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Sketch The Rhyme “No Sleep ‘Til Adelaide” Tour – The Standard (15.02.13)

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Sketch The Rhyme

Sketch The Rhyme is an incredible invention for Aussie Hip-Hop.
The show kicked of with The Hi-Tops Brass Band, who gave off strong Aussie hip-hop vibes through their crisp, complex brass melodies. They really set the atmosphere for the whole show, hyping the crowd for themselves, and for the MCs and artists.

Ellesquire made a special appearance in their closing song, widening the grins in the front row of the crowded room. After a break, Sketch The Rhyme stepped into gear with P. Smurf, Ellesquire, Urthboy, Rapaport and Verbaliser (standing in for Tenth Dan).

After only having seen P.Smurf as part of Daily Meds at a show in Katoomba during 2012, it was awesome to see that Big Village is getting great Aussie Hip-hop out there, after he dropped the first track of his debut EP on the day of the show.

Sketch The Rhyme created a very in depth event with the MCs, we not only shared their laughs and emotions, but watched them as good friends literally, just doing what they love and having a sick time.

If you don’t know what Sketch The Rhyme involves you can check out their facebook page here, however, basically it’s a bunch of awesome freestyle games, with big names.

Games including Perfect Snatch, “Dead, Celebrity Heads” e.g Marilyn Monroe, a new game involving sketched bodies and rap battling (where Verbaliser battled P. Smurf, and Ellesquire Battled Rapaport), and ‘Last Mand Standing‘. The crowd loved this one which ended in a face off between P. Smurf and Ellesquire where the word was ‘Jungle’. P. Smurf took a nice win.

More The Messier was a crowd pleaser, and Guess The Next Topic closed the show with a bang. BIG ups to Big Village for setting this up.

The art was impressive on the night, the freestyle, sketching combo worked out perfectly at The Standard. Artists were Mie Nakazawa, Sam Clouston, Edgarr & Duckman, and Days One.

For more info on Big Village Records visit: http://www.facebook.com/bigvillage

Rating: 4/5

Sketch The Rhyme: “No Sleep Til Adelaide” Tour

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No Sleep ’Til Adelaide Tour

Big Village is proud to present the first East Coast tour and Adelaide Fringe Festival season of Sydney-based live art hip hop gameshow Sketch The Rhyme. The strikingly entertaining show pits teams of artists and rappers against each other in a fast-paced, MC-driven battle of wits, played out with the accompaniment of a live band, and not-so-serious nods to famed drawing duels: Pictionary and the legendary Mr Squiggle.

Conceived by Big Village Records MC, label manager and creative director Rapaport, Sketch The Rhyme was developed during the 2008 Underbelly Festival, Carriageworks, through collaborations between esteemed visual artists, freestyle MCs and improvising musicians. Spurred on by the sheer fun and creativity of those initial brainstorming sessions Sketch The Rhyme has gone onto to feature at Edinburgh Fringe Festival [2011], Woodford Folk Festival [2009 & 2010], Melbourne Fringe [2009] and the Sydney Comedy Festival Great Debate.

Bringing together Big Village MCs Rapaport, P.Smurf from Daily Meds and Jeswon from Thundamentals, Sketch The Rhyme teams the label mates with artists Claire Nakazawa, Duckman, Sam Clouston, Edgarr and Mie Nakazawa, whose expertise in a range of visual disciplines from street art and graffiti, to comics, cartoons and painting creates one hell of an engaging hip hop show.

WATCH SKETCH THE RHYME COME TO LIFE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vli4cgZ4URM

CAN YOU POZIBLY HELP SKETCH THE RYHME?

Big Village and Sketch The Rhyme need your help getting this show on the road! Why not watch and share their Pozible video, support their campaign and tell your friends about Sketch The Rhyme on Facebook or Twitter? Sketch The Rhyme will thank their Pozible helpers with sweet rewards: from artwork and props to workshops or even a Sketch The Rhyme show in your own home!

CHECK OUT THE REWARDS
www.pozible.com/sketchtherhyme

“No Sleep ’Til Adelaide” Tour

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Fri 15 Feb – The Standard, Sydney, NSW
Feat. MCs Urthboy, Rapaport, P.Smurf, Ellesquire and Tenth Dan
Supports from Hi Tops Brass Band + DJ Migz
Plus artists Claire Nakazawa, Mie Nakazawa, Sam Clouston, Edgarr, Duckman and Days One
$15 + BF / $20 on the door

Sat 2 Mar – Speigeltent, Melbourne (11am show), VIC
Buy Tickets

Adelaide Fringe Festival

Thu 7 March – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Fri 8 March – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Sat 9 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Sun 10 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Mon 11 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Tue 12 Mar – Gluttony: The Piglet – 6.45pm

Wed 13 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.00am

Wed 13 Mar – Gluttony: The Piglet – 6.45pm

Thu 14 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 1.00pm

Thu 14 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Fri 15 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 1.00pm

Fri 15 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Sat 16 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

Sun 17 Mar – Gluttony: The Pig Pen – 11.50pm

www.bigvillagerecords.com.au

Deep Sea Arcade + The Preatures + Fishing – Metro Theatre, Sydney (30.11.12)

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Deep Sea Arcade. Photograph by Nicole Michels

It’s 8:30 by the time my friends and I show up at the Metro, already a little drunk and more than ready for a bit of poppy fun to end the sweltering Sydney day. We must look like a pretty unlikely bunch; my hipster chef friend donning a pirate earring and obligatory moustache, my lawyer/philosopher friend, short with glasses and a business suit, and myself: long haired, un-showered, un-shaven and underslept.

By the time we arrived The Preatures are more than half way through their set, and we’re pretty drunk. The lead male vocalist is prancing around the stage without his guitar, making funny singing faces like an Australian Idol contestant.

I spot Doug from Fishing in the crowd during The Preatures’ set, and head over to chat with him. I don’t know him very well, but he’s always polite and happy to talk.
‘We played for an hour and a half’ he tells me. ‘The whole all ages thing was weird; one guy jumped on stage at like 8:30… who jumps on stage at 8:30?’. He tells me that Fishing are planning to release some new material in the near future, and that they’re currently directing a video for Urthboy of all people.

Doug also remarks that even though he doesn’t listen to this style of music, he’s thoroughly enjoying the Preatures’ set. He comments on the crispness of their instrument tone, and the girl singer’s pretty voice. I have to agree that their strong point is in their arrangements, not their songwriting, but it works in a live context and they do a great job of corralling the crowd, obviously really enjoying themselves.

The wait between sets is short, but there’s heavy anticipation from some of the younger audience members. When Deep Sea Arcade take the stage, they get straight to business, opening with one of their catchier tunes, ‘Seen No Right’. The instrument tone and mix are perfect and every song has the crowd dancing and singing along.

Deep Sea Arcade really are damn good at what they do. They play with plenty of class and professionalism, the long haired lead guitarist casually deals with a broken string half way through the set, the bass and drums impossibly tight, and the songwriting always perfectly tasteful and melodic.

They play most of the favourites from their debut album Outlands, including ‘Girls’, ‘If The Devil Won’t Take You’, and ‘Granite City’. Nick, the band’s singer and engaging-yet-modest front man remarks with a smile ’50 minutes ago I was in my room’, obviously stoked at playing to such a large and responsive home crowd. He gets his phone out and asks the audience to pose as zombies for a photo. They then play their Like A Version cover of The Chemical Brothers ‘Let Forever Be’ which, while being a pretty groovy track, is never really resolved and doesn’t go anywhere. Old Deep Sea Arcade classics ‘Lonely In Your Arms’ and ‘Don’t Be Sorry’ are really well received, and the band leave the stage to a satisfied applause. No one wants an encore, we’ve already had our fill. The hipster, the lawyer and I are all danced out, we pour onto the streets with everyone else to find taxis, busses, designated drivers or just to wander about in the summer night.

Rating: 3.5/5

Dr. Seuss Meets Elefant Traks – Sydney Opera House (11.11.12)

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Dr Seuss meets Elefant Traks is definitely a rare occasion that one could not miss. The show was held at one of the most iconic venues in the world, the Sydney Opera House. Elefant Traks is a Sydney-based label that features renowned Australian hip hop / soul / electronic artists such as Sky’High, Ozi Batla, The Herd, Hermitude, Sietta, Urthboy, Unkle Ho, The Tongue, Horrorshow, Joelistics and The Last Kinection just to name a few.

With the combination of the great works of Dr Seuss and Elefant Traks it was obvious that we were in for a treat. I was particularly curious as to how the two would work together. They may seemingly have nothing in common however what we found was the opposite. Must I say, what a brilliant idea by Jordan Verzar (co-curator of Graphic Festival). What one found is that there was a consistency of rhythmic dialogue taken from Dr Seuss books combined with quick witted, fluid rhymes and Elefantified renditions of Dr. Seuss’ stories, whilst simultaneously showcasing illustrations on the big screen throughout each performance.

Urthboy and The Herd’s lead singer Jane Tyrrell opened with ‘We Get Around’, from the album The Signal (2007). Not too long after Joelistics did a quick set before Jaytee (The Last Kinection) and Joel Harrison performed a set of ‘Turntablism’ – a personal favourite. Another one of my favourites of the night was ‘Trouble In The Water’ which included Caiti Baker (Sietta), Jane Tyrrell and Jimblah and Hermitude’s cut versions of ‘Let You Go’ and ‘Hyper Paradise’ definitely hyped the night.

The Tongue’s narration of ‘Gerald McBoing-Boing’ was hilarious as he mimicked the characters voices quite eloquently and vivaciously. Toe-fu did an eerily great job narrating the ‘Sleep book’ a dark scene illustrating nightmares. Sky High’s energetic rendition of ‘Fox In Socks’ alongside two dancers who were krumping was a winner, not to mention her blingy jacket full of shiny sequences and dope tee with the statement ‘RUN FREE”. I also enjoyed the live MPC jam to ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ with James Mangohig (Sietta) and Unkle Ho. ‘Bold Passenger’ was another favourite, it would be difficult to just choose one. The Tongue’s recital of ‘Zax’ was well played as well as ‘In My Haze’ with Horrorshow and Jane Tyrell.

It was refreshing to see a respected man of hip hop knowledge and music, L-Fresh The Lion, earlier this year performing at The Street University and to appear as a guest on the show last night. He did a fabulous job playing what seemed to be, the “good conscience” in ‘Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are’. It seemed like the concept was similar to Eminem’s video clip to ‘Guilty Conscience’ except in a lighter manner and in a different story of course. One could not forget The Herd’s rendition of the infamous story of ‘The Cat In the Hat’. Finally everyone performed together leaving time for an encore performance which was the ultimate crescendo summing up this historical night.

I would of loved to hear many other songs by Elefant Traks artists but it’s understandable that would of taken all night. The first show was so good and it wasn’t often that this occurred so I attended the second show and enjoyed it just as much. It’s ashame other states could not witness what is known to be a rare event as well as a DVD has not been recorded. Hopefully in the future some time there would be another one. But this time, you have my word it was epic.

Overall, Dr Seuss Meets Elefant Traks was a successful night (for both shows) where the crowd’s standing ovations are evidence of this success. As a reviewer, I have been to many shows throughout the year and this has definitely been the best production / concert that I have been to this year. I haven’t seen anything like it before. The combination of hip hop and classic illustration – definitely an event to include in Australia’s music history!

Rating: 5/5

For photographs of the night check out Mosca Media Facebook page by clicking here!

National Urthboy Supports & Praise For “Bigger Pictures”

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National Urthboy Supports & Praise For “Bigger Pictures”

It’s been a massive few months for Rainman since the release of his sophomore album ‘Bigger Pictures’, but following on from his own national album launch shows he’s just announced that he’ll be joining Urthboy for shows on his ‘Naïve Bravado’ Tour. Including a four star album review in The Australian, the announcement follows on from a string of critical acclaim for ‘Bigger Pictures’, and praise across the board:

“Rainman’s calm, measured tones work well in both chorus and verse. The beats on Bigger Pictures’s 15 tracks are uniformly excellent … an impressive album” – The Australian (4 stars)

“a dizzyingly diverse collection of beats and lyrical feats accompanied by guests galore. Essentially, it’s everything a good hip hop album should be” – Rave Magazine (4 stars)

“It’s no doubt Rainman has nailed it with Bigger Pictures. I feel he easily deserves the same rank as some of the bigger Australian Hip Hop artists as he executes each song on Bigger Pictures to perfection” – Australian Musicians Network

“Sometimes serious, always sublime this is an album not to be missed” –

CertifiedScribe.com.au.

Sydneysiders can catch Rainman this Friday 27th July @ FBI Social, Kings Cross. Brissie, Byron and Melbourne can catch Rainman:

With Urthboy:

Friday August 31st @ Evelyn, Melbourne
w/ Yung Warriors

BUY TIX.

Friday September 14th @ the Northern, Byron Bay
w/ The Last Kinection

BUY TIX.

Saturday September 15th @ The Zoo, Brisbane
w/ The Last Kinection

BUY TIX

With w/ Daily Meds

Daily Meds Album Launch (Brisbane)
Saturday 11th August @ Coniston Lane
Supported by a special one-off Rainman + Calski set featuring guest vocalist pear & live visuals from VJ Simulcast.

‘Bigger Pictures’

He’s been a feature artist on triple j’s Hip Hop Show and played alongside everyone from Grandmaster Flash (USA), Ice Cube (USA) and Jungle Brothers (USA) through to The Herd, Hilltop Hoods, Urthboy, Muph n Plutonic, Pegz, TZU, Thundamentals, Astronomy Class, Tom Thum / Tommy Illfigga and many more. Mention Rainman amongst the initiated and the respect attributed to his name is palatable. Recognised nationally as one of Queensland’s finest, his list of collaborations, support slots and guest appearances reads like a who’s who of Oz hip hop.

The Herd’s Urthboy said it well: “destined to become a positive and very listenable force… with laidback but self assured flows and a gift for hooks and phrases. One of Brisbane’s best-kept secrets”. Australia’s ‘hip hop central’ OzHipHop.Com dubbed him Queensland’s “best-kept secret – with an eloquence for song-writing rarely seen in Hip hop”.

Friday May 4th sees Rainman drop his second album “Bigger Pictures” through the freshly minted Born Fresh Records and via Obese Records Distribution. “Bigger Pictures” sees the collaborative partnership of Rainman and Sammsonite (The Optimen) return for the lion’s share of the production but also features some of Australia’s finest beat- smiths including the APRA and AIR Award winning, ARIA nominated Count Bounce (TZU/Urthboy), DJ Bonez, Mangohig (Sietta), Chasm (Astronomy Class), Cam Bluff (Vegas Aces) and Calski.

Guest MCs on the record include Muph (Muph n Plutonic), Tommy Illfigga, Yuin Huzami (The Coalition Crew), Seven (triple j Unearthed winner) & 4TH (Vegas Aces), while Laneous (Laneous & The Family Yah), Kel on Earth (Bankrupt Billionaires) and Youka (Killbot Kindergarten) all lend soulful vocals across the album, mixed with a drop of folk courtesy of pear (Pear & the Awkward Orchestra).

The actual title of the album says a lot about the record itself. Rainman explains: “Midway through making the album I realised how often I found myself saying ‘look at the bigger picture’ in conversations and in my own lyrics. There seemed to be this recurring theme for me about remembering to keep things in perspective and seeing that my own worries were pretty small in the grand scheme of things. As I started to use it as a working title I realised how the tracks are like zooming in and creating a bigger picture of a topic or a moment or a state of mind or even a place, and often is about revealing something that may have been missed. So then it was settled, the album was actually a whole bunch of ‘bigger pictures’.

Lyrics-wise Rainman is rarely comfortable with speaking generally, preferring to dive into topics, swim in the details and indeed – paint the bigger pictures. Themes across the album range from poor eyesight to marketing; the creative process to ‘duck faces’; the love of music to the love of a lady. This is an Australian hip hop album that can take the piss and have a laugh, but still hold an intelligent conversation and tell a story.

It’s an album that swings from the bombasticism of tracks like ‘Valley’ to the refined storytelling soul drop of ‘Muse Sick (feat. Laneous)’. It’s an album from a laidback hip hop head who grew up on dope rhymes and banging beats but doesn’t aspire to purity of the form. Hip hop that people who don’t listen to hip hop can still get into. Humorous, emotive and reflective, it doesn’t always scream at you that it’s hip hop, it just is.
It’s all best said in the man’s own words:“again, it’s quite obviously reflected in the title, but to me this album is about perspectives. This is both my personal stories (trying to paint bigger pictures of where I’m coming from), but also my take on the world and with a broader encouragement for people to look around them at what’s going on with a wider perspective.

I think there’s also a kind of ‘call to action’ theme that creeps up throughout the album as well. From the more brooding ‘things suck, get active about it’ feel (‘Too much’), to the cynical take on marketing saturating out lives (‘WTF’), to just getting on with life despite the ups and downs (‘Count Blessings’) to a more direct ‘make a move’ anthem (‘Move’).

Musically we’ve stretched things a bit. It’s definitely still coming from a straight up hip hop perspective, but this time around there’s more synths and live instrumentation in the mix. With lyrics, I think there’s a bit more soul searching and storytelling. It gets heavy at times but there’s actually a lot more humour in there too. I think I stayed away from the humour side of things on the last album and that felt like a big chunk of who I am was missing. It’s also possible I’ve been watching too many Lonely Island and Flight of the Concords’ episodes too though.

Lastly – tuning in with the different perspectives theme, there’s a few tracks that are the flip sides of each other and tracks that flip perspectives within the one song. ‘Darlin’ flips things in the third verse to speak from lady hip hop’s view, ‘The Buzz’ flips from the intense moments at the start of a relationship to a time in the future when it’s all over. With ‘Big Night’ we’re all heading out for drinks and yet ‘The Valley’ is about just seeing that whole ’big night’ scenario through a sober lens of an onlooker. ‘Everything Ain’t’ is me getting bogged down but it’s then followed by the reality check of ‘Count Blessings’, that picks up from those same tensions but takes a step back. It’s a reminder that I’m actually pretty damn lucky to only have the worries I do have – things could always be better but they could definitely be a whole lot worse y’know….”

Catch Rainman live, officially launching “Bigger Pictures” up and down the east coast:

Saturday 16th June @ The Born Fresh Block Party, Coniston Lane (ex Woodlands), Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, QLD

Friday 6th July @ Laundry Bar, Fitzroy, Melbourne, VIC

Friday 27th July @ FBI Social, Kings Cross, Sydney, NSW

Rainman – painting “Bigger Pictures”. In Stores Friday 4 May through Born Fresh / Obese.

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