Overview
The brainchild of cosmic Melbourne trio Midnight Juggernauts, Siberia Records plays host to a swag of electronically-grounded, eclectic artists worth giving a significant damn about.
For their highly-anticipated Vivid label party Siberian Nights they're bringing Mancurian electronic wizard Andy Stott and his formidable bass/vox fusion to The Studio on May 23, alongside Sydney threesome Black Vanilla, Forces, Cassius Select (Guerre), DCM and Four Door. Plus, the Middy Juggs will be jamming as well, bringing their fully immersive experience AERIALS to psych everyone out.
To psych you up for Friday's highly anticipated Studio party, the dudes at Siberia have put together a playlist of weird and wonderful offerings; from the charismatic strangeness of Kirin J Calinan to the smooth stylings of Cassius Select. So jump in, bliss out and make the trek to Siberia on Friday night.
1. Alex Cameron — Jumping the Shark
"Technically this is an album. But one of my favourites this year. An interesting exploration into the down and out world of show business (see video). Alex was self releasing it on his website for free so we decided to press a small run baby blue vinyl for it. It now sits proudly on my shelf, and hopefully yours too.
"He's in London right now where he's been playing a few shows with R. Stevie Moore but will be magically appearing at our Siberia show at Vivid, along with the next character — it's a bit of a secret how they'll actually get there..."
2. KIRIN J CALLINAN - Constant Craving (feat. Sophia Brous)
"Kirin also covered 'Apology Accepted' by The Go Betweens a few years ago. Both great Australian covers in my honest opinion. KD Lang might be Canadian but this version slices and dices her into the Southern Hemisphere.
"Like I was saying, Kirin will be present in 'some form' this weekend at the Siberia night however, technically he'll still be in London recording his second album."
https://youtube.com/watch?v=s9LYXnII_7Q
3. FORCES - Altered States
"A classic Australian electronic track. And band. I fell in love with these guys about four years ago when they did a reworking of another artist we were working with. They hadn't released any original material at that point and then they sent me this track, among others.
"We ended up bringing them to Sydney to play at a rave in 2012 in an abandoned room in Hibernia House (that we somehow got the keys to). There's a great photo of them almost getting arrested when the cops came and shut it down. You can find it somewhere online."
4. SPK - SLOGUN
"These guys were quoted to be the inventors of industrial music by Throbbing Gristle. Little do people know, the beginnings of industrial music actually started in Sydney Australia with SPK. These guys were working at the asylum in Balmain (that is now SCA) and they mention in interviews they were influenced by the sounds they were hearing all day, that bled into their first album. They then went onto actually sampling those sounds in subsequent records.
"To me they are a great representation of some of the harshness of Australian music. One of them eventually moved to Hollywood and now creates incredible sound design — he did the soundtrack to The Crow in the 90's. This video has a bit of a history lesson on the group if you're interested. I like the quote in the comments: "This is the result of leaving a 56k modem in the microwave.'"
5. CASSIUS SELECT - Judge / Lock
"Lavurn Lee's debut video. I've known this guy for a long time through Guerre and now Black Vanilla. His solo material as Cassius Select is incredible. I find it hard to engage with electronic music sometimes but this is totally immersive. It sets such a strong tone; dark and menacing yet in a strange way euphoric and slinky. It's totally fresh. We've just started doing stuff with him and I think he's got a lot of exciting things coming."
Siberian Nights is happening in The Studio on Friday May 23 for Vivid LIVE. More details over here.