About this Site

Discover the Awesome Canberra Electronic Music Scenes.

The goal of this website is to collate and present information about the electronic music created and released by Canberra people.

Through the links on this site you can hear lots n lots of awesome audio tracks and download many for free.

Some definitions:

a] By “Canberra people” I refer to people who have lived, for at least several years, in the capital city of Australia; who produced and released electronic music while living here/there. Some were born and raised in Canberra. Some moved away. Some moved to the city, made it their home and got involved with one or some of the Canberra electronic music scenes.

b] By “electronic music” I refer to the wide scope of styles that are made with synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, computers and software. Music styles like:

* Electronic dance music [EDM] genres including electronica, techno, house, trance, drum and bass [DnB], intelligent dance music [IDM], dubstep, witch house, glitch hop …

* Crossover genres like industrial, hip hop, trip hop, electro pop, synthpop, indietronica, electro punk, dance punk, synth punk, cyberpunk, electro rock, digital hardcore [DHR], power-noise and electronic body music [EBM] …

* Experimental genres like electroacoustic, ambient, avant-garde, noise and musique concrete soundscapes.

c] By “created and released” I refer to original pieces of music [not cover versions] that were released – made available – to the general public in one of the following formats: CD, CDR, cassette-tape, vinyl; as well as the contemporary digital-format websites such as bandcamp, spotify, itunes, youtube, beatport, amazon, deezer and so on; and also included are appearances on compilation albums [of any format] as that is or was a common mode for artists to release their tracks.

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A journey from the early days of the Canberra electronic music scene …

I aim to provide insights as to how some of the scenes formed; of the awesome achievements and also mistakes that were made; and of how several electronic music artists arose from sleepy Canberra suburbs to achieve national and international recognition.

The information on this site provides insight to topics like:

** Who were the pioneering artists, organisers and promoters who put the Canberra electronic music scenes “on the map”?

** Who were the Canberra electronic music scene artists to release albums on cassette, CD and vinyl?

** Who were the early Canberra electronic music artists to be broadcast on radio across Australia on stations like Triple J?

** Which electronic music projects were among the first to have video clips broadcast across the nation on TV music shows like “Rage”?

** Who were the first to perform live here and in other cities as well as overseas?

** What were the early record labels for the Canberra electronic music scene? What did they release? How did they function?

** And who came along later and from those foundations – of recognition for the Canberra electronic music scenes in other places – were able to achieve major levels of success and recognition?

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Connecting the pieces, joining the dots, of the what who and when of creations from the Canberra electronic music scene …

Prior to this site, the information was scattered in unrelated pieces across the internet. And the connections for it existed only in the heads of a few people like myself.

That meant awareness of so many Canberra music-makers had become lost to the fog of time. That means anyone who didn’t live and grow through the scene would not know of what happened in the times before them. Young people would assume that nothing much happened.

However a lot happened. I felt it was important to bring the information together, to make it easier to find and learn about this part of Canberra’s history. Firstly, to honour the people and their music. Secondly, a sense of history about where they live can inspire people to create and achieve.

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The early stage of this site was built during February and March 2024 – based on several decades of experience from ~1990.

As of April 2024 I am pausing the content-creation. I have plans to add more sections and features during the middle of the year.

In the meantime, if you are a ‘Canberra kid’ and have made and released electronic music – if you feel you are or have been part of the Canberra electronic music scene – and you have some information or good ideas for the website, feel welcome to send them via the contact page form. 🙂 

Who made this site? Who is it that cares soooo much about the history of the Canberra electronic music scenes?

Some notes about the author:

My working title since around 2010 has been “DJ Robot Citizen” with variations based on those words over the prior years.

I acquired the knowledge that is on this site through being an active person in a range of Canberra electronic music scenes across several decades. Some of my related trivia:

** I was born in Canberra and grew up here.

** I have attended many Canberra electronic music events since 1989.

** I have listened to local Canberra music on radio since 1989.

** Music Producer: I’ve made electronic music since 1990. Some of it was broadcast across Australia on radio and television; some has been released on dozens of CD collections by labels in Australia, Europe, North and South America.

** Radio: I hosted several hundred shows on Community Radio 2XX across 20 years – from the mid-90s to the mid-10s. The programs included those devoted to Canberran, Australian and Electronic music; as well as playing such music during weekday “Sunset” programs.

I also worked at radio 2XX as the station manager and promotions manager during 2003-2005.

** DJing in Nightclubs: I have DJd at several hundred events in Canberra nightclubs, across 30 years, from 1992 to 2023.

The nightclub events included venues like: Zone, The Base, The Asylum, Heaven, The ANU Refectory, Terminus Bar, The Gypsy Bar, Toast, The Holy Grail, The Green Room, Rockape, Bar 32, Monkey Bar, Aree Bar, Church Bar, Transit Bar, Lobrow, Reload …

The events were mostly series under the following titles of: Mudclub, Cactoblastis, Mentasm, Planet Pumpkin, Fudge, Boiinng, Petrol, Parklife, Cloud 9, Paroxysm, Oblivion, Millenium, Nexus, Retro Request, Vamp, Heavy, ALT, Popcorn, Crunch; and guest DJ slots at other events in Canberra, Sydney, Perth, Newcastle and Melbourne.

** Record Label: I have run an independent Canberra record label since the 1990s which released dozens of items including EPs, albums and compilation CDs of Canberra electronic music artists …

In the early 2000s I compiled a portion of that Canberra electronic music on the ElectriCity CD compilations. Those feature some of the artists active in the prior decade – covering 1994-2004.

You can hear and download those for free via Bandcamp through these links:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

My portfolio website is

www.DJRobotCitizen.com

There is a lot of information there. However it’s an old html site and doesn’t look too good on mobile phones. At time of writing [April 2024] I aim to rebuild that portfolio soon.