Every now and then along comes a DJ who really piques your interest. Someone who breaks through the normal white noise of life and gets you genuinely excited. For me, Kasey Taylor is one such DJ.
Kasey first came to my attention about 18 months ago with his Vapourized mixes, which were released on Kasey’s own label, Vapour Recordings . They contain not only fantastic track selections but also some very clever mixing. Other CD’s have been purchased and virtually discarded during that time, but these still get regular airings in my CD player.
One of the things about Kasey that truly excites me was that he is Australian, a Melbourne boy in fact. A home grown talent and someone who should be playing in Sydney on a regular basis. With the plethora of over paid international stars visiting almost weekly during the summer, surely Sydney promoters would see the sense in booking such a popular local talent along with good friend and collaborator Sean Quinn. On first hearing him I had a real feeling that the Sydney dance community would be treated to regular appearances by Melbourne’s top progressive house talents.
How wrong I was. Blame it on Sydney’s aversion to progressive house music, blame it on a downturn in the club scene, blame it on near sighted promoters, but this is Kasey’s first visit to Sydney in eighteen months! I can name five international DJ’s that have played here more often than that! Thankfully though, the team at Sweet Chilli has answered our collective prayers and Kasey will finally be playing for your listening and dancing pleasure at the Dendy Bar in Martin Place this Saturday.
Kasey and Sean work under the name Our House and Kasey informs me that they have a new double a-side single featuring tracks called Twighlight & Fire and Ice being released within the next couple of weeks. They have also been working together on mixing a house, breaks and progressive compilation for Future Entertainment called Summdayze 2003. Summadayze is the name of the biggest New Years Day party in Melbourne. I really get the sense that Kasey is proud to be associated with this event. I’m not surprised. Having attended the party last New Years Day I can testify that it really is a party worth going to.
Vapour Recordings have recently signed some artists from Holland and they also recently released a new record by Blue Phaze. Maybe he will play it on Saturday night? Vapour will also soon release another Nathan Gee track under the artist name Life Stylus. From the sound of things they are keeping themselves right at the forefront of Australian dance music.
While Kasey may not have been making regular appearances in Sydney, grumble, grumble, he has been gaining recognition much further afield. He has played at Bedrock in London twice alongside the king of prog John Digweed. Gigs in London have been a little harder to come by over the past year or two. There really has been a major backlash against the dance music scene there, mainly fuelled by the incessantly fickle British Music Press, but other factors such as crass over commercialisation have surely played their role.
In other European countries, however, the dance music scene is really vibrant. Kasey recently played alongside Holland’s premier progressive house DJ, Sander Kleinenberg in Belgium. He really enjoyed the Belgium gig, but he says the best place he’s played overseas is Turkey. The crowd are up for a mad time and they really get into the whole event, which gives the artist a real sense of satisfaction. His most recent overseas appearance was three weeks ago when he played in Los Angeles. I have heard that the Americans are into marathon eight hour DJ sets and I ask if he played for anything like that length of time. Not this time! He played for two and a half hours, which is the same amount of time he’ll be playing at Sweet Chilli. I must admit I was rather hoping for at least three hours, but then I am the greedy kind!
The last time Kasey appeared in Sydney he headlined Plastic. I wondered how a progressive house DJ managed to play to a hard trance audience. He said it was really hard work because the crowd were used to and expecting a different style of music than the one he normally plays. He is quite relieved to this time be playing to a crowd that are going to be perfectly attuned with his style of music.
The first Vapourized CD had a driving trance edged feel to it, where the Balance 002 CD was a darker, deeper sounding mix altogether. Kasey believes in varying the style of music that he plays so he doesn’t get pigeonholed as a single sound DJ. Although the darker, deeper sound as featured on the Balance CD Kasey believes progressive is moving away from that sound. He’s very happy with the direction the genre has been moving in over the past few months. There are a lot more lighter, more funky, summer sounding tunes around at the moment and we can expect to hear some of this from him. I for one am glad. Progressive house sometimes gets accused of taking itself far too seriously and with the warm weather approaching it seems quite appropriate that the music is moving towards a fun filled sound. After all, summer and going clubbing are all about fun aren’t they?
If fun is your thing and you want a guaranteed good night out with a range of music then look no further than Sweet Chilli. Doors open at 10pm on Saturday night and the Dendy has been re-decorated in new “Chilli” décor. For full details of prices and set times go to www.sweetchilli.com.au Kasey and I will see you there!
