Climbing Tall Pines

Here is a new enterprise out of Brisbane that I think is incredibly exciting. Ghost Notes guitarist Owen has joined forces with close friend Kelly for Tall Pines, a grunged out grind somewhere between the revisionist post-shoegaze schisms of fellow Brisbanites Deafcult and the sludgy hypnotics of True Widow. The duo (with fellow Ghost Noter Cam Smith on drums) have released just the two tracks so far, but they are both killer - 'Palo Verde' has a post-punk insistence and sparsity that lends a stark menace to the edges; while 'Extreme Handshakes' eschews the subtlety of the former with a mid 90s brood that washes out in white noise in the middle third. Early days, but Tall Pines seem like the business.

Southern Sickness Won't Heal

If you want hardcore noise insanity, look no further than Antipodean Sickness, the brutally base LP from Sydney miscreants Tanned Christ. Featuring members of Making, Narrow Lands and Totally Unicorn, their almost math-like precision and propensity for raw yet rambunctious metal destruction looks both incongruous and also makes a lot of sense. You can hear a bit of Queensland contemporaries Idylls here, but even moreso The Locust - yet the articulate musicianship that meshes the madness into a heaving cataclysmic whole is somehow more than such a comparison. Faces, minds, membranes melt; hearts pound like frightened birds against cracking ribcages; pressure builds; blood boils. This album is made out of red sweat and black bile - but who says that abject aggression can't put a smile on your cadaverous dial?

Antipodean Sickness is out through Grindhead Records now - you can get it in red, clear or marble wax. Tanned Christ are about to embark on a national tour - see the following furious dates below...

18/9 Sydney Black Wire Records w/ Controlled Burlap and Avian Terror https://www.facebook.com/events/1742420615985651/

19/9 Bateman's Bay North Street Cafe w/ Fait Accompli Dead Bear I Kid K https://www.facebook.com/events/936628369731770/

25/9 Canberra Magpies w/ Loather Starrats. Agency https://www.facebook.com/events/1019557724721981/

26/9 Melbourne The Old Bar w/ In Trenches Disasters YACHTBURNER Christ Crusher- Melbourne Grind Syndicate 666 https://www.facebook.com/events/408710035920403/

1/10 Parramatta Beatdisc Records w/ Tired Minds FRAME 313 Home burial https://www.facebook.com/events/1633196263624454/

2/10 Newcastle Hamilton Station w/ Tired Minds Suburban Haze + TBC https://www.facebook.com/events/428630397329194/

3/10 Brisbane Fat Louies w/ Blind Girls Brazen Bull DEAFCULT

Shoegaze FOREVR

The falling away of Brisbane shoegaze giants Roku Music after only one album (last year's stellar Collider, and Sonic Masala Records' first release) has left a hole in the fabric of the Australian music scene, as their take on the gargantuan sonic wash lifted aloft by sonorous angelic vocals was mesmerising. But despite rumours that the band rumbles on, there are other outlets to embrace. A few weeks ago we were in thrall of the punkgaze esoterics of Deafcult (featuring Roku's Innez Tulloch); and now we have FOREVR, the new project for Donnie Miller. Aiding him in these further expeditions in fuzz-soaked abandon is Sam George-Allen, and their four-track taster Demonstration is incredible. Her vocals on the woozy submerged-sun-trip 'Yucatan' for example lends an air of ethereal distance, a Syren held aloft, out of touch, much desired. FOREVR takes a stronger electronic/metallic harshness to 'Heart Of Ice', yet the kinetic energy that bounces refracted off the synthetic/organic hybrid adds a luminous halo to the deeper acrid tones on display. The decadent imagery continues on sinuous creeper 'Midas At Night', while Miller's guitar bends and dips in his inimitable style, both an affront and an embrace. They finish off with the cascading cacophony 'Forgive', which despite its name holds an aura of aggression under the seam of white sparks that shower down from the heavens. Demonstration is a cheeky title, as FOREVR launch forth fully formed, their powers for all to see.

Demonstration is out now on shiny garish gold cassette. FOREVR launch it with an instore at Tyms Guitars in Brisbane on Friday July 10.

Nothing Cult Of Death

Deafcult is a new band out of Brisbane who I hadn't even heard of before the other day - but considering it's a new project from Innez (Roku Music, Tiny Spiders, Feathers) and Matt Bach (The Quickening, El Motel, The Gifthorse), it shouldn't surprise me how bloody great it is. Taking the shoegaze shine of Roku and adhering it to the Nothing mould of post-hardcore ferocity, the tracks on the Deafcult EP (recorded at Incremental Studios) are incredible intense, sonorous, intricate and cathartic in their sonic expulsions. I'm blown away by how complete this six-piece already sounds - expect massive things from these guys this year.

Deafcult have a few good gigs coming up - they are supporting Pale Heads (alongside Deadshred and a rare show from the excellent Tiny Migrants!) June 20 at Trainspotters, as well as an earlier show at the Sewers fundraiser as that band prepares to assault the US with their excellent second album on the cusp of hitting the shelves (it's bloody killer) June 6 at The Underdog.