Phil Smart: 30 Years of Dance.

We come together in rhythmatic unity, once more, as the light, sound and dance creates an intervowen tapestry of XTC, NRG, PLUR and everything good with the world at night.

In a secret inna-best space, we come together to celebrate one of Australia’s true musical trailblazers, dance shaman extraordinaire Phil Smart. We know Phil as a seriously influential globaldance selector, producer of some of the most iconic traxx and selections to come out of our sunburnt country, and flag-bearer for the Burning Man movement through his core role in the Burning Seed celebrations and infinitely more. He was there at the birth of rave culture in Australia, and continues to be one of our most renowned proponents - helping raise awareness of the great southern dance scene when he was voted into the DJ Mag Top 100 list numerous times - back when it was a peer-voted list of unimpeachable integrity.

This titan of the Antipodean dance family is firing up to celebrate 30 years at the razor’s edge of dance in not just .au, but the world. Playing a string of extended sets across the country, this is one expression session not to be missed. For one night only, he’ll take us from 0-190% in 8 hours, the man himself at the controls. No excuses, no substitutes, only freedom to dance and a gigantic sound system, courtesy of ya girls and boys at Ricardo’s.

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PHIL SMART, 30 YEARS - a brief summation of a verbal history, as told to team MTK, june 2018.

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A multi-instrumentalist who grew up spending his school holidays at his parent’s music camps, playing anything he could get his hands on, growing up playing in bands in the skate-punk and thrash-metal scene, embracing the psychedelia of bands like Radio Birdman, through to getting behind a pair of decks for the first time, in the indie clubs of deepest darkest suburban Sutherland Shire. From playing Pop Will Eat Itself to goths when goth was a thing, to discovering the 303, the 808 and the 909, and all the blessings bestowed upon us by the synthesiser gods and their local agents in Detroit and Chicago - as a pioneer in the earliest true techno and house clubs in Sydney and Wollongong, crafting his trade with vinyl and chopped up tape edits - where the first rays of light from the Balearic Summer of Love hit Australia for the first time, in the form of British ex-pats cashed up and loaded full of acid house records. 

After a police raid shut down one of Phil’s early residencies, he discovered the warehouse rave scene in Alexandria - finding community, family and an embrace of inclusiveness, finding eclcticity through electricity, before the need to discover more about where rave was born came calling - and a world tour of discovery began, tapping into the source in the UK before making his way to the USA, taking his sound to the LA rave scene. As Sydney came calling once more, however, Phil took a chance and visited San Francisco - and everything changed. After an scoring invite to play for the legendary Wicked crew at one of their full moon parties (fortuitously, they wanted a DJ from every continent - and Phil was the only available Australian in the area) and seeing the party shut down by the local cops, a last-minute after-hours party was arranged, and Phil tore the party apart with the Sydney sound - and from that point in time, Phil Smart was renowned as -the- Australian DJ.

For the next 10 years, Phil lived an endless summer - travelling across the globe, playing the Australian circuit and bringing legendary deejays like Derrick Carter, Sasha and Digweed and Mark Farina to Australia for the first time, and playing alongside them across the states, as well as guest spots at key spots like Bedrock in London and E-Werk in Berlin (the forefather to Berghain and Tresor, amongst others). During this time, Phil was a regular sight at legendary Sydney vinyl spot Reachin’, pushing records to every single DJ of note and, alongside Reachin’ bossman Sugar Ray, he started the iconic Just Right, Sabotage and Tweekin’ parties - where Club 77’s legend was born - inclusive, friendly parties that were literally all about the music and played host to everyone that mattered that toured through the country. 

As the 90’s progressed, Phil helped establish Think and Thunk, two record labels that made an indelible splash globally, and helped launch some of our greatest dance music exports like Infusion amongst many others, working alongside acts like Itch-E and Scratch-E. After the inevitable mutation of Sydney post the 2000 Olympic Games, and a nightclub venture in Byron that went slightly pear-shaped, Phil simplified his life and focused on bodyboarding and beats: starting Junk Beats alongside Dave Basek and Jimi Polar, before meeting his now wife and moving to Melbourne and living a life undercover as a bar DJ.

As all of this was occuring, Phil discovered Burning Man, and was vital in introducing the European sound to the burn - he paved the way for some of the iconic dance experiences like Robot Heart, and as a burner evangelist in a pre-You Tube era, was one of the key Australian voices in the movement. After missing perhaps only 3 burns in 20 years, Phil has been one of the engines behind the founding in 2010 of the Australian outpost of Burning Man, Burning Seed, staying true to the ethos of Community and Culture.

After moving to Newcastle to start a cafe and raise a family, Phil rediscovered the joy of club - after old mate Jimi Polar persuaded Matt and Kerry from SASH to book him at their old home at the Abercrombie Terrace, Phil became a regular and remains one to this day, as well as linking up with Sydney techno flamethrowers Motorik, playing their legendary warehouse parties and releasing a string of critically acclaimed EPs alongside Francis Xavier. Finding nowhere in NCL to party, Phil co-founded Coloursound and brought a broader viewpoint to dance in the Steel City. Now based outta Brisbane, this titan of the Antipodean dance family is firing up to celebrate 30 years at the razor’s edge of dance in not just .au, but the world. Playing a string of extended sets across the country, wherever you may be, this is one expression session not to be missed.