Electronic Music Australia ep.23 aired 12 August 2022
It is fitting that the week of my Throwback special I am heading out to my old college campus to give some no doubt highly enthusiastic young students a presentation (the boring details of which I will spare you). But being on campus again, well, that's a throwback if ever there was one. Enough on that.
In adding "throwbacks" to the show, I have asked myself more than once, what actually constitutes a throwback? I go by the rough guide that if it is ten or more years old, then it's a throwback - roughly, because I do have a track from 2013 in the mix.
I thought it might be fun to look at the years of our throwbacks and toss up some random facts (or things I just came up with) about each year, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Don't get offended by my tongue-in-cheek comments or facts I've missed.
1993
Quench, 'Dreams'
Alright, 1993 saw start of the 'Jurassic Park' films and the world's fixation with Jeff Goldblum. And who can forget Mrs Doubtfire, the heartwarming comedy which saw Robin Williams don a dress and a fake Scottish accent in order to spend time with his own children...wait, that doesn't sound so heartwarming, I guess you had to be there. The World Trade Centre was bombed, Whitney Houston's 'I Will Alwyas Love You' was song of the year, and an Elton John concert in Melbourne had to end early due to an attack by...grasshoppers.
1994
Itch-e and Scratch-e, 'Sweetness and Light' & Severed Heads 'Dead Eyes Opened'
What a year was 1994. Kurt Cobain passed away, a devestating blow to those of us listening to grunge at the time, and the cult classic 'Pulp Fiction' was released. Closer to home Paul Keating was Prime Minister, New South Wales was devestated by bush fires (seems our glorious Australia is not just the sunburnt but literally burnt country) and attempts to extradite fugitive business man Christopher Skase from Spain were overturned by the Spanish goverment. Que viva España!
1995
DJ Darren Briais VS PeeWee Ferris, 'I Feel It'
It's 1995, Brad Pitt takes the title of 'Sexiest Man Alive', on the other end of the spectrum Paul Keating is still Prime Minister. People are watching 'Friends', 'Sienfeld' and hospital drama 'ER'... OJ Simpson is found innocent and a huge earthquake in Russia kills 2000 people...
1997
Pendulum, 'Coma'
Everyone remembers where they were when Princess Diana was tragically killed after an infamous paparazzi car persuit. Me? I was at home. Jeff Buckley died too, which was another massive blow to the arts. Suddenly George Clooney is the Sexiest Man Alive while Brad Pitt is very much still alive, how fickle! 'Titanic' comes along and puts that awful Celine Dion song in all our heads, you know the one. We have a different Prime Minister, John Howard, all I remember about that guy was his eyebrows. 'Backdoor Man' from satirist Pauline Pantsdown upsets Pauline Hanson who sues the ABC.
1999
Bexta, 'Decoda'
DID YOU KNOW that SpongeBob Square Pants started in '99? Unbelievable. Haley Joel Osment was seeing dead people in 'The Sixth Sense'. In Australia, a hailstorm in Sydney (now just known as the Sydney hailstorm) was (and still is) the second most costly natural disaster In Aussie history and still beats the floods earlier this year. Probably one of the strangest things about 1999 was the complete freakout about computers melting down and the subsequent collapse of life as we know it, known as Y2K which never eventuated. Meanwhile some of us were driving around with TLC's 'No Scrubs' playing loudly on their newly purchased Pioneer CD players...
Listen to EMA episode 23 here or on SoundCloud or YouTube
2000
The Avalanches, 'Frontier Psychiatry'
After surviving Y2K, we then went on to survive the Sydney Olympics, more floods and Madison Avenue's 'Don't Call Me Baby' on repeat. The track went on to win best single of the year at the ARIA awards. The most powerful solar flare (which is a burst of electromagnetic radiation from the sun) since 1989 known as The Bastille Day event caused satellites to short circuit and radio blackouts.
2005
Pendulum, 'Hold Your Colour'
This was the year that Tom Cruise made an absolute flop of himself jumping around on Oprah's lounge. Awkward. Hurricane Katrina caused devastation in the States, and we had more bushfires, this time in South Australia. The properly decent Aussie film 'Wolf Creek', inspired by the seriel killer Ivan Milat was released, worth a watch I say, but I do love Australian movies and the horror genre.
2007
Kid Kenobi & Hook n Sling, 'The Bump (Original Mix)'
John Howard hands over the reins and K Rudd takes the position of Prime Minister, just in time for the Global Financial Crisis, I guess. The iPhone was released, Britney Spears had a breakdown and Paris Hilton went to prison. Aussie kids were hospitalised with symptoms of GHB toxicity after swallowing some beads called 'Bindeez', thereafter the product was recalled - someone really dropped the ball there, huh? 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End', a film I have slept through several times was the highest grossing film of the year. Is it any good? Let me know.
2008
Cut Copy, 'Hearts on Fire'
You're probably sick of me mentioning, storms, floods and fire, so just assume that every year, in Australia, we have at least one of those things. 2008 was an eye opener, because we learned that Vampires CAN withstand the sun, we'd been lied to for a very long time, they just happen to sparkle, revealing their magical nature, and thus began the 'Twilight' saga, pairing stalky guys with a low self-esteemed woman and sending teenage girls hearts a-flutter. We lost Heath Ledger that year, personally still not over that one.
2012
Rufus, 'The Gun'
Jump forward to 2012, we have our first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. The Prodigy held their third 'Warriors Dance Festival' in Belgrade Serbia, and unfortunately, I wasn't there. Did I mention storms, flooding and fires? We even had a tornado in Townsville! A guy called Felix Baumgartner casually free fell at a speed of 1,357.64 km/h which made him the first human to break the sound barrier on his own (ie without a vehicle or other assistance).
2013
Lancelot – You’ll Never Be Mine
Australia managed to go through three Prime Ministers in 2013, from Julia Gillard, back to K Rudd and then Tony Abbott - most famously known for wearing budgie smugglers I think. Otherwise, we were pretty much all watching 'Breaking Bad' that we illegally downloaded and I don't think much else happened. We just really needed to know what happened to Walter White.
What a ride! Hope you enjoyed that random journey through weird facts and things that have happened over the years that those wonderful throwback tracks were released. Before I go, if you are looking for something to do this Saturday night (20 August 2022), get yourself down to Rattlesnake Motel to catch Skitzoid, who you may recall did the amazing mix for episode 12 of Electronic Music Australia and a bunch of other super talented DnB DJ's.
If you are a producer and you would like to be featured on the show, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me here. Electronic Music Australia airs Friday night at midnight AEST (which is technically Saturday morning) on 105.7 Radio Metro. This is around 2pm GMT for my friends on the other side of the planet. You can listen to past episodes of EMA on Mixcloud, SoundCloud and YouTube.
Let's go back to the future!
Ky Mi x
1. Pendulum – Coma
2. Rufus – The Gun
3. Lancelot – You’ll Never Be Mine
4. Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire
5. Severed Heads – Dead Eyes Opened
6. Kid Kenobi – Hook n Sling – The Bump (Original Mix)
7. DJ Darren Briais VS PeeWee Ferris – I Feel It
8. Itch-e and Scratch-e - Sweetness and Light
9. Quench – Dreams
10. Bexta - Decoda
11. Pendulum – Hold Your Colour
12. The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist