VOLT 2023: Volition Archive

Despite never having met him, Robert Racic holds a special place in my heart.

In 1985, when I was 17, my father sold our family farm in Griffith, New South Wales, and we moved to Gosford on the NSW Central Coast.

A short while after settling into our new home I was excited to discover that I could get Triple J (2JJJ) on the radio at night, albeit a slightly weak signal.

One Friday night I tuned in to find there was a DJ mix show on air and the DJs, Robert Racic and Andy Glitre, were playing the most amazing dance tracks. Throughout the show they played short, pre-recorded program and station ID’s, and I believe the show was called “Constant Dance Music”.

One track in particular instantly appealed to me, and it was back announced as “Sub-culture” by New Order. I instantly loved the track so much that I jumped on a train to Sydney the following Sunday to try to find the 12″ single!

I went to about six record stores in Sydney’s CBD, around George and Pitt Streets, but none had “Sub-culture” in stock. However, I returned home with the 12″ of “Blue Monday” and so began my love for New Order, now my favourite band.

So, I feel I owe it to Robert that I was introduced to New Order.

Later, in 1987, during my first year of media studies in Lismore, New South Wales, I bought the 12″ single of “Hot With Fleas” by Severed Heads.

I’d always had a keen ear for the production behind music, and was blown away by the rhythmic, stuttering effects within Robert’s edit of “Hot With Fleas”, which I later learnt were produced by splicing tape, no simple feat. I thought he was an absolute genius.

Over the following years I was excited to hear all of what Robert worked on, and really appreciated his own musical projects on Volition under the names Magicman and dB Love.

In 1996, I was deeply saddened to hear of Robert’s death.

Fast forward 30 years, and a few months before writing this I was stunned by a message from Virginia Moncrieff, partner of Volition Records head the late Andrew Penhallow.

Virginia had been going through some of Andrew’s collection of paraphernalia and came across a letter I wrote to him in 1996, expressing my sorrow and condolences at Robert’s passing. I don’t remember writing the letter at all!

As I publish this post on the 30th anniversary of Robert’s passing, I hope everybody who knew him, or simply knew his music, will remember him with love.

I contacted a number of people who knew and/or worked with Robert for their memories, and I share some of those here:

“I remember Robert as a perfectionist, a true ground breaking innovator, childlike in some ways, though I’m convinced that true creatives have to retain the childlike wonder to “play” and make mistakes then suddenly realise you like the mistake. You know what I mean?

Robert and I became not only good friends and colleagues but almost like siblings. We would sometimes finish each others’ sentences or be able to read each others’ minds just by a look. He had a wicked sense of humour, was cheeky, quite an exhibitionist, and was a loyal and kind friend.

He has to be one of the most important people to have passed through my life because I honestly would never have thought of entering the world of mastering if it hadn’t been for him.” [Kathy Naunton, dB Mastering]

“I often tell people that mastering is a dark art, and that observation was based on my experiences with Robert and his equally brilliant partner at dB mastering Kathy Naunton.

I don’t know what they did to our tracks exactly. They went through hardware and software that I had never heard of, and always came out sounding warmer, bouncier and more primal. Robert had the mind of a musician and arranger. He would add magic sprinkles. He would also help us edit our tracks down to neat and tidy proportions. ‘A nip and a tuck, that’s what these tracks need’, he once said.” [Andy Rantzen, Itch-E & Scratch-E]

In 1997 post their Volition years, Paul Mac and Andy Rantzen began recording as Boo & Mace, and released the single “Flowers In The Sky” (CD single, dista-31053.2) on Australian label Prozaac Recordings. The track was dedicated to the memory of Robert.

“I was a clueless newbie trying to make my own tracks inspired by a handful of Detroit techno and Chicago house compilations and the first Deee-Lite album. I had a sampler, a synthesiser, a drum machine and a small mixer. My only source of information was ‘Music Technology’ magazine from the UK. At the time, Sydney had a thriving club and party scene and I knew Robert’s name and reputation as a DJ, producer and remixer. The Sydney Morning Herald published a small profile of him although these skills still seemed arcane and exotic.

I heard that Volition was looking for material for a compilation of new electronic dance music so I sent in a few tracks and had one selected. Robert mastered the release with his studio partner Kathy Naunton and apparently liked my track. I went around to his terrace house in Surry Hills with a few demos and rough ideas just to chat and hopefully get some advice or feedback. The day I visited I was carrying a couple of CDs I’d just bought – Ultra Nate’s ‘One Woman’s Insanity’ and ‘Plantation Lullabies’ by Meshell Ndegeocello. Luckily, Robert approved of both. It was a beautiful early summer day and we walked down to Stanley Street for a coffee.

The next time I visited, Robert was working on a remix of ‘In the Neighbourhood’ by Sisters Underground in his little home studio. The cabling and patch bay had been handmade for him and he was obviously committed to having the best sound quality possible. He said, ‘I’m going to put you on the spot’, and asked me to sequence some parts for the remix. I asked what he wanted but he just said, ‘I don’t know – just do what you do’. I came up with some basic percussive chords and a little melody, which he kept.

One day we walked down Oxford Street to Central Station Records. He introduced me to a couple of the staff who I got to know a little bit and who suggested new releases they thought I might enjoy. Central Station could be a bit of a bun fight so I really appreciated this.

Robert was funny, smart, generous, sarcastic and bitchy in the best way. He often wore short shorts because he had great legs.

He had very broad taste and knowledge of many kinds of music, from Led Zeppelin to Nina Simone. His perspective was always interesting because he understood that details matter as much as the big picture. He said he was previously so obsessed with record sleeve notes and other information that he could tell you the name of the person who farted during a particularly legendary recording session, but that he no longer cared about this type of minutiae.

I moved interstate just after this time but occasionally kept in touch when I visited Sydney. One time I called but he seemed vague and disoriented so we didn’t meet. Some time after I heard from a mutual friend that he had passed away. I think of him often and miss his company. He was one of the few people that really made an impact on my ongoing interest in making music.” [Philip Mcgarva aka Play aka Microworld]

“I first met Robert Racic when he wandered into the recording studios in Darlinghurst, Sydney where Boxcar were recording tracks for the album “Vertigo”. Dave Smith will not doubt be able to fill you in as to what the studio was called. I can’t recall sorry.

I seem to remember Robert wearing yellow dungarees with a Rockmelons T-shirt. He had a cool look about him. He’d remixed their track “New Groove”, which we’d all been listening to a lot because we loved the production. Their album “Tales Of The City” had a Scritti Politti vibe to it, especially the drum programming.

Robert lived in a Sydney mid terrace house down a lane just off of Oxford Street. Whilst it was small it was all he needed and his work space upstairs was also quite compact. I believe he had an AKAI S900 sampler and a Roland D110 rack amongst other things, plus a mixing desk, speakers and a facility for cutting and splicing reel to reel tapes. I felt honoured to be able to have seen his studio work space and it made a great impression on me. It is one of the reasons I still have an AKAI sampler and Roland D110 to this day.

Whilst Robert was gay, and I am straight, he took great delight in teasing me about it. I’d grown up around gay people all of my life so didn’t mind. It was his dry sense of humour.

One night we called round to his place and he offered to make tea for everyone. I usually have milk and one sugar. As we were all chatting and laughing Robert seemed to keep looking over at me with a sly grin. As I kept sipping, suddenly an erect ceramic penis slowly emerged from my milky tea! He’d got me again! We all cracked up.

He also took great pleasure in winding me up about my drumming and drum programming. I’d often ask, did you like my drums? And he’d say, “No!” but always with a sly grin.

On one occasion we’d played a live gig that had been recorded to multitrack. He was tasked with remixing it. I’d had trouble monitoring the foldback that night and one of my drum pads was mistriggering due to the vibrations on stage. Robert wasn’t best pleased about my drum take that night, and I didn’t blame him. These things happen sometimes when performing live. For a drummer to be able to remain locked in with the sequencers during a live gig, the foldback has to be perfect so as to be able to drum in time. I subsequently learned to use headphones with my own submixer on stage. This resolved many of these issues. Robert did an excellent job of remixing that gig, and reworking my drums.

He was a master in his field and I had immense respect for him. He was taken far too early and his career was about to go ballistic. Thankfully I still possess most of his work on vinyl and enjoy taking time to revisit, and be inspired by this exhilarating period of early Australian dance music history.” [Crispin Trist, Boxcar, Celtic Kings Of Rock]

“I didn’t know Robert that well, we were both DJ’s on the scene at the same time with Robert starting 2 years on Oxford St before I did. But I have a few memories I’d like to share.

The first being that one of Robert’s first DJ residencies was at Club 45 on Oxford street near Patchs nightclub.

I remember one day in 1983, summertime if I remember rightly, and there was a chalk board outside of Club 45 advertising “DJ wanted”. I was still living at home with my parents but I really wanted to DJ so bad. I got back to my parents house at Marrickville and looked up Club 45’s telephone number and called them up. Damn! The DJ position had been filled. I went out on the weekend and guess who had filled that role? Robert!

I remember him playing records like Heaven 17 “Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry” and mixing it beautifully into Thomas Dolby “She Blinded Me With Science”. Other records he was playing at the time were Public Image Limited “Death Disco” and Machinations “No Say In It”.

The DJ booth was so tiny and you had to climb up a ladder to get into the booth. When I started working there in 1986 the booth had moved. I remember one night when I was DJing there I was telling Robert how much I liked his Eurogliders remix of “Absolutely” and he turned to me and said “Oh that… absolutely boring”.

One time I rang Robert up to book him in a session to master some of my re-edits on a label James Fraser and I had called ACE DJ remix service. On the phone we were talking about Mardi Gras and how did his set go that night. I’ll never forget his words, he said, “I was fucking brilliant as usual”.

When I was in the session with James, Robert could not help but tap his feet along to our edit of Toni Peron’s “Walk Away Lover”, a totally cheesy and fabulous pop track. Robert was very cool but I know he did like pop dance.

Which reminds me of having to pick up Robert’s CBS records promo bag for him at one time. He couldn’t make the usual CBS promo meetings as I think he was in the studio. I picked up his pack and I was trying to be all cool and pretending not to like Kylie’s latest 12″ when he said, What’s wrong with Kylie? Why don’t you like her?” It was back in the days of her really early stuff when she wasn’t yet a “credible” artist! And of course what’s wrong with Kylie? She is amazing!

I saw Robert out many times over the years. I was so shy and almost a little afraid of him. Not long after Robert passed away.

Stephen Allkins (Robert’s partner of many years) and I have been very close friends since around 1998. Stephen has told me a few times how Robert would have really liked me. If only I hadn’t been so shy or intimated by him since the early 80’s.

I loved many of Robert’s remixes and really appreciate those tracks that he worked on even more as the years go by. What a great talent.

I also remember my friend DJ Kevin Jones mentioning to me around 1986 or ’87 that Robert was living in NYC for a few months and was about to work with Arthur Baker and Rocker’s Revenge. Wow!

I also remember hearing A & R (Allkins & Racic working as a remix team) edits for the very first time around 1984. A friend named Eddie brought a cassette tape over to my parents place that had some A & R edits on them. Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and I think Yazoo’s “Situation” was one. Such a long time ago but I know that Triple J radio used to play them. Stephen has since given me some of their very early edits.

I gotta say that Stephen and Robert helped inspire me to do my own tape edits. I went and bought a reel to reel tape machine and started creating my own edits and special mixes in early 1991. And to this day I edit music for my DJ sets here in San Francisco. So Robert has had a lot of influence on me over the years!

For my 59th birthday recently my wife Wilma got this picture from the 1991 Mardi Gras DJ line up put on canvas for me. I see it every day now!

I love this photo so much and it brings back great memories of a very different time. Pictured are Rob Davis, Paul Holden, Craig Truslove, Robert, Stephen Allkins, Bill Morley, Brent Nichols and little old me (hiding up the back).” [Paul Goodyear, DJ, producer, remix artist]

“I have fond memories of the late great Robert Racic.

I began following his work with Severed Heads and danced many times to his sets at The Hordern Pavilion.

One of my favorite parties was ‘Big Time’ with Robert Racic and Stephen Allkins; they played all night.

I asked him to play at one of the first raves I promoted in the early 90s, ‘Mixed Beans’, and it was an honour to have him on the decks. He arrived early and was very humble to work with. A pioneer of Aussie dance music.” [DJ Abel el’toro]

Vale Robert Racic (8 January 1964 – 25 October 1996)