need.

"Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn! I feel you!"

—Karl Hyde, 13/06/10

hello, world.

Underslept and just surviving this haze of days.

you haven't seen enough.

image courtesy museom of dirt.

this is really happening, happening, happening—

you're the one clear detail.

"They're more impressions really, they're fragments. I always saw it as the way that a drunk would see the city, walking through the streets. That seemed to be the key to a lot of the ways that we put text together; it's just these fragments that you're taking, you're picking up on all the time and I think that's the way we all do it anyway, that when we walk down the street, it's made up of fragments that tell us we're in a particular place."