Vintage Angie

One of my favourite albums of the past couple of years, coming out at the tail end of 2013, was Turning, the debut solo offering from Circle Pit/Southern Comfort/Ruined Fortune/Straight Arrows firebrand Angie Bermuda (as Angie). She is bringing out her second record, Free Agent, soon (through Rice Is Nice), and first cut from it 'Out of Age' is a fuzzbox blast of atonal wildness within a harmonic frame. Angie has always played the metronomic guitar between garage abandon and Branca-era deconstructed destruction, yet here she somehow manages to do both here, with her vocal delivery monotone and deadpan. A great opening salvo - can't wait to hear this one (it's not out til September though, so play the hell out of this in the meantime).

Miss Destiny Likes Her Southern Comfort Straight

So I am heading to Straight Arrows tonight as they support Jack Oblivian alongside The Sheiks. It's gonna be a blast. Check out the interview I did with Owen from the Sydney garage titans back here to get a taste. But as you know, the band isn't the only outlet for these guys, and out of them the most prolific tends to be Angie Bermuda. Outside of her old stuff as Circle Pit (with Jack Mannix), Angie has done her solo record Turning (which was a late contender for best album of 2013) and this year's Ruined Fortune (with Nic Warnock), and now we another slice courtesy of Hozac Records.

But before we get to that, there is another Aussie band with a 7" pumping through the Hozac veins (anticipation is rife!) Miss Destiny is a grungey Hole-esque blast-out, and 'The One' is a killer track that belies such audacious comparison claims. The four-piece from Melbourne (which features Harriet Hudson - the link is clear in a minute) slam the speakers with some much needed bite, a bracing band that borrows from 70s garage rock and rips it to shreds with vehement glee. Great stuff.

Also out on Hozac is a 7" from Angie's "other" band (of which there are many), Southern Comfort (and the penny drops!) . Now I actually bought this 7" at the Sonic Masala Fest when Angie played, and wrote a post up about this (alongside releases by The Man and Mary Monday) but it disappeared off my laptop. So now's a good time as any to talk about it. 'Suzanne' is a much breezier jam than Hudson's Miss Destiny, and it's good to see the colour palette is wide spread. Sometimes you need to let the sun out as much as kick out the jams.



And yep, if in London you can see Angie play in another of her bands, Straight Arrows, tonight at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. They are supporting Jack Oblivian and The Sheiks. It is another great Upset The Rhythm show - get along to it, it's gonna be LOOSE.

Infamy and Ruined Fortune

Angie Bermuda has been very busy of the past few years, Musically alone she has been involved in cyclical cesspit Circle Pit, rambunctious Injuns Straight Arrows, strung out stoners Sourthern Comfort, and she brought out her excellent debut solo album Turning last year; and pushing on, she has Ruined Fortune, a band she has formed with Nic Warnock (RIP Society). The band itself sounds like demented thugs, a two-piece enamoured with disarray and destruction, ans the spaces between the spaces. 'In A Hole' is a scuzzy driving behemoth of an opener, all snarls wrapped in suffocating cellophane - so deliciously evil. 'All Seeing Eye' is heavy metal for the unwilling, a dirge into the funereal gutters of unlit alleys and abandoned squats. 'Transparent Faces' is almost a pop song - as near as these nihilists will let the candy coated come close to the white noise orgy.'On The Screen' holds The Velvet Underground up to the light and under a searing magnifying glass; ‘Closing Till’ is particularly enthralling, with Warnock monotonously reciting lines from interview inanities and application forms over a simplistic Casio drum beat and Angie’s squalling guitar providing a hypnotic bedrock. Then there is the eight-minute spiralling cataclysm that is 'That Strain, That Spark/End of Day' is an exercise in dealing with cacophony like a lackadaisical masochist - which is pretty much the best way. Spacemen 3 on ice?

Suffice to say, Ruined Fortune is bloody incredible. Angie, Nic (with excellent help from Dan Spencer (Blank Realm) and Joe Alexander (Per Purpose, Terrible Truths) on skins) - thank you for the catastrophe of the year - a face melting triumph of the damaged will. Get it through the excellent Hozac Records here.