Elefant Traks Xmas Party @ TheFactory (22/12/06)

Fri 29th Dec, 2006 in Gig Reviews

Established in 1992, the Quannum record label from the bay area in San Francisco hosts a powerful array of artists known all around the world. Recently in Australia, touring artists from Quannum have delivered inspirational shows from the likes of DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, Lifesavas, Pigeon John and Blackalicious. The sound collective is a funky, based filled display of creative intellect and innovation.

Across the other side of the globe, based out of London UK and established in 1990, is the groundbreaking Ninjatune record label. Onboard talent includes Coldcut, Kid Koala, DJ Vadim and the Herbaliser. For well over one hundred releases of front edge mixing, spitting, dancing and cutting, Ninjatune has become known as one of the original collaborators of diverse and progressive seed producing tunes around.

Bringing it back to Australia, Elefant Traks is setting the standard for open-minded, challenging and adventurous music. In fact, this is the philosophy of the label. Elefant Traks are questioning the way things are: proprietors of music that engages and makes people think. At mid 2006, there were 25 releases in total.

Established in 1998, the independent Sydney based record label, Elefant Traks, brings together a unique blend of hip hop, electronic and dub influenced production. Over the years Elefant Traks has gone from being an underground label to one of the leading independent labels in Australia – dealing with music that is only starting to gain significant popularity in a traditionally rock music oriented country.

On the Elefant Traks website, it advises that “there is no other label in Australia that is quite like Elefant Traks.” This is true only to a certain extent. It’s my opinion that Elefant Traks is one of the leading labels in Australia, producing equally talented, fast moving, forward thinking, listen worthy and production strong music from around the world. The Elefant Traks Xmas Party at The Factory was a quality representation of this.

During the course of the evening we took advantage of a fantastic display of mixing from Monkey Marc and Prince V, between Xmas sets by Urthboy and Elgusto, The Tongue and Diaz, Astronomy Class, Hermitude and the Herd.

The first noteworthy performance was by the Tongue and Diaz. Compared to any hip-hop emerging from the United States, these guys were completely onto it. The crowd was captivated and into it from the opening track. The Tongue is a hip hop champion. Astronomy class, who I’d been not lucky enough to see previously, also cranked out an amazing performance. I’ll be making sure that I see them perform again in the near future, for sure. This is a strong collaboration between Ozi Batla, Sir Robbo and Chasm and as predicted, I expected nothing short of the usual cheekiness from Ozi Batla (the Herd).

Hats most definitely need to be saluted to the Herd, the inspirers, the motivators, partners of the label, as well as being the complete highlight of the night. Every time these guys play they put all their mind and effort and ability into the show, pumping out performances which can only be understood if you were there. For all the crew that made this show, you know what I’m on about. Check out the Herd playing the Big Day Out in January.

Thanks for a mad show dudes! The Elefant Traks Xmas Party 2006 absolutely ROCKED IT! For everyone who didn’t make it, keep your eyes peeled for the posters next year of new releases by the Herd and others on the label, and continue to support the ever expanding and increasingly excellent Australian music.