Dance/Electronic | Musicosity

Dance/Electronic

Milo Eastwood

Starting as a teenager on community radio, Milo Eastwood has spent the 13+ years bringing music to the masses, and for the last 5 has spent every weekday waking Melbourne up on PBS fm’s The Breakfast Spread covering a wide range of musical territory.

Milo’s work on Friday mornings on PBS has in recent times amassed a cult following of sorts from Melburnians who want to get their weekend started with a hefty dose of slamming house, soaring disco, Latin rhythms and chilled-out electronica.

His efforts behind the decks have seen him throw down sets at Golden Plains, Loch Hart Music Festival, Daydreams, and countless headline shows as well as his own flagship party Love Sensation.

SPY V SPY

Primarily starting out as the voice of the homeless squatters of early eighties Sydney SPY v SPY spoke for everyone who felt "under the thumb of the system", they told true stories of the common struggle that polite Australia didn't necessarily want to hear.

A formidable live act - the band cut its teeth in the early days opening for groups such as Midnight Oil, INXS, Hoodoo Gurus, Split Enz, the Models and Men At Work as well as gracing the stage with international artists U2, David Bowie, Simple Minds and The Clash.

Throughout the 80's the band released landmark recordings Meet Us Inside, Harry's Reasons, AO Mod TV Vers., Xenophobia[Why?], and Trash The Planet to critical acclaim.

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In 2018 founding guitarist Michael Weiley reunited with original drummer Cliff Grigg.

Tragically Michael passed away shortly thereafter.

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Move forward to 2024 and the band perform the songs as authentically and true to the original sounds that is SPY v SPY.

SPY v SPY is

CLIFF GRIGG - drums/vocals
PAUL COXON - bass/vocals
DAVE ROMEO - guitar/vocals

Close Counters

Naarm/Melbourne-based duo Close Counters kicked off 2022 with a flurry of remixes and their collab 'Rollout' with Young Franco featured UK rappers Scrufizzer and Jay Prince and went on to clock multiple spins on BBC Radio 1, iHeart Radio, triple j, FBi Radio and landed a slew of playlist support from Spotify and Apple Music, winning over new fans across the globe while being added to the FIFA 23 Soundtrack.

Close Counters' original releases of 2022 were premiered by Gilles Peterson (BBC 6 Music) and Jamz Supernova (BBC Radio 1Xtra) respectively, and garnered support from tastemakers Folamour, Jaguar (BBC Radio 1 Dance Introducing), Tarzsa (BBC 6 Music), Complexion (BBC Radio 1Xtra + Future Beats Show), Riz Rollins (KEXP Seattle), Alex Turner (KEXP Seattle), plus earned rotation adds from triple j Unearthed, Double J, SYN and Radio FG. Singles 'SNAP TO IT!' and 'GET DOWN!' were released by The Remedy Project (Defected Records).

'SOULACOASTA II' drops on February 15.

Ausecuma Beats

Ausecuma Beats formed as a combination of musicians from Australia, the Senegambia region, Cuba, and Mali… And hence the name Ausecuma, combining the four regions into one word.

As a result, Ausecuma Beats as a band stands for unity among diverse peoples, and it shows through their combined influences from Africa, Cuba, and Australia.

Yusupha Ngum is the lead singer of Ausecuma Beats. He is a superstar in his native Gambia, where he has had many hits in the complex rapidfire percussion style of West African “mbalax” music. He spent many years as the opening act in West Africa for African superstar Youssou N’dour. Yusupha’s soaring and passionate voice grabs you by the heartstrings and moves you, just through its incredible sound (you have to hear it to believe it).

Boubacar Gaye is from Senegal in West Africa, where his magic with the djembe (African drum) led him to become a member of the famous percussion group Mama Afrika. Boubacar’s career led to tours of Europe and a long career in Japan, and finally to Australia. Until you’ve heard Boubacar play, you would have never thought so many complex rhythms could come from a simple drum!

Rodolfo Hechavarria, known as “Panga”, hails from Cuba, where he became a virtuoso with the congas. He joined the traditional Cuban music band Sonora La Calle, with whom he toured Europe, and shared the stage with some of Cuba’s most famous musicians. In Australia, he combines his skill with the congas to contribute to the complex percussive rhythms of Ausecuma Beats!

Ed Crocker is a very successful drummer, having played with many successful bands, at many music festivals in Australia, and at the Glastonbury Festival in England. His incredible energy on the drum kit is astounding, and he has an uncanny ability to knock out very complex beats. Ed rounds out the incredible three-person percussion section of Ausecuma Beats!

Bassidi Koné comes from a Griot family in Mali, and achieved virtuosity on the balafon – an African wooden xylophone-like instrument. No matter what the genre, he infuses the music with the heritage of centuries of his family’s musical tradition. Bassidi has won many prestigious national music awards in Mali.

Adam Halliwell has had a very successful career on the electric guitar, having worked in free jazz and with bands in both East African and West African musical styles. He’s toured both Europe and Japan. Adam is known for his incredible skills at improvisation.

Claymore

William Hutton (lead vocals, guitar & Bodhran, Manager) – born in Scotland, William is the founding member of Claymore. He’s performed extensively throughout Australia and overseas and is recognised as one of the finest singers of traditional songs. This, coupled with a strong knowledge of the history of Celtic music puts him at the forefront of his field. He is also a laugh a minute – it would be hard to pick a more entertaining and enigmatic front man.

Michael Doyle (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, Bodhran & vocals) – born in Melbourne, Michael is one of the most acclaimed lead guitarists in the music world. His accomplishments include a long playing career with Colleen Hewitt and a hit single ‘Winner’ with the 1980s rock group Atlantis. He is equally at home on the mandolin and is also an impressive vocalist.

Grant Scroggie (highland bagpipes, guitar, tin whistle, vocals & Bodhran) – born in Melbourne, Grant is easily one of the most recognised and impressive pipers in the world today. He evolved from the Australian Pipe Band scene to join the Celtic circuit and used his invaluable training to bring spark and expertise to Claymore. He is a multi-instrumentalist who masters everything he tries his hand at with consummate skill.

Craig Scroggie (drums, percussion & vocals) – born in Melbourne, Craig has been playing percussion since he was eight, including drum kit, congas, bongos, timbales, timpani, pipe band and military snare. He was ranked as one of the top drummers in the world at the 1994 World Drumming Championships in Glasgow and has been teaching percussion for over 15 years. He has also won numerous drumming awards in Australia and New Zealand.

Dash McIvor (bass guitar, Didge & vocals) – As well as being an award winning Producer/Engineer & qualified Music Teacher, Dash is also a competent Multi-Instrumentalist, Before joining Claymore, Dash had a long history of being proficient in a myriad of styles with an eclectic range of artists such as Thelma Houston, Peter Sarstedt, Kamahl, Jon Pertwee, Tony Bennet, Phil Manning, Angry Anderson, Max Bygraves, Normie Rowe, Col Elliott, Jean Stafford, Ronnie Burns, Johnny Chester, & Peggy Seeger to name but a few. He’s now the driving Celtic heart of Claymore.

Mick Mills (drums & percussion) – born in Canberra, Mick has been playing music since he was 14 and, in that time, has mastered the likes of the guitar, drums, percussion and the piano to name a few. He has toured Australia and the US in concert bands and spent literally hundreds of hours as a session/recording artist. He has also performed in original bands such as Paris Calling, Undermind and DDM.

David Carr (Lead Guitar, Vocals) – David is an incredible musician and a master of many instruments

The lead guitar being the shining jewel in his arsenal. He is a very accomplished recording engineer with his own very successful recording studio located in the rolling hills behind Melbourne, “Rangemaster”.

Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, audio engineer, producer, mixdown engineer, broadcaster

Jack of all trades – Master of All.

Robert Iurato (sound engineer) – no band is complete without a fantastic sound engineer and Robert is undisputedly one of the best. He’s been in the audio industry for over 20 years, serving his training in the 1980s with an audio production company from where he progressed to work overseas in New York for a number of years in some of the top recording studios in the world. He is responsible for overseeing Claymore’s concert productions and front of house sound engineering.

The Glenbrae Dancers - The Glenbrae Celtic Dancers aim to maintain the traditions of Scottish dancing and to make it appealing to the participants by introducing both traditional and modern choreography. Ages range from 4 years upwards.

Anamanaguchi

ANAMANAGUCHI IS PETER BERKMAN (DALLAS), ARY WARNAAR (NEW YORK CITY), LUKE SILAS (LOS ANGELES) AND JAMES DEVITO (PROVIDENCE), ORIGINALLY FORMED IN NEW YORK. THEY ARE A MULTI-FACETED GROUP OF RECORDING ARTISTS & CREATIVE DIRECTORS (I.E. A BAND).

THEY ARE LIVE PERFORMERS & MUSIC COMPOSERS-- IN 2023 SCORING THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NETFLIX SERIES 'SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF' WITH CO-COMPOSER JOE TRAPANESE (TRON: LEGACY, NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU), THE SOUNDTRACK BECAME AN AMAZON TOP SELLER. THEIR LATEST ALBUM [USA] WAS RELEASED ON THE DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN INDEPENDENT POLYVINYL RECORDS IMPRINT.

ANAMANAGUCHI BEGAN SCORING IN 2010 WITH UBISOFT'S SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD: THE GAME, RESULTING IN A BILLBOARD-CHARTING SOUNDTRACK RELEASED BY ABKCO RECORDS. THEIR ORIGINAL COMPOSITION WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED IN TV (CBS SATURDAY MORNING), FILM (21 JUMP STREET), VIDEO GAMES (ROCKET LEAGUE, LITTLE BIG PLANET), AND VARIOUS BRANDS (DISCORD, TELFAR, TACO BELL, TARGET).

THE BAND HAS TOURED ACROSS NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE AND ASIA, INCLUDING FESTIVALS LOLLAPALOOZA (CHICAGO), ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL (SEOUL & MIAMI), OSHEAGA (MONTRÉAL). THEIR LIVE SHOWS INCLUDE VISUAL SET PRODUCTION FROM BAND MEMBER DEVITO (FOUNDER OF SMOOTH TECHNOLOGY, KNOWN FOR THEIR WORK WITH TAYLOR SWIFT, LADY GAGA).

ANAMANAGUCHI IS AN INTERNET BAND. WHILE THE FOUR MEMBERS PRESENT AS A TRADITIONAL ROCK BAND ON STAGE (GUITAR, BASS AND DRUMS), THEY ARE MULTI-INSTRUMENTALISTS CLASSICALLY TRAINED IN MUSIC COMPOSITION, HOLD DEGREES IN ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCTION, AND HAVE A LESS-INSTITUTIONALLY-RECOGNIZED SPECIALTY IN EARLY VIDEO GAME CONSOLE MUSIC PRODUCTION (SUCH AS NES, SNES, AND GAME BOY).

Ruth Rogers-Wright

Ruth Rogers-Wright is a singer/songwriter from Brixton, S. London U.K. She has lived in Melbourne Australia for 15 years with the exception of several extended holidays/tours back in her homeland.

She first came to prominence and artistic acclaim in the mid 80′s with the ‘ new British jazz’ movement as described by seminal London DJ Giles Peterson. Her band Moontwist featured Australian pianist Mark Fitzgibbon and his sister Nichaud Fitzgibbon on back up vocals.

In the 10 years she has lived in Australia she has performed her jazz originals at Bennett’s Lane, The Butterfly Club, Paris Cat Jazz Club, Dizzys, York Festival and numerous iconic Australian venues

Grievous Bodily Calm

Grievous Bodily Calm are a five-piece instrumental band from Perth, Western Australia.

Their genre-blending signature instrumental sound and high energy live show infuses IDM, beat music and jazz improvisation with modern electronic production and has seen them support artists such as Tame Impala, Black Midi, The Avalanches, Hiatus Kaiyote, Beach House and Pond as well as numerous festival appearances and sold out headline shows off the back of two acclaimed independently released EP’s.

Their previous EP 'Arc' received acclaim from outlets such as Clash Magazine, COLORS, NME, Earmilk, Worldwide FM, The Lot Radio, Triple J, Triple J Unearthed Feature Artist & more. 'Spirals' is the first taste of their highly anticipated follow up EP due for release in 2023.

The Crystal Method

The Crystal Method is an American electronic music act formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in the early 1990s. They were pioneers of the big beat genre and their music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, video games, and advertisements. Their 1997 debut studio album Vegas was certified platinum in 2007, and saw follow-ups Tweekend, Legion of Boom, Divided by Night, and The Crystal Method. In 2017, Ken Jordan retired from music and left the group, with Scott Kirkland adopting The Crystal Method as a solo moniker.

The Crystal Method originally had two members, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland. Before The Crystal Method was formed, Jordan and Kirkland started working on music while working at a grocery store. Jordan was also a local DJ in Las Vegas as well as the college radio program director at UNLV. Jordan taught Kirkland how to DJ, and when Jordan moved to Los Angeles to work for a producer, Kirkland took over his job DJing at the local club. Kirkland also moved out to Los Angeles, and they formed The Crystal Method in 1993.

While working as a production duo for a rapper, a person named Crystal would handle transportation needs. The rapper repeatedly referred to her method of transportation as "The Crystal Method." The pair adopted the name based on the layout of the three words and the sound of the name.

Tania Doko

When you know, you know

There are few things in this world more spellbinding than a great vocal, the captivating magic of a beautiful, resounding singing voice. One of those belongs to Tania Doko, the way she connects, how it carries. Listen and you’ll find out.

Music has taken her all around the world, up charts and down winding roads where anything can and has happened thus, chances are you’ve already heard her. Then you’d already know that some journeys continue without an end. Relentlessly forwards, the work of Tania Doko.

Harder Now

Beauty attracts beauty, the cycle spins to set all meaningful things in motion, drawing from all sorts, even the broken. In fact, the beauty found there radiates a very special light. In July of 2023, Tania Doko will release a first single from her forthcoming EP. It’s called Harder Now, for very good reason, love. She’s two feet firm on Australia’s red soil again, for this, a new chapter in her music.

How it all comes together

Her career started early and precisely on a coffee table, cheered on by her proud Italian/Albanian family but thus far, Tania Doko is perhaps best known for her work in the ARIA awarded pop-duo Bachelor Girl. Their success is tremendous and together with James Roche she’s responsible for hit-songs like ‘Buses and Trains’, irresistibly cutting through anything to become the most played Australian composition on radio Down Under over the last 20 years. Signed by Clive Davies, the album ‘Waiting for the Day’ went double platinum.

The adventures with Bachelor Girl has been many and continues on to this day. Touring and continuously releasing a string of new material and only this year they released the song ‘Calling out your name’ whilst joining Darren Hayes on the road, a particular relationship that began when Tania Doko toured with him back in 2007.

The many adventures with Bachelor Girl lead Tania and James to be cast in leading roles in ‘Tim Rice’s Musical Spectacular’ alongside INXS at one point. How about that but then, that is but half the story.

Meanwhile and please, do try to keep up

Tania Doko also moved to Sweden for ten years, got married, built a family, wrote hit records with The Veronicas, Jessica Mauboy, Eric Bazilian, Taylor Dayne, Delta Goodrem, Sheppard, Tina Arena, to name a few. She’s done Disney film, K-pop and even dabbled in Eurovision hey, at one point she herself was a contestant singing her amply named song ‘Piece of Me’.

She performed at the Sydney Opera House with ‘Hear Me Roar’ alongside some of Australia’s finest. She toured with Australia’s ‘Let’s get together’, with Jon Stevens, Ian Moss and Jack Jones, started a successful podcast for exile Aussies in Sweden, was given a role in ‘Seriously. The Pet Shop Boys Reinterpreted’ in Edinburgh, UK, to the great pride and joy of The Boys themselves. Oh my, left to her own devices.

She’s been a judge on Channel 7’s ‘Popstars’, an APRA ambassador and you should know she holds a degree in Psychology and Criminology. Helpful in her work for positive change, dealing with troubled youth in Australia. Some of her most rewarding, vital work as she calls it.

She’s continuously lent her voice to the European EDM scene, writing and featuring with acts like Leroy Styles, Deep Matter, Gabi Newman. She’s sung to LGBTQ audiences from Manchester’s Pride to Sydney’s Mardi Gras.

Then when the world stopped, Tania re-evaluated. There was a very special dream of an album of her own, it grew and just like that, in 2021, Tania Doko and her family moved back to Australia.

Dealing with a longing heart, roots grow long but there’s nothing quite like the source, home.

Where do we go now?

The welcome was warm. Joining the cast of ‘Fleetwood Mac Orchestrated’, touring all around the country, such beautiful homecoming. Numerous shows with Bachelor Girl and seeing both her and James now shared the same continent, it generated renewed energy to meet the popular demand of seeing them perform live again.

But it’s time.

The beauty’s in the broken

In Stockholm, from time to time, she would write music for artists with Mattias Lindblom. Often it would fail, in a sense. Perhaps because the music was simply too personal, too perfectly fitting to hand over to anyone else thus, the songs were saved, destined to be Tania Doko’s own.

So here we are, it’s 2023. Tania Doko’s first solo material in 15 years, completed. It started with the song Harder Now, a song that musically and lyrically brings you straight into the heartily core of the work. It’s hypnotic, pulsating, tribal. A current and emotional tidal wave to simply, ride, travel with you.

Creating the wave

The work was finished back home, in Melbourne, Australia. It was produced by Mattias Lindblom and there are some very fine musicians featuring on it. It takes a web spun, from deep devotion to the craft, to capture a moment like this. Than courage, hope and faith to step into oneself, to be genuine. This is Tania Doko, always a forwards movement.

Out of the heart, comes everything and in the light, it’s golden…