Sydney

The obscurely named 'Chinese Laundry' can be found a short 5 minute walk away from the main buzz of Sydney's George Street. Tucked away under the Slipp Inn on Sussex Street, the club runs adjacent to Darling Harbour and charges a $10-$30 entrance fee. Boasting itself as "Sydney's longest running and favourite nightclub", they champion House, Electro, Tech, Hip-Hop, Break, Dubstep, and DnB on their Facebook fanpage. Friday 9th however saw the club play homage to the most talked about genre of 2011, in hosting the 'Dubstep Invasion Tour 2'. This is the second of its kind and targeted soley for the Australian market in following the AU album release of 'Onelove Presents Dubstep Invasion 2'. The two disc album (available on iTunes) has Perth DnB dj ShockOne remixing his own productions, while disc two has Sydney's Glovecats mixing the likes of Rusko, Magnetic Man, Katy B, DJ Fresh, Skrillex and all the other no brainer dancefloor fillers. So in bringing the album to life and pushing those extra sales, we saw both ShockOne and Glovecats deliver the goods to what was to be a heavy night. 

Ironically despite being on the other side of the world, I never felt so at home since leaving the UK 3 months prior. Whether that was down to music connecting like-minded people or to the very fact that I was in Brit backpacker central, it felt good! Dubstep of course took centre stage that night however DnB was also on offer too in the second but much smaller room 'The Cave' (hmmm Motion Bristol I hear you say!) Local boys Hydaulix and Shadowboxer took charge of this and much to my delight wasn't at all Pendulm-esq as i'd expected. However some questionable DnB got a play in the form of Puretone's 2002 POP hit 'Addicted to Bass'. Being one of few Australian music exports, no matter how out of place it was - it obviously needed celebrating?! Overall however the Brits dominated, understandbly yes because we're the pioneers of Dubstep but I feel (bar ShockOne himself) that Chinese Laundry didn't really provide me with anything I hadn't heard before. Are the rest of the world still catching up?

I must however give ShockOne credit where its due, after now seeing him live I recommend anyone else catching him on his European tour to come. In fact it kicks off in my good old uni town of Swansea this Friday night and the following Friday at Cable in London on 7th October.Real name Karl Thomas, he first caught attention on the back of a Pendulum return show to Oz and from there signed with DJ Friction's label Shogun Audio.  Today he falls under three more labels - Andy C's Frequency Recordings, NYC's Incite Recordings and UK Viper Recordings. His sets have built a reputation for consistently causing uncontrollable body movement, failing limbs and general frenzied behaviour among crowds - sounds like a good night huh?


Annie Mac labels ShockOne's 'Polygone' as "the biggest drum and bass tune out" although I favour 'True Believer' featuring Phetsta and Metrik - especially for those of you that like High Contrast. Another is "Let Me Go" which you'd soon recognise sample's David Guetta vs The Egg. ShockOne's 'It's On' featuring live guitars, show his traditionally trained musical background and was actually later sampled by Chase & Status in their collaboration with Tinie Tempah in 'Hitz'. Music mogul Zane Lowe even made 'Acts of Madman LP' his album of the week. On top of all this, gaining support from Andy C, DJ Hype and all the other big players I've mentioned so far, ShockOne has received nearly 12,000 likes on Facebook - so how about making it 12001? 

Chinese Laundry
111 Sussex Street
Sydney
NSW 2000
Australia
http://chineselaundryclub.au
http://twitter.com/_chineselaundry
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