While it can be hard to pinpoint a particular Sydney sound, Alba – Sam Weston and Thomas McAlister – must be pretty near the bullseye. Since their debut 12’’ Knokke / Lawreceived remix treatment from Detroit natives Rick Wade and Jimmy Edgar, the house duo been busy returning the favour for some of our local talents like Oscar Key Sung, Roland Tings, Black Vanilla and Elizabeth Rose.
Sydney may be a city at the end of the Earth, with a precocious little sister always claiming to be cooler, but she has always produced global trend-setting musicians. So when the foundations for these artists – the stages on which they first develop their sounds – start to erode, what happens?
Perhaps local DJ and producer Nina Las Vegas said it best in front of thousands of Sydneysiders at the Keep Sydney Open rally on February 21: “In the last five to ten years, Australia has cemented itself as a major player in the electronic music scene. The demise of the nightlife culture will affect this… You can’t expect Olympic swimmers to win gold without pools, right?”
There’s a heck of a lot of talent in this fine city – from local stalwarts and familiar faces to up-and-comers just breaking through. We scoured Sydney to showcase some of that talent. Because live music is a little like Tinker Bell – the more you believe in it, the stronger it becomes.
