Aussie Attack - Hoodlum Shouts, Bad Vision, Us The Band, Le Villejuif Underground, Loose Tooth, Velcro, Weak Boys, California Girls

I am always struggling to keep up! So much good stuff to look out for and look forward to. none moreso from my native Southern Land. So here are eight acts that you should keep your ears peeled for over the next few months...

Canberra's always been an interesting place for music, mainly because of how isolated and idiosyncratic the place is in all senses of the word. So when great bands come out of there it is a pleasant surprise. There have been quite a few recently to be fair (Wives, Primary Colours, TV Colours) and today I bookend this post with two more. The first guys are one of the most underrated bands in the country - Hoodlum Shouts. Their gig alongside Tape/Off, Freak Wave and Bad Vision in 2014 at Public Bar really rocked my world, fully confirming their brilliance that is showcased on 2012's stellar LP Young Man Old Man and every other release they have smashed out. 'Heat Island' is the title track, and it is emblematic of the shuddering, heat-soaked post-punk these Australian battlers embody. in fact it makes sense that such a bruised band with a weary-yet-defiant eye on the state of the nation would be born in the nation's capital. Take it down from within, boys. VERY excited for Heat Island.

Bad Vision seem to have toned down the sloppy grime-flecked punk for new track 'Goon'. It is still undeniably BV though - despite the piercing sun rays sparking off the jangly guitars, playing like a rollicking indie-folk stomper, Jerome's laconic vocals and that howled chorus about staring out and about at the detritus of the population floating like flotsam on the shit-creek of life tells us definitively otherwise. It is the first cut from their sophomore record, Turn Out Your Socket, due out in May (pre-order through Adagio 830 Records here).

Us The Band have upped the ante with 'Ghoul' - while they played loose and fast with their DZ Deathrays associations early on, the new track feels more in line with that other killer two-piece, Japandroids. The EP But Where Do They Go looks to be a lung-tearing, ear-bludgeoning calling card - if you are in Sydney pop down to Petersham Bowls Club on Friday for the launch.

Nathan Roche is a true global troubadour - on the lam from landlords, ladies, beer barons and every government linked debt agency he has had the pleasure/pain of crossing, he has crafted out some great records with both Camperdown and Out and under his own name. Back incognito in the Sydney swelter, he has brought some of that Gallic saunter and swagger with him in the form of Le Villejuif Underground. His laconic drawl is the same louche observations, living in a hazy cloud, a unreliable holiday parallel to the real world, never breaking a sweat, even when the wall is racing towards the windscreen. 'On The Seine' is the kind of wonky lounge pop whimsy that only someone as careless, carousing and carefree as Roche can get away with, let alone do well. Just go with it - it might fleece you, but you will be happy for the experience... Watch for a release to come out of Rice Is Nice later in the year.

Out of all the acts on this Antipodean breakdown, Loose Tooth is the only "new band" to me, having only heard 'Bites Will Bleed' yesterday. It's impressive - a scuzz-blasted call to arms, both maudlin and steadfast, brutal and brittle, not reticent, unrepentant. They have been picked up by Milk Records (Courtney Barnett, The Finks) and their debut EP Saturn Returns will be out in April. (And how amazing is that band photo? Bloody amazing, that's what).

Curt from The Ocean Party has his own outlet as Velcro - he played a Sonic Masala show in Brisbane back in 2013 (to all of 30 people, on a $5, 6-band bill - but I sunk $300+ on the bar to make up for the disappointment so I think everyone had a good time. That image above is from the show). He has released a self-titled LP that was recorded around that time, and is finally out in the ether - you can see how his songwriting leads into The Ocean Party meringue. It's about the same laconic worldviews that his band mates' side projects Ciggie Witch and Hobby Farm - being bedridden ('Bed Ridden'), loving Victoria ('Victoria'), visiting Sydney ('Sydney')... Yeah, the name is definitely the game. Especially like 'Whine', but they are all good tracks. Bout bloody time, Curt.

Sydney upstarts Weak Boys continue to rattle the cage. These carefree slacker poptarts don't know how to take things seriously - except when they do. I was going to apologies about not writing about their fun as hell album Weekdays/Weekends, or their new single 'Life Rules'n (death drools). But then they got angry at the shitty situation of their home town and spat it out for all to see - 'Good One Sydney'. Fucking good one. Kings Cross living. Here is a link to their record anyway so you can see how good these goofballs are - and maybe you will see them in Brisbane in August for something or other...

And we sign off with California Girls AKA Gus McGrath (Wives, Primary Colours, Beach Slut). he has been a heavily prolific dude in the past, and you can see why - his latest, Desire, has already sold out in cassette form, with an LP version to be out sometime this month. It's New Wave gothic post-punk caught between a black hole and a vase of rotting roses, not wanting or knowing anything other than to sway to the sounds of anguish and desire. It lives in Australia, but could emanated out of the cold terrain of the European dour, a constant search for passion and longing through a prism of dancefloor disappointment and narcotic necrotism. In short, it is insidiously sensuous in its abject, knowing despair... See California Girls play this Saturday with Hobart legends Naked and locals Wives at the Phoenix, before he hits Melbourne to play at Howler alongside Bent, Hierophants and Waterfall Person.

No Limits to Jack Lee (And Petersham)

Jack Lee has done it again.

Stepping out of Beef Jerk to do things on his own once more, Lee's record No Limits (out through Osborne Again) is a bruised and battered slab of broken thoughts, moods, dreams, gaffer-taped together to punish and revere. 'Slip On Piss', the opening track, is killer - a dour diatribe on the shitty "adult situations I keep gettin' in". Lee's lip curled, lyrics drawled/spat, pummelling, feeling like shit. It's a self-loathing backwater dirge of brilliance. Of course the album doesn't hold an even keel, going through wonky pop dreams and broken ruminations of getting stuck in Sydney and ukelele/karaoke sessions in Mullumbimby, dog parks, bottle shops, footy and crates of beer, all centred around the suburb of Petersham. It has the downer vocal/lyrical power of Kitchens Floor, the dry spoken-word wit of James Boyd or Nathan Roche (who makes an appearance on 'Sagres'), the wry loquaciousness of  Dag (whose Dusty Anastassiou also pops in to co-write and "star" in the excellent 'Stuck In Sydney'). It has the ramshackle energy of the best hardscrabble bands coming out of Australia like cockroaches abandoning a fiery building. The best parts of Australian outlier downhearted rock then. I love this record. Grab No Limits here.

Jerking Beef Is Tragic

I'm loving Tragic, the debut long player from Sydney amiable slack jaws Beef Jerk. Coming from a wide cross-section of the city's DIY aesthetic (members come from bands such as Bad Guys, Housewives, Adults, Day Ravies, Snotty Babies and more), this four-piece/sometime-five-piece have punched out fifteen laconic ramblers that takes some of the token tropes of the much-maligned dole wave subset (droll, monotone vocals about underemployed middle-class malaise, drinking booze and specific city signifiers) and leaves it in the sun to warp in weird and wonderful ways. This isn't so much about being laconic as being smart-arses - song titles like 'Stay At Home Dads', 'Jerking Off' and 'The Last Chiko Roll', the latter with its references to the idiotic current PM and the iconic battered roll of cabbage, corn and glutinous gunk, make it clear that these boys just want to write songs that make them laugh, but that aren't novelty value either (their affinity with contemporary literate soothsayer Nathan Roche becomes evident here). There are melancholic meanders through maudlin sunsets ('Cotton'), jumbled jaunts through the detritus of humanity in the backstreets of the NSW capital ('Rhythm Infection', 'Aisle Ten'), and cantankerous canters through the jumbled thoughts of tetchy urban sages, sorting through the bowel-trails at the bottom of the public toilets for divinity ('Reissue', 'French Dish'). Beef Jerk always feel like they aren't trying, but rather than it being an affectation it's  because it seems honestly beyond them to do so - yet their unctuous delivery and style belies an extremely likable band with an interesting, amusing and epochal Australian voice, something that can't be said about many bands of this ilk really. Two thumbs up (especially when smashing tinnies on the bus).

Grab Tragic here. They supported Twerps on Friday night, but have a bunch of shows combing up and down the east coast in June/July (although none in Queensland - YET) - see below:

Friday June 12 – Grace Darling, Melbourne VIC (w/ Chook Race, Black Vacation, Gentlemane)

Monday June 15 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC

Saturday June 27 – Hermann's Bar, Sydney NSW (w/ Unity Floors)

Friday July 10 – Brighton Up Bar, Sydney NSW

By The Grace Of A Golden Tongue

I got Blonde Tongues to open up for The Ocean Party back in November 2013 when the boys were launching their third album Split. It was a bit of a strange night, in that only 30 odd people showed to watch what was a superb lineup (also playing was Nathan Roche, Thigh Master and Dag). Blonde Tongues had only played a handful of shows, but they really impressed me that night with their slightly loose, glossy pop noise.

The four-piece are bringing out their self-recorded, self-titled debut, extending from their singles 'SEILU' and 'Hey Good Lookin'. From the shimmering yet cantankerous opener 'Wedding Bells' to the wonky chagrin of 'Beer', the contained maelstrom of 'Glass Cigar' and the brooding 'When You Come Down Blue', Blonde Tongues is a real feat of shoegazing ingenuity. These guys deserve to be playing more shows - they killed it on the Love Junkies show on Saturday (alongside our own Tape/Off).

Passing The Phantom Roche

Where In The World Is Nathan Roche? should be the next geographically-minded educational noir game to take your iOS Android by storm, dumped unceremoniously on all smartphones by iTunes and the Illuminati, in the evil conglomerates' neverending quest to hunt down the irascible, barefoot troubadour before he tears down the curtain - all while teaching the kiddies about global currencies and local cuisines. Admittedly it's pretty easy to find him in the above photo, but I assure you the game would be much tricksier...

Anyway, Glenlivet A Gogh Records have announced that Roche is about to dump his third record on our doorsteps in a flaming Nando's bag, and I couldn't be happier. Cathedrals Made Outta Green Cards is as laconically silly, verbose and charming as you would expect from the man who brought us Watch It Wharf and Magnetic Memories - but don't take my word for it, listen to the man himself!

Press release? Ha! More like an obituary. A death note! The carving inscriptions on a rugged tombstone in a graveyard. CMOGC is Nathan Roche’s third and final report – may he rest in peace six feet under. Following “Watch It Wharf” which could be seen as a record loosely about the working class and wharfs, to “Magnetic Memories” touching on subjects of paradise, luxury, islands and whatever else. CMOGC is about death, transition and two vastly different grand cathedrals. But lets not get too caught up in the half-thought out concept behind the record. Following a European Tour, and a US Tour (with Angie of Circle Pit, Straight Arrows, Ruined Fortune) including shows with fellow Australians Gooch Palms, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, Deaf Wish, The Stevens, Ausmuteants and being invited to the prestigious Memphis southern romp, “Gonerfest” … “CMOGC” was conceived over a few days post EU tour whilst riding up the mountain of Tibedabo in Barcelona on a rusty pawnshop bicycle each morning. Of course, the songs were brought to the table and then destroyed, rebuilt given a new paintjob and coat of varnish by reliable collaborator and fellow Townsville transplant Joseph Ireland once arriving back into Australia.

 “Grand Piano” feels like surrealistic nostalgia. The subject matter of “Airport Bar” will be familiar to most Australian travellers stopping off in Dubai or Singapore, Bangkok and so on. “Phantom Blues” is fucked up Phillip-Marlow country with a winning outro arrangement. “Tell The Canal” could be Cowboy In Sweden-era Hazlewood if it was made in the 80s with a tacky keyboard. “Breakdown” is psychedelic blues, in the vein of Tav Falco’s Panther Burns. “War Of The Garden” is just plain ridiculous with a rippin’ 1980s heavy metal guitar solo by Ace Romeo (Andy from Canberra’s “The Fighting League”) Oh! And of course there’s rollicking piano.

The standard cult heroes are here to be cryptically ripped off yet again, Lou Reed, Kevin Ayers, Lee Hazlewood, Alex Chilton, Nikki Sudden and the usual suspects probably mentioned in an earlier press release or on three or four well-to-do blogs. A prolific self-published writer, Roche has taken the “risky” plunge into spoken word segments for the finale partly inspired by the ballsy-ness of British eccentric Ivor Cutler and French musician/author Brigitte Fontaine. Featuring a similarly mad Fellini-cast to the previous solo records plus the addition of fertile French singer/musician Mariette Auvray (Pussy Patrol, Eyes Behind, Water Sark, BCBG) the before mentioned Ace Romeo along with Drew Hudson (East River/Wild Cat Falling) combines for a unique listening experience. “CMOGC” is a salty salute to the most unambitious and dismissive man of the Australian Underground. A man of many friends, few enemies and unbelievable luck. Said to be pulling a “PB” (a “Paul Bowles”) Roche has left the recording making for good without ruling out the possibility of a string of “comeback albums” in his post-rehab mid-forties.

For now, it’s a life of adventure, writing unpopular books and working shitty jobs in foreign lands. THIS IS THE THIRD AND FINAL REPORT OF NATHAN ROCHE SO-LONG!!

Yeah, that's the whole presser, but I couldn't resist, the man had me at "death note". We will hear plenty more from the John Farnham of the Sydney dole-living underworld yet, as he continues his global subterfuge, stealing hearts and losing minds. (NB - I'm not sure any of this makes sense, or if that even matters. Just listen to 'Phantom Blues' and get on board).

Beatific BCBG

The otherworldly crystalline off-kilter pop of Parisian duo BCBG came to my attention when I was sent their latest 7" Noces d'Argent by Aussie barefoot laconic troubadour Nathan Roche (who is helping bring this to as many people as possible Down Under through the Glenlivet-A-Gogh label). The band, although having played in the same Paris underground sounds circles, albeit in other bands (Pussy Patrol, Eyes Behind, Kikiilimikilii), only came together when Mariette Auvray and Samuel Trifot bonded during a residency in Brazil. Another travelling musician in Brazil at this time was Angie Garrick (Straight Arrows, Ruined Fortune, Southern Comfort, Angie), and she fell for BCBG's intense, hypnotic charms. This 7" perfectly encapsulates the heady melting pot that is kitschy disco pop, intransigent techno beats, coalescing psychedelic missteps and ethereal beauty. 'Jaune De Naple' is bewitching; 'Desert Narquois' starts playing over itself, somehow heightening the hook by burying it; and digital bonus 'Astral Cities' holds strong focus too, finding a slipstream of dreamy ephemeral euphoria that Electric Youth failed to keep entrenched in a bottle (seriously,2014 album Inner World is pretty goddamn awful - what a disappointment). All in the native tongue, BCBG holds reign, and deserve to reign supreme.

 

Octopus Pi's Not Waving But Drowning

Sydney purveyors of psychedelic outliers Octopus Pi have put together this great compilation Not Waving But Drowning, showcasing their eclectic roster plus a few other familiar faces. Kicking off with the deliciously off-kilter 'Bon Voyage' from the inimitable master of the lackadaisical faux-yacht rock Nathan Roche, the collection also includes cuts from Psyclops Eyepatch, Dead Radio and two tracks by Subterranean Rain. Favourite offerings - Roche's effort (obviously), The Holy Soul's 'Psychotic Notions', Wild Cat Falling's 'Dead Beat Walkabout', and Mickey Gloss' 'Heart Inside My Chest'. The compilation has been put together as a fundraiser for the Refugee Council of Australia - read more here. Not Waving But Drowning is available as a digital download for $5, pick one up here.

Old Mates Is What They Is, Ey?

One band that seemed to both be confined by and outstrip the ill-fated "dolewave" genre pigeonhole was South Australia's Old Mate. It may have been in the name; it may have been in the droll drawl that lead Pat Telfer (Bitch Prefect) delivered his sometimes-weary, sometimes-jacked-up lyrics. But just as many of the bands that were tarred with that brush over the last two to three years have moved on by incorporating stranger tics and tricks to their bag, Old Mate's new album It Is What It Is (out through SDZ Records) explodes, its core aesthetic spreading in every direction like the impact of a paintball on a white wall. Don't let the kangaroos boxing on the cover dissuade you from acknowledging that we are entering a whole new world.


'Medicine Man' is a gargantuan jazz blues number - seriously. Sure, it's used and abused and flung in the corner to dry, but the 12 bars, the solos, the howling space, the husky vocals are all present and accounted for. It's a strange opener - it's a strange choice, considering the band's back catalogue - but then nothing should surprise you with these guys (remember the other half of Bitch Prefect is the chameleonic Liam Kenny...). From then on we are taken to one surrealist vignette to the next, in a battered limousine al Carax's bizarrely brilliant Holy Motors film from 2012, with Telfer the ever-present ringmaster of the macabre. 'Requesting Permission' is back on terra firma, a downer jangle with dour vocals a la Brisbane act Dag, with a melancholy that reminds me of the solo work of Neil Young in his early years - really - or that first recipient of the Grant McLennan Fellowship back in 2007, Charles Curse. But this isn't the needle and the damage done. We step up with 'Something', a vocal that sounds like Macka from The Onyas having a go at an acoustic number. It isn't overtly funny though - the tempo, the backing vocals, the 'hey hey hey hey hey heeeey, hey' lending a desperation to proceedings. 'February' is a lament in a netherworld saloon - the Gothic drawl reminiscent of another dormant Aussie act, Nikko - holding that plodding, maudlin beat for its entirety, and drags you down with it.

Then we hit a sonorous contemplation with 'Stressin'', a lysergic percolation of languid rhythms (for some reason Im tracking back to some of those subterranean grooves the Stone Roses often doled out) in what is generally an instrumental track, except for some growled, rolling-around-the-mouth vocals (and yet another video featuring that post-Soviet kid in the nightclub, which really looks like a sequal to the film Orphan); the sax burbles into the fervour underscoring 'Know What He Wants', a fine addition here; 'Him' re-enters the Young orbit, albeit in a warped fashion, offering layered nuance that promises more than it gives, with lyrics that imply never learning from mistakes; and closer 'Truth Boy' evokes another crooked minstrel of the Australian musical landscape, Nathan Roche, although there are no Sydney references in sight, just some Aussie sardonic sneers...

It Is What It Is is a bizarre and inexplicalby attractive record. The title tells it all, thus making this review, or any really, redundant. Old Mate, Telfer, the music - it is what it is. Deal with it - get it here.

Sydney's Local Fathers, Sons, Legends

Mikey and Jack from Sydney band Beef Jerk started their own label recently. Called Local Legends Records (great name), the impetus was on getting out some of the weirder DIY recordings of local Sydney musicians that mightn’t otherwise reach your ears. It’s all pretty rough and ready, but therein lies the charm, and there are some real gems to unearth here. Essentially a cassette release label (in Jack’s words, “we are starting out on cassettes because I found hundreds for pretty much nothing in a shop in Lewisham”). This is true DIY too – the duo dub each cassette themselves before printing the jackets at Petersham Officeworks (probably some legends right there too) then finish off by writing the labels too. As would be expected, one of the first releases features none other than rumpled rascal Nathan Roche, under the moniker The Revisionists. Keeping with the proud Sydney geographic touchstones, the cassette is called Potts The Point, and is touted as the “shortest lived punk group”. It's got some corkers - 'I Don't Need Ya' should be my theme tune.



But it is all of extreme interest as a sort of stream-of-consciousness underbelly archive – a aural microfiche of cast-offs and lightning-in-a-bottle moments of epiphany, never to be repeated. There is the Bad Guys single which sees Randall Lee (of Ashtray Boy and Cannanes fame, and Jack’s uncle) writing music to accompany lyrics inspired by his three year old son, producing raucous inter-generational blasts; there’s Luke O’Farrell (The Laurels) with a bunch of demos highlighting the gestation of that band in his mind; there’s the wild detritus of Wild Cat Falling; there's the jangle-drown of Encrypted Hard Drive; and there's the supposed release of Lincoln Brown (Housewives) going solo and getting all debaucherous in the process, apparently reaching for the Jandek bottle of reclusive blues ennui wisdom followed by a chaser of Axemen untuned angst...I want this to come through guys.






Get it all here - there are some burnt classics here that need serious attention...Oh, and happy Father's Day!

Remembering A Magnetic Roche

The listless and footloose troubadour Nathan Roche continues his enigmatic journey through the backwaters and neon glare of Sydney’s highs and lows. This second album, Magnetic Memories (out now through Glenlivet-A-Gogh Records), comes five months after his Watch It Wharf debut, and whilst the laconically wasted narratives that Roche drawls remain as acerbic and slanted as ever, there is a weirdness imbued in the lounge-lizard-meets-a-weathered-Lou Reed-cover-band-from-Petersham-with-early-Talking Heads-pretensions instrumentation that is equally as entrancing. It’s almost lysergic in the measured sleepiness that Roche delivers his sermons on the Camperdown mount, tired of running towards and away from destiny, a crooked grin slanting across his dial as he acknowledges and doffs his hat to the ridiculous and the sublime of what is Australia’s most famous city. He may not be our recognised documenter of 21st century Australia – nor would you want him to be – but Roche is a wonderful oddity to have in the canon. Like Brisbane’s James X Boyd before him, put Roche down as Sydney’s sandwich-board-wearing soothsayer of drunken ripostes and stark personal admissions, all wrapped up in a loquacious mirth. And like Boyd, he is soon setting sail for Europe. Let the good times roll.

You can grab Magnetic Memories here.

INTERVIEW - Angie

I have a couple other interviews coming up this month, but here is an unexpected one. I did a little Q+A for The Music with Angie Bermuda from the likes of Sydney's Circle Pit, Straight Arrows, Ruined Fortune, Southern Comfort...and now Angie. Angie has gone it alone to release Turning (out now on Rice Is Nice and Easter Bilby), and the album is a classic of down-turn malaise, dour riffs and her excellent warbled, drained vocals. The full article only uses a fraction of the interview though, so here is the full transcript (Angie was doing a residency in Brazil at the time)...

SONIC MASALA - What's brought on the change to a solo guise?

ANGIE BERMUDA - I usually write songs with others, composing at least some of the music, or lyrics with a collaborator. Jack (Circle Pit) had moved to Melbourne and the new songs I had made didn't quite seem to fit my more heavier new project, Ruined Fortune, that I had created in the interim with my friend Nic (Warnock, Rip Society). What I see for Ruined Fortune is that it is inherently collaborative, and its a heavy, weird rock band. There songs just had a different vibe - they were more girly, sublime almost, and therefore didn't seem to fit the project. Over a long period of time, the songs evolved to a point where they were 'finished' with me alone. In that sense, I thought it was suited to also record them alone. I wasn't sure what the future would hold for these songs, or whether there was a live impetus, but I decided to record them with my friend Owen (from Straight Arrows) at his home studio.

The songs that ended up on the LP stretched back years, always around in the back of my head while everything else was going on. All of the songs were written whilst travelling or walking, without any instruments at hand or force to consciously write a song. They all just came to me, in a dream, on a boat, whilst staring at a strange statue or object, along an either strange or familiar skyline whilst reflecting on my life. I remember Parallels melody coming to me first while out at sea, on the 5th day the song came. I had no way to record it, so I sang it over and over to myself till I could make it back to land. Wandering was whilst walking around the city at night, along the expresslink, feeling lost and estranged from people close to me. Others were newer, like Missing Out and Do Yourself Right, and the songs just came together and fit in this strange sense that I knew they belonged together on one document. I guess it was mostly an instinctual feeling that I had to do it myself, that came from somewhere I don't quite understand even now.

SM - In what ways did making Turning push you out of your comfort zone?

AB - Making a solo recording is always an intense statement, no matter the form, as it is an artistic reflection of you alone, and in that sense I had harness a whole new set of confidence I had never used before. The recording process came at the end of I guess a year period where I was kinda all over the place and confused by life in general so it was also kinda cathartic, something I had to rid myself of. I can be very shy and anxious, so I had to force myself to be more extroverted in order to get the ideas out there and communicate them to other people which was definitely the most difficult, even now i'm not entirely comfortable with this concept. I played every instrument apart from drums, which meant basically no breaks in the studio, always on which was at times very hard, as although I am proficient at lead guitar, playing organ, bass and rhythm guitar was at times very difficult and frustrating as I have very little rhythmic capabilities.

It was also the best kind of challenge, and having Owen to record was perfect for me in a lot of ways as we are very close and have a long detailed history. He gave me a lot of time, space and patience to create the songs at their most fulfilled, exploratory, that I guess I wouldn't have had the ability or confidence to do with another producer. Lincoln Brown from Housewives helped a lot with details like my guitar tones and amp settings, so it gave me more time to focus on getting everything down as close to what I had in my head. I also had lots of feedback on my initial demo tracks from close friends so I never felt truly alone in the project which was really nice.

ANGIE - STARS AND DUST from Angela Garrick on Vimeo.

SM - The strong focus on guitars is steeped in a droning cyclical aesthetic - is this an experiment or something longer-form?

AB - I have been working on a new record since Turning, and the sound is different, it is more simplified in terms of instrumentation and the only FX used were my Moogerfooger Phaser and Wah. For Turning, there was a lot more FX to generate the guitar styles present. I made demo tracks of each song at home, and they were all very bass-heavy, with lots of reverb, and I tried to convert these feelings onto the sessions with Owen as best I could. The drums I had made with my hands but effected them so they sounded almost like programmed drums, or drumming that was barely there. We had a long discussion before starting where I communicated the aesthetic styles through listening to the demos I had made and comparing sounds with other records I liked, such as the dark guitar styles and tones in bands such as The Index, Witch, or Chrome. Lincoln had a good handle on my guitar style and really worked on the aesthetics with his large range of pedals that he brought to the sessions. I can't even recall now what exactly they were. I think because I did dual-lead tracks on almost the whole record, I really had time to regulate the sense of guitar solos 'swimming' around each other, or the sense they were related to each other, returning to the base note but also floating around with a loose sense of unpredictability and danger. All of the solos were basically improvised. I would have a rough idea of what was going on, but it was mostly unplanned. The first solo would be laid down, and especially on tracks like Shadow Twin and Wandering, the second solo would kinda comment and move around the other solo, complimenting it in a sense. Wandering I feel could go on for 10 minutes the way it did, its just a sample of an idea that live definitely will be more free and long-winding. I feel that as all of the songs started out without any kind of instrumentation, they started out as vocal melodies, the solos and instrumentation had the ability to be a lot freer, as they were add-ons that came later, as opposed to the other way around.

SM - The darker tone of the album is what really got me; this sense of claustrophobia. any particular focus that has brought this on?

AB - I would definitely say that it is a dark record. Listening back to it now, it elicits a very strong emotional response. What is strange is that it is the instrumental parts that really get me rather than the lyrics - the solos more specifically - the end of Wandering, the early solo in Shared Futures. It sure reflects some dark parts of my life, senses of betrayal and heartbreak, but also that of desire and longing, the complicated and changing nature of love and friendship. The period creating the songs was one for me of extreme solitude, and although perhaps it didn't feel so good at the time, I feel it was a very important part of my life, kind of my graduation into adulthood, as cheesy as that sounds. I guess learning to deal with the fact that nothing is sedentary, everything is changing, turning, and I guess the record is a comment on these things that we can't control despite all the wanting. Its both a blessing and a curse, but I guess sometimes we wish we could slow things down a bit. Sometimes I feel that I'm too sensitive, I constantly worry about upsetting other people and disappointing others - I guess Turning is the point of me letting go, or just accepting that you can never be perfect, and to embrace your imperfections.

SM - There are still chugging moments of your "past" musical endeavours such as single 'Parallels' and 'Shadow Twin' - how does such a juxtaposition with that and something like the dour drawl of 'Do Yourself Right' sit with you? Is such a juxtaposition somewhat the point, or incidental?

AB - I'm not sure quite how to answer this, as I can't listen to the songs objectively. The record is just something thats more 'me' than anything else I've done, because it lacks the collaboration with other parties. I guess the difference between these songs is just that DYR is more of an aggressive song that the other two, which are more reflective and listful. DYR I feel is more alike my past work, especially Circle Pit than perhaps anything else on the record.

SM - What about the lyrical context for the album?

AB - The first lyrics came through in perhaps about 2009 when I was in Europe. My notebooks from this time were a big resource for my lyrics. I write a lot, and go back and reflect upon the writings often. I know that Parallels came from around this time, being completely consumed by a feeling for someone you can't see, and thinking about them through everything, no matter how grand or banal, in my case travelling through Eastern Europe. In the end its not even about them, its about an energy that they give you, that colours your experiences. Its a romantic idea, but not necessarily about a person. Shared Futures came about regarding a found photograph of a young boy I bought at a market. The photo struck something in me, and then I had a dream about him, where we were related. When I woke I felt this incredible sadness that it was just a dream, that I would never know him, and the confusion over my irrational curiosity over his image. This got me thinking about how we are all related, and the sadness and nature of friends moving together and apart, and losing touch, and the collective history that shapes over time, that becomes your 'backup memory', and how everything always changes and nothing is ever the same. Missing Out and A Certain Friend are definitely quite personal and I guess the most 'upfront' songs I've written, as my lyrics are usually fairly oblique. DYR relates a supreme cool anger. I like the way it channeled itself, its intense, but kind of a relaxed anger, haha…. There is definitely a mixed bag of things going on.

SM - Playing this stuff live, is there much to learn/change outside what you've done with other bands?

AB - I've played live solo a few times now, but usually with a backing band which is the way I like it the best as I can solo as much as possible. I'm still fairly shy about playing live, I need to constantly tell myself to face the audience, haha. The live sets in Australia I have done with a band (Sam Chiplin, Liam Kenny and Nathan Roche) have been really jammy, longer, free and really exciting.. They are all great musicians and there is a buzz between us that seems to always make for a good show. We have played the songs in longer versions with room for improvisation which is the most exciting for me. I feel that this set up has the first potential I have to really use guitar at its fullest. There have been some other memorable moments playing solo, in Athens I played along a backing track with Marco from Acid Baby Jesus on drums to a stunned audience haha.. The drums and backing track kept going out of time so I had to slow down and speed up, directing both around each other haha… In Paris I played live in an abandoned movie theatre and I got mugged outside just before I arrived, they stole my stuff so I had to basically improvise the whole thing along to nothing. I played a show acoustic in Rio last week to a group of local people on a coffee farm, that was definitely the most memorable! … So I guess so far its been very different to anything else I've done as those opportunities would not have arisen as a band touring together requires heaps of organisation, money, planning, etc.

I wish I could be more of a 'performer' or be more expressive but its just not me, I dunno maybe I'll change but I'm still just a weirdo about playing live, nervous, freaking out, not making eye contact, etc. I guess the music is the main thing, right?

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I'm bummed that I won't be in the country to catch Angie as she tours Turning. Especially as she is supported by SM fave Nathan Roche, who played a blistering set at the Ocean Party album launch we threw a few weeks back. But keep Saturday December 21 open Brisbane people - "new" venue The Globe will house them both.

TONIGHT - Sonic Masala & Spunk Records Presents The Ocean Party Album Launch

We here at Sonic Masala have always been big fans of the somewhat innocent navel gazings of Melbourne suburbians The Ocean Party. Their second LP Social Clubs from last year was one of clarity, brevity, and early-middle-twentysomething malaise - not so rail against the world as it was rolling with the genial punches. The band members are best mates, great blokes, and have an even better record in the form of Split. They played in Brisbane recently for the Spunk Records showcase, but tonight is the official launch party for the album - and Sonic Masala is along for the ride. It's cracking off at the Beetle Bar tonight at 8pm - come early to see local upstarts Dag, Thigh Master and Blonde Tongues, as well as Sydneysider Nathan Roche (he of now defunct Camperdown & Out infamy), all for a tenner. See you there - I'll be the guy propping up the merch bar.



DAG - 15.07.2013 from Joshua Watson on Vimeo.