Greetings from the land of all things antipodal—you know, where summer is winter, the toilets flush counter-clockwise and kangaroos breed like stray cats in a trailer park, right?
Well, not so fast: we’re reporting from Melbourne—an exceedingly lively, diverse and cosmopolitan city, and host to this year’s inaugural Australasian World Music Expo, or AWME. This gathering of topnotch musicians, producers and industry movers from all over Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands is vying to become one of the prime showcases for the region’s deep range of indigenous talent. After a whirlwind four days of non-stop music, informative panel discussions and impromptu late-night raps about the state of “world music” today (and whether the term itself has outlived its usefulness), we can safely say that AWME has lived up to every bit of its potential, and without question merits a return visit in 2009.
“I guess the idea for this came about by attending expos and trade fairs in Europe and North America, and realizing that there was very little profile or understanding of indigenous and world music from Australia and the region,” explains producer and expo organizer Simon Raynor, who recalls feeling mystified, along with Australian musician and producer David Bridie, by the near total absence of Australasian artists at even the prestigious WOMAD Festival, among others. “We wanted to come up with an event that could showcase artists from this region to international delegates. But instead of flying a whole bunch of artists to Europe and North America, we turned that on its head and decided to fly a whole bunch of delegates to Melbourne to see a focused showcase of artists from our region.”
AWME 2008 has indeed been a focused and intimate gathering, but its modest size hasn’t diminished the quality of the content in the least. Indigenous singer-songwriters like Kutcha Edwards and Bart Willoughby (pictured) have been playing back-to-back with more progressive bands like Melbourne-based Chilean jazz-funk upstarts Labjacd, while dancers and drummers from Badu Island have shared the same stage with folk rockers like James Henry and Liz Stringer. Fully supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, funded by Arts Victoria and the Australia Council, and based for its four-day run at Melbourne’s sprawling Arts Centre—which is augmented by the 300-plus capacity Spiegeltent for live performances—the expo hit all the right notes for its first time out.
And if last night’s closing party was any indication, the future is certainly bright. For us wayward yanks, the highlight of the night was a string of jams by Aboriginal legend and national treasure Bart Willoughby. Joined by players from local roots reggae band Mista Savona and krump stylists Grrilla Step, Willoughby cut through the mix with a soulful wail that belies his shy, reserved nature offstage. Punctuating his phrasings with yelps and shouts, his delivery really has to be heard to be believed. Check out this video for a taste of Bart’s singing and drumming skills, and if you can find it, get your hands on the classic From My Eyes EP by his band, No Fixed Address.
In the coming days, we’ll be blogging with some more reflections on AWME 2008—after we’ve sifted through the many photos, handwritten notes and CDs we collected along the way. For now, we’re gearing up for our 20-hour flight back to NYC. See you on the flip…
NEXT: Funkin’ for New Zealand
Posted by dubraider 