Aussie Artist Review
Thirstee
Aussie talent
reviewer, Nightlife's Justin Stephenson, recently
chatted with Mikal Johnstone, who has been invited to sing
with Australia's latest group sensation, Thirstee.
Thirstee is a collective of talented producers, songwriters,
artists and directors all coming together to create an album of
pop, funky house and lounge fusions, and features a different
vocalist from the cream of Australia's talent on each track.
Mikal's slick vocals are showcased on the first single from
Thirstee, entitled 'Just The Way We Are'. This track is an uptempo
slice of pop/funky house with an infectious groove and a
smooth bass line, sure to light up dance floors at every
happening Nightlife venue! It was produced by heavyweight
Michael Szumowski (Disco Montego, Guy Sebastian,
Shannon Noll, Bardot).
Mikal Johnstone was born in
Melbourne, but shifted to Ballarat at
a young age. After completing his
VCE, Mikal moved back to
Melbourne where he was able to
work with well known Melbourne
producers,
David Janzz, James
Roche and Rudy Sandapa and
recorded his first demo.
Over the next five years or so, demo tracks in one hand, and
suitcase in the other, Mikal travelled back and forth to the USA.
The aim was to gain feedback from industry people over there,
return home to work on and improve his product, then trek back
to the USA to gain more feedback. "I wasn't really trying to get a
(recording) deal as such," says Mikal, "I just wanted to find out
where I was at, and how much more work I needed to do to gain
a good product."
During his travels, Mikal accepted an offer to join a band that
worked around New York. However, his real passion was in his
own music, and while he was in New York he met another
producer, Eric Bender, who's valuable advice helped Mikal
gain sponsorship in Los Angeles. He then returned to
Australia, recorded another demo, and began marketing
around the country, achieving top 10 status in the pop category of the
'MusicOz' songwriting awards. From there he became
heavily involved with Legit records, who invited him to join the
'Thirstee' project and promptly made him the feature artist on
the debut single.
This debut single, 'Just The Way We Are', featuring Mikal was
released onto your HDMS™ back in April (CR109 and DR42).
The 'Musik1 Remix' of this song was brilliantly remixed by
Brisbane's very own up and coming DJ Bur and was also
released on CR109 as an audio only track. Make sure this
track is pumped out at your venue! Thirstee's second single will
feature a certain high profile artist well known for her 'Beautiful'
track... stay tuned.
www.thirsteemusic.com
Justin Stephenson
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It's been a while since we had a Macarena, a Mambo No. 5 or
something equally as irritating. Well this month novelty-song
lovers can rejoice (while everybody else
runs for cover) as we're hit with two at the
same time. The-artist-formerly-knownas-
a-ringtone, Crazy Frog has finally hit
our shores with his nutty "ding, ding,
ding's" inserted randomly into a danced
up mix of the Beverly Hills Cop classic,
Axel F.
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Meanwhile a little German animated crocodile going by
the name of Schnappi is lodging its snappy chorus of Das
Kleine Krocodil into our sub-conscious. Schnappi is voiced
by then 4 year old Joy Gruttmann and was
recorded for a kid's TV show, which went
unnoticed until a German radio station
started to play a 30 second snippet as a
joke. An A&R man heard the song, did a little
research, signed it for distribution, created a
crocodile face so the young girl would be
kept out of the limelight and the rest is history. Both the frog and
the crocodile feature on CR112 and in no time you'll be praying
that they're one-hit wonders.
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Returning from her recent stint of song writing and producing,
one of the most prominent female rappers of our time, Missy
Elliott, returns with her new track Lose Control. This is our
first glimpse of Missy's new LP, The Cookbook, and it's a
sample heavy (Clear by Cybotron) club
banger featuring R&B vixen Ciara and loud
hype guy Fatman Scoop. With a staple,
high energy video and awesome footwork
from her troupe of dancers, it's a sure-fire
dancefloor smash. Check it out on CR112.
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Neo-soul singer/pianist John Legend is the latest urban kid on the block and easily one of the best right now. He may as well be considered Kanye West's sidekick as he featured heavily on his debut album The College Workout as well as assisted the big-name producer with work for the likes of Jay-Z (Encore) and Slum Village (Selfish). He also lent his piano skills to Lauryn Hill and songwriting talents to Alicia Keys, Twista and Janet Jackson to name a few. Following his brilliant debut single Used To Love U comes Ordinary People, a superb track co-written with head-Black Eyed Pea Will.I.Am, which sees Legend's smooth gospel-sounding vocals dominate as he sits alone at a piano. It's from his excellent album Get Lifted and you can play it from ED112. |
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When singer Tim Armstrong (Rancid), drummer Travis
Barker (Blink 182) and former AFI roadie Rob Aston hooked
up, formed Transplants and released their self-titled debut
record in 2002, they sold around 15 million albums in the USA
alone - and they were just having fun. The album went largely
unnoticed Down Under except for that Fructis shampoo ad
which hi-jacked the "oooo oooo's"
from the song Diamonds & Guns for
their marketing campaign.
Gangsters & Thugs (RD112) is the
excellent first single lifted from their
new longplayer Haunted Cities and
sees all three in fine form - Barker with his ferociously frantic
drumming (what else?), Armstrong brings wicked guitars,
bass, and vocals and Aston spitting heaving,
throaty vocals. This is certain to open more doors
for their punk/hip hop/reggae sound in Australia.
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DJ Cuz - The Plantation Hotel.
Marcus Millman's work days are filled with
reppin' (sales) - his nights are filled with rappin'!
Getting that perfect mix for the dancefloor is all important to a
professional like DJ Cuz who has been in the industry for
almost 20 years. For the last 15 months he's been using the
HDMS™ at the Plantation Hotel in the
beautiful coastal holiday centre of Coffs
Harbour (midway between Sydney and
Brisbane). The venue has recently
undergone an extensive and totally
awesome refurbishment - check it out at
www.plantationhotel.com.au
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Marcus's favourite current song is Will Smith's Switch, and his
fave of all time is Humanoid - Stakker Humanoid. He lists one
of his most enjoyable DJ moments as playing the set after The
Prodigy to 15,000 people. He has also played alongside the
likes of Carl Cox, Dave Angel, Grooverider and K-Klass and
has travelled around Australia supporting these acts.
Top 5 from 5
| DJ Cuz |
Plantation Hotel Coffs Harbour, NSW |
| 1. Switch |
Will Smith |
| 2. Hollaback Girl |
Gwen Stefani |
| 3. Don't Phunk With My Heart |
Black Eyed Peas |
| 4. I Like The Way You Move |
Bodyrockers |
5. Feel Good Inc. |
Gorillaz |
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| DJ Chico |
Seaford Rise Tavern Seaford, SA |
| 1. I Like The Way You Move |
Bodyrockers |
| 2. Switch |
Will Smith |
| 3. I Got |
Fast Crew |
| 4. Don't Phunk With My Heart |
Black Eyed Peas |
5. I See Girls |
Studio B |
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| DJ Kel Torr |
Hotel Indooroopilly, Indooroopilly, QLD |
| 1. Owener Of My Lonely Heart |
Max Graham vs Yes |
| 2. In My Arms |
Mylo |
| 3. Feel Good Inc. |
Gorillaz |
| 4. Stop The Music |
P Money F/Scribe |
5. It's Like That |
Mariah Carey |
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DJ Disc-Go |
Riverside Entertainment Hamilton, NZ |
| 1. Switch |
Will Smith |
| 2. Get Right |
Jennifer Lopez |
| 3. 1, 2 Step |
Ciara F/Missy Elliot |
| 4. Caugth Up |
Usher |
5. Don't Phunk With My Heart |
Black Eyed Peas |
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| DJ Brad |
Gilhooley's Irish Pub Surfers Paradise, QLD |
| 1. Don't Phunk With My Heart |
Black Eyed Peas |
| 2. Hollaback Girl |
Gwen Stefani |
| 3. Switch |
Will Smith |
| 4. Feel Good Inc. |
Gorillaz |
5. Voodoo Child |
Rogue Traders |
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At Your Service
Controlling your playlists
A User list (non Nightlife list) is a list that you have created.
A Nightlife list is a list we have created to help maintain the
perfect atmosphere in your venue.
Nightlife lists are automatically updated each month when
your music updates are installed and cannot be edited.
If you create a User
list you will have to
manually update the
list with new music
each time you install
a music update.
When loading a list
into your playlist,
select Random if
you want the songs
to play randomly. If
you select Normal
when loading a list, the songs will play in the order they
were added into the list when you first created it. If you load
a Nightlife list as Normal it will load the song in release
date order. It's as simple at that!
Selecting Fast will load only the fastest beats-per-minute
songs. This is very good for large lists and it will maintain a
particular tempo. The same rules apply for the rest of the
options. Medium will only load medium tempo songs and
Slow will only load the slow songs.
For help with this or any other feature on your HDMS™, call
our friendly Customer Support team on
1800 773 468.
News from NZ
Phil Griffin of Les Mills Gymnasium,
New Lynn, Auckland NZ, will tell you
that music variety is important to
keep customers motivated and
enthusiastic.
To achieve a totally buttoned down
and appropriate music format, Phil
has made impressive use of the 'Edit List' and 'Scheduler'
functions with the Nightlife HDMS™ pumping out audio and
video to various floors of the multi-level gymnasium. The
cardio room is the most impressive feature with three digital
projectors/big screens bringing the large room to life.
Phil has an electrical engineering
background and has truly grasped the
HDMS™ technology. He enjoys the
consistent sound levels that the HDMS
offers along with satisfied customers
enjoying the visual entertainment.
Even harder to please are the customers
who, as you can imagine, have various
music tastes. Phil does his best to cater
to them all with CR & CX updates
freshening up the music delivery each month at 100+ BPM.
Les Mills is the country's leading gym franchise and they
now have four gyms running the Nightlife system.
Regards
The NZ Team |
Nightlife New Zealand
Ph: Whangarei 09 430 3035
Email: nzsales@nightlife.com.au |
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