A Mix by Sydney Techno Duo Phile

So the second and final of our July parties is gearing up for this Thursday, 8pm at The Chippendale. While we wax the dancefloor and polish the last of the glasses, we figure there’s no better way to get our guests ready than with a bit of a sneak preview.

Gareth Psaltis and Hannah Lockwood are Sydney-based techno duo phile, who are gracing the line up along with headliners Alba, Nico Niquo and Body Promise. To get you all warmed up, phile have put together a killer mix. Hear it and read our interview below.

Check out the Facebook event and RSVP if you haven’t already.

THUMP: Who are you and how did you start out?

phile: We’ve known each other since high school and have been friends for many years. We both started studying sound and music at different universities and spent a while making music under solo projects. We bonded over gear/music/clubbing, which naturally lead to us jamming with instruments in our bedroom studios. We found it was more fun to do this than go out, so we spent a long time jamming at home.

How long does it take you to prepare your live set?

Creating a phile live set takes a substantial amount of time and energy. It is easier now that we have a better grasp of our instruments and our individual work flow, but the process is still quite intense. Our live sets have been gradually evolving since our first live show together a few years ago and is something we are constantly looking to better.

How much of it is rehearsed VS improvised?

We set up a framework that allows us to jam on stage with the comfort of knowing all machines are in key. Coming from backgrounds in bass guitar and violin, the live performance and improvisational element is important to us and something we are always looking to enhance. We work with a lot of different instruments and we like to exploit them as much as possible, though it can get out of control quite quickly. Now we are all about creating and controlling that chaos.

Tell us about the best show or set you’ve played?

We’ve really enjoyed playing at parties for crews like Heavenly, House of Mince, Picnic, if? and others. It was cool for us to play Bunker in Melbourne and see so many young people psyched on techno music, which is less apparent in Sydney. We also recently played for the Subtrakt crew in Brisbane, which was a very good time.

Where and how was this mix recorded?

In our studio in Newtown.

What are your thoughts behind the mix?

For this mix we looked to the music that has been most impactful on us in the last few months. Featured is some of our favourite music, past and present, including a sick track from Melbourne local Dan White (2200), an unreleased track from Fabrics and a forthcoming A Colourful Storm release from Mark Smith.

Tracklist:

Imaginary Softwoods – Positive Ruin Court Garden
Mark Smith – The Factory is a Start Up Incubator Financed by Real Estate Speculation
Objekt – Tinderbox
RSD – Pretty Bright Lights
Pangaea – 5HTP
2200 – Outlaw
Jlin – Nandi
Doubleheart – Salsa
Sawf – Know the System
Akkord – Typeface / Greyscale (Vatican Shadow Remix)
Fabrics – SGL
Gez Varley – Purge
Drexciya – Dr. Blowfins’ Black Storm Stabilizing Spheres
Blawan – Talatone
Perc – BCG (Milton Bradley Critical Level Remix)
Visiona et Dopplereffekt – Die Reisen

Follow phile on Soundcloud.