Eighteen Ways To Keel Her

The self-titled debut from Rose Keeler-Schäffeler’s creative wellspring, Keel Her, is important to note on a couple of levels. No one is going to say that the seventeen tracks (eighteen if you count ‘Intro’ – and you may as well)laid out here are cohesive, fleshed-out or at times even make sense. Nor will many people find this an easy listen due to the slight schizophrenia on display. But that is also the beauty and power of Keel Her – it is a murky blueprint of the creative prowess that Keeler-Schäffeler has broiling inside her. A restlessness pervades throughout that evokes a creative maelstrom, something that Keel Her acolytes are already well accustomed to due to the proliferation of her uploaded musical ventures over the past couple of years. There is a whiff of Ariel Pink in the explosion of vision, continually churning out material of varying genres and degrees of precision and effectiveness. But it is also important that a label like Critical Heights (Lower Plenty, Greg Boring) would endeavour to give voice to such a haphazard sonic explorer, whose skittish genre-jumping could just as well have been mashed disaster. Yet also like Pink, Keel Her has great energy and lively pop nous pulsing through these fuzzed out sine waves. Can't wait to see what she cooks up next - and we won't have to wait long I'm sure.

You can grab Keel Her here - otherwise check out her MASSIVE back catalogue here.

All Day Breakfast comp

 

Midday Music is a compilation showcasing much of Brisbane’s underground music scene was put out last year on cassette. Handcrafted (featuring tactile “fried eggs” – white and yellow Blu-tac, on the outer sleeve) and collated by 4ZZZ presenter Makeda Zucco and her project All Day Breakfast, outlet for the documentation and exploration of music and that which pertains to it, the 25-track compilations covers the gamut, from experimental synth pop (Shooga, Brainbeau, Scraps), nihilist rock aggression (Per Purpose, Sewers, Slug Guts), avante-garde noise (Cured Pink, Sky Needle, Multiple Man), unhinged guitar pop (Blank Realm, Heart Flew, Old Growth Cola), slacker malaise downers (Kitchens Floor, Martyr Privates)… In fact, although there are a few bands on the release (X In O, Fig, Perpetual Nervousness) that I haven’t actually caught or even heard much of, the cross section of bands here is pretty indicative of what I immerse myself in here. It is all lo-fi recordings, as you can imagine, but if ever there was a document detailing much of the diversity of the scene (without going into the Long Gone, Lofly or Lost Race crews), this is a mighty fine one.

 

Unfortunately all the cassettes are sold out, but you can download the compilation for free here. Do so – there are some artists here that never get exposure, either because of their standing, their sound or because they never put out that much music for private consumption – then get out and about, supporting these bands in the live arena.

Knee Chin – Thrall Of It All
Greg Boring - Tomb
Cannon – I Should Be In A Fucking Museum