Dance News

Sunday 28 December brings one of the largest, most varied lineups for an electronic music festival Adelaide's seen in a long time. Summer Break at Bonython Park is boasting a really impressive lineup, featuring artists from many areas of electronic music and beats. The big one is Public Enemy live, with DJ Lord doing his own thing on the side as well. Breaks are represented by Adam Freeland, Aquasky, and Noisia playing a breakbeat set. Drum'n'bass will fare well with Sub Focus, Chase & Status and Futurebound all making appearances. Electro-house and indie dance fans are the luckiest though, with the bulk of artists coming from those styles. Midnight Juggernauts are doing a live set, and others include Utah Saints, Tydi, Van She live, TV Rock, Snob Scrilla, Vandalism, Tommy Trash, and Bag Raiders. Dubstep gets its own spot too, with genre innovators Benga and Skream heading down. Jonathan Ulysses (Space Ibiza) and Ajax are also on the lineup.

This year's summer Enchanted has been announced, and is meant to be taking place in an "inner-metro inside location". It's on Saturday 13 December, and while the lineup hasn't been fully announced, rumour has it that Karim, Paul Glazby, Kevin Energy, Sharky and Billy Bunter are just the tip of the iceberg. This year's festivals seem to have been dominated by electro-house and breaks... and indie dance kids in too much fluoro, so it should be refreshing to see Enchanted take it back to hard-as-nails hard-dance, -house, -trance and drum'n'bass. The lineup's massive already and that's only 5 names!

Adelaide drum'n'bass label 5158 Records are bringing Q-Bik (NZ/ Perth), to play a 2-hour set alongside Adelaide staples Fiction and Mark7 at SoHo (hq), on Friday 10 October. Q-Bik's played all over Australia and New Zealand, earning himself the title of the most consistently booked drum'n'bass DJ in Australia. Having gained support from the likes of Bryan Gee (V Recordings) and Adam F (Breakbeat Kaos), you can imagine his sets to be full of smooth rollers with a touch of the harder stuff. Head down this Friday to find out.

Also at SoHo, but on Friday 17 October, Lightmare drum'n'bass are bringing us a night of fresh Adelaide talent, with headliners Psyonix playing a fully live drum'n'bass set, accompanied by an audio-visual presentation produced by the group. The trio bends genres and pushes sounds in a bit of a different direction, while still keeping their style definably rooted in drum'n'bass. They're being supported by DJs Troub9l, Moment, Zypha, Pirate Po and MC G-Swift.

It's turning out to be a massive end of the year for drum'n'bass, with a real legend of the scene coming down, Mr. DJ Hype. Having risen to fame in the mid-90s with his Ganja Records label, he's now teamed up with Andy C's Ram Records and is coming down to Adelaide sometime in October, with Danny Byrd (UK, Hospital Records), Xample (UK) and MC Daddy Earl (UK). It's going to be at the Crown & Sceptre and is on Wednesday 5 November. Eclipse is the promoter, and they're also bringing techstep masters Calyx and TeeBee on Friday 17 October at Six Bar. Calyx and TeeBee are two of the most interesting producers in drum'n'bass at the moment, with their sci-fi infused brand of techy, dark beats, they're sure to play two of the most memorable drum'n'bass sets of the year.

I promise this is the last drum'n'bass news item for the issue... It's too good to pass up. New Zealand new-schoolers Concord Dawn are heading to town, on Saturday 1 November at Inbound Drum'n'bass. Having released two solid studio LPs and with plenty of experience behind the decks, the duo's known for innovative arrangements, lots of male vocals and some brutal drums and basslines. Definetely worth checking if you like your drum'n'bass a bit heavier. Fiction, Filter, Kiddo, Grimey, Paul D and Roost are supporting.

Redline Dubstars are bringing Tes La Rok (Finland) to the Crown & Sceptre on Saturday November 8. Tes La Rok started out producing and DJing drum'n'bass under the name of Dice, before moving into dubstep and becoming a respected producer and DJ in the new genre. Joining him will be Sydney DJ Victim, plus Fiction playing a jungle set, and Jayar, Macro, Bennie Raw, Desh, Strife and Audio Opticon. Word is that an extra set of subs are going on top of the Sceptre's sound system, to really get those basslines rumbling.

Although dance isn't really the focus of Big Day Out, there are a few good artists on the lineup against all the rock and indie stuff. Pendulum are playing, presumably live, since their recent album 'In Silico' features a lot more live instrumentation and a fairly strong metal influence. The Prodigy are on there too, playing in the exact same venue as they did the last time they were in Adelaide for Two Tribes in 2005. British electro duo Simian Mobile Disco will also be there, as will Sneaky Sound System and Cut Copy.