Lucas Chan :: Weblog

Melbourne Breaks Unite kicks off at 5pm tomorrow. All door proceeds and CD sales will be donated to the Starlight Foundation. Breaks, drum’n'bass, hip hop, funk and dancehall over 3 rooms. $10 entry ($15 with CD) and over 40 of Melbourne’s finest performing for free.

Clearly it’s not just me. :)

Over the past few weeks I’ve attended a few gigs where the DJs/Artists were using CDJs or laptops, or a combination of the two. The most surprising was the small army of DJs that were performing with (and supporting) Snoop.

I wasn’t the only one it seemed. I overheard a few people in the crowd express some disbelief when the DJs pulled out their CD wallets. While the hip-hop crew is opening up their arms to the digital thing, the crowd still needed some convincing. I actually thought their use of this gear was fairly ho-hum. I’m sure they’ve got mad turntable skills but they could definitely learn a thing or two from Phil K or James Zabiela.

During the Easter break I had the chance to see Blockhead. Other people have given mixed reviews of his performance but I thought it was brilliant. Some were put off by the laptop thing, but a lot of his set seemed very improvised; kind of like he was jamming in his living room. It sounded wicked. Armed with Ableton Live he was dropping in all sorts of loops and really feeding-off and reacting to the crowds response (and quickly). I left the venue feeling completely inspired by what I saw. The thought of having (effectively) dozens of sound sources right in front of you instead of just 2 turntables is really compelling right now.

G’s gig was great. This time around he’s only touring with a CD wallet and some headphones.

My laptop arrives next week. :)

Jen Cloher’s new album; Dead Wood Falls, has been released. A must have for everyone’s record collection. Honest. Buy online now. Upcoming remix shizzle in the works.

I went to see Snoop last night. Very good. :)

Tonight Karl and I celebrated 4 years of playing records at Black Cat. Doesn’t really seem like it’s been that long, but I suspect it’s the longest running weekly breakbeat night in Melbourne (apart from Revolver perhaps?).

The evening started out well until the Galaga machine caught on fire and the place got smoked out. A minor set back really. Lots of people came down to say hello and congrats. Including G which was a nice surprise. It’s always nice to see him when he’s in town.

I wonder what my Thursday nights will be like in 4 years time?

There’s something almost romantic about playing records. It’s tangible, requires at least a small amount of skill, and has a kind of nerdy appeal that I find terribly hard to resist.

The hunt is something I also really enjoy. Finding a record you love after sifting through 50 records you hate is such a nice feeling. Not to mention the exclusivity thing. I don’t think I know anyone else that owns a copy of Stage One by Space Manoeuvres (TUNE!), and I was once told that even Atom1 himself didn’t own a copy of Imminent.

So anyway. I suspect Karl will kill me if he ever reads this, but the whole DJing with a laptop (or at least CDs) thing is starting to sound like a really good option. I like the idea that I can take -all- my music with me to a gig (this is sounding especially good at the moment since my record bag is broken and getting myself to gigs is a biatch right now!). Buying music online from say, Beatport is cheap, easy, and doable at 2am when you have 30mins of spare time before you crash out for the evening. Finding something that’s relatively exclusive becomes infinitely harder of course. But did I mention that it’s cheap?

My first track on Evergreen Recordings will be available for purchase and download soon.

So torn. :(

More grief as it happens.

• Friday March 10 2006
  LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad
  The Prince
• Sunday March 12 2006
  Kiss My Grass
  Sidney Myer Music Bowl
• Saturday March 18 2006
  Local Lineup 3
  Bunker
• Saturday April 1 2006
  Evergreen Recordings Launch Party
  Workshop
• Saturday April 29 2006
  Melbourne Breaks Unite
  Mercat Cross Hotel

In typical (minimal) Web 2.0 style I am making a blog post about an extremely vague and ill-definied “thing” in the hopes that it will create a large wave of internet hype & curiosity.

So. Tell all your friends.

That is all. :)