Voodoo Boogie is three of Melbourne's biggest and most popular blues and roots bands who have got together and created a mobile mini festival. The Theatre Royale gig in Castlemaine will be the 5th Voodoo Boogie show, it's a well-oiled Blues machine.
The Seven Ups are the soundtrack to the dancefloor at the end of the world.
Based in Melbourne, Australia and lead by guitarist Trent Sterling, The Seven Ups sound draws together a vast array of influences, taking hints from Funk, Spiritual Jazz, Afrobeat, Psychedelia and Krautrock
In 2023 the band released their fifth studio album, A Free Blowing Wind, via Northside Records. The new album is a deep dive in to the lesser-known-places of instrumental music, journeying from deep groove, to ambient and mellow Soul and onwards to long-playing psychedelic jams.
The Seven Ups music has been featured in Wax Poetics (USA), album of the week (thrice!) on PBS fm, Eastside fm and Beat magazine, top 10 on RRR, top 10 on KEXP (USA) and continues to receive airplay on BBC Radio, KEXP, Triple J, and community radio around the country.
The band has appeared at festivals including Meredith Music Festival (VIC), Womadelaide (SA), Blues on Broadbeach (QLD), Strawberry Fields (NSW), Luminate Festival (NZ) Rainbow Serpent (VIC), Falls Festival (VIC), Bleach Festival (QLD), Global Beats (WA), White Night (VIC), Moomba (VIC), Subsonic (NSW), Bello Winter Festival (NSW), St Kilda Festival (VIC) and more. Other career highlights for the band so far have included opening for Charles Bradley (USA), The Budos Band (USA), Remi (AUS), Babylon Circus (FRA) and The Bamboos (AUS), as well as a string of raucous residencies at Melbourne venues, frequent Australian east coast tours.
"I've been playing this little monster to death on my (BBC) 6 music show. It's raw, it's gritty, it's tough as nails." - Craig Charles, BBC Radio 2 & 6
“Makes us remember how much we can love instrumental music.” - Wax Poetics USA
"As tight as they need to be, and as loose as you want them to be." - DJ Miss Goldie, PBS fm
"Hugggeeee big band sound!!" - Rosie Beaton, Triple J
“The septet lay down super tight but silky instrumental funk that's rich in narrative and momentum.” - Juno Records, UK
“The Seven Ups are damn near one of the most mesmerising acts playing around Melbourne at the moment.” - Alex Callan Forte Magazine
“The diversity in their sound was downright impressive, moving from the horn driven funk of last year’s Drinking Water LP to the newer, overdriven psych rock guitar sounds. Though they set the stage up for the more famous psychedelic rock of Pond that followed, in my opinion The Seven Ups stole the show from the Perth four piece.” - Beat Magazine (on Meredith Music Festival 2018)
The Comet Is Coming is a London-based jazz-rock band who incorporate elements of jazz, electronica, funk and psychedelic rock.
The band originally recorded for The Leaf Label, on which their debut EP Prophecy was released, on limited edition 12" vinyl, on 13 November 2015, with the full-length album Channel the Spirits following on 1 April 2016.[1][2] The album was nominated for the 2016 Mercury Prize, and in 2018 the band signed with Impulse!
The members of the band use the pseudonyms "King Shabaka", "Danalogue", and "Betamax" to respectively refer to saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, keyboardist Dan Leavers, and drummer Max Hallett.[3]
In a 2013 interview, Hutchings explained the name of the band thus: "The name of the group comes from a BBC Radiophonic Workshop piece of the same name. Once we heard this piece, with its allusions to sci-fi, cosmic remembrances and general space, it instantly struck a chord. We're exploring new sound worlds and aiming to destroy all musical ideals which are unfit for our purposes so the name stuck."[4]
In an interview with M magazine, Betamax spoke of the band's genesis:
Me and Danalogue the Conqueror play as a psychedelic electro synths and live drums duo called Soccer96. We began to notice a tall shadowy figure present at some of our gigs. At some point he appeared at the side of the stage with his sax in hand. When he got up on stage to play with us it created an explosive shockwave of energy that stunned us all. A couple of weeks later King Shabaka rang me up and said 'hey let's make a record' so we booked three days in Total Refreshment Centre studios. It all came together at an incredible speed. We played and recorded to 1/4 tape with no pre-written material. By the end of three days we had recorded hours of music.[5]
The imagery associated with the band is based around outer space, science fiction and B-movies, as can be seen in the music videos for their singles "Neon Baby" and "Do the Milky Way", as well as in song titles and artwork. "Do the Milky Way" premiered on The Quietus.[6] In a feature in The Guardian in April 2016, the group were described as the "true heirs" of cosmic jazz pioneer Sun Ra, and praised for their "fusion of jazz, Afrobeat and electronica in an improvisational, intergalactic mash-up".[7] The Quietus wrote that although the band is "intrinsically linked to funk...and spiritually linked to all manner of cosmic music via their imagery (and love of space-creating echo and reverb effects), The Comet Is Coming has the feel of an utterly fresh sort of project".
King Shabaka elaborates on the cosmic side of the band and the connection to Sun Ra in the same article, when describing the crystal that dominates the cover of their Prophecy EP. He says, "The other thing about the crystal, metaphorically speaking, is the whole Sun Ra thing of creating your own myths. The thing I like that Sun Ra says a lot is the fact that societies that can create their own mythological structures are the ones that have their own agency. To the point at which you can dictate the terms of what's real and what's not real. The crystal in the hand forces you to create your own myth".[8]
In August 2016, the band was nominated for the Mercury Prize for their debut album, Channel the Spirits.[9][10]
In January 2017 the band was one of the recipients of the Momentum Music Fund through PRS for Music and in April 2017 the band released the Death to the Planet EP through The Leaf Label as part of Record Store Day.[11][12]
Their second full-length album, Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, was released in March 2019 and received critical acclaim, with The Quietus noting the importance of Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane on their sound while acknowledging that "rather than being weighed down by those legacies, The Comet Is Coming have turned them into fuel, accelerating their sound, and with it, the sound of jazz today."[13] Pitchfork gave the album a score of 7.8 out of 10 and wrote, "Mostly low- to mid-tempo, the band skillfully integrates bleak and radiant tones, leading to an impressive nine-track suite of ambient, spoken-word and grime-infused compositions."[14] The album currently holds a score of 83 on review aggregator Metacritic, indicating "Universal acclaim."
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell CC (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her starkly personal lyrics and unconventional compositions, which grew to incorporate pop and jazz influences.[1] She has received many accolades, including ten Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever",[2] and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century".[1]
Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and throughout western Canada, before moving on to the nightclubs of Toronto, Ontario. She moved to the United States and began touring in 1965. Some of her original songs ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", "The Circle Game") were recorded by other folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968.[3] Settling in Southern California, Mitchell helped define an era and a generation with popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock". Her 1971 album Blue is often cited as one of the best albums of all time; it was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time",[4] rising to number 3 in the 2020 edition.[5] In 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music".[6] NPR ranked Blue number 1 on a 2017 list of Greatest Albums Made By Women.[7]
Mitchell switched labels and began exploring more jazz-influenced ideas, by way of lush pop textures, on 1974's Court and Spark, which featured the radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris"[8] and became her best-selling album. Mitchell's vocal range began to shift from mezzo-soprano to more of a wide-ranging contralto around 1975.[9][10][11] Her distinctive piano and open-tuned guitar compositions also grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she melded jazz with rock and roll, R&B, classical music and non-Western beats. In the late 1970s, she began working with noted jazz musicians including Jaco Pastorius, Tom Scott, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Pat Metheny as well as Charles Mingus, who asked her to collaborate on his final recordings.[12] She later turned to pop and electronic music and engaged in political protest. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in 2002[13] and became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2021.[14]
Mitchell produced or co-produced most of her albums. A critic of the music industry, she quit touring and released her 17th and last album of original songs in 2007. Mitchell has designed most of her own album covers, describing herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance".
Georgia Rodgers has fused her many years of playing and learning the guitar with an authentic vocal style.
Leaning into her dynamic guitar playing, she is slowly but surely developing a discography of music that abstains from the stereotypical verse, chorus, verse structure of song writing.
“I’m basically a singer/songwriter,” says Georgia, “but I am more-so taking people on a dynamic journey through a song. With more of an emphasis on a composition as opposed to your typical verse, chorus, verse.”.
Although evident in the music she has released and the live performances she has showcased, she admits that the sound she is creating is a work in progress.
“I’m still kind of finding what sound I want to put out there,” says Georgia, “I’m so much more comfortable behind a guitar than my vocals because I’ve always fallen back onto being a guitarist. I learnt guitar for a long time and then singing just became a part of it, so I depend heavily on that. I can write nice lyrics it’s just the way of how I can best suit that and include the work I’ve done as an instrumentalist as well.”
However, this journey to find a sound she is content with releasing and performing lends to the style of music she creates. The dynamic nature of her pursuit of establishing such a sound is also woven into her music with complexity. A process she pins down to experimenting with layering and ebbing and flowing between stripping a song down and building it up again.
“A lot of it is layering,” says Georgia “So I might play a song live that goes for eight minutes, and a lot of it is a little bit of atmospheric layering and it is kind of floaty and then the next song I might play might start with just the one note, the root note of the chord and then progress into playing the full chord.”
“It’s just stripping back and then including in other songs that layering to build that dynamic and then dropping it down and doing that to draw people in.”
When it comes to her compositions, she also places a significant importance on including any iota of a live resemblance or authenticity that might arise in a recording setting.
“I like a live-ish feel to my songs.” Says Georgia, “I’ve always been very particular in the recording. The next single I’m releasing I want to sound awesome, but if it’s not capturing that live element, I can’t see it as the song. I can see it as a good song, but without that live element, that’s not what I want.”.
In her most recently released single ‘Hold On’, the emphasis on replicating a live sound is abundant throughout the velvety and dreamlike near six minutes. Georgia iterates that minimising the number of vocal takes in conjunction with utilising a damaged guitar pedal resulted in the rich, dynamic and authentic sound.
“The last time I recorded I did one warm-up vocal take and then I did another one and finally one more and after that I was like ‘nup, that’s dead now’, that was the live one. If there is a note that is a bit off, or some element of it being quite live, authentic, or honest I don’t really care.
“So, the start of the song I recently recorded, I had bought this pedal from cash converters, and it was completely a piece of crap and I thought it was awesome. It was leaking battery acid. When I clicked it on it made this cool crackling, almost like a needle on a record sound.
“The engineer ended up asking me if I wanted to cut that out, but I was like ‘no way’. Instantly that was a sound that’s not the song, it was something that can be that authentic, you’re in the room feel. I think it’s hard conveying your songs in the studio.”
For her forthcoming gig at the Wesley Anne on Friday September 30, Georgia has pieced together an arrangement that is set to amplify her dynamic storytelling. A set that is due to fluctuate between a big band supporting her and individual renditions of songs.
“I’ve got a launch for that single ‘Hold On’ on Friday September 30 at the Wesley Anne in Northcote. I’m performing with a band, which I have never done, at least in a rehearsed setting. I’m going to have a few backing vocalists, a cello, a double bass, and a drummer, possibly with some piano too.”
Chloe James and the Midnight Band are a Melbourne based indie pop band. Heavily inspired by various jazz, funk and alternative artists, the band have found their footing making catchy tunes.
Carl Pannuzzo, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist autodidact. From Bob Sedergreen, Opera Australia, Mia Dyson, Stephen Magnusson, Paul Grabowsky, Vika and Linda Bull, Kavisha Mazzella, Cirque du Soleil, Fred Smith, Tripod, Checkerboard, Acapelicans and Music Outback. As a creator, interpreter and improviser, Carl is recognised as a sensitive, dynamic and fearless singer, a quickfire musical mind.
"Dark, sensual, sonic theatre...compelling stuff."- Rolling Stone Australia
"Blessed by a voice that purrs and soars" -The Age Good Weekend, Melbourne
“If twilight has a voice, that voice is Wendy Rule”New Witch Magazine, USA
“Ever the high priestess, Rule plays a role she is both beloved in, and born into.” The Music, Australia.
Persephone, the new double- album from Australian visionary songstress Wendy Rule is the culmination of over twelve years work, and although drawing on Wendy’s musical journey over the past 2 decades, is unlike anything that she has done before. This beautifully evocative retelling of the Ancient Greek myth of the Goddess Persephone’s descent into the Underworld is almost like an opera, designed to guide the listener through this ancient tale of the cycles of Nature. With subtle textures that reference her early life as a jazz singer in her home town of Melbourne, and the trademark dark, gothic soundscapes and souring vocals of her previous 7 major albums, Persephone is an ambitious and unique 24 track journey through the realms of Life, Death, and human emotion.
But then again, Wendy has always carved a unique and individual path. Since the release of her first album Zero in 1996, she has defied categorisation, always walking to the beat of her own drum. Combining elements of gothic, folk, world, ambient and cabaret music, and crossing over into Pagan and New Age catagories with her many mythological, esoteric, and ritual references, Wendy is as individual as she is prolific.
A dedicated live performer, Wendy has toured extensively since her first album’s release - starting in Australia, then branching out with her first international tour in 2001. Renowned for her extraordinary voice and live shows that blur the line between music, ritual and theatre, Wendy has gained a loyal following in Australia, the USA, Europe and the UK. From the most intimate solo house concerts, to festival gigs with her band (featuring long term musical collaborator Rachel Samuel on cello), Wendy takes her audience on an otherworldly journey of depth and passion.
With the help of her loyal fanbase Wendy continues to maintain her musical independence, unbound by the confines of the mainstream. Two hugely successful crowdfunding campaigns have helped bring both Persephone, and her previous album Black Snake(2014) to life. In the past few years she has continued to grow her audience, not only with her dedicated touring schedule, but also with her performance as ‘La Llorano’ in the 2016 feature film Boys in the Trees by director Nicholas Verso (now screening on Netflix), and with her popular monthly Full Moon Magic Iive-streamed concerts.
In 2014 Wendy relocated from Australia to the USA, and is now living in the beautiful High Desert city of Santa Fe, New Mexico - allowing her an even stronger connection to her ever growing US fanbase, and providing daily access to the wild Nature that inspires her unique and transformational work.
Melbourne based melody maker Tamara Kuldin is all about bringing back the sass and sophistication of that vintage era of music with her own modern, sultry yet playful twist.
Enamoured by the romance and sophistication of the golden era of song, acclaimed Australian vocalist Tamara Kuldin has been captivating audiences from Melbourne to Europe with her own playful, sultry and heartfelt interpretation of songs from The Great American Songbook, French chanson classics to lesser known vintage jazz & blues gems.
A lover of storytelling through song, Tamara’s unique and versatile vocal styling has been inspired by a diverse palette of female vocalists such as Doris Day, Cassandra Wilson, Sarah Vaughan and Joni Mitchell. Her vivacity, warmth and vocal prowess has endeared her to some of the finest Australian and international jazz musicians from Kate Ceberano, Joe Chindamo to Wycliffe Gordon.
Tamara knows how to make an audience feel like they’re part of something special, whether singing up a festive storm in a glorious Italian piazza, fronting a jazz orchestra at the Arts Centre or playing one of Australia's intimate jazz clubs. Her natural affinity with audience's large and small has led to invitations to perform at various festivals and venues across the globe from the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre, The Victorian Arts Centre, Stonnington Jazz Festival, Melbourne Cabaret Festival, The Famous Spiegeltent, Birds Basement, MONA (Tas), Morning Melodies at Hamer Hall to Bergamo Jazz (Italy), Paris to Provence Festival, Lovere Back to Jazz Festival (Italy) and more.
Tamara collaborates with musicians on a multitude of projects including 'Nostalgique' which features a multilingual repertoire of song from Edith Piaf's torch songs to Russian folk melodies. It's a music box of European song from bolero, swing, tango, waltz to bossa, 'singing in all shades of jazz, blues and multilingual affairs of song.'
Tamara released her debut jazz album ‘Secret Love’ in 2015, celebrating her favourite tunes- sentimental and sassy- in a gorgeous bouquet of song, featuring gypsy jazz violinist Gerard Vandenbroucque (France).
Her evocative 2017 recording 'LOVE, LONGING AND LULLABIES' garnered wide airplay across Australia, New Zealand and Japan securing her distribution in Asia (available on iTunes/Amazon & bandcamp).
Her new album 'This May Only Be A Dream' released March 2020 features exquisite ensemble of Australia's finest jazz musician (Julien Wilson, Jon Delaney, Tamara Murphy, Nathan Slater, Sam Keevers, Danny Fischer, Steve Grant). Tamara delights in traversing a range of musical genres, which has led to the recording of this stunning collection of songs. Blending gorgeous swampy vintage swing with echoes of the deep south, to Argentinian tango, Tamara also debuts her intimate and evocative original tunes.
Miss her… and you’re missing out.