The inaugural Square Wave festival begins on Thursday. It’s the new venture of one-man music scene Ian Jorgenson aka Blink, who is also responsible for bullshit-free music festival Camp A Low Hum.
The festival is headlined by Heatsick, a Berlin based British artist who makes a sort of proto-dance music. It’s pretty high concept, and I’m not sure I understand the why of his music entirely, but I’m intrigued enough to try and figure it out at his show. In this interview from 2011, he talks about his work as aiming to pull muzak out of the shadows and, more recently, that his loops evolve through self-replication and mutation. If that sounds tempting, check out his SoundCloud, and perhaps come along to one of his shows in Christchurch, Auckland, Dunedin, Palmerston North or Wellington.
As for the rest of Square Wave, the bulk of the shows are at Puppies in Wellington, with a handful in Auckland and Christchurch, again, centred around touring internationals, including Australians Alba, Oscar Key Sung and Roland Tings, who played Camp A Low Hum earlier in the year. Disasteradio will also be on the road - that’s ALWAYS a good time - and there’s plenty of refreshing and very talented local acts on the bill too, including Race Banyon, Murderbike, recent NZMA Critics’ Choice winner Sheep, Dog and Wolf and Black City Lights, who are currently touring throughout the US.
Blink’s recently been dropping some of his own production - DJing mashed up sets of local classics at Mighty Mighty and his Wellington venue Puppies, as well as taking part in an epic four way DJ battle/showcase, with Race Banyon, Prom Queen and Totems a couple of months back, where he boldly followed up a new Kanye cut with Mareko’s Stop Drop and Roll.
Courtney Sanders spoke with Ian about what Flying Nun has to do with Square Wave festival at undertheradar.co.nz back in October. I’ll be talking with Ian about Square Wave this week on Music 101.
This will probably come up in our conversation:
Julien Dyne opens Square Wave in Wellington. He dropped his new album December at Auckland’s Golden Dawn on Friday. You can check out the title track here. He’ll also join us in a future episode of Music 101, where he’ll be quizzed by fellow sticks-man/producer/Square Wave guest, Riki Gooch.
Something else to look forward to this Saturday - Chelsea Jade aka Watercolours talks us through her new EP Portals which is out this Friday. Hear the gorgeous ‘Sliders’ at undertheradar.co.nz.
If you’re still not satiated, Electric Wire Hustle have released a taster from their new album Love Will Prevail/Black Water, which is rumoured to be out late Summer/early Autumn. Dave popped into Music 101 a few months back to share a little of the journey so far.
And finally, Lord Echo aka Mike Fabulous of The Black Seeds and Fabulous Arabia is streaming his new album Curiosities.
Enjoy the music, support the artists, and hopefully see you on the dance floor.
