General Merchant pres. Slow83 'Flutter Code' EP launch / September 3, Gadigal land
To celebrate the launch of Slow83’s ep ‘Flutter Code’, General Merchant have a special Sydney-style warehouse party planned this coming Saturday September 3.
Slow83 is Ged Langford, a producer and dj currently residing in Naarm/Melbourne. His first ep ‘Angophora’ was released on Start Local Records in May this year. It featured 4 tracks of rolling drums and breaks that balance with intentional melodies, creating a delicate yet deep atmosphere. Rounding out the ep was a remix of ‘Photan’ by Eora-based Caitlin Medcalf.
Following this release, Slow83 now brings us Flutter Code, which highlights his unique stamp on percussive and functional bass music. The ep was made late last year through to the beginning of this year, at a time where Ged had just moved away from home and back to Naarm's city. It was an attempt to channel and reconnect with nature after finding himself in the concrete, bustling city again:
“‘Escaping to nature is a big part of my life. I find the city quite stifling at times so I try to demonstrate this [natural world] in my music. I made the music on this ep almost entirely in the box but wanted it to feel as organic as I could. Kind of like a meeting point between the digital and natural world, or like a recreation of nature within the computer.’ ”
Whilst the four tracks on Flutter Code would certainly be celebrated on a dance-floor, Ged has considered both large sound systems and headphones when creating the tracks in the hopes that his music can take a listener elsewhere, no matter the context.
The ep artwork was created by artist Astrid Elouise Bell (@atomicglum) and commissioned specifically for the release. Her works utilise techniques of layering paint on plywood sheets, and are made exclusively at her family home in Thurrural. Astrid’s painting practice allows the grain of the wood to remain visible whilst also creating lush, textural layers, which lends to a resonance in the depth of natural sound that influences Flutter Code.
This ep marks General Merchant’s fifth release – their first however since a name-change at the beginning of 2022. General Merchant is a record label that operates from Gadigal & Wangal (Eora/Sydney), hosting events and releasing music that represents part of so-called Australia’s club and dance music scene. The label attempts to create immersive environments at parties, centering the dance-floor experience whilst being site-responsive.
The same can be said for the sound and art that General Merchant pushes. The first ever GM party Subsprawl was an outdoor rave that saw Dj Mistry, Gillielove, sina, giulia and GM’s own DJ Paramat grace the decks. A rarely-used outdoor location underneath a bridge was transformed with simple lighting and metres of mesh. Their second party just last month saw them throw a much talked-about 10-hour experience at renowned cbd location Hibernian House, with a stacked line up that hosted Paradubs, Amuwa, tadhg, Niku and a live set from Cousin. For a crew that is so new to organising parties their attention to detail, exciting lineups and dedication to an immersive atmosphere feels inspiring and is certainly something to be celebrated.
Joining Slow83 on the lineup for this weekend is E3P, Orb and Gi. It is set to take place at a classic late-night, byo inner west spot on Gadigal country. In the space you will be welcomed by a collaborative installation between architecture students Perry Edgington and Mungo McGregor - who make up two fifths of General Merchant - and multi-disciplinary artist Ellen Sinead (@a_catalogue_of_disposition).
If you are familiar with the Eora music community you can surely recognise E3P’s voice and ear; working as an FBi radio producer and host, DJ and party curator, there is not much they cannot do. From ambient to breaks to bass, her selections are as interesting as they are diverse. Let E3P pull you to the dancefloor early in the eve, and check out their soundcloud whilst you’re waiting for Saturday to roll around.
Currently living in Meanjin, it is always special when Orb graces the town that feels most like his home. Returning to Eora this weekend, Orb will take you deep in the dance no matter what genre is being finely mixed together. Recent gigs have found him playing very memorable sets at Naarm’s Miscellania for parties such as Mutations and Absorb’s 33-hour extravaganza back in April. To get a taste of his talent, you can check out a mix he did for Jazz’s PBS show Spaces Within Spaces below:
Gi has quickly been making a name for herself in the dance music community, playing multiple diverse gigs in the last few months and self-releasing some incredible music. Keep your eye out for compilation features to be announced soon and a new one that has just dropped with Command D, in time for this Bandcamp Friday. Closing out the evening, no doubt she will keep you grounded on the dancefloor right till the end.
This is certainly a party you do not want to miss.
Article by lou harris (@_goodjuju______)
Thank you for reading this article. Before you leave the page, we’d like you to take a moment to read this statement. We are asking our readers to take action and stand with the BIPOC community who fight and endure the oppression and injustice of racial inequality.
Here in ‘Australia’, Indigenous people are the most incarcerated population on Earth. Countless lives have been murdered by white police, white government policies and this country’s white history, institutionalised colonialism and ongoing racial oppression. Racial injustice continues today under the phoney, self-congratulatory politics of ‘Reconciliation’ and the notion that colonialism is something that must be denied and forgotten, an uncomfortable artefact of the past.
Feeling guilty is not enough. We must take action, pay the rent, educate ourselves and acknowledge that empathy and sorrow for past actions is insufficient if this does nothing to prevent our current reality from extending into the future.
Please consider making donations to the following organisations (the list is so small and the work to be done is so large, do your research to find more grassroots, Indigenous-lead community organisations):
Indigenous Social Justice Association - fighting to stop Indigenous deaths in custody
Firesticks Alliance - who campaign for Indigenous land management, cultural burning and looking after Country