This Sunday is the first of the seasonal Silhouette label showcase events being held at the Servo in Port Kembla. Silhouette is a new collective that I’ve been helping Russell Webster and James Kates (both of Shining Bird and both pictured in this week’s feature image from Farmer & The Owl festival back in 2015) establish that will assist artists to release their music. There will be some co releases with other labels and Farmer & Owl will handle the distribution side of things. The whole premise is to provide a home for artists that may slip through traditional label set ups and provide diverse events each season to showcase these artists. The first one is headlined by Shining Bird who will release a new album in June that will be a joint release between Spunk Records on Silhouette. Joining them on the bill will be Wollongong rock/shoegaze veterans Dropping Honey that will soon release their new single via the label and also make some of their selected back catalogue available as well. Opening up the event with be young norther suburbs singer/songwriter Alara Livingstone, an artists that Russ and myself discovered while doing a music industry and songwriting mentor program at Bulli High School. The event is free entry and all ages but you need to rsvp here.
The following weekend, the Sultans Of Spin crew will be taking our block party to the northern suburbs with an event at Coledale RSL. Kicking off at midday with a record fair inside (that will include a bunch of Music Farmers and Farmer & The Owl stock) the Sultans crew will be on the decks outside for the duration. This event is also free and all ages!
Around The World is part of the Sultans Of Spin DJ collective that plays music from Africa, Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the Pacific along with first nations music of North America and Australasia. To help you discover some amazing music from these parts of the world, we have also curated a section on the Music Farmers web site and here are some recommended records available in store now. First up is, ‘It’s A Beautiful Day’, a compilation of rock and pop from 1970’s Peru!
Next is the 1977 album from Ngozi Family, another of the great Zamrock bands, and probably one of the heavier/harder edged bands from the scene.
Finally is the Our Town compilation, while Japanese City Pop has become almost mainstream, there was also a Korean city pop scene happening through the 80’s and 90’s and this compilation collects a sample of that.
