Fighting The Curlew Urges

Mark Zian has one of the most unique voices in Brisbane today. He was (is?) an integral part of the intricate machine that was (is?) Knee Chin, but finds his voice (literally) in the likes of solo outfit I Am Not A Nihilist and his “rock” band, Curlew. Not that many people know it – Curlew (Zian on guitar and vocals; Callum Wheeler on drums) have been something of a hermit/recluse for the entirety of their conception. I have had the pleasure of seeing Curlew three times in twelve months (nigh on a record), two times this year (both of which were Sonic Masala shows – hey, if you want to watch bands you really like, best put them on yourself). The duo have just released Animal Urges, and it’s an album of exquisite, and exquisitely painful, beauty – a sparse malaise of contemplation, rumination and ruin, all spun in a instrumental narrative that is both spare and dense, an exercise in steely tension and gallows humour, an extraordinary existence borne from the sweatboxes of suburban Brisbane, spat under hooded eyes and a sly yet weary grin. Zian has a cracked vocal delivery somewhere suspended between The Drones’ Gareth Liddiard and another of Brisbane’s hidden lyrical geniuses, Amateur Childbirth (their kinship came to fruition when Curlew played the launch of AC’s second album, PRIPYAT, back in February).

Animal Urges is a somewhat different beast from Curlew’s other major releases. Firstly the songs are much looser and longer in length – only three of the nine tracks on offer stay under five minutes, and three surpass the ten minute mark. Take as example the title track. Essentially a suite of songs, the tracks has a spluttering rhythm that suits the primal questions, assumptions and experiences that Zian explores. Whether it be a conversation in a café that circles the nostalgic mores that remembering the highs of narcotic highs can bring, the adolescent realisation of the strengths of being a male yet the pull towards the female, or the internal conflicts that such primal mores can cause, Zian’s presence is magnetic, drawing you into his esoteric, conflicted world. From the soft jangle accompanying soft-focus childhood memories to the harsher preamble to a venting diatribe, the instrumentation mirrors the ever-shifting narrative tangle. Curlew is a band that inhabits a singular worldview, drawing you inexorably into the swirling mental philosophising, and never have I felt more in tune to a person’s unchecked experiences and explorations of what the fuck this life might mean before. And for that you should all be eternally grateful. And the story outlaid on ‘Fitness First’ is brilliant – it gets me every time.

You can grab Animal Urges here. One of the best Brisbane releases of 2014, yet its verbosity, obtuseness and bared-vein honesty will scare some away. Be brave; step inside; close the door behind you; and listen to someone who isn’t afraid to breathe life into the confused world they live in. Amazing stuff. Their next show is at Trainspotters this Saturday July 26 alongside Black Vacation, Ciggie Witch, Blonde Tongues and Pare Ohm - an incredible line up for free.

Failing At Childbirth - Again

Local cracked genius Amateur Childbirth (who I've already spoken about here) has released another album in PRIPYAT (through Disembraining Machine), and its more acoustic fever dreams. Ivan Hicks still has a predilection for bodily fluids, organs, disease and self-loathing, yet his verbose rantings are as acerbic and amusing as ever. If anyone realises how good Amateur Childbirth is, they keep it to themselves - he is the invisible evangelist of body horror and overconsumption hallucinations. I really need to bow down at this warped altar more often...Destroyed folk for multiple strokes.

Eating Asian Pears With Elton John - A Dyslexic's Journey (Metal Postcard Update #1)

The last fortnight we have looked at Thrill Jockey releases; this week we look at something a little more obscure. In fact this post is a tangential lead-in, but whatever.

Metal Postcard Records come out of Hong Kong in China. Named after a Siousxie & the Banshees track, it is run by Sean Hocking who started it in 2002 in Sydney, residing for a while in New York but now calls Asia home. The idea is to release music in a range of formats, remain outside of genre specificity, and avoid the strictures of the "music industry" as much as humanly possible, thus granting complete artistic control to band that otherwise would most likely be ignored.. It also helps to shine a lot on an area of the world where the music scene isn't as readily accessible.

The only reason I have been introduced to this amazing endeavour is because of Shanghai duo Pairs, whose excellent noise-rock double LP If This Cockroach Doesn't Die, I Will was brought to my attention earlier in the year. The band have not only released an about-turn piano-and-vocals only album Eltham Join, till barbed with the crooked lyrics that makes Pairs such a bright, amusing prospect, but also enters into the avant-slacker realm of ballads that are atonal, hammered out with slapdash and carelessness, out-of-tune vocals (and yes, Xiao Zhong is indeed an Aussie, if the vocals didn't give it away) and yet an effusive mood is created throughout. This album should be horrible - and some people will think exactly that - but I think that there should be more of this. Think Amateur Childbirth meets Lehmann B Smith.

You can get Eltham Join for free here. Metal Postcard also champions a mixtape that Pairs put together made up of other likeminded bands from China. Head here to get it - it's rad as. The listing is below the two tracks. Pairs are also doing a split with NZ noise-rockers God Bows To Math, and Zhong does other stuff like stand-up and DJing - so expect to hear a hell of a lot more from these guys on these here pages.

Pairs - You're No More A Doctor Than I'm A Good Singer
Pairs - Red Light Green Light

Tracklist:

1. Yantiao - 扭曲的房间  

2. Colourful Z-bra - 和谐号 

3. Belly Mountain - Traveling 

4. Alpine Decline - Alligator 

5. 比卡超- 鬼斯通(现场)

6. Islet -二十

7. 炸脖龙 - 合适 

8. The Fuzz - Postpunk is cold (demo)

9. Chinese Football - ·飞鱼转身（DEMO

10. Round Eye - Carne Seca

11. Cheesemind - Bush with heart-shaped leaves

12. Your Boyfriend Sucks - 波兰首都是上海(live acoustic)

13. Naohai - Outsider 

14. LowBow - FAST EDDY 

15. Deer - Fade into the night 

16. Next Year's Love - I know 

17. 吴维纯 - Night Side B XL 

18. Thruoutin - Chicano Heaven Blast

19. 路新配 - Fail 

20. The Last Three Minutes - 青蛙 

Large Lepers Make Shit Music Colourful

Italian label Lepers released two albums from one of their founding artists, Alexander de Large, and they are a collective showcase of his eclectic, almost nihilistic take on the acoustic singer/songwriter tag. You will see elements of GG Allin, Dan Melchior and (closer to home) Amateur Childbirth and Peter Black in the tracks on Shit Music, which is anything but, an album chock full of pop tunes that are skewed in every way imaginable. Then there is Colours, another acoustic sojourn into the strange, acerbic recesses of his soul.

You can download both albums (plus a lot lot more) here.

Alexander de Large - Staring At The Washing Machine
Alexander de Large - Sonny Lived In A Bungalow

Alexander de Large - Blue

Birthing Canal Down The Rabbithole

Brighter Futures Dialysis is not a normal record. Amateur Childbirth is not a normal artist. Ivan Matthew Hicks is not a normal man. Each of the ten songs on this album are crafted from a cheap nylon-stringed guitar and the crazy repetitive rantings of Hicks, whose lyrical delivery is redolent of fire and brimstone from a volatile, drug-abusing priest. There is a lot of evisceration and bile here, but to be honest there is something quirkily attractive about folk music written with such dadaist disdain. It's not an album you would throw on for a relaxing time (in fact there aren't many situations that would warrant putting it on), but it comes down ingenuity and veracity, which are both apparent here. Hicks is a Brisbane artist who revels in the darkness - might be time to pull him dragging and kicking into the light.

You can download Brighter Futures Dialysis for free from Amateur Childbirth's Bandcamp here. Physical copies are available here.

Amateur Childbirth - Cat Power's Armpits
Amateur Childbirth - Venus In Flames