Articles tagged with ‘Melbourne’

• A-Love

  In this 2005 interview, Melbourne-based FemC A-Love talks to Local Noise about her studies in anthropology and her ideas of hip-hop as mode of cultural and ethnic identification. The eloquent A-Love tells of the rise of females in Australian hip-hop as artists and as administrators, including her own seminal role in some of the first all-female hip-hop shows and displays in Australia.

  Tags: All The Ladies, Melbourne, women in hip-hop, Interviews

• Curse ov Dialect

  Curse ov Dialect is an experimental hip-hop group from Melbourne. Its live show is a more like an avant-garde theatre performance than a gig, with each of its five members dressed in elaborate costumes and engaging in on-stage histrionics. Musically, Curse describe themselves as ‘sonically utopian’, borrowing samples of folk music from around the world to create a richly layered sound. They are signed to the US label Mush, and have toured Australia, Japan and the US, where they played with other Mush and Anticon artists. In this interview, conducted on the ground at the noisy intersection of Abercrombie Street and Broadway in Chippendale, the Curse boys talked to Local Noise about their multi-faceted, globalised, anarchic philosophy of hip-hop, and their eclectic influences: from John Cage to tropicalia, Surrealism to Macedonian folk tunes.

  Tags: cultural identity, hip-hop and folk music, world music, sampling, Melbourne, Interviews

• Curse ov Dialect – Video Bio

  A short video bio of Melbourne group Curse ov Dialect.

  Tags: Raceless, Pasobionic, Artist Bio, Vulk Masedonski, August 2nd, Melbourne, Curse ov Dialect, Atarungi, Video

• Joelistics

  This 2005 interview with Melbourne-based TZU MC Joelistics took place in Sydney while he was taking part in a Sydney Festival hip-hop event bringing together artists from The Herd, The Bird, Resin Dogs and TZU. In a lengthy conversation, the ever-articulate Joelistics covered a huge range of issues. He spoke about the early influence of Eastern philosophy and its splicing with the influence of hip-hop and freestyle rapping. He also talked about hip-hop as a form given to political polemics and Empty shows (held in empty warehouse and industrial city spaces where artists would converge). Joelistics spoke of the influence of Terrence McKenna on his ideas about language, both in the way that the world forms language and how language forms and structures the world. He talked also of hip-hop workshops, the influence of Jack Kerouac, the orthodoxy of hip-hop and Curse ov Dialect, music labels and the industry, the history of hip-hop and appropriations of the form in terms of aesthetics, identity, place and self-pride.

  Tags: workshops, empty shows, politics, freestyling, language, Melbourne, philosophy, Interviews

• Marcus Guitarkus

  We visited Marcus’ house for a quick interview on the way to interview Music vs Physics at the Evelyn Hotel. Marcus gave us a run down of the genesis of the Symbiotic collective, which emerged from a New Year’s Eve party in 1999 at the house of Pasobionic’s [producer and DJ for TZU and Curse ov Dialect] girlfriend. Marcus spoke of the nature of the way the collective functioned, pooling their diverse talents into shows and performances, often improvised. Marcus also spoke about other collective projects he has been involved in, which managed to incorporate people from the more mainstream hip-hop world. The discussion also covered the issues surrounding the term ‘hip-hop’, its contestation and the problems of limitation, especially in relation to a notions of authenticity and ownership. At the same time as resisting the puritan perspective, Marcus spoke about the ways in which he’s come to understand why the term ‘hip-hop’ is so crucial identity of people who believe they embody hip-hop as a lived reality. This developed into a discussion about the form itself, as a contemporary folk music, and the possibilities for the expression of street-level reality.

  Tags: production, battling, freestyling, instrumental hip-hop, Melbourne, sampling, Interviews

• MC Azmarino – Video Bio

  A short video bio of MC Azmarino from Melbourne group Diafrix.

  Tags: Artist Bio, MC Azmarino, Diafrix, Melbourne, Video

• MC Que

  We met up with MC Que on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy for dinner and an interview whilst we were in Melbourne in 2005. Que told us about the way she first heard hip-hop through the tapes her sister’s brought back from trips to the city, and then plugging into the underground Australian scene through radio and going to gigs. She spoke about the genesis of the film All the Ladies, and her 15-member crew Ladies Love Hip-hop, as well as a much more broad-ranging discussion about being a woman in a male-dominated hip-hop culture, dealing with discrimination and supporting women in hip-hop. Que also spoke about the strong link between her ethnicity, marginalisation and her connection to hip-hop as an alternative to the Anglo-centric mainstream pop scene.

  Tags: cultural identity, breakdancing, MC Que, Ladies Love Hip-hop, DJing, workshops, women in hip-hop, Melbourne, All The Ladies, graffiti, Interviews

• Monkey Marc

  Local Noise met with Combat Wombat producer and Lab Rats member Monkey Marc after he had finished running a workshop on altering engines from petrol to vegetable oil at TINA (This is Not Art) festival in Newcastle 2005. Marc spoke about the beginnings of Lab Rats at the Jabiluka protests in 1998, where he met Izzy Brown (Combat Wombat MC and other half of Lab Rats) and how initially the Lab Rats were a traveling sound system that went to the front of protests and blockades, running huge parties with solar- and wind-powered sound system and cinema. Marc talked about the evolution of Lab Rats into a mobile hip-hop, circus, video production and performance workshop that tours to the most remote Indigenous communities in the country. Marc spoke about this work, the idea of cultural preservation and continuation of Indigenous languages, recording songs all across the desert and the issues of mimicking American hip-hop. Marc also talked about the recently released album Unsound $ystem, hip-hop as a form ripe for political expression and being written off as a left-wing extremist hip-hop group by the hip-hop ‘mainstream’.

  Tags: Combat Wombat, Monkey Marc, Lab Rats, community work, eco hip-hop, Indigenous hip-hop, politics, Melbourne, Curse ov Dialect, Elefant Traks, workshops, Interviews

• Mr Zux – Video Bio

  A short video bio of Mr Zux.

  Tags: Artist Bio, Mr Zux, Melbourne, Video

• Muphin

  When Local Noise was in Melbourne we caught the train to Prahan to visit the Obese Records store, where we met up with Muphin and interviewed him in his lunch break. In a long discussion, Muph spoke about being on Obese, working in the store four days a week and seeing it’s growth from the inside. Muph also told us about his childhood in Eltham, the early influences of US hip-hop and being introduced to Australian scene through DJ FX. He talked about the influences of everyday conversation and experiences on his lyrical style, honesty in rapping, as well as the fight hip-hop has had to be accepted in Australia, and the misunderstanding of it by the industry. In a widely ranging interview, Muph also touched on the making if the video ‘Heaps Good’, graffiti culture in Melbourne, the TV show The Heavyweights on Channel 31 in Melbourne and the degeneration of the battling since the release of the Eminem film 8 Mile.

  Tags: Muphin, Muph n Plutonic, Plutonic Lab, The Heavyweights, battling, freestyling, Obese, Melbourne, graffiti, Interviews

• Music vs Physics

  Music vs Physics are a Melbourne-based avant-garde hip-hop trio. Their live performance is a three-way conversation between the turntable, sampler and a drum kit, plus vocals. As a crew, they also experiment with animation, web-design, film, design and multimedia constructions. This interview, conducted by Tony Mitchell and Nick Keys in Melbourne, is with 3rd Dek (turntables and vocals) and Beatrix (samples and vocals). The discussion is mainly focused on the textures and architectures of sample-based production.

  Tags: Music vs Physics, 3rd Dek, Beatrix, Symbiotic Sound System, instrumental hip-hop, Melbourne, sampling, Interviews

• Pasobionic

  Local Noise spoke to Pasobionic at the Sydney launch of his solo album Empty Beats For Lonely Rappers at the Hopetoun in Surry Hills. In a relatively short interview, the softly-spoken producer talked to us about the origins of the name Pasobionic from his graffiti tag Paso, and getting into hip-hop via graffiti in primary school in the 80s. He also mentioned the marked separation in his life between hip-hop and Islam. He spoke about the diverse sampling practices of Curse ov Dialect, the intricacies of sampling in general and the differences of producing with TZU and Curse. Other points touched upon included his CD duplication business, working with Elefant Traks and instrumental and live hip-hop in Australia.

  Tags: TZU, instrumental hip-hop, DJing, production, Ant Farm Aphids, Elefant Traks, sampling, Melbourne, graffiti, Curse ov Dialect, Pasobionic, Interviews

• Position Correction (Review)

  A review of TZU’s first LP Position Correction published in Music Forum.

  Tags: Music Forum reviews, Media, labels and releases, Tony Mitchell, Melbourne, Press & Media

• Smiling at Strangers (Review)

  A review of TZU second LP Smiling at Strangerspublished in Music Forum.

  Tags: Music Forum reviews, Media, labels and releases, Tony Mitchell, Melbourne, Press & Media

• The Reography of Reason: Australian hip-hop as Experimental History and Pedagogy

  If habitus is regarded as ‘deep seated generative principles of thought, perception, appreciation, and action’, this ‘fit’ seems eminently applicable to the ‘embodied history’ of hip-hop subcultures and the expression of their ‘objectified history’ in practices such as recording, performing, internet interaction, music journalism, and independent radio and television broadcasting.

  This paper, originally published in Media International Australia, looks at the Australian hip-hop culture in terms of its do-it-yourself ethos, which is, in part, a result of a lack of support from the commercial record labels. Tony Mitchell here discusses the artists, groups and independent labels that have championed this DIY ethos and have built a community of practice outside the mainstream industry.

  Tags: Reason, education, localising hip-hop, globalisation, Tony Mitchell, environment, community work, patriotism, Melbourne, Obese, workshops, politics, ARIA, Conference Papers