Acid Chess Club

 Stoked to be back at Runner Up in Collingwood Yards for Acid Chess Club tonight!

Bringing some brain music for chill, hectic and open tournaments from 7pm. 

You can also catch more regular gig and radio updates on instagram: @empty.deejay

Honoured to be on this poster by Jack Irvine too!

Gunn Sound - Survivors of London

These rips come via a friend of mine from Denmark, Jake, who managed to track down some underground Australian bass music.

Here's what Jake said about the CD:

"So me and my friend Chris have been digging this Australian scene for a while now, finding some amazing off the radar stuff. This Gunn Sound CD i specifically discovered as a recommendation in the inlay of some aus dub CD compilation (cant remember which one hehe), and seeing that it wasn't online or on discogs, but on sale on Ebay quite cheaply, i figured why not. Great stuff and great to browse around the Aus scene!! Love from Aarhus, Denmark."

I think Jake may have been talking about seeing Gunn Sound on cult Sherriff Lindo compilation Dub For The Masses, where the 7th track from this album Portobello (Dub Version) appeared, which looks to be the only other appearance of John Gunn. 

It blew me away when Jake sent me the Ebay listing for this CD and asked for me to send him the files. He has spoken to me a number of times before about his love for the Australian dub scene in the late 1990s, particularly the work of Ali Omar. Finding something not only not online but not even on Discogs is a true digging achievement. 

Survivors of  London seems to provide a link between the deep dub of the late 90s and the bass and breaks ubiquitous in Australia in the early 2000s. 

For these uploads I've picked; Anybody, the aggressive and unflinching album opener, Intruders, a floating, atmospheric drum and bass gem, the haunting and mysterious Caribbean and the final track Fading Away (Dub Version) where the breaks and bass constantly emanating from Survivors Of London fade to close out what is a fascinating piece of Australian underground music history. 

Thanks so much  to Jake for allowing me to upload these on the channel, I aspire to have a find like this of my own one day. 

Good luck trying to track a copy down!

Here are the videos:

Here's some photos of the CD:

Technique - When There Is Love (Life Is A Dance)

When I'm digging, there's a big difference between what I pull out to listen to for Empty Archive and my own collection. 

Usually for the channel I'm looking at white labels, simple texts or retro designs or stuff that looks particularly weird. When it comes to me buying other records, there are a bunch of labels I will always listen to, but I know that usually I'll be able to find it online.

Strangely, this particular cut seems to have fallen through the YouTube cracks. 

Downtown 161 is a classic New York City house label, probably known best for Kerri Chandler's Thing For Linda records. The depth of their catalogue means I always pull their stuff out, but their prevalence means I know it's probably already online. 

When I found this record and listened to the number of videos of the Beat Is Down side, I was intrigued, but hardly blown away. Luckily I held onto it long enough to hear this gem. 

When There Is Love (Life Is A Dance) seems to be a re-arrangement of a 1994 release on Downtown 161 by Phillip Daniel as Technique. It also features a remix by (maybe) one of the Burrell's, although they go uncredited aside from the title. 

For this release in 1997, Chicago legend Derrick Carter (as the sleeve so desperately communicates) gives the original the Red Nail treatment. 

With chaotic tribal percussion underneath the beautiful vocals of the mysterious Azarian and gospel-esque stabs evoke visions of smoked-filled sweaty dancefloors.

Life Is A Dance is also, I think, an illuminating example of how drastically house music was moving in the 1990s in the US. The 1994 versions and these from 97 are starkly different, yet both fantastic in their different styles and the singular thread that binds them, house music, is richer for them both. 

Enjoy!

Find the record on Discogs here

Empty DJ is February's Acid Chess Club Resident

 Starting tonight the 13th at 7pm I will be the resident DJ for Acid Chess Club for Feb!

Tonight is learn and play night at Runner Up Rooftop Bar in Melbourne's Collingwood Yards.

Come down tonight or on the 27th for the second club night!

B&K - Work It (Strippers Delight)

New upload today is some horny hip-house from not the Lisbon you're thinking of, but the one in rural Maryland.

I picked up Work It digging in Japan. Struck by the classic rudimentary label art I had to have a listen. Although far more x-rated than anything I would usually play or upload (aside from another recent find) I felt like it was something that deserved to be seen online.

Work It (Strippers Delight) seems to be a pump up track for a group of male strippers, with vocals from B (Bonita James) and K (Kim Watkins) urging them to shake harder and faster.

Darryl Patterson, who also helped out with a few early Grove St releases, and Vaughn Mason, known particularly for his 1983 album Feel My Love with Butch Dayo, are also given writing credits. Interestingly too, this record was produced by Mason in New York, but released by Maryland's Gotcha Productions.

Gotcha Productions, releasing out of a town of only a few hundred people, has only released one other record. Seems to be out of my price range but if you're in the EU and have some cash I have a feeling that Daniel Fordham's 'Real Love' could be a bomb.

Is this record a ripple of New York hip-house scene that somehow found it's way to an ambitious Maryland label head? 

Or is it evidence of a pulsating sexual underbelly in rural Lisbon that travelled to the big apple to reveal itself to a new audience?

As with many of these bargain bin mysteries, maybe we will never know. 

Until it appears on a repress compilation!

Check out the record on Discogs here.

Audio Vitamins from Friday!

Covered Audio Vitamins for Johnny Alexander on Friday!

Recording and track list is up here:

Think downtempo, deep house, disco and some Caribbean flavours too!

Stay tuned for more house this week.