Born in Newcastle, Australia, Daniel Johns is a vocalist, composer, guitarist, pianist and producer.  The frontman of Silverchair – one of the most acclaimed and successful bands in Australian music history. He is also one half of The Dissociatives alongside Australian dance guru Paul Mac and he is the only person to win APRA’s prestigious ‘Songwriter Of The Year’ Award three times.

Post-Songwriter Experimental Love Soundtrack.


This is the home of tenderpeaks (producer) & Skull Sized Kingdoms (electronic music collective)

DOWNTEMPO// ELECTRONICA // EXPERIMENTAL // POP // AMBIENT 


http://www.songkick.com/artists/9070374

Channelled madness – the sound Dawn of Midi spent years shaping, culminating into their most mesmerising work yet

With Dysnomia, the Brooklyn-based group Dawn of Midi abandons improvisation in favour of composition, utilising sophisticated rhythmic structures from North and West African folk traditions to weave a sonic tapestry of trance-inducing grooves. From close up one may see only dots, but when stepping back an undulating image reveals itself. “We didn’t want to create anything cerebral,” says Belyamani, “we wanted something visceral, something that would awaken our instinctive dance impulses.”
Having met at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles in 2006, bassist Aakaash Israni, pianist Amino Belyamani and drummer Qasim Naqvi found their original rapport through late night tennis matches on the campus court. The chemistry they founded there eventually led them back indoors to improvise together; something they did in total darkness to deprive themselves of all their senses except the crucial one – their hearing.
The manner, by which a trio of solely acoustic instruments ends up sounding like electronic music, has to do with the unconventional ways the group play their instruments on Dysnomia. The record comes to life in the trio’s critically acclaimed live shows, a test of endurance and trust that involves performing their hand-looped acoustic minimalism note for note, just as the compositions were recorded. Dawn of Midi’s sets are as energetic and rhythmic as a seamlessly mixed DJ-set, mesmerising fans in the same way the group’s favourite experimental and electronic acts have for decades.
The album was recorded to 2-inch tape at Waterfront Studios in Hudson, New York - a former church that was purchased and transformed into an analogue recording playground by the great engineer Henry Hirsch. Once the band visited the studio and met Henry, an expert in analogue recording equipped with a vintage Helios console, 16 and 24-track tape machines and a superb collection of microphones, it was obvious they had to record there; it was miles ahead of anywhere else they had visited. Rusty Santos then mixed the album to make sure it would hit as hard as the group’s favourite electronic albums do in spite of it being entirely acoustic.
“We wanted to make a record that sounded both musically futuristic and sonically vintage,” explains Israni, “and since the album never saw a proper international release, it is very exciting to see what might happen when more people are exposed to it. And to be aligned with Erased Tapes, whose enthusiasm for the music they release has done a lot for exposing unique instrumental and electronic music, makes it that much more interesting.”

Dysnomia will be released worldwide on June 1st, 2015 through Erased Tapes – available on 2x LP, CD and Download.

“Mr.Spaven does it again – much more than just rhythm with this man” Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio).

“Richard Spaven is one of the most unique artists in the world. Triple threat drummer, composer, and producer, his voice rings true with clarity and promise. He is the point where jazz meets the world” José James (Blue Note Records).


Prolific drummer Richard Spaven releases his first full length LP, following on from the acclaimed ‘Spaven’s 5ive EP’. This latest record ‘Whole Other*’ showcases the drumming artistry many of us associate with Spaven, combined with his own productions in the realm somewhere between Jazz, Electronica and Soundtracks.

Spaven has supplied the drums for many artists on stage and in the studio - José James, Flying Lotus, The Cinematic Orchestra, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Gregory Porter to name but a few. Working closely with such a diverse range of artists must bare influence upon Spaven’s own compositions, in which some how the drums bridge the gap between the worlds of jazz and electronic music.

Spaven’s debut release ‘5ive’s EP’ (Jazz Refreshed) in 2010 quietly turned heads. Most recently it featured on best selling video game ‘Grand Theft Auto V’. With a guest appearance by José James on the hypnotic ‘Maz’, the record was seen by some as a jazz record but was also played out loud by many club DJ’s.

‘Whole Other*’ continues the journey. The music is rich and genre defying. Blue Note Trumpeter Takuya Kuroda appears on the record, playing soulfully amongst ragga tinged drums. GTA V collaborators ‘The Hics’ join Spaven on the albums title track ‘Whole Other*’. UK sounds to the fore – James Blake-esque moody vocals meeting Spaven’s edgy broken drums head on. Guitarist Stuart McCallum’s (The Cinematic Orchestra) signature sound is prominent – Spaven has been working with him since their meeting on stage with Cinematic a few years ago and he features throughout the record.

Richard Spaven – ‘Whole Other*’
Released on P-Vine, Japan 04/07/14
R.O.W. distribution by KUDOS 07/07/14


New album 'PUSH' out May 29 2020 via Glitterhouse Records

electronic music w vocals / keys/ guitar/ trumpet; living in Berlin

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