Welcome to Volume Control: your very own stupendously, vivaciously, physically attractive VIP Volume newsletter!

Just a reminder that Volume Control is prepared by Volume resident MC, DJ and writer, Harley Augustine, so if you have anything to contribute (news, info, feedback etc.) then please email him at harley@writemix.com.au by 8pm each Monday and he’ll do his darndest to include it on your behalf.

Well, the disgruntled ex-Federal Opposition Leader shit-cans his entire team, career and profession in 40,000 well chosen words or less … but the Canberra caucus he deserted continues to do a better job of ‘all of the above’ themselves in much less, and on a daily basis …

So, without any further delay, here’s the next issue …

Harl's Thought For The Week...

Clubbing, like everything else in life, continues to evolve. What was ‘in’ musically one year generally has a better than even chance of being decidedly ‘out’ the next. What was ‘hip’ in the fashion stakes one year, is usually ‘ass’ by the next. The clubs that are hotter than Paris Hilton’s electric blanket one year are often colder than the britches of Narnia’s Ice Witch the next. Enough of the crappy metaphors and fluff, I’ll get to the point (for a change). ‘What will 2006 bring Clubland?’ I thought to myself a couple of days ago. Sure, it’s all very fine and well to bob up in the Christmas/NYE edition and pose this sort of question, but why not do it ahead of time – like now – I thought? So, here goes: a couple of predictions for clubbing in 2006, in no particular order … Uplifting-Electro-House-Breaks-Trance will emerge as the new genre to be reckoned with … Another 55 genres will be invented by dance music journalists who can’t be assed doing their research and have God given talents to invent highly believable words at will … Of these 55 genres, only one of them, ‘Brance’ (a mixture of Breaks and Trance) will be taken seriously and actually used by the dance music community in forums and on the stoop … Nude will be the new black … Black will be the new nude … Puff Paint t-shirts will, pardon the pun, rise again … Moccasins will resume their rightful spot on the shelves at Speeds in Bendigo, and on the legs of Horizon-smoking bogans from suburbs you’ve only heard about on the news (for all the wrong reasons) … In the void of ‘bogan resurgence couture’ left by moccasins, leg warmers and leotards will make a swift and spirited come back … While for men, flannel shirts and wife beater singlets will be a must have on the dance floor … Volume will still be Melbourne’s biggest and best club night, naturally – some things never change …

Last Week...

Cripes, eh? Just when you thought Melbourne’s biggest club night couldn’t possibly get any bigger … throw in one of the world’s Kingsize producers and DJ’s and guess what? It did … a whole hell of a lot bigger! With an early queue that snaked its way up Glenferrie Road outside, and a writhing main floor inside … from 11pm onwards even Volume’s most regular regulars knew that this would be one of the illustrious night’s evenings (and mornings) to remember …

With the decks out of the Dining Room and back in the booth, and the sexy Pioneer plasmas taking their rightful position high above the floor, Steve Bleas took his rightful position behind the decks and delivered a rocking set of some of the dirtiest and filthiest electro you’d ever wish to hear – including the rocking new mix of the Gorillaz’s new bomb ‘Dare’. Tight, fat and stabbing, Steve brought the room to a gentle buzz and left things in tip top shape for Ivan Gough who took over the phones and wasted little time dropping all manner of new and exciting tit-bits from his solo and TV Rock bag of musical tricks.

As the crowd continued to swell and the vibe continued to rise, Ivan mixed some old with some new and as always … threw his inimitable flair into the mix to help nudge the crowd over the edge! Mark James was up next and, as the capacity floor roared, took Volume on a ride through some cranking, upfront House numbers which hit all the right notes with the packed and up-for-it floor. As Mark dropped his last track and the announcement that Meat Katie had entered the booth was made, Volume erupted into a seething mass of hands, cheers, smiles and of course … a whole lot of “Whooo! Yeeeeah!’s” Indeed, from the moment Meat Katie (aka Mark Pember) slid his first breaks bomb into the CDJ’s, the vibe in the room had ‘headlining international’ written all over it … and he didn’t disappoint.

In what can only be described as a Kingsize set from a Kingsize global DJ, Meat Katie simply blew Volume away with his generous beats, relentless funked-out 4/4 bass lines, soaring progressive peaks and dirty, dingy and deliciously bass-heavy breaks. White label after white label, pre-release after pre-release, promo after promo … and that sound … you know the one … the one that makes you give the music in the room your undivided attention, whether you want to or not. For two and a bit hours, Meat Katie demonstrated in on uncertain terms why he is one of the world’s favourite DJ’s … upfront, funky, and blessed with spot on track selection, it was little surprise that the floor demanded two encores!

With Meat Katie all done and meeting his fans, Dee Dee took command of the booth and took the still-packed and peaking room on a morning adventure through the finest big room House and driving choons that his crate of gold had to offer … what a set, and what a way to end one of the finest nights in Volume history …

Meat Katie? We met him all right … and wish he could stay! 

Feigan In Front – the weekend wrap of the oh so “Beat Suite”…

Start transmission >>

Beat Suite with Feigan

What a cracker of an evening - I love it when things get a little rough & raw around the edges – that’s what happens when we get breaks heads into Room – and I love it!!
Meat Katie was a big drawcard for the club and I’d been hanging to see the big man play for quite some time!
Things kicked off in the Beat Suite with young up and coming producer Blinky taking us on a journey through his recently produced range of audio delights – it was good to have a live element in the Beat Suite this week, and Blinky set the stage for one of our favourite all time guests – who’s been MIA for a little while.....
Jono Fernandez - Now this fella has talent! I had a young buck sitting next to me for the duration of Jono's set absolutely blown away. He wouldn't stop talking about how on the money he was - and he was right. Jono as per usual dished us up a tasty tasty meal of breakbeat delight warming the punters for the blasting they where about to get in the main room from Mr Pember.
Once Jono had stepped down from the podium, we welcomed Mr Nicholas Hamilton (Tahl) to the decks. Having the formidable task of going head to head with Meat Katie in the main room was quite the challenge - needless to say, Tahl took control and started to drop bomb after bomb and pretty much had the floor cooking for the duration of his set.

 "Detroit tune city" has been the common catchprase of late when Tahl is playing - some would say he has a vinyl addiction, I call it Vinyl Love.

After many tricks & wind backs Tahl left the wheels of steel to me - party breaks were the name of the game.... This was a great relief for those in the in the mood for some funk, my trademark mix of nu-school breaks with chunks of hip hop and funk was just about right to keep those legs moving until Rowie graced the beat suite with his glowing prescence...  The crowd was thining somewhat and Rowie kept the punters in the room moving until the close (sniff sniff) ... Rowie's set included a mash up you will have to hear to believe... a club classic with an anthem from a New Zealand animation??

What the....

Try Rippin Kittin over the top of Slice of Heaven (Dave Dobbyn) - crazy crazy stuff in the Beat Suite - every week....

Until next week - Feigan

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Track of the Week

Dave Dobbyn – ‘Slice Of Heaven’

Played by Rowie @ 05:15am in the Beat Suite … completely 100% strange, but completely 100% true!

Drink of the Week

Without a doubt the Jack Daniels and 1.25 litre plastic bottled Coke – We always take care of our international guests!

Keep The Volume Down On This …

Forget sexy eyewitnesses with captivating eyes and legs that were born to run this week - I know, it’s hard, but work with me … This week, just make sure you do as the title suggests and ‘keep the volume down on these’ … err … okay … so don’t do exactly as the title says, do exactly as the title says except for the ‘this’ bit – which becomes ‘these’ instead … Anyway … Check it out … I mean, them … Check them out:

1.   One DJ on Saturday night met his technical match and when unable to operate the equipment in front of him, was forced to request a quick change – indeed, it seems Pioneer’s new DVJ-X1 units (recently installed in the main room) are so fresh that no one knows off the top of their head how to read CDJ cue cards in them yet!

2.       Another DJ on Saturday night was approached and asked if he had a pen and paper by a charming young lady. Upon presenting her with the required tools, she promptly sat on the spot and spent no less than 10 minutes scrawling a letter to him … what did it say? “I’m leaving for Chicago tomorrow for good, could you play Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’ or something like that for me?” Err, needless to say he couldn’t … and hey … seeing as she’s in Chicago right about now, let’s all have a laugh about it … Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha … Madonna … Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha … ahem, that enough … someone might forward this to her.

3.       At the conclusion of his set, Meat Katie turned to Volume’s resident lighting operator, Justin, and told him: “You’re one of the best lighting guys I’ve ever worked with … absolutely spot on … well don, mate”. Great praise for a great guy …needless to say Justin ‘lit up’!

4.       A desperate and clammy fan made it to the side of the booth and finally got his moment with Meat Katie as he was packing his choons away … “I’m so pleased to meet you”, said the starry eyed kid. “Get it? ‘Meet’!? ‘Meet’ you and you’re ‘Meat’ Katie …”. It’s sad because it’s true, people …

Word Of The Week

Tilt

v. To cause to rock, as by raising the low end or tweaking the beats; incline: tilt your head backwards and enjoy the choons; to charge (an opponent) with musical force; attack; to favor one DJ over another in a club; lean: “His choons tilt unmistakably to the House position”; the act of tilting or the condition of being completely and utterly tilted at Melbourne’s biggest club night

This Week...

Tilt My Hat

This Saturday 24th September sees Volume resident and Dance Chart favourite Andy J officially launch his brand new single “Tilt My Hat” Andy has certainly immersed himself in the world of clubs and club music over the last 7 years and in that time he has DJ’ed all over the country, run a record label, remixed countless club tunes, fronted a national radio mix show, won ARIA awards, mixed top selling mix CD’s, been profiled nationally on tv, and released tunes under no less than 10 aliases! Phew… Andy’s main musical production outlet is his ever evolving, elusive alter ego Sgt Slick. Under that name he produced one of Australia’s finest house music moments in “White Treble, Black Bass”. That track topped club charts in Australia and all over Europe / UK, eventually netting Andy an ARIA award for Best Dance Release in ’98. Follow up single “Let It Ride” repeated that success, with another ARIA nomination and chart and radio success.

The latest offering from Andy as Sgt Slick, “Tha Muzik”, is currently smashing it up all over Europe after being snapped up by Euro mega label “Purple Eye”. As a member of pumped up house duo Smash N Grab, Andy has also achieved recent success with the release of “She Don’t Like That” (Also launched at Volume back in March this year). A firm favorite on national radio and video shows, the track went on to become a top 40 smash, and the follow up “Closer” is also approaching release. It is under this name that Andy also produces and mixes the weekly mix show “LOADED”, with an audience of a quarter of a million across Australia on the Austereo network every Saturday night, making him one of the nation’s most influential DJs.

For his new tune “Tilt My Hat”, Andy decided to go with a name he had never really considered previously… ANDY J!!! And, why not? With it’s solid slices of INXS’s synth rock classic “Burn For You” intact, and after road testing in some of the country’s biggest main rooms, “Tilt My Hat”, with its slamming Sgt Slick and Live Element mixes, is ready to destroy Volume’s dancefloor!

With DJ’s Ivan Gough, Dee Dee, Steve Bleas, Harley Augustine and Tahl in the Main Room and Fusion, TKO, AG Ren and Rowie in the Beat Suite Volume turns it up for another week of Clubbing Heaven. We also have heaps of CD giveaways courtesy of Vicious so be there or you will miss out!

Black Volume

Saturday 29^th October

After the huge success of White Volume back in in July it’s time to turn it up again when we present Black Volume.

With Halloween just two days after, this will be the night to get dark, sexy and nasty. More details to come.

The New Volume website

Keep your fingers on the keyboard and your ears to the ground because Volume will be launching a brand new website with all the pics, info, upcoming events and gossip very soon… It’s going to be loud!!

VOLUME CONTROL EXCLUSIVE:

Rowie’s Top Ten Tunes

1. Jesper Dahlback - Robot Dance

2. The Big Fake – Steve Bug

3. T Schumacher – Tiger

4. Trick and Kubic – Orbital Dance Machine

5. John Starlight – John's addiction pt 1

6. Sergej Auto – March of the dirty Robots

7. Cirez D – Knock Out

8. The Hacker – Flesh and Bone

9. Moby – Dream about Me (Sebastian Ingrosso rmx)

10. Yuksek - The Wax

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