Brighter Gods Carve Out A Mathematical Future

One of the most intimate and exciting venues to rise up in Brisbane over the last decade, The Waiting Room, sadly closed its doors last year. In a city renowned for closing venues before they really get a chance to flourish, the three years it had been open is something of a miracle – a glorified house party a few nights a week in West End, albeit with a good sound system and PA, a caring and passionate management and staff, BYO sensibilities and communal goodwill permeated every show. And there were some stellar shows – from Mt. Eerie making a pleasantly unexpected visit to many great local and interstate acts getting in on the love. Two of my favourite shows ever that took place in that 80-person venue involved Auckland three-piece God Bows To Math, one of the most underrated bands in the Southern Hemisphere. Their serrated buzzsaw of a self-titled album blew the membranes out of the inner linings of my mind back in 2011 - the engine room of Thomas Morrison (drums) and Sam Cussen (bass) pounding incessantly and Martin Phillips’ barked, acerbic lyrics and dessicated guitar melts.

I have been extremely lucky to have a penultimate master of their follow up Brighter Futures on my laptop for the past few months, and FINALLY I have the final version and the album is hitting the world with a sledgehammer subtlety and cathartic charm. The thing is, it is when there is a measured stasis, a crawl, a breath taken, that the atmosphere and intensity is ratcheted up tenfold – the sample and two minute intro to ‘1999 Doomsday’ and the tempered vocals and skeletal instrumentation that eats its own tail in ‘Moral Prophylaxis’ are anxiety eaters, so that when the impending doom and destruction finally hit it is gargantuan in scope and precision. Even the brutally succinct ‘Munchausen’, which barely cracks a minute in length, opens with a quarter minute of near silence. The Sonic Youth and Shellac comparison I initially held with the trio still holds some weight, but Brighter Futures showcases a rougher hewn angularity, emotional expulsion and exorcism. ‘High Strings’ for some reason reminded me of My Disco, Jakob and a more unwound Unwound simultaneously – the insidious bass, the gravelly vocals that bleed into something more ephemeral, the instrumental groove, pummelling drums… All of which comes to an end on ‘Oil of Vitriol’, a strange track that brings back all these through lines and balls them up into a compacted whole.

Grab Brighter Futures (out through Muzai Records) here. Support these guys, stat.

Too transparent? Ah, the price of Animal Chemistry...

So many acts are being put into the Animal Collective basket. Which is all well and good, but one has to realise that the combustible material that AC create is so ridiculous in its intricacy and yet transcendent in its innate brilliance that anyone foolhardy to actually attempt likewise compositions are likely to find themselves with more than singed eyebrows - they will be put in stocks and have rotton fruit laced with shards of glass pelted at them from two feet away. Oh, when the arty music world bare their fangs... Still, it is certainly not a bad thing to take a couple of leafs out of their handbook in order to create one's own twisted alchemy. Keepaway have been grandstanded and lamblasted in equal measure for doing just that - and I love those guys.

Another act that is traversing said divide are Glass Vaults, which brings to mind all kinds of magical tomfoolery and Essex-tanned dwarves with murderous tendencies and a sweet tooth to boot. The fact that they hark from New Zealand shouldn't come as a complete surprise - fans of Flying Nun Records, Split Endz and Mint Chicks (plus previous SM postees Jakob) can attest to that - but the experimental quirks and syrup that Animal Collective have woven into celestial gold is augmented here by glacial ambience and tribal elegaics that shows true strength, character and gives a visual pastiche of NZ itself.

This is a great find - I have to say Fridays are being quite fruitful of late (did you listen to Zorch last week??? If you didn't - go do it now! Its close to the funnest thing Ive heard all year!) And if you like, go get the whole Glass EP at their Bandcamp site - double sweet!

Glass Vaults - Forget Me Not

Biblical music - with a K

Jakob are possibly New Zealand's finest current exponent of post rock. In a country flooded with (admittedly good) dub groups, Jakob cut a swathe through the pretenders to pave their own path, to differing levels of success (due to the fact that there are so many dub bands in New Zealand! The vicious cycle continues...)

Still, there is hope, as bands such as Isis and Australia's Cog have taken them around the world with them, and they are about to release an album 4 years in the making later this year, of which you can also get a sample here. In the meantime, check out their very cool clip for Nice Day For An Earthquake, from 2006's Solace.