Bio – Binary Distortion

Christy started DJing under the moniker of tixEoN in the late 90’s when DJ friends over-utilized the unlimited free drinks remuneration to the point where they couldn’t stand unassisted, and needed someone to successfully navigate CD’s from the case into the decks and press play at the appropriate time. Basic DJing skills were learnt quickly, resulting in being given time slots under the moniker of tixEoN. In 1999 they became a regular DJ in the Adelaide alternative club scene, playing sets of 90’s industrial and what was then known as noise (now more commonly referred to as glitch).

The Cybernoize years 2000-2007

In the early 2000’s Christy joined forces with the newly formed Cybernoize crew in Adelaide and worked with them to put on regular industrial and noise (glitch) nights. The pinnacle of the Cybernoize crews’ resume whilst in Adelaide was a gig in early 2001 with the headliner Black Lung (their musical idol at the time), at which tixEoN was the support DJ. In 2002, Christy and two the other Cybernoize crew members moved to Melbourne, moving Cybernoize with them. Christy played a pivotal role in the organisation and promotion of regular Cybernoize nights run in Melbourne from 2002 to 2007, as well as DJing at most of them (under a new DJ name, Binary Distortion). It is estimated that Cybernoize ran over 30 events in Melbourne during this period. Some of the highlights were:

Iszoloscope (Canada) and Black Lung – 3 September 2004
Lenny D, Mark N, Paul Blackout and Cambion – 17 March 2007
Dysphemic, Killjoy and Sado – 5 May 2007
DJ Producer, Paul Balckout, Mark N, Dysphemic – 23 November 2007

Perhaps the biggest highlight of the Cybernoize years was the Distorted Festival 2005. This was a major venture that flew in 5 international acts, and brought in over 15 local acts over all 3 levels of Brown Alley for 12 hours of live music. The festival was widely recognised as a great success by all involved (if your measurement of success is happy punters and producers/venue/sound techs all being paid what they were promised. If you measure success by profits (which we don’t) then it missed the mark by quite a bit). Christy played a pivotal role in organising this event and site/artist management on the day. After the major financial and emotional outlay of the Distorted Festival, Cybernoize took a bit of a break from regular events, putting on just three more large scale gigs before disbanding at the end of 2007.

Branching out

Somewhere in amongst the Cybernoize years, Christy’s DJ name changed to Binary Distortion and they started to play at other events that enabled a wider scope to play different styles of music, namely glitch and IDM. Between 2003 and 2005 Binary Distortion became a regular at Uncomfort and Teratology; the glitch nights at Pony Bar. Binary Distortion also become a resident DJ at the hardcore night CRACK in the late 2000’s (playing hardcore techno and breakcore) and a local dark psytrance night Psyclotron in 2007 (playing dark psytrance).

Reining it in

After over a decade of prolific DJ’ing across a wide range of genres, Binary Distortion took a break from regular DJing. In the late 2000’s they got firmly back into the doofing scene as a punter and developed a deep appreciation for the enhanced quality of music in an outdoor environment, so much so that the mere thought of attending indoor gigs was no longer an option. They abandoned DJing at club gigs almost entirely, instead opting for occasional sets playing Glitch, electrohouse and Dubstep at outdoor and warehouse parties (for crews such as Crack, Destroy Ordinary and Noizekids, as well as private doofs).

Coming out of the woodwork

In the last few years their passion for guiding a crowd through a musical journey has been renewed, with a range of opportunities presenting themselves. Binary Distortion has played at numerous outdoor festival events in the last 7 years including Dragon Dreaming (2017, 2018 and 2022), Collaborations Festival (QLD, 2017), Rainbow Serpent (chill stage 2015 and 2016), Earthcore theme camp (The Brink, 2015), Yemaya theme camp (The Brink, 2016), Tree Psyde (2016), Thickly Spread, Cedartek (old school hardcore vinyl set), Interzona and Cybertronic.

With the reduction of doofs due to COVID, a number of local picnic events emerged, giving Binary Distrotion the opportunity to revisit the breakcore and hardcore genres (Improper rythums and NoizeKids Night Picnic) as well as online events (Streamclash and Speed Comp).

A more comprehensive listing of the events Binary Distortion has played at can be found in the experience section.