Slice Records chat about their upcoming Geotech 2 party and the diversity of electronicFounders of Slice Records, Cristian Crowley, James Woodcock and Gareth Fox met through mutual friends and bonded over shared musical interests.
By
Kate Streader
From there, “the triad of Slice”, as they now call themselves, decided to form the record label as a way to release their own music, which progressed into an avenue for showcasing other local acts.
“Really, it was a platform for us to play our own music. We were finding it difficult to get gigs with some of the bigger labels so we thought ‘If they can do it, why can’t we do it?’ ” says Woodcock. “We’ve been making music for ten years now, and over that time we’ve become friends with a lot of artists who have similar feeling in regards to that they want to play their music, we want to be able to play our music, and it was built from that.
“It was more of an excuse to give ourselves some gigs and at the same time, bring together all the things we appreciate in the electronic scene,” says Crowley. “Locally more so than anything,” Woodcock adds.
“A love of wanting to showcase our creativity and also arts. People who do graphic design and do really cool stuff also mingle with those guys. They show their artworks at the events.”
Slice Records focuses on underground electronic artists, with the label featuring an array of diverse acts across the multi-faceted genre. The label also shines a light on graphic designers and visual artists. Slice Records have now set their sights on creating events to combine these two elements and provide exposure for local talent.
“Being electronic producers ourselves, we tend to look for artists out there who are doing really interesting things and new stuff,” says Crowley. “We like building gigs around our tastes. We make a gig that we would like to go see.”
“One gig could be more techno-orientated and then the next gig we have under the same event heading might be a chill night, then we might go more industrial. There’s a lot of various styles that we like,” says Woodcock.
Slice Records will be hosting Geotech 2, an event that aims to showcase Melbourne electronica acts and visual artists. The Slice team hope to make the show a monthly event.
“With this next Geotech, we’re keeping it very eclectic [and] dance orientated. We’ve got a couple of acts who are doing a lot of live electronica, we’ve got producers and DJs who are playing their own material,” says Crowley. “As much as it’s a night that’s showcasing different artists around Melbourne, we also want to put on a good party for everybody to have fun.
“We’ve got Trickbox headlining, and Michael Scarlett from Culture Jam – he puts on all live orientated performances where he builds this set as he goes, it’s very improv and a hundred percent live, which is the type of electronica that we definitely love to showcase with these Geotech nights. It’s more focused on live performance electronic.”
“And there’s some DJs as well, like myself. I make my own music but just to say I’m more confident with DJing my own tracks than putting together a live set at this stage. We have a mash of that sort of thing,” says Woodcock. “And then we have a very live act called Sikander and they’re world music sort of stuff, they have wavedrums, a sitar and guitar, and saxophone.”
“Electronica is very diverse so we don’t like to just have a night that’s completely dedicated to one type of music, we definitely like to change it up. With Geotech 3, that’s going to be quite a darker night with a lot of industrial/break, so expect more experimental styles of electronica,” says Crowley. “We’ve got a really nice lineup for that, a lot of producers and artists on that list that I admire so I’m really looking forward to that one.
“And then we’ve got a chill party in August with Kerensa [Stephens], she’s coming up from New Zealand, so it’s going to be a more ambient, chill night from the doom and gloom that we’re going to experience with Geotech 2 – a nice little come down."
Catch Geotech 2 on Saturday July 1, Geotech 3 on Saturday July 29 and Geotech 4 on Saturday August 12, all at
Bar 303.
Article here:
http://www.beat.com.au/music/slice-records-chat-about-their-upcoming-geotech-2-party-diversity-electronic
