Woodboot's Doing The Crime Time

Seriously, can Woodboot get any more diseased? Since the Brisbane band started out some years ago as a passing concern, the core duo of Dan and Julien cranking out scuzzed out garage punk, they have grown like an Akira homunculus, sucking in Sam McKenzie (Sulphur Lights/Occults) on second axe bludgeoner duties and Donnie Miller (No Anchor/Roku Music/Forevr) eschewing guitars and smashing the kit like the reprobate Troglodyte that he is. Crime Time is the fetid result. Each song is all about brevity with a mainline blast of fuck-you punk, tearing viscera through their serrated sawing and heckling howls. Songs like ‘Trash Dump’ is the kind of punk we hear a lot of around Brisbane parts, from the 70s punch of The Leftovers to the cartoonish chaos of Undead Apes and everything in between, but then you get to the killer slack-jawed, legs-splayed power punk of ‘Prison Planet’, all jagged edges and dripping Neanderthal fangs, that the transmogrified remnants of the likes of Hank Wood, Circle Jerks and the Spits are ripping through the entrails of the four-piece, a chest-burster showing the diseased intent within. ‘Gut You’ is fucking feral, all blood-vessel searing feedback and three-chord torture, throats being shredded almost out of psychopathic glee. ‘I’m Gonna Push You In Front Of The Bus’ is, despite of its name, a more “pop-oriented” punk blast, a Ramones template lynched and dragged along the bitumen behind a busted-up V8, some semblance of attractive melody showing beneath the blood and gashes. I can even hear ‘Return Of The Rat’ in Crime Time’s insistence that there should be rhythm underneath the sledgehammer-and-kerosene debris, if somewhat used and abused.

I’m proud to know Woodboot – I'll do time for them for sure.

Grieg Retaliates Ferociously

Grieg are a newish band in Brisbane with some serious pedigree. John plays in Dick Nasty and Undead Apes; Alex plays in No Anchor and is involved in brilliant project A Savage God; and Tamara is from gargantuan party-starters/killers HITS. Their debut LP Retaliate First combines all the brutal elements from these backgrounds, presenting a triple-pronged assault on the senses. There is the acidic humour and hubris in the lyrics; the black riffs of 80s metal at its highest ebb; and thundering, deliberate drumming that controls as it pummels. The jacket once again emblazoned with Gillies' brilliant artwork, this is a record that is nests in your brain, with more to unlock with each listen, a hook to savour, a line to chuckle or cheer for, a break that halts the breath. Bring on the noise.

Getting Grieg On The Humpday

(Photo by Steven Schnorrer)

It's the middle of the week, and I'm keeping things decidedly Australian and heavy in this humpday. New band on the Brisbane block Grieg is ripe with hardcore knowledge and noisy neglect, and they have just announced that they finally have an album in the wings, recorded by Cameron Smith at Incremental Records and coming out in March. Named after the composer Edvard Grieg (but more likely named after the Grieg Funeral Home in seminal thriller Silence Of The Lambs, if I know Alex Gillies at all), the trio are taking all comers and ripping them new breathing holes - politely of course. And the acerbic wordsmithery of John Mercer shows no signs of slowing down if the name of the first taste of the album is anything to go by. Bring the filth and the fury - this sounds excellent.

Friday Cover Up - Lying About Driving Nine Inch Nails Into Thou's Body For Thrills

OK so that title is far too long and punny. Whatever, I'm just glad I can start 2015 with such a killer cover! Portland metal fiends The Body have really shaken the foundations of the music world to the core over the past couple of years - a few friends claiming that their gigs have heartily eradicated all thoughts of  "best live acts" before them - and are on the cusp of releasing "collaborative" album (alongside Baton Rouge sludgelords Thou) You, Whom I Have Always Hated (out through Thrill Jockey at the end of the month). First taste off it is this brutally dour take on Nine Inch Nails' 'Terrible Lie'. There is something about the swaying stagger and metallic scree that underpins this that I find both borderline ridiculous, eminently disquieting and extremely exciting. This is the kind of cathartic mess that No Anchor have been blasting out for some time now, albeit with added undead-raising esophageal screams. Now, to hear that Vic Chesnutt cover... Have a twisted weekend!

Pining For The Harshest Of Blackouts

Remember No Anchor? The brutalist Brisbane trio who reckon they aren't together much anymore? Donnie Miller records music and is in Sonic Masala-affiliated shoegaze band Roku Music; Alex Gillies cuts wood and is in metal throwbacks Greig; and Ian Rogers elocutes about music and plays in Shaking Hell. But Ian isn't done with flaying his vocal chords or our eardrums, as new side project Black Pines (joined by Rational Academy alum and the Pale Earth duke himself, Ben Thompson) attests. In the most obvious move yet from excellent outre outsider label Wood & Wire will take any risk, they have put out Harsh Out, six tracks of psych - but not as you know it. The duo want to scrape the underbelly of the 60s psychedelic dream with rusty knives, before diving straight in and letting the intestinal truth shower down. With comparisons of Bardo Pond, Boris, Swans and Unsane (circa 89-92) bandied about, you know that this is atonal obliteration of the most delicious kind. The red-eyed tint of a man driven insane by demons both without and within; swastikas etched through the skin, through sinew, through bone; nightmares real in Giallo Technicolour, an ecstatic mess, before spiralling into a pastiche of Korine-helmed dirt and Noe-driven madness. All done without preamble, without compromise, without apology. If you thought The Golden Bridge saw an upswing in Ian's temperament, with tongue embedded in cheek, then Black Pines is here to irradiate those memories beyond reproach.

As always, Wood & Wire are offering Harsh Out as a free download here. Let's hope there is some sort of physical release of this soon, yeah?

Second Sonic Masala Records Announcement - Roku Music's New Single COLLIDER

We've really put our foot in it, haven't we?

It seems that when you decide to step out from behind the words and actually DO SOMETHING about the music you love, the workload intensifies - or at least my mind does. All of these exciting times merge with the fact that you want things to go well, that other people are depending on you - it's like having a family.

I'm very glad however to have Roku Music as part of the family. Each member of the band has been/is in local acts that I really admire - No Anchor, Tiny Spiders, The Rational Academy, O, The Madisons...the list goes on. But what the melding of minds of Donnie Miller, Innez Tulloch, Jody Gleeson and Thomas Roche creates is far more than the sum of its parts. I've seen Roku Music in its quickly evolving stages, growing from an experimental two-piece, to a rough-and-tumble trio, to the fully formed four-piece they are today. And their upcoming debut record, Collider, is breathtaking in its beauty, its power, its atmosphere, its raw emotion. The first single is the opening song and the title track, and it is the perfect embodiment of why Roku Music are fast becoming one of the unsung powerhouse bands of the continent.


Ahem. I'm swelling up. I'm just so proud! Family, huh?

Collider will be out March 3 on (who else?) Sonic Masala Records. The album launch coincides with a massive nationwide metropolitan and regional tour throughout March & April. News about that and the album proper to come.

Doomed By The Windhand

Clearly I'm loving my big riff noisy heaven this week. Windhand hail from Richmond. They aren't new - they have been driving the doomwagon for at least three years now - but their sophomore double-album Soma (out on Relapse Records - you can pick it up here in blood red vinyl no less) is the first thing I've ever heard from them. And damn it's good. In the first thirty seconds of the first song, 'Orchard', there is some heaving drum kicks, a dire dirge of a riff, and then we have the echoing seething wails crash over the top. It's all dark and melodramatic, but in the best way that doom-laden metal can be. True metal heads might disagree with me - this is veering into Black Sabbath territory, especially due to Dorthia Cottrell's vocals - but this album is pretty much go-to-woah killer.

No Anchoring The Dead

Not so local noisemongers No Anchor (Ian is being all literary-y and full of disdain in Melbourne these days) haven't been overly active in the live sense in 2013 (hence the electricity of their shows that have rolled around - the Sonic Masala show in May, the show they did only last week), but they do have some new wares courtesy of a split 7" they've put out with fellow maniacs DEAD. Perfect marriage this one - two bands blatantly fucking off the guitar and brutalising the bass. So far, so angry. Would you expect anything less? The NA trio feel 'Bogan Ash' is the poppiest thing they've ever done. They aren't reaching for the mascara and microphone headsets (yet), but as far as No Anchor goes, it is a much more straight down the line number. Sorry lads, but whilst this song really rips, it makes DEAD's whorling bloody maelstrom 'Scratching My Arts' look even better. Backhanded compliment? I can keep em comin all day. Its the kind of lurking leering head explosion that I absolutely love; Jem absolutely kills it on drums; my skin is flayed without notice. Well done, lads, well done.


No Anchor have one more show up their sleeve at the end of November at Crowbar. They will have the crazy up-and-comers Clowns in support - they eat Juggalos for breakfast. If you still need your NA fix in any form (and let's face it, who doesn't) Donnie's band Roku Music is supporting the sublime Sydneysiders Yes I'm Leaving this Friday at the Waiting Room - it's another Sonic Masala Presents show, so you should all be there. Finally, Roku Music and Greig (Alex's new band) are the other supports for what could very well be the best show of the year - The Nation Blue and Batpiss, also at Crowbar, on Saturday October 5. I have a wedding that day, so Ill be the dude in the suit. Pete from The Spinning Rooms has promised to spew on me too, so I should be pretty recognisable. No Anchor, in whatever form, rule hard.

Droning Darkly For Our Future

I put on a great show a couple months ago headlined by No Anchor, supported by O and Vassals. It was fucking rad - and fucking loud. One band I wanted to fit on the bill but couldn't was Hope Drone. Their four track eponymous EP is brutality squared by concrete in the face. This is the kind of scathing atonal fury that grinds junkies' teeth into chalky stumps. It's amazing that we have so many bands of this ilk in our fair city of Brisbane, hiding in the cracks, waiting to bubble forth, the black cleansing oil of the apocalypse. There's no place like home...

The band have a couple of new releases in the wings, including a physical 12" of the EP out through OSCL, but until then, let this obliterate you...

Campfire Tales w/ Tutts, Ceeds and Uncle Sonic

Last weekend was incredible for Sonic Masala Presents. It was the first time we have (officially) gone back to back with SM Presents... shows, plus the first time we had (officially) moved away from the hallowed ground of The Waiting Room - and it was a huge success! A sellout crowd came to see No Anchor smash out yet another stellar set, ably backed by the brutality of O and Vassals, and the proceeds went into funding NA's trip down to Sydney the following night. I would have booked a ticket with them (seeing as I was partially responsible for the windfall) but instead I handed over all the dough and moved on to Saturday night, where the first official SM curated Trainspotters night took place at The Grand Central Hotel. Dreamtime's first show since their triumphant return from playing the Austin Psych Fest was incredible, with Multiple Man killing it (despite, or maybe because of, Chris' disdain in proceedings ha) and Gazar Strips ripping apart the place with new songs. The venue was packed, easily the biggest SM show to date, so thanks to all who came.

But this week is still rollin', and I have one more surprise in store. This Thursday we travel back to West End, this time the intimate surrounds of The End on Vulture St, for what I'm tentatively calling Campfire Tales, a night of two solo artists doin their thang. It's Sonic Masala though, so it isn't straightforward. The first show is the EP launch for Andrew Tuttle (the artist formerly known as Anonymeye). He will be assisted in the wings by the dulcet tones of Naked Maja frontman Cedie Janson. I'm really looking forward to this one, and you should be too. It kicks off at 8.30 and is free entry, so come have a boutique beer and turn this 3-day weekend into 4.

Off With Hibou In The Dunes

I'm a little seedy this morning, for a number of reasons. I missed out on a job opportunity that, whilst not the end of the world, is always a little gutting. Nevertheless, last night's Sonic Masala show (featuring No Anchor, O and Vassals) was a massive success, selling out and allowing me to pay the bands top dollar (with a little extra to help NA on their tour down the coast). I met up with Jon from Gazar Strips who is playing my next Sonic Masala show tonight (also featuring Dreamtime and Multiple Man), and we shot the shit about possible future collaborations (but mostly about shit). I got home at 2am, then up at 6am to get ready for work, which is where we meet now.

So I need something that will get me out of this messy headspace, and Hibou (I believe pronounced ee-boo, but that could be my addled brain at work) is doing the trick. The one time drummer for Craft Spells has been doing his reverb-heavy guitar pop for a little while now, and finally his Dunes EP is about to brighten up our lives. The beach theme fits well, as Hibou isn't far removed from Dustin Payseur AKA Beach Fossils. Silky gossamer guitars, disembodied vocals, and the crisp air of nostalgic, grainy Super 8 Puberty Blues.

Here is the first track of Dunes (which will be out June 13), 'Sunder', which you can grab now as a free download!



And because I feel like it, here are a couple other tracks Hibou has floating around - keep the good times rolling.

Sonic Masala Presents A Double Whammy Of Shows!! EXHIBIT A

The last couple of Sonic Masala shows to grace the Waiting Room have been niche, minimalist/maximalist affairs - there was the Ladyfest-affiliated show featuring neon coven Shooga, gauzy washouts Ultra Material and human sonic playground X In O; and an intimate affair that heralded the first Brisbane outing for Melbourne's idiosyncratic soundscapers No-Way Sweden, backed by improv beatniks FEET TEETH and the first (and possible only - let's hope not) show from Blank Realm offshoot Financiers.

This weekend is changing all that, with some firsts for Sonic Masala. First up, metal Lokis No Anchor are playing a rare show since IKR travelled south of the border, to air some tracks off latest album The Golden Bridge. And seeing as I have already slaved over the presser for this, I'm going to post it relatively verbatim...

Keeping with the shifting sonic sands of what constitutes a Sonic Masala show, we are seeing out the last night of autumn with a biting brace of brutal noise, searing your aural glands for the winter.

No Anchor – the cantankerous sons-o-bitches with disdain for everything (especially guitars) followed up the acclaimed Real Pain Supernova with more eclectic (and in some places, very amusing) The Golden Bridge, and continue to obliterate the line between metal and other modes of sonic voice. Expect some shredded larynxes, some serrated eardrums, and a whole lot of contemplation of where the world is heading after all this comes to an end. 

O – another band defying easy metal categorisation, O melds black metal tropes with more melodic, jangling guitars and brooding, dystopian drone to create something that feels truly emblematic of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. This is the real music that should be pumping out of the stereo of the last of the V8 Interceptors. Abrasive, anarchic, adrenal overload.

Vassals – post-rock for the have-nots. Vassals tramples roughshod over the heaving corpse of the quiet/loud dynamic, cathartic in its wanton hedonism. No rest for the cranial membrane here…

So there you have it, Part 1 in a two parter...

Bow Down To God Bows To Math

Last year Sonic Masala put on a last-minute show for excellent Auckland noise rock trio God Bows To Math. It was underattended (due to time constraints and it being a Sunday), yet with blistering supports from Tiny Spiders and Quiet Steps was one of the best shows I saw in 2012. This Saturday April 28 they return, supported again by Tiny Spiders but also joined by Undead Apes and Roku Music (Innez Tulloch pulling double duties on the night). This will be the final stop on a whirlwind tour which begins in Newcastle on Thursday and also includes Sydney and Melbourne shows. Head over to their Facebook for full details. The band will be doing some recording in Brisbane with Donnie Miller (No Anchor/Roku Music) in preparation for their next album - killer. Go here to read what I thought of their electric self-titled album (one of my favourite albums of 2011), grab said album from here, and get damned excited. 

God Bows To Math - The Only Good Fnord Is A Dead Fnord

Doing Harmony A Favour

I meant to get this post out earlier, as they played an incendiary show the other weekend at the equally excellent ATP Melbourne, and were in town over the weekend and played two shows (one I hear was amazing on Friday – I didn’t attend due to the fact that I had a chiptune-themed Sonic Masala Presents show on; the other yesterday at the Powerhouse that was sublime). Ah well – I’ve been assured Melbourne Gothic God-fearing rustic Australian working class gospel noise choir (!?!) Harmony will be up again before the year is out, when they have a new album to spruik (their follow-up to 2011's stunning self-titled debut will be entitled Carpetbombing). As it stands, they have this 7" - and as you could expect it's a belter. The guttural, anguished yowls of Tom Lyngcoln and his throttled guitar, juxtaposed with the soaring angelics of his three-female choir, will never get old nor less idiosyncratic - it truly is a unique voice with seemingly limitless depths of chagrin and despair to plumb, clawing desperately for that thin shimmer of hope amidst the morass of guilt, shame and regret. Catharsis has never felt more vindicated than when Harmony strike a chord.

    

Grab Do Me A Favour here. The cover art is again done by Alex Gillies (No Anchor), and is suitably stark and stirring.

Those Idiots Are Dead

 

It often surprises me when I love something heavy. Not because I'm a poppy kinda guy, but usually because I'll have spent half the day listening to some guitar pop band, and then I'll hear something that is the polar opposite of what I've been enjoying and a perverse shiver of excitement runs down my spine. Today, that was Idiots, Melbourne metal miscreants Dead’s new album. Friends of mine, No Anchor, told me about this last year, yet I never really got around to listening to it. Even now, with it blaring out of the speakers, it attacks my brains with rusted skewers, my eyes feel raw, my teeth ache. Yet this kind of visceral dirge is electrifying. Plus, Dead are fucking funny. In most ways that’s the best thing – bands like Part Chimp, Melvins, The Austerity Program, Big Business – they don’t take themselves seriously at all, which is why their music rules. They play because they fucking love making a racket, without wanting to get tied down in the histrionics of being “metal”. The fact they are a duo and craft such a brutal sledgehammer of primitive noise makes it so much better also. How do they do it? Without a guitar? No Anchor should know – but they now have three members, so a double bass assault – yet Dead rivals them in intensity and annihilation.

A favourite? Hard to say. The slight, wraith-like opening before the explosion of entrails in ‘The Carcass Is Dry’ is sneaky, and all the more brutal because of it; ‘Couldn’t Keep His Mouth Shut’ is frenetic brute strength, a kick to the ribs and pliers to the teeth; ‘Up’ crawls along like an undead, unrelenting in its base desires, before bursting forth in a sudden rush of rage and wanton fury. ‘Murder Hollow’ is a freakshow, an ominous cauldron of pent-up fears and anxieties that coalesce into much darker emotions. ‘Bed Bugs’ is fast paced awesomeness, a rippling masterclass of musicianship that elevates itself above the sludge, propelling headfirst into the violence of ‘Inherit The Wind’, just before submerging again in the menacing yet restrained closer ‘Lego Men’.

This noise rock is what the world needs – a cleansing of the skin, one eradicated reality TV show and Madden brother at a time.

 

You can get Idiots from Melbourne label WeEmptyRooms here, either in black or white vinyl. There is a limited edition version too - it's a 180 Gram LP, a 7 colour screen printed insert on archival paper hand made by the band and all sold for way less than it is "worth" labour wise.

Dead - Couldn't Keep His Mouth Shut
Dead - Bed Bugs

Roku Music - 1 Cassette, 1 Party, 1 Love (ON THURSDAY!!!)

 

This is on tomorrow. It’s a cassette listening party at the Waiting Room. I don’t know if I’ve ever BEEN to a cassette listening party. I know I used to listen to cassettes of songs I taped off Rage, straight off the TV, with my sister – but that’s about it. The crazy kids responsible for said cassette listening party are Donnie Miller and Innez Tulloch, here for the first time as Roku Music.

Starting as an idea for a university project exploring recording techniques and tones, Roku Music is the best of both of their aural worlds – the dark throbbing tensions and feedback squalls that bleed through is a distant relative to Miller’s No Anchor affiliations, whilst the static pop aesthetics that ebb and flow like a reticent tide can be as lightweight as a Feather(s) or a hazy dream from a Tiny Spider(s). I really like it. There are elements of washed out dirge that, when married to Tulloch’s soft vocals reminds me of True Widow (see ‘Everything’s Alright’ for an example); at other times a darker, beefed up theredsunband (especially on ‘Primitive’); but mostly it sounds just plain rad. Even if it’s on a damned cassette…

 

The cassette listening party is tomorrow night at The Waiting Room – and its free! Come have some bevvies and listen to a cassette, at a party.

 

Roku Music – Primitive

Roku Music – You Never Change

Anna's Golden Anchor

Holy shitballs! After being away for a fortnight, do I have some awesome new shit to pile into your ears and light your eardrums on fire!

After losing kilos in my feverish inhabitation of local noise trio No Anchor’s double LP Real Pain Supernova last year, I found myself packing it back on due to complacency. Sure, there have been killer releases in 2012 – and some better than this release – but there was something narcotic about the unrepentant clamour the two bass and drums, screaming-the-fuck-out outfit that burrowed under my skin. The dirge that infused ‘The End’ and ‘Gatton Bohemia’ (by far my favourite track), the nihilistic gnashing of teeth on 'Dead Pony' and ‘Wolves Bite & Disappear’ – nothing like this has crept out of the sewers of Brisbane with such nihilistic intent for…well, ever. If Hydra Head was still a legitimate “thing”, you could see these guys boring their place into the foundations, eating it away from the inside out.

Since then No Anchor have releases a great 7” (the brevity of ‘Rope’ and ‘Pussyfootin’’, as well as a mega rad of death cover of Big Black's 'Jordan, Minnesota', offered even more immediate gratification), a bits-and-pieces cassette in The John Dominance Tapes, and a 7” split with Melbourne angular miscreants Blacklevel Embassy. So I sure as hell wasn’t expecting ‘Anna’, another short NA stab to the brain. Even more exciting is that it precedes the band’s forthcoming album, The Golden Bridge. Listen to 'Anna' below – the closest the boys have come yet to perfecting that love song? Maybe. It certainly trumps Silverchair’s song about an Ana – it even has more N’s!

 

 

Here is the cover art, track listing and other bits and bobs. Can't wait, love these dudes.

Single 12″ record:
1.FTB
2.Slack Sabbath
3.Anna
4.Loose Gravel
5.One Means
6.Electricity
7.Woodman
8.Oh Kill
9.Slabs
 10.Shut Yr Mouth

Themes covered:
•Obscure legal terminology about the essence of guilt
•The Beastie Boys
 •The spectrum of value spanning between gold and poop
 •Beatrice
•The song as a drain
•The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart
•Gearwhores •Vortexes
•Flag burning
•Things that are heavy and layered. Like slabs.
•Ingrid.

Friday Cover Up - Pixie Landladies and Tiny Anchors

Photo © Sasha Arutyunova 2012

 

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Friday Cover Up – so let’s have two!

First up we have Brooklyn six-piece pop explosion Landlady, who have just released the single ‘Above My Ground’. The band was started by 24 year old Adam Schatz, who has played keys and horns with the likes of Sleigh Bells, Those Darlins, Will Sheff and Twin Shadow, but this little experiment is all his own. The vegetable based video for the single is below. But we are here for the B-side as well, which is an amazingly epic version of The Pixies’ ‘Oh My Golly’, which is beautifully original in approach and conception. Every time I listen to it my chest swells – I feel like I'm about to watch a VHS tape of a lost Sergio Leone film. Weird, but true. Great stuff.

 

 

 

 

Now on to one of my favourite local bands, No Anchor. They have done some recordings of late and will be appearing on some splits and singles in the near future (more on that later), but in one final sweep of that apocalyptic cupboard they have collated all the remixes, live tracks and rarities that they like and put it onto a cassette titled The John Dominance Tapes (which you can still grab here). It’s very very good, especially when other artists get involved. Two of the tracks I’ve decided to put here. One is a remix by one of NA’s bassists Donovan Miller of the track ‘Key Cutter’ off their last (and excellent) LP Real Pain Supernova. And one is a live version of 'ACWOWTFE' by another great local act, scrap rock duo Tiny Spiders. Really great takes on aggressive, intense music – one ethereal yet unsettling, the other a slightly lighter shade of darkness from the original. Both are damned ace.

No Anchor – Key Cutter (Donovan Miller remix)
Tiny Spiders – ACWOWTFE (No Anchor cover)

Have a great weekend folks! Be sure to check the site this weekend for some more excellent, left of centre sound – that is right, I’m back on the clock!!

Dressed In Wild Colonial Gold & Red

Brisbane's Nikko have been busy with supports for ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Boris, plus having made a brief sojourn to Melbourne. And although one member still lies ensconced in that chilly city, and other projects have occupied some (Ryan Potter's The Scrapes and The Maryettas getting shows around Brisbane), they are about to drag you further down into their darkly eloquent Gothic Outback Western apocrypha as they prepare to drop new LP Gold & Red through the stellar tenzenmen Records (alongside Music Fix).

Opening with the brooding, ominous 'The Child', Nikko envelop you with their atmospheric wall of sound, here perfectly captured by Cam Smith (of Tiny Spiders/Ghost Notes/St Augustus fame, and whose recording efforts include Velociraptor and the mighty No Anchor) in the cavernous orchestral hall of Brisbane's historic Old Museum. In fact, such an environment is perfectly suited to the band's melodic post-rock steeped aesthetic, with that lost country twang in the saddle also (the drawl of 'About The Spirit' perfectly exemplifies this). Aaron Cupples (The Drones, Snowman) and Nao Anzai (Laura, Because of Ghosts) mixed and mastered respectively, and their presence is immediate. Anzai in particular is well versed in these instrumental-based multi-layered sounds. Ryan Potter's voice is beautifully captured here, which isn't an easy task (his deep baritone can lose its rich timbre if not mixed properly). In fact Gold & Red is epic in every sense, the noisy moments are incredibly emotive, the quiet moments offered enough space to dance to its own tune without feeling perfunctory. 'Never Danced' is one of the most beautiful songs they have ever created, whilst the chugging rush of 'Dark Eyes' is a locomotive of smouldering tension. The title track is the most likely to evoke Western epics like Deadwood or The Proposition in its plaintive plinks, the itch before the storm, and it is the perfect example of how clever and evocative these guys' compositions are.


Nikko continue to carve a unique path across the Australian musical landscape, and Gold & Red is further proof that such rustic post-rock mysticism is warranted - nay, vital - to our Australian musical landscape.

The album is out on CD soon, and later on gold & red vinyl - I'm gettin' me some o that! They are also launching the album at The Waiting Room on Saturday June 23, as well as having an in store at Tyms in July before embarking on a national tour.

Dying On Planes Is The Deep Future

Controversial headline, no? No. Brisbane noise improv outfit Die On Planes have put an album together called The Deep Future, a compendium of recorded works from 2006-2012. Its pretty fucking rad. The funny thing is, you will never hear these guys play em. They are improv, dummy! But it gives a great representation of what these guys do. I wish they played more shows, rather than build guitars, play in other bands and live in Goondiwindi.

The Deep Future can be got here. Also, hassle them to play a Sonic Masala show every chance you get. I need more dumb, sloppy psych/doom meanderings in my life.

Also, it's a whiles away, but the boys are playing a great show supporting Melbourne's True Radical Miracle July 1, apparently at the Step Inn. Others include Per Purpose, Stag and Cured Pink. Head over here for deets.

Die On Planes - False Memory Syndrome
Die On Planes - A Life Without Time