Rotting Pits

Sub Pop are making some major plays in the past eighteen months that have me reinvigorated in their utmost relevance as a label. I have always held faith of course, but with their signing of Mogwai and excellent new records from Deaf Wish, Metz, Pissed Jeans and Sleater-Kinney, their cache is bolstered. Add to this incoming desiccated salvo Neo from Seattle nihilists So Pitted. The name threw me, so when I heard 'Rot In Hell' I was punched in the face with the raw racket blasting forth. The trio manage to spew bile in tetanus-coated fury with a sense of banal diffidence that is almost offensive if it wasn't so dead-eyed brilliant. The band play out as if Pop. 1280 were electrocuted on-stage and zapped back into a parallel corduroy-and-flannel 90s cesspit, thankfully landing on and killing Green Jelly and taking their place. The orange-and-black cover art for the album (not due out until Feb next year) is stark and arresting - the colour coordination reminding me of SM band Cobwebbs, with a similar sense of gutter noise melding with slack-jawed indifference. Pre-order Neo (in white vinyl) here.

O'Barge

Barge With An Antenna On It are still refracting, destroying constructions, building from foundation blocks at weird angles and dimensions. New track 'o' is a bit more funereal, enveloped in cavernous echo, Dylan's drums as precise yet unwieldy as ever (you are just waiting for a maniacal breakdown - and one day it will come...) and Steven's dour delivery and distorted guitar tearing holes in the fabric of sanity. Their EP through Sonic Masala Records still scars - yet like a phantom limb, you can feel the itch of something more. The scree is brewing...

SMR008 - Day Ravies' 2nd LP Liminal Zones

I know it seems we have been fairly quiet on here about our next release, but it is now time to shirk the shackles. Sydney four-piece Day Ravies will be bringing out their second LP Liminal Zones through Sonic Masala and their own Strange Pursuits label. Technically their release is this Friday, July 10 - but with vinyl issues in Europe, we won't have their records on call until September, after which they will be embarking on a national tour. Don't fret though! You can hear the entire album over at Rolling Stone here; you will be able to buy digital downloads and CDs from the Strange Pursuits store on Friday - and we will start taking on pre-orders for the vinyl, which includes a limited number of opaque pink LPs for those quick enough to get in! So have a read; have a listen; slide on through to those Liminial Zones.

Here are the dates of the Liminal Zones tour - supports to be announced soon...

October 9 - Brisbane - Bearded Lady 

October 15 - Canberra - Phoenix 

October 16 - Wollongong - Rad Bar 

October 23 - Melbourne - The Tote

October 24 - Adelaide - The Metro

November 6 - Sydney - The Roxbury Glebe 

November 14 - Hobart - The Grand Poobah

Sweet Spirits

The kaleidoscopic confectionery that is Brisbane's Spirit Bunny continues to swirl out into the cosmos, like a multi-coloured fairy floss, all sticky, sugary, and pulsating with synthetic energy. Their new single 'Marshmallows' sees Joel Saunders' vocal delivery veer closer to the tortured pop of Architecture in Helsinki, yet these handmade synth demons (Saunders and Kate Thomas, with whirling dervish Cam Smith on the drums) imbue the track with decidedly darker hues. The squelches and howls of sonic squall towards the end, like scratching a key along an acrylic artwork, somehow heightens the colourful maelstrom that comes before it. There isn't much like this out there - get behind this!

The trio launch their EP Marshmellow Friday June 12 at The Bearded Lady. This is especially exciting for Sonic Masala as it will serve as the first official launch show for our split release of Danyl Jesu and Barge With An Antenna On It's new EPs - so it'll be a triple EP launch! Neither Nathan or I will be there - we are both ensconced in Europe then - but there will be SM goodies at the show too. And the most excellent Brainbeau will also be playing - how can you NOT go to this???

Built From Sticks

Built From Sticks is the nom de plume of Jamie Curran, the man on the piano on Brisbane instrumental unit Ghost Notes (whose truly excellent third album Moonlight State came out at the beginning of the year on our own Sonic Masala Records - listen to/grab it here - if you haven't already). Out today through Duskdarter as a digital release, Curran's fifth solo album as Built From Sticks, Return To Underwater Breathing, is subtle yet breathtaking. From the sublime slow-crawling preamble that is eleven minute opener 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go?', it is clear that Curran is steering clear of the more conventional song structures of the past, more open to tangential shifts and sonorous drifts. Curran's acoustic ruminations are coloured by Ghost Notes bandmates Luke McCallum (trumpet) and Cam Smith (drums). As with all internal aural contemplations, there is room for a susurration to boil over into a more cacophonous release, as the rusted distortion that closes out 'New Habitat' assuages, but in the main this is the type of somnambulist meandering that the likes of Black Eagle Child, Mark Koselek or Codeine might impart (albeit with Curran's gentle vocals and without the crooked posturing or the cathartic noise). It's great to have these ruminative pastoral sojourns out in the world, outside of the four walls of the bedroom and given space to breathe. 




Do yourself a favour and pick Return To Underwater Breathing here. Built From Sticks launches the album at the Milk Factory in Brisbane on Thursday May 14 with Duskdarter alums Bremen Town Musician and Dempefka in tow.

Tangrams In Love

Have to say I've been looking forward to this release for almost a year. I got to see Melbourne goth demons Tangrams play a Minimum Wage show in support of Gazar Strips' EP launch May last year, and their meticulously maintained brooding created an electrifying sine-wave of tension. This is evident on their 7". Even when the guitars boil over into a wail on 'In Love', it is all with gritted teeth and hooded eyes. 'Ephemeral' heads away from the noise and lurks even further in the shadows - which proves to be a ruse, as the caterwaul that finally erupts is an expulsion of torturous tremors. Grab the record here - the band is on a brief hiatus while Sarah ventures overseas, but expect to see more of them in short time.

Get Lamped With The Strange Day Ravies

This post is two-fold. First of all Sydney gauzy four-piece Day Ravies brought out a cassette EP Under The Lamp on their own Strange Pursuits label. It is four tracks of extrapolated expansion, a divergence from the shimmering excellence of debut album Tussle while remaining true to the DR aesthetic they have effortlessly built over the years. 'Sleepwalk' has a laconic bent due to Sam Wilkinson's vocals, more deadpan and front of the mix than ever before, with a sudden drop into Slowdive fuzz that is exhilarating as it is bombastic. The crunchy distortion on the title track lends a heaving gravity to proceedings, while the whistling synth lines feel like the undercurrent of crossing radio stations, from another song from another era that eerily fits in the proceedings. The drum machine and oscillating effects that opens 'Perennial' is the biggest sidestep here, and again the stomach flip of new horizons being searched comes to the fore - culminating in what is a genre implosion that comes from no discernible decade, yet exists just the the hell of it. I imagine all four members of the band playing this from start to finish with goofy grins plastered on their dials. 'Prior Hour' is a sunny fadeout, a bustling yet bucolic saunter arm in arm into the sunset, quaffing red and feelin' fine.

The second piece of info is a little more cryptic. Day Ravies will be bringing out their second record in a few months time. A lot more detail to come out about that soon. Suffice to say we here at Sonic Masala HQ are VERY excited...

SONIC MASALA RECORDS PRESENTS: GHOST NOTES' MOONLIGHT STATE

Today is a special day, as we unearth Moonlight State, the sublime new album from Brisbane instrumental ensemble Ghost Notes.

Oppression takes many forms. Drudgery and alienation seem an ever-present. Sometimes overt, but mostly subtle; we bury ourselves under our daily practices.

Moonlight State is Brisbane instrumentalists Ghost Notes’ third album. Largely written and recorded during the same period as the band’s previous release, Hidden Horizons, the new album occupies an altogether different space to its twin. Where that record wandered through bright and distant open lands, Moonlight State is firmly set amidst the dim claustrophobia of our own backyard, while still reaching for an inherent beauty.

Littered with references to the humid, hazy shadows of their hometown’s recent past - none more deliberate than the title track - Moonlight State is an album for present history; for the return of ‘Pig City’, the soundtrack to the G20 and VLAD and unchecked political power. The single ‘Freedom Scouts’ furthers the theme, taking its name from a local survivalist militia, while ‘Split Solitary’ harkens back to the darkness behind youth spent in idyllic rural areas. Here are the murmurs from sun-beaten sheds looking out through rust spots in corrugated iron.

Moonlight State represents a musical end point for Ghost Notes. Designed from inception to be a long-term project, the band have reached their most dynamic and bombastic with this album. The music demands to explode and destroy, and yet even at its most unhinged Ghost Notes repeatedly turn inward. The band’s signature musical spaciousness remains, but their Morricone-meets-Bitches Brew instrumental rock moves in darker territories on this album, from melancholy folk eulogies to noise-rock freak-outs. Nowhere is this breadth of sound more evident than on the album opening ‘Vanishing Point’, a 13-minute epic that travels through starkness, Steve Reich-esque polyrhythms, Kraut-rock freakouts and Sabbath grooves before finding itself back where it began only with a newfound sense of triumph.


You can buy it now!!! Ghost Notes will launch the album in Brisbane on Friday December 5 at The Bearded Lady, with support from other excellent acts Danyl Jesu and Pleasure Symbols.

Throwing Gold Shade On World War 4

Sam Wightman and Roland Hlavka have a lot of time on their hands. Not content to have second LP WORLD WIDE WEBBS out (through Sonic Masala Records no less - get at it here), the duo are involved in a myriad other projects. The most prolific of those is Hlavka's solo outfit Barbiturates (often with Cobwebbs drummer Elliot D'Arcy at his beck and call), whilst Wightman's Police Force continues to get better and more malignant. Yet there are other, more festered outlets for these boys to let the demons out (these guys have a hard drive of material that may never see the light of day), and Canberra-based label Moontown Tapes has seen fit to give undead life to two of them. A split that is fused through communal spit and unease, the cassette opens with Wightman's World War 4 - and first track 'X-Ray Visitor' is the cleanest thing I think he has ever committed himself to. Drone crawl from the bottom floor, invading the senses, hip hop beats and lysergic treats for the narcoleptic dranker in us all. Then there is Hlavka's Gold Shade, a even more twisted chemtrail of an excursion, burning across the ozone like a VHS nightmare in neon chrome. 'Super Survivor' could be a Not Not Fun banger hit of the apocalyptic summer. Yes, these guys are in too many bands. Yes, they are all varying levels of awesome. Get this now - it's too good to ignore.

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.

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.

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.

Cordon Off That Pedestal Fan - Tape/Off Cool Off With Launch & East Coast Tour

OK then, let's get 2014 off and racing with a new single! 'Pedestal Fan' is the first taste of Brisbane rough-and-ready slackjawed literates Tape/Off's upcoming debut LP (about bloody time!). It's been a couple years since their great EP ...And Sometimes Gladness, a release I discovered on the Internet whilst living in Brisbane back in 2010 before realising they were from my hometown. 'Pedestal Fan' is a breakneck blast (complete with scatterbrained, skittish trumpet from a certain Pale Earth) that reminds everyone that there is more to these miscreants than Pavement Post-it reminders, lackadaisical rejoinders and perforated snare skins. Although there is all of that in this track too, really. It's raucous, flying off the handle, barely staying on the tracks - kinetic energy, amphetamine rush, slight acid tinged interlude, then clatter off into the dusk. Sensational stuff. I've heard the album, and it's an absolute cracker too.


Tape/Off launch the single with an East Coast tour starting this Thursday. See the details below. Sonic Masala is presenting their hometown fandango at Trainspotters on Saturday Feb 1, with support from LA/China duo Alpine Decline and Adelaide's Maids.

Thursday January 9 - Sydney, NSW
Brighton Up Bar w/ Skullsquadron & RAMPS

Friday January 10 - Melbourne, VIC
The Old Bar w/ Super Best Friends, Sincerely, Grizzly & Darts

Sunday January 12 - Melbourne, VIC
The Public Bar (Sunday School) w/ Chips Rafferty & Ciggie Witch

Saturday January 25 - Fremantle, WA
The Railway Hotel w/ special guests

Sunday January 26 - Perth, WA
Flyrite w/ special guests

Saturday February 1 - Brisbane, QLD
Grand Central Hotel Brisbane (Trainspotters)
w/ Alpine Decline (USA) & Maids