Primitive Motion Makes The World Float By

Brisbane duo Primitive Motion have always been a beguiling prospect for me. The first time I can clearly remember seeing them (although it was about the third time I had ACTUALLY seen them) as Primitive Motion was at the New War show at the Bridge Club in 2011 (what happened to that place? Another venue bites the dust before even getting started...). Leighton Craig and Sandra Selig have always been busy with their constant manipulations of synth, electronics and the style and conventions of the pop aesthetic, whether it be in the various incarnations of The Deadnotes, on solo duties and in other genre-defying acts like Fig. The simplistic keys, the effects, the saxophone, the basic, monotonal vocal delivery, all presented in a cyclical miasma of narcotic wash - it was entrancing, and quite unlike anything I had witnessed before. I still feel that way now, even after having seen them on many occasions since. Their support slot for the Brisbane leg of Godspeed You! Black Emperor caught a lot of people off guard, but it is a testament to the band's unique take on pop conventions (even if their sounds at times struggled to fill the cavernous venue).

Worlds Floating By is Primitive Motion's third LP but their first on vinyl, and it is Bedroom Suck that steps in to help this come to fruition. Not that strange, really - Joe's support of the likes of Angel Eyes and Superstar of recent months shows his savvy ears are pricked for much more than base garage nihilism and apathetic jangle. This album though will hopefully be the jewel that finally enamours the masses, for it is an unqualified gem. The kosmiche repetition, the interplay between Craig's atonal and Selig's soaring vocals, the seemingly simplistic beats and organ tones that nevertheless fuse together to provide an amorphous skeleton for elegant, eloquent drifts into the ether. Songs like 'The Hill' feel maudlin yet exotically beautiful, the music oozing forth like a opaque mist that emanates pastel pulses from within; whilst stronger rock allusions on tracks like 'Skyline' belie the intrinsic machinations of pop convention being manipulated and toyed with, a playful attraction to inverting the norm. Above all else, there is a mirthfulness that permeates this album that supersedes the melancholia, underscores the jubilance, subverts the angularity, tempers the anguish. It's impossible not to get lost in the gauzy miasma of sound that Primitive Motion painstakingly constructs, with every sound a textural marvel that slides into the cyclical whirlpool and adds yet another shade of eclectic hypnosis to the mix. Worlds Floating By is not completely apt an album description - it is you that does the floating, and you will be inexorably stuck in the duo's world forever, hooked on the haze, warmed by their energy, and refusing to ever leave.

Worlds Floating By is out now. Primitive Motion are playing at Sydney's Red Rattler on November 7 as part of this year's Sound Summit (that has made the move from Newcastle this year). They will be joined by Heinz Riegler and Sky Needle amongst a plethora of other likeminded acts. Then it's back to Brisbane for the album launch at Cooparoo Bowls Club, with delectable supports from Cured Pink, Scraps, Screaming Match, Bitter Defeat, Pink Mouse and more.

A Primitive Kitchens Experience - Sonic Masala at The End

Tonight we have an incredible show on at West End's The End, the second in our solo series that has been tentatively called Campfire Tales - not because of folky charm, but more because of the surreal ghost stories and urban myths that are oft said in the dead of night in the woods when crowding around the fire, furtively looking over your shoulder for monsters unknown. Nothing about these solo artists are staid, perfunctory, orthodox - expect the unexpected...

Matt Kennedy (Kitchens Floor) - his band's two album titles are Loneliness Is A Dirty Mattress and Look Forward To Nothing, whilst songs in the bag include 'Regrets', 'Deadshits', 'Failure' and 'Kidney Infection'. Yep - Kennedy has made desolation and despair on the fringes of suburban society a grimy artform. Yet whilst I love the band's nihilistic noisy meltdowns, there is something starker, more poignant when Kennedy takes to it on his own. He is the unique voice, and it stands up (or slouches despondently) despite the odds.



Leighton Craig (Primitive Motion) - Leighton doesn't know how to quit. With his work both past and present as part of the Deadnotes, The Lost Domain, Fig and prominently Primitive Motion, Craig has enough solo immersions to add to the mix to weigh down any artist. Ever the creative, the improvisational nature that Craig nurtures often blooms into surreal, unexpected beauties, and the chance to see it happen in a small confine of spontaneity is a special one.



Pat Ridgewell (Small World Experience) - the below clip is the last official time that Small World Experience played a show. Ridgewell is the reason most people will be popping along, and with good reason. This is a rare opportunity to listen to one of Brisbane's unheralded great songwriters in action, and the intimacy of the solo set will only make this a more iconic performance.



It's kicking off at 7pm at The End on Vulture Street, West End. Its a 100 person venue, and it's free entry, so get in early - this is going to be a memorable night.