Pilerats, Journalist

10,000 punters, 120 artists, 14 showcases and 4 venues over 2 nights.. The upcoming Electronic Music Conference just added a veritable shitstorm of world's most exciting dance acts to the event, announcing the much-anticipated EMC Play lineup, taking place over Dec 3-4 across four venues in Sydney's Kings Cross. The all-star lineup features over 120 Aussie electronic music artists across 14 showcases curated by some this country's best labels/crews/collectives, for the ridiculous early bird price of just $29. Taking control of the soundtracks to your Sydney soiree will be inthemix, Future Classic, onelove, Astral People, Plastic World, Picnic, Select Music, UNDR Ctrl, Audiopaxx (in celebration of Pioneer’s 20th anniversary), Lucky Entertainment, Konkrete, #JDFutureLegends presents The 7 Wonders of World Bar with Sweat It Out, etcetc, Pilerats, October Records, Die High, Purple Sneakers and Halfway Crooks. The artist bill is obviously a bloody huge one, but you can count SAFIA, Wave Rac

Flight Facilities' tour pals take to the snow on another aces video clip.. As I've said with Client Liaison from day dot - if you're going to do a retro sound you can either do it as a joke (which gets tired pretty quickly), or go all in on it and don't hold back. And holding back is something noone could ever accuse the Melboure duo of, and that trend continues with one of my favourite video clips of this year for their single Feed The Rhythm. EVERYTHING in this clip is so on-point you can't not watch it. It's a serious thing of beauty - perfectly shot, and an absolutely epic finale. They're currently supporting Flight Facilities on their Down To Earth tour, check all the dates HERE.

Chiefs and Sons Et Al's Nick Acquroff make a formidable pair.. Melbourne producer Chiefs has been on our radar all year - popping up as part of our inaugural Rat Pack Compilation and since going on to do some killer work with the good folks at Die High Records. And now he's about to release a new collaborative EP with Nick Acquroff from fellow Melbourne outfit Sons Et Al, and if the title track is anything to go by, a formidable pairing the twosome will make. Inside Out contains all the elements that have garnered Chiefs plenty of fans over the past 12 months - drifting between soul, electronic and future-beat with ease, and has us salivating for the EP's November 18 release via Vitalic Noise:

A strong statement from the emerging Sydney songstress.. Amy Rose has been releasing music for a number of years now, garnering some attention with earlier singles and EP releases, but one senses she's ready to step things up, and new single Awake Alive is a powerful starting point. It starts out kinda Lana Del Rey-lite, before Rose makes it her own, before towards the end it surprisingly shifts into almost M83 territory, with some rumbling percussion and soaring synths. It's a euphoric, ephemeral and exciting new sound for Rose, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

When they're not rampaging on tour they're chilling with these movies..

WAM Conference: Things We Learned This Weekend.. WAM Festival wasn't just about the awards and block parties - the WAM Conference chalked up a successful two day stint of incredible knowledge-sharing this weekend. Over Friday and Saturday, curious music fans, band members, producers, music journalists, managers, bookers, label owners and more gave up their free time to jump into some lecture theatres and hear experts from all over Australia have a chinwag about hot topics in the music industry, as well as share their practical insider tips. It was kind of like a voluntary music university! Big props out to WAM for putting together such a relevant and stimulating program of panels and giving us a leg up on our never-ending journey of discovery. We relayed the best truth bombs to those playing at home via our live Twitter stream (follow us HERE) - here’s some of the stuff that really stuck with us:  Despite popular opinion, getting your music played on triple j is not going to ‘make or b

The debut release from new house crew Medium Rare Recordings is a good'un.. Around six months ago four young lads met at a local coffee spot, amongst the hipsters & soccer mums they sat down to chat business. That's what they say anyway. Knowing these four gentlemen - Benson, Terace, Tom Piper and Mike Metro - we refuse to believe these discussions didn't happen somewhere at 4am in DJ booth whilst some serious house bangers were going down in the clurb. Regardless, from these chats the four house-men of the apocalypse decided to combine forces and create Medium Rare Recordings. And from those combined forces come the record label's debut single release, a collaborative effort between LO'99 (who we got to know a little better a couple of months BACK) and his partner in crime Marshall F. The duo lured them in with "tea and scones" (again, I refuse to believe these lies) and left the Medium Rare team with Take Me Back. A deep, deep cut which wobbles along so smoothly it almost hurts. LO'9

The WA electronic-pop duo return from the US with some great new music.. WA-based electronic duo GRRL PAL have arrived back from a recent stint in the US living and working with producer Parker Ighile (G-Eazy, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj), and the results are already paying off with the first of a few new tunes to come - Paradise. In the group's words - "We wrote about dating someone who likes their phone more than you... kind of like Her but mainly because we love Scarlett Johansson." As fellow lovers Scarlett Johansson we're definitely not ones to argue, but ScarJo obsessions aside, Paradise definitely feels like the duo of Danny K and Jay Lekat have come back with a more refined sound, erring a little further away from their previous pop leanings, and into a very cool focus on future-beats, still pinned down by the cooing vocals of singer Lekat, and with a mean ilttle breakdown towards the end. They're looking to release a new song a month, and we can't wait to hear what other fruits co

If you're gonna update an R&B classic, this is how you do it.. Melbourne experimental electro-pop twosome De̊ǰa have had a pretty great 2014 that most recently saw them tour their latest EP Infinite Ecstatic around Australia, and just a couple of weeks ago we were pretty chuffed to premiere their chiller remix of Allday's Always Know The DJ. Now they've followed it up a with remix/re-do/cover of Aaliyah's timeless tune Try Again, and the results are a sonic pleasure worthy of your headphones or the dancefloor. It adds a bit of that darker/mysterious De̊ǰa vibe, but also gives it plenty of bump'n'grind that elevates it to something else entirely. The guy I sit next to in my office (hi Pierce) considers himself a bit of a king when it comes to the DJ world, and he was massively vibing this as soon as it started - which is a pretty strong rating on the barometer of the vibes you're about to get:

Indian Summer do America the only way they know how - half nude..