Melting Focus

Cassette label Whalesmouth (Cool Sounds, Cat Cat) have put two great releases out over the past couple of months. I'm going to start with Theta Waves, the debut album for Melt, the solo guise for Jordan Rodgers from Wives (another release that slipped through Sonic Masala's clutches...) It's a stunning suite of spartan motorik guitar jams that coalesces in weird and wonderful ways, with the creme de la creme of Canberra's musicians offering their dulcet tones over the top. It winds sinuously from the seductively sparse 'Wait' to the percolating march of 'Sydney To Canberra' (which reminds me of Mark McGuire's Innertube efforts), the mid-career Blonde Redhead post-punk of 'Good Form' or the deliciously off-kilter 'Ancestor' (featuring the ever excellent work from Orlando Furious).

Then there is Rastrejo, another moniker, this time for Spanish musician Jose Guerrero. His band Cuello blew me away with their last album Mi Brazo Que Te Sobre (read about it here), and have another on the way. But Lamina Focal is just one of many albums Guerrero has put out under his own steam, and the first on the Melbourne label (and their first international release). It's an experimental drone blast that is far removed from Cuello's grooves - a jagged tantric spiral into chaotic sonic prisms of affected light, the kind of cyclical drone that would echo in a never ending Vaseline-lensed Giallo yellow and red drenched fever dream

Blissing Out On The White Poppy

Cristal Dorval has been exploring the heady terrain of the aural narcotic drift for some time now, first as part of My Friend Wallis and now under the nom de plume of White Poppy. Her self-titled record, out now on Not Not Fun, is the closest yet she has reached to distilling the ephemeral gauzy dreamstates of her mind into a mesmeric worldview. Equal parts New Age-aping guitar-as-spaced-synth circling loops (something akin to Mark McGuire), early Deerhunter youthful stargaze, fallen angel anguish and exhausted elegies - White Poppy is a blissful slide into a kaleidoscopic realm that doesn't shimmer so much as explode, a sonorous opiate mainlined through the mind. Dorval threatens to drown in her own dazzling vortex, yet it is all a ploy - she is the master of her domain, a Machiavellian Syren drawing unassuming listeners into the abyss. White Poppy is darkness disguised as light, and vice versa - a cunningly ambiguous yet seductive wraith of an album.

Enough with the amorphous euphemisms. White Poppy is the real deal, a lysergic fever dream stuck between heaven and hell, and you need to get it now.

The English Lived Within The Songs Of The Living

Experimental music collective Room40's founder Lawrence English released a double digital edition of albums Songs Of The Living and And The Lived In the other week. It is some special field recordings (of fauna and of spaces respectively), collated over a decade,from across the globe — Antarctica, Amazon, Japan, North America, and the UK. It includes a cemetery gate in Hobart that sounds like drone music; the shore of Bribie Island, Queensland; a toy store in Japan; Brazil's howler monkeys; river dolphins and so much more. It's an incredible extension of the outside world and everything in it - a constant source of noise. It also took its toll on English - he was struck by lightning, swam in Antarctic waters to rescue gear, was assaulted by seals, swam with Bota Rosa (Amazonian Dolphins), and travelled deep under the earth in search of quiet space.

He ultimately set out to explore the role of field recordings, and these two totemic volumes stands as a documentation of what makes the art of field recording such a valuable platform for expression and discovery. As English states himself, "Field recording holds a special place in my heart - part active listening, part hunting, part happy accident, part Polaroid, part archive - though wholly personal. No two recordings made in the same place at the same time will be identical and there in lies the beauty of the work." As with all field recordings, especially of this magnitude, it isn't necessarily something that can be played at a purely aesthetic level, but there are still "happenings" within these pieces, like the gradual collapse of a microphone to the ground, abrasively hitting the grass, that hold more narrative weight and wonder than many overtly "crafted" compositions. Well worth exploring.

You can get Songs of the Living and And The Lived In here.

Room40's efforts are seemingly endless, with a few releases on the horizon (and one from Mike Cooper that I'll be talking about shortly) and many a gig. Recently there have been the stunning Oneohtrix Point Never and Tim Hecker shows - tomorrow there is the Damon & Naomi (they of Galaxie 500 - check out an article I wrote about them here, the full version of which will be on this very site tomorrow!) show at the Brisbane Powerhouse, supported by Chapter Music founder Guy Blackman (get tix here - I'll see you there!). English and his merry band of sonic explorers are always searching for amazing local and international acts (without it we wouldn't have had the likes of Grouper, Mist, Mark McGuire and High Wolf reach this balmy climes) so it is imperative that you give them your support.

Lawrence English - Cemetery Gate Hobart Tasmania (from And The Lived In)
Lawrence English - Microphone Collapsing Into Grass Sinclair Wetlands New Zealand (from And The Lived In)

Lawrence English - Daintree Rainforest At Night Australia (from Songs Of The Living)
Lawrence English - Howler Monkey Amazon Brazil (from Songs of the Living)

Lake Of Plankton Wat

 

Another day, another Sound of Cobra affiliate. Yesterday I spoke about Italian dark psychers Cannibal Movie, and today I'm bringing to your attention a great release from Plankton Wat (AKA Dewey Mahood of Eternal Tapestry fame), who I have heaped praise on in the past (his In Magical Light LP was one of my top albums of 2011). He has released the 5-track Mirror Lake one-sided 12” EP through the German label, and it is another slice of guitar exploration, working his way through kosmiche drones, explosive slabs of psych dirge, folk meditations and ambient ambles, like a harder edged Mark McGuire. Mahood is an incredible guitarist, and the levels of emotion and grandeur he reaches on this small release is incredible. Mirror Lake holds a warmth and resonance that only comes when the music is intrinsically tied to the artist’s personal experiences, especially with ‘Pastoral Rejoice’ and ‘Lone Pines’ – both utilise acoustic strings in a manner that isn’t far removed from some of Neil Young’s finest 70s moments, with gentle hand percussion pushing it all gently down the river. Eternal Tapestry is amazing, but I am just as glad that Plankton Wat exists in this world of ours.

 

You can grab Mirror Lake here (through Thrill Jockey) – I suggest you do so.

Plankton Wat – Lone Pines

Going Easy On Blank Realm

 

Blank Realm have been one of the best bands in Brisbane for a while now. It wasn’t whether they would make the next step into awesomeness, but when – 2012 saw them support many killer acts (Mark McGuire, Maria Minerva, Zola Jesus, Blues Control, Sun Araw), and their releases on Not Not Fun and Bedroom Suck kept pushing them into the slipstream. But when I heard that Siltbreeze was going to be putting their next record out (in America at least – Bedroom Suck distributed it here, and Fire Records will do the Euro route in March), I thought “This is it.” And goddamn if Go Easy isn’t one of the best records of last, or any, year to come out of Australia. Seriously.

 

'Acting Strange' kicks things off, a dirty, chaotic, feverish melange of noise played loose and free. Dan and Sarah Spencer’s vocals intertwine in equal doses of laconicism and high-pitched anxiety. The synth is broken glass on the spine of the melody. Luke Walsh’s guitar roils and spits as only the most fervent No Wave acolytes know how. But there is tightness within; the quartet is more in control of their id than ever before, and is even more adept at spinning on a dime. 'Cleaning Up My Mess' is all loose limbs and slack-jawed grins stretched to breaking point, offering an interesting amalgam of the Victorian slacker-pop zeitgeist with glacial wear and tear, and a guitar solo that could be locked in the Flying Nun archives. 'Working On Love' seems like the closest the band will come to a straight up garage rocker, before the insidious barbiturate-pop of 'Growing Inside' scratches at the inside of the skull once more, an evilly charismatic heart-burner. The band even split 'The Crackle' in half, leaving a post-punk abrasion on one side and an indolent down-the-rabbit-hole percussive nightmare on the other.

Ending with excellent guitar wigout 'Pendulum Swing' and the delectable amble of the title track (one of my favourite songs of last year, and of the summer), there is no doubt that Blank Realm is deserved of high praise and prized support slots. Hell – don’t be surprised if the tides turn; this album has the bent swagger to warrant headline turns. A brilliant record. Grab Go Easy here, here, or pre-order here.

Blank Realm – Cleaning Up My Mess
Blank Realm – Growing Inside
Blank Realm – Go Easy

Growing Inside A Blank Realm

Blank Realm is one of the hottest bands in Brisbane at the moment, and this is bound to continue when they release their new LP through Siltbreeze later in the year (it may drip over into 2013...). Here is a taste of the wasted pop that promises to be on offer (and check out the artwork below - very sleek!). 'Growing Inside' seems more insidious here, more likely to - yep - grow inside you than its more frenetic live counterpart. The band played a stellar support slot for Zola Jesus not too long ago, supported Mark McGuire earlier in the year, and will be again in support mode when Estonian dark pop diva Maria Minerva plays the Judith Wright Centre on Wednesday - get tix for that here.

Surf On, You Crazy Emerald

Back in February we had the fortune of having brilliant Emeralds guitarist Mark McGuire grace us with his parents in what was one of the best gigs of 2012. However it was supposed to be with The Skaters/Monopoly Child Star Searchers wizard Spencer Clark in tow, to champion the collaboration the duo created in the form of Innertube. Incorporating the ethos and mantras of the surf movie, Innertube is a collection of warbling instrumentals that encapsulates the surf movie, casting aside all that has been called surf-rock in response to an honest approach to what made films like Big Wednesday the multimedia wet dreams of the sunny 1970s. Complete with scratchy VHS quality production, Innertube is like finding your favourite tape from when you were a kid, hunkered in the den on Saturday mornings, marooned by land but still smelling the imaginary salt on the breeze. For me? Weirdly - The Coolangatta Gold. Go, Grant Kenny! A time capsule and an ode to childhood climes, McGuire proves that he thrives under any guise.


Innertube can be gleaned here - this is a great record, have at it people. Plus, it might get you psyched for the weekend - if it's Summer, easy pickings; if, like me, you are in chillier realms, it'll ignite the synapses of nostalgia and have you gearing up for the turn of the seasons. Win win.

Innertube - Omeletter Psychosis
Innertube - Faisal's Pad

Have a great weekend people!

MV & EE

Matt Valentine and Erika Elder are the kind of rustic Americana nymphs that will always be playing music whilst ensconsed in the earth from whence they came - no matter how warped that music may become. As MV & EE, the duo have managed to simultaneously evoked a languid style of neo-folk rock wizardry whilst crafting deceptively lithe musical arrangements - looking laidback, but always on the ball. On their latest LP Space Homestead the magic continues. The atmospheric opener 'Heart Like Barbara Steel' is more like Mark McGuire/Emeralds ambience territory, before breaking into the woozy folk of 'Workingman's Smile', the reverb-heavy and C&W-in-sepia 'Sweet Sure Gone' and the ethereal 'Moment'. As always it isn't so straightforward, and the haunted blues of 'Shit's Creek', the lagorous guitar solo on 'Too Far To See' and the cathartic sprawl of 'Wasteland' show their psychedelic hand in full glory. It's a strangely alluring album, much like the couple themselves, and is likely to grab you gently but firmly and lead you into the woods, never to be seen again.


You can grab Space Homestead (out through Woodsist) here.

MV & EE- Workingman's Smile
MV & EE - Wasteland

Steve Hauschildt

Last week's Mark McGuire show was nothing if not incendiary. I have spoken about his brilliance on this very blog many a time. However, he is not the only member of the beautifully eclectic Emeralds collective to step out under his own name. The solitary figure of Steve Hauschildt has been the steady fulcrum to McGuire and John Elliot's more out-there performances, yet he brought out last year's Tragedy & Geometry, an album full of nuance, shade and light that is at once an obvious progression from the band and a chance to expand boundaries in a different conceptual tone.

A nice way to ward off the cold and bring forth the astral sun; a stroll down memory lane of synth's historical flights of fancy. Is it just me who hears Tangerine Dream in the wings? Yet there is an inherent warmth here that actively distances Hauschildt's efforts from his influences, and that is what elevates these sounds. They bleed together like any synthscape is wont to do, but it's a pleasant, at times euphoric experience. I really like this.


Tragedy & Geometry is out on Kranky Records now.

Steve Hauschildt - Polyhymnia
Steve Hauschildt - Tragedy & Geometry

Mark McGuire gig

Room40 + The Judith Wright Centre present an outstanding night of eclectic guitar tomfoolery with Mark McGuire (Emeralds) taking residence in the Shopfront tonight!

We fucking love him around these parts - his Living With Another record was my second favourite of 2010, behind Women's Public Strain and his 'day band' Emeralds' Does It Look Like I'm Here? - so to see him on his lonesome is going to be ultra special indeed. One of the central figures emerging from the USA underground, Mark McGuire’s solo releases places him smack bang in the middle of the killer vibrations flooding forth from America's underbelly. With numerous releases on eMego, as well as countless other labels, he’s developed an incredible live looping setup,through which guitar is transformed into a cosmos of sound! Joined to the hip is one of Brisbane's finest (although I can't get em to play a SM show yet - Ill get there soon...) Blank Realm.

It's gonna be soooooooooo good! No amount of o's can equate to how awesome this potentially will be. It is limited capacity though, so try to snavvle up the last tix here! See you tonight - and if you're unsure, listen to the glorious track below, try not to shed a tear, and man up and put the bread on the table!

Mark McGuire - Brothers (For Matt)

An Emerald Refusing To Get Lost

Mark McGuire continues to be stupidly prolific. Not content with having two of the best albums of 2010 (Emeralds' Does It Look Like I'm Here? and the amazing Living With Yourself under his own name), the guitarist has Get Lostready to drop (it's out through Editions Mego - you can get it here...) As always, the jawdropping element of these droning suites is the fact that McGuire is an insanely gifted guitarist, his major key plucking augmented by the synth burbles and recorded bursts that lie underneath. The fact that it becomes a cocoon to wrap yourself in and hibernate the winter away is proof in the pudding that this kid knows exactly what he's done, and he insists on doing it well - and he's only getting better.

Mark McGuire - Get Lost
Mark McGuire - When You're Somewhere

McGuire Rises Above

I dont know how Mark McGuire made it to the end of 2010 alive, let alone in one piece - a man with this much positive creative energy must surely spontaneously combust! With six individual releases, one of which was a 2010 highlight (Living With Yourself), plus the amazing Emeralds album Does It Look Like Im Here?, plus the myriad releases he has put out in the past as cassettes and CD-Rs, you'd think that there is a lot of flotsam buried amongst the quantity of sounds on offer. Yet I think it would be an error on your behalf if you wrote anything off, which is why I have gone back to High Above The City, a four track opus that perfectly captures McGuire's guitar musicianship plus providing a template from which many of his Emeralds compositions must surely pour forth from. It is clear how strong McGuire is as a guitarist and composer here, with each song breathing in and out like living beasts, the ebb and flow of his guitar noodling organic to the point of otherworldly. The looping effect of these tracks fit into the essence of drone music, but McGuire crafts songs that are clearly a defined extension of himself - there really isnt anything else out there that can imitate his style, or vice versa. With this and Living With Yourself he is showing the strength to define his sound - 2011 could be the year that he produces a masterpiece.

Mark McGuire - Part 2

Brendan Masala's Top Ten Albums of 2010!

This was ridiculously hard to do for a year where there were a lot of really good albums but not many great ones. Still, when I had done a lot of cross examinations and listened til my ears bled, I was left with some twenty albums that were still floating my boat. As Paul and I found common ground there, as a collective Paul and I have come up with a definitive top ten for tomorrow (with the only exception being our final entry - wont say much until tomorrow), so I'm showcasing a couple that may have slipped through the cracks. And from the above pic I guess you know where we are starting...

1. Mark McGuire, Living With Yourself

I only heard this a month ago, but have not been able to put it to bed. This is guitar collage by a consummate professional (1/3 of the inimitable Emeralds), but with an inherent personal narrative that is more emotive than almost anything you'll come across. Mindblowing.

2. Ceremony - Rohnert Park

This album upset a lot of the hardcore purists that had been swept up by the bloodlust that was Ceremony's initial propulsive drive. Yet its the melodic change of gear and emphasis on early twenties ennui that underpins this album - Ceremony may be in 'The Doldrums', exhibiting lo-fi stargazing with the best of em, but unlike the likes of Beach Fossils et al (many of which are great), these guys will still tear you a new arsehole.

3. Puffy Areolas - In The Army 1981

Puerile, nihilistic trash, screaming and buzzsawing their way through an obnoxious forty minutes that you can never get back, Puffy Areolas are unabashedly bashing their head repeatedly against a wall, whilst holding you in a headlock. And it may take a while, but rest assured you'll have a bloodied grin smeared across your face. A lot of bands (some even from the same Siltbreeze stable) tried for reckless wanton abandon, but none did it like Puffy Areolas.

4. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

This album is still up there for me even though it was on relentless rotation early in the year, and was an almost there contender for Sonic Masala's definitive top ten. In some ways I could alternate this album with Harlem's Hippies - both exuded that bright, snotty, scuzzy garage punk with pop sensibilities emblazoned across their chests. But I came to the Dalston trio's brand of sound first, therefore it wins the kudos here. Still incredibly addictive - pretty much my 2010 dance album, albeit drunken and inevitably staining the carpet with red wine and cigarette burns.

5. Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra - Kollaps Tradixionales

We all need a guilty pleasure... I know a lot of people hate Efrin Menuck's voice, and the G!YBE reunion certainly has overshadowed things, but Kollaps Tradixionales is here, not just because it is an impressive, audacious, sprawling, memsmeric listen, but because of their amazing live show in February at Electric Ballroom, and for the epic opening track 'There Is A Light'. And I like Ramirez's voice, so fuck you.

6. Heirs - Fowl

I wanted to put Helms Alee's Night Terror here, but seeing as it is a 2009 release, that cant be done. Instead I bring you Heirs, a hard post-metal outfit from Melbourne that managed on Fowl to squeeze every iota of emotion out of the blackest riffs this side of death metal without resorting to guttural growls, yelps and the gnashing of teeth - which is why I love this genre. Furthermore, it has balls. Big, big balls. They played the tiniest of venues in Camden this year and I saw a man spontaneously combust. FACT. (NB - facts may not be factual).

7. Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Rush To Relax

Another Aussie outfit, but one you might be more familiar with - ECSR's 3rd LP has been largely overlooked almost everywhere, which is a travesty. I know that the release of the first two albums (Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Primary Colours) only came here last year, but its a shame that this garage juggernaut missed the target. They are terse yet fun, brooding yet energetic, manic yet throwaway - and their simple chugging sonics coupled with lead Brendan Suppression's iconic Aussie bark/drawl makes for a unique and amazing sound. They have toured with Pissed Jeans of recent times - expect for more bite next time around.

8. Merchandise - (Strange Songs) In The Dark

Another band I only came to last month - the exact same day as Mark McGuire - this Florida act have put out an amazing EP and a bunch of demos and such (Gone Are The Silk Gardens Of Youth), but the album is something so much more. The loudest, most feedback riddled, brooding pop songs ever. One of the most breathtaking albums of 2010 in my opinion - underneath all that white noise and dissonance is abject beauty.

9. Sex Church - 6 Songs By...

These guys were all the rage in the middle months of 2010, then the hype seemed to die away. Shame really, cos Sex Church (not to be confused with another amazing band, Megachurch, who just miss the cut here) are producing some of the most exciting garage rock right now. When bands such as Tyvek and Sic Alps are all jostling each other for obvious reasons, Sex Church came along and quietly drank everyone under the table and slept with all their girlfriends. And they are from British Columbia. Shit.

10. Tjutjana - Tjutjana

The biggest surprise of the year I reckon, as this is actually a release sent to me by the band themselves. Hailing from Denver Colorado, Tjutjana are relentless in their pursuit of the Dark Side of psych rock. And whilst there were some great psych records out this year, Tjutjana brought forth a fresh, albeit disturbing, take, and blew away the competition.

I feel I've left out some other stellar releases too, so here's a few others that have gotten serious airplay this year.

Honourable mentions

The Austerity Program - Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn (my fave EP of year)
Forest Swords - Dagger Paths
The Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
Weekend - Sports
Besnard Lakes - ...Are The Roaring Night

PVT - Church With No Magic

And I better stop there before I get carried away!

Dont Live With Yourself Without Emeralds

This is a double post, for two reasons. Firstly because these two releases are interlinked. Secondly because they are two of the best albums of the year, hands down. And if I never gave them the attention they deserved, I may as well pack up Sonic Masala right here and now.

First up, we have Emeralds, a band I mentioned relatively quickly - no, uber quickly (I listened to Lake Snow Effect without knowing a lick about em) here. The trio from Ohio have been together under the mineral moniker for just over 5 years, yet their output is astounding - combining their CD-Rs, cassettes and 'proper' releases they are close to clocking half a century of material. Each piece emanates from a mood and space in time - tempo, length, technique often slides about from one touchstone to the next, yet every piece is unequivocally an Emeralds gem (sorry...). Dipping their toes in everything from post rock, ambient minimalism, drone squalls, 80s synth compositions, frequency manipulations and Krautrock, the road they have carved is ever winding and stretches to an indeterminate horizon that is always beyond reach. And in Does It Look Like Im Here?, their latest on Editions Mego, Emeralds have constructed a crystal castle of insurmountable beauty. Known for their improvisations (read: very long songs), the album on the most part tones this down, creating instead a clearer vision of what its like to be caught up in their whirling prism of sound. The way in which each sound wraps around the next in a double helix of noise fuses within an unique DNA, something which many will aspire towards but never achieve, let alone surpass. Does It Look Like Im Here? is such a delight that it hurts my brain to think of the right superlatives - because there arent any.

Not content to focus on this alone though, the members of Emeralds all have their own projects. One of the trio, Mark McGuire, released an album of his own, Living With Yourself, a month ago - and in my eyes at least, has matched the majesty of his own output, making an album that, whilst vastly different in size, temperament, sound and scope, supersedes it through warmth and emotion. McGuire's guitar collages are more leftfield when it comes to sonic exploration, and whilst still displaying the adventurousness and virtuousity that is his finger-picking trademark, he changes gear here to tell a much more personal tale. Combining his guitar-driven compositions with home recordings that his father made when he was a child, you get a real sense that this was not just a labour of love, but in some ways a diary, a fond look back at one person's specific yesteryear – with added effects and noise. The bubbling of children’s voices that begin opener ‘The Vast Structure Of Recollection’ is the pivotal moment of the album in my mind, and as the acoustic strummings enter the fray we are transported into a hyper real yet sepia toned landscape of memories. Amazingly, the album plays as a narrative sans vocals (using the field recordings as a common thread like Explosions In The Sky’s ad hoc story of how their van broke down whilst touring, The Rescue), further augmented by the titles themselves. ‘Around The Neighbourhood’ is meandering and filled with ponderous whimsy; ‘Clouds Rolling In’ evokes the darknesses that tinge the moment when a child’s innocence takes its first knock; the melancholic matter of factness of 'Two Different People'. 'Clear The Cobwebs' is the rawest track here, and evokes the feeling of one who has dreamt vividly about his childhood to wake up in a strange room, not knowing where he is, afraid to find out, desperate to climb back into his own brain. But the closer is the clincher. 'Brothers (For Matt)' opens with the recordings of McGuire's father interviewing his sons, primarily about girls, before exploding into a maelstrom of Mogwai proportions - yet if you can take in its euphoric 10 minutes and not feel dampness on your cheeks, you aren't human. Living With Yourself is brilliant - by far the best instrumental record of the year in the sense that it is predominantly one instrument, talking. An amazing feat.

Two breathtaking albums in one year - and McGuire is only 23. Fuck.

Emeralds - Candy Shoppe

Mark McGuire - Brothers (For Mark)