parklife

This coming Sunday Parklife will hit Sydney, a long weekend and celestial Spring weather. There really is no better combination to usher in the festival season. The only thing that could compare is if the moon became a strobe light on NYE. Or spun around and said something dopey.

Fellow Parklifers, there are things you should and shouldn't do this weekend. I'll illustrate.

*Cue dark synths and smoke machines* It was way back (last week), one sunny summer afternoon in a Potts Point apartment. A raving buddy and I hung our arms from the breezy window, above a fucking hipster's balcony. We smoked cigarettes like air, drank Vodka like water and debated the "way of the rave" for hours.

We discussed 'rules' for Field Day 2010, but the ideas applied to any festival. Like Confucius, my buddy's words echoed through time like planets colliding. Her name is Lauren Murada. She is also a hipster, loves Top Shop, indie-electro, will trip in heels of any height and reckons chicks go to dubstep nights to experience vibrating toilet seats. This is what she said:

"My advice would be to definitely leave your shirt on. Don't wear thongs. Invest in a pairs of Cons or High Tops. Wear sunscreen. Don't pass out before 1pm and don't wet yourself. Oh, and see the Juan Maclean."

Empire of the Sun - Standing on the Shore (Cassian Remix)

Miike Snow - Black & Blue (Tiga Remix)

La Roux - I'm Not Your Toy (datA Remix)

La Roux - In for the Kill (Diplo and Bot Edit)

Services - Element of Danger (MSTRKRFT Remix)

Late of the Pier - The Bears are Coming (Joakim Remix)

Bloc Party - Hunting for Witches (Crystal Castles Remix)

Claude Von Stroke - Who's Afraid of Detroit? (Audion Remix)

Metronomy - Not Made for Love (Joakim Remix)

The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers (Morgan Geist Remix)

Sydney Parklife 2009 set list.

i stink of lazer

Diplo says of the debut track from Major Lazer (a new collaboration between himself and Switch): This one called Hold the line and its ‘like a surf rock ragga thingamajig, zeen!’ - LAzer says .. its got Mr Lexx (formerly Lexxuss) and Santigold (formerly Santogold) rockin out.

So literate.

Santogold makes the song, so does the shuddering, gnarly ghetto-funk beat. The cheesy blow-my-whistle-bitch style phone ring and horsey noises do not. But should probably expect a little bit of cheese from an Americano label hosting a pair that decide to call themselves Major Lazer and come up with this image to represent their song. Seriously, is that dude spitting out a tooth and pieces of phone? Rank.

Major Lazer - Hold The Line

More ghetto crunk love from Mad Decent...

Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance (Buraka Som Sistema Remix)

And you can get the accapella and instrumental for Hold the Line from here if you want to do fun things with it. First album out in June.

WESLEY PENTZ

outcomes

so.. parklife is over and done for another year and everyone seems to be nursing sore heads and mouths.
i guess that this means that some parklife reflection is in order hey?? damnnnn

i think ive heard some really mixed reviews about the day, but luckily my reviews are far from mixed.. (in a good way)

sitting pretty atop the pile o' artists that i enjoyed on the day are the effervescent soulwax.. i was most looking forward to seeing these guys live and luckily (for them) they didnt disappoint.
seeing dance music played with instruments is always a nice gift and these lads were seriously like santa..
when they played robot rock and then went straight into phantom pt2, i think everyone lost their respective shit(s). everyone was either saying or thinking OMG:

Daft Punk - Robot Rock (Soulwax Remix)
into
Justice - Phantom Pt 2 (Soulwax Nite Version)

OMG OMG OMG LOLOCOPTER

or something along those lines.

when they took the stage again later on that evening as 2 many djs it was really very good.. by that point everyone had lost their shit so many times over that there seemed to be a very 'desperate to keep dancing' vibe in the air which wasn't helped by the breaks and drum & bass that crept into their set toward the end.
however, them playing

John Paul Young - Love Is In The Air (Ballroom Mix)

was beyond genius. i have never seen as many people smiling or hugging in my entire life. tinglicious yo

moving away from Dewaele related matters now.. another good act to play were Metro Area.. having only heard a remix of theirs on a DFA compilation, i didnt really know what to expect. to be honest, i have no idea how i ended up at their stage (and for a long while i didnt even know who they were) but im really glad that i did because they played the funkiest and most upbeat brand of disco and disco house that i have ever heard..
one of the first post-parklife things i did was to go and get their self-titled album which although containing some very very good lo-fi indie disco numbers like this,

Metro Area - Pina

Metro Area - Square-Pattern Aura

was very different to their dj set at parklife.
i looked for any dj sets that they'd done in the past and managed to track down this mix- which may or may not have been done as a promo for a bacardi b-live event (or something)..

Metro Area B-Live Mix

very funky and chilled but i have a sneaking suspicion that it would sound very nice on some large speakers.. if this is how this whole disco thing turns out when/if it does turn big then i would be very happy..

diplo was the last dj that i wanted to praise.. i must admit that i dont really remember a whole lot about the set except that i was made very happy by it and danced a good dance to many of the songs that he played.. i had pre-thought that he would play a lot of hip hop and real MIA-ish b'more but it really didnt come across like that (too much)

The Pack - Vans (Diplo's Vans 'Til Infinity Remix)

Spoon - Don't You Evah (Diplo Mix)

The Pixies - Hey (Diplo Mix)

ok ow now ive been looking at this screen for too long and my head is aching. time for retreat

***PS*** i dont think that i got to see much of fake blood at parklife, and im really sad that i missed them cos i just recieved word that they were rather good indeed.. our friend dj AKA milo firewater has put together a nice dubby/breaksy flavoured remix of 'mars' which im sure absolutely destroyed things at parklife..

Fake Blood - Mars (Milo Firewater Remix)

blocklife

10:27am Steve
i need to write a parklife post but i cant think

10:28am Kate
ill write it for you.

here goes.

cough cough...just clearing my throat....

10:29am Kate
well electro-junk heads...its that time again, when we slip into the omnipresent mist of fake tan and boobies that is the world...the very skanky world, of parklife....

(thats the start)

(then you could say something like)

10:31am Kate
yes....as we all do when it comes to this wonderful time of year...i pretended to buy my ticket to hear the staged-sex of peaches....lyrical saunter of goldfrapp and the derogator of blackalicious...but truely im there for a PERVE....i love you short shorts

10:32am Steve
where are you getting this from

10:32am Kate
i made it up!

my brain

wait....ive got the close too....

10:32am Steve
did you really make it up

10:32am Kate
YES!

i really did

wait for the close....

10:35am Kate
welcome to the couple of months that we save for every year....its time to bow your heads and thank god that its festival time again...and thank fuck that it starts with the amazing sounds of tanned honeys and backless bathers that is the life within the park....

10:36am Steve
Kate is no longer online. The following was not sent:

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Sunny Day Sets Fire - Adrenaline (XXXChange Remix)

Young MC - Bust A Move (Diplo Remix)

Boy 8 Bit - Wild Beasts

Yuksek - Everywhere in Town (Cosmo Vitelli Remix)

Familjen - Det lilla livet

Daft Punk - Technologic (Peaches Remix)

trees and sunshine