Goto Snarl Texts Index Pages Perilous 320
Back from the Apple Isle with some tales of terror. A crazy
place is the only way to describe it.
Arriving on the Friday morning we were locked in for a Friday
night and a Saturday night gig, four hours all up. We played a
place called Syrup, three floors of loungeroom sized beer
drinking with cover bands on level two, us and electronic deejays
on level one, and a general bar on the ground. Those Taswegians
certainly drink and one of the deejays on before and after us
were seen knocking back six Subzeros in under an hour, and
perhaps that explains how this venue can afford to fly guests in
from interstate. Friday night was marked by sleeting rain and a
rather nasty wind chill sweeping up from Antarctica and by the
time 2am came around the place was rocking and we played two
hours of drum'n'bass sounds even keeping the place jumping
through the disturbed beats of Squarepusher and Autechre,
something which we never manage here in Sydney. The highlight of
Saturday was definitely the discovery of a Jimmy Swaggert double
gatefold LP at the back of the Elvis records at the Salamanca
markets for a mere $2 which has provided much mirth since
(witness last week's Paradigm Shift). Saturday night we opted for
banging acid which probably was a bad choice given that half way
through the set I was yelling obscenities at the mixer - possibly
the final nail in the coffin for the us and doof relationship.
Sunday was spent touring the countryside being waved at by people
sitting on the front porch of country cottages surrounded by
painted plaster Aborigines (Pauline Hanson would love these
"quaint" little archaic practices), and garden gnomes,
as we ventured half way up a snow-covered mountain, for a walk
around and some lung-cleansing. Unfortunately for me the Cadbury
factory was closed although all night my sleep was filled with
dreams of the gigantic vats of molten chocolate towering over the
surrounding landscape. Other than that, the other haunting memory
of Tasmania was the outstanding pick-up line launched at our
host, Karen, by a semi-coherent punter on the Friday night -
"hey baby, you rock the show". "Fully sick"
huh?
On the selection, some tracks that particularly worked in
Hobart included - bits and pieces of James Hardway's excellent
jazzy drum'n'bass album Deeper Wider Smoother Shit; the
Dillinja and Forme remixes of DJ Krush and CL Smooth's Only
The Strong Survive, both of which are the pick of the ten or
so mixes split over two 12"s on MoWax; the Autechre and
T-Power remixes of Mike Ink's almost prehistoric Paroles
track from 1991 now remixed and reissued on Warp; and the
Squarepusher and Wagon Christ remixes of Funki Porcini's Carwreck
on Ninja Tune which are seriously mashed up. For the aeroplane
the Palm Skin Productions album on Virgin, Remilixir, and
Red Snapper's absolutely killer Prince Blimey album
settled the churning stomach and made the inflight food slightly
palatable and kept the noisy kids at bay. Seek both out for some
extremely tasty home listening.
Future weeks see Hobart's Syrup rocked by DJ Rap and MC
Fearless which brings Perilous to the extremely bad taste advert
a fortnight back for Jungle Massive Australia's Amazonika
party. For a moment there it looked as if the pages of 3D had
become mixed up with someone's cheap wank magazine, but no, here
was a naked "chick" spreadeagled on a advert for a
party "breaking down barriers and prejudice, releasing true
and positive forces, creating new ways of change" - a
thousand young lads must have rushed home that Tuesday and pulled
over it. Is this some indication of the new era of "freedom
of speech" that Johnnie Howard tells me is upon us? Fuck
that. Blatant sexism and exploitation remains exactly that
although predictably someone will wheel out a letter from a
"proud woman" supporting the advert - but as they say,
even bad publicity is still publicity. Curiously these same
people are bringing DJ Rap to Sydney in November - will they
promote HER in a similar fashion? Expect the Advertising
Standards Council to intervene if they do.
Yellow Peril