MR Carmack, Joe Kay, Montell2099, Sam Binga, Rider Shafique

Jam-packed is an understatement in the first Operatives outing to Sydney this year, and they’ve invited some friends to join the ride.

“Make music like no one’s listening” is the motto of Aaron Carmack, and appropriately so. Like a hinge to the doorway between dance music and hip hop, Mr Carmack’s musical output increasingly occupies a void frontier between the two genres, identified by his contemporaries, fans, and himself for being the producer, spearheading creativity with signature production style

Bringing together all forms of progressive music, Soulection is the L.A.-based independent record label, radio show and niche collective of like-minded DJs and producers that has taken the world by storm. Simultaneously introspective & stimulating, Joe Kay artfully pairs 90’s R&B, intricate beat-driven grooves, and his own unique flair, impelling it all into the depths of the dancefloor.

Montell2099 is one of the most exciting new electronic music talents to emerge from New Zealand in recent years. Mixing bubbling VST melodies, post-Dilla drum programming, manipulated vocal snippets and booming bass hits, his idiosyncratic productions ripple and thud with club-ready swing and funk.

Bristol is a melting pot, a city where grime, drum’n’bass, hip-hop and soundsystem influences flow together – and in that sense, Sam Binga is Bristol to the bone. While signed to open-minded drum’n’bass imprint Critical, he’s always remained on the edge of that particular stable, and his brand new EP Champion – a collaboration with one of the most distinctive voices operating in the UK underground today, Rider Shafique – takes a full-on turn into dancehall, and we can’t wait.

Local Champions Jade Le Flay and Busy round up this beautifully stacked line-up.

Ready for that sweet sweet music.