Electronic [origins] – Clan Analogue 25th Anniversary LIVE event

In June 1992 the first 'gathering' of Clan Analogue was held in an apartment in Randwick. From this initial mobilisation formed an Australian electronic arts collective that took on the musical establishment promoting gigs, pressing vinyl and putting on a (not so legal) 12 hour Bob Moog's Birthday festival in Sydney Park, amongst other activities we can't mention.

To celebrate this anniversary a lineup of 1st Generation Clan Analogue artists will perform across four rooms at 107 in Redfern.

Acts are re-forming, equipment is being repaired, records are being dug out of dusty cupboards, old DJ names are being re-used, video code is being rebooted. Prepare to experience an early 90s electronic event like you never have before (even in the 90s).

Featuring

LIVE: Size, Telharmoneom, Nanotech (& sons), The Family, Mike the Moog, Swlabr... DJs: Lesa, Bass Bitch, Ommy Looper, Ding, Dot, Michael MD, Biz E, Lex Luthor, Black, Red Light Special... VIDEO: Spikey Balls, Vulvarts, Nanotech, Ed Bleepin, Nonaz Nomis.

These artists featured on the initial releases from Clan between 1992 and 1995 including the four 12 inch Vinyl EPs, the "live at the Goethe" VHS video and the double CD compilation "Cog".

Live sets from over 20 years ago are being reconstructed for this one-off event. DJs will drop tailored "early 90s" sets of classic electronic music... including trax from other Clan acts from this era.

Numbers are tight and strictly limited! Come early to guarantee entry (that includes guest list).

electronic 20C is a screen project gathering images, sounds and memories of this movement before the neurons fail. There will be cameras at this event and your image may be captured if you attend. Event produced by Brendan Palmer in collaboration with past and present Clan Analogue members.

Artist Bios

Telharmoneum

A chance meeting at a railway station in 1991 spawned and eclectic collaboration that became to be known as Telharmoneom. Band members Brendan Palmer and Kazumichi Grime collaborated over the period 1991 to 1996 sharing combined studio spaces where they would house their eccentric synthesisers and assorted equipment. Their approach to audio creation was unplanned, without strict musical process or structure and often experimental in nature, always trying to stay outside the maelstrom of what was ‘cool’. Often no set agenda was formulated in making music, it was approached with a ‘live jam’ mentality which created odd structures, tones and tracks that ran up to 40 minutes in length. This approach was often influenced by the array of vintage synthesis at their disposal. Working outside the standard sounds of the ‘Roland TR audio universe’ that was popular at the time, they injected into their mixes a diverse palette of textures from boxes such as the Korg PS3200/3100, Syncussion, Casio FZ1, Prophet T8, Jupiter 8, RY30, Vesta Kaza delays and four 303s used as CV gate sequencers. They performed live at The Big Day Out 1994/1995, Goethe Institue, Clan Analogue’s Electronic nights and numerous outdoor ‘raves’ and chill out rooms over the period of collaboration.

It’s also worth mentioning that after starting Telharmoneom and meeting many like minded souls Brendan Palmer founded Clan Analogue, and Toby Grime took on graphic design providing the collective’s definitive public image. Many other people including Sharif (Swlabr), Todd (Dot), Simon (Nonaz), Thom (Family), and Chris (Ding) were there at the start. Many more joined over the following months. This event's lineup is populated by some of the first generation.

Lex Luthor is one half of Sub Bass Snarl, co-founder of 'chill out events' Cryogenesis and 'interesting music night' Frigid, and co-presenter of the 'cutting edge electronic music radio show' Paradigm Shift on 2SER... (all since defunct)

Size 

High above the turgid morass that was the popular music of the early 90’s, there hovered a giant petrified pterodactyl egg, humming and shimmering in the void. Crack! SIZE was born! Rampaging like a couple of marauding benzedrine jackals, Jason Gee and Garry Bradbury, equipped with an array of precision electronic musical instruments in various states of repair, leapt head first into the unsuspecting musical milieu. Leaving behind a trail of shattered pa’s, perforated eardrums and broken hearts, they swept aside all who dared question their agenda, whatever it was. Their music was hypnotic and pleasurable beyond compare. After culminating in a cd, ACTUAL SIZE, released on Zonar Recordings, the project gradually morphed into various other modes of creativity and wound down in the early noughties.

Nanotech are Ant Banister and James McParlane. They formed in 1990 when Ant answered James’ ad in Drum Media looking for fellow electronic musicians who were interested in cutting-edge sounds. James had just moved to Sydney from Perth where he played in the band The Accelerated Men. James had a Commodore Amiga he had modified so much it could only fit in a cardboard box. Ant at the time had been working with Albert Martinez for nearly two years in Eidolon and needed a fresh side project. Nanotech went on to pioneer new video and synth software using early Intel CPUs and played with live video and sound. Ant and James have played all over Australia, including many Big Day Out shows, went on tour with The On U Sound System and supported Sven Vath and Bjork.

DJ Lesa started Djing in 1991 after organising the UNSW Student DJ Competition in 1991. She coordinated the comp from 1991-93 and assisted with the Intervarsity and National Student DJ Competitions 91-95. (She still holds that 'The Graceland Greenkeepers' were arguably one of the most underrated acts on the Comp circuit at the time). Lesa discovered the sounds of Chicago and Detroit in 1994 and felt musically most content. I became influenced by the Detroit and Chicago Producers and Djs – Kenny, Carl, Jeff, Derrick, Juan, Felix, all those guys and still sweet for it to this day Lesa joined Clan Analogue in 1993 and DJ’d regularly at Clan events – the Bentley Bar, The Goodbar and the Big Day Out to list a few.

Lesa’s other memorable gigs include The Uni Bar, Cryogenesis and Frigid with Sub Bass Snarl, guest DJ radio sets on 2SER, Radio Skidrow (with Ding) and 2XX with Dark Network (Clanberra posse). She presented her own radio show Metadisko on Radio Bondi between 1994-95.

Lesa's DJ highlights: The Big Day Out – The Dome – Clan Space, 1995 : “Thanks to that roadie that stepped behind the mixing desk to master my set. We were very hush, hush on the EQ. Somehow it worked! And in no small part to that snarl guy that enticed those hundreds (if not thousands) of Soundgarden grunge groovers to the dome for some disco dancing. You guys made my Big Day Out bigger than I expected."

UNSW Uni Bar – Oktoberfest 1993 : "I played a 'no frills' set of generic dance tracks. The usual problems: 1000 or so boozed-up punters cheering for 'Barnsy' or 'Mossy' or Mossy and Barnsy together; sound issues, 'more blending' rather than mixing etc etc. In comes the resident DJ. Some Geezer with a Fisher Price toy keyboard, a box of records and some other ad hoc sound weaponry that looked like it was straight out of his Pop's shed. Only a Clan member could foresee this visionary moment of sound experimentation. Those 'chook' and 'piggy' sound samples really tied that polka break-beat together so neatly. It was diabolical…a gag in the making. And this is what I love about Clan Analogue, you can take it as seriously as you like, but you’ll always be encouraged to connect with your inner kook ball. That’s Ace!"

Vulvarts: Adrienne Patrick was active in Clan Analogue from 1993 as a new media artist, electronic musician and VJ.

Vulvarts disrupted the patriarchal hegemony of club VJing and CGI based image production, celebrating female sexuality with hand painted and computer animatied video art featuring female deities, goddesses,….and vaginas!

Exhibited both in clubs and gallery settings in Melbourne, Sydney and abroad, Adrienne is still an electronic musician, (Seating Plan, Femme Flagging), artist and Digital Media Lecturer.

Ommy Looper

Back in the early 90's Ommy Looper a.k.a DJ Morphism, Uncle Bulgaria, Loop Chai Stalker changed DJ names and band names quite often. Live act names also reflected the inspiring, humorous and world changing electronic music movement of the time. Sound Anti System, Mahatma Propagandi, Non Bossy Posse and later Grumblemorph and Organarchy Sound System where live acts where Ommy was able to throw his finger sync stylings into a mix. The Ommy Looper DJ name represented a fusion of the love of indian mysticism and the hilarious U.K Comedian the late Tommy Cooper.

Back in the early 90's DJ Ommy Looper was was strictly vinyl records or Akai samplers, TB303, 202, extra sampling turntable etc playing at a vast array of many-hands organised community art and electronic music dances and gatherings from inner city warehouses and pubs to street and bush parties.

The feeling back then as sounds and ideas were freed from previous parameters was that we were co-creating an alternative society and that anything was possible. The universal internet mind and a thousand dance floors connected us together and launched us towards a new millennium. In 2017 Ommy Looper a.k.a Mashy P is a Lion cub trainer, screen printer and artist based at Sydney's Tortuga Studios and is still working with community and music, solar sound systems and off grid lighting.

Red Light Special

Ben Askins has loved synths since he was a wee lad, and got turned on to dance music in the late eighties after picking up a copy of the House Sound of Chicago Vol III - Acid Tracks at Central Station when it was still in the basement on Pitt St. He met Jamie Stevens in the early nineties via Clan Analogue, formed Infusion, and started getting shows at raves around Sydney after sending demos to promoters met on the #ausrave irc channel and mailing list. Disillusioned with the late nineties happy-hard boom he quit the band, retreated to the central coast and produced the occasional track as Genlevel for Clan Analogue compilations. After a few gigs at Freaky Loops parties, and one memorable night at Kooky he retired and sold his entire studio to the lads from Telemetry Orchestra for an absolute steal. After hibernating for close to a decade he's come out of retirement to release three albums, an EP, and has remixed tracks for new-school clan staples Loopsnake and Telefonica. His alter-ego Red Light Special plays other people's records in sequence with the aim of encouraging people to dance.

The Family

Between the years of 1993-95, The Family (Scott Barnes, Thom McIntyre, Phoebe Jeebe) recorded and performed both structured and improvised works, mainly using electronic instruments and samplers. The sound ranged from longer intonation based compositions to proto electonica and experimental dance genres. The Family operated within inspiring local music scenes including Clan Analogue and alternative dance and club environments.

Scott Barnes said 'I remember a lot of cross pollination and fluidity of members between many of the acts operating locally at the time. There were always opportunities to try out something new in front of a receptive audience. Within the members of the Family were a wide range of diverse influences, making it a dynamic fun project to work in.'

Phoebe Jeebe says 'I loved the one off nature of everything we made. There was such a shared pleasure in the preparation, planning and discussion and setting up of all the gear. It was such a crescendo to the actual moment of playing the piece.’

Thom McIntyre says 'We worked in a stimulating environment, both socially and with increasingly powerful electronics becoming available. It felt as though the sounds came through quite naturally and found their own focus without much expectation of what we may have felt we "should" be making, the immediate nature of analogue controls helping it flow.’

Mike the Moog wasn't always Mike the Moog. He started life as a keyboard player, back when a 'keyboard-player' was an actual thing, and enjoyed some modest notoriety as a collaborator with the Aussie late-70's and early-80's outfits Flowers and later Icehouse. Following that, is a somewhat uneventful flatline, at least by outward appearances, until the siren call of late-80's house music and the possibilities opened up by the Atari computer and the first MIDI workstations. But the pivotal moment in this story was his curious crossing with the maverick crew from Clan Analogue in 1992, an out-of-the-blue occurrence that remains inexplicable to this day. How did Mike find out about, and ultimately make his way to, the second ever meeting of Clan Analogue, in Glebe? Or Randwick. Or in a house somewhere.

Nobody actually knows. And neither does he, which lends the episode a kind of trans-dimensional quality that underwrites the close bond which grew between himself and the founding membership of the Clan. If something like that can just ..happen, then it must mean something. Right? At the time, Mike was simply surprised to discover that everyone around him had suddenly grown younger, by about 15 years. Normally this would be inauspicious. But somehow, having a history, while genuinely embracing the ouvre of a next generation, not to mention owning one of the oldest synths ever produced - the Minimoog 'D' - and a classic legacy drum machine - the Roland TR-909 - worked in its favour, and for Mike, was a turning point: an opportunity, for reinvention. And so we arrive at the present, or at least to the present as it was 25 years ago. The reinvention as Mike the Moog was steadily manifested in the assembly of a live rig: the 909 was synched to the Minimoog and programmed with bass riffs, and once the drums were kicked in, it was all about messing with the synth controls to generate organics, and the FX delays and overdrives for the head trip. It was spontaneous, out of its depth, and sometimes maybe a little half-assed, who knows. But it's certainly the real-est thing he's ever done, and he owes it to the people who were there and who got it, even if he was sometimes not sure himself. Anyway, it never mattered what he thought he was trying to do; it worked best when the music just did what it wanted to. He managed to carved out a niche in the 'middle rooms' of a nearly decade-long series of intermittent all-nighters - '94 to '04 - from the abandoned warehouses of Alexandria to the farther reaches of the Byron hinterlands. And beyond.

'Middle Room: Someone, Someone Else, and .. Mike the Moog". WTF is a Mike the Moog? The underground electronic scene had more than one face, and many of those events were hosted by other sisters. But it's fair to say that as far as Mike the Moog is concerned, it all goes back to that one night in 1992, in Glebe. Randwick. Whatever. Nowadays, when asked what he was doing in the 90s, he answers, with some affection: "I was hanging out with a bunch of anarchist forest-pixie freaks at 2am in the morning playing spastic, 'Mommy, It Go Boing Boing!' electronica at clinical levels of wattage!!" And things were never the same again.

Ed Bleepin is one half of electronic duo Bleepin J. Squawkins.
With a penchant for wiggly sounds and wiggly lines, he is currently creating analogue visuals using a modular video synthesizer developed as a part of LZX Industries.

Ed isn’t a first generation clanster but has been invited onto this bill as a special guest due to his unique analogue visual techniques.