PHAT08 TASTER (AKL)

Tag Promotions presents:

PHAT08 TASTER


Friday 21 September
Studio
(Auckland)


Featuring:

THE SCRATCH PERVERTS (UK)

ADAM FREELAND (UK)

FREQ NASTY (UK)

With local support from:

A Spark
Antiform
Apex
Dalai
Emma G
Jason George
Jason Howsen
Jess Hartley
Page3
Paul Orion
Randomplay
Riddle
The Roll Crew
Timmy Schumacher

Four soundsystems, four rooms + outdoor smoking area

Tickets $55 + BF available Monday 06 August at 9am;
from Real Groovy, Beat Merchants, Cosmic Corner, Conch, and by texting PHAT to 858.
Mtickets on sale now!


ADAM FREELAND



Q. INTERVIEWER: “Who killed the superstar DJ?”
A. ADAM FREELAND: “I hope I did…”



Of course, the above statements aren’t exactly true: in fact, in many ways, Adam Freeland epitomizes the term “superstar DJ.” A major presence on the international club/festival circuit for over a decade, Freeland continues to hold residencies at the best dancefloors around the globe (like London’s prestigious Fabric club), and recently made his third triumphant appearance at the renowned Coachella music festival. As well, Freeland joins the likes of Sasha and James Lavelle in being chosen to release the latest installment in the prestigious “Global Underground” mix series, Global Underground 032: Mexico City. Mexico City represents Freeland’s seventh commercially-released mix CD, following his successful compilations for the likes of Fabric and “Back To Mine,” among others. “A Global mix is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Freeland explains. “They’ve been a big part of electronic music’s culture. James Lavelle’s Barcelona mix was really special; it opened up the possibilities. To that end, I wanted to take that movement even farther in my own way.”

His own way, indeed: Mexico City caps an extraordinary year for Adam Freeland. A renowned producer, he’s remixed everyone from Kelis to Orbital, receiving a Grammy nomination for his 2005 remix of Sarah Vaughn’s “Fever” and notoriety for his smash bootleg revamps of Nirvana and the White Stripes. However, the past year up to now has proven his most prolific yet, with remixes ranging from indie heads Fujiya & Miyagi to an official remix of the Doors’ “Hello, I Love You” to Freeland’s original productions (like Mexico City’s slamming single release, “Silverlake Pills”). As well, Freeland was chosen recently to write and curate the score for the popular videogame Juiced—an unsurprising development considering his tracks have frequently graced soundtracks spanning the likes of Spiderman to “CSI.” Then there’s his triumphant return to touring and festivals, with sets ranging everywhere from Coachella to Glastonbury, as well as guest spots on influential Los Angeles radio station Indie 103.1.

It’s all part of his plan to shake up genre expectations anew for electronic music. “A lot of what the ‘name’ DJs play sounds very ‘90s, very dated, and I want to avoid that at all costs,” Freeland explains. That’s clear from his wide-ranging turntable selections—he often opens gigs with Van Halen’s “Eruption”—to his innovative Mexico City tracklisting, which hotwires uber-current dancefloor iconoclasts (Justice, SebastiAn, Phones, Prins Thomas, My My) with driving drone rock (Silversun Pickups, 120 Days, Spacemen 3) and unexpected offerings from big names like Mylo, James Holden, Carl Craig and Andrew Weatherall. “I was never quite one of those dudes trying to pay off a mortgage with each gig,” Freeland explains. “To do that I’d have to play music I don’t like. And I hate being pigeonholed!”



Freeland’s renewed vigor mirrors his excitement for today’s revitalized grooves. “For a couple years there, dance music sounded stale next to what was happening in rock,” Freeland explains; in fact, he memorably explored that moment with his acclaimed rock-oriented 2005 Back To Mine mix, which featured tracks from the likes of TV on the Radio, Autolux, Interpol, M83 and Elliot Smith, among others. “Now, with the likes of labels like DFA, Kompakt, Modular, and Ed Banger, electronic music’s got a new excitement. It’s got attitude, an almost punk attitude, that makes it feel happening again like never before.”

Add Freeland’s own groundbreaking Marine Parade label to that list—as the label’s founder and resident A&R, he’s developed acts like Evil Nine into dancefloor headliners in their own right. The coming year looks to be one of the best of the Marine Parade movement, with likely new releases including the highly anticipated sophomore Evil Nine album, as well as debuts from new signings Alex Metric and Irish singer-songwriter Jape. Jape’s track “Floating” is already getting radio support for both its original version and Prins Thomas’ remix via BBC DJs Rob Da Bank and Pete Tong and influential Stateside stations like KCRW and Indie 103.1 (the Raconteurs have even covered “Floating” in their live sets). To Freeland, this recent activity proves there’s more to Marine Parade—and him—than the breaks sound they’ve been associated with. “I was considered a breaks DJ because I had snare drums,” Freeland explains. “I play a bit of house, but a whole set of straight kick drum would drive me crazy—you need snares to break up the groove. If you want to call that breaks, then fine, but once breaks became a ‘scene’ and a formula, that I was never into. I like great breaks, but I’m into good music, period. Great electro-house, rock, IDM, whatever—if it’s got the right vibe, it will fit in to my DJ sets and what we put out on Marine Parade. After all, it’s fun playing other people’s records, but it’s a lot more fun rocking crowds with your own”

Indeed, Marine Parade also released Freeland’s breakthrough full-length artist album, 2003’s Now & Them, which spawned the smash single “We Want Your Soul,” a Top 40 chart hit in various countries ‘round the world that also resulted in an award-winning video. Freeland expects the followup to Now & Them to be released in spring 2008: with production already in process, it’s shaping up to be as genre-shattering as ever, with guest shots already recorded from Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago, Tony Bevilacqua (guitarist for the Distillers, Spinnerette, and the Drips), and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. “Creatively, the sound I want to hear— somewhere between Soulwax and Sonic Youth, Justice and My Bloody Valentine—doesn’t exist yet, so I had to go and make it,” Freeland explains. “I’ve always played whatever I want, but the audience now is even more receptive. There’s been limits, but now it’s wide open.”


THE SCRATCH PERVERTS



Tony Vegas, Prime Cuts and Plus One are the Scratch Perverts - a name that has become synonymous with HipHop and battle DJing ever since their formation in 1996. Their reputation as one of the world’s most progressive DJ collectives is unparalleled; two consecutive World DMC Team titles, Plus One's World DMC Champion and World Vestax Champion titles, Prime Cut's back to back World ITF Scratching crowns, and countless showcases and gigs all over the world.

Having won all there is to offer in the competition circuit, the Perverts are ready to enter the next stage of their development as recording artists. But as DJs who have contributed countless techniques and pioneered such radical innovations developing the musical language of the turntable, what the Perverts define as HipHop is a long way off what people would expect. “HipHop is a celebration of all kinds of music just by its very nature,” explains Prime Cuts. “So it follows that our album is very much a HipHop album in the broadest sense of the term. We’ve tried to do what we see HipHop as being – a celebration of all music, taking on board everything that inspires us and channelling it into our tracks.”



The ideals created by the likes of Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa developed through HipHop’s formative years, originality, dynamism and innovation are all principles that the Perverts have applied to their DJing art and now to their music. "We’ve tried to bring the mentality behind our creativity with turntables to the studio,” explains Tony. “We’re looking to show the same sense of independent thought in our music.”

The Perverts have always unselfconsciously embraced and incorporated anything that feels right musically, which is evident when you consider that they count the likes of The Neptunes, Dillinja, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Aphex Twin, amongst their inspirations and influences. “HipHop is something that came from a lot of different music,” says Tony. “It was always about the collective energy. It’s not just a rapper that makes a record a HipHop record its about a vibe – and if a record has that vibe I personally look upon it as being integrally HipHop.” At the same time, however, the Perverts last intention is to make an album of sound-a-like productions “We are different,” asserts Plus One. “If we make a breakbeat track it’s not gonna sound like the Stantons, if we make a HipHop track hopefully it won’t sound like the Neptunes, if we do something leaning towards drum & bass it might end up more like a rock track.”



Although they may have retired from battling indefinitely, the Perverts have lost none of their supercharged competitive spirit. “We still have that proper B-Boy ethic deep down at the core of it all,” explains Plus One. “It’s this need to take someone out, to do better than them,” adds Prime Cuts. “For example, listening to a Dillinja track and thinking that’s so heavy, I wanna do something better than that – it’s that mentality that drives us, we wanna take on something that we’ve heard someone else do and try to do it better.” These days, instead of spending hours building battle routines to take each other out, the Perverts are crafting beats to do exactly the same thing! “We’re always trying to out do each other,” Plus One says with a grin. “Even though we’re all working towards the same cause, still at the core of it is that energy – I wanna make the best tune this week, I want to have the ideas, and that gives us this immense drive that maybe other people don’t have.”

The creative energy and enthusiasm that the Perverts exude is quite something, through all their schizophrenic influences and lofty ideals you get the feeling that they will harness and channel their combined creativity into something very special. “Our challenge is in coming up with something that’s an honest reputation of ourselves,” say Plus One. “Which is quite a difficult thing ‘cos we’re into so much different stuff.” As Tony Vegas sums up; “We’re just trying to true to ourselves, we want people to be left in no doubt whatsoever as to what a Scratch Perverts record is, you can guarantee that we’ll be bringing the same amount of honesty, energy, desire that we have to our DJing.”


FREQ NASTY



The artist known as FreQ Nasty has over the last few years become known as the man behind a unique sound, championed by producers and DJ's alike - the person most likely to pull dance music out of the occasional creative cul-de-sac it finds itself in once every few seasons.

Born in the pacific Island of Fiji but brought up even further round the world in New Zealand Darin's musical upbringing was by his own admission unique. Not so much because his parents were into anything drastically avant garde, but because being that far outside the UK he was afforded the opportunity of growing up without the snobbery that comes with this country's obsession with musical categorisation. You can see this 'across the board' influence throughout Darin's work. These influences and ideas were finally cemented with the release of his debut album, an effective round-up of previous tracks 'FreQs, Geeks & Mutilations'.

FreQ. Nasty's debut single was the much championed 'Boomin' Back Atcha'- A mid- tempo stomper of a track complete with bleeps and voice snippets straight out of trashy 50's sci-fi movies. It fast became the stand-out feature of the more daring deck-wrecker's set. It was with the follow-up 'Underglass' however that Darin really started to make some waves. Truly a filthy record it was near pornographic in its pursuit of the perfect low down and dirty kick. Acid sounds bent out of shape coupled with super-tight percussion and breaks pinned down by the fierce low-end responses that subsequently have become the FreQ Nasty trademark. 'Underglass' tweaked the music press enough for them to run articles in Muzik, NME, Update, and Jockey Slut. The ball was starting to roll...



Just as Darin was starting to be labelled as a leader of Nu-Skool Breaks he slipped that pigeon-hole with the release of 'FreQ-a- Zoid', a blinding piece of robotic disco that convinced even the techno purists that FreQ Nasty was utterly right in his pursuit of machine funk. Part Kraftwerk, part Daft Punk, with a little piece of Jaques Lu Cont's electro cheek dropped in for balance, the cut rocked techno, house and hip hop floors alike. This came as no suprise to anyone that knew that FreQ also released techno records under various guises.

Meanwhile and on the sly and at the same time Darin also released the superb 'Funky as...' with studio partner BLIM on Adam Freeland's much respected Marine Parade label. The style was different but the results remained similarly devastating.



This was about the time that FREQ Nasty started picking up more DJ dates around the country as clubs started looking for something new to rock their crowds. Darin's sound was perfect- A more varied and eclectic soundtrack that still blew speakers. An early residency at Bryan G's seminal Movement night at London's Bar Rhumba club had taught Darin early on that the key to his success as a DJ relied very much on bass, it was just a matter of time till this sensibility was relocated to new dancefloors.

Since those days things have rocketed. He's resident DJ at Bugged Out! meets The Boutique at London's Fabric. He's a constant fixture at Boutique dates around the world and keeps floors jumping in France, Poland, Zurich, Finland, Holland, Singapore, Slovenia, even New York's Twilo. He's toured Australia extensively (finding time to play back in native New Zealand now and again) and has another Antipodean tour lined up for July this year. You should be able to catch the FreQ out a Creamfields festival this summer as well as Drum Rhythm in Holland.

As a remixer of other people's material FreQ Nasty has proven no slouch. To a lot of clubbers it was his and BLIM's bomb drop mix of Sousounde's 'Metisse' - where what starts as a crisp bassline evolves into a monstrous slab of distorted acid. The track became a huge hit from DJs like Sasha right through to the more underground Bugged Out types. This was followed by a highly liberal reworking of avante-composer Steve Riech's 'Desert Music'. Since then FreQ has mixed Westbam, Asian Dub Foundation, KRS-One and hip hopper Mystikal.

2000 saw FreQ leave the consistantly supportive Botchit & Scarper for a new label- Brighton's Skint Records home to artists as diverse as X-Press 2 and Fatboy Slim. As if to show people changing labels wasn't going to change him Darin released his roughest release to date the agenda setting 'That's My Style!' which welded tough rap samples with crisp up-tempo breaks and an ascending bass-line that once again flirted with acid distortion. The record that almost broke Fabric nightclub. Further tracks such as 'Amped' and 'Transforma' confirm that consistency is another one of Darin's skills.


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Tickets on sale in all stores now