pop/smoke/lights/magic.
review by Ben Crowsella, Underground from japan mag//, weslyanne, northcote australia 18/09/09
Dane Certificate has long been a favourite of Melbourne's underground music scene with his screeching home recordings and strange live performances, but those who had the fortune of seeing his first set of illusion at the Wesley Anne in Northcote last Friday night witnessed something truly bizarre and entertaining. Stradling the line between smooth (sleight of) hand professional and awkward amateur-auteur, sausages flew into the front row, card tricks confused and soft drink cans refilled (an illusion which must be seen to be belived). Old favourites with foam balls and handkerchiefs hold a traditional vaudeville atmosphere, yet are delivered with Certificate's unique personal style and never stray into satire or insincere cheessiness thus creating a set which is extremely weird, very VERY entertaining and perhaps the only true absurdist musician/magician/comedian in Melbourne geared to entertain jaded punters and reinvent what is defined as 'live music performance'.Dane Certificate
GENUINE ARTICLE
by Grenvold Aksatrisk^25/007/09 at Horse Bizzare, Melbourne Australia.
Flying Scribble’ were already playing around with their instruments when I arrived. They are a female two-piece who’ve been playing together for around three years I found out later. They both sing, while one plays a drum kit and the other ‘tripped out’ keyboards. In fact it was a bit hard to tell when the practising stopped and the ‘set’ started. Otherwise, the woman had a lovely voice, and the drumming was at times exceptional. They together created vaguely mischievous music. It all seemed a bit unfinished, however; a work in progress.
A few cigarettes later, ‘Penguins’ entered the stage through a non-existent door. Pete is a very organized musician, however chaotic the sounds come out. Using a keyboard with effect pedals and backing from pre-recorded beats, its an electronic menagerie in his head. Some is clear and precise break-beats, while others spew forth like vermin reproducing in his kitchen. Some is dance-friendly while other parts involve whatever is the opposite of sleep.
Just like there is only one Tony Lockett, there IS only one Dane Williams. Known as ‘Dane Certificate’ this man can test out material or ideas on an unsuspecting crowd. He’ll put a sequence on loop then walk around stage and the bar adding layers to the sounds, looking confused, but knowing exactly what he’s doing. With his brand new computerized drum-buddy on hand, he mucked around for about 15 minutes, finishing the set with the track ‘Arkanoid’. Oh, he had a strobe light, too. So much effort with all that gear for just 15 minutes.
They were all short sets tonight, and it all had a vaguely unnerving horror-soundtrack keyboard feel about it all. Glad to get home and put on a bloody Kinks song, really!
Dane Certificate Glue You by: Thomas Mendelovits
WIRELESS BOLLINGER Thu:08-Jan-09 Label: Foof Tick Year: 2008WB rating 70 out of 100
Review
Dane Williams is Dane Certificate. Live, he plays as a kind of vaudevillian one-man band, stomping bass and snare drums with right and left feet and using the headstock of his guitar to smash a solitary cymbal. To what extent this is a novelty is a factor of how well Dane Certificate pulls it off: on a good night, the music exudes all the forceful synergy that can come from the work of a solo artist. On a bad night, the sound is ramshackle at best. If we are to go by his MySpace page, Dane Certificate’s presence on the Melbourne scene may be more down to the fact that he uses his work at a postering company for self-promotional purposes than it is because of any heavy gigging or high-profile supports. Nonetheless, Williams’ first full-length, Glue You, showcases a honed pop aesthetic quite removed from his schizophrenic live performances.
Glue You is a cohesive testament to the thoughtfulness Williams has evidently exercised in deciding to release an album. Live, Dane Certificate shuns groove and conciseness, instead opting for a seemingly more improvised and stream-of-consciousness process, but across Glue You, Williams’ song-writing chops are proudly on display. ‘Another Way’ and ‘Oh Velvet, Where Are You?’ are two of the record’s catchiest moments, boasting anthemic choruses and the brevity of the best power-pop. In fact, the more experimental side of Dane Certificate is almost wholly suppressed on Glue You. The electronic leanings predicted by some extraordinary Gameboy to MIDI programming witnessed at one gig is only really given two chances to shine on the record. The wacky synth arpeggios on ‘Lolly Mouse’ and the outro of ‘Oh Velvet’ round out a perspective on Williams’ considerable talent, but as far as making up a stronger album, they work more as filler than anything more truly engaging.
Indeed, for someone so talented, it is surprising that none of the reference points for Glue You predate 1990. But then, maybe part of the record’s allure is that Dane Certificate has figured out precisely what he likes most and has the ability to translate that into a record of aesthetic distinction. At times, this distinctive quality verges on the narrow-minded as it is not hard to figure Kurt Cobain as Williams’ chief musical hero and foundation. But where occasionally the voice we hear from Dane Certificate verges on Nirvana impersonation, there are enough personal touches on Glue You to see Williams for his own person. ‘So Long Nanna’ and ‘Dad Come In’ are the most obvious picks; as reflections on family history they completely bypass Dane Certificate’s reverence for grunge and focus on using its simple power chord-based formula as a vessel to convey something with personal meaning. ‘Dad Come In’, with a chord progression that subtly evokes ‘Everybody Hurts’, is the record’s emotional highlight.
While it may be strange – and a little off-putting – to hear an album with a foot planted so firmly in the grungy 90s, Glue You mostly manages to sound new. This could be because genre fashions generally move in 20-year cycles (70s glam looked to the 50s, 80s indie looked to the 60s, etc), meaning that Dane Certificate may be one of those on the cusp of the upcoming 2010s look to the 90s for fresh inspiration. To its advantage, Glue You projects great sincerity and with many terse arrangements and clever ideas, Dane Certificate makes music that is all but obsolete.
DANE CERTIFICATE – Glue You Tuesday, 11 November 2008 RAVE MAGAZINE (Fooftick)
Psychedelic grunge? O RLY?
Dane Certificate is a Melbourne-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who supposedly funded this release by gluing band posters around the town. That certainly wins some DIY points for Glue You, but it wasn’t lacking in those already. The ‘90s Australian rock is performed solely by Dane Williams, with fairly simplistic guitar, bass and drums layered under more esoteric synth lines and harmonised vocals. It’s then packaged into pop structures and given a sheen of polish. Unfortunately, the production isn’t a match for the lo-fi instrumentation, which makes the music seem disingenuous. Sure, it’s grungy, but only for being lethargic and needlessly obtuse. And the occasional psychedelic elements are never allowed to inhibit the staidly-tracked radio rock. The sad thing is the record has all these elements contained within, they’re just arbitrarily segregated so Dane can get on with being in a band ... with himself. The glitch synth symphonies from Lolly Mouse and Where Are You?, and the muffled, lysergic humming and strumming on Another Way’s intro sound great – turn them into Australian pop-rock. At worst you run the risk of sounding interesting.
JAKEB SMITH
Magic Dirt Curate New Festival News posted Wednesday, October 29 2008 at 12:00 AM. Related: Magic Dirt. Not just a killer ‘90s guitar anthem, Freakscene is now a day-long festival of music at the Lakes Entrance Recreation Reserve in rural Victoria on December 20.
Run in cooperation with Arts Victoria and the Lakes Entrance Summer Music Festival, Freakscene has been curated ATP-style by Magic Dirt, who will headline and also deliver a workshop on how to have a long career in the music biz with less trials and tribulations (if that’s even possible).
Acts handpicked by The Dirt include The Drones’ Gareth Liddiard, Sydney’s theredsunband, Nation Blue, Crystal Thomas and The Flowers of Evil, Amaya Laucirica, Midnight Woolf, Modular Lounge and Dane Certificate, with more acts to be announced.
Bands will play all day Saturday with short films and workshops on December 21.Entry to the festival, which is held about four hours out of Melbourne, is free... ..Dane Certificate-Bucket(EP REVIEW)Independent
MESS AND NOISE MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 06'.Danny Griffith.
Dane Certificate is the unchallenged king of the melbourne underground. Independent in all ways, even down to the company he keeps on stage(i.e.his amazing one man shows), he tests the barriers of what could be classed as exceptable 'music'. This is not to paint the man as some whack noise artist whose aim is to annoy the shit out of you, rather Dane's abrasive style cares not for conforming to perceptions of taste. Bucket, his umpteenth self release, is a snippet of current works that rivals the like of Bob Log III and Digger and the Pussy Cats in the sonic onslaught stakes. Thumping drums machine meets rounded yet aggresive guitar in the title track and his vocals bleed out with powerful resonance. Last track 'R.I.P Barrett', a live take from Melbourne's Arthouse, is a devastating romp wielding squealy guitar, a thrashy drum sequence and an almost indistinguishable violin. It's a terrifying offensive that the listener can only liken to (as the title suggests) a sonic paying of respects to another late musical pioneer. Bitchin'.
