Hiatus Kaiyote
Hiatus Kaiyote | The Northern | Thursday 28 June | SOLD OUT
In the two years since selling out their Sydney Opera House gig, Hiatus Kaiyote have become one of the most sampled bands in the world. They feature on the closing track on Kendrick Lamar’s Damn and the opening of Drake’s More Life record last year and have popped up on cuts by Chance The Rapper, Anderson Paak, and Rhapsody.
They’ve come a long way since 2011 when the four-piece band operating out of a small home studio in the mid-northern suburbs of Melbourne fired out a unique and kaleidoscopic vision of future soul. At once they shook down the paradigm walls and inspired even the US originators of the music.
Often revelatory, Hiatus Kaiyote’s music is also well-rooted in all of that rich lineage that makes it feel somehow warmly familiar. Their phraseology cannot be bound simply by the 4/4 metre; it spills out into rhythmic rivulets that never sound unnatural or clever for clever’s sake. Jazz, soul, funk, fusion, hip-hop and electronica are their predominant building blocks, but the resultant sonic shapes blur the edges and defy the pigeonhole.
But like all great new art, their music has a sense of inevitability about it. It’s as though those notes and beats were somehow destined to fall together in that same inexplicable pattern all along, just waiting to be uncovered, unlocked by the right combination of exploratory, inquisitive musical minds. We can all count our lucky stars that those minds happen to live on our own doorstep.
Uke Night
Club Mullum | Thursday 28 June | 6.30pm | Still only $12.50 per adult and $2.50 for kids under 16
Where do you begin with your uke? If you’re a beginner (or just feeling a bit cruisey) this month Miss Amber and Stukulele will presenting a Uke Night for beginners at Club Mullum. All the songs will be easy-play classics so if you haven’t been to Uke Night because you didn’t think you could keep up… this night is for you.
The songbook’s available through www.ukemullum.com
Bad Pony
Byron Brewery | Friday 29 June | 9pm | FREE
A group who describe themselves as a ‘five-piece indie rock band. Many drums. Many sings,’ Bad Pony think there might be something about growing up in a nation essentially founded on a prison labour colony that instills in a band a sense of tirelessness. Whether it’s heritage, hope, or insanity that fuels Bad Pony, they simply don’t seem to stop.
Since releasing their debut EP Limbo in 2015, the Sydney-based quintet has independently released four self-produced singles, all with national radio success. On the touring front, this premier indie outfit have clocked up thousands of kilometres with five national tours since 2016, an appearance at world-renowned Music Matters, Singapore, in 2016 and a showcase at Canadian Music Week in 2017. The band finished off a successful 2017 being announced as part of the Australian lineup at the world’s biggest music conference, SXSW 2018, in Austin, Texas, and taking out the win for the Australian Music Week Award. Byron Brewery
The Cabaret for West Byron
Cavanbah Room, Byron Community Centre | Saturday 30 June | 7pm | Tickets $10 at the door
Put on your sequins. The Cabaret for West Byron is a fundraiser for Byron Residents Group and celebrates a night of diverse entertainment. Byron Lighthouse Band will perform their anti-West Byron hit song, provide solid rock music, and have a surprise for the audience with a new song planned to deepen the audience/band synergy. Amazing dance leaps, drumming and singing with Gabriel Otu’s Happy Africa follows a drum jam. Yael’s bellydance group shimmies and glides to live music. Mark Swivel will bring on the laughs. The bar is open on the balcony.
The Strides
The Northern | Friday 29 June | Free
Hailing from Sydney, The Strides have become a new force for urban roots music. Fronted by reggae master Ras Roni from Barbados via London, and Fijian MC Ltl Gzeus, The Strides have delivered their classic sound to crowds across the country, delivering a musical experience that is as powerfully explosive as it is authentic.
With two acclaimed albums already under their belt, a European label signing, festival appearances across the country, and having graced the stage with the likes of Julian Marley, Tony Allen and Groundation, The Strides’ music faithfully builds on the foundations of classic roots reggae with a hip-hop edge, forging a sound that brings together modern dance hall, world beats and reggae-pop. The Strides have forged a truly global sound melding a diversity of cultures and instrumentation under the one universal consciousness.
With a calling card of powerfully melodic horns, infectious basslines, easy musings, and a magnetic stage presence between its two lead vocalists, the Strides are an 8-piece collective of multi-talented songwriters and musicians.
Daniel Champagne
Tintenbar Upfront Club | 7.30pm | 29 June | $16-21
Daniel Champagne is established as a world-class and internationally renowned performer. How many Australian-born artists can spend the majority of their year touring the globe and selling out show after show in North America, Canada and Europe? And doing it tour after tour after tour?
Not many is the answer. And in between Champagne finds just enough time to broaden his following in Japan, South America, Mexico and other countries. Oh yes, and then return to Australia and New Zealand for the sort of touring that virtually no other artist can do in 2018.
This tour will see Champagne performing songs from his acclaimed Fault Lines album plus other favourites and new songs.
Tickets www.eventbrite.com.au
Dubarray
Dubarray with support Skyeater | Byron Bay Brewery | Friday 29 June | 7pm | Free entry
Dubarray hit Byron this Friday for one more huge show as part of their Inner Sanctum album-launch tour.
Dubarray’s latest album release is an uplifting compilation of songs that has seen the band spring to new heights in their songwriting and production. Inner Sanctum is a journey through the band’s eclectic style of music with a powerful message interwoven to the awakening of self-healing and taking the power back from the imposing external forces of our current world and spreading the conscious message through a interwoven high-vibe musical alchemy.
Dubarray have been smashing out shows allaround the nation and will be finishing it all off with a free-entry show at the Byron Bay Brewery.
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