“I don’t want to be someone’s favourite female producer – I’d rather be someone’s tenth favourite overall producer.”
Those fortunate enough to attend New Balance’s Walk Your Own Path creative forum last weekend here in Melbourne would have heard these wise words coming from Tokimonsta, the LA producer and who was the first woman signed to Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. They would have also seen me sitting in the front making a face similar to this 
, not because she’s attractive, or because she has incredible things to say about her experiences with the music industry (obviously) but because anyone who has been able to do what they love for ten years against the odds is completely inspiring. And, unfortunately, being a female producer does seem to be against the odds. The discussion of women, or lack thereof, in electronic music has been running for a long time, and I won’t go into it in case I go over my word count. (There are some great articles about it here, here and here.) But while I was lurking at the bar at the afterparty, a guy mentioned to me something along the lines of this: “It was cool that they got Tokimonsta to talk – I mean, there aren’t really any other female producers, are there?” I gurgled a little on my mango cider (which I highly recommend). The thing is, there are many brilliantly talented, progressive electronic musicians that just so happen to be female. It’s just that they’re not usually in Ableton competitions or on alt-R&B YouTube channels with backgrounds of half naked girls. In fact there seem to be many ways that people manage to avoid them while searching for new music.
So here are three of my overall favourite musicians from across Australia, who happen to be women.
I first heard of Mei Saraswati as part of the Perth-based trio Savoir, who you’d be forgiven for thinking came out of nowhere. With one track on SoundCloud and a spookily empty Facebook, the contagious and brilliant sounds of Zinil Rhythm appears to be the product of some producer-savant. On closer inspection however, it appears underground talents Andrew Sinclair and James Ireland are behind the production and Mei Saraswati responsible for those addictive vocals. I stumbled upon them in the midst of a Boiler Room binge, whilst the YouTube channel was streaming live from Perth and after SoundCloud-stalking them, it was Mei’s hypnotic music that had me hooked.
Her latest album 2-hypermeditations features her almost tribal, smouldering voice, carefully abstracted. It’s all perfectly timed percussion and field recordings and what’s brilliant about her production is how unlike everything else coming out of bedrooms across Australia. From the abstracted vocals of Dash to the Eastern sounding Ether Imaginings, the album is sophisticated exploration that has seen her music soar since her 2010 debut, the equally lovely 1 Palm to Palm. And I absolutely cannot wait for her next. Both albums are free to download here.
Sofie
Sydney’s Sofie Loizou has been on the electronic music scene for a while. A Red Bull Music Academy graduate, she’s played at festivals like Laneway and Peats Ridge here in Aus and overseas at Outlook Festival (one of Europe’s leading festivals for bass music) as well as LA’s infamous Low End Theory earlier this year. Her first release was in 2010 on vinyl that saw her garner attention from plenty of online tastemakers and in 2012 her debut EP Forward Backward through Sub Continental Dub.
As for her music, ‘mind-blowing’ comes to mind. A classically trained musician, composer and media artist alongside her production talent, her music is without boundaries. From the emotive Saturday Night Blues to the hypnotic sounding Aphoria Horizonte to the soft strings from her older work Bio Mimicry there is nothing that Sofie can’t make lush and delicate. Alongside her namesake, she produces under the alias Anomie which is a psychedelic and darker take on bass music, emphasising her interest in politics and revolution (check out the stunningly glitchy Yesterday’s Promise of Tomorrow). Definitely, Sofie is an artist to watch out for.
Sui Zhen
From limited-edition vinyls to stunning videos, there is nothing that Becky Freeman – also known as Sui Zhen – makes that I don’t admire. Like Sofie, she’s a Red Bull Music Academy (class of 2010) graduate – who also played at Sonar Festival – and one half of Melbourne’s loveliest duo Fox + Sui. Her music sits in those limitless genre names of ‘electronic’ and ‘pop’ and is both exotic and bittersweet. Her soft vocals play over tropical production that combines anything that strikes her – from glockenspiel to piano to African chants to vocals that could be equally at home in a lullaby or a house track. Her first album, 2012’s Two Seas combines her thoughtfully arranged music and her beautifully emotive voice. Using the subtlest effects and inspired lyrics, it’s like some sort of folk-electronic music. I adore it. Her latest release, the catchy, schoolyard-nostalgic Midriffs even features a Beastie Boys cover. Her talents, as I mentioned before, aren’t confined to just music either. She’s an incredible video director, making her own basketball-meets-fizzy-drink video for her single Midriffs. She’s also done gruesome and awesome visuals for the latest from Sydney artist Rainbow Chan. There are whispers of another EP this year, but in the meantime check out her previous releases on Bandcamp.
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