Some Fraudulent Things

Melbourne instrumental jammers Fraudband are back in the saddle with new 10” record Some Things (out through Kasumuen), and it is just as tightroping juxtapositions of tight and loose kinetics as last year's First Songs. The five track offering charges into rollicking territory from the get-go, the guitar-and-drums duo taking a bare-bones approach to roiling repetition. ‘Find Something’ starts off incrementally, silence giving way to shuffles giving way to rumbles, culminating in a one-note riff and rolling it through the wringer, the loose-wristed drumming stuttering and propelling to a feedback finish line. It’s a track like this that echoes back to the embryonic days of the Dirty Three, when they were less magisterial and more cantankerous and wild. The blues growl that permeates Fraudband’s DNA risibly rears its head in behemoth ‘Starting Over’ (albeit with a two minute feedback missive) and the cleverness in its apparent simplicity – repetition and familiarity is key to much of what’s on offer here, yet delivered with a raw crunch and intelligent sense of adventure and discovery in the miscues and drones. I have always loved Fraudband, but on Some Things it is finally apparent just how fun this all is – instrumental rock is not about dour pretension and hallowed intention (and was never meant to be) but about finding the rhythm and fucking it over and over again. And believe me, you will enjoy it.

Xylouris White's Chicken Song Is Punk As Fuck

I had to post this. I was writing a review of Goats, the excellent album that melds the minds of Cretan folk legend George Xylouris and Dirty Three drummer Jim White (as Xylouris White). As the review only is 100 words long, some of the review was cut. Including the above phrase. Well it actually went 'And 'Chicken Song' is the one song where White and Xylouris get dark, mystical and punk as fuck.' The reworkings of traditional machinations into the musical genius of these two twisted troubadours is great, yet not many people may prescribe to such a outlandish claim - but I stand steadfastly by it. There is a sinuous, almost sinister groove that insinuates itself at the core of 'Chicken Song', taking it from European or Eastern composition, caricature or appropriation, and moving it into a sonic plateau all its own - with serious attitude to burn. There are many more great songs on Goats - it's an incredible suite of rhythmic interplay, both mischievous and elegant, a series of games that the duo play where the winner invariably is the listener - but 'Chicken Song' displays just how kindred their spirits really are. Let's hope for many more collaborative efforts between Xylouris and White if this is anything to go by.

Xylouris White - Chicken Song from Michalis Aristomenopoulos on Vimeo.

Goats (which was also produced by Guy Picciotto from seminal outfit Fugazi) is out through Other Music Co - get it here.

Fraudband For Everybody!

In keeping with great vocal less acts/releases today, here is the debut release from Melbourne duo Fraudband. Imaginatively entitled First Songs, the five tracks on display offer a brutal, minimal/maximal approach, driving by pummelling drums, an unrelenting rhythm that the guitar runs roughshod over, a charging bull. But there is a balletic kineticism at work here that underpins it all - its the work of two guys who are intricately dancing with one another, weaving their disparate instruments into a seamless whole, a weapon of mass disruption. Think early Love Of Diagrams or Faspeedelay, yet with a harder, Fugazi-centric bent (yet on 'Tangled Up' we go into more outback-tinged fare, something that an early, more frenetic Dirty Three would have approved of). The sixteen minute ramble 'I tried To Tell You, A Few Times' is my favourite though - but I'm a sucker for those kinds of things... Out next month on new label Kasmuen Records, First Songs is a great document of a duo already setting sight on the stars, if only to send them crashing harmoniously to the ground. Preorder it here.

No Hidden Ghost Notes

It's been a little while coming - the majority of recording was cleaned up over a year ago - but local instrumental rock band Ghost Notes have hit us with their sophomore release, Hidden Horizons. Straight off the bat it's obvious that the five-piece have taken great pains to avoid the quiet/loud pitfalls of the genre, and how. Adopting other tropes - the dirge-doom riff emanating throughout the second half of 'Pinnacles'; the jazz strokes of 'Go Where It Takes You'; the organ that underscores 'Contrails Over Plains'  - Hidden Horizons is multilayered, multifaceted, multilingual. The beauty of music such as this is to indeed transcend language in its most basic form, taking us on journeys undefined, so that we are guided and offered solutions rather than bludgeoned, a square peg in a round hole. Luke McCallum's trumpet takes centre stage here, yet unlike the theatrical histrionics of a Warren Ellis he remains muted - aloof yet engaged, a regal presence at the centre of an unfurling evolution. Owen Dengate's guitar in these tracks has become more prominent too, yet not through sheer force or distortion, but through restraint. Jamie Curran's keys hold even more prominence here than they once did, and Cameron Smith and Simon James pin down the rhythm with a more natural rapport than on By Cover Of Night. That isn't to say that Ghost Notes' debut record isn't successful - it's bloody great - but the refinement and pure emotional heft that has been imbued into these tracks is frankly awe striking. Like Dirty Three at their most introspective or Crow with Fenton fading into the background, Hidden Horizons is able to strike at the heart with a feather just as devastatingly as when it all comes down a la the cathartic crash of 'King Wave'. All of these influences meld together for ten minute track 'Esperence', but despite its length it remains a regal statement, as rigidly restrained as it is warmly immersive. Only when the urgency of 'Melt, Bloom' hits do we get anything close to a true release - and yet it's here you realise that all of this meticulousness, all of this elegance, is only part of the whole - these guys are capable of having fun too! The temptation to topple into noisy cliche avoided, it's time to end on a effortless jam, soaring towards the sun - and this time Ghost Notes plan to learn from Icarus' mistakes.

You can pre-order Hidden Horizons here (as well as pick up the digi album for a pay-as-you-like endeavour) - easily the best instrumental rock release I've laid ears on this year. They are launching it on Sunday August 25 at Black Bear Lodge, and have rounded up a special group of friends in Turnpike and Roku Music as support. Talk about a special night - Ill see you there.

A Solemn Prince And Marquis

My insides are a bit bruised and battered today - not because I'm hungover, but because the Bardo Pond/Dreamtime/Pale Earth show at the Zoo last night was that good. I could have watched Clint Takeda on bass for hours whilst Isobel wails and wigs out, the Gibbons brothers keeping the cosmic sine waves a-flowin'. So today I need a cruisy placebo, to lull me out of my shell and back into the world again.

Cue yet another collaboration from eminent folk visionary Bonnie "Prince" Billy, this time fusing with le Marquis de Tren. WHO? I hear you ask? Well a quick glance at the artwork will give it away - that would be Mick Harvey's brushstrokes at play. The duo are joined by fellow Dirty Three-er (and one of the most underrated drummers on the planet) Jim White, and current Billy junkies Angel Olsen, Emmett Kelly (AKA The Cairo Gang) and Van Campbell (Black Diamond Heavies). Put out by Drag City, Solemns is a three-track EP that threatens to erupt without truly doing so. The final track is worth the price along - Olsen and Billy trading anguished vocals as Turner's iconic guitar lines take us in strange realms (Primal Scream's Bobbie Gillespie described his playing as being like "the way that stars are spaced out in the sky" - spot on man), White's drumming the pitter-patter of falling fire coals, the apocalypse is nigh...before the maelstrom dies away, the trees right themselves, and the end of times holds off for yet another day. It's subtle, almost non existent at times, yet Solemns is a curio that is worth taking a dip into.

You can buy Solemns from here.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy & the Marquis de Tren - Solemns 119

Video Vacuum - Crime & the City Solution, Sherpa, Hotel Mexico, Circular Keys

 

A couple weekends ago I was at ATP Melbourne. What a blast! But I also missed some of the greatest film clips on Rage courtesy of iconic reviewers Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, highlighting the foundations that a lot of today’s great innovative filmmakers cut their teeth on. It’s this kind of retrospective that really makes you appreciate the music video platform. That, and rewatching The Woken Trees’ ‘Yells’ clip yesterday. So today, here are four more good little music videos to lose yourself in (and lose some valuable work minutes while you’re at it…)

I thought we’d start with one of the bands I saw whilst missing the said Rage special. After a twenty year hiatus, Berlin-based Australian (maybe?) art band Crime & the City Solution are back, led by Simon Bonney and featuring the likes of Dirty Three’s Jim White on drums. They were underrated to the point of forgotten in the wake of the rise of the likes of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (now ex-Bad Seed actually convinced Bonney to move to England at the genesis point of Crime…, whilst Rowland S Howard played guitar with them, and they even play in Wim Wenders’ excellent Wings of Desire in this guise), even though they bore many similarities. Now they are back (having relocated to Detroit for the most part) and playing fairly solid sets (it wasn’t always my cup of tea, but there were some old crackers and some new growers, and White is always a delight to watch, one of the most underrated drummers in rock history), they are releasing a new record in American Twilight (the title track, when played at ATP, reminded me of a less aggressive Girls Against Boys, which was a huge surprise…). ‘Goddess’ is the first single off it, and although buoyed by fairly jubilant lyrics (Love the light of which you give / A human touch eternal gift / Against the dark a gentle face / I celebrate your sensual grace /Oh Goddess), it remains a roiling psych-inflected tune, and the video accentuates this. Whilst I'm not entirely sold on the new stuff, it at least has shone a light on a band that were incredibly undervalued when they were at their peak – well worth peering into the back catalogue.

   

Now here is an interesting thing. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of Sherpa, a psych pop band from Auckland, New Zealand. They appear to be following in the footsteps of like minded (and bizarrely NZ-led) acts Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Opossum, yet I’ve only heard this one track. I wouldn’t have paid it much mind to be honest – but this bonkers film clip, done on the cheap, sold me and then some. This is like a 90s bad paisley psych band, taking barbs that went stale in the 90s, which somehow coalesces into that netherground of good trip/bad trip unease. A lot of fun – let this Sherpa lead you where it may…

   

Two bands close to home – now for one that is distinctly Australian. Circular Keys is a duo that delve into dreamy, ethereal synth soundscapes, and their video for ‘Possessed’ is just as otherworldly – evoking the fear of isolation in nighttime lockdowns (in this case, a storage facility), an overtly-frilled-and-laced hotel and a ghostly beauty navigating it all. True comedown.

   

Finally we have Hotel Mexico, who are from where? Kyoto Japan, of course! This new track from the six-piece is everything that the hipster masses love – the 80s synths with slight wear and tear, distorted reverbed vocals with female backing vocals humming just under the mix, and a film clip that is obtuse and looks shot on VHS, Harmony Korine-lite. I should despise this on principle. But this track ‘AI In Dreams’ is a lot of fun – not least because the band, dressed up in faux zombie chic, look like they are having such a good time. The bands that enjoy making music – regardless if it’s in a genre that irks me – tend to imbue their sounds with the kind of joviality that pushes them to the top.

  

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Splendid Spook Houses Of America

This song has saved my life today. After a heady weekend at Splendour In The Grass (working on reviews and publications, seeing some great sets from Explosions In The Sky, Father John Misty, Mudhoney and Dirty Three, but mainly having a hazy blast with friends and "acquaintances"), travelling back to Brisbane from Byron Bay at 6am wasn't conducive to a happy Uncle Masala. Then I stumbled across New Jersey quartet Spook Houses and their track 'American' that is on their upcoming LP Trying. That flat vocal when he drawls "I'm drunk and I feel like shit" says it all, let alone the fat bass line and the explosion of happy noise halfway through the blistering track. It's an anthem towards the inane beauty inherent in being young and dumb, which is usually what going to a festival is fuelled by. I know nothing else about this band AT ALL, but this is enough. They saved my life - now I am indebted to Spook Houses.


Trying is out soon on Philly label Evil Weevil. You can pre-order it here.

C'mon, Lets Get Low!

C'Mon is the title of the new Low album due out on April 12th on Sub Pop. From all intents and purposes we might be seeing a much brighter outlook from the revered Minnesotans, which is good or bad news depending what quarter you come from - Alan Sparhawk says that the album will be “warm, pretty, large like Nashville without the country. Mim (Parker) and I are talking to each other in the lyrics, sometimes it's not pretty, but it's as honest as love.”...

Any new release from Low is amazing news,and we even have a taster in the form of 'Try To Sleep', which is as breezy as these guys can get. And it gets better - besides an intimate show at St David's Sanctuary at SXSW, they are playing Radio City Music Hall in April with Explosions In The Sky (if you are anywhere near New York on the 6th of April, this gig is an absolute imperative!), plus playing at Primavera Sound and a headlining show at the Barbican in London on June 3rd. Ive seen Low a number of times - an intimate show at Brisbane's The Troubadour being an absolute highlight, where they employed Mick Turner of The Dirty Three on support duties - and these will be unmissable events.

Low - Try To Sleep

Brisbane Outfit Give Off Nihilistic Spirit

I posted a few months ago about an instrumental act from Australia, The Scrapes. We have seen some amazing acts come from their that really push the boundaries of sound (Dirty Three, Love of Diagrams, Because Of Ghosts), and it seems in my absence that this trend has continued. Another Brisbane band to stretch the sonic climes are Ghost Notes, a four piece intent on infusing jazz and folk compositions with post-rock melodrama. I don''t know much about them, other than they released an EP a while back at Incremental Records (which cane be found here), and are recording a debut LP - if the end result is anything like 'The Nihilist' though, consider me hooked.

Ghost Notes - The Nihilist

Dirtier Three

Dirty Three - seminal Melbourne three piece whose instrumental menageries can evoke edginess, anarchy, meloncholia, and beauty in equal measures. An intrinsic part of the Australian - indeed, the global - musical fabric. But before the inception of the Dirty Three, there was...

Venom P Stinger - an unrelenting hardcore prowler of a Melbourne band, completely uncompromising in their approach to music and their audience, unable and unwilling to fit in or sound like anyone else, forever destined to wade waist deep in the ether of the subconscious darkness. Formed by two-thirds of the Dirty Three, guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White, along with bassist Alan Secher-Jensen and mencing vocallist Dugald Mackenzie, Venom P Stinger put out a killer LP in 1986, Meet My Friend Venom - so pertinent today in its rawness and power, and amazing sound considering the age and the lack of production values. The band split up and reformed a number of times over a decade-long career, producing two more albums (What's Yours Is Mine and Tearbucketer) and a smattering of EPs and 7" releases, plus various lineup changes.

This is one underground act that is begging to be followed, devoured and worshipped. They reformed again for Pavement's ATP in May. I didn't go, but I told my sister to go see them, therefore seeing them by proxy. But did she or her boyfriend listen? No. However, the rest of you listen - they are still, all these years and other projects down the line, a completely uncompromising blitzkreig of a live act, and if you ever, EVER, get the chance to see them, sell your vital organs to do so. I know I will.

Venom P Stinger - PCP Crazy

Venom P Stinger - Full Circle

Any Knives to Grind This Autumn????

Nick Cave is a musical entity all on his own. All things he touches turned to gold; everything he does is inimitable. The Bad Seeds continue to surge forward; his second novel The Death of Bunny Munro is a work of twisted and yet empathetic genius; his ghostly scores for The Road, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Cowardly Robert Ford and The Proposition (which are all brilliant films) lift the heavy subject matter into the netherworld...

Then there is Grinderman, where Cave and some of his Bad Seedites (including the cracked genius of The Dirty Three's Warren Ellis, whose work on Cave's scores is immediately recognizable) harken back to Cave's roots in The Birthday Party to let forth a bilge of vitriol, spewing forth sleaze, noise and aggression. It scares you - you know you are powerless - and yet you beg for it to have its way with you, the rougher the better...

So before I have a cold shower, two bits of rad news. This electric side project is bringing out a second album to complement the self-titled debut of 2008. Recorded in various London studios, the LP (tentatively titled Grinderman 2) is due out September 13 via Mute Records. And secondly, they are playing at the Hammersmith Apollo on October 1. I saw them play in Brisbane back in October 2008 - I thought Id lost my musical virginity before then, but I was (not so) sadly mistaken... You have been warned.

Grinderman - No Pussy Blues

These boys from Brisbane wont Scrape by for much longer...

I havent heard anything about these guys, but a passing reference to both the Dirty Three and the Drones was more than enough impetus to delve further. The Scrapes hail from Brisbane, have a debut LP Early Mourning Blues out, and sound amazing. They played at the same venue that Gareth Lilliard of the Drones did a solo gig at whilst I was in Brisbane - if Id known more about these guys I would have stuck around a little bit longer! Check out the live video of album closer 'Antarctica Beach' and join the bandwagon of fans that must surely be following these guys' progression with bated breath...

Om's drummer finds his holy Grails

I am a latecomer to Grails. I had heard a track back in 2008 when my good friend Andy was flooding my external hard drive with music. I think i may have been into my fourth Trappist beer at the time. It was the last day before leaving Australia to move to sunny London. Hence the surprise when I was back in Australia last month and heard the exact same track, again at Andy's behest. It, and they, are awesome. (NB - Andy, you're awesome too...)

Emile Amos of Om fame is the instigator of Grails, and they have just released their fourth volume of Black Tar Prophecies. Their sound is one of many textures - the Eastern influences perfectly balance the sonic drone and occasional brutal onslaught. Influences range from Dirty Three to Sun Ra, and my sister even noted a hint of C&W musical twang? It is a true pastiche of musical imagery, one that takes a refreshing edge on that much maligned of genres, post-rock.

So I am now tres excited for the Luminaire gig that they are playing this upcoming Monday. The Luminaire is such a great venue, and the fact that i can walk home from there is a cherry on top. They are ably supported by Invisible Bees and Phillip Jeck. Tix are 10 squid. If you arent getting your mind ripped out by 9 drummers due to the Boredoms that night, you need to get it expanded by Grails. Nuff said.

And here are some tracks! The first is off Black Tar Prophecies 4, 'Silk Road' features Simeon of Silver Apples, and the third is just rad.

Grails - Up All Night

Grails - Silk Road

Grails - Reincarnation Blues