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Writer's pictureAmy Hathaway
Feb 7, 2017

Jungle - Tash Sultana


What a weird & wonderful Summer it has been, for the past few days we were topping the late 30's. Which is really the kind of temperature where you constantly are sticking to the couch with just limited movements. Luckily for me there has been the swimming pool, so there has at least been some relief from this heat. Then today crazily enough most of this morning it's been absolutely bucketing down! But the rain is well needed here so hopefully its going to all the right places! It's just alway that little bit chaotic as Sydney can't seem to cope with any kind or drastic changes to the weather! Might need to bring out the wellies again!

Hard to believe its almost that time again but super exciting I've got my uni exam next Friday, so the countdown is on! (Then about a month off uni!) As promised I treated myself for finishing my group assessment beginning of last week & spent easily an hour & a half in the shop looking through all the CDs. So good to have new music in time for my exam next week. Happy as Larry but I've now got on rotation:

Don't Let The Kids Win - Julia Jacklin

I See You - The XX

Don't Look Down - PEZ

Notion - Tash Sultana

I was actually listening to Julia Jacklin last night whilst studying & her voice is just spectacular & folksy, her album "Don't Let the Kids Win" seems like the kind of album you could easily settle in with for the night on the couch with a few glasses of wine. I'm actually a bit bummed, but I missed seeing Julia Jacklin by literally about 15 minutes at Laneway. As she was one of the beginning acts of the day but I'm sure she was amazing!

Laneway Festival was over the past weekend & is truly one of my ultimate favourite festivals as it's versatile & easy going. The crowd is one of the most chilled out & friendliest crowds & what is lovely to see is not everyone's aim is to get smashed but to see the acts & enjoy what the day is truly about - music!

Yvette & I @ Laneway Festival

On the plus side, I've been doing FebFast which means no alcohol at all for the month of February, which means less time for queuing at bars & more time for music & other beverages! So the humid & hot day started with an iced coffee before we made the walk to the Future Classic stage & the first act of the day was Roland Tings. I've never heard of Roland Tings, but my mate Yvette has heard more about them & I've also heard good things here & there. Well I found myself within minutes being swept up & into their edgy, persuasive & retro beats & in that moment all I wanted to do was shimmy on the spot non-stop. Most Roland Tings tracks go over the 6 minute mark, so it goes back to the base of why us humans love rhythm & beats so much. Like a great lullaby the crowd was being rocked in all the right places.

Next up on the bill was Dune Rats who were playing at the Garden Stage, the first time I saw these punk rockers was their debut before Best Coast in 2012 at the Metro theatre. They were completely stoned, playing instruments out of beat & off key but at the time I thought they were more crazy musically than silly stoners. Even at the time I thought they were edgy & fun, punk usually is something that you can't fit in a pocket anyway so they stood up & stood out. Now so many years later they've definately not lost their attitude, they made sound a lot more professional but the boys still love the green stuff & getting up to all kinds of mischief. Nostalgia hit me when they played "Red Light, Green Light" which is actually one of my favourite tracks from them. They also played "Dalai Lama, Big Banana, Marijuana", "Who is Scott Green?", "Bullshit" to name a few, they even did a cover of "Blister in the Sun". There was much jumping around & everyone was shouting "Bullshit" as loudly as they could, so good to see & hear!

We then journeyed back through the market stalls & back through to the Future Classic Stage as our aim was to get a good spot for African Queen Sampa the Great. We managed to catch the end songs of Mick Jenkins, a Hip Hop artist from the USA. His songs were pretty bad ass but my favourite moment had to be when he made the crowd chant "drink! more! water!" being a hot humid day he reminded us all to "look after each other & keep hydrated" what a legend!

Sampa the Great

After Mick Jenkins set to our success we slunk through the crowd & got front row for African Queen Sampa the Great & for only about 5ft she's totally amazing! HERoes being her theme, female empowerment oozed around the stage & into the audience. She spat rhymes fluentally & even got the audience spelling out "F, E, M, A, LE!" & my favourite line of all was that was thrown in was "Hip Hop IS she!" ahhh it was super bad ass! She also tied to her song "HERoes" by blanketing over the crowd with African print styled capes which after the song were split & spread out. These capes reminding us all that sometimes we all at some point have to be our own heroes & that we could be. Yvette managed to score one, which was awesome!

By this point it was already almost mid-afternoon & the hunger creeped in, we settled for an amazing Watermelon Juice & a mix of Vegetarian/Chicken Momos (Nepalese dumplings, that are seriously amazing!) Looking at the time we rushed & made it back to the Garden Stage where I just managed to see the last song from Gang of Youths before they thanked Sydney for being awesome! I'm bummed I didn't see their whole set, but I'm glad that I got front row for Sampa - totally worth it! Gang of Youths actually just recently announced that they are moving to London, so who knows one day in the future if I do want to see them live again I will have to go see their gig in the UK!

Next up was Tycho who were playing at the Park Stage next door, another artist I've never heard of I found Tycho first listen to be the perfect band to an ultimate soundtrack. They were ambient & grooving in all the right places, but as you listened to each track it told you a story which is very powerful when most if not all their tracks are purely instrumental & with little vocals throughout. It was nice to just sit on the hill, in the shade & listen.

We then reached the point of the day for one of the most uprising but also most down to

earth artists & I'm sure many can agree especially after now just hearing her just announced National tour is selling out the most anticipated artist of the day - Tash Sultana. The energy in the air was crazy, everyone stuffed themselves across the big hill even just to catch a glimpse. She performed at the Garden Stage & I was literally about 20-30 rows from the front. Let's just say I've never seen someone beat box into a ancient flute before, but wow the assortment of instruments she can play are amazing! Tash played all her EPs Notion, Jungle, Synergy & Gemini & the crowd were literally hook, line & sinker. This artist truly has some great energy & I think everyone is excited to see where she will go next!

Following Tash, we then walked to the Spinning Top stage & saw the remaining 20 minutes of A.B Original & what a day for Hip Hop!! After the likes of NAO, Mick Jenkins & Sampa the Great - Hip hop was a strong genre present for Laneway. Their political stance between music is strong & the crowd were eager to hear what they had to say, with traditional dancers on stage & a massive Aboriginal flag hung on stage they finished their set with "January 26".

We then headed back to the Park Stage & saw Glass Animals as the sun was beginning to set for the day, it was amazing to see such a large & enthusiastic crowd watching them as the first time I got an opportunity to see Glass Animals was at Falls Festival in Tasmania end of 2014 & they were playing to a crowd literally 200-300 strong. I remember going to that set on my own as nobody really knew who they were, at the time I was hooked by their album "Zaba" so hearing all those tracks again gave me goosebumps as per usual. Especially when they played "Gooey" & that seemed to be quite the crowd favourite!

Tourist amongst the glowing stage lights

As we had sat in a pretty good spot on the hill, I only had to turn a smidge to look at the other stage. Another one off my wishlist was Nick Murphy (formerly known by all as Chet Faker) he was surprisingly good live & I had a mean boogie or two to his songs "The Trouble with Us", "Talk is Cheap" , "1998" to name a few. Then I was on my way back to the Future Classic to see my ultimate artist of the day Tourist & lucky lucky me but I managed to score second row & it was absolutely amazing; the whole set was full of buzz, dance & fun. Tourist played his track "Can't Keep Up" featuring vocalist Will Heard (& previous feature track on Play it Forward >>) before ending the night with my absolute banger "Run". SO GOOD!

Then to toast the evening with a final act, I ended the night with Tame Impala. The Perth boys delivered with a mix of old & new tracks as well as confetti cannons & psychedelic lights. Apparently Laneway Festival is one of their last string of shows for quite a while & it seemed to hit me a little. Mad thought to realise this & I had to do a bit of digging but back in 2009 I went to one of their first few gigs in Sydney at Paddington Town Hall. "Big British Sounds by Ben Sherman" had Tame Impala play alongside bands such as Art vs Science, Little Red, Jack Ladder & The Seabellies. So really in perspective I've seen the beginning of their music career to their now impending retirement. All in all it was an amazing day with even free buses back to Sydney Town Hall, now that's what I call service!

Tame Impala rocking the Sydney stage for the final time!

So it might be a little obvious but this week's track will be an artist that I watched & rather enjoyed at Laneway Festival, the one the only Tash Sultana! Wrap your eyes & ears around it out below:

Tash Sultana is a young & dynamic artist from Melbourne, Australia. She is only 21 years old & has already captured so much buzz on the music scene. Starting her career busking the streets of Melbourne, her homemade videos on YouTube went viral causing millions of views online.

She is a self taught artist & the number of instruments I saw her pick up at Laneway was legendary. She has also such a unique style & an infectious smile when shes playing, which is really what music is all about, that amazing feeling it gives us emotionally. Her most recent National Tour only released yesterday has already almost sold out. Her Notion EP was only recently released this year as well, but she is definately an artist to watch!!

Hope that you all have a fabulous & fantastic week!

Cheers

Amy

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