Breakdancethedawn

Fuck the market. Fuck your career and however many hits on your YouTube channel. People come together to play music, share time, eat curry, drink booze.

Every year since 2014 Blindside has invited Liquid Architecture to organise an exhibition under the banner ‘Sound Series’ by artists working in experimental ways with sound and listening. Following incredible shows by Anthony Riddell, Félicia Atkinson, and Gerard Crewdson, among others, we were proud to announce that the 2019 Sound Series was the first ever solo exhibition by artist and musician Matt Earle.

Matt is a legendary figure in Australian experimental music circles, known for his bands (including Stasis Duo, xnobbqx, Club Sound Witches), his founding of hotbed communal noise spaces (like Real Bad Music and Life Groove), and for his bewitchingly-unclassifiable label imprint Breakdance the Dawn that has released hundreds of cassettes by Australian artists all packaged in Matt’s signature black-and-white photocopied style.

Although Matt is most known (although not well known) for his music, we consider his work as a total aesthetic encompassing visual as well as sonic and other terrains. We’re excited to see and hear what he does with an exhibition.

To help usher the show into being, and to keep up comms with Matt - who lives with his partner artist and musician Nicola Morton, off-grid in Hunter Valley, NSW - we’ve invited Melbourne underground music personality Patrick O’Brien to take on the responsibility as guest curator. Pat has championed Mat’s music over many years through his radio show O’Tomorrow on Triple R and his various underground record stores (Sunshine and Grease, AG Picks). Thanks to Patrick and Matt for taking this on.

Here’s what Patrick had to say about Matt Earle.

Matt and his breakdancethedawn label - which he started back in the mid 90's with a garbage bag of recycled tapes that had previously been used to hold audio-readings for the blind - are closer to the tradition of folk music and folk culture than anything we recognise as the music industry. "Folk" simply being things that happen with the purpose of serving folk, and not the market; largely unorganised and undocumented things that are there as a result of humans simply being there. Fuck the market. Fuck your career and however many hits on your YouTube channel. People come together to play music, share time, eat curry, drink booze.

Matt's work doesn't resist attention but it certainly doesn't go begging for it, as most things are designed to do in an economy so competitive and desperate that if you're not on the take your validity is questioned. The fact that most music focused community radio in this country doesn't even know of this label's existence is somewhat disturbing to me as, you guessed it, 90 percent of the broadcasting very unimaginatively, serves the market. Is that all there is? Clearly, that is not all there is. But I doubt that Matt is losing any sleep over it.

Matt Earle: breakdancethedawn is an exhibition curated by Pat O'Brien, presented by Liquid Architecture and Blindside as part of Sound Series 2019.

During the exhibition, we made over 24 hours of recordings...

For ease of reading the below list: the d# is our reference number/archive; then musicians listed; then band name if applicable; then time stamp of recorded document.

d3973; Nick Dan, Matt Earle; xnobbqx; 18:37
d3974; ;Nylstoch; 1:02:19
d3975; Adam Sussmann, Christian Durham, Matt Earle; The Sha; 1:30:38
d3976; ;The Sha; 54:19
d3977; Adam Sussmann, Matt Earle; Stasis Duo; 1:20:19
d3978 Nicola Morton, Matt Earle, Dale Gorfinkel, Jen Callaway, Allanah Stewart, Michael McNab, Henry Mills; Club Sound Witches and Snacks; 1:25:04
d3979; Jen Callaway, Michael McCosker, Allanah Stewart, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 1:02:49
d3980; Clinton Green, Nick Dan, Jen Callaway, Michael McCosker, Allanah Stewart, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 1:25:34
d3981; ;Club Sound Witches; 57:40
d3982; ;Club Sound Witches; 55:05
d3983; Susannah Powell, Nylstoch, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 44:43
d3984; Jen Tait, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 41:02
d3985; Rama Parwata, Ren Thomson, Russell Thomson, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 50:14
d3986; Jen Callaway, Alanah Stewart, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 1:15:07
d3987; Antony Magen, Pat O'Brien, Alrey Batol, Henry Mills, Sage Pbbbt, Ozlem Kesik, Lewis McLeary, Eira Gilan, Jen Callaway, Allanah Stewart, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 1:20:17
d3988; ;xnobbqx; 1:25:54
d3989; Kawaguchi Masami, Don Rogers, Ben Butcher, Declan Burgess, Stevie Richards, Paul Kidney; Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; Paul Kidney Experience; 1:14:30
d3990; Henry Mills, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 1:04:30
d3991; Nicola Morton, Kate Brown 20:43 //split// Ren Thomson, Russell Thomson, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 38:43
d3992; James Worse, Jen Callaway, Allanah Stewart, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 1:17:48
d3993; James Worse, Jen Callaway, Allanah Stewart, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 1:15:14
d3994; Michael Zulicki, Michael McCosker; 15:48; //split// Jule Vincent, Rory Brown, Tim Green, Dusty Anastassiou, Jen Callaway, Michael McCosker, James Worse, Allanah Stewart, Nicola Morton, Matt Earle; 47:33