Albums : Flume : Flume
Albums : Flume : Flume
Listen To Flume : Flume
Two years ago, despite having made music professionally since he was 13, Harley Streten was pretty much known only to the blogosphere and the aficionados of bass-heavy electronic music. But even then not by his real name.
Today the 21-year-old from the northern beaches of Sydney is poised to be the most successful individual artist ever at the ARIA Awards and it may be time to learn that name.
Streten, working as producer/remixer Flume, could win nine ARIA trophies this year after dominating the nominations against relative household names such as Guy Sebastian, Nick Cave and Birds of Tokyo.
In fact Streten, who now headlines local and international festivals, is already on the way, named as producer of the year at a ceremony on Tuesday where technical and fine arts awards were presented along with the announcement of nominees in the major categories. As an indication of the rapid rise of Flume as a powerhouse name locally, as well as being nominated for best album, best male artist, best dance release and song of the year, he is the favourite to win what is effectively the new faces category, known at the ARIAs as breakthrough artist of the year.
Streten, still stunned at the scale of his success so far — ''it's insane, I only did my first gig as Flume in November 2011'' — is already thinking of the future, and the artists he has always admired returning his calls now, as he cradled his producer of the year ARIA. ''People are listening now and accept it,'' he said. ''I've got 14-year-old girls who like Justin Beiber listening. Maybe I'll expand their horizons even more.''
If Streten is the face of the future, a face of the past also snuck under the radar in the past year and now finds himself poised to pick up an unlikely ARIA. Russell Morris, who found fame in the late 1960s as a kind of psychedelic pop star with The Real Thing, made the top 10 in the charts earlier this year with a collection of song stories about Australia's criminal underworld of the 1920s. That album, Sharkmouth, is a warm favourite for the best blues and roots album prize.
Somewhere between Streten and Morris in terms of age and number of nominations is a strong field of rock artists including Nick Cave (six nominations after his first Australian number one album this year), Tame Impala (seven nominations) and Birds of Tokyo (six nominations), and a pair of pop acts with five nominations, Empire of the Sun and Guy Sebastian, the latter still looking to be the first graduate of Australian Idol to win a peer-voted ARIA.
If that list looks rather male dominated, as things artistic and political have tended to do this year, there are some breakthroughs and surprises from women who haven't let the industry's blokedom block them. Virginia Read became the first woman to win engineer of the year, a significant if underappreciated breakthrough on the technical side. Meanwhile, on the performing side, two essentially underground artists, Abbe May and Emma Louise, earned nominations for best female artist alongside multiple ARIA winners Missy Higgins and Sarah Blasko and crowd favourite Jessica Mauboy.
The ARIA Awards are on December 1 at Star City.
Flume Review
Sydney-native Harley Streton opened a cereal box and a CD-ROM fell out. It was a basic “Make Your Own Music” production program, ala Audacity. Intrigued, the 13-year-old Streton installed it onto his computer and played around with pre-loaded drum kits and synths, eventually adding his own plug-ins and sample packs. Streton became fascinated with synthetic instruments and graduated from his PC to vintage analogue equipment. To think that a cereal box would spawn the future of Australia’s electronic music scene… Last year, Streton — under the moniker Flume — dethroned One Direction to top the Aussie iTunes charts. And now that his debut has finally surfaced in America, Flume has vaulted to No. 1 yet again. The warm reception is deserved, as Streton touts a distinct style of production that owes as much to J Dilla as it does The Avalanches.
Like Jay Dee, Streton chops up his percussion and splices the fragments back together. Although it sounds wonky, Streton never abandons a steady rhythm or backbeat (aka the part that makes people dance). Vocal samples — often distorted — occupy opens spaces in the drum pattern. Highlight “Holdin On” is Flume’s exemplary composition: pulsing synths, quivering tempos, and a repeated-till-it’s-stuck-in-your-head chorus (“Hip-shaking momma I love you”). By altering the vocals via pitch shifts, Streton crafts melodies out of samples — his strongest musical element. When a track lacks those melodies (“More Than You Thought”, “Space Cadet”), it becomes a hollow collection of choppy beats.
Streton rarely commits that fallacy, though the album does lose momentum during its latter half. This is partially because Flume is an excessive 15 tracks long. There’s just not enough variation between songs to warrant such a lengthy duration (blame similar instrumentation and arrangements). Streton definitely has the production chops to make a solid record. However, if he wants a great record, he needs to edit down that tracklist and sequence it for cohesion.
Contact Flume
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | YouTube | GM | Press Contact | Aus/NZ booking | USA | Canada | Europe/UK
Contact The Sydney Morning Herald
Website | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
Contact Consequence of Sound (COS)
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Sources : Flume Photo | Listen To Flume | Flume Article | Flume Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon
Listen To Flume : Flume
Two years ago, despite having made music professionally since he was 13, Harley Streten was pretty much known only to the blogosphere and the aficionados of bass-heavy electronic music. But even then not by his real name.
Today the 21-year-old from the northern beaches of Sydney is poised to be the most successful individual artist ever at the ARIA Awards and it may be time to learn that name.
Streten, working as producer/remixer Flume, could win nine ARIA trophies this year after dominating the nominations against relative household names such as Guy Sebastian, Nick Cave and Birds of Tokyo.
In fact Streten, who now headlines local and international festivals, is already on the way, named as producer of the year at a ceremony on Tuesday where technical and fine arts awards were presented along with the announcement of nominees in the major categories. As an indication of the rapid rise of Flume as a powerhouse name locally, as well as being nominated for best album, best male artist, best dance release and song of the year, he is the favourite to win what is effectively the new faces category, known at the ARIAs as breakthrough artist of the year.
Streten, still stunned at the scale of his success so far — ''it's insane, I only did my first gig as Flume in November 2011'' — is already thinking of the future, and the artists he has always admired returning his calls now, as he cradled his producer of the year ARIA. ''People are listening now and accept it,'' he said. ''I've got 14-year-old girls who like Justin Beiber listening. Maybe I'll expand their horizons even more.''
If Streten is the face of the future, a face of the past also snuck under the radar in the past year and now finds himself poised to pick up an unlikely ARIA. Russell Morris, who found fame in the late 1960s as a kind of psychedelic pop star with The Real Thing, made the top 10 in the charts earlier this year with a collection of song stories about Australia's criminal underworld of the 1920s. That album, Sharkmouth, is a warm favourite for the best blues and roots album prize.
Somewhere between Streten and Morris in terms of age and number of nominations is a strong field of rock artists including Nick Cave (six nominations after his first Australian number one album this year), Tame Impala (seven nominations) and Birds of Tokyo (six nominations), and a pair of pop acts with five nominations, Empire of the Sun and Guy Sebastian, the latter still looking to be the first graduate of Australian Idol to win a peer-voted ARIA.
If that list looks rather male dominated, as things artistic and political have tended to do this year, there are some breakthroughs and surprises from women who haven't let the industry's blokedom block them. Virginia Read became the first woman to win engineer of the year, a significant if underappreciated breakthrough on the technical side. Meanwhile, on the performing side, two essentially underground artists, Abbe May and Emma Louise, earned nominations for best female artist alongside multiple ARIA winners Missy Higgins and Sarah Blasko and crowd favourite Jessica Mauboy.
The ARIA Awards are on December 1 at Star City.
Flume Review
Sydney-native Harley Streton opened a cereal box and a CD-ROM fell out. It was a basic “Make Your Own Music” production program, ala Audacity. Intrigued, the 13-year-old Streton installed it onto his computer and played around with pre-loaded drum kits and synths, eventually adding his own plug-ins and sample packs. Streton became fascinated with synthetic instruments and graduated from his PC to vintage analogue equipment. To think that a cereal box would spawn the future of Australia’s electronic music scene… Last year, Streton — under the moniker Flume — dethroned One Direction to top the Aussie iTunes charts. And now that his debut has finally surfaced in America, Flume has vaulted to No. 1 yet again. The warm reception is deserved, as Streton touts a distinct style of production that owes as much to J Dilla as it does The Avalanches.
Like Jay Dee, Streton chops up his percussion and splices the fragments back together. Although it sounds wonky, Streton never abandons a steady rhythm or backbeat (aka the part that makes people dance). Vocal samples — often distorted — occupy opens spaces in the drum pattern. Highlight “Holdin On” is Flume’s exemplary composition: pulsing synths, quivering tempos, and a repeated-till-it’s-stuck-in-your-head chorus (“Hip-shaking momma I love you”). By altering the vocals via pitch shifts, Streton crafts melodies out of samples — his strongest musical element. When a track lacks those melodies (“More Than You Thought”, “Space Cadet”), it becomes a hollow collection of choppy beats.
Streton rarely commits that fallacy, though the album does lose momentum during its latter half. This is partially because Flume is an excessive 15 tracks long. There’s just not enough variation between songs to warrant such a lengthy duration (blame similar instrumentation and arrangements). Streton definitely has the production chops to make a solid record. However, if he wants a great record, he needs to edit down that tracklist and sequence it for cohesion.
Contact Flume
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | YouTube | GM | Press Contact | Aus/NZ booking | USA | Canada | Europe/UK
Contact The Sydney Morning Herald
Website | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
Contact Consequence of Sound (COS)
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Sources : Flume Photo | Listen To Flume | Flume Article | Flume Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon
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