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SCENE FOCUS: AUSTRALIA

With Miller Genuine Draft

Each month we shine a light on a leading global location for electronic music, showcasing the international scenes that are making a splash on the world stage.

Sometimes the focus is on emerging scenes - those who are still in the building stage. Other times they are fully-fledged dance music powerhouses. Australia is most definitely the latter.

The geographically remote country has always been a fantastic location to party. Nightlife culture is a part of the DNA of Australian cities and their residents have long been driven by electronic beats.

Sydney boasts one of Australia’s oldest and most popular music venues - Chinese Laundry, which along with an unusual name, is literally and metaphorically underground, with many rooms and many sounds from the international house and techno elite.

Meanwhile in Melbourne our favourite place to let loose is the 24 hour-licensed Brown Alley, who book a host of acts from the world’s of underground house and techno each weekend. Over in Perth, dance music heads get down in Ambar, who have Dusky and Girl Unit coming up in the next few months

While the clubs (especially those detailed above) cater for fans of underground sounds, Australia has not been immune to the global EDM explosion. There are two main festival promoters; Stereosonic and Future Music Festival - who take 5 dates each at the country’s major cities - bringing the larger-than-life EDM festival experience to Australia along with the scene’s biggest artists.

However, the reliance on overseas talent for these events will have eased in recent years. Australia is in the middle of a real purple patch of talent - recently bringing through a whole series of exciting electronic music artists.

We recently marked house duo The Aston Shuffle (pictured above) as Ones To Watch, and the likes of Tommy Trash, Knife Party and The Stafford Brothers are bonafide dance music stars, who are helping to maintain the position of Australia as one of dance music’s most significant nations. And long may it continue, down under!

For more scene guides, competitions and global dance music news, be sure to follow Miller Genuine Draft on Facebook.