The Sydney Clubbing Scene

Electro, short for electro funk (also known as robot hip hop Electro hop and Afrika Bambattaa) is an electronic style of hip hop directly influenced by Kraftwerk and funk records (unlike earlier rap records which were closer to disco).

Records in the genre typically have electronic sounds and some vocals are delivered in a deadpan, mechanical manner often through a vocoder or Stephen Hawking

With few exceptions, the definition of the electro sound is the use of drum machines as the base of a track for broken, syncopated rhythms...not a dirty house riff with some cracked out skank singing about her ass looped for 6 mins..


If you didn't make it with an 808 it's not electro
i swear

Electroclash describes a style of fashion, music, and attitude that fuses New Wave, punk, & electronic dance music with somewhat campy and absurdist post-industrial detachment in addition to vampy and/or camp sexuality. The movement combines the 1980s electropop/New Wave/Italo disco sound by means of synthesizers and drum machines. Visuals that are affiliated with electroclash often resemble or directly allude to post-1970's Westwood and Warhol fashion/art scenes, the mid-70's, Kraftwerk-ian German influences and early-80's New York Downtown dystopian avant-garde à la Liquid Sky.

Most electropop songs are pop songs at heart, often with simple, catchy hooks and dance beats, but differing from those of electronic dance music genres which electropop helped to inspire — techno, dub, house, electroclash, etc. — in that strong songwriting is emphasized over simple danceability and bending at the waist.

Speaking specifically about Sydney, the electroclash scene emerged swiftly during 2002 due to a number of reasons:
Ketamine, BangGang, and myspace esque internet phenomenons...TheNewSoundOfTrash.com saw a swift growth in ElectroClash fans within a few months during 2004 - going from 50 or so patrons to 2000 people showing up and being unable to get into the overpacked venue.


They even had to buy another band wagon.

The social scene around electroclash in Sydney has also quickly merged with Sydney's fashion scene, and has now got to the point where the electroclash scenes fashion sense has become quickly become self-mockery.
walking contradictions are COOL!!

The scene also heavily ridicules/embraces the Sydney rave scene culture of the early 90's with slogans such as "rave to the grave" and "less talk, more rave."

Interestingly in Australia, the emergeing electroclash movement was closely tied with the Tsubi phenomenon, with part of the Tsubi clan behind the night bang gang, which eventually moved to infamous Club 77, and has now closed. (Marketing in the 21st century:WORD OF MOUTH)

The electroclash scene, although still prominent in Sydney, has moved into a the mainstream music culture/arena, with the likes of formally underground locals The Presets gaining national success, and playing at this years Homebake festival.
The prominence of electroclash in Sydney's night culture is also tied closely with the Modular Label, responsible for the Presets and Cut Copy, and tied to avant-garde art-punk rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs, amongst other recent commercially successful artists including Wolfmother and The Avalanches.

Wolfmother, was also born out of the electro/indie scene happening in Sydney in 2002-2003, playing at local indie hole Candy's apartment to relatively small numbers before releasing their debut EP.

Vice magazine also helped institutionalise the electro/indies scene in Sydney, via maintaining the constant contradiction of recognising cool and ridiculing in the week after..

In 2006 a new scene emerged out of the early 00's days, dubbed by insiders as Nu Rave - The music has become harder and featured many early & raw electronic music sounds from acid house, gabba, 2 step eski beat goa breakcore and hard-nrg whilst still carrying an early 80's avantgarde fashion...

Artists associated with the scene may be seen to draw heavy influence on their art from GHB and ketamine.
A bleakly intentionaly ironic, but indulgently hyper-sexual post-feminist/post-9/11 stance is often evident in the themes of many Electroclash outfits.
Electro is generally not a musical style as much as a kitsch-ily cold distanced stance - infected by exhibitionist sexuality and a winking fetish-isation of wealth, indulgence, consumption, and glamour culture - directly reflecting back to the trend's roots in gay club culture.

Style is definitely the victor over substance, as a point of pride.

But perhaps more exactly, "electroclash" is an aesthetic approach to a certain set of musical ideas and instruments, similar to "art rock" in that it's not so much a style as a way of doing things.

This approach to electronic music--some distinguishing features being a proclivity towards aggressive, defiant lyrics (and performance persona) and deceptively simple, "retro" arrangements--is what denotes it as different from synthpop, IDM, or other branches of electronica.

Arguably, the movement has more in common with 'Paris Is Burning' style personal projection and dress-up than it has with any element of a musical genre.
Essentially the trend of Electroclash, as fashion and pose, is its own driving force - the stylistic affectation is more important than anything going on in the actual music.

The "band" Fischerspooner is an example of this philosophy in action - featuring indulgent, elaborately staged 1980s homage live shows with over-the-top backdrops, dramatic interludes, and costuming - rendering the music itself almost an afterthought to the production and image-making of the project...

And it all combines in Sydderrs to form...electro crass

Electrocrass is an early 2005 phenomenon and is considered a subcategory of the broader electronic music style, electroclash.
This style of music is characterized by blatantly and unapologetically sexual lyrics, lo-fi sounding synthesizer-crafted beats, and a blend of rap-like lyrics with more traditional and irreverent pop delivery.

The scene doesn't have to eat itself....It shelved itself in the early 90s