Australia is awash with talented electronic artists at present, drawing eyes from around the globe to our cosy neck of the woods.
One such talent is multi-faceted Melbourne producer Christopher Port. Not only playing as the touring drummer for Airling, Ngaiire and #1 Dads, he also worked his magic on BUOY’s recently-released gem Break, and even found time to release his own fantastic percussion-driven debut EP Vetement.
With his breadth of experience, there was nobody better to ask for recommendations on the best Aussie producers we should be listening to.
Simon Lam
One half of Kllo, one half of Couture, and a solo artist under the Nearly Oratorio name, Simon has been involved in producing some of my favourite tracks for many years. His approach of combining lo-fi and hi-fi elements together has been a huge inspiration.
Having spent so much time listening to music together, making music together, and drinking Chatime together his influence has made its way into my music pretty effortlessly.
Tom Iansek
About three years ago, just before the release of Big Scary’s Not Art, Tom called me and asked if I would be interested in playing live with the band – I of course accepted straight away. Since then his production techniques and in particular his songwriting has been a massive influence on me.
Tom is incredible at not over producing tracks, he is capable of getting the most out of a very small amount of musical material, making each element in each track have maximum impact.
Jack Grace
Jack has been a close friend of mine for many years now, and he and I co-produced BUOY’s new Break EP. Jack is one of the most individual artists in Australia right now.
He has an incredible ability to combine electronic and gospel influences into something completely unique. He also has an incredible work ethic. Whenever we make tunes together I always find myself struggling just to keep up with him.
Kücka
I only met Laura aka Kücka recently but had been listening to her music for quite a while beforehand.
She is incredible at making hi-fi digital synths and drum machines sound and feel very natural and (for lack of a better word) organic, in a very similar way to Jack Grace. Her ability to use her voice as an instrument and to produce around it has been super inspiring.
Cassius Select
When it comes to Australian electronic artists it’s pretty unanimous that Cassius Select is at the top. He can make the wildest stuff danceable. When I hear most electronic music I can hazard a guess as to how it was made.
I can honestly say I have no idea how the bloody hell the Cassius Select stuff is put together, which is a great thing. Each time I get bored of music I listen to Cassius to remind myself of what electronic music can be.
