Sydney2000 Every Year

Third chat about a Tenth Court release is __ from Sydney2000. The trio features members of Cannon and Die On Planes, and they carve out some fairly unhinged power-rock that is nevertheless undercut with dirty shambolism and yet a degree of shambolic sunshine. These six songs are played on a razor-wire tightrope that hovers above the fields of  raw ability and devil-may-care flippancy, so songs like 'Sunshine State' and 'Light Left' are imbued with a sunny, guitar pop ebullience, while others like 'Bean Said' and 'Miriam' are more dirty, dank swamp rockers, still all with a loose-jawed slacker insouciance. It's pretty great from a band that does not get half enough credit in their or any town. If it were me, it would be Sydney2000 every year.

Get A Nice Dose Of Deadshred

In what is unofficially becoming Tenth Court week here, here is another Tenth Court release that needs your attention. I have spoken about Deadshred in the past, having them support Roku Music when they launched Collider a couple years ago and their Thousand Yard Staring Competition EP from late 2014. Now they have another EP out called Nice Epidemic. It kicks off with a broken scrawl in '1600', complete with piercing mournful harmonica - it's like early career The Men covering latter career The Men, deliberately badly. The brokenness of this playing style is the point - giving everything a sense of drastic desperation. 'Capsicum Prey' sounds as if INXS were on Siltbreeze; 'XXXOX' is given a playful guitar roll that belies the shattered glass vocals; 'Squat On Wood' is Hank Wood lost in the outback, Rowland S Howard scratching the strings with a nail in a fence post, the bass and drums drunkenly simplistic. 'Odious Dose' does indeed harbour sinister tendencies, a narcotic-riddled stagger throughout the darkened gin and heroin den. 'Can You Taste It?' This acrid twisted metal? Of course I fucking can. Deliciously diseased - you can get Nice Epidemic here.

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.

Shoegaze FOREVR

The falling away of Brisbane shoegaze giants Roku Music after only one album (last year's stellar Collider, and Sonic Masala Records' first release) has left a hole in the fabric of the Australian music scene, as their take on the gargantuan sonic wash lifted aloft by sonorous angelic vocals was mesmerising. But despite rumours that the band rumbles on, there are other outlets to embrace. A few weeks ago we were in thrall of the punkgaze esoterics of Deafcult (featuring Roku's Innez Tulloch); and now we have FOREVR, the new project for Donnie Miller. Aiding him in these further expeditions in fuzz-soaked abandon is Sam George-Allen, and their four-track taster Demonstration is incredible. Her vocals on the woozy submerged-sun-trip 'Yucatan' for example lends an air of ethereal distance, a Syren held aloft, out of touch, much desired. FOREVR takes a stronger electronic/metallic harshness to 'Heart Of Ice', yet the kinetic energy that bounces refracted off the synthetic/organic hybrid adds a luminous halo to the deeper acrid tones on display. The decadent imagery continues on sinuous creeper 'Midas At Night', while Miller's guitar bends and dips in his inimitable style, both an affront and an embrace. They finish off with the cascading cacophony 'Forgive', which despite its name holds an aura of aggression under the seam of white sparks that shower down from the heavens. Demonstration is a cheeky title, as FOREVR launch forth fully formed, their powers for all to see.

Demonstration is out now on shiny garish gold cassette. FOREVR launch it with an instore at Tyms Guitars in Brisbane on Friday July 10.

Review - Beast & Flood's Lanugo and Tour Dates

Sydney trio Beast & Flood have graced the pages here a few times over the past twelve or so months, ever since I saw them play an energising set at Blackwire Records supporting Roku Music on their national Collider tour. The band are finally bringing out debut LP Lanugo and it's as chaotic, guttural, twitchingly melodic and fearlessly verbose. Opener 'Gold Maids' is indicative of the piano-wire strikes and emotive strangulation that these guys deliver in sonic cyanide capsule form. There is an affinity with Adelaide's Sincerely, Grizzly and Texan titans At The Drive In and ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - the frenetic fretwork, the bearing of sinew and soul, the anguish, ambiguity and absurdity of life. Adam's vocals will be an acquired taste to some - each word is ripped from the throat, an involuntary expulsion of pent-up existentialism and ennui. but there are moments of synchronicity amidst the gnashing and gurning.

Lanugo is out June 22 on No Safe Place Records. They tour the album through June/July/August - see below for dates and supports:

25/06 - RAD, Woollongong w/ Milkk, Solid Effort
26/06 - Blackwire, SYD w/ Hannahband, Polyfox & the Union of Most Ghosts

09/07 - Rics, BRIS w/ On VHS

10/07 - The Bearded Lady, BRIS w/ Ghost Notes, Draining Pool, Low Season

11/07 - Beatdisc, Parramatta w/ Carb On Carb + Bare Grillz + Sweater Season

16/07 - Phoenix, Canberra w/ Primary Colours + Mind Blanks

17/07 - The Metropolitan, Adelaide w/ No Action + Great Oceans + David Crosby's Sinus

18/07 - Vice Bar, Melbourne w/ Worm Crown + Nun of the Tongue

24/07 - The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart w/ Naked + All The Weathers

01/08 - The Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle

07/08 - The Old Manly Boatshed, Sydney w/ Ruth Carp & The Fish Heads

Nothing Cult Of Death

Deafcult is a new band out of Brisbane who I hadn't even heard of before the other day - but considering it's a new project from Innez (Roku Music, Tiny Spiders, Feathers) and Matt Bach (The Quickening, El Motel, The Gifthorse), it shouldn't surprise me how bloody great it is. Taking the shoegaze shine of Roku and adhering it to the Nothing mould of post-hardcore ferocity, the tracks on the Deafcult EP (recorded at Incremental Studios) are incredible intense, sonorous, intricate and cathartic in their sonic expulsions. I'm blown away by how complete this six-piece already sounds - expect massive things from these guys this year.

Deafcult have a few good gigs coming up - they are supporting Pale Heads (alongside Deadshred and a rare show from the excellent Tiny Migrants!) June 20 at Trainspotters, as well as an earlier show at the Sewers fundraiser as that band prepares to assault the US with their excellent second album on the cusp of hitting the shelves (it's bloody killer) June 6 at The Underdog.

Swerving Into The Setting Sun

Everyone is probably writing about this, so why shouldn't we? Especially seeing as one of the best sets of the 2009 My Bloody Valentine-curated ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival where Sonic Masala was conceived was by Swervedriver (it must be said though that it had been a loooooong weekend, and I found both Bob Mould and Yo La Tengo to be incredibly boring that weekend - so take that as it lies...) Mezcal Head has been a standout record of mine for years and years now (even moreso than Raise). Now, in 2015, the Oxford giants are releasing a new LP! The first official single off I Wasn't Born To Lose You is the languid 'Setting Sun' ('Deep Wound', the first new song that the band had released in 16 years that was put out on legendary Brisbane label Tym Records last year, also makes the album cut). What with this, Adam Franklin's incumbent solo record as Bolts of Melody, Rise's ultra successful reformation shows, the resurgence of walls of sonorous noise worldwide (including on this very label with the continuing love for Roku Music), it is a very exciting time to be a shoegaze enthusiast, that's for sure.

Um, I Know About Pinkshinyultrablast...

It is bizarre that I have heard of pinkshinyultrablast before now. It was in January actually. I was talking to Tim of Tyms Guitars about a bunch of things, but especially his second year of the Singles Club (which saw lots of excellent one-offs, including music from The Nation Blue, Turnpike, Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless and Brett Nelson of Built to Spill amongst many others). He mentioned that he had been talking to Roku Music, who were about to release their debut album Collider as my debut Sonic Masala Records release, about writing a song for it. He had already pencilled in the split side for them. He then played me the EP Happy Songs For Happy Zombies from a little Russian band called...pinkshinyultrablast. They had actually gotten in touch with Tim - albeit with rudimentary English - about their recordings, which were sporadic seeing as it was difficult to find appropriate studio space and equipment in the country. Anyway, the music blew me away (as Tim knew it would). I thought, this is the kind of shoegaze that I can get behind...


Fast forward almost a year, and the St Petersburg five-piece have been signed by premier UK shoegaze label Club AC30 (recent output - Ringo Deathstarr, Exit Calm, Flyying Colours, and Gavin Clark) is the toast of the British towns. The gossamer glory that is single 'Umi' finally has a trailer and the Syren's call that it is is fuelled by sepia-toned foliage, vistas, horizons... It's blissful. As for that Tym's release - it hasn't come to be. YET. Nevertheless, we can all be excited that this album Everything Else Matters (which was remixed by the band at the beginning of the year, and has been a bit of a trial coming to fruition) will be flooding the sense in no time - January 2015, in fact.

Beast Singing, Flood Dancing

Wollongong rabble rousers Beast & Flood came across my radar late last year, their ramshackle and angular take on indie rock striking a chord. They supported Roku Music when they played at Blackwire Records on their national tour (also joined by the legendary Sounds Like Sunset) and really impressed. They are more akin to another of the Sonic Masala stable, Tape/Off, in their propensity to infuse sunshine and stupidity into serrated off-kilter guitar pop shenanigans, a noisy melange of desperation and elation. Other bands such as Adelaide's Sincerely, Grizzly mine these Pavement-via-woodchipper depths, and I wish there were plenty more.

'All Singing, All Dancing' is the most atonal yet sonorous I've heard the trio on record, and to balance such a disparate act is a hard task. OK, so there were some bands in the late 90s/early 00s in Australia that did similar tricks - but if you are mentioning names such as Gaslight Radio or Bluebottle Kiss, that is an inherently great comparison to make. The toy-effect underlay reminds me of the former; the unhinged march through the early stages of the latter. All up, 'All Singing, All Dancing' makes me happy to yell out the window of my south London flat in the waning hours of oncoming winter at bewildered pedestrians who aren't accustomed to any outside interaction other than jostling, dog-eat-dog arseholery (and the more-than-occasional eccentric) - so all boxes have been ticked in bold red.



The trio support the excellent Yes I'm Leaving on their Slow Release tour at the Imperial Hotel in Sydney 24th October - get yourselves along to that.

Celebrate The End With Danyl Jesu

Here is a band that will be huge. I guarantee it. Danyl Jesu is an electronic metal outfit comprised of members of Brisbane acts O, Roku Music and The Rational Academy, and whilst it marries some of the dire spirals of darkness that the former band reside in, the four track EP Celebration is a new, blackened beast of a creation altogether. The brutality of 'Abandon' is the epoch of fury, and the synthetic whirr that winds things up to a coiled tension is a bubble that refuses to burst. The tension continues in 'Gathering' where the drums hold a metronomic death-call akin to My Disco's relentless meticulousness, and whilst the sonic squall at the halfway mark lets the air seep into the void for some much need catharsis, the vocals remain tortured and stressed. There are no guitars here - I repeat, no guitars. The distorted wave of noise is an electronic maelstrom, a melange of tapes and effects that inexorably bleed and bash into and through one another, becoming a transmogrified black mess of unadulterated id. Aptly titled closer 'Exhaustion' is a slow grind into the cracked earth, all efforts rendered useless. There is definitely a sense that the duo are still at the fledgling stages of their powers; still toying with the capabilities of the destruction at their disposal. They travel to the US in 2015 to record their album with Phil Elverum (Mt Eerie, The Microphones), a master at sonic tape manipulation - expect Danyl Jesu to fuse solid, liquid and vapour into one after that collaboration bears brutal fruit.

Brain Drugs Ooze From The Wound

As you are reading this, I am in Braintree. That is a little town in Essex. A killer, pagan-horror name for what is essentially a quaint little town. I am off to a wedding. I'm sure I will have a good time at said wedding. But it is a themed wedding - no not Game Of Thrones or something as dreadful (although I do enjoy the show), but possibly something infinitely worse - "festival chic." Jesus. Further investigation brought about the dress code for men as being checked shirts, decent coloured trousers, BOW TIES AND BRACES.

This had me physically trying not to retch. If EVER I dress like a member of the fucking Mumford & Sons you have the express wishes and gratitude of yours truly to beat me to death with my own braces and brogues.

So here is my antidote, to get me through the day. Oozing Wound is a band from Chicago that deal out thrashy metal in garish floods. Their influences (as labelled on Facebook, so you know they are true) stand as High On Fire, Black Sabbath, and the Beach Boys. I'm gonna take them on face value and agree wholeheartedly. And fuck it - I'm gonna need everything I can to get over the line here, so 'Drug Reference' - with its thrashing drums, lacerating vocals, and exact 4:20 minute runtime - is the kind of thing that will help elevate things above mere pretension and allow me to drink this free bar dry. In my Roku Music shirt at a twee wedding. DONE.

Oozing Wound - Drug Reference

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?

Guilty Of Nothing

We put out Roku Music as our first label release, so you know that Sonic Masala is all about good quality shoegaze. Of course in this day and age there are so many variations that it's hard to discern the good, the bad and the ugly - you get enough of the last one and you are likely to turn off from all the noise (bless me Kevin for my blasphemous tongue...) Philly's Nothing certainly use some of the tropes emblematic of shoegaze, but there is definitely a lot more going on here - this band has their roots as entrenched in early hardcore as they do in 80s English midlands. This is apparent on their excellent record Guilty of Everything.  The vocals remain submerged in the miasmic swirling noise on display, but its the dynamic at play here that makes this a different beast altogether. It comes down to the calm and quiet that nestles amongst the bluster – a sonorous quality permeates tracks like 'Hymn To The Pillory', 'Endlessly' and 'Dig' allowing the noise to seep smoothly into the pores of your being. There’s a familiarity in the wavelength-like undulations of Guilty Of Everything, but that makes it even more arresting. A seriously good release - and if I hadn't put out the best shoegaze album of 2014, then this would surely be it...

Guilty Of Everything is out through Relapse now - get it here.

Mega Aussie Video Vacuum Of Death

It's been far too long since I've done one of these. So take an hour off from work, and revel in the beauty of the moving image - coupled with killer songs. Ill try to keep a Sonic Masala thread through this too...

Dollar Bar kick us off with 'Half The Battle'. Love how Pat rides around Tokyo, giving the 'cool' one-finger wave. This is definitely a highlight right now. The band play the Ela Stiles (Songs/Bushwalking) show that Sonic Masala is putting on alongside Bedroom Suck Records in what is an amazing joint venture. Also supported by Primitive Motion and J. Francis, this gig is on at Electric Playground this Friday!!! COME!

I'd be remiss if I didn't have two of my label roster's videos here. First up is Roku Music, who are finishing the first half of their massive national tour tonight in Melbourne (playing Monday Night Mass alongside Bored Nothing, Barbiturates (the great little Brissy band/dude now stationed in Melbourne),Vowel Movement and the J. Arthur Keenes Band from Canada - if you are are around I suggest you head there right now.  Anyway, this is 'Ended', a great shoegaze track with mirrored languorous footage from Helena Papageorg.

Tape/Off will be releasing their first album Chipper on Sonic Masala Records in June. Here is the first single, 'Pedestal Fan'. Sub two minutes of the band smashing the track out in the back of their now sadly departed tour van, it's fun, frenetic and a great taste of what is to come. These guys have a good bunch of shows lined up for that tour too, so stay tuned.

One of the tracks on Tape/Off's upcoming album features vocals from none other than Tom Lyngcoln, the rugged genius behind The Nation Blue and Harmony. It's the latter band that he is pouring everything into 2014 with the brilliant Carpetbombing album, and the clip for 'Water Runs Cold' could also be the best of 2014. Haunting, haunted, heartrending, and rustically beautiful. Harmony play Black Bear Lounge this Thursday with excellent support with Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side and Per Purpose.

Back to Roku Music. When I joined them with their Sydney/Newcastle leg of the tour the other weekend, we agreed that the only record better than their own was Jersey Flegg, the debut album from Sydney band You Beauty. The album is a concept album based on a fictitious rugby league player whose rising star fades as he hovers in NSW metropolitan obscurity. Seriously. But the brilliance of this record isn't just the silliness and brilliant Ocker one-liners ('you could have had Whispering Jack play at your wedding' being a definite watershed lyric), but that the songs themselves are inimitably listenable. The four band members of Roku knew much of these tracks off by heart, and with good reason. Here is 'Healin' Spirit' - if you don't like it, you don't know music.

One of the dirtiest excuses for a garage band, Thee Hugs brought out this little chestnut last month. The demented genius of 'Bashar Al-Assad' is in the blatant ridiculousness of the headdresses and the terrorist overtones, yet it still lending the track the requisite amount of sweat-stained tension. Donnie from Roku recorded this malignant mess - and we should all be proud of this unholy birth.

Yuri Johnson filmed the above film clip, and here he is playing guitar in his band Keep On Dancin's. The four-piece's loooooong-awaited sophomore album Hunter is on its way, and 'Grey Ghost' is the band at their most powerful (albeit measured - nothing is ever thrown to chance here). Yes, this has been out since last year, but I forgot to show it. And I need to extend this tenuous link (other than the Australian connection, which will break too I'm sure). Can't wait for this album guys!!

Local ratbags done good DZ Deathrays get slicker and  louder, and 'Gina Works At Hearts' is the perfect embodiment of that. It isn't their strongest song, but you have to support these rad dudes who continue to do their thing, strongly influenced by DFA79, and continue to slay it. They are also in Velociraptor that includes the Thee Hugs and KOD heathens, so keeping the love alive.

One of the most excellent and eccentric acts that graced the Sonic Masala showcases last year was the last show of the year, when Melbourne "guy" Orlando Furious brought his woozy, crushed percolator pop to Brisbane. It was a captivating performance (and chunky chunky chains) that has stuck with me, even now. His cassette Popular is great. 'Nu Body' is the perfect example of what to expect from this charismatic enigma. i wish he lived up here so I could put him on a whole bunch more shows. Guess Ill have to live with Orlando Furious through his hop-hip cracked muzak.

Possibly my favourite show that I've put on was the second anniversary of Sonic Masala shows last October. We had the debut performance of Landing In The Presence of Enemy Jaguars, Advanced (or just Landpres), the gritty punk stylings of Big Richard Insect (and their Neil Young cover!), and FINALLY getting my favourite Brisbane band EVER Turnpike to play a set. But it was getting Melbourne rustic monsters The Spinning Rooms to play not one but two shows. I cannot stress enough how good this band is, and their two albums are underrated gems of the modern Australian music era. Here is a clip for 'It Can't Not' - seriously brilliant band.

Up here that particular day to play alongside The Nation Blue (there's that Lyngcoln again...) were another excellent, raucous pack of bastards, Batpiss. And whilst this isn't their video, the trio do make a cameo as the druggos in the shitters for King Parrot's "seminal" video clip for 'Dead End' - throwing off at The Shining with enough Melbourne degenerates that prop up the scene there to make this a veritable who's who. But who cares when the track is this bloody great.

A couple weeks ago I put on a little show for Matt Banham (No Through Road). Good friend Stephanie Crase was up here too, playing her Summer Flake material solo at one of the final shows to be played at the Hideaway. Here she is again, playing guitar in her good friend Ellen Carey's outfit Fair Maiden - they shot the video too. It's a great song from what is likely to be a great record (out on Bedroom Suck - see the connections continue to flow!)

Fair Maiden - Lady of Fortune from BSR on Vimeo.

The next few tracks are here because they have or will be supporting Sonic Masala Records bands in the next few months. Doctopus will be playing in Western Australia alongside Roku Music; Milkk will join Gazar Strips in their Sydney shows in May; and Bad Vision and Cull will (hopefully) help Tape/Off launch their record in June. They are great bands in their own right, of course - Doctopus surprise, not being a third-tier NZ dub band instead being a psychy garage mish-mash of gargantuan proportions; Milkk's woozy weirdness is mirrored by this lo-fi tackfest; Bad Vision play their straight-up rock, well, straight up; and Cull conitnue to explore the outer realms of delay-altered realities. Keep marching forward, fellow harbingers of noise!

One of my favourite 00s bands was Melbourne two-piece Sodastream. Here is songsmith Karl Smith and his very cute video for 'Slow Short Story'. You all need to listen to his solo record, Kites, right now.

Slow Short Story - Karl Smith from Karl Smith on Vimeo.

Let's finish up with THE band I'd like to play a Sonic Masala show. Melbourne crackpots Ooga Boogas. Im gonna try, I promise...

NOW GET BACK TO WORK?

A Fortnight Of Silence...Then Axxa/Abraxas

The Roku Music roadshow has started – the album Collider is out, Sonic Masala Records is officially out of the gates, and the band have played their first brace of regional shows. It has been a whirlwind fortnight to be sure – but poor ol blog has been neglected in the meantime! My head is foggy thanks to a number of beers consumed in the Time Machine (one of Queensland’s best stores, hands down – get out to Nambour and check it out!) and some amazing Roku Music and Dreamtime-inspired noise, so I need a nice, smooth introduction to the week…and Atlanta’s Axxa/Abraxas is providing me with just that.

Out on Captured Tracks last week, this self-titled debut from Axxa/Abraxas (real name Ben Asbury) plays like Kurt Vile if he fronted Real Estate in the 60s and sang a good few octaves higher. There is a base element here, the paring back of all but the bare elements that makes up the DNA of psych pop – and whilst the flourishes like a guitar solo (which always shadows the background) exist, they aren’t given weight. There is a breathy weightlessness to these tracks that give Axxa/Abraxas a vintage quality, like stumbling over some dust-covered 8 track in the basement of the resident recluse, giving a sneak peak into what their life might have been like. ‘Painted Blue’ allows for a more open-ended psych flourish, but in the main the album remains at a sedate pace, an ebullient meander through sepia shadows. It almost makes working on a Monday bearable…

Axxa/Abraxas is out now.

LAUNCH - Sonic Masala Records' First Release, ROKU MUSIC'S DEBUT LP COLLIDER

Today is certainly a watershed day for me, as I release into the world the first record from the Sonic Masala Records stables. Roku Music's Collider is a monumental album, one Im very close to and hold dear, and Im humbled and honoured to have this album as the flagship release for the label. The record is vinyl-only (well, digital too, but so is everything these days), and at $25AUD is a pretty tidy steal. Listen to the entire album below, and head over to the Sonic Masala Records Bandcamp to purchase one before they inevitably go racing out the door.

Look at how amazing the record's turned out! Very happy indeed :) Roku Music are launching Collider on a huge national tour that encompasses pretty much the entire continent (proudly sponsored by Sonic Masala Records, Tym Guitars and Australian Arts Council). Make sure you get along to a show near you - they are likely to be playing a portaloo at your local country show at this rate. You might even see me in the flesh at a few of these shows - come say hi and get a record/beer/good time!

Friday March 7 - USQ Uni Bar, Toowoomba QLD (w/ Dreamtime & wadethroughthegloss)

Saturday March 8 - Tym Guitars (Instore), Brisbane QLD (w/ No Sister)

Friday March 14 - O'Dowds Hotel, Rockhampton QLD (w/ Majora's Mask Devils)

Saturday March 15 - The Grand Hotel, Bundaberg QLD (w/ Phantom Fires & ET And The Alien)

Sunday March 16 - The Time Machine, Nambour QLD (w/ Dreamtime & Cactus Demon Doom)

Thursday March 20 - The Tatts Hotel, Lismore NSW (w/ Dreamtime & Spanx)

Friday March 21 - The Square, Sydney NSW (W/ Yes I'm Leaving, Narrow Lands & Broadcasting Transmitter)

Saturday March 22 - The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW (w/ TBC)

Sunday March 23 - Blackwire Records, Sydney NSW (w/ Beast and Flood & Sounds Like Sunset)

Monday March 24 - The Phoenix, Canberra ACT (w/ Sweet Shoppe & A Drone Coda)

Wednesday March 26 - The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC (w/TBC)

Thursday March 27 - The Eastern Hotel, Ballarat VIC (w/ TBC)

Friday March 28 - The Old Bar, Melbourne VIC (w/Infinite VOid, Shaking Hell & Bonnie Mercer)

Saturday March 29 - The Metro, Adelaide SA (w/ Divine Rip)

Sunday March 30 - Barwon Club, Geelong VIC (w/ TBC)

Monday March 31 - "Monday Night Mass" @ Northcote Social Club, Northcote VIC (w/ Bored Nothing & Barbiturates)

Wednesday April 2 - Hi Fi Bar, Brisbane QLD (supporting Kylesa)

Saturday April 5 - Homestead, Hobart TAS (w/ All Fires, Battered Sac & Ben Salter)

Friday April 11 - The Roundy, Murwillumbah NSW (w/ Dreamtime, more TBA)

Saturday April 12 - The Bird, Perth WA (w/ Mudlark, Smrts & Usurpers of Modern Medicine)

Sunday April 13 - Mojo, Fremantle WA (w/ Doctopus & The Flower Drums)

Thursday April 17 - Todd Tavern, Alice Springs NT (w/ TBC)

Friday April 18 - Happy Yess, Darwin NT (w/ Curcuma & Álfheimr

Saturday April 19 - The Underdog, Brisbane QLD (w/ Cobwebbs, Occults and Deadshred)

Poetic Bridge Over Juan Wauters

I moved headquarters last week, hence the week of silence here at Sonic Masala HQ. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes though, most of which concerns the label – writing promos, contacting blogs such as myself, talking to radio representatives, chasing vinyl jackets, organising gigs and tours, and finishing up with the vinyl entering the country (yes, the Roku Music LP and the Gazar Strips EP have made it safe and sound!). All of this around the hours of my day job. Busy indeed. But there is no relenting from the music – it stops for no man.

One thing I’ve noticed this week though is that there has been a fairly lukewarm response to The Beets’ frontman Juan Wauters’ debut solo album, North American Poetry (N.A.P.). A lot of the humdrum responses have come from the belief that it is too close to home, as it were. The Beets are renowned for slacker garage throwaway tracks, delivered in that disaffected, half asleep way that intimates that they don’t give a fuck when they so clearly do. I love it when a band pulls that off too, and I'm a fan of Spit In The Face Of People Who Don't Want To Be Cool, Let The Poison Out and Stay Home albums. But just because Wauters is casting off the rest of the band and stripping the fuzz off like a scuba suit, its still the same dude underneath, just a lot more naked. I'm not saying this isn’t a flawed record – some tracks drift away, appearing to be more of a bridge than a song in their own right – but there are songs that stand up to the test of time, like the jangly single 'Sanity Or Not', or the tracks where Carmelle Safdi comes into the mix, or the Spanish sung 'Escucho Mucho'. Damn, that may as well be half the album right there! At the end of the day, Wauters has poetic eclecticism, hooks a-plenty, and this album remains incredibly moreish. For whatever reason, the lack of variety of here was exactly what I expected, and as it turned out, exactly what I wanted. Plus I listened to this album pretty much nonstop as I packed the old place and moved to the new - so it's become a part of me now.

N.A.P. is out now through Captured Tracks - get it here.

Hits From The (Mail)Box

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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.

Interview - Keep On Dancins

2013 has been an interesting year for Keep On Dancin’s. The four-piece came into the year having released a warmly received debut album The End Of Everything and with an extensive playing schedule under their belt. Supports for the likes of Velociraptor and Dan Kelly were becoming commonplace. But the band deliberately fell off the radar, a belated cassette release Black Lassie the only hint that the band were still in action.

“For a good year now we’ve really reined things in,” drummer Alex Dunlop explains. “Jacinta (Walker) and Tegan (Rickard) wanted to focus on Tiny Migrants, and Yuri (Johnson) had Teen Sensations, and we all just needed a rest from it all. We were playing so often – it never approached the level of burnout, but we overexposed ourselves a bit. Then after that time we got back in the saddle and started playing a couple shows, and it felt right to be moving forward again.”

The main focus for the band is the upcoming release of sophomore record Hunter, and the process has seen them approach the art of music in a more calculated manner.  

“We didn’t realise how many people liked (The End Of Everything) until after we had a break, and it changed the way we looked at things,” Dunlop stresses. “We didn’t really roll it out properly; we just played and played and sold bits at shows. We have tried to be cleverer with it, the whole experience. Before we played more like a lot of bands do, that is to play until we drop without thinking about what we were doing. This time we are weighing up what to do with film clips, we’ve planned the single (Grey Ghost), we’re doing interviews; we are picking and choosing what and when we play… Before we were playing every little dive because we said yes to everything, and it didn’t do anything for us.”

This new approach obviously bled into the writing and recording of Hunter also. “We recorded with Sean Cook, and we took things really slow; we spent a whole week on one song,” Dunlop emphasises. “We may have spent more money, but it also allowed us to take our time with it, adding bits here and there as they presented themselves to us. Because of that it feels really layered; there are drum loops involved, it’s quite metronomic, so it’s obviously very different to what has come before.”

Hunter won’t hit our ears until 2014, but the band are prepping us with the launch of two tracks from it, Grey Ghost and Baby, the second track of which has its own film clip which follows the four-piece as they wander around a day at the Ekka. The video was put together by Dunlop himself, something he admits was a great experience.

“We got a friend to bring his Handicam and follow us around the Ekka, just having some fun, feeding animals, playing games, going on rides and stuff. I got it together and chopped it all up into something. There was no song designed for it though, because there was no lip syncing or anything, so I just picked Baby because it had a dreamy quality to the whole experience. But we had decided that Grey Ghost should be the single a while ago, but wanted to show both off.”

Keep On Dancins launch the single/s tomorrow night at Black Bear Lodge, with Roku Music and Martyr Privates in able support.