Gone are the days of dance-floor division, breaks in one room, house in another and hard-headed puritanical devotion to a sole genre, its all about mashing it up these days. Sexy house meets twisted tech, rockin’ beats go punk as disco grooves get electro-fied by the synth-pop sound of the ‘80s, yes my friends, all in the one set. No sonic snobbery here, the aim of the game is to get down, dirty and dance in your flatties, and with the latest addition to the Sydney club circuit, Roxx, its your turn to have a go.
Brought to you by old-skool rocker Sugar Ray and MOS masher Ajax, the monthly event will take place at Candy’s Apartment Kings Cross. And if the walk through the infamous prossy-lined promenade of Darlinghurst Rd doesn’t get you swiftly walking to Candy’s then Sugar Ray’s breakdown of the Roxx’s attractions most likely will, “Rockin’ electro tech, sleazy twisted uber disco, jackin’ house, acid funk and dirty bent back beats in a dark, loud basement” – nice.
Sugar Ray has been a fixture in the Sydney scene since the days of electronic music’s eruption in the early 1990’s. Collecting records since 1988, primarily of the soul and funk variation, this English born emigrant to Australia had his finger on the pulse even back then. Tuned into the acid house movement and attending the early warehouse parties primordial to what is understood now as ‘rave’, he has been held responsible for the much endeared Love parties. DJ friend Phil Smart and he also promoted the Tweekin and Sabotage events not so long ago and he now plays weekly at Good Vibrations on Saturday nights at Chinese Laundry.
With more than a decade of DJing and promoting experience on his CV, not to mention a long established vocation as vinyl vendor in his own store Reachin Records, Sugar Ray has seen a lot of music trends come and go. So what does he think about the state of Sydney’s electronic music scene today? “Very healthy. There is so much good music around and lots of talented people working within the scene, but we could do with a few more venues”, and the most exciting development emerging in the Sydney scene? “The whole electro punk disco thing, its also great to see people dressing up again”.
Ajax can be similarly nostalgic as his DJing career started around the early 1990’s. More recently he’s been known to spin tracks for fashion week this year at the Tsubi, Sass & Bide, YPV and Zimmerman shows, also playing many a party while a regular feature at Good Vibrations and has just released the new MOS album Mashed along with the Wok DJs that is described by Ministry Magazine as “a collision of electro, punk and random snippets from hip-hop, house and rock”. Obviously adept to the mashed up style featured at Roxx, Ajax will be a resident DJ alongside Sugar Ray.
“The focus will be on local artists, myself and Ajax will be the residents and we will rotate local and interstate guests every month, with the right international thrown in here and there” says Sugar Ray. His local musical accompaniment for this month will be Phil Smart and Ben Korbel who according to Sugar Ray “are great DJs with there own distinct styles, they know how to work as a team, push cutting edge music and still rock the party, while Jamie (Lloyd) is the new kid on the block”.
Roxx launches this Friday, November 14 at Candy’s Apartment. For more info check out ITM whatson HERE.
