Dressed In Wild Colonial Gold & Red

Brisbane's Nikko have been busy with supports for ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Boris, plus having made a brief sojourn to Melbourne. And although one member still lies ensconced in that chilly city, and other projects have occupied some (Ryan Potter's The Scrapes and The Maryettas getting shows around Brisbane), they are about to drag you further down into their darkly eloquent Gothic Outback Western apocrypha as they prepare to drop new LP Gold & Red through the stellar tenzenmen Records (alongside Music Fix).

Opening with the brooding, ominous 'The Child', Nikko envelop you with their atmospheric wall of sound, here perfectly captured by Cam Smith (of Tiny Spiders/Ghost Notes/St Augustus fame, and whose recording efforts include Velociraptor and the mighty No Anchor) in the cavernous orchestral hall of Brisbane's historic Old Museum. In fact, such an environment is perfectly suited to the band's melodic post-rock steeped aesthetic, with that lost country twang in the saddle also (the drawl of 'About The Spirit' perfectly exemplifies this). Aaron Cupples (The Drones, Snowman) and Nao Anzai (Laura, Because of Ghosts) mixed and mastered respectively, and their presence is immediate. Anzai in particular is well versed in these instrumental-based multi-layered sounds. Ryan Potter's voice is beautifully captured here, which isn't an easy task (his deep baritone can lose its rich timbre if not mixed properly). In fact Gold & Red is epic in every sense, the noisy moments are incredibly emotive, the quiet moments offered enough space to dance to its own tune without feeling perfunctory. 'Never Danced' is one of the most beautiful songs they have ever created, whilst the chugging rush of 'Dark Eyes' is a locomotive of smouldering tension. The title track is the most likely to evoke Western epics like Deadwood or The Proposition in its plaintive plinks, the itch before the storm, and it is the perfect example of how clever and evocative these guys' compositions are.


Nikko continue to carve a unique path across the Australian musical landscape, and Gold & Red is further proof that such rustic post-rock mysticism is warranted - nay, vital - to our Australian musical landscape.

The album is out on CD soon, and later on gold & red vinyl - I'm gettin' me some o that! They are also launching the album at The Waiting Room on Saturday June 23, as well as having an in store at Tyms in July before embarking on a national tour.

Royal Headache/Dick Diver Gig

just a quickie here. As previously mentioned, Harvest (featuring Portishead, Flaming Lips, Mogwai, The National, Holy Fuck and a host of others) hists Brisbane's Botanical Gardens tomorrow, followed by the amazing iPhone replaying of the Flaming Lips' epic Zaireeka album as orchestrated by Wayne Coyne himself. Also on that night will be Melbourne's great exponents of post rock atmospherics Laura, playing at Woodland. But if you want to start your music overdose early, get to Woodland tonight, as the bands responsible for two of the most exciting albums of 2011 are converging for a night of drunken passion.


Royal Headache (self-titled) and Dick Diver (Now Start Again - listen to the whole thing here) are going to blow everyone away, and this is a promise. Very exciting! Supported by local act Loose Grip, and at just a tenner, this promises to be a stellar show.

(As a side note, my mate (and now brother-in-law) can't get into RH because the vocalist sounds too much like Ted Leo. As I haven't seen them live yet, I cant pass on the definitive verdict - but that summation is fucking funny.)

Royal Headache - Down The Lane

Dick Diver - Through The D from Chapter Music on Vimeo.

I Love Laura 1200 Times Over

Here is an album that I didn't even know I was looking forward to!

Melbourne instrumental act Laura put out two great albums in the mid-2000s, Mapping Your Dreams and Radio Swan is Down, as well as live album (re)Capitulate. I came to the band from this last release and fell in love with these ambient rockers, quickly working backwards through these two albums. I then promptly went overseas and thought that was it - all was quiet on the Laura front. It appears that life got in the way - but Laura didn't disappear into the ether. Releasing EP Yes Maybe No in 2008 (obviously I missed that one), its taken over five years (or as band member Andrew puts it, it'll have been 191 million heartbeats) but a new longplayer is on its way - Twelve Hundred Times.


As complex and cinematic as ever, Laura are bringing forth their best album to date, and they are bringing it north to Brisbane, playing Woodland on Saturday November 19. Some of you may recognise the date - that is also when the massive Harvest festival touches down, featuring the likes of Flaming Lips, Mogwai and Portishead amongst its many amazing artists that will be on board. This really hurts for us Laura fans, but the band are intending to go on as late as possible in case you want to catch one more stellar performance that evening. There are efforts afoot to get em to play an early all ages instore on the Sunday - I will keep you posted on that venture. In the meantime, if you aren't going to Harvest, this is THE show to get to. Twelve Hundred Times is available now.

Laura - This Grey Earth

When The Brady Bunch encountered post-rock

Europe, and Scandinavia in particular, has been the home to some of the best 'post-rock' bands in the world. Coming from Australia, where post-rock seems destined to remain a fleeting undercurrent (bands such as Because of Ghosts and Laura, two of the best post-rock bands ANYWHERE, keep the flame burning, but only just), it is such a pleasant surprise to see and hear so many bands here expanding on the notions of what post-rock encapsulates. And whilst the term post-rock usually implies a lack of vocals, there are many bands adhering to the genre's dynamics whilst adding vocals as 'assistance'.

Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson is one of those bands.

These Norwegians met at school back in 2004, deciding to form a band and yet unsure of what sound they would make their own. So they wrote a clutch of songs that covered a range of genres. It was one song, A list not to be read at your wedding, that the guys were most happy with and went about constructing songs using this as their foundation. The result was their lovely debut Unnoticeable in a Tiny Town, Invisible in the City. It took another 5 years before they produced their second self-titled LP, out this month. It has all the hallmarks of 'vocal-assisted' post rock - dreamy, soaring shoegaze guitars, floating reverbed lyrics, echoing shouts, cascading cymbals and rolling snares, all building to that ephemeral release that so enraptures loud/quiet enthusiasts. YPOFH arent a generic band, however. The band has returned in such a lovingly grandiose fashion, offering a double album of immense appeal (both musically and packaging-wise) that will have listeners floating in the ether of their own mindscapes for hours, days, months to come. There is a calm serenity that permeates each song, even when exploding into more heavy landscapes like in I Think E.T. Is Involved In My Family (an admittedly terrible song title). They hold onto the esoteric wanderings of post-rock wizards Explosions in the Sky, and whilst not reaching the heights of the Texan legends, it really is the vocals that elevates YPOFH above the also-rans - no more so than the album closer, Scientists Now Think This City Is Overdue, where the vocals are brought to the fore.

Oh, and the moniker? Came from the boys sitting around and hearing the phrase 'nude pictures of Florence Henderson' on the news. It makes sense - that the titillation of Mrs Brady porn would elicit the nucleus for a Scandinavian post-rock outfit? If only all good ideas came from such realms...

Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson - He Can't Be Dead, I Got His Autograph Last Week