Amaluna is the collaborative project of New Zealand-born FlibbertiGibbet and Zimbabwean Mudstompin Munkee. A multi-genre duo with an interest in the experimental evolution of music, they break the boundaries with eclectic and often unreleased tracks to drive the dancefloor to new levels. The diversity of their combined tastes unite psychedelic bass lines and glitchy melodies. Thanks to their passion for seeking out and sharing new sounds, they transmit a powerful energy from the decks to the dancefloor.
Recently signed to Free-Spirit Records, Astral Circus resident FlibbertiGibbet has been DJing since 2013. Meanwhile, her co-pilot Mudstompin Munkee is the host of her own regular radio show on Bassport FM and has played at global gatherings that include Portugal’s Freedom Festival and the UK’s Noisily Festival. Shattered Barriers promoter Abhi Trance first booked them to play back-to-back at his event in April 2017 and they enjoyed it so much that they did it again in September for Tribal Village. This confirmed they were onto something good and so Amaluna will be launched at Astral Circus on Friday 24th November at Electrowerkz in London, alongside an epic line-up hand-picked to help celebrate the birthdays of Astral Circus promoters Nikki S and FlibbertiGibbet, as well as the launch of Journey aka Jay OM’s new album, Limitless.
So with their project gaining momentum faster than they could have imagined, we thought it would be fun to set up the disco divas for this back-to-back interview. Here’s what they had to say…
Tara: So Wendy, how did you get into making music/DJing?
Wendy: I remember picking up a flyer advertising lessons with Fromem Ory in Camden back in 2007, so this coaching with Alex was really my first exposure to mixing and production with Ableton.
It was only later in 2014 that I made the decision to start investing in some gear and record a few mixes. Later on some of the guys at Bassport FM got in touch to ask me if I’d like to be a guest on the radio.
Not long after that, Astral Circus invited me to debut at one of their events and I was offered my own monthly Glitch Hop show on Bassport FM. I’ve just been having fun mixing down loads of different genres and styles of music with interesting people ever since!
Tara: But you’d been into playing music much longer than that hadn’t you?
Wendy: Yes, well I started learning the piano at the age of about seven, so when I was growing up in Zimbabwe my influences were very much classical. A firm favourite of mine back then was Australian pianist and composer, Leslie Howard. After I finished school and started travelling, my influences moved to jazz and electronic genres.
Tara: You’ve always had some pretty diverse musical influences haven’t you?
Wendy: Yes, my influences have been rather broad, from old school big brass legends like Duke Ellington to some of the pioneers in psychedelic sounds like Infected Mushroom and South African psy trance live performers like Broken Toy and Rinkadink. There are so many, and all played their own part in my own personal evolution in music.
Since I began DJing though, producers like Mr. Bill, Slynk and Mouldy Soul really inspired me to smash the boundaries of genres, and think outside of the box a little in terms not needing to fit into an existing style or having to put a genre label on everything.
Tara: I guess our diverse influences are something we’ve always had in common. I just wish I’d persevered and learned how to play music properly as a child. I was lucky growing up that I was always around music, as my Mum worked at a radio station when I was younger. I still remember the excitement when she brought home new vinyl!
Growing up in the South Island of New Zealand, most of the kids were seriously into sport – three of the girls I grew up with went on the become part of the NZ female All Black team, but I could often be found holed up inside with a copy of Smash Hits or NME. We started clubbing fairly early as there wasn’t much else to do. DJing has to be one of the few things spending a ridiculous number of years on the dancefloor trains you for!
Wendy: I have to agree! And how did London’s dancefloors compare?
Tara: When I first came to London I couldn’t wait to check out the various clubs and gig venues the capital has to offer – in fact on my first Saturday night in the country I dragged my mate out to Frantic’s Hard House Academy at Brixton Academy. I realised pretty quickly that this was going to be quite challenging to sustain on my lowly-day-job-in-publishing salary, so went through a phase of entering every gig ticket competition I could.
One of these was a TNT mag competition for tickets to one of the first Heat day parties at Turnmills and the rest, as they say, is history. Within a couple of months I was writing music reviews for HarderFaster.net, flyering and working on the door for parties like Heat and Frantic.
One night my Heat door buddy Pat Cobb took me to an Antiworld party after we’d finished working and BOOM! I fell hard for psy trance! I went on to help promote Antiworld, Halcyon, Elixir of Life and a number of other smaller events and festivals such as Waveform and Cosmo Festival, which led to me meeting some amazing people and listening to loads of incredible music.
At the same time, I was also writing and editing for publications like Upfront mag, Dream Creation, DJmag and of course HarderFaster, where I was exposed to a myriad of influences. Looking back I was incredibly lucky.
Wendy: You’ve certainly worked with a number of promoters and festival organisers over the years. Is that what led to the birth of Astral Circus?
Tara: Elixir of Life always had a strong psychedelic/visionary art focus and when I was helping out at the Android Jones exhibition in Shoreditch I met Murray from Cognitive Dissidents décor, who suggested we start up a new night. I couldn’t imagine doing it without my good mate Nikki S and boyfriend of the time Andy Forse, so we all got together with Nikki's husband Nick Sentience one night and Astral Circus was born. The name comes from one of my favourite paintings by Robert Venosa, which to me symbolises everything we were aiming to do with our new night, as it's always been about collaborating with our friends and featuring their awesome music and décor!
And that’s how I started DJing. As the only member of the team who didn’t DJ, I would always get stuck on the door all night. During one of our event planning meetings, it was assumed I’d manage the door and I just heard myself say something along the lines of: “F&ck it, I’m also going to DJ at the next one!” I should thank Nikki, Murray and Andy for their patience on that one, especially Andy for attempting to teach me.
Another major influence over the years has been Boom Festival. In 2014 Desert Dwellers opened the Alchemy Stage and I proceeded to play their tunes in most of my sets for the following two years. Then last year Kalya Scintilla opened the Alchemy Stage and I’ve been thrashing Merkaba tunes ever since! Getting to edit the 20 Years of Boom Festival book earlier this year was an absolute honour as there were so many interesting stories documenting the history of the festival and indeed the psy scene. But I could talk about my musical influences all day as there are just so many, so best I stop there! Do you remember the very first track you ever played out?
Wendy: Yes! The first ever track I played out was Or Lack Thereof by Tom Cosm. I remember thinking the intro featuring kymmpops’ Transmission about a journey into the musical cosmos was especially fitting for an Astral Circus dance floor. I may just have to play it again sometime!
Tara: That’s funny, I played a Grouch remix of Tom Cosm in my first set. As you know I’m a massive Grouch fan. So what would you say have been the highlights so far for you?
Wendy: One of my highlights was definitely playing a sunrise set at Freedom Festival in Portugal in 2015, especially as I was offered another set right after the performance. I ended up playing a second set at the cocktail bar on the beach for something crazy like 7 hours. I had the best fun ever that day. The weather was amazing and it was awesome having so many friends there to support me. How about you?
Tara: Getting signed to Free-Spirit Records this summer was an incredible honour. I’ve been a big fan since its inception so I’m really happy to be part of the Free-Spirit family and have to thank Jay OM for all of his support. Having my first ever DJ profile done by Psy-Sisters was also amazing after so many years of writing profiles for other DJs.
As far as gigs go, it would also have to include the Elixir of Life and Shattered Barriers Glow Festival last summer where I played the warm-up set while the sun was still shining before some of my favourite psy trance DJs. Playing before Slackbaba, Ott. and some of my best psy friends in London on NYE was also pretty awesome too, plus warming up for some of my favourite artists like Hedfux, GAUDI and James Monro at Astral Circus. Playing in Wales at this year’s Black Pearl Festival was absolutely magical. And playing the closing set with you at the last Tribal Village was great fun! Looking forward to doing it again at Astral Circus! So, where else would you like to take your music?
Wendy: I’m hoping to do a bit more collaboration in the future and bring in some live saxophone in my performances. My playing still needs a lot of work though but hopefully one day I’ll get there!
I recently began a collaboration with live electronic drummer Andy Afrogalatic under the name Purple ‘n Soda. The live element of the drums, especially with its 100 odd kits – both preset and custom engineered – is not only exciting to work with and perform alongside, but for the listener it’s quite something to experience too. I’ve always loved the drums but I could never be a drummer myself as my coordination just sucks. Andy is a natural, is easy to work with and being a professional, is very quick to pick up on the groove of each track and flexible to my ever-changing styles. And you?
Tara: I’d love to have time to learn to produce music. I appreciate it’s going to take a lot of time and commitment though, and unfortunately I haven’t managed to fit it in yet – but it’s definitely on the to do list! I guess we should talk about our name! What does the name Amaluna mean to you?
Wendy: Luna means Moon in Latin and so there is a very strong feminine energy association. In native Ndebele, which is the language spoken in the region of Zimbabwe where I’m from, the prefix ama in front of a word makes it plural. So to me, this just signifies two bad ass chicks doing our thing!
Tara: Haha that pretty much sums it up. So, we’ve got a couple of great gigs on the horizon eh?!
Wendy: Yes I’m thrilled to be coming back to perform at Astral Circus, this time with you to launch our new collaborative project Amaluna. I owe a lot of my success to Astral Circus as you were the first to believe in my abilities and that I was good enough for the stage – so it’s an honour to come back and play at an Astral Circus event.
Next month we’ll be playing at the HarderFaster Christmas Party Extravaganza which should also be loads of fun and there are a few events emerging in the new year, which we’ll be able to announce soon.
Tara: Yus, I’m very much looking forward to playing after Baxtak, Halfred, Azkekh and Ben Coda in the alternative room at Astral Circus as they’re all awesome artists with great sounds. We’re flying Halfred in from Italy, plus we’ll be celebrating Nikki S and my birthdays and it’s the launch party of Journey aka Jay OM’s incredible new album, Limitless. We’ve got Space Tribe coming as a special guest – he’s an absolute legend of the psy scene so we’re really excited.
Finally, playing at our first HarderFaster party after so many years is also going to be pretty damn epic. Make sure you get down there early for our set!
ACCESS ALL AREAS
Phone orders please call +44 (0)20-7267 8320 or +44 (0)20-7267 6148.
You can also purchase tickets from the AAA office on the second floor in the Camden Lock market building in the heart of Camden Town, London.
2nd Floor, 30C Camden Lock Place, London, NW1 8AL
Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12pm-7pm
(Closed on Bank Holidays)
After a long voyage light-years through multiple universes Astral Circus has once again landed, ripping through the space-time fabric and beaming psychedelic frequencies directly into the consciousness of our colourful and crazy community. Be prepared for an incredible, full immersion experience that joins us together in hearts, minds and spirits. We have returned!
Over the past year the Astral Circus team have been busy collaborating with other promotions to bring you some of the best psychedelic trance parties in London (including Psymera, Tribal Village, Troxy Events, Shattered Barriers & much more).
But now the team is back together to bring you a night of psychedelic delights as Astral Circus is their passion, their love, their way of expressing creativity, and supporting the creativity of other artists. Through the expression of sound, light and colour we create a circus of astral proportions for you to explore your own creativity, fun and adventure
With the falling leaves of Autumn and Hallow'een approaching it's 'officially' time to get excited about the 'Official Annual HarderFaster Christmas Party 2017'!
Whether you need a place to reminisce about years gone by, you want to have it to the hottest DJs provided to you time and time again year after year; you simply want to perv over Gorfy in his santa suit or you're hoping to catch a glimpse of Darren F@cking Nugget in his elf outfit, you can be sure to find it all here! (and more!)
Lineups will be released over the coming weeks, make sure to put the date in your diary, it would be rude not to!
Trance. Acid Trance. Euro Trance. Hard Trance. Tech Trance. Psy Trance. Deep House. Funky House. Hard House. Prog House. Electro House. Tech House. Techno. Breaks. Electro. Chillout / Leftfield.
DJ's:
ELVES LAIR
14:00-15:00 VoodooBass 15:00-16:00 Amaluna (FlibbertiGibbet & Mudstompin Munkee)
16:00-17:00 R&D
17:00-18:00 BSE b2b Paul Zykotik
18:00-19:00 Matt Draper
19:00-20:00 NG Rezonance b2b PHD
20:00-21:00 Piqué 21:00-22:00 Ali Wilson
From: Taraon 17th Nov 2017 19:19.33 We've recorded out closing set from the alternative room at Tribal Village in September. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed playing it!
Amaluna on Mixcloud
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