4MR - For Mother Russia

 

4MR - For Mother Russia are a shuffle crew from Moscow.

They've been shuffling for about a year and a half now.

pcKOT spotted the shuffle online and told Trash7 about this strange new dance called the Melbourne Shuffle. So they learnt the basics from shuffle tutorials online and then started making shuffle films.

They will also be featured in the Global Shuffle documentary dvd, that MSO is producing at the moment.

We want to see shufflers home towns in Global Shuffle, so I asked 4MR to get some shots around Moscow, their favourite shuffle places etc, and if they could, get some shots of them shuffling in the snow. Because we don't get snow in Melbourne and I wanted to see what it was like :)

Well of course you have to go outside in the middle of a Russian winter to do that, which I kinda forgot about, seeing it was summer in Melbourne when I asked them.

So the guys deserve a medal for going out and doing it, all in the name of shuffling :D And it looks mighty cold, well done 4MR.

Check out some Moscow winter shuffle.

4MR Invaders must die

Shuffle Music: Practice Mix 3. 80's Electro

mix title: 80's Electro
shuffle music genre: electro
purpose: slower tempo for shuffle practice
level: beginners > advanced
speed: 100 -120 bpm average
time: 83 mins approx

The few years from 1983 to 1985 produced an explosion of synth based dance music, that we today collectively call Electro.

It was due to the sudden developments in electronic music techniques with the Fairlight CMI digital sampling and polyphonic synthesisers.

Up until the late 1970's synthesisers could only play one note at a time, but the early 80's saw a burst of synths that could play more than one note, usually no more than 8 notes.

This meant synth players could play chords (groups of notes) something only guitars or pianos/organs could previously do.

So now a synth player could fill a concert hall with a big synth sound, often called a 'stab' for a punchy brassy power chord or a 'wash' for a huge orchestral or ambient backing chord.

Add these with synth sequences, synth drums and some jangly guitar with an infectious danceable funk bass, and electro was born.

Here's a medley of electro tracks played 'live' by all time greats Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock, at the 1985 Grammy ceremony in LA (USA) with new kids on the block - and eventually proving to be one hit wonders, Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby. The Jones and Dolby tracks in full are listed below.

Synthesizer Medley 1985

There was a huge controversy about this Grammy performance, which had computers, drum machines, samplers and sequencers. The controversy was whether you could call this sort of set-up a 'live' performance. Even the announcer was a real computer voice introducing the guys.

To many of the rock generation, including the punks, it signaled the end of 'real' music and the beginning of fake plastic machine music that had no soul.

They of course were wrong about the music having no soul. As Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock would easily demonstrate both having more than enough 'soul' to share around.

Computers were new at the time, and terrifying to many. Some argued if a computer played the music, it wasn't music at all, and certainly was not live !

Check out this 1983 Today Show (USA) clip with Keith Emerson of ELP (Emerson Lake and Palmer) fame.

Fairlight Keith Emerson (1983)

ELP was best known for their brilliant shuffle rhythm take on Fanfare for the Common Man, at the time.

ELP - Fanfare for the Common Man (1977)

 

Here's a 1982 vid of Peter Gabriel (former lead singer of Genesis) talking about and demonstrating the Fairlight CMI. Peter actually uses a sledgehammer of sorts to try and smash an old TV screen to sample the sound for his music.

Peter Gabriel and Fairlight CMI (1982)

 

Here's the legendary Bob Moog talking about the Fairlight CMI and the beginnings of electronic music going back 25 years from 1983. Robert Moog invented the modular Moog synthesiser.

To quote Moog “…I’ve found the Fairlight to be by far, the most intuitively efficient and satisfying tool for manipulating sounds that I’ve ever used, and that includes modular synthesizers…” High praise indeed.

Bob Moog (1983)

In 1983 Peter Gabriel released a monster electro hit called Sledgehammer, using the Fairlight. He also dances in the clip using moves created by Melbourne Sharpies from the 1970's

• You can read more about the Sharps, their involvement in the development of the Melbourne dance party scene of the 1970's in Melbourne Shuffle: The Beginnings and Sharpies

 

About 3.30 mins in of this 1983 Sledgehammer vid you'll see Peter doing this Sharpies sideways elbow move, (pic above) really well.

He even gets right down in a bent over position, like the experienced dancers did - the 'how low can you go' move. Not sure where Peter got the moves from, but the guy who produced his first single Salisbury Hill, was Rob McKenzie from brilliant 1970's Melbourne band McKenzie Theory (pic right 1972) - yep saw them live in Melbourne.

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (1983)

 

Herbie Hancock Demonstrates the Fairlight on Sesame Street



And this is the ground breaking 1983 track Rockit Herbie was best known for at the time.

Herbie Hancock Rockit (1983)



This is an excellent vid with Herbie Hancock explaining and demonstrating the Fairlight CMI to grown-ups this time. The grown up is the legendary Quincy Jones. You get a fantastic run through of exactly what the Fairlight does, without a mouse! It used a light pen, much the same we today use a mouse, except you touched the screen. It's such a delight watching two music greats play with this gear. They have smiles as big as the Sesame Street kids!! Bigger :)))

Herbie Hancock jams with his Fairlight CMI (1983)

Electro brought a new aesthetic to music. Never before in human history had electronic gizmo's been considered musical instruments. (They were usually called special effects units or audio science lab tools.)

But the sounds they made electrified the audience. From clean pure sine wave sounds to nasty noise filtered ring modulators that could bite your ear off, we just could not get enough :)

Oh yeah, and usually there was a singer and the electro tracks became monster hit singles for major Hollywood movies ;) Such as Ghostbusters (1984), Flashdance (1983), Electric Dreams (1984), Never Ending Story (1984), Weird Science (1985) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

And if it all got a bit too much for people, we always had the 'Safety Dance' to fall back on. By the satirical genius of Men Without Hats.

Ghostbusters (1984) Maniac (Flashdance)- michael sembello (1983)yello - oooooh yeah (1985) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Bananarama - Shy Boy (1983)

Safety Dance- Men Without Hats (1983)

J. Geils Band - Centerfold (1982)

Oingo Boingo "Weird Science" (1985)

(Together In) Electric Dreams - Phil Oakley (1984)

Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science (1982)

Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't it be good (1984)

Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy (1989)

Tears For Fear -Everybody Wants To Rule The World (1985)

The Politics Of Dancing - Re-Flex (1983)

Never Ending Story ( Limahl ) (1984)

Howard Jones - Like To Get To Know You Well (1984)

The Bangles Walk Like An Egyptian (1985)

Pseudo Echo - Funky Town (1986) Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money (1983)

Pointer Sisters - Baby Come and Get it (1985)

Addicted To Love. Robert Palmer (1985) BANANARAMA. VENUS (1986)

Dutch Shuffler visits Melbourne

In February 2009 Millie came to visit Melbourne and be interviewed for the Global Shuffle dvd.

Millie is from the Netherlands and has a dance crew called Dance Max. Here's Millie's vid he's made of his visit.

Dutch Shuffler in Down Under

Millie is best known for being in the worlds first commercial shuffle track/video Melbourne Shufflers - The Shuffle, around the beginning of 2008.

Melbourne Shufflers - The Shuffle.

It was great to meet Millie. I took him to a few places in the CBD that were significant oldskool sites.

It's hard to explain the Melbourne underground, it's much easier to show it. We have a lot of back alley's, basements and upper floor buildings that the underground houses itself in. All have obscure nondescript entrances. Often just a simple doorway with stairs.

These are to discourage the mainstream. They look of no interest at first glance, but if you are in the underground, these are passageways into another world, literally in the main street of Melbourne, but unnoticed by most. And that's the way we like it.

The underground has different attitudes to mainstream Melbourne, from the way people dress to their behaviour. The behaviour is most important, it's friendly.

Just finding an underground venue, is like you have completed the first initiation test. We like to think of it as a treasure hunt. You need to put some effort into it, and you are rewarded for your effort.

The Lounge (Swanston st Melbourne) a longtime underground venue was one of these places.

Established in the last global recession of the early 1990's in a disused upstairs retail storage area, Carlos the Lounge owner proudly tells visitors "The Melbourne Shuffle was practically invented on this dance floor", and he's right.

1992 a shuffle club night called Switch commenced, it was renamed a short time later as Filter and became the world's best and longest running shuffle club. Held at The Lounge Wednesday nights every week for 11 years (1992-2003), it was the underground's inner circle club of choice.

It has a concrete floor polished smooth by shufflers feet for 11 years, and it's still exactly the same now, and you can still shuffle on it and the exact same stage as these oldskool shufflers in 1995.

Filter @ Lounge 1995

Here's the 1995 video footage of shufflers on the same Filter stage.

Today the Lounge still operates, but Shufflers may find it a bit ordinary as it is mostly just a sit down day bar with meals these days, catering for an older 20's - 30's mostly mainstream urban crowd.

So say hello to Carlos if you bump into him, tell him Garry/MSO sent you, and if he has the time, he's more than happy to chat about shuffling. After all, he's seen it all from the beginning.

You can still have a bit of a shuffle on the original dance floor and stage though, among the tables, and it's well worth doing as homage to one of the greatest original oldskool shuffle clubs of the world, Filter and it's fantastic crew The Filter Army !

It's the closest you can get to the original oldskoolers these days, by literally shuffling in their footsteps.

Subway Shuffle comp (Aus)

Seems like everybody's gotta do one of these online shuffle comps. The latest is from Subway (the food chain), with some decent prizes too (not just a dj's old turntable) There's $2000 cash and heaps of ipods.

It's not really shuffling as we know it, just Subway cashing in on the Shuffle. But who knows, worth a go the real thing might win :)

http://www.subway.com.au/ifeelgood/Default.asp

TOP PRIZE – STAR IN A SUBWAY® TV COMMERCIAL!
If the voting public like your style and think you’ve got the best SUBWAY® Shuffle, you’ll star in a future SUBWAY® restaurants TV commercial and receive a $2,000 talent fee, plus travel and accommodation expenses to attend the shoot.

Plus 8 and 4 gig ipods for other winners.

Singapore Shuffle MeetUp VivoCity 15 March 2009

Our good shuffle friends in Singapore have got their next Shuffle MeetUp happening. Remember to post lots of vids for us who can't make it ;)

event: SINGAPORE SHUFFLE MEETUP
date: 15 March 2009
site: VivoCity Amphitheatre (Sky Park, Level 3)

SHFL - Australian Shuffler

Some may have noticed the MSO logo appearing on the Australian Shuffler / So You Think You Can Shuffle website and publicity flyers. (pic right)

Please note that MSO is in no way involved with the Shuffle Hard For Life (SHFL) event or the So You Think You Can Shuffle contest, mainly because MSO thinks it's too cheesy and sounds dodgy.

Despite rumours, MSO and Garry Shepherd will NOT be screening shuffle videos at the SHFL event, nor associating with Australian Shuffler / So You Think You Can Shuffle, Mark Midro and Bexta (Rebecca Poulson), in any future projects - because I don't trust them.

comments:

Templeth said...

"because I don't trust them"
Love it

March 10, 2009 1:07 AM

Garry Shepherd said...

Thanks Templeth. Yep sad but true, It's not the 'first official' shuffle meet-up at fed sq anyway, there's been plenty. The first official meet-up was Cup Day Nov 2007 and it was free. I was there, it was a great meet-up. These SHFL jokers haven't got a clue, You'd think at least the PHD Dj would know that.

No offense to the shufflers who have entered or the other prize sponsers, but when a dance competition offers a pro DJ turntable as one of the major prizes you know they're not shufflers, how many shufflers even own old vinyl records?.

And who is this video clip for, what act ? - make sure you get a signed contract with them before you appear ;)

And what Malaysian meet-up? It doesn't even have a name, yet it's the main prize !!
All that says to me is...
DODGY DODGY DODGY

March 10, 2009 1:07 PM

Garry Shepherd said...

here's the link to the REAL 1st Official Shuffle Meet-up Melbourne Cup Day November 8 2007. It was arranged by shufflers on the melbshuffle forum. It was a great day. I'm surprised the PHD dj didn't know about it with 1000's of PHD hoodies there. Maybe he does know but he's sold out. dunno

But judge for yourselves, it was a huge successful event run by shufflers on a shuffle forum, all for free. Even the security guards and Fed Sq management were impressed with how well behaved everyone was. There to shuffle, not to cause trouble.

I'm proud to have been there and will defend it's title as the 1st Official Melbourne Shuffle Meet-up to be held in Federation Square.
There's some superb shuffling in this vid, well worth a look.

[CUP DAY] Shuffle Meetup Nov 8 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buifqypY2F4

March 10, 2009 2:31 PM

Garry Shepherd said...

Apparently now they're calling it the 'First ever national shuffle comp' Since being caught out with the first fed sq shuffle gaff.

But the title for First national com is laughable seeing they didn't advertise it, or hold local state competitions first. So it don't count, (no offence to whoever was named Australia's top shuffler) but I doubt one small meetup qualifies as a 'National Competition' whereever it's held. Good god, these SHFL people are hopeless
The day was a dud in crowd size. There were 90% empty seats and just a couple of dozen on the dance floor. Pretty poor compared to the other shuffle meet-ups that draw 100+ shufflers.

I've seen a few melb forums horrified at SHFL and they can't believe the dj's were involved in such a shonky event. Some of them ripped right into Bexta and Mark Midro over it, suggesting they go back to sydney...but I wouldn't force them on our sydney shuffle friends either.

April 3, 2009 3:30 PM