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Reviews on albums from a variety of genres from three dudes in Sydney

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Nicolas Jaar @ Da Metro

March 14, 2017 by albumclub Leave a Comment

Nicolas Jaar @ Da Metro

By JCS

Christ, not the fucking Metro again. But yes, Monday evening and there we are. K– is on the disco beans with a friend from work and has made plans to call in sick for Tuesday and smoke bongs at his Lower North Shore apartment. Did he invite me? Maybe? Even if he did, would I go? After enduring some obnoxious abuse about why I’m not taking drugs on a Monday he disappears and I don’t see him for the rest of the night. There’s no support act for Nicolas Jaar which means everyone stands around for 1.5 hours and drinks whatever mediocrity The Metro has on offer. Pubs with no draught beer – I’ll never understand.

Anyway the real deal Nicolas Jaar gets on at 9:30pm and plays this atmospheric song, alternating between his samples and some wicked live sax playing. That really got me bouncy. He progressed to play some seriously dancey, chill-wave tracks. Very naughty for a Monday. Mind you, his light show is an epileptic’s nightmare, but pretty sweet if you’re into that sort of thing. Space Is Only Noise If You Can See went off, as expected. He played that track from his boiler room that to this day I can’t ID (someone help?) and it just ripped my fucking head off. 10:50pm and his off stage and the lights turn on and everyone has to accept it’s a Monday.

Well done, NJ, I’ll be back. 

4/5

Nicolas Jaar 2017 from Album Club on Vimeo.

Nicolas Jaar 2017 from Album Club on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Featured Shows, Shows

Grapeshot Launch 1 Aug 16 ft. Rainbow Chan, DJ O. Sosweti

August 2, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

Grapeshot Launch 1 Aug 16 ft. Rainbow Chan, DJ O. Sosweti

Nice magazines, music and Tooheys New 4/5

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Filed Under: House, Shows, Uncategorized

Dj Pierre – Oi Dj, Dj Pierre

July 19, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

Dj Pierre – Oi Dj, Dj Pierre

DJ Pierre is one of those legendary status artists that you may only get the honour of seeing once or twice in a life time. We had seen the acid house pioneer once before and he was in top form at a warehouse party in downtown LA on New Years Eve a year or two ago. This time around Dj Pierre was a step up and the music was outstanding. He played a 4 hour set that ranks as one of the best 4 hour experiences of my life. The combination of old school Chicago house and of course some dirty acid house bangers was a treat you rarely get this side of the hemisphere.

This has to be one of the best songs I have ever heard
Piano Acid House Pierre

Dj Pierre – Civic from Album Club on Vimeo.

He even dropped Never Grow Old, soz Nieco
Enjoy the high quality vid

Dj Pierre – Civic from Album Club on Vimeo.

There was a man who enjoyed the show more then me, so much so that we didn’t hear a single word out of him the whole night. Ed summed it up pretty nicely “Best DJ set I’ve ever seen” and it was pretty close to it. The experience at shows like these make going to all the other average shows worth it

Acid/10

Filed Under: Acid House, Featured Shows, Shows

Sex Tags Experience & Brian Not Brian Meet Heavenly 1 April 2016

April 3, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

Sex Tags Experience & Brian Not Brian Meet Heavenly 1 April 2016

 

The Sex Tags Experience & Brian Not Brian Meet Heavenly 1 April 2016 from Album Club on Vimeo.

DJ Dert Burger and DJ Sotoswett in a secret warehouse location.. a delicious recipe for a promising Friday night…

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This was one of the more sneaky warehouse parties for sure. Stringent and stealthy measures regarding finding the location were undertaken to ensure Orwellian surveillance and shut-downs were kept away.

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A healthy balance between mellow and pumping beats made for a refreshingly tasty party vibe. Quality of mixing made for a generally smooth consistency despite the occasional period of clumping.

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At 5-something-AM most punters were still hungry and devouring the increasingly crispy tunes but the albumclub.com.au folks were more than satiated. Great value from the hvnly krw once again. 3.5/5 stars

Videography by Nicolas Nalbandian
Photography by Michael Stone of krw.net.au

Filed Under: House, Shows

Mick Fleetwood and His Blues Band @ Metro Theatre

March 31, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

Mick Fleetwood and His Blues Band @ Metro Theatre

Mick Fleetwood and his Blues Band

Words || Jack Cameron Stanton

2/5

While Mick Fleetwood and His Blues Band were full of primal enthusiasm, cyclonic on the Metro Theatre stage, they seemed to be missing something: the love was there, the talent apparent in every musician, but nowhere did those aspects converge. With a cameo from Jimmy Barnes, and a stoic performance from Rick Vito who wrestled persistently with petty technical issues, the night scintillated at some moments and dulled in others.

Mick Fleetwood and His Blues Band played the Metro Theatre gig on Easter Monday. Many of the younger revellers were at home convalescing from their four-day weekend of unbridled debauchery. But Mick’s announcement of a cheeky sideshow after the annual Bluesfest up at Byron Bay drew a much older crowd, with generations of people allured there by the aromas of nostalgia.

And don’t get me wrong, I have no qualms with a night of rehashed blues and golden oldies, but Mick Fleetwood and his Blues Band played a show that was, quite honestly, a little uninspiring. The greatest moments of the evening were the slower, more soulful ‘John Lee Hooker’ styled numbers, which ignited hearts with pockets of passion. A few occasional yells were heard, the classic ‘Aw yeah’ or ‘You tell ‘em, Rick’, but this interaction felt contrived and disingenuous, as though the members of the crowd had watched enough Youtube videos to know that uncontrolled bouts of passion were expected from them. Either that, or they were deriving a kind of emotional solace that remained unknown to me.

Let me disclose by saying that I have never found personal resonance in bluegrass music. And neither did it particularly resonate when executed on stage. Every bluegrass tune they played (or, if I can quote my father, “Any of that hillbilly shit”) seemed paradoxically to increase the energy of the band but flatten the spirits of the crowd. It seems so counterintuitive; in one breath they are singing these heaving, adage-like blues songs, with their hearts on their sleeves, and then suddenly everyone is bopping and the musicians are grinning at each and nodding their heads. Echoes of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac came out like a prayer, with popular hip-wigglers like ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ and ‘Black Magic Woman’ being obvious favourites.

The band was tight, however. Rick Vito was a sound musician, his glistening vibrato guitar solos a personal highlight. And his gruff singing voice was sculpted for the blues. In fact he outshined Mick who, one the drums, gave off too much of a superstar vibe for my liking. Halfway through the show he continued requesting his roadie to feed him wine while he played. Mick would be keeping the beat, focused on the drums, pulling faces, then he would turn to his right and hovering next to his face was a glass of red wine held up by his roadie who, impossibly, seemed to anticipate and duck and dodge all of Mick’s drumming. If there was any ‘rockstar’ component to be drawn out of that, for whatever reason, then it’s a little lost on me.

The Metro Theatre proved once again its incompetency as a venue. Rick Vito’s mic had waged war against him from the first song, and when Jimmy Barnes jumped onto stage to sing their closing few songs, he experienced identical sound troubles. The music often clipped, and whether that is from the speakers or the sound techs I’m not sure. There is absolutely nowhere to sit. When I ordered a gin and tonic then asked the bartender for a lime he pulled up a bottle of Schwepps lime cordial and, without irony, asked: “this?”

Near the end of the night, one audacious man in the crowd cried out as the band was tuning their instruments.

“Oi . . . uh, play some Fleetwood Mac! Yeah!”

A lady in the crowd, hidden from me, responded to him.

“Shut up you dickhead,” she replied.

Snickers of assent rose from everyone else; in their eyes, he was trying to be an antagonistic dickhead. But I had sympathy  – Indeed the night had left something out and, though I didn’t agree that the solution was a prescribed rendition of ‘Dreams’, I shared his dread of another formulaic, bouncy bluegrass song that sounded identical to the previous ones before it.

Filed Under: Blues, Shows

C.U Saturday with Simon Caldwell & Dreems

March 27, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

C.U Saturday with Simon Caldwell & Dreems

Date: Saturday 26th of March
Venue: Civic Underground
Arists: Dreems, Simon Caldwell
Reviewer: Anthony

The show took place over the Easter long weekend. Generally a time seen to relax, get out of Sydney and pray to God. I did none of those things by choosing to stay in Sydney to get my techno fix (and invariably use the rest of the long weekend to sleep off a hangover).

The first act/headliner on the bill was Dreems, a Sydney based music producer. I am not familiar with his productions so I can comment on the style or quality. What I can comment on was his skills and performance as a DJ, basically I would say he is a fairly bad DJ, who at times in his set had troubles beat matching. The track selection also wasn’t fantastic as the tracks didn’t seem to fit particularly well together or be very well through out. Granted his focus is probably on productions but a little more preparation would be advised if you are going to play a set to several hundred people at a nightclub. I wasn’t too bothered by the performance because the man we all wanted to see was Simon Caldwell.

Simon Caldwell

If you are a Sydney resident into the house and techno scene or a lister to FBI radio, there is a good change you would have heard of or seen Simon Caldwell at some point. Simon Caldwell is a Sydney based DJ who hosts a regular FBI radio session called sunsets on Monday nights. Other activities include being a teacher at the Australian Institute of Music and the occasionally international tour.

If you know either Jack, Nico or myself, its no secret that we love Simon Caldwell and we make no attempt to hide this fact. I’m sure that there are a reasonable number of people that are sick of hearing us froth over Simon but that doesn’t bother me. To all those in the know, Simon is rated as Sydney’s best DJ and we can verify this fact after having seen Simon a good 10+ times.

The Simon Show

As usual Sime brought the heat playing his usual mix of dirty tech house and acid house. It think its the combination of great music, awesome company, good venues and fun all round that characterises Simon shows and makes me enjoy him so much. C.U Saturday was no different and I would describe as an ideal show. Time and time Sime proves just how good a DJ he really is by exceeding already very high expectations.

The night was topped off by some delicious watermelon and rum cocktails at pres (which got me pretty slops) and making some enjoyable new friendlies.

Sydney should feel very lucky to have DJ the caliber of Simon Caldwell.


Rating: Simon/10 (that translates to a solid 12 out of 10)

Filed Under: Featured Shows, House, Shows, Techno

Picnic 8th Birthday featuring SOICHI TERADA

March 25, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

Picnic 8th Birthday featuring SOICHI TERADA

Words || Jack Cameron Stanton

Energy levels were already high, with Picnic celebrating a resplendent eight years of house and techno in Sydney. And although times are tight, with the suffocating lockout restrictions in place across the district, Picnic once again delivered with a boss line-up, including local djs Adi Toohey and Ben Fester supporting the big man himself: Soichi Terada.

The show took place in Jam Gallery, Bondi, which is a remarkably cosy space. Considering it was a sold out show, the dance floor was pretty tight. And due to some sort of licensing issues, or whatever it was, Soichi only played for an hour. But aside from that the place resounded with positive vibe, a fuckboy free zone.

The Japanese master played some splendid tunes. He was forever smiling behind the decks and was accompanied by two graceful Geishas, clad in Kimono, red lipstick, and white facemask. At one point during the show, while Soichi was dancing along to his music, he whipped out delicate red chatterboxes then proceeded to hand them out to the eager crowd members.

Generally Soichi kept to a Japanese influenced, melodic house, occasionally dropping into a more hypnotic, driving tech house groove. But it was definitely an evening of smiles.

As a producer, Soichi’s greatest and most recognised accomplishment is arguably the original soundtrack for the Playstation game ‘Ape Escape’.

At the ripe age of 50, Soichi is enjoying an advent away from his ‘Ape Escape’ repute, with a handful of impressive house productions to his name, including all the excellent house pouring out of his electronic music label, Far East Recording. His track ‘Got to Be Real’ will have you soaring into effervescent, puffy clouds.

And yet, at the end of the show, at a disappointingly early 3am, revellers and Soichi alike turned to – who I only assume were – the managers of Jam Gallery. We all hoped for a cheeky extension of his set. Alas, our fate was sealed: it wasn’t meant to be, the music was turned off.

But Soichi, my brother, don’t be too deterred by an unfair early Sydney night. It has nothing to do with the music people, and everything to do with bullshit post-tragic scapegoat politics.

Until next time, Soichi. We’re ready for you.

Filed Under: House, Shows

20th Biennale of Sydney Opening Night with Retiree @ Cockatoo Island – 18 March 2016

March 22, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

20th Biennale of Sydney Opening Night with Retiree @ Cockatoo Island – 18 March 2016

Turned up expecting more of a music-oriented gig than what I got.

Lots of ppl milling around, checking out the contemporary art installations. Not the most inspiring iteration of the biennale from what I saw..

Caught Retiree playing a live show there. Vibez were mellow. Sophisticated nodding and chit-chat seemed to be the go-to DF move for most.

Check out my vid of the night below. Footage taken during the performance was sparse and I was trying to go against the flow and get a bit of a sloppy DF vibe going.

Overall enjoy, tunes were good (sometimes even great) but the event as a whole was just a little less than breathtaking

Sydney 20th Biennale Opening Night with Retiree from Album Club

Filed Under: Shows

St Germain – Enmore Theatre, 15 March 2016

March 20, 2016 by albumclub Leave a Comment

St Germain – Enmore Theatre, 15 March 2016

Date: Tuesday 15th of March 2016
Venue: Enmore Theatre

Review – Anthony Larbalestier

The show last week was St Germain’s (Ludovic Navarre’s) first Australian show in 15 years which comes after the release of his new self titled album. St Germain is a master producer, most famous for the album Tourist. Tourist is a perfect blend of house and Latin jazz and is one of my top 5 favourite albums. For all those yet to listen here is the link: https://goo.gl/yQXQJ8

There was a long 15 year wait between tourist his last album and the latest album St Germain. The new album is very African and different sounding in many ways, most notably in instrument choices. And while the album sounds very different, St Germain is able to pull off a similar vibe to his previous productions (house and jazz) which makes for an all round enjoyable album.

On the stage were around 7 Black African guys and one old white guy (Germy). Old Germs definitely looked a little out of place as the Africans kind of stole the spotlight. The band members worked together well even though very unique and individual. There were an insane amount of solos and all pretty damn good. They turned the 7 minute Rose Rouge off Tourist into a 15+ minute mind blowing rendition of the original. The video of a bongo solo below demonstrates all this quite well, that particular solo went for a good 5 minutes. Crazy really.

There were quite a few strange, exotic instruments one in particular stood out because it looked like a Big Black Cock.

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St Germain individual performance was a little lack lustre as most of the beats he was dropping were out of time but everyone else was so good it didn’t really matter and at the end of the day everyone was playing HIS music.

Overall the music was really great and had lots of fun, plus the zataar falafel wrap at Manoosh after the show was da bomb

Rating: 4.5/5

St Germain Bongos Enmore Theatre March 2016 from Album Club

Filed Under: Featured Shows, House, Jazz, Shows, Techno

About Album Club

Mission statement: Album Club is the source of brand new sweati n derty tunes for your ears

Love,
Nico, Jack and Ant

If you would like to collaborate or submit an album, send an email to itsalbumclub@gmail.com

Recent Posts

  • Nicolas Jaar @ Da Metro March 14, 2017
  • Grapeshot Launch 1 Aug 16 ft. Rainbow Chan, DJ O. Sosweti August 2, 2016
  • Dj Pierre – Oi Dj, Dj Pierre July 19, 2016
  • Sex Tags Experience & Brian Not Brian Meet Heavenly 1 April 2016 April 3, 2016
  • Mick Fleetwood and His Blues Band @ Metro Theatre March 31, 2016

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