Henry Holland

Booka Shade - Hot in the shade

Booka Shade

Ooh yep, can you feel that? Summer is coming. And you know what that means? Ice cream, sunshine, summer romances, holidays and partying. Lots of partying. I could almost write an album about all the sunshine and partying ahead. I could call it The Sun and the Neon Light. Catchy huh? But I won’t, because I’ve already been beaten to the job by German minimal maestros BOOKA SHADE . And to celebrate the release of their third album they’re touring Down Under for what are sure to be some of the wildest parties all summer. Neat.

Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier formed Booka Shade in the early ’90s after initially playing together in a school band. After flirting with different styles of music and producing pop songs for German record labels, they formed their own imprint with the establishment of the Get Physical label in 2002. But it was with the release of debut album Memento (2004) and sophomore Movements (2006) that they forged their way into the collective conscious of music fans worldwide. Now recognised as the epitome of minimal tech-house music, the duo are responsible for such groundbreaking dance-floor gems as Body Language, Mandarine Girl, In White Rooms and current single Charlotte.

“When we started the Get Physical label it was something like a playground for everybody who was involved,” Arno says. “We just wanted to produce the music that we felt wasn’t out there, but which we felt should be released. When we produced DJ T’s Freemind, together with other people’s music at that time, it became one of the blueprints of what was later called electro-house. But we never sat down and said ‘OK, let’s create something like electro-house’ or whatever. I always had the feeling that what we did never fit in any kind of category. For minimal music we had way too many melodies but still somehow it reached people and people liked it so we don’t care a lot about the categories, we just do what we do.”

The boys have had an absolutely massive year, having played basically all the biggest festivals on the planet including Coachella, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, Creamfields and I Love Techno. Arno says that while the super-festivals are incredible, they get equal enjoyment from playing small-club sets.

“In the very small sweaty club shows it’s very intimate,” he says. “You can basically just reach out and touch the audience and be very close with them. We wouldn’t be satisfied if we were playing only big stages, because you would probably lose a little bit of the contact with the audience. We do have quite an energetic live show. There is a lot of physical presence that we have on stage, Walter and I, because we work a lot on stage as musicians. We give a lot of energy to the people and when they pick it up and work with it and return it then there is a lot of energy going on. I think people really appreciate that.”

Now you know what to expect when Germany’s finest take over Transit Bar. Sounds like it’s going to be hot in the Shade. Booka Shade play at Transit Bar on Thursday November 27, with Scottie Fischer, Mig-L, Hubert, Dave Norgate and Expose DJs. Entry is free, so get along early to grab your spot!

Warehouse Winter Music Festival @ AIS Arena, Saturday May 31

Sitting anxiously on the bus from Sydney to Canberra on the morning of the first ever Warehouse Winter Music Festival, I put together what I thought was a pretty good agenda to take in at least a little bit of each of the plethora of outstanding acts on the bill. With the likes of British breaks boffins Hybrid, chaotic Brazilians Bonde Do Role and French veterans Cassius all vying for attention, Warehouse had plenty on offer. However the day started on a disappointing note when we found out Cassius had missed their plane from Paris and would not be taking part. The tardy ‘Toop Toop’ troopers’ absence was made up for with the last-minute inclusion of UK deck-wizard A-Skillz and Canadian talent STA.

Upon entering the event, you couldn’t help but be impressed with the sheer size of the main Arena. The lighting and sound was fantastic as the crowd danced under scores of giant rubber balls that hung from the roof. The dance floor was flanked by stadium seating which meant you could chill out and watch the acts from an elevated perspective. But our first stop was outside at the Terrace, to see local boy Sean Kelly work his magic from the back of a huge pickup truck. Kelly got the crowd moving as more and more people spilled outside to explore the venue. The calibre of costumes and dance moves paraded at the Terrace signalled that this was going to be a good day.

Next we headed inside to the Club stage to watch more local talent as the Aston Shuffle tore the place apart with beats like their cracker For Everyone. We couldn’t stay for the Aston’s finale, however, as a majority vote took the group in to watch Aussie dance music icons Kid Kenobi and MC Shureshock slam down their consistent best in the Arena, boosting the crowd with trademark party tunes.

They were followed by Mixmaster Mike, who took centre stage a little ahead of schedule. The Beastie Boys disc-jockey wasted no time in doing what he does best – mashing music together with perplexing dexterity. The shifts in rhythm make Mike’s sets a little hard to dance to, so we instead decided to take a seat and watch the Master work his craft.

Late entrant A-Skillz followed next, pulling out a string of aces in a 40-minute trick set. When A-Skillz antics concluded anticipation built for the entrance of baile-funk bandits Bonde Do Role. It felt quite surreal watching the Brazilians bounce around live after hearing reports only six months ago that irreconcilable differences meant the group would never perform again. Their rendition of Marina Gasolina was one of the highlights of the day, as the whole crowd jumped around together. The fact that no one understood the lyrics didn’t stop anyone from pulling out their best Portuguese impressions to sing along to the tune.

We left Bonde towards the end of the set in search of a more solid bass line and stumbled into Mr Oizo in the Club. The Frenchman looked like he had been pulled straight from a homeless shelter, with a bottle of Moet replacing the proverbial brown paper-bagged longneck. Oizo played a heavy set but constantly kept the tempo elevated. We somehow managed to miss his signature track Flat Beat, and were a little disappointed that he didn’t drop his remix of Rage Against the Machine’s anthem Killing In The Name Of. Despite this, Mr Oizo still managed to take the cake for best set of the festival.

Australia’s number-one DJ Ajax was next in the Club, taking control of the decks and the crowd. The set contained plenty of high quality mixes and mash-ups, but couldn’t quite match the energy of the Mr Oizo.
A trip back to the Arena saw us catch Utah Saints in full swing. It was difficult to fully appreciate the fact that these warhorses had been playing music since before I was born, but it wasn’t difficult to enjoy their vibe. The highlight came when the Saints’ dropped the first hint of Kate Bush’s lyrics from Something Good, igniting Running Man hysteria amongst the crowd. Towards the end the seasoned British stalwarts announced they only had five minutes left but still had a bunch of records to play. To the crowd’s amusement they finished the performance by cranking the speed up to triple time to get through their set, sending everyone into a mega-dance frenzy.

We split the final timeslot between all three stages, catching STA, Hybrid and even some of local lad Escha in the Terrace. By the time the final record spun everyone was thoroughly satisfied with the inaugural Warehouse event. Although I wasn’t quite able to stick to my agenda, I had twice as much fun as I expected.

Can’t wait to see what Warehouse throws up next year.

Chris Fraser - Raw Power

Guess who’s back. Back again. Fraser’s back. Tell a friend. That’s right people, Canberra’s former dance music golden-boy CHRIS FRASER is set to grace us with his presence once more for the release of volume two of RAW FM’s hit compilation series, RAW. And yes, that’s right, my journalistic ability is so lacklustre that I just blatantly plagiarised lyrics from an Eminem song for the introduction of this article. But don’t let my incompetence distract you from the good news. And if you are Eminem, please don’t sue me. Ah, who am I kidding, Eminem isn’t going to read this so I can say whatever I want about that egotistical hack. But I won’t because that would be unprofessional. And I’m really here to tell you all about RAW Volume Two.

The first RAW compilation smashed sales records for an independent radio station release when it hit stores midway through last year. Few people expected the album to garner so much success, but Chris Fraser says he always had confidence in RAW’s debut effort. “It was predominantly going to be a Canberra thing and I always had a firm belief that the Canberra market is stronger than a lot of people think, and RAW FM has a really strong following,” Fraser says. “I thought that if we were to put out a release under the RAW banner that it could do really well, and it did.”

The success of RAW Volume One afforded Fraser more free reign to source tracks from further afield for the second edition. He says he is ecstatic with the final result, which includes tunes from the likes of The Presets, Stanton Warriors, Sinden & Count Of Monte Cristal, Hot Chip and The Aston Shuffle. Fraser, who has just earned a residency at Sydney’s baronial club-night Famous, has also included five of his own remixes on the album.

“You want to try and put as much of yourself into these things as possible,” he says. “It’s always a bit of a balance between what the station represents and my own personal tastes. Disc 1 is very much what I’m playing or have played recently and disc 2 has more of the big hits on it that people would have heard a lot on the radio.”

To support the launch of RAW Volume Two, Fraser will be jetting off around the country for a string of club dates. The parties will be broadcast live across the entire RAW network and will include promo versions of the CD, giveaways of the full release and other treats for those that get involved. You can be sure none of the events will be as full of debauchery as when Fraser again sets foot in his old stomping ground, Academy.

“Coming back to the club and catching up with everyone is always great,” he says. “It’s kind of like coming home. Hopefully everyone is as excited as I am about the new CD. We’ll be doing anything we can do to spread the nightclub experience around and make it as interactive as possible. I can’t wait.”

Chris Fraser launches RAW Vol. 2 at Academy on Saturday May 17.

The Chaser’s Age of Terror Variety Hour - Cut to the chase

To most Australians a chaser is a mild beverage, such as beer or soft drink, taken to help the ingestion of hard liquor. But in recent years another type of chaser has emerged, with the evolution of a group of the country’s most daring, impudent and witty political commentators. Best known for their show The Chaser’s War On Everything, there is little that the Chaser team has shied away from. They have an inimitable record of pranks that includes everything from trying to hug the Prime Minister with a running chainsaw to offering a gag to Muslim cleric Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali. Now they have decided to take their humour to the stage in the form of With a mandate to steadfastly strive for mediocrity in a world of excellence, the Chaser kicked the Age of Terror tour off in Canberra in March and has since travelled to every state as well as that other Territory. And now they are bringing the show back to Canberra.

The stage show features topical analysis, pranks, performances, music and sketches in the same vein as the television series. The boys are not unfamiliar with the stage, having previously toured with their show Cirque Du Chaser in 2005. Chaser founding-member Craig Reucassel says most of the show will be new material.

“There are one or two items from the Cirque Du Chaser show that were great and we thought not many people saw so we’ll show them again,” Reucassel says. “I think with a few more years experience with the live audience we are experimenting with some different things – there are more sketch things and there is certainly more singing and dancing, so I think it is slightly more ambitious than last time.”

It is still unclear whether the Chaser will return for another series of the War On Everything or whether they will focus on a new program when they have finished the stage tour. If the Chaser does decide to take on another series of the War On Everything it will be without the butt of so many of their jokes, John Howard. But strangely Reucassel says he’s not sad to see the end of ol’ Johnny. “It’s quite nice to have some fresh meat. And I don’t think I could handle getting up at five AM to go on another one of John Howard’s walks. Apparently Kevin Rudd does an evening jog, but we still haven’t seen any proof of this. I don’t know what’s in store for Mr Rudd but certainly that will be one of the fun things about going back to television.”

Reucassel insists the controversy surrounding the Chaser’s now infamous breach of security at last year’s APEC summit will not make the Chaser rethink any of its pranks in the future, despite the threat of jail time for the 11 people involved. “We weren’t planning to break the law on the day, it’s just that a couple of things went wrong,” he says. “The thing is you can never bloody well tell what sort of thing you’re going to get arrested for. Often things we fret over for days turn out to be totally uncontroversial, and the ones where we do actually get a bit of police hassle are the ones that we may not have thought are going to be a problem at all. It’s hard to judge sometimes where it’s going to go pear-shaped.”

So while both hard liquor and Australian politics can leave you feeling numb, confused and perhaps even a little enraged, you can always rely on a Chaser to help it all go down easier.

The Chaser’s Age of Terror Variety Hour returns to Canberra, running from 7pm between Tuesday May 20 and Friday May 23. Tickets available through Canberra Ticketing on www.canberraticketing.com.au or 02 6275 2700.

Warehouse Winter Music Festival - Winter Wonderland

It’s that time of year again when you’re probably thinking about all the movies you’re going to hire to keep you entertained while you hide under a pile of blankets until winter passes. Yes, we’ve all tried to brave the Canberra cold for a night on the town only to snap an ID card in an attempt to scrape ice off the windscreen while simultaneously acquiring a healthy dose of hypothermia. You may even be seconds away from throwing this very magazine on the fire to stave off winter’s encroaching chokehold for just a little longer. But wait, dear reader, for I have news that will warm the heart of every music lover. Friction Event Management and Lexington Music, those handsome devils that brought you Foreshore in December, have teamed up once more to bring you WAREHOUSE WINTER MUSIC FESTIVAL .

This is sure to be one party worth battling through a blizzard for. With the likes of Beastie Boys’ wizard Mixmaster Mike, French boffins Cassius and Mr Oizo and chaotic Brazilians Bonde Do Role already confirmed for the bash, it’s no wonder Canberra party-goers are losing their shit.

One man who is especially excited is local club icon and Friction head-honcho Jeff Drake. “I’m pretty pumped about what we’ve got, I feel like it’s a good combination of stuff that people have heard as well as some acts that people wouldn’t know,” Drake says. “Acts like Bonde Do Role are very current and they are going to blow people away because their performance is just so dynamic. Then you’ve got a big heritage act with Mixmaster Mike and the Beastie Boys connection there – it’s going to be big.”

Drake says punters have been crying out for a large-scale mid-year festival in the ACT.

“It’s that hybrid of indoor and outdoor,” he enthuses. “It’s perceived as being a little more underground and the acts are a little more underground than what we had at Foreshore. People can expect more of that big-room production experience and being winter in Canberra we’re going to ensure that people are warm and comfortable.”

As well as the aforementioned international headliners, the biggest Australian names will also be on show. Perennial party-starter Kid Kenobi, Australia’s number-one DJ Ajax and fresh-faced future-stars Gameboy/Gamegirl will all be bringing their A-games to the capital amongst a host of others. Warehouse will also feature some of Canberra’s best up-and-coming talent with a huge local contingent getting a chance to make the people dance.

“I think it’s going to raise the bar on people’s expectations of production and interactive performance,” Drake quips. “We’re also putting a lot of focus into delivering really amazing décor. It’s a warehouse party but it’s going to be a carnival atmosphere with interactive performers amongst the crowd and décor that people probably won’t have seen before. It’s all about taking the clubbing experience to the next level.”

Warehouse Winter Music Festival hits town on Saturday May 31 at the AIS Arena. First release tickets have sold out and final release tickets ($64.95 + BF) are on sale now through Ticketek and Landspeed.

Heath Franklin - Never Plead Guilty!

We all know deadshits. We see them at work, at parties, in public and sometimes even in private. Maybe you’re a deadshit. If you are, be warned… you are being targeted. Someone out there is looking to get rid of you and all your kind. Even worse, this someone is big, hairy, decorated in prison-looking tattoos and closely resembles one of Australia’s most notorious criminal underworld figures: Mark ‘Chopper’ Read. The good news is that this someone is actually just actor and comedian HEATH FRANKLIN , who has been playing Chopper for the past three years on television and stage. And after touring successfully last year with his Harden the F*ck Up Australia act, Franklin is taking his alter-ego back on the road, this time with the new Make Deadsh*ts History show.

“A lot of people are going to get targeted,” Franklin says. “I think this show is more about behaviour than specific individuals. It’s about some of the dumb things that people do, as well as people who do things and don’t quite realise how dumb they are. I have a bit of a whack at celebrities, especially the celebrities that try and help people when they’ve really got no qualifications for it. There’s not really anyone specific but if you look around and see an idiot, hopefully what they’re doing will be in the show.”

Franklin says his Chopper character has developed a lot since he first slipped into the persona while having drinks with friends. His original Chopper, which came to prominence in 2005 on The Ronnie Johns Half Hour comedy sketch show, was heavily based on Eric Bana’s portrayal of Chopper in the award-winning movie of the same name.

“I think if you watch the first couple of episodes, apart from the moustache being really bad, it is really different,” Franklin says. “As it has gone on, I’ve stretched it out to include people that I’ve worked with and weird idiosyncrasies from people in my family to just expand it a bit more. I’ve accumulated a lot of different traits from a lot of different people over the years.”

The Make Deadsh*ts History tour will feature all new material from the same unique perspective. “I think one of the best things about the Chopper character is that he sees everything in black and white,” Franklin says. “There are no shades of grey for him, which is very liberating. It means that he either loves something or he hates it.”

The real Mark ‘Chopper’ Read is a fan of Franklin’s work, remarking when they met that impersonation is the highest form of flattery. The real Chopper went on to suggest that if Franklin wanted to do a proper impression he should emulate the infamous gangster’s mangled appearance and cut off his ears.

“I’m not that dedicated,” Franklin laughs. “I would like to keep my options open to do something different in the future or maybe even get an earring – I don’t want to rule that out. We’ll have to see how it goes.”

I was tempted to encourage Franklin to go through with cosmetic adjustment, but somehow I don’t think he’s that much of a deadshit.

Franklin brings his terrible mo’ to town on Sunday April 20 at Canberra Theatre. Tickets are available from Canberra Ticketing on 6275 2700.