Hellish Highlife Made

I have to say I am a little confused by Making... I was pretty sure the Sydney trio were breaking up. But seems I was (thankfully) entirely wrong, as they release their new LP Highlife next month through Trait Records. I have been a fan of theirs since hearing their excellent self titled EP and this lives up to the long expectations. The first track that really grabs me is the fourth track on the album, 'Come To Me' - it has that My Disco brooding pendulum rhythm and clipped/barked monosyllabic vocal approach, but then it explodes into something altogether more gnarled and corrosive. 'Zs' also fits into this vein, although there is a heavier metallic expulsion here that pushes them into noisier terrain. 'Dream Job' lurches forth, a metallic monster, deliberately unsettled and unsettling, serrated and scabrous, forcing the bile into the back of the throat. Then 'Amazon' has a more sinuous groove inherent, something Battles might produce without all the theatrics; 'Pascal' has moments of reflection in the middle third that allows for the pummelling bookends to smash forth with more controlled venom; and the psychotropic freneticism of the closing title track is the weirdest yet most cathartic song on the album. It does take the foot off the neck a bit, so to speak, and it is essentially what enlivens Highlife and makes those moments of black tension and white-hot release so potent. The production is powerful and precise too, thanks to Ivan Lisyak (Narrow Lands, Tanned Christ) and Lawrence English.


Preorder Highlife here - it's a corker. Making hit the road in Australia to launch the album on these dates (which also features Sonic Masala Records band Danyl Jesu in the mix!):

5th September - Crowbar Brisbane

w/Sewers, Danyl Jesu vs Pale Earth + Nature Trails 

11th September - Black Wire Records, Sydney 

w/Marcus Whale (LIVE), Mere Women + BV (connect the dots)

12th September - The Public Bar, Melbourne 

w/Diecut, CAMP COPE + JAALA

Michael's Gone Gold Class

Here is yet another "new" Australian band to take in and be excited about. I remember seeing the name Gold Class on a poster for a Sunday School show at the Public Bar in Melbourne, I think in April or May? But never really cottoned on to them - and it seems I've really been missing out. Listening to the Michael/Gone release, I have this weird conflicted notion that I've somehow wedged The Smiths' Meat Is Murder and Wire's 154 into the same piece of 7" wax. Adam Curley's baritone does hold some of that Morrissey moan, but the cutting guitar and insistent rhythms does recall his cohorts; whilst the tapered aggression that simmers under the surface evokes Colin Newman et al at the more measured. It is all decidedly dark hued and downer (Brit)pop, which alone lends it an unique place on the current Australian music milieu, but Gold Class exude a sense of literate sensibility that is also very exciting. I can't wait to hear more from the four-piece.



Gold Class release the 7" next month. You can catch them in Brisbane on Fri 24 October at The Bearded Lady (supported by Dag) and the following night at Trainspotters (with Multiple Man and Per Purpose serving props). These will be excellent shows - get along.

(N)ever Halt The Limits Of The Body

Melbourne's Halt Ever surreptitiously brought out a new EP last month, Body Limits (out through Unwound Records). The 6-track 10" covers the gauntlet of raucous post-punk narcissism stretched and contorted, taut and strained, a razorwire enclosed case of tunnel vision.

Cuts and bruise prevail.

It's about thrashing the demons before the demons thrash you, in a vacuum of space, time and mind. The guitars in 'Growing Pains' for example build and build like pressure in your chest; your breath catches; sweat stains your upper lip; you threaten to drown in your own uneasy anticipation. It's an incredibly frantic and brutal instrumental display. The vocals though are equal parts Tom Lyngcoln-esque in their ocker banality/ferocity, and bottom-of-the-well-esque in the reverbed anguish and self-deprecation to the point of self-flagellation.

Cuts and bruises prevail, all right, and trust me, you will love how the sting lingers.




Body Limits can be picked up here. A full length album will be out in 2015 on the suddenly out of hibernation (and ever excellent) Lost Race Records. Halt Ever play alongside Bloodhounds On My Trail, Old Love and Midnight Bloom at Melbourne haunt The Public Bar this Friday night.