7th - 8th - Jess Harlen & Groovin' The Moo Festival

Jess Harlen, a young lady from Melbourne, a back up vocalist for Blue King Brown and a recently signed artist to the new independent soul label Plethora Records. February saw the release of her solo album Neon Heartache, sending her to Sydney on Thursday night and up yo the Blue Mountains on Friday night, to promote her album.
I haven't heard a female vocalist perform at The Gearins in Katoomba for a long time. Unfortunately, the turn out was unfortunate but that's to be expected. Those that were there, loved it. I'm eager to see what Plethora Records will offer, if Harlen is anything to go by, then Plethora is going to be a mighty force.
Neon Heartache includes production by Plutonic Lab. His sound has an organic sound that is unique for an instrumental production, a sounds that comes to him naturally. The track 'I Go' is a perfect example of his ability to strip back and deliver strong, heart felt production that can support a female vocalist beautifully.
I then saw Muph and Plutonic on Saturday at Groovin' The Moo Festival in Maitland. Where they played to a young crowd, full of girls in short, shorts and guys with no shirts, singing along word for word to Muph's lyrics. I wasn't there for long but I did catch Lisa Mitchell and Illy too. I know what your thinking, a bit of a poor effort, especially when the festival had 21 acts including Silverchair. But you will just have to trust me when I say, I heard as many as I could. Groovin' the Moo festival had a fun vibe, I found the staff to be really helpful and the variety of artists, ideal for the size and age range of the crowd.
All in all, an awesome weekend.

Images from Myspace.

www.myspace.com/jessharlen
www.myspace.com/plutoniclab

Sun 25th April - Re-Up #2 @ The Sandringham Hotel

Do you remember what I said about Melbourne having loads of hip hop acts under the one roof for heaps cheap?

Well Sydney had something similar... Thanks to LookUp who put on the annual Anzac Day hip hop festival – Re-Up 2. The day featured Def Wish Cast, Thundamentals, Dialectrix, That’s Them, Class A, Nikkita, Swarmy, Daily Meds, DJ’s 2Buck, Ology, Psyke One and Mathmatics. An MC Battle (that was hilarious), beat making competition, a sketch battle and the price? Only $18 pre-sale, so I take it back, Sydney city does have alright deals now and then.

The highlight of my night was Def Wish Cast. I haven’t seen them perform in what feels like years, so I made sure to stick around for the headliner. An Aus hip hop act that’s been doing their thing for years, the name Def Wish Cast seems to have stuck but their music isn’t familiar with the newer crowd. They are incredibly ‘Aussie’, and really epitomise where the scene begun. In my opinion they are technically brilliant and impressive, if they could be bothered, they have the potential to still be at the top of the scene.

However, maybe not, the sound of Aussie hip hop is changing and a gig like Re-Up 2 – with it range of new and old performers – made me realise how a ‘feminine’ energy is shaping the sound of hip hop in Australia. Obviously I’m speaking generally by looking at the chart toppers, bgoing off the past few years, in such a short amount of time it’s grown and changed so much. Who really knows where it’s heading next, Aussie Hip Hop has an interesting ride ahead of itself.

There is a great blog about Def Wish Cast, that I encourage anyone who finds Aussie hip hop intriguing to read.

http://britcorereviews.blogspot.com/2008/09/def-wish-cast-mad-as-hatter-ep-random.html

Image taken from Def Wish Cast facebook