Alchemy (1998)

Australia's first television program focusing on dance and electronic music. This late-night show quickly became a cult phenomenon after interviews with Australian artists The Avalanches, Pnau, Infusion, B(ift)ek and internationals Bjork, The Chemical Brothers, Run DMC, Fatboy Slim, Underworld and Carl Cox. The show was a follow-on from the world music and hip hop-focused radio program Alchemy on SBS Radio established by Frank Rodi, but became more interested in the contemporary movements of all electronic music, extending to House, Techno, Drum 'n' Bass with a genuine interest in ambient electronica and IDM. The hour-long, weekly show had an interesting structure being hosted in the studio by three VJ/presenters: Frank Rodi (of SBS Radio), Robbie Buck (then of ABC Radio Triple J) and Nicole Fossati (a music promoter and occasional ABC Radio DJ). The shows had a mix of video clips, music charts and interviews with the artists along with a section titled the 'Scrapbook' which explored a more documentary approach to those with obsessive tendencies in collecting or producing music. Two special hour-long episodes were dedicated to German Electronica and also to the UK artist Aphex Twin. The show took an experimental and exploratory approach to its format, playing with the self-referential (edits were occasionally punctuated with a graphic reading "edit"; text read via a teleprompter was overlaid in mirror over the footage of the presenter reading it; interviews were intercut and remixed into the music played by the artist), many dance floor tracks which did not yet have a video clip had clips produced in-house on a weekly basis and interviews were often held in strange or outrightly stupid locations and environments (David Thrussell was interviewed by Rodi whilst swimming in the infamous overhanging lap pool of the Adelphi Hotel in Melbourne; other interviews were held via security camera, in moving vehicles or shot on a stills camera and re-filmed off a slide projector). This interest in the visual side of music culture extended to being the first music show in Australia to credit the director of the video clip alongside the music producer and record company.