Joe.Blog

Believe it or not, it's Lavurn Lee's first ever record under his own name. He's previously released under heaps of aliases like the incredible Cassius Select, Guerre, FAKE, as well as a member of the gone-too-soon-but-fondly-remembered hero trio Black Vanilla (or later BV).

Lavurn hit Sydney's radar initially as Guerre (see: River Hymnal, or here's a clip from a 2011 show I put on in a coffee shop in Epping) - and then suddenly he discovered Maschine and tore off in the direction of Cassius Select's immediately club-focused sparse, clipped, dark beat chemistry (go digging, it's worth it)

This is an interesting new spin that alchemises a little of everything Lavurn's done to date, in a fractured, low-lit, contemplative mood. It draws a little of what you might hear from lo-fi experimental folk you'd find on blogs in around 2008, cloud rap, I hear resemblences to the likes of Timothy Duval or Nosaj Thing, or ambience-favouring R&B like Kelela.

I fucking love it, is what I'm saying.

Lavurn is out through the SUMAC record label that was founded by Jon Watts, DJ Plead and T.Morimoto - all of whom came up in the early 2010s Sydney electronic scene and continue to do incredible things wherever in the world they are.

Here's what I shared with the project's readers this morning:

🎉 SydneyMusic is 2 years old today

It’s an exciting year for this little project.

This year we’re focused on SydneyMusic’s ongoing operational and financial sustainability, figuring out how we can set it up for viability in the years ahead while staying true to our core principles and goals.

There are heaps of unknowns, but we think this project serves an important function. Working on SMn has transformed my perspective and understanding of Sydney’s creative universe, and I hope it’s been able to do the same for you too.

We are privileged to live amongst a diverse and wonderful cluster of creative subcommunities. I have never been more excited for what’s percolating below the surface across this city.

Our philosophy is that the healthier our grassroots music scenes are, the stronger and more impactful Australia’s music ecosystem will be as a whole. Music needs to be able to thrive in places and spaces that naturally reflect the communities that create it, and we need infrastructure and policy that will enable it to happen anywhere - from living rooms, garages, artist-run spaces, studios and warehouses, all the way through to band rooms, front bars, clubs, theatres, halls, arenas and stadiums.

We’re excited to keep evolving into the future to make SydneyMusic an even more incredible resource that makes it easier for everyone to find a connection with Sydney’s local music and creative community.

Thanks for being a part of the journey!

You can donate to help us cover the project's costs if you wish.

Had fun knocking out a first go at a "Latest Updates" feed for SydneyMusic.net.

Still in beta and not yet linked from the rest of the site - all feedback welcome.

You've probably been unable to escape the announcement of The Nightly from out of Seven West Media WA (yes, the WA wing is more or less its own business, with its own CEO and everything).

If you haven't, the westside chapter of Kerry Stokes' pet media company has started a new "digital newspaper", published each weeknight at 6pm. It says that its focus will be "politics, business, policy, culture" and that it is "economically conservative, socially progressive". It's delivered as an old-school digital edition (you know, basically a PDF with hotlinks) and a website.

I normally wouldn't comment on something like this which is getting plenty of notice elsewhere, and also feels deeply unexceptional - yet another have-a-crack-and-see-what-sticks pet project as happens frequently in large media companies (remember Goat from Nova?)

Another recent example of this throw-jelly-at-a-wall strategy can be seen at The West Australian itself, which attempted a perplexing daily live (yes, live) online radio show that was rigorously plugged at the top and bottom of every page on the website, which now appears to have had most mentions removed and has instead been relegated to a standard podcast format.

In this particular case, the Nightly product appears to be once again built on the technology stack and architecture that my team at the time and I designed in 2016 and that has been evolving since then. I'm very proud of our work at that time, and I'm pleased that this platform (Gotham, Batcave, Clayface, and all of the other Batman-related codenames) has been seen fit to meet the needs of not just The West Australian and PerthNow, but also 7News and now this.

However, from a media landscape perspective, if the pathway to create new media titles that fill gaps in our commentary and reporting landscape is reliant on a thinning number of major players making pretty unimaginative attempts funded by (in this case) "Mineral Resources founder Mr Ellison, Harvey Norman CEO Ms Page and Hancock Prospecting’s Mrs Rinehart", and led by hires like Chris Dore not long after he conveniently became available on the job market, it feels like we're missing a trick.

We are desperately in need of new, fresh reporting and amplification of under-heard voices in Australian media. But this won't happen if we just keep drawing from the same highly regurgitated talent pool while being backed by funding that has a long history of strongly influencing which voices are heard and why.

It's a tough time for media. The value placed by the population on quality journalism is declining by the day, and it's being reflected in media P&L.

But actions like this make you ask: are people going to give a shit if this is the best our largest players can do? And why's it so hard for fledgling media startups to get a foothold?

Less Coles and Woolies in our media, please.