Audio Farm presents Steevio and Suzybee this Easter Weekend
Steevio has been involved in electronic music since he managed the UK’s first electro / breakdance club The Sidewalk in 1982 in Newcastle. It was the beginning of a love affair with machines that has only grown stronger with the passing years. His early electro experiments were surpassed throughout the 90’s when he became a live techno artist at clubs and free parties in the UK releasing dozens of records under various aliases such as 3000003, Free Radicals and Mindtours, and managed several techno labels, culminating in the formation of the Mindtours label with Suzybee in 2000.
Always remaining stoutly underground, with the focused intention of producing original live electronic music on hardware, in 2005 he returned to his former interest in organising events and created the first Freerotation Festival with Suzybee in Wales. Freerotation has grown from a small party for friends and like-minded musicians into the highly-regarded and much-loved international event it is today.
Freerotation has furnished Steevio with the perfect platform to showcase his live hardware performances, but everything moved up a gear in 2009 when he built a dedicated modular synthesizer as an improvisational instrument on which to make techno, and from 2010 he began performing live on his new set-up at Freerotation.
Steevio’s modular is 100% analogue, so there are no memories to save sounds or sequencing patterns, and everything happens in real time. Steevio’s performances are pure improvisation, and all the music is totally unique to each gig. All the sequences and sounds are created from scratch on the fly.
Recently Steevio has embarked on several projects with other live artists, The High-on-Wye Quintet with Move D, Soulphiction and Juju & Jordash, and Circle of Live with Sebastian Mullaert, Mathew Jonson, Johanna Knutsson and Dorisburg, and more recently the Circle of Live has expanded to include such diverse artists as Amp Fiddler, Peter Van Hoesen, Frank Wiedermann, Steffi, Vril and more.
AUDIO FARM'S 10TH BIRTHDAY IS HERE!
It’s been 10 years since Audio Farm opened the gates to a journey that has taken us on an explosive ride of colour and sound that’s took in some of the finest DJ’s, artists and bands the world has to offer in the ever-expanding adventure.
So, it only seemed right that Audio Farm came back to Manchester to recreate the excitement and electricity of that Thursday in January 2009, where the first needle dropped onto the Audio Farm turntables, with music blasting through the night in the Northern Quarters Moho Live, right through to the after parties in the infamous basement of 148 Wellington Road, Withington.
The Audio Farm journey has created Free Forest Parties and Secret Venues to Club Takeovers, Holistic Events and 6 Transformative Festivals with a mindset for ever-changing, innovative and evolving gatherings that bring beautiful people together to enjoy eclectic musical soundscapes and immersive delights from all corners of the planet.
So, the Audio Farm Family ask everyone who has been part of the journey along the way to be part of an extra special, unique and magical Audio Farm 10th Birthday celebration that will showcase the best elements of the story so far...
////// WHAT'S GOING ON? \\\\\\
****** HOME OF THE DRUM (LIVE) ******
A place to enjoy some Live Funk, Ska, Gypsy Folk, Tribal and Electronic Bands, with staged Theatrical Circus Shows. Later join in on the Jam until 4am, (bring that instrument!).
8:30pm - The Beatnik Collective
9:15pm - Circus Show
9:45pm - Galivantes
10:30pm - Circus Show
11pm - Mama Moonshine
11:45pm - Circus Show
12:15am - Barry Gammon & the Midday Incident
1am - Circus Show
1:30am - Age of Glass
2:30am - Jam with Rasta Drummers & The Beatnik Collective
(Bring your instrument)
****** BASEMENT ******
>>>>> 10pm until 4am - Audio Farmers <<<<<
The Audio Farmers will be curating the nights music in a basement (home from home), bringing together a selection of forwarding thinking and classic House and Techno tracks that have made people move on the dance floor over the last 10 years.
****** PRE EVENT GONG BATH / SOUND JOURNEY INFO ******
>>>>> 7:15pm until 8:15pm <<<<<<
Get in the zone with a sound journey. Paul is a certified gong master and will provide a variety of rejuvenating sounds, intuitively played to create the soundtrack for your own personal "journey" of inner space. This is more than a “performance” and is more of a meditational experience. Through the use of various holistic instruments such as gongs, Himalayan singing bowls, drum, rattles, and chimes, a cocoon of living tones will provide holistic healing for the many layers of your being, including the physical, emotional, energetic and spiritual bodies we all possess. These sacred tones are catalysts for deep meditative states, facilitating the potential for lucid visions, dematerialisation, a sense of levitation or astral projection. When we are in these states, our bodies are extremely relaxed, enabling the body’s natural healing processes to take place efficiently, with great effect.
(BRING WARM CLOTHES, BLANKET AND MAT IF POSSIBLE AS WILL BE SITTING OR LYING DOWN.)
Audio Farm Festival 2018 - Aloona
Many people are saying Audio Farm 2018 was our best yet with unforgettable performances from DJ Sneak, Carl Craig, Lone, Jerome Hill, Special Request, Surgeon and so, so many more
Amongst the highlights and headliners, however, was a wealth of fresh new talent to discover, amongst them was the first of our live sets recorded at Hopton Court this year on the Sundance stage early Saturday afternoon. Aloona.
Brought up with the sounds of reggae, soca and soul, Aloona was inspired by the revolution in dance music in the early 90s and the likes of Unique 3, Rebirth of Cool, Portishead, Omar and the world sounds of Giles Peterson and Nitin Sawnhey.
On the dancefloor, Aloona displays the fevered passion for quirky unique tracks, blending jazz, jungle, trip-hop, house and world sounds and most recently has played Elrow’s festival after-party at Ministry of Sound.
As you’ll hear for yourself, Aloona’s sound is a perfect accompaniment for a hazy summer head, even under these changeable autumnal skies.
Just a little note here, all of our mixes recorded from the event (save for a few) will be put on our forthcoming Patreon page in order to help raise money for the festival and charity.
And if you want to get a warm feeling warm without urinating yourself, you can donate to our Crowdfunder
Enjoy x
ESSENTIAL DJ SNEAK
This year's Audio Farm Festival finds us playing host to one of the true heroes of the house music genre in the form of Chicago’s own, DJ Sneak.
It’s fair to say that even today Sneak’s influence still casts a wide shadow, with some of the biggest lights in music today still sighting DJ Sneak as a major influence in their work.
From Basement Jaxx to Daft Punk the accolades for Sneaks work are like a roll call for the who’s who in house music culture.
Now I’m sure everyone has their own favourites that have been left out of this list and it’s easy to see why with such a hefty back catalogue. So this is just a little snapshot of an epic career spanning the best part of 3 decades at the forefront of a style of house music full of soul, swing and viscous funk.
DJ SNEAK – WORK IT
Reeking of party from the word go , the first release on his own first label, Defiant Records, ‘Work it’ BW with the cheeky rag time sound of ‘Mutant Jazz’.
DJ SNEAK - MESSAGE OF LOVE
in 1993, whilst working in Chicago’s acclaimed record shop, Gramophone, Sneak met a young Green Velvet. This meeting led to a partnership that that went on to deliver many fruitful years of work together, including this debut release on Velvet’s fledgling Cajual label.
DJ SNEAK - MANOS QUE TOCAN (DEEP MIX)
One of Sneaks early outings on seminal New York label Strictly Rhythm this stripped back, percussive workout showed another side to Sneaks sound pallet.
DJ SNEAK – FIX MY SINK
Of all the monsters Sneak concocted, it seems this is the one that cemented his legendary status. Featuring vocalist, Bear Who, Fix My Sink came out in 2002 as a part of his solo Album Housekeeping on Credence and has never really gone away since.
DJ SNEAK - LOVE
Taken from the solid ‘Platforms’ EP in 1995 on 83 West records was an incendiary record for both Techno and house dancefloors alike across the world.
DJ SNEAK & ARMAND VAN HELDEN - PSYCHIC BOUNTY KILLAZ (PT-2)
1999 saw a release another collaboration with long time friend and studio buddy Armand Van Helden as part of his 2 Future 4 U EP, this mutated disco frenzy appeared alongside monsters like ‘Necessary Evil’ and the timeless house anthem, “You Don’t Know Me”.
DJ SNEAK - SHOW ME THE WAY
Never one to shy away from a big sample, Sneak took ‘The Jackson 5’s ‘Show You The Way To Go’ and turned out a mid-nineties house monster.
DJ SNEAK – ALL OVER MY FACE 08
Originally released in 95 as part of Da Pimpdoggin EP, this Loose Joints ‘All Over My Face’ sampling monster was updated to great effect some 13 years later.
DJ SNEAK – U CAN’T HIDE FROM YOUR BUD
1997 was a huge year for Sneak. Riding high with international acclaim. A wealth of remixes from Daft Punk to Dave Clarke and a member of DJ super-group, alongside Roger and Jnr Sanchez, as part of the S Men. To top it off, he goes and tears up the roots with this timeless anthem.
U can’t hide from your bud sampled teddy Pendergrass's "You Can't Hide From Yourself’
Interview with Carl Craig
Carl Craig Interview
Carl Craig has long been on the Audio Farm radar. On Sunday 2nd September 2018, Carl Craig will finally play on Audio Farm Festivals Sundance Stage. What a Sunday treat. There is now just under 4 weeks to go until the gates on open 30th Aug 2018 at the stunning Hopton Court. Tickets are running low and looking like a sell out event.
https://www.skiddle.com/news/all/Carl-Craig-interview-Life-In-A-Northern-Town/38571/
AUDIO FARM FESTIVAL RESIDENTS: HUGO
The second Audio Farm resident to step up takes the form of energetic party-starter, Hugo, with a voyage through a gloriously anthemic rollercoaster of hand raisers and foot tappers.
So how did you come to be involved in the Audio Farm team?
I met the guys from Audio Farm a few times at forest raves and parties and this one year my nephew Andy asked me to throw him a mega party at his house so we went crazy and decked his whole gaff out with camo by screwing heavy duty hooks all around his house. We even had a slip and slide into a swimming pool outside amongst other crazy fun stuff. Later that night I had a call off Tay Audio Farm asking if they could come round, an hour later they turned up with a rig and before we knew it the place was full on party. We called it ‘Smashed at the Brickhouse’.
I have been involved with the Audio Farm crew and their parties from pretty much the beginning. I was lucky enough to be asked by Ste Chesters to develop the first website, which has been redeveloped over the years and which I still look after today.
I’m also hands on when the festival build is on and help out as much as I can, as anyone who’s involved in running big events knows how much work there is behind the scenes to make these events happen so anything I can do I know goes a long way.
You’ve been playing for the event for a few years now, can you talk us through how you prepare to play at the festival?
One of my passions is finding decent music and not necessarily new music but great tracks that become almost archived, these are the tracks I love to find and add to my ever-growing collection. I have been collecting music now for over 20 years so organising my library is important to me so I can easily find the sound I am looking for when playing at any party or event. Most of my collection is digital now and I am currently migrating to Rekordbox as it just makes sense to do this as Pioneers’ industry standard kit uses this.
For each planned set I will collate a digital crate of tracks on usb and make sure I have enough tracks to play depending on the present crowd. From experience having a planned set from one track to the next never seems to go how you want it to, so by having a more diverse selection on hand gives you the freedom to change the mood and get more in tune with the crowd.
Could you give us a few of your favourite memories at the festival and are there any special tracks reserved for your Audio Farm set?
There are so many memories but my all time favourite was last year’s Audio Farm Festival at Cholmondley Castle. Mobius Loop were performing in The Nest, and up until that point the whole of the weekend was dry, we had a short down poor and soon we had mud. My daughter, Verity Mae who was 11 at the time decided to cover herself in mud from head to toe and join in the dancing at the front of the stage, it wasn’t long before she had an entourage of mud dancing tribal warriors joining in the fun. That pretty much made my weekend.
Regarding special tracks I do have a few, and I’ll definitely be playing a track by ‘Riva Starr’ called ‘The Loft’ which is a remix by ‘Emanual Satie’. I love the energy this track gives and the video below shows this energy and how raw parties used to be back in those days.
The track pretty much sums up what my set is going to sound like. If I have a fraction of that crowd dancing I’ll be happy.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIiTqyjo2F8[/embedyt]
Do you think working for the festival has had an impact on your everyday life?
Not really although I am constantly tinkering away on the backend of the site. I have met and continue to meet the best people and for this I’m grateful. There are so many corporate festivals that are just money making machines and they can attract the wrong crowd, that’s pretty much the opposite for Audio Farm Audio Farm Festival as everyone there is there not only for the music and healing but to meet like-minded souls of a kindred spirit. One Love One Tribe X
WHAT IS AUDIO FARM FESTIVAL 2018 ALL ABOUT?
Audio Farm Festival reopens the gates in 2018 under the original alias, keeping to its evolving nomadic roots at a new site, whilst Audio Farm Festival takes a fallow year.
2017 saw Audio Farm Festival blossom like a magical flower from its Audio Farm tree, from a seed that was planted at the first festival in 2013. So from the crew that brought you One Tribe, expect more of the same magic, music, people, energy, love, laughter and beauty, but in a more intimate space at Audio Farm Festival 2018.
The journey continues in a new and exciting venue at Shropshire’s Hopton Court. Nestled in the heart of breathtaking borderland countryside, the watercolour beauty of this Georgian country estate has uniquely stunning parklands, walled gardens, ponds and a beautiful out buildings, where Audio Farm will transform the site into a microcosm of light, sights, sounds and new experiences, etched together into a mesmeric harmony lasting over 4 days.
Audio Farm Festivals innovative stages play host to a wealth of handpicked bands, artists and DJ’s, playing a glittering array of music from all corners of our known universe. From sun kissed House beats on the Sundance Stage and clinical Techno pulses in Home of the Drum, to sporadic breaks and rattling subs in the Depths of Bass, and the psychedelic beats of The Trip. The Mandala Stage and The Nest is a galaxy of eclectic bands, world musicians, vocal acrobats and solo sirens that will take you to places both familiar and new, all interwoven with a rich tapestry of drumming collectives, circus performers and fire dancers, colouring the day and illuminating the night.
The Festival is a wealth of experiences, stimulating all the human senses and opening the portals to a world of possibilities in an explosion of imagination. A safe space to expand skill sets with progressive workshops and talks, where talented and knowledgeable healers offer alternative treatments to rejuvenate the mind, body, and soul through holistic disciplines, massage, guided meditation, gong baths, yoga and shamanic journeys.
Independent throughout, Audio Farm Festival is proudly a non-profit, non-corporate organism that funds the work of The Green Paw Project with its profits. A charity that resolutely works to save and improve the lives of helpless and vulnerable animals in third world countries.
So join the tribe again at Audio Farm Festival this summer and create indelible memories where footprints fade.
AUDIO FARM FESTIVAL 2018 - FULL LINE UP
Audio Farm Festival 2018 full line-up. Looking mega!
Have a lovely week full of love, laughter and music 
ARTICLE BY FESTIVAL-TRAVELLER
Wonderful article about Audio Farm Festival 2018. Thanks Milly Day at Festival-traveller.
Only 7 weeks to go. Have you got your tickets yet?
One Love, One Tribe
AUDIO FARM FESTIVAL 2018 ANNOUNCEMENT - INTRODUCING.... SURGEON
Less than a week after the announcement of Carl Craig, and after many years of being at the top of our hit list, Audio Farm are over the moon to announce our latest headliner… experimental Techno Don; Surgeon.
Since as far back as 1992 Surgeon has been a stalwart of the tougher, industrial, and darker edges of Techno. From there he has gone on to collaborate and remix a long and glittering list of prolific artists, and has also influenced the new wave of modern day Techno artists.
Surgeon will be joining us instead of Kevin Saunderson, who is sadly now unable to make his performance at Audio Farm Festival.
Audio Farm are super ecstatic to see both Carl Craig and Surgeon debut for us.