FORM 009: Darcy Mahady
Deep-baked house from a singular talent…
Darcy Mahady's reputation proceeds him by a good mile. As an integral component of the Upstairs // Downstairs crew, he does his part to energise the local dance music community. But it's his various online mixes which, in our opinion, should take pride and place in his pool room. We first heard of his exquisite crate-digging skills before listening to any of his mixes. But that's always a warning sign: usually, the hype never lives up to the promise. In Darcy's case, the chatter was justified. Listen to any of his mixes, and you'll hear a collection of tracks that points to someone who must spend 85% of their time hunting down tunes. He's less worried about popular culture and more geared towards cooking delicious aural buffets using rare and exotically sourced ingredients. They are designed to maximise dimming the lights and relaxing while rolling thin, elegant blunts. From electronica to techno to house to breaks, all genres are fair game - as long as they exhibit an emotional quality that resonates with him. Over the following 60 minutes, he once again dives deep with a selection of well-baked tracks that will wash over you like fresh morning rain.
Hiya. How are things for you? How have you been coping with the recent lockdowns? How have you been keeping busy?
Hey Walter! Thanks for having me. I’ve been living up in Ballarat for the last 6 months or so which has been a nice change of pace. I’ve got a cool little converted shipping container in the backyard here with my music gear all set up inside so that’s really been a bit of a godsend! I've also started up a promotional outfit - with two of my best buds - called Link which aims to showcase more electronic music to regional Victorian audiences.
We've been lucky enough to have the support of The Eastern (one of regional Victoria's most important venues) for these events which have been great. I'm very lucky to call the staff and owners of this venue friends - thanks everyone! Other than that I’m fortunately still working full time and taking advantage of regional Victoria’s slightly relaxed restrictions, going on some hikes, seeing friends and so on.
Musically, which artists have kept you sane during the last 18 months?
I’ve been listening to a lot of the artists involved in the early UK techno scene as of late…B12, Kirk Degiorgio, Stasis, those kind of guys. On the DJ front, Eric Cloutier live at Lasya Festival is a cracker, the boys from Handle have made a couple of great mixes which I regularly find myself coming back to, the whole Whitvoir series has been terrific, and the mixes we’ve been getting sent for the Upstairs//Downstairs podcast have been absolutely top shelf as well, so thank you to everybody that has contributed!
What can you tell us about your Form podcast? And which track should we watch out for?
The mix is a pretty soothing ethereal number with a bit of energy in the back half. Lots of music I’ve been listening to for years as well as a few recent discoveries. I’m really into the second track, ‘Mika’ by Essential Chrome (also known as Booka Shade which was a big surprise to me!) it’s a really atmospheric, trancey kind of number. It’s a really powerful track which is especially impressive given the lack of kick drum for most of it. Also shoutout to Sydney artist Hed Ardennes on Local Knowledge who gets a run too!
After the lockdowns what do you have lined up? Any plans you can tell us about?
Summer is looking pretty busy which I’m super excited and thankful for. U//D will be coming back to Dr Morse on a monthly basis starting November 12 - always a good time. Other than that we’re putting together our first club show in a few years so keep an eye out for that in January!