Tornado Wallace

Melbourne, Australia’s Lewis Day records deep, disco/boogie-influenced house tracks under the name Tornado Wallace. He initially began releasing tracks as Lewie Day during the mid-2000s before adopting the Tornado Wallace moniker by the end of the decade. He began releasing 12″ singles of lush, summery grooves on labels such as Delusions of Grandeur and Sleazy Beats, and by 2011 he had developed a rigorous touring schedule, spending much of his time in London and Berlin as well as Australia. He remixed tracks by Cut Copy, Matthew Dear, and Recloose, in addition to releasing further original productions on ESP Institute and Beats in Space. He also formed Coober Pedy University Band, a “Krautback” duo influenced by indigenous music as well as Berlin School cosmic electronics, with Tom Moore (aka Otologic). The title track to their 2013 debut, Moon Plain, featured vocals by a then-obscure Nick Murphy (Chet Faker). Gradually, Wallace’s records became trippier, spacier, and more unusual, moving away from his earlier disco-house style to a more exotic, Balearic/Fourth World-type sound. The 2016 EP Falling Sun was released by Music from Memory sister label Second Circle, and the full-length Lonely Planet, Wallace’s most ambitious outing to date, arrived on Gerd Janson’s Running Back label in 2017. EP for Animals Dancing followed later in the year. ~ Paul Simpson