Wringing Out The Broken Water

Olympia's Broken Water have always been a pretty exciting band for me - one of the first entries into the Night People label for me, their mix of atonal distorted quicksand and opaque melodic pop evoking Sonic Youth or early days Blonde Redhead with a bit of Widowspeak colouring the edges. New record Wrought certainly upholds this sounds - listen to the sonorous squall of '1984' or the spoken word and no wave guitar squall histrionics of 'Choice' for example - but there is a cleanliness and effortlessness to some of these tracks that suggests the trio may not have waded out of the deep dark waters of distortion, but have at least found cause to don their Raincoats. Opening gambit 'Hi-Lo' is the clearest indicator that sunshine permeates the darkness, even if opaque ('Am I right or am I wrong/All I know is I do not know'). 'Love & Poverty' is a song in the same world - imagine a Fortuna Pop alum covered by Electrelane at their most pop esoteric. 'Close' floats in on a percolating wave of shoegaze fuzz, before Kanako Pooknyw's vocals takes a downturn, things grind to a low rumble, before we amble along to a wistful close. Elsewhere we see Jon Hanna take vocal duties on the likes of 'Wasted' (whose gravel-ripped round-voweled vocals feels like other 90s progenitors of alternative rock (when that was a positive term) Screaming Trees and Social Distortion) and 'Psycho Static' which feels more akin to Thurston Moore having a narcoleptic dream, eyes at half mast, slight left jaw paralysis, simple strumming, late sun dreaming, before the requisite distortion kicks the needle into another direction but still feels like an amble at its feverish height. Hanna's vocals find another sideways slide on 'Set Free', carved out of a Mascis drawl and a Vedder howl. 'Stone' has more in tune with the lo-fi machinations of Veronica Falls coupled with a high, ragged tempo that Vivian Girls often conjured up. These somewhat obvious touchstones may read as lazy observations, but they help assuage the idea that Wrought and Broken Water themselves are steeped in recognition while upholding their subversions - railing against the surveillance police state of '1984', the soul-crushing monotony of low-level jobs on 'Close'.  The elongated closer 'Beach' though gives us the truest sense of where the band has ended up - on the waterline as day starts its transformation into night, at first ethereal, before the cold whips at the edges of your bones, the stars prick holes in the darkness and start to swirl, convex lines of light, before they shatter and fall to the earth in cacophonous glory. A dreamscape? A nightmare? Reality and fantasy, originality and familiarity, fuse together into one main constant - that Broken Water lapping at your feet. Pick up Wrought here.

Merchandise For Disgruntled Dads

I have been intending to write about Totale Nite, the second official LP from Tampa brooding weirdniks Merchandise, since it came out a few months ago. It's been interesting (and at times frustrating) seeing this band develop over time - the band members having come from some nihilistic hardcore bands of the region (especially Cult Ritual and Neon Blud), some were perplexed and angered by Merchandise's first release, the EP (Strange Songs) In The Dark (we thought differently, and it made it onto my 2010 best of list). That said, their jerky shifts from release to release has irked also (and unfortunately I fall under this umbrella), as Children of Desire stripped things bare  yet stole the vulnerability that made Strange Songs such an entrancing concept, eschewing everything to smash into a punkier realm, adding adamantium to those skeletal remains which seemed to defy the successes of their beginnings. Totale Nite is yet another transmogrification, but here they continue to float farther from the genesis with more direction and purpose. These songs stretch well beyond breaking point, and the post-punk/free-jazz mash provides many intriguing, exciting (even sensual) delights - this is Smiths/Joy Division adulation times 100. You can't help but wonder if Merchandise have been, and continue to, take the piss - difficult to gauge if this is a true harbinger of musical greatness in evolution, or a social experiment. Which has me liking Totale Nite even more - and more willing to embrace those efforts I found wanting. Still - Strange Songs rules hard. Night-People are responsible for putting Totale Nite out - grab it here.

Now I wouldn't have written all that if it wasn't for Dads. Not your dad (although he is alright), but the new Tampa band that features Merchandise' Carson Cox and Patrick Brady. This is a more abrasive endeavour, harking closer to those burgeoning roots of the likes of the plethora of Dischord Records acolytes than Merchandise will ever traverse. They are still a relatively obscure concept, forgoing much in the way of backstory or media connection (as is Merchandise, which is valiant but does bug me a bit - unfortunately I too must see myself as part of the "written scourge"). Yet Dads is a much more hammer-and-tongs visceral experience, another act to dip their wicks in the waters of 90s rock angularity, and the Invisible Blouse 7" (out through Wharf Cat Records) is a shotgun-blast gem. Whilst their self-released and recorded LP Brown On Brown (recorded in their garage) will get a reissue also, that will seem like a prologue, as Invisible Blouse is leaps ahead in fidelity and kinetics. Whilst Merchandise is an exercise in exploring pop rigour through interesting compositions and genre melds, Dads is all about the purge - and I couldn't be happier. You can get Invisible Blouse here.

Shine A Lantern Into The Evil Eye

I spoke about Dream Mine, the sixth EP from Philadelphia's Lantern that came out on Bathetic Records, about this time last year. It was one of those sleazy, seductive albums that comes along, seemingly out of nowhere, singes your nostril hairs, relaxes your rectum and separates your retinas, before burning away into the dark, dark night, with nary a glance, glare or leer back at the carnage.

Well the Philly trio are done with the short talk, the foreplay, the torture porn, whatever you want to call the past three years since their inception, and are prepping their debut LP Rock 'N' Roll Rorschach to come out through Sophomore Lounge next month, and 'Evil Eye' clearly outlays that all that came before was nothing. The fact alone that they got in Jeff Zeigler (he of Clockcleaner fame/infamy) tells you that the noise will be brought - but in a cleaner fashion, one where you can hear every decibel, every strand of your fibre just before it pops. A relentless, nihilistic power display, 'Evil Eye' is the kind of gate-crashing awe that can bring down kingdoms - or at the very least, see a spike in eardrum perforations. Expect to hear more about this release next month.

Pre-order the Rock 'N' Roll Rorschach 12" here.

Flannel Robes

For a band raging against sitting still, with releases pushing towards the upper echelons of a hundred on just about all formats and through all labels, including Olde English Spelling Bee (whatever happened to those guys? A serious question there), Not Not Fun, Night People and Woodsist, waiting almost a year for a new Robedoor release feels like being spurned by your S&M-fixated lover. The LA droners lick those wounds though with Primal Sphere, the upcoming album the duo have coming out on Hands In The Dark Records. Their brand of electro-doom secretions doesn't deviate far from the Robedoor norm on the new LP, but therein lies their charm - they are truly insidious, their slight transgressions worming their way throughout a prolific oeuvre so that the beginning and end become indiscernible. Plus, on a track like 'Flannel Shroud,' you can get your undead shuffle on - nothing like a funereal dance number for the apocalyptic ages.

You can preorder Primal Sphere here - highly recommended. And brilliant cover art too.

Night Kraken's Not-So-Happy Birthday

It's been a while since I've partaken in something from Shawn Reed's Night People label, yet in Kraken, the  EP from Germany's unhappybirthday, I have fallen in love. Night People have brought out some excellent things of recent times, most notably Dylan Ettinger's Crucify My Love and Merchandise's "return to form" record Totale Nite, yet on Kraken I can't remember ever having heard something so 80s indebted and yet so simple and warm. It helps that Daniel Ja's vocals are both German and have the husky, distant timbre that evokes Vaseline-lensed cameras and lily-gilded windowsills, black overcoats and gondola rides in narrow canals through an urban jungle on an overcast day. I mean, the title track could be an amalgam of Adelaide's now defunct band Bit By Bats' 'Dance The Dance' and The Cure's 'Lovesong'! Albeit in German. Nevertheless, the plink-plonk simplicity of the keys and guitar lines, the drum machine so clean and yet so basic - it reminds me that music this good doesn't have to be intricate, drawn out or segmented. The band describes itself as "raincoat pop" - it makes a quirky kind of sense. From the first strains of 'Fargo', Kraken has struck a chord and I haven't been able to stray from its New Romantic clutches. Coldwave be damned (coldwave...urgh), long live raincoat pop!

Grab Kraken here - seriously great stuff.

unhappypeople - Fargo
unhappypeople - Kraken

Dreaming Of A Dirty Lantern

I have to say that the dirtiness that permeates Philly band Lantern's Bathetic release Dream Mine feels like the real deal. This isn't performance art - you believe in it. This isn't a band that wants to delve into Funhouse territory - they were born there, and will most likely die there too. Check out the lurching seven-minute version of 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' - it's already a great track, but here the trio fully inhabit it like a sweat-drenched second skin. The constant collaborators with Dirty Beaches revel in the grimy nether regions, and whilst it can be disturbing, it is so enthralling. This is how hedonistic rock music should be.


Dream Mine is sold out, but you really need this, so grab the digital copy here.

Robedoor Spirals Ever Downward...

Doom psychedelia has never sounded so sinister as it does in the hands of LA drone merchant Robedoor. Always the productive megalo-alchemist, Robedoor has released a couple of items in the past couple of months. First up there was Rock Bottom, a cassette put put by the inimitable Night People label (buy here), and the hiss and gurgle of the tape adds the resonance that such discordant, somnambulist dirge craves and desires. Then along came Too Down To Die (he's a cheery chap, isn't he?) on Not Not Fun Records, and its a step up in production but relatively more of the same. But to be fair, who does anything like this, with the same longevity and intensity, with this much productivity and creativity? No one, that's who. I thought his Pacific Drift was killer - seems like that was just another stepping stone...

Robedoor - Back On The Ground (from Rock Bottom)
Robedoor - (In The) Cybershade-Universal Migration (from Too Down To Die)

Nothing Like An X-Rayed Eyeball

Brooklyn hipsters Xray Eyeballs (OJ from Golden Triangle's "other" band) released their debut LP Not Nothing earlier this year on Kanine Records. You may remember the cassette they put out on the mega rad Night People label - well, its business as usual here, although very nice to have a full length release from them. Its a more maudlin, languid affair than Golden Triangle - as Kanine Records themselves ascertain, this is OJ's morning after Golden Triangle came through and ripped up the party. That's not to say there arent rollicking numbers here - opening one-two 'Crystal' and 'Nightwalkers' befits the debauched slouch of an all-nighter - but Not Nothing focuses on the grungier aspects of waking up after a bender, still pounding at times, yet preferring to stomp along to their own beat - which invariably is bloodshot and destitute. Its distorted, clanging, rambunctious, sloppy - all the trademarks of a good time. It isnt reinventing the wheel - at all - but is desirable in that this is the kind of band I wanna see live, drunk as fuck. You will too...


Not Nothing is out now - get it here.

Xray Eyeballs - Egyptian Magician
Xray Eyeballs - Escape From That Girl

We'll Give You Black Eyes, Twerps!

Melbourne's The Twerps are slowly rising the ranks of the garage rock movement, their twanging guitar, laconic vocals and infectious lo-fi instrumentation becoming a staple across the Australian music scene. Hopefully that adulation will rise to other continents (their first EP was recorded by Eddy Current Suppression Ring guitarist Mikey Young and was re-released via Night People). This Black Eyes 7" precedes an impending debut LP very soon (both out through Underwater Peoples), which is very exciting indeed. This is precocious yet ambling indie rock, something that Kiwi compatriots Surf City deal in a similar vein, though a little more "pretty"... It's laidback rock, not lazy, and that's the charm. It will be interesting to see if they can pull off the laconic fare across a full length album though. Still, The Twerps are an exciting little band, and that album is worth waiting out for...

The Twerps - Black Eyes

Derek Rogers' Wild Bathetic Safari!

Now for Bathetic post #2... Two cassette releases came out a week or so ago from artists Derek Rogers and Wild Safari.


Rogers' effort, Relative Quiet, is classic distorted guitar effect collage, offering tremulous ambiance that the likes of Kevin Greenspon, Mike McGuire and Tim Hecker often mine. (Rogers has heaps of cassettes available at his Bandcamp site here).


Wild Safari's We Laid Our Heads In Their Laps on the other hand is Jon (Bathetic) & Cody (ex-Pink Priest) laying down sonic tumblers that drift in and out of nostalgic, schoolyard sidewalks into lush forests. These languid synthetic jumble jams electrify as they lullaby. Another solid offering from them after their Cave Sequins release through Night People.

Derek Rogers - Everything Is Pointless And Meaningless
Wild Safari - Smuggler's Den

Getting Vaguely Naked On This Twelfth Sacred Noon Of Darkness

Aussie twisted children Naked On The Vague have been busy smearing the world with their hallucinatory faeces for some time now, and we are knee deep in a new defecation, their purported soundtrack to a short film, 12 Dark Noons, which has been funded in part by Sacred Bones and Night People Records. From all intents and purposes we can ascertain that it is going to be tripped up to the eyeballs in weird psych imagery and Jodorowsky-esqu surrealistic flourishes - but what of the music?

To be honest, I reckon Twelve Dark Noons is the best that the Sydney wasters have ever sounded. There is so much energy here that hasnt been evident before - it really feels like the band are growing out of their deliberate slacker addict personas (it is a persona right???) and embracing the fact that together they are amazing songsmiths, scultping vistas of industrial sound and time-travelling gloom that no one else is able or willing to create.

As for the film? No idea, but check out the trailer and see for yourself. The music is stand alone, but im desparate to see how the film builds it up...

Naked On The Vague - The Gift
Naked On The Vague - Clock of 12's

Album review - Broken Water's Whet

I know Ive posted about Broken Water before. The Olympia, Washington three piece rose out of the ashes of Sisters to create something that held onto the Sonic Youth noise, but brought to the fore the elegaic, raw and ghostly vocals of drummer Kanako Wynkoop (such a juxtaposition will be explained shortly). They are still a relatively unchampioned band however, which is a massive shame, for if their debut LP Whet is anything to go by, these guys are a force to be reckoned with.

There is no doubt that Whet showcases a sound that is steeped in the late 80's to the early 90s - heavily distorted drudging guitars, echoed vocals, sharp sparks of noise - everyone of that era, from Kim Gordon to J Mascis to Kevin Shields, have had their playbooks scrutinised, with Broken Water using it all to their own nefarious means. Opener 'Say What's On Your Mind' opens with a white noise blaze before settling down into a Dinosaur Jr wail of guitar - even guitarist Jon's voice has the affected tones of J Mascis, which is in fuller effect in 'Memory'. Kanako is the mainstay vocals wise here though, and second track 'Hear' has a slower grind to its pulse, the echoey chamber of the guitar slowing things right down, before amping up in a Raveonettes circa Whip It On scrawl. The vocals evoke Corin Tucker, a bit of grrl riot to go with your grungey squall. Elsewhere on the album, 'Web' has a more lo-fi styling a la Vivian Girls, yet with a sunnier disposition (a la Best Coast?), whilst 'Kamilche House' drawls away hazily, Kanako et al sounding like a disaffected Sub Pop cast off (in a very good way). Therefore experimentation is very much the key here style-wise, yet is all firmly entrenched in pre-Seattle explosion era, and yet somehow sounds both new and vintage. A constant juxtaposition that enhances the album rather than hinders it.

Overall though Whet is refreshing in its use of noise to harken back to the days when it was ceremoniusly linked to harmony. Broken Water have constructed songs that are both abrasive and sensuous, joyous and melancholy - with their eyes nailed to the floor and their hair in their eyes one minute, their instruments in a pile and a maniacal grin on their faces the next. Its nothing new per se - but it is something that is done impeccably well. Whet to be in the running for my top ten list come December - yep, its that good.

Buy it! Vinyl via Night People; Cd via Radio Is Down. The pic above is the vinyl cover sleeve.

Broken Water - Say What's On Your Mind

Broken Water Whets The Appetite...And Then Some

I dont know much about Broken Water - came across their name a few times in SXSW wrap ups - but a small listen to their gear off debut LP Whet (put out by Night People) explains the excitement being generated. Evoking the ghosts of indie fare that haunted Subpop's hallowed halls prior to the explosion of Nevermind, yet adhering to some of those guitar-driven aesthetics, the Olympia three piece amble their way along in a glum fashion, their eyes to the floor. I can really see this making an indelible impact in a packed bar shut off from the sun, soaked in whiskey and beer. Think Hazel, a dash of Low, with some of that lo-fi reverb sound that is very in vogue right now, but used to greater effect, inducing a psychedelic grind. I am massively impressed, and am searching for this album frantically - I think this will be a definite grower for me.

And as a special treat, I have not one, not two, but THREE tracks for your perusal. I really rate these guys...

Broken Water - Heal
Broken Water - Dead Light
Broken Water - Kamilche House