Interview with a Butler

by Taran M

On Sunday just passed it was my pleasure to catch up with one of Melbourne’s rising pound for pound DJ’s and friend of Substance, DJ Alex Butler, or as he casually refers to himself as “The Alex Butler Experience”. It takes a bold and brash personality to adorn themselves with the title “Experience”  and for those that don’t know him, you would simply write it off as DJ wankerism 303. But to those afforded the luxury of being in his inner circle, it’s actually more of an ironic middle finger to the conformity of what a DJ is nowadays, done with a ball’s out this is what I have, if you’re not laughing at it you should be stomping your ass off to it. So with beer in hand and recorder set to stun I set about interviewing Alex at the home of his own branded “Sunday Sessions” at the Terminus in Abottsford.

Substance: So mate how is that Tasmania came to lose you, what did you do with the second head?

Alex: I was living in Tasmania and one day got a phone call from my brother, basically telling me to pack up my shit and come over to Melbourne to party with him. So three days later I packed up my life into my car came over on the boat and was straight to Hard Kandy on the Friday night. They perform the operation to remove the third head before you get on the boat.

Substance: So you’re a real boat-person, wow you’re my first. So before you came over to Melbourne you had had your first experience in real big clubbing/ partying. Tell us about it?

Alex: Yeah I had been over here on a sporting trip to Melbourne in 2003 and was pretty buggered and after thirteen days of games. On the Friday night my brother said “Fuck it, I’m taking you partying”. So we hop into his car and after about half an hour of driving I asked where we were going. I found out we were going to a party, at a castle in the middle of nowhere. Was a bit shocked and had no idea what I was in for. Got to the front of the castle and I was amazed, I hadn’t seen ravers or set foot in a proper club before and there’s Kryal Castle done up to a T, I was amazed. I met Scott Alert back stage and when the night was done there was no looking back, I spent every Friday at Hard Kandy for the next three to four years.

Substance: When you first started getting into the scene did you know that you wanted to be a DJ/ Producer. Asking because you have been in the scene for awhile its only the last few years we’ve seen you really step up to the plate?

Alex: Nah, wasn’t like I wanted to get into DJing immediately I just liked to head out and party. I had a few friends that showed me the ropes, mixing wise and producing. It wasn’t until about 2006 that I started getting into the tunes, bought some decks and gave it a crack.

Substance: So you started playing electro house and Trance with Kandy at the start of your career and you’ve definitely headed into a more bushy sound, what are you preferring to play at the moment, What’s the Alex experience offering listeners at the moment and where is it heading?

Alex: I’m playing a hybrid of prog trance with definitely a more psy sound. It’s a universal sound, crosses over but it’s definitely got a tough feel to it. On the flip side I do like to get down and dirty and have a bit of fun playing electro house still. I’m definitely pushing the prog psy as my definitive sound though. I’m starting to produce tunes in this vein so that’s where it’s all heading.

Substance: Worst gig experience? If you had five robotic dancing chickens would that have helped the gig?

Alex: I ran an after party for a Substance, nothing worked, it was at Pony, which was a miss-booking in terms of a venue, we were heckled by people that saw us play there the last week, even though that was our first night. At the end of the gig we grabbed our shit and we broke out.

Substance: How important is the crew that you hang with n the EDM?

The support from the guys around in the early days, like the Substance crew was important. More so now my mates like Simon Murphy and Jordz have given me the avenues to get the gigs I’m getting. It’s great to have mates around me doing this cause the main reason I started this was to have fun with my mates.

Substance: Tell me about the beach party you and Simon destroyed New year? By all reports it was just a docile little affair until you and Simon got on and fucked shit up, is it true you laced the water with stimulants?

It was a docile party to begin with and was pretty tame during the day lots of people sitting back relaxing , the sun went down, we started bashing out the prog psy and shit got loose, started rocking it. I wish we could afford to lace water with drugs, unfortunately we are not that rich.

Substance: Use the words “Mint”,  “Fresh” and “slapper” to describe the average situation behind the decks:

Alex: (Laughs) I’d like to think the tunes I play are pretty fresh, I like looking out at the mint chicks on the dance floor until the lights come on and they’re all slappers.

Substance: What is the one artist and or event you would give your left nut for a gig at?

Alex: Rainbow Serpent Open or straight after Neelix, market stage… Go hard or go home!

Substance: You’re really into Neelix?

Alex: Yeah he got me into that prog sound, everytime i see him play he never disappoints, he steered my sound towards a more rounded prog sound, definitely diverted my attention from hard trance.

Substance: So we’re at Sunday Sessions at the Terminus which you run with Simon, what is this all about? Is this the Dr. Jekyll to your Mr. Hyde?

Alex: This is more just for us to have an outlet to hang with our mates, play some chill out hip hop. We just thought it would be a nice change of pace to cross fade some tunes and enjoy a beer garden with a mean parma.

Substance: What’s the biggest problem that the Melbourne EDM is facing and don’t say clubstep!

Alex: I would definitely  say it’s the stigma that some venues still have to partying, more so a throwback to the damage caused by bad crowds and negatively geared press towards the EDM as a whole. Liquor licensing and councils are slowly become more of a problem for venues.

Substance: Whore yourself again, Where are you playing next? What are you upto?

Alex:  I’m playing an electro gig at Hard Kandy, with “The freak” Daniel Johnston going bananas on some tough electro. Then there’s a party coming up in a couple of weeks, ill post it underneath the article…. I’m also playing a two hour prog set down in the Otways in March, that’s going to be a good little doof.

 

For more info on Alex and upcoming gigs visit his Facebook page.
You can catch him playing every second week at the Sunday Sessions at Terminus Hotel in Abottsford.

My Top 5 influential releases ~ Early years and beyond, the music that got me playing!

by Taran M

These are the five albums that I feel have influenced not only my desire to play, but also my influence in exploring dance music as a whole.

1.) Paul Van Dyk – Out there and back. (2000)

Paul Van Dyk - Out There and BackI originally bought this because I had heard “For an angel” played out and only knew it was a Paul Van Dyke track, that release was not in this CD I felt like I had been violated. Until I listened a bit longer. I can even remember buying this on my break at Borders on Chapel in 2000. To me this CD was always a perfect car CD on the long haul drive into Billboards from Eltham. With this album Paul really brought his production to a whole other level in my opinion. The albums flow is a graceful progression from the stigmatic Break Beat intro of “Vega”, detouring into the tingling melodic rifts of gems like “Avenue”. This is a beautiful album, incorporating what was back at its time of release all the major elements of trance. The more you get into the album the mood gradually builds, plateau’s then builds again. There is a twist of genius in using “Face to Face” which I would occasionally play as an early morning tune at festivals as an elevator to reach you to the very clubby “Love from Above” which is my personal favourite tune on the album. The album culminates with the massive dance-floor hit of 2000 “We are alive”. Paul proved a lot of naysayers back in the day with this album that he was not a one trick pony and whilst this album did travel over a few pundits’ heads, it flew right into my CD library and never really looked back.

2.) Astral Projection – Another World (1999)

Astral ProjectionNever leave one of your favourite cd’s at a drug dealers house. That is the lesson I learnt with this CD. This was the 3rd or 4th electronic release I ever bought and although i have the digital copy on my laptop, I miss the CD. This was the only Psy trance purchase and probably will be. The thing that really got me about this CD was probably because it was less Psy trance and a little bit more tech. This was when Psy was still referred to as “Goa trance” and this CD to me is a perfect wedge to see how Psy Trance has developed. You have to remember that when this album was released Psy was still very much a two year old bastard child of tech and trance parents, keen to run away and do its own thing, but still heavily relying on its parents for daily necessity. Its a gritty and earthy listen with a constant tech fueled beat. “Nilaya” and “Searching UFO’s” were the picks of the bunch. If you can find it have a good listen.

3.) The very best of 3 years Headline – From Tech to Trance (2003)

HeadlineThis is in short the best tech trance album ever released in my opinion. Myself and my then girlfriend had this wedged in our CD player for possibly six or seven months. Oliver Klitzing basically threw together all of the releases that had spawned of his label, remixes, his production as Chromedioxide 2, Kaylab and his countless other aliases into a two disc marathon of balls out tech trance. This CD testifies him as an amazing producer and I for one feel he was majorly over looked as the likes of Tiesto, Van Dyke and Van Burren came into dominance. His problem which can be noted on this album was that at the time his music really had no genre, he was the only really flat out tech-trance producer and tech trance was being built or probably was built around most of his releases. Oliver is best described using the Hunter S. Thompson rant on Dr. Gonzo “There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. Some kind of high-powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die”. As trance built and tech backed off he was left a duck in an ever changing pond, It was either Tech or Trance. Not both at once, well at least for the masses. Tunes like “Fucking society”, his remix of Emmanuel Tops “Turkish Bazaar” and Judges “The only one” show off his creative sack of beans. Seriously I cannot stress how unbelievable this two disc compilation is, it’s hard, but not hard enough to be hard trance. The fluffy melodic “I feel love” riff’s are kept in line by swift, non-exaggerated break downs and 808 drum lines. I fear that if you do try to track this down you may hit a number of brick walls. But if you can hunt it down it is well worth the listen.

4.) Hard Kandy Episode 2 mixed by Nexus and the Kandy Kollective (2006)

Hard Kandy Episode 2“One and in comes one, then there comes the two to the three.” “ All your bass belongs to us” “Full Intention” “Oh yeah baby jam your fingers in my……” You get the idea, we all got the idea and the kids were fucking hooked. This CD was seriously like crack cocaine when I was just starting to come up on the scene as a DJ. It had dropped like an A bomb on the Melbourne club-rave scene in 2006 and while Bass Station vol 1 killed “power trance” (whatever the fuck that was anyway) and delivered hard darker style trance; Episode 2 went the other way, showering us with a serving of hard trance and then delivered us the desert of UK hard house and hard dance. The two CD’s in episode 2 act as an amazing catalyst for each other. Nexus’s offering on disc 1 delivers us an array of very serious German hard trance. Relying on a heavy dose of Scott Project who at the time only had to record his farts to have a number one, this CD is littered with classic gems that still get their fair share of rotation. The unbelievably picturesque classic Alex Bartlett “Amnesia” (Flutlicht Vs. SHOKK RMX) is timeless, whether it be the at times haunting female vocals or the intensely crafted breakdown , much like Marc Aurel’s “Running”. Packing his mix with the likes of the Scott Project remix of the Signum classic “Coming on Strong” and Thomas Trouble’s “Insane Asylum” Nexus took us through an intelligent journey in German Hard Trance, culminating with the epitome of classics Ultrashock’s “Sound of E”.

If Nexus’s mix was the sun then disc two was definitely the moon. While Ajax and Krash’s offering on Hard Kandy Episode one pointed me in the direction of what sound I was after, Episode 2 disk 2 stamped exactly the sound I was shooting for and eventually the sound that would define the beginning of my career. Mixed by the Kandy Kollective (Sott Alert, Ajax and Krash) this hyperactive offering of UK hard house and UK hard dance is one of those mixes that has developed into an institution for my generation of ravers. So many scattered days in my memory of running around repeating Tomcrafts “Prozac” “Prozac”….”Prozac” or “This is what we call a global killer….The end of mankind.” Featuring five releases out of the Tidy Two label and offerings from Stimulant DJ’s and War Brothers the key developments of this mix was that it clearly illustrated the cognitive shift Hard house made seamlessly into UK Hard dance. In tracks like “The Birds” or “Snatched” the bounce of the hard house scene is there, but the kick drum is just that little bit heavier and hollow. Songs like “Blow the Roof” and “You’ll know it” have the sharp tight snare rolls and driving bass lines that would come to define UK Hard dance. There is the damn right obscene in Pornrockers “Cuntlicker” and the swiss cheese of cheesy songs, Scott Alert its “10am and there are still 300 people rocking it on the billboards dance floor and we’re not fucking leaving till you drop ‘WE ARE ONE!’” by Chemistry. To those that were partying at that time and for the next two generations of party goers this album will always be an institution in its own right.

5.) Clubbers guide to 2007 mixed by Goodwill and Kid Kenobi (2006)

Clubbers Guide to 2007Usually I am not terribly enthused by Ministry of Sound annuals or cd’s. Unless it’s the chillout albums or the NRG series from back in the day I tend to shy away. However this release was one I actually went in search of whilst I was still living in Sydney during the period where I had left Kandy and starting Substance. This release was in fact very much the “How Taran M, got his groove back” in terms of releases, as this release prompted me thinking about what I was going to play at this club I was starting up. It is very much an album where for one brief moment MOS have seemed to lapse in creative control over DJ’s and just let them do what they are best at. Sure there are a couple of radio friendly bleeders like Fedde La Grand’s remix of “Creeps” and the annoyingly earwormish Body Rocks- “Yeah Yeah”. But where this CD succeeds is the foot tapping Kid Kenobi mix on Disk two. Apart from the Hook and sling remix of Stanton Warriors “Shake it up” which has about as much class as an Ikea vase, The mix is decidedly well prepared. Tracks like Canberra locals The Aston Shuffle “Killer Application”, Trente Moller’s remix of Moby’s classic “Go” and Plump DJ’s- Mad Cow gave me the basis of what I would begin exploring in my sound at Substance. Goodwill’s mix as well carries a very solid feel to it, although being a tad commercial “ (previous tunes mentioned) there is not a lot of pretension and wank which you would come to associate with the general expectation of MOS annual. This was very much MOS’s retaliation against the now famous “One Love” CD’s and for once they actually achieved a release that I’d score over the 8/10 mark.

Well there you have it, that’s my top five influential CD’s in my time behind the decks the last 10 or so years. Other notable mentions would Be Hardware 1-3 for my dollop of techno and Aqua’s first Album, but in terms of what I have played and when, that would be it. Actually Aqua should have been in there, I mean I used to play Brooklyn Bounce back in the day and there the same thing kinda??

Next top 5 in a few weeks, probably chillout albums… Peace out 🙂

Melbourne’s Beautiful Scene and why it’s the centre of the earth

by Taran M

When it comes down to brass tacks, we all know which city in Melbourne will forever hold the title of Australia’s electronic music capital and it is of course…Melbourne.

From the very first times I started going out, on reflection it was always clear to me that there is something special about the Melbourne scene. Whether it be Progressive, Tech, Psy, Hard trance, electro, drum and bass our beautiful city carries its flag highly on our mantelpiece.

So why does Melbourne work? Why is it possible? Who wrote the book on love and why does the toilet flush when I haven’t even pressed the button; I think I am digressing a touch.

From the time I first started going out late last century (no really 1997!) the thing even as a newbie party goer that I noticed was that the different genre’s of electronic, majorly techno, House and trance/ hard house all intertwined in some way. Whilst purists and pundits did exist there was co-existence and intermingling between all factions. From its inception Hardware insisted on blending tech and house, there CD releases on Shock Records would be split into a house disc and a techno disc. From the onset of both Hard Kandy and Bass Station, Hard trance and house music and electro was always paralleled albeit in a side room. Hard Kandy went as far as having two house DJ’s playing on rotation for warm up sets. The much famed and missed NRG parties run by smile Police always encouraged a plethora of music styles and whilst very much a “rave” spectacle never failed to mix genres on any stage at any time. This establishment of diversity and working together basically galvanised relationships and genre based promoters. And while at any given period a genre can hold popular demand it has never been seen to issue “coup d’état” amongst the others.

All you have to do is look at the festivals that Melbourne holds to understand exactly how deep Melbourne’s scene runs. Since the hallowed Days of Every Picture tells a story, Belfast and the early years of Hardware there has always been an “Enjoy Music” at major events. Rainbow Serpent, Summerdayze, Welcome, Good Vibrations, Stereosonic, Hot BBQ, and Future music are festivals that Bred from Melbourne promoters and have become state and even national success stories. At grass roots smaller scale promoters have been encouraged more than discouraged by the bigger promoters. More so Melbourne has bred promoters to appreciate the party more than the cash. It is amazing how quite a few of the middle tier production companies run at next to nothing budget’s just to throw a party, just to get people shaking it…like a 35mm picture.

There has never really been any such “stand over” tactics by larger scale promotion companies to undermine smaller event organisers. There is a healthy buffer and intermingling between the likes of lower, middle and upper tier promoters that helps breed a pro active approach to maintaining and growing electronic music. There is always going to be the fuckwit promoter who doesn’t pay his DJ or the arrogant, self absorbed money hungry promoter/ rapist that springs up from time to time. The only problem is that us promoters all talk to each other in one form or the other and sooner or later the evangelistic, fly by night promoter is found out, I can think of a few that have all to quickly sunk under their ego’s own mistakes.

It’s always going to be about the talent and in the words of Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing “We’re chock full of that!”. Australia’s first two early superstar DJ’s came from the Melbourne scene, Will E Tell and Richie Rich. I think sometimes we are spoilt to the point of under appreciation of the amount of talent around in Melbourne. Whether they be DJ’s or producers the quality of the gene pool in Melbourne cannot be under estimated. Whether you’ve loved Hard trance/ house, love it now or hate it with a passion; you cannot ignore the talent we have in Melbourne. The original Kandy crew of Scott Alert, Ajax and Krash are still some of the most talented producers and Dj’s you will find. NFX is one of those producers that can only be truly found once in a blue moon (I think we can claim Dr. Willis as well!).

Producers of all genres whether it be the Progressive/ tech stylings of Blinky (Beat Geek Records), the tech house/ electro antics of Kalus, Trance extraordinaire Steve May (5am/ Armada) showcase the depth of Melbourne’s talent. So much so that many of the above names have featured on the set lists and podcasts of such international stars as Dubfire, Armin Van Burren, Tiesto and Carl Cox. We can’t forget our biggest national dance music export, TV Rock who also hail from our beloved city. We have even thrown a major contender into the ever popular “Mash arena” in the vein of Substance’s own Mouka. Seriously this guy makes Girl Talk sound like a poor man’s Bob Hope. To list the talent in Melbourne in terms of DJing would require an almost dictionary like bible. Melbourne is “Spin city” a haven for the master of the pioneer, mac and now the almost extinct 1200’s.

Finally this article would be a miss without giving praise to the Melbourne crowd. I have partied in every city and played in most of them as well and I can easily say that WE ARE THE SHIT! You won’t find a friendlier crowd on a dance-floor than in Melbourne. More so Melbourne’s regular punters don’t just go out, they live and breathe the scene. Not so much as scenesters, but more as crowds that love their music, support their cause and promote our city for what it is, the centre of Australia’s electronic music scene.