Ruined Sooks on The Edge of Virginia & Lake Michigan

(Virginia Sook)

(Lake Michigan)

Ruined Smile Records just keep the hits a-comin'. New release off the shelves this week is this international split between Brisbane's Virgina Sook and London lo-fi outlier Lake Michigan (the UK distributor will be Wolf Town). Lake Michigan is Chris Marks, and he has already featured here on Sonic Masala with another split, that one with Hopelesstown; while Virginia Sook features one Lindsey Roser, who also is known here as part of hip-hop anomalies Nana Vigilante and holds pride of place of being the opening act of the first Sonic Masala Fest last year. Both acts are breathtaking in their patience, their slow build of a warm atmosphere that revels in the space between the notes. Lake Michigan reminds me of many artists in Australia that I really enjoy, in particular Mark Zian (Curlew) and Jake Core (Soda Eaves); the lyrics are almost mired in the atonal delivery, but the hushed background noise and plucked guitar brings everything into focus. Virginia Sook may have a harp, but there is something inimitably warmer and relatable that you don't get from Joanna Newsom - there is a twang in the tales here, a rustic charm that endears. You can get the split here - it's a good'un.

Softcore Pjaro

Ruined Smile Records continues to open up the channels between Australia and small, hitherto unknown bands from around the world. One of their most recent releases has been Soft Core, the three track EP from Sheffield melodic malcontents Pjaro. The EP is bookended by two raucous numbers: 'Passed Out, Covered In Drugs' a jumped up racket, at times feeling like two different bands playing at once before the lyrics "When you look in the mirror/Do you smile?" comes out, akin to a hundred beer swilling post-hardcore heathens venting their spleen; and 'Goodnight Sweet Prince', a brooding math permutation that explodes in wanton fury, the deep dissonance a brilliantly welcome, cleansing release. But it is the eight minute middle track 'Car2003' that really got me - the hum of a poor recording of a pub conversation that fades into a slowly coalescing anthem, an instrumental behemoth of calibrated emotional manipulation until the rhythms take is into a euphoric canter a la American Football at their most ebullient. Great stuff.

Featuring Feature

Another excellent release from Ruined Smile Records is this lil EP from London trio Feature. I got to catch these girls when they opened for Protomartyr in London back in August, and they really held their own. Featuring members of Sauna Youth and Slowcoaches, the band have put together this five-track number to combine their Tie Dye Records cassette Culture Of The Copy from last year, while the last two tracks are about to feature on a split EP with the aforementioned Slowcoaches called Tourists (out soon on Unwork Records). The first three tracks are rawer due to the initial two piece configuration, so there are spaces in the songs that are well and truly blown out in the live arena here. Set staple 'Psalms' is a particular track that has ramped up since this recording, yet there is an undeniable growl and bluster that underpins it all. 'Wisdom Teeth' (which we see the new film clip for below) and 'Tourism Fiction' show the rambunctious new dynamic, but still holds dear the insidious pop melodies that have always been the band's strength. And we are only likely to have more evidence of this burgeoning power with two new releases in the wind (including one through SM fave Soft Power Records) as well as a full length targeted for 2016.

Pre-order Tourists here. The band just played a free gig with Leeds noiseniks Super Luxury last Friday, but there is more fun to be had with these ladies:

Saturday 2nd May - Odd Box Records Weekender, The Shacklewell Arms, London w/ Slowcoaches, Joey Fourr, The Fish Police and more 

Friday 8th May - Gullivers, Manchester w/ Gorgeous Bully 

Monday 11th May - Oslo, Hackney w/ Cheatahs & No Joy 

Friday 29th May - Berlin, Germany w/ DIÄT Saturday 

3rd October - The 9th Annual Nottingham Pop All-dayer, The Maze, Nottingham w/ Witching Waves and more 

The Blue Period

Brisbane-based label Ruined Smile is pushing some interesting releases. I spoke about Moral Straitjacket last week; I will be talking about Hutt River Province and Feature next week. But to be honest, the release I have enjoyed the most thus far is this reissue of Nottingham's The Blue Period's And Suddenly The Days Draw Long Like Light-Years EP. With such an unwieldy and verbose title, I was thinking this would provided skeletal post-rock trappings - instead this is a intricate sojourn through the tetchy, fidgety indie fare that The Promise Ring, The Album Leaf or Jets To Brazil revelled in back in their day. So emo when it reference emotions, not a sub culture, then. The interplay between Celia McDougall and Chris Moore is understated yet impressive - their harmonies plaintive, sometimes schoolyard-shouty, sometimes bedroom-whispered. These guys know when to let a simple spidery lead echo out without altering direction, letting the lyrics colour the edges, and when to break out of contemplation and into playful interaction. It's 2015, so I am sure there will be those of you that will shelve this before you have listened to a lick of it - but And Suddenly The Days... proves that any genre can break out of the wintry embrace of its time capsule when the essence is distilled as creatively and fervently as this.

You can grab the EP here - it's a good'un.

Hits From The Box #96 - Ding Dong The Dick Is Dead (Happy Times)

I'm still flying high people. This week has been a pretty big one - first we saw the ousting of utter stain Campbell Newman from my (for better or worse) beloved state of Queensland in Australia. I had a birthday. The next two releases for Sonic Masala Records' test pressings came through. The next couple of SMR releases are falling into place (with some massive updates to come very soon). The SM Fest and its sideshows are pretty much locked down (so pumped for the inclusion of Dead Farmers!). Saw the brilliant Disappears. And listened to a bunch of great new records, including Hey Colossus!, Chook Race and Lightning Bolt (!). I finished up with some birthday drinks last night. And although I am still fairly riddled with flu, the world has shown itself to be an OK place after all. Here are seven more reasons to get excited about the world we live in.

First up, I have to apologise for not writing about Californian band Moral Straitjacket's self titled album earlier - the cassettes (put out through great little Brisbane label Ruined Smile, of all people) is sold out. Don't worry - I missed out too. There were only 23 copies of the damned thing! That said, it deserves to be heard - a punk rant of destitution and desolation. The A-side is more 'straight up', in that the songs are familiar tropes of tortured rock of the working class - a lo-fi undertone of The Nation Blue perhaps? The B side plays with form though - with spoken word, ambient space and crackling tape, albeit with the same gut punch.

Calypso is a trio from Asheville that like to stretch out sanity to breaking point. Oracle is a psych mutation - a mutant of an EP that surreptitiously eats up its influences (The Raincoats, 13th Floor Elevators, Ariel Pink, et al) and spitting it all out in a glistening, quivering chimera of its own personality and awe. Oracle is a truly beguiling trip well worth everyone's time - you can grab it here.

Foot Hair is a five-headed toxic punk attack from Northern England, haunting the moors and terrorising the locals with the nascent noise and slack jaws. Their self-titled album is intent on swirling around the drain of despair and self-hatred, but without the self-harm - in fact these guys revel in their self-imposed darkness, a seedier Pissed Jeans. 'Cool Runnings' is the standout song as far as levity is concerned - with titles such as 'King of Scum' and 'Send Us Your Blood', you know we are scraping the bottom of the rust-caked barrel here. Out through Box Records, who have also released the likes of Gnod, Richard Dawson and Blown Out, so the brutality is in good hands.

New York's Surrender The Spirit remind me a bit of early Architecture In Helsinki, a bit of Mates Of State, and a lot of early Dan Deacon. The duo have stepped back from the rock oriented backwaters that they are more familiar with, and their fully-fledged launch into the glitchy kaleidoscopic waters of this saccharine pop mantra is confident and freeing.

Now to laugh in terrified hysteria as Haust take the Pop 1280 launch into the dank depths of punk despair, and open the gates of both MC5 and the sickest of Gorgons. The Norwegian four-piece are as heavy and ridiculous as you might expect - taking some of the basest (and therefore brilliant) punk rock noise and lathering it with the guttural screams of a black metal banshee of darkest nightmares. Yet it is all done with a modicum of humour and self-referential nuance.

An active member of Canberra bands Spartak (who played our inaugural Sonic Masala Fest last year) and Agency (who you will hear a lot more from in the very near future...), Shoeb Ahmad has a solo track that is floating around the ridges at the moment courtesy of London label Mystery Plays' singles club. 'Horses (A Coda' is a lilting, haunting track that feels like it's blown in somewhere in that ethereal hour between the end of the night and the beginning of the dawn, where everything is less than black yet not truly light, the frost crunching underfoot, the shadows nebulous and breathing. It's a subtle beauty - more please.

Let's finish these proceedings with Chimes, a bunch of NY psychic slackers that bring the noise on current record (and appropriately named) Psychic Slack. It's deliciously frenetic far - 'Total Sunflower' is a Wooden Shjips jam, condensed into a compact capsule and infused with a motorik growl and a liberal dose of Tabasco. 'Rinso' is a flange-flayed floater in the river, heavy on the numbness, light on the light. Deep and dark, Chimes are pretty fucking great.



Happy Sunday everyone!

Splitsville In Hopelesstown, Lake Michigan

Here is the first of two split releases we are looking at today. Fred mentioned not too long ago about a Queensland label called Ruined Smile - his childhood memories are back here. Reaching across the globe to give voice to unheralded acts, one of their first releases is this split cassette between English pastoral explorer Lake Michigan and his Australian counterpart Hopelesstown (split released with Canberra-based label Lacklustre).

Now this comes at a weird coincidental cross roads for me, as yesterday I was looking for an album to put on the record player while my girlfriend did her college work. Flicking through I came across Out Of The Shadow, the 2003 debut record from Rogue Wave. I don't remember ever buying it, let alone playing it. We played it - it suited the gentle 'I'm doing work' vibe we were looking for. Then I looked up what they had been up to since, and saw they had written that 'Lake Michigan' song that I had heard on a hell of a lot of TV commercials a few years ago...

Then I saw this in the inbox. It's not the same - it's much better. Each artist shares three tracks. Lake Michigan is not like Rogue Wave. These three meditations reverberate due to their witching hour permutations - floating out of focus, somewhere between warmth and freezing cold, condensation setting on windows, the heat emanating from a lightly strummed guitar and the breath hovering in front of the lips. Reclaiming life, whether it be through mumblecore mantras ("Every fight, and fuck, and falling over...is ours") or through static-ridden proclamations from Dr Frasier Crane, is the order of the day. A melancholic yet positive experience.

Hopelesstown feels like a pea from the same pod - maybe even rubbing spherical shoulders. The reverb is heavily on display, but the songs play with recorded convention - 'Smitten' is fuzzed and roughed up, a scratchy and sedate declaration of unrequited love. 'Other' opens up a little more, although the autumnal cryogenic permutations continue to permeate. Closer 'Spring 2' sits somewhere between the two, and glows lazily, a sunrise warding off the frost.

Lake Michigan/Hopelesstown might fuel many a frigid morning here in the Northern Hemisphere, but is sure to warm the cockles in the drenching summer heat too. Nice work. Buy it here (there's only 4 left).

This Won’t Ruin Your Smile

Sometimes things happen that are pretty exciting. I can still remember the time I found five bucks in the sand when we were staying down the Gold Coast with cousins when I was 10 (in what is now basically a casino car park). But this is way better than that. Way better.

I am not sure where Ruined Smile Records came from exactly. But I know they’re from Brisbane. And I’m stoked cause I’m from Brisbane and they’ve just delivered me a goldmine. I am never really a fan of compilations, but this seriously blitzes just about any I’ve ever come across. There is scuzz and sandpaper here. There is thoughtful, playful, heartfelt and frantic. There are a bunch of guitar sounds to warm your heart and fill you with hope. And a bunch of new bands for me to go and see. Seriously, from this goes from Smudge through Blueline Medic. I am sending this to my cousin right now. The one who sold me his Helmet tape for five bucks in a casino car park when I was 10.

The first release proper to come from Ruined Smile appears to be a 12" EP from the Nottingham band The Blue Period, And Suddenly The Days Draw Long Like Light-Years. Here is a song of theirs. Kindred spirits.