Aural Australia #3 - Feral Ferocity

Life is rough and stuff. Time to get feral.

Ausmuteants won't give a shit what I write here anyway. The Melbourne punk wastoids have made that abundantly clear with their track 'Music Writers' off new record Band Of The Future (out now through Aarght!) - an acerbic vomit that pierces the bubble on critics, both of the page and from within the scene. But you can never take these guys seriously - the album title alone throws shade on their Devo shadings, carving themselves of the Marty McFly's of proto-punk's past, flitting back and forward, changing history by deliberately crushing bugs, ripping off butterflies' wings, and beating mouthbreathers at their own game. Plus BOTF builds on last record Order of Operation's clarity, injecting the slicker sonics with familiar spit, pace and leers. The rants and tantrums are as visceral and zanily ridiculous as we have come to expect, yet even more infectious, like a sandblasted canker, with that rank synth whirr throwing us into the surreal and absurd. Nailgun blasts of punk that leaves slackjawed wonder in its wake, with bumps of T-Rex glam and Boggles wrongness to ingest. In short, brilliant. (But what does any of this even mean? What the fuck would I know? Just listen to it already.)

The Peep Tempel released one of Sonic Masala's favourite albums of 2015, Tales, and one of the most underrated rock acts in the country are back with a killer song and video for 'Rayguns'. A bullshit crazy newslogue purge with rolling-news lyrics, .gif ready stock clips fused to the band revelling in their zero-fucks chicanery. It comes from 3rd LP Joy, which promises to get deep into the human psyche and wade maniacally in the roiling chaos. There are still a great degree of Australian grotesquery and humour in their offerings though - opener 'Kalgoorlie' alone lends whiffs of Wake In Fright horror. And while we are at it, below this excellent video is another taste of the album (out later this month through Wing Sing Records), 'Totality'.

Screamfeeder closing out our second Sonic Masala Fest is still (and will always remain) a defining moment in my life. The band have continued to play together and release the periodic new song since re-releasing their albums on vinyl through Poison City Records, and 'Karen Trust Me' is the latest ebullient slice. They have their miasmic noise pop down pat - every chord change, swelling squall, cymbal crash and Steward/Lloyd harmony is present and accounted for, embedded with myriad hooks of all persuasions that it is impossible to remain impervious to its charms. It's enough to keep the withdrawal at bay until their promised 8th album in 2017.

Back to the insanity then. Melbourne punk messes Mesa Cosa have crafted a pagan travesty for their film clip for new track 'Stone Bone'. Still riding the serrated ridge between raucous psychedelic and fucked-up garage rock, the madmen don marsupial, Ex-President and Simpsons masks while running rank in the wilderness, destroying their instruments, TVs and other paraphernalia to climax in a jerrycan-fuelled bonfire for the ages. The boys spend a good portion of the time with their heads impaled on sticks too. They have sold their soul, sacrificed their body bags, and lost their minds - all for our eternal benefit.

Members of Freak Wave, Iowa and Camp Cope join forces to travel back in time to flannel fuzz Valhalla in TV Haze, an act inimitably indebted to Dinosaur Jr in both rambling guitar rock and dry, warbled vocal delivery. The 90s throwbacks continue, but with this self-titled effort it feels warranted, a welcome addition that climbs to the upper echelons of their contemporaries, yet steeped in Australian music nostalgia. They are playing some massive shows in Melbourne next month too supporting the aforementioned Screamfeeder as well as playing alongside SM faves Pale Heads, Ouch My Face and Summer Flake.

We will finish with post-punks Gold Class who are making their way back to Europe after a successful stint over here earlier in the year. New track 'Kids On Fire' feels (to me at least) a mix between obvious signifiers (Joy Division, The Smiths) and more rugged outliers (slowed motorik Hey Colossus, and The Spinning Rooms - really! - with the little guitar lick that strikes me like Joe's saxophone - maybe I just miss those guys so much). The film clip IS Gold Class - black and white, smoked lens, white on black, Venetian shadow, strobe glare. Urgent earnestness. The guys play in London at The Victoria October 26 with The Bodies - it looks to be a tense affair.

A Final Rush Before The Year Ends...#3 (and final - Happy New Year!)

Last post of the year! Time to down tools and get drinking. So here are ten final releases I missed in the latter stages of '15 that really are special...

Pronto are a Melbourne powerhouse that somehow manage to remain under the radar. Their first album of last year was rad - now Slovenly Records has picked up their second, dual-self-monikered record, and it is more of the same raucous garage punk with Sharpie/pub rock flourishes. 'No Balance' is more eye-gouging reckless than evident of flair - very inner Melbourne gutter swillers, then (an infinite compliment of course). Listening to 'Animal', however, and I get a rush as if listening to Coloured Balls - and a tear in the eye, cos I reckon Stevie Wright of the Easybeats woulda loved these guys. Totally unheralded (in my opinion), Pronto should be in everyone's record collection - get on this before the countdown begins tonight.

Us The Band hail from Sydney, and are linked with Rice Is Nice. I hadn't heard of them until last week - they are definitely slaying with grandstand party noise a la DZ Deathrays, with a slathering of Cloud Nothings aggression. They are impressing the likes of FatCat Records and one Henry Rollins, so expect a massive 2016 from the two-piece (yep, all from just two dudes - it shouldn't be a surprise anymore, really!)

How I missed this one is beyond me, seeing as good mate Leigh is such a big fan too. The Mantles released a new record in All Odds End. Along with Salad Boys' Metalmania, which I mentioned yesterday, had I known this was out earlier this would have been in my top 20 releases of the year (I guess that means it's been extended to 22?). Ten tracks of tempered temporal guitar pop ecstasy.



if you are a fan of Thrill Jockey Records and/or Wrekmeister Harmonies, you would already be all over Night Of Your Ascension. A year long work with thirty-odd musicians coming through the carousel, joining JR Robinson on his endless journey into the bucolic Gothic night. People like Marissa Nadler, Bitchin Bajas/Cave-man Cooper Crain and Alexander Hack are here, but there isn't any true touchstone. There is so much happening here, that a couple of listens hasn't done it justice. I will have to wait until my partner is out of the house to fully submerge in this primordial excursion, but suffice to say it calls to me - and you.

California and psych music tends to sprawl, invite the sun right in. Santa Cruz' Mammatus aren't all that different. Their new double LP is called Sparkling Waters, the cover art is a wave crashing over rocks under a crystal blue sky, and the first 22 minute odyssey, 'Sparkling Waters Part One', starts with a shimmering ambient cascade of chimes and elongated sonorous drone. This is shattered though by some feedback, noodling, freewheeling drums and crunching riffs. The entire song goes in different slipstreams that it is hard to hold onto whatever buzz you are supposed to have - and this is just the first act, there are three more sides to explore! I have a feeling I will be revisiting this more and more as they madness seeps into my pores.

Mike Krol is a layabout garage comedian, dressing in police uniforms and spouting silliness with a delirious stare and gurning grin. He is not hiding any rock credulity though, because Turkey is the real deal - despite singing about taking figurative/literal vengeance on offending exes, bike stealers, cacti, or his garage rock brethren, he does it all with a knowing, spit-flinging nonchalance that belies the incredible hooks embedded within. I am only just getting into this - I actually bought it last night on my way home from the pub - but I can't wait to witness this in action in 2016.

I know nothing of Quebec duo Ponctuation, other than a friend from France had this on at his place over Christmas and it has blown me away. I only found out the band was from Quebec about twenty minutes ago. When listening to it in a haze of pot and red wine, I heard Syd Barrett, Thee Oh Sees, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, early Strokes, Ty Segall, Tim Presley... La Realite Nous Suffit is so good. And there is only one LP left with the band, so grab it here now!

I have been promising to write about It's You, the debut album from Melbourne's Gold Class, for months now. I actually had it pencilled for review with a new writer for Sonic Masala - which fell through. Suffice to say that it is very good - an unabashed Joy Division take on Australian soil, Adam Curley's baritone howl both maudlin and a siren call out into the faceless night. The band is so tight, weaving nimbly from barbed post-punk to shuffling-behind-shutters blues without jarred displacement. Gold Class rule their domain. Favourite tracks - 'Furlong' and 'Athena'.

Very little electronic stuff in the last thirty odd releases I've raced through over the past two days - so here is Howl, from London's Rival Consoles (which you can get on delicious red vinyl). Admittedly the gamut of the album has been created using manual instruments over digital hardware, but Ryan West's intent is to swallow you up into the deep silk darkness of his suites, but to pinball you, careen you against the surfaces of his songs, so that you feel them, can touch the cuts and bruises, to truly connect. There are no slipstreams - this is a construct made of solid constructions, so that you find your own pathways, your own hooks to latch on to. An album that keeps on rewarding, shifting minutely depending on time/mood/atmosphere/lighting/hydration levels/inebriation levels... You can tell I really enjoyed Howl.

French madman The Dictaphone has, on Hazmat, created a time capsule that should be treated with care. You can tell by the rattling of the box that there are components within actively fighting each other, like the teeth of cogs not truly made for each other, straining, gnashing, pressure rising to breaking point. A post-punk realism is underscored with freewheeling, loose-limbed, barely on the tracks experimental punk flights of fantasy, so that you are never sure what you are actually listening to. Maybe this is a chimera, and once ingested will take its true form, a quivering mass of extraterrestrial psych rock in compact form. Wonderfully weird.

And as we wind out 2015, I thought we could finish with Chicago bad seeds Gross Pointe. Their EP is out now on Hozac Records. It has been a wild and woolly year - some euphoric highs, but more devastating lows. Let's hope there are less bad seeds and we sow more of our own in 2016. Count me out!

Tethered Slump On The Rise

One of the strongest DIY bands doing the rounds here in London is Vertical Slump. Featuring members of Shopping/Gloss Rejection/Omi Palome/Circuit Breaker, they take a frantic post-punk stance and inject it with some synth squall insanity. There are some Australian touchstones here that seems consistent with underground scenes - see the likes of Ausmuteants, Total Control or Gold Class, three Melbourne bands that bear reference here. 'Tether' is the first taste to come from the band's debut 7", and it's an agitated buzzsaw that plateaus into a warm chloroform hazed dream when the chorus hits - not necessarily a light at the end of the gloaming, but respite from the tension. It's a delectable slice of monochrome madness. Ruined Value comes out soon through Icecapades - pre-order it here.

Michael's Gone Gold Class

Here is yet another "new" Australian band to take in and be excited about. I remember seeing the name Gold Class on a poster for a Sunday School show at the Public Bar in Melbourne, I think in April or May? But never really cottoned on to them - and it seems I've really been missing out. Listening to the Michael/Gone release, I have this weird conflicted notion that I've somehow wedged The Smiths' Meat Is Murder and Wire's 154 into the same piece of 7" wax. Adam Curley's baritone does hold some of that Morrissey moan, but the cutting guitar and insistent rhythms does recall his cohorts; whilst the tapered aggression that simmers under the surface evokes Colin Newman et al at the more measured. It is all decidedly dark hued and downer (Brit)pop, which alone lends it an unique place on the current Australian music milieu, but Gold Class exude a sense of literate sensibility that is also very exciting. I can't wait to hear more from the four-piece.



Gold Class release the 7" next month. You can catch them in Brisbane on Fri 24 October at The Bearded Lady (supported by Dag) and the following night at Trainspotters (with Multiple Man and Per Purpose serving props). These will be excellent shows - get along.