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Honeysmack (David Haberfield)

Author: Andrez
Sunday, January 1, 1995
Here in Melbourne David Haberfield runs the media gauntlet with a weekly column in 'Zebra', a show on the fledgling Kiss-FM, a send-up soapie called 'The Adventures Of Honeysmack' on Channel 31 and Optus Vision, and regular talk-back appearances on PBS FM. Taking things still further, David produces techno under the alter egos of Pura, Honeysmack, Pfifco, PIN (with collaborator Voiteck) and Graham Mono (with Soulenoid and Guyver 3), and to date his releases have come through on local labels If- Records and Blue Sector and are about to see the light of day on overseas imprints Pulsar, Analog and Uptown. He's also one of Melbourne's more up-front live acid techno artists, having scintillated audiences at clubs such as Filter and Chinese Laundry, and will headline next week's Zoetrope 2 party alongside Zen Paradox.


Apart from his erstwhile activities as a producer, David also runs his own label called Smelly Records and to date he's had six releases through this outlet - five vinyl offerings and a compilation CD of Melbourne acid-based producers including Pura, Pfifco, Graham Mono and Honeysmack.


Never content to rest on his laurels, this guy's big putsch continues into 1997. "We have a new Honeysmack record coming out called 'Smack My Crack', and that will be released through an American distributor - it's got 'Snare Stare' from the compilation on it plus three other antacid tracks." Antacid- Here David allows himself one of those all-consuming, disarmingly over-the-top grins that would scare any canary in the vicinity. "Well, it's not like that typical squelchy acid; it's more a bass-driven sound. In fact two of the tracks don't have any acid at all but they're still composed as acid tracks. After that release I hope to have out a total of ten Smelly records by mid-year, and one of those will be a second Smelly compilation."


David seems to be getting more prolific in his old age. "Yeah, I've also got a track coming out on Analog Records in the USA and there's the stuff I've licensed to Uptown in Germany, which they'll be releasing through a new label called Molecular. Also DJ Hyperactive has started up a new label called Amp because he's had some problems with Contact, so he's ask for some of my stuff for that; he's also going to remix one of my tracks. I'm waiting to hear back from Ian Pooley, Freddie Fresh and Steve Stoll in relation to other remixes but they seemed keen, while Damon Wild hasn't confirmed but he said he was interested."


And there's more: "I'm also doing what's known as The Kung Fu Delecto Master Featuring The Invisible Man On Drums for Freddie Fresh's Socket label. It's a joint thing between Freddie and I where he came up with the beats and I rearranged them and filled it out; then he'll go back and reprocess it all."


To somebody who's never heard his music, it would be interesting to see how David would describe it, and he grabs at the opportunity with relish. "I reckon it's a really monotonous, repetitive sound; there aren't that many moves and it's ultra-minimal in composition. I've been hearing lots of this kind of style coming out of New York especially and then there's stuff like The Advent as well. Their 'Shaded Elements' was a fantastic release. It's a quadruple vinyl release as well as o

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