Steady Teething

The Steady As She Goes continued to roil in the deep dark night, a behemoth breaking the surface in slow motion, the spiked moonlight  sparking off its glistening carapace. The one-man Gothic doomsayer scorches the (E)arth on 'Kindred', the sepulchral opener to new release Teeth Dreams, before the Man In Black saunters through the smoke, a haunted gunslinger looking for his 'Throne Of Want'. I know that Tal will hate me for some of this - but I felt like I was trapped in a vacuum with three speakers spewing forth Tangerine Dream, Ennio Morricone and Pink Floyd in an unholy triumvirate of textured sound. I personally absolutely love it - it has become my soundtrack to my current spate of late-night writings. 'You Don't' is more in the scheduled TSASG vein, a slow-grinding leviathan of heaving waves of expectation and expulsion, before the nightmare crawl of 'Toluca' takes into the delicious darkness. The Steady As She Goes is one of the best things about the Brisbane music scene in my opinion - defiantly dark, dense, idiosyncratic and intense, a solo journey to the centre of the earth with no promise of return. More please - always fucking more.

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.

Second Sonic Masala Records Announcement - Roku Music's New Single COLLIDER

We've really put our foot in it, haven't we?

It seems that when you decide to step out from behind the words and actually DO SOMETHING about the music you love, the workload intensifies - or at least my mind does. All of these exciting times merge with the fact that you want things to go well, that other people are depending on you - it's like having a family.

I'm very glad however to have Roku Music as part of the family. Each member of the band has been/is in local acts that I really admire - No Anchor, Tiny Spiders, The Rational Academy, O, The Madisons...the list goes on. But what the melding of minds of Donnie Miller, Innez Tulloch, Jody Gleeson and Thomas Roche creates is far more than the sum of its parts. I've seen Roku Music in its quickly evolving stages, growing from an experimental two-piece, to a rough-and-tumble trio, to the fully formed four-piece they are today. And their upcoming debut record, Collider, is breathtaking in its beauty, its power, its atmosphere, its raw emotion. The first single is the opening song and the title track, and it is the perfect embodiment of why Roku Music are fast becoming one of the unsung powerhouse bands of the continent.


Ahem. I'm swelling up. I'm just so proud! Family, huh?

Collider will be out March 3 on (who else?) Sonic Masala Records. The album launch coincides with a massive nationwide metropolitan and regional tour throughout March & April. News about that and the album proper to come.

The Tightly Wound Pairing Of God And Math

One of my all-time favourite bands, God Bows To Math, did some recording with all-time fave man Donnie Miller in his Nowhere Audio studio (AKA his home) when the NZ trio played Brisbane earlier this year. That show left an indelible mark on those who saw it (Cam Smith of The Waiting Room has it in his top five gigs since the seminal venue opened its doors two years ago), and the fruits of the subsequent recordings are about to be heard as the band release a 7" split with another rambunctious maelstrom of a band, Shanghai's Pairs. The 7" itself comes with pop-up artwork and a zine - awesome in and of itself - but if 'Tightly Wound' is a judge of character, then GBtM are at their face-melting best once more. It takes its time, builds the tension, then flays the skin and muscle from your bones. Rattling stuff. The record comes out next Monday - pre-order this sucker now, there are only 50 available. Now, about that next trip to Australia...

Cannon Wanna Be With You Everywhere - Cool, No Worries (Friday Cover Up)

(pic by Glen Schanau)

Another day, another Brisbane band spitting out thrashy garage rock. The thing about five-headed monster Cannon is that no matter how well you capture them on tape, they never emulate the sloppy, unhinged nature with which they deliver live - yet latest EP It's Cool, No Worries certainly does its best. Recorded by Donnie Miller at Nowhere Audio, the instrumentation on these five tracks really highlight how deceptively tight the band can be - the guitar lines are finally discernible, and you start to figure out that there are actual defined songs underneath the mania. But as always it is impossible to deny the rabid presence of frontman Callan Murphy and his ranting, incomprehensible vocals. Penetrating out of the abyss, self-flagellating, the bark of a madman - Murphy's vocals will always divide audiences. The thing is, it's this sense of unbridled passion (even when seemingly delivered with apathy, and the casual tearing of the oesophagus) that truly marks out Cannon as different from the rest.

It's been a while since local imprint Bon Voyage have put their name to something, but It's Cool, No Worries has gotten their seal of approval - and fair dues. You can grab the 7" here. And seeing as this is a Friday, this release doubles as a Friday Cover up, as the EP closes with a ramshackle version of Fleetwood Mac's 'Everywhere' (it's the last track). Nuff said.

Bow Down To God Bows To Math

Last year Sonic Masala put on a last-minute show for excellent Auckland noise rock trio God Bows To Math. It was underattended (due to time constraints and it being a Sunday), yet with blistering supports from Tiny Spiders and Quiet Steps was one of the best shows I saw in 2012. This Saturday April 28 they return, supported again by Tiny Spiders but also joined by Undead Apes and Roku Music (Innez Tulloch pulling double duties on the night). This will be the final stop on a whirlwind tour which begins in Newcastle on Thursday and also includes Sydney and Melbourne shows. Head over to their Facebook for full details. The band will be doing some recording in Brisbane with Donnie Miller (No Anchor/Roku Music) in preparation for their next album - killer. Go here to read what I thought of their electric self-titled album (one of my favourite albums of 2011), grab said album from here, and get damned excited. 

God Bows To Math - The Only Good Fnord Is A Dead Fnord

Roku Music - 1 Cassette, 1 Party, 1 Love (ON THURSDAY!!!)

 

This is on tomorrow. It’s a cassette listening party at the Waiting Room. I don’t know if I’ve ever BEEN to a cassette listening party. I know I used to listen to cassettes of songs I taped off Rage, straight off the TV, with my sister – but that’s about it. The crazy kids responsible for said cassette listening party are Donnie Miller and Innez Tulloch, here for the first time as Roku Music.

Starting as an idea for a university project exploring recording techniques and tones, Roku Music is the best of both of their aural worlds – the dark throbbing tensions and feedback squalls that bleed through is a distant relative to Miller’s No Anchor affiliations, whilst the static pop aesthetics that ebb and flow like a reticent tide can be as lightweight as a Feather(s) or a hazy dream from a Tiny Spider(s). I really like it. There are elements of washed out dirge that, when married to Tulloch’s soft vocals reminds me of True Widow (see ‘Everything’s Alright’ for an example); at other times a darker, beefed up theredsunband (especially on ‘Primitive’); but mostly it sounds just plain rad. Even if it’s on a damned cassette…

 

The cassette listening party is tomorrow night at The Waiting Room – and its free! Come have some bevvies and listen to a cassette, at a party.

 

Roku Music – Primitive

Roku Music – You Never Change

Disrobing The Dreamtime

There seems to be a long list of exciting local releases this year, and soon there will be another to tack on there. Psych trio Dreamtime impressed the hell out of me when they supported Harmony and The Gin Club earlier this year, and their release promises to live up to that early promise. Taking inspiration from psychedelic bands from 1968 – 1971 among other places, the self-titled LP comes out 22 October. Dreamtime was mixed and recorded by Donovan Miller (he mixed the amazeballs No Anchor release amongst many others) You can pre-order it here, and whilst you wait with sweaty palms for its imminent arrival, sate yourself on this track, 'Robe'. Its bloody great.