Wow, we can’t believe it’s that time already…this Saturday January 14th, the second Sugar Mountain Festival will be taking place at The Forum with a very exciting lineup of musicians, visual artists and dancers.  There are still a few tickets left, (you can grab them from Ticketmaster), you’re not going to want to miss this:

THE WOMB (The Main Theatre)
12.00am: Shabazz Palaces
11.00pm: Deerhoof
10.00pm: Thee Oh Sees
9.00pm: Tune-Yards
No Lights, No Lycra Dancers
8.00pm: World’s End Press
7.00pm: John Maus
6.00pm: Pets With Pets
With projections by Kit Webster and a gateway installation by Maya Hayuk and Kyle Ranson.

MESS & NOISE STAGE (Mezzanine)
11.45pm: The Harpoons
10.45pm: Lost Animal
8.30pm: DJ Yamantaka Eye (extended set)
7.45pm: Straight Arrows
6.45pm: Fox & Sui
With stage art by Rhys Mitchell and Raphael Rizzo, and mezzanine installations by Matsuri Yamana.

THE SUMMIT (Upstairs theatre/Forum II)
11.30pm: This Thing Presents
10.30pm: Prince Rama
9.30pm: Sun Araw (featuring visual artist Ben Barretto)
8.15pm: Julianna Barwick
7.15pm: Absolute Boys
With projections by Lucy Benson, ‘Grace Note’ by Keith Deverell screening between bands, and installation and performance by Dylan Martorell with special guests in nearby nook.

Doors open at 5:30pm

There’ll be plenty of

food/drinks/beautiful artwork/seats/bathrooms/friendliness/nooks/crannies/good times

…we hope we’ll see you there, we’ll be the ones dancing with cheese-eating grins on our faces.

And…that’s not even the end of it – there is a whole week and a half of satellite events, with screenings and Q & A’s with Vincent Moon, exhibitions and installations by Maya Hayuk, Chaco Kato, Dylan Martorell and Kyle Ranson, workshops, parties and so much more, check out the full program of side events here.

It’s that time of year again where we weigh up all that has happened this year, throw some opinions around, and celebrate all of the good things that transpired in 2011.  It’s been a very busy year for us at Two Bright Lakes, we want to thank everyone who came to shows, bought records and listened to the music that ‘s been released and said nice things about it, we really appreciate all of those things.

We put out some of our favourite records ever in the form of Collarbones, Oscar+Martin, Dream Kit, Batrider and Nick Huggins. We helped put on the the inaugural Sugar Mountain Festival in January, we braved endless rain for the Melbourne Music Week rooftop show, toured Virgo Four twice, took part in the Galactic Nights series, put on countless excellent local shows with musicians from near and far…we’re collecting an archive of photos and videos of shows from the year, and we’ll be posting them somewhere soon.

In the meantime, here are some reflections by some of the Lakes people on what they thought was great about 2011 and time and space in general…

Hazel Brown (Otouto):

Overseas:

1. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
2. Arthur Russell – Lets Go Swimming
3. Hercules and Love Affair – Blue Songs
4. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest
5. Motor City Drum Ensemble – DJ Kicks
6. Nicolas Jaar – Space is Only Noise

Australian:

1. Teeth and Tongue – Tambourine
2. Lost Animal – Ex-Tropical
3. Oscar and Martin – For You

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Since releasing the Future Tense EP in April, Dream Kit. has been wiling away the winter meditating on deep space, drum sounds and the endless ability of sub bass to warm one’s heart. With remixes for Otouto, Near Myth and Geoffrey O’Connor waiting in the wings for release and a stack of projects for new label collective // THIS THING // on the go, Dream Kit dispersed the techno dancehall skeleton of Dune Year – the brooding closing track to Future Tense – to willing remixers.

Geoffrey O’Connor found some time in between releasing his new LP Vanity Is Forever to tune the gated reverb just right and deliver a true remix, juggling and interspersing the rugged original sounds with some bombastic 80’s beats.

Dream Kit collaborator Rambl takes a more drastic approach on his production debut, discarding much of the original and artfully disguising what’s left with a stripped back warehouse rave intro that shifts gears into a Detroit garage vibe right on the 2011 tip. Fans of Lone and Falty DL will enjoy this one.

David Evans, sticks man for This Is Your Captain Speaking and fresh from a beautiful record out on Sensory Projects, mutates Dune Year into an all too brief tribal drum excursion that yearns for an African Future.

Bombastic; Dynamic; Trippy: Three wild remixes straight out of Melbourne. You can download the EP tomorrow from Bandcamp, including the awesome Rambl remix, which you can listen to below…

Dream Kit will be playing live at ACMI, this Thursday December 15th at Galactic Nights (part of the amazing Star Voyager exhibition) with visuals by Blake Byron-Smith and soaring DJ sets by Simon Winkler (RRR). Doors open 6pm, Dream Kit on at 7pm, tickets here

The Future Tense EP, featuring Dune Year, is available now on limited edition 12″ vinyl and for digital download. You can find it in all good record stores, the Two Bright Lakes online store and through iTunes and Bandcamp.

There’s not too many pre-sale tickets left for tonight’s headline Virgo Four show at Buffalo Club (get yours here until 5pm), kicking off at 9pm with Two Bright Lakes DJs Blake and Tig, followed by Noise In My Head (RRR) then Virgo Four live! Magda Bytnerowicz will be bringing it home for the morning, check out her latest mix here, it’s going to be a night full of awesome house jams. Here’s the set times:

9pm -10pm TBL DJs

10pm – 12am Noise In My Head

12am – 1:15 am Virgo Four

1:15 – till close Magda Bytnerowicz

And for those lucky enough to get Meredith tickets, Virgo Four will be on at 3:30am for the dancers on Saturday night.

…and opening up on Saturday at 11am, don’t forget to see Oscar + Martin in their Supernatural Amphitheatre debut, it’s going to be a special weekend…

Following an amazing performance by Brous in the first week of the program, Galactic Nights continues at ACMI in Melbourne this Thursday night with the wonderful Hello Satellites.  This might be the last time you can catch them this year, so come on down to The Cube at ACMI to see Eva and co, accompanied by visuals by Blake Byron-Smith and music by Simon Winkler (RRR).  Doors at 6pm with music until 9pm, only $6 from here or on the door.

There’s two more performances to come as well with Time Shield (AKA Faux Pas) on December 1st and Dream Kit on December 15th. It’s all part of the Star Voyager exhibition at ACMI, exploring the history and future of space exploration through the moving image.

Two Bright Lakes are proud as punch to present the launch of Nick Huggins’ sophomore solo release Five Lights.  Nick has been working hard on this for the last four years, crafting an slow burn album of diversity and subtle beauty.  He’s also released an accompanying package called Five Lights on Port Philip Bay containing a book of words and a tape of instrumental works produced in the same creative period, complimenting the album of songs.

All of these works are available for sale from the Two Bright Lakes Store either as the album only, the tape and book only, or all three components together as one.  Nick has also produced a website to accompany the release, located at twobrightlakes.com/fivelights. There you can watch videos created for each song on the album, photographs of pages from the book of words, and audio from the instrumental release.

Nick will be launching the album with an extra special band bringing the songs to life with support from Portastud.  Doors open at 2pm, so get there early, Portastud is on at 2:30, and Nick after that.

Nick also be playing at the Two Bright Lakes Melbourne Music Week show on Melbourne Central rooftop on Saturday November 26th from 5pm, alongside Canyons (live), Oscar+Martin, Teeth and Tongue, Bamboo Musik, visual art by Cornelius Brown, projections by Joshua Batty and special guests to be announced…

Nick Huggins – Five Lights

out now through Two Bright Lakes / Remote Control

CD available in all good record stores throughout Australia courtesy of Inertia

Two Bright Lakes store

iTunes

Batrider play the last date of their national ‘Piles of Lies’ launch tour this Friday at The Tote alongside Tasmania’s Native Cats who are also launching their album ‘Process Praise’.  Joining these awesome bands on the night will be the equally awesome Absolute Boys as well as Lady Dreams. Get down early, if the facebook numbers are anything to go by, this one is going to be a sell-out…there’s a great artist on artist interview on Mess+Noise with Batrider and Native Cats here too…

…In between playing some powerful shows around the country, Steph Crase has been producing music videos for a bunch of songs from the album, check them out below:

[ free mp3 download of single 'Piles of Lies' ]

Batrider – Piles of Lies out now through Two Bright Lakes / Remote Control

Buy on CD online  //   Bandcamp  //  iTunes

and available in all good record stores nationally through Inertia

Poster by Elizabeth Barnett

Two Bright Lakes is very happy to be part of this excellent series of shows put together by those lovely folks at The Workers Club. We’re also very excited about having Melbourne guitar luminary Mick Turner down for the show.

10:10 Mick Turner

9:10  Seagull

8:20 Kieran Ryan

7:30 Yffer

TBL DJs

From the Workers Club:

At the Workers Club, we hold our local and independent music and arts
community in extremely high regard and believe that nurturing and supporting
our creative community is of the upmost importance.

But behind many of these bands and artists is a side of the creative community
rarely publicly celebrated or acknowledged, that being the Independent Record
Label. In today’s climate of the wonderful world of the music industry, these
people are some of the hardest working and often under-appreciated pioneers,
obsessives and passionate music lovers out there.

Here at The Workers Club, we think that’s worth celebrating, and have designed
a series of nights happening each Wednesday entitled ‘The Released Series’
specifically to acknowledge these labels, with each night personally curated by
the person or people behind the labels, showcasing their favourite bands, artists
and DJs each week.

As part of the Series, the Workers Club will be running the ‘Released Record
Stand,’ inspired by NYC’s ‘the Cake Shop,’ a half venue-half independent
record store, ‘the Released Record Stand’ is a semi-permanent record stand
set up each week giving labels the opportunity to have their releases available
for sale not only on the night of their curated show, but for the duration of the
series with labels taking 100% of all sales.

Facebook event

Doors open 7pm, $10 on the door

NIGHT SWIMMING is Two Bright Lakes monthly all night party at The Buffalo Club. Featuring some of our favourite bands and Djs, hopefully NIGHT SWIMMING will be your Friday night hang out – a place to boogie and forget a week, let loose and romance the night away.

This month we welcome Sydney’s lovely party bros Astral People and kindred spirits to co-present our lineup.

Collarbones (Syd/Radelaide)

Bon Chat Bon Rat (Syd)

Wintercoats

September 23 – 8pm till very late

DJs Astral Huggs (Syd), Huggz + Buggz (TBL)

Coming off a massive launch party in Sydney last month Astral People will be bringing the good times to Melbourne in future months, with local and international touring artists.

Artwork by Andy Wilson

Decor by Hicks Inc
Projections by Blake Byron-Smith

Facebook event

‘The Ghostship’ is the third single from the Collarbones’ debut album Iconography. The track shows Collarbones at their reflective best with lyrical imagery of youthful pasts and future resolve.

Backed by subtle shifting vocal loops, sliding percussion and heavy bass drops,  ‘The Ghostship’ builds with layers and layers of singer Marcus Whale’s vocals, threatening to break into noise but never ceasing to engage with the listener.

Collarbones are having a stellar year, playing to packed out venues around Australia and receiving plaudits from critics worldwide for their spacious, left-of-centre pop music.

‘The Ghostship’ is accompanied by a haunting, sensual video clip created by Justin Mclean that compliments the beautiful aesthetic of the Iconography cover photography by Lucien Alperstein. Friends Bon Chat, Bon Rat and Kilter provide impressive remixes of ‘The Ghostship’ also.

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 LISTEN TO ‘THE GHOSTSHIP’
[STREAM]

REMIXES BY BON CHAT, BON RAT & KILTER
[MP3 DOWNLOADS] 

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UPCOMING SHOWS

THURSDAY 11 AUG – WORKERS CLUB – MELBOURNE
w/ Brothers Hand Mirror, Guerre and Franco Cozzo

FRIDAY 12 AUG – GOODGOD – SYDNEY
Donny Benet album launch w/ Kirin J Callinan

SUNDAY 4 SEP – TONE – SYDNEY
Eastern Aquarium #3 w/ special guests to be announced

FRI 23 SEP – BUFFALO CLUB – MELBOURNE
Two Bright Lakes presents Night Swimming w/ Astral People
(w/ Bon Chat, Bon Rat + more)

SATURDAY 15 OCT – GOODGOD – SYDNEY

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