
This year for the first of our annual pre-parties we’ve gone around the country to gather a lineup of creators working at the intersections of techno, delving into influences from bass, breaks, psychedelia, club music and beyond, all underpinned by elements of dance music's most enduring genre.We believe each one of these acts is currently pushing the needle forward for underground club culture in Aotearoa, and are thrilled to host them all together at Valhalla to push their vision across the almighty Third Eye Hi-Fi soundsystem.




ELI HØFF — Abyssal Soundworks / PHTM Producer and DJ, Eli is undoubtedly at the forefront of Aotearoa’s underground dance scene.
Those who have kept their ears tuned to the innovative underground have no doubt stumbled upon the tribalistic, psychedelic, and focused sounds emanating from the mind of Auckland-based producer Eli Høff. With a string of releases on Berlin-based PHTM, Tāmaki Makaurau-based Gypnotica, and an impressive catalog of self-releases, he consistently showcases his singular and original interpretation of dance music.

Raised in Kaikōura, Aotearoa, Hunter's dark and atmospheric sound often contrasts the beautiful environment she grew up in. Her direct approach to techno draws influence from heavy percussion, bold rhythm and industrial soundscapes. After spending two years finding inspiration in clubs overseas, she has returned to Ōtautahi with a refined style that’s ready to make people dance. As the co-founder of “Hang The Saints” and resident of “Haven”, Hunter is all about creating safe, inclusive spaces for people to connect through the music she loves.

https://soundcloud.com/hunter-mccrory-334790608

https://on.soundcloud.com/bC3qeA6pUxBoMo7P9


LUDUS & RIZZO — Tonic CollectiveTonic Collective is the recent endeavour of Ludus and Rizzo, inspired by the people, places and spaces of their experience touring China with BIRDPARTY and Vera Ellen. Both acts are individually known for their versatile and innovative sound, bringing a wide range of influences and inspirations to the dancefloor. In the short time since establishing the collective, they’ve already hosted Kaishandao and Bone Chapel, established a space, and debuted a monthly radio show on Mouthfull that explores sound from across the genre spectrum, both in the club and out.

https://www.instagram.com/alicerizzoofficial

https://www.instagram.com/tonic.collective/

https://soundcloud.com/l-s.../416life-support-cl1n1c-chengdu

https://soundcloud.com/racquetclub-info/mix-series-016-ludus


SHLI — Echo Train Records / Warehouse Rave / Holding HandsShli is the alias of Ōtautahi-via-Pōneke DJ and Producer Tim Ward. Steadily releasing works over recent years through local labels like Echo Train and the Big Fresh Collective, he is carving out a sound of his own.Stitching together infectious rhythms layered over low-end pressure, Shli’s sets draw influence from across the hardcore continuum and beyond. Creating dancefloor moments from trippy rhythmic states to unleashing sheer bass weight.

https://echotrainer.bandcamp.com/.../ech009-bracing-set...

TECHNO TASTER INCOMING!

If you’ve been keeping up with our recent posts, you’ll know that stage design and visuals are absolutely core to the Twisted experience. We wanted to share a bit more about the wizardry involved in mind-melting visual projections, so we caught up with Alon Hammer AKA REM ahead of his debut set in Aotearoa this Twisted. Alon told us about his journey to becoming one of the most respected VJs in the world, what it takes to perform on festival stages, and even shared a little wisdom for aspiring artists in the crowd…

“I was a pretty heavy geek at a young age and got into the digital world early on, I started building my own computers at 11. I was also obsessed with movies and wanted to be a filmmaker, so I started tinkering with editing and After Effects super early on and eventually started to write and make my own movies. I went on to study film, by which point I had already been playing around with some forms of video art, messing around with Resolume and basic motion graphics, but it was at my first time at Mo:Dem festival in 2015 seeing Delta Process play when I was truly inspired to take my art to the next level. I taught myself how to projection map and found myself a mentor (well I guess we found each other) – massive shout-out to Dorian Natan Masterdamus.


In Israel in 2015 visuals were not such a big deal, especially in the underground scene, but by that point I had been promoting and producing massive underground parties for some time and knew everyone, so the moment I showed them what I could do it just took off. With the help and expertise of Dorian, our joint passion and my connections and trust within the scene, we basically took over the Israeli visuals scene from 2015-2019. We must have played over 150 parties in that period of time, maybe more, and I started to get my name out there and played many festivals in Europe, including Mo:Dem!

Playing Mo:Dem in 2018 was a VJ career highlight for sure, not just because it was an honor to play at my most beloved festival, but because it was my first time using Touchdesigner and real time visuals in a professional setting, which I had just learnt the previous month in Romania. That experience gave me the confidence and inspiration to pursue the form of generative real time 3D visuals that is both my signature and what I love to play. 


Another massive highlight was performing with my now wife who is a dancer, where she wore a motion capture suit and manipulated the visuals live while dancing on stage. We did about a dozen shows and those were all incredible. 

This is kind of sappy, but in the pandemic I did a VJing course in Hebrew which was an intro into a few different techniques and some history and theory. I charged around $50 for a 12 hour course which was pretty cheap, I just wanted to do something to keep my sanity during lockdown. A bunch of the students from that course went on to pursue visuals, and at Boom festival 2022 I ran into one of the students from the course, Rotem Mor, who had just played his first European festival. It was awesome meeting him in person, he was fully inspired by the course and started a collective with another student from the course, Yochi Sudri, called 'Project Gamma'. Since that Boom, we have played together at some massive festivals and he even came and joined me at Mo:Dem last Summer. 

At the same Boom, maybe a day or two or five after running into Rotem – time is an illusion at Boom – a guy who I didn't recognize told me that he had also done my course and that the course files were being passed around and "pirated". It hit me that the course I did in 2020, not even 2 years prior, had been influential enough that it was now being passed around through word of mouth to young aspiring artists all over the country. That was the real big ‘holy shit’ moment, how such a seemingly small action can have a massive ripple effect, inspiring people has always been a huge goal and one of the biggest gifts I could ever receive!


Since I moved to the US in 2022 I have been working almost exclusively in the virtual production world. My ‘day job’ went from being a VJ and performing at events and festivals to creating virtual environments for movies and television, which evolved into supervising shoots and operating the stages and eventually into building and designing studios and custom solutions for virtual production. Thankfully I still get to tour in the summer around Europe and VJ my heart out, and every once in a while I get to perform in the US – shout-out to Datagrama for having me out to Tipper and Friends earlier this year!


On one hand it's kind of rad to be back in the film industry which was my first love, but it's also been a growth experience as I'm not as much of an "artist" as I once was. I've come to understand that for me, it's about creative output and scratching the itch to solve problems. Whether that problem is the creation of a real time visual, projection mapping a stage, or designing a UI/UX for a virtual production stage, it's all solving a problem using creative energy. Once I realized that that's what makes me happy, I was kind of freed from the burden of considering whether I was an artist – but I still consider myself one, I think we all are to some degree. 

Performing visuals for electronic musicians at festivals is a super unique skill, you need to have a really good understanding of not only music progression, beat matching, and musical genres, but also color theory, composition and abstraction. On top of that, festivals are extremely chaotic places with many moving parts – you have to be able to adapt to anything at any moment and still deliver a kick ass show. It's one of those skills that you can really only learn by doing it over time.


I think the importance of visual artists on festival lineups has already started to shift. In the US bass scene, the visual artists are on the bill and just as important as the musical acts. In Europe, most festivals nowadays will have a VJ timetable or at the very least a VJ lineup. And back home, there is no party without visuals, the VJs may not always be on the line ups or on the flyer but the crowds know who is VJing and what styles they like – the awareness is just insane relative to what it was just a couple years ago. 

If you have any interest in VJing or visuals or projection mapping, come to my workshop at Twisted, and if you're reading this and won't be at the festival hit me up with questions, I answer everyone. Also I have a podcast where I interview visual artists and have them showcase their techniques and workflows, it's awesome and it comes out weekly – check out @thevisualcast on YouTube and Spotify/Apple music.

In terms of wisdom for aspiring artists: find the itch and scratch it in a way that's healthy for you and others around you, figure out what that good way path is and be true to yourself on it.


This Twisted will be my first time visiting New Zealand – I lived in Australia for about a year and a half and my biggest regret was not making it over to your side of the Tasman so I’m super excited to finally visit, it feels like it’s been a long time coming. My wife’s mum was born and raised in New Plymouth, so I can’t wait to meet that side of the family and have them meet our son.

As for performing, I'm so fucking excited. I'm counting down the minutes, no joke. I have some pretty insane shit up my sleeve and the stages are absolutely stunning this year, plus the talent pool of local VJs is super impressive, you're all in for an absolute mind melting. I am over the moon excited to be bringing some new creations to life and am humbled and honored to be able to do what I love for such a supportive and clearly awesome festival family, massive shout out to Daniel Aston and Edward Taylor for reaching out, dealing with my shit and being super supportive and professional, and I would be remiss not to thank reminds jermaks AKA symmetric visions for recommending me and making the connection. Also massive deep gratitude to Dee and the TF team for entrusting me with this honor, thanks so much for having me out and thanks for the interview!!!”

Huge shout out right back at ya Alon, we’re stoked to have you throw down with us this New Year’s! And a massive thank you to all the VJs and visual team at Twisted, you guys are amazing and some of the hardest working cats out - you don’t wanna miss what they’ve been cooking up this year, it’s going to be next level.

Alon Hammer

After a decade of Twisted there are bound to be stories of people who have come through, been inspired, and gone on to do incredible things. We caught up with Sara Nikšić AKA Inner Child to hear hers – a tale of how a love for marine biology and music festivals led her to create a series of critically acclaimed albums incorporating whalesong with electronic music that have been performed across the world. Ahead of her performance and lecture we got the lowdown on her journey, the lives of whales, and what she has prepared for us on the dance floor. Check it out here:



I believe that artists and scientists are like kids that never quite grew up, and I am a bit of both. I grew up next to the sea and I learned to swim before I learned to walk. I was always fascinated by the underwater world and nature in general, which is why I went to study biology, and eventually earned a master’s degree in marine biology and nature conservation. I worked on countless projects as a marine mammal scientist and bioacoustician, as well as a scientific diver. As a kid I also grew up surrounded by music. Alongside regular school I went to music school where I learned music theory, piano, and singing. During my teenage years I went to heaps of music concerts and while I was at Uni I discovered the wonderful world of electronic music, parties and festivals.


After finishing my studies about a decade ago, I came to Aotearoa – originally just for a short visit, but I loved it so much that I came back and stayed for a whole year. During my time there I worked on a couple of very interesting projects with the University of Otago studying whales and dolphins, and went to several music festivals. I came to Twisted for two years in a row where I had the most wonderful and inspiring times. It was during my stay in Aotearoa that I felt the urge to start producing music and combine my scientific and creative work, which eventually led to the creation of my Inner Child project. It is also the place where the idea for making music with the whales came to me, which later evolved into a global music-art-science collaboration project I called Canticum Megapterae.


From Aotearoa I went to Australia to work on a few whale and dolphin research projects. After that I travelled to California to work with The Ocean Cleanup as part of the first-ever aerial expedition mapping the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. From there I headed back to Europe, where I worked on some pretty cool music festivals and took a course in electronic music production. I spent a few years at University of St. Andrews in Scotland doing a PhD on the evolution of humpback whale songs. For various reasons I didn’t complete my PhD, but I released two Canticum Megapterae albums about my research which, in my opinion, were much more valuable than a PhD.


The albums ended up getting some amazing feedback, winning several awards and being covered by the global media such as the BBC and the New Yorker, and in the process I also got to collaborate with some of my favourite artists. I was invited to present them at numerous scientific conferences and institutes, as well as some of the biggest music festivals like Boom and Ozora, and I can’t wait to share them with you all at Twisted!


The ocean is my home, and one of the very few places on land where I get this feeling is the dancefloor. Both of these environments get me fully immersed in the moment and my true nature comes out. I feel absolute freedom to be who I am and connecting with others in this state is nothing short of magical.


Working with whales also holds precious and surreal experiences. Thinking of my times in Aotearoa, one of the highlights was definitely working with the sperm whales off Kaikoura. We acoustically tracked the whales by listening to them with a hydrophone, and were pretty good at approximating where they would come up for air just by listening to their sounds – on a few occasions we were so on point the whale would come up right next to our boat! Being in the presence of such a huge animal (almost 3 times bigger than our boat!) is truly something exceptional! Over the years I worked with several species of whales and some of the most humbling and cherished moments of my life are being up close to them. 


I feel honoured spreading their songs and stories through which I hope others can also get a glimpse into their extraordinary lives. I have been studying whales for over a decade now, and yet, the more I learn about them, the more I am aware just how much I don’t know. This journey of exploration has been humbling and eye-opening in many ways. We can learn a great deal from these magical creatures, about their cultures, the ways they communicate and learn from each other, how they collaborate… We still don’t know exactly how they do all of this, but my feeling is that they are much more advanced than us in many ways.


I am stoked to be coming back to Aotearoa, it will be a full circle! Twisted was such an inspiration to me and some of the people I met there have been following and supporting my journey ever since. I am really excited to share all that I’ve been up to since my last time there and I look forward to seeing how the festival and its community grew over the last decade. 


For the upcoming Twisted I am preparing a lecture about my journey which took me across the oceans to some remote places very few people have been to, from top universities and institutes to the biggest dancefloors in the world. It will focus on my work on humpback whale songs, both as a scientist and a musician, and how these two professions came together in my Inner Child project. I will also play a special set through which I wish to take people on an underwater journey to dance with the whales. I will play some of my own tunes and some from the wizards who made tunes for my releases, perhaps also a few others with watery vibes. So excited to meet you all at Twisted after all this time!


Kia ora Sara, we’re stoked to have you back in the field after more than eight years away and can’t wait to hear your whalesong through the big rigs! Don’t miss her lecture at Twisted and be sure to check their incredible tunes in the comments below.

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Alon Hammer

Inner Child is BACK!