Spacek-Out Paranoia

It seems to be every week that I am discovering a new band in London - which makes sense seeing as it is over 7 million people's worth of working, rutting, fucking and dying going on. And right now I have been all over Ulrika Spacek, a five-piece with a heavy predilection for Spacemen 3 sonorous ephemera and walls of noise threaded with a nonchalant curiosity for the darker spaces, content to whir and march into the outer reaches and beyond. Space psychedelic rock this might be, but the band take pains to earth themselves (pun intended) by imbuing their lethargic motorik drones with harder edges - a BRMC riff here, a Viet Cong layer of echoed menace there. Everything seems crafted out of a gravitational pull, a kneejerk hypnosis, but is also heavily calibrated and maintained. The lyrics that halt the inexorable trudge of 'Beta Male' for example give us a lilting esoteric moment of respite before launching back out in the stratosphere, meaning that grooves aren't inherent, that bliss isn't constant, that they are always in control.

They released their debut album The Album Paranoia on Friday (through Tough Love, on white vinyl - impressive package, you can get it here) and will be touring it over the next couple weeks, check em out:

08 Glasgow, Hug and Pint 

09 Birmingham, Hare and Hounds 

10 Bristol, Start the Bus 

11 London, Rough Trade East 

16 Manchester, Soup Kitchen 

17 Liverpool, Studio 2

Mirroring Martyr Privates

 

There's going to be a nasty rumour going round soon that I am in Martyr Privates, such is the blanket love I have given their debut album of late. Having written the review of it for both The Music in Australia and The Quietus in the UK, suffice to say that I am a fan. Not much else needs to be said that I haven't already written. That said, I thought Id fling a couple sentences together to try and explain why I like it. Because Martyr Privates is in some ways derivative; in other ways wholly unimaginative. Because opinion is so subjective, it seems apt yet also trite for me to say that their influences are fine when I often lambast other bands for wearing their influences so blatantly and carefree. The difference here is the playability factor. When I first listened to the album I thought the Brisbane trio of Cam Hawes, Ashleigh Shipton and Sam Dixon had captured their live persona well, but it was still that heady pastiche of downer rock and shoegaze space oddity that made them familiar and yet innately alien, at least on the Australian music scene. But the more I listened to tracks like 'You Can't Stop Progress' and 'Something To Sell' I realised the influences that came to bear - Kitchens Floor, Spiritualized, The Black Angels, Spacemen 3 - were just as refracted from the worldview of the trio. Martyr Privates is dipped liberally in the shoegaze psych mould, but it isn't a part of such wide-ranging genres either. As elegantly wasted as 'Rope & Tarp' is, this is a Hawes original, not a Pierce cast off; as much as 'Somebody's Head' lurks in the shadows of the Passover of The Black Angels, they aren't squatting at the foot of the table scrounging for scraps. There is a otherworldly vibrancy and dour desperation that always stands at loggerheads within the band - the engine forcing the machine forward yet refusing to make allegiances easy. It won't be the best album of the year; it may not even make the list. But it is the best Martyr Privates album of 2014, which actually says a hell of a lot.

Martyr Privates - You Can't Stop Progress from BSR on Vimeo.

Martyr Privates is out through Bedroom Suck and Fire Records - grab it here and here respectively.

Two Pieces Of Carsick Cars

I never thought I would see Carsick Cars. The idea of a Chinese no-wave inflicted guitar rock band even existing seemed unfathomable – but to see them hit the stage at Woodland back in 2012 felt like a heady hallucination. A true caterwaul, but one that felt imbued with real, honest and earned anguish. I hope to see them play again.

And if they continue to produce albums the calibre of 3, I reckon there's a hot chance that I will. It's been five years in the making, and the shift in sonic aesthetics is palpable. There is a stronger jamming vibe to these songs, and whilst the Western musical appropriation has always been evident in their abject love of Sonic Youth, 3 is littered with much further-reaching touchstones. I felt like 'Wei Cheng' was a mix of The Kinks and The Clean, all sunny, ebullient and crisp in execution (unbeknownst to me, The Clean's Hamish Kilgour actually produces this record alongside Peter Kember - yep, Sonic Boom). 'Fifteen Minutes Older' sounds crafted for Doug Martsch's inner ear only, so effortless is the tightly wound yet effervescent guitar pop carved out here. 'The Best VPN So Far' was pummelling in the engine room, the drums rolling forth like a harbinger of giants of yore, whilst the anguished growl of the guitars were of the netherworld - yet all was evocative of something positive in nature, regardless if experienced through headphones, stereo speakers or in a stadium. It's the pop strains that are stronger; the motorik seam richer; the psych permutations more striking. This album deserves to be heard by EVERYONE.


But that isn't enough - Carsick Cars just finished a Stateside tour with Minneapolis' psych-drone outfit Flavor Crystals (whose own newly released album is eerily called Three), and have a split blood-red 7" to stand as a marker of their time together. It was crafted for Record Store Day, but is now available to all (both releases are available here in Australia thanks to the inimitable Tenzenmen and Geijing Records). The Chinese trios contribution is 'Yoko' and is a perfect slice of rollicking guitar pop, the drums and organ effects driving the song at a frantic pace - Guided By Voices in hi fi. Flavor Crystals' effort is 'Mirror In My Mind', a much more wound-down, stargazed effort - the band has also recently toured with Brian Jonestown Massacre, so that gives you an idea into what psych realm we are drifting into. It's a great piece of Krautrock-inflicted glide, but the effervescent strength of 'Yoko' undercuts it somewhat (although if you dig Spacemen 3 - which I do a lot - you could take the split from the other side of the fence too...) Its still a must have though - both tracks a perfect exemplar of their oeuvre.


You can buy both releases here and here.

Strangely Transfixed By Royal Baths (Updated)

I'm still not wholeheartedly convinced that I like Royal Baths. I mean, the Brooklyn-via-San Francisco band tick the right boxes - dark, brooding, garage based tendencies, drone tinged rock, a love of Spacemen 3... Yet I can't quite get them. Whether it's because I think/thought they're style over substance, or that they are/were a little over-hyped, I'm not sure. I wasn't enamoured with their debut Litanies (on Woodsist), but I listened to it quite a bit anyway. Weird.

I'm equally flummoxed by how much I'm enjoying them right now. I find their songs to be fairly insidious in how they squirrel under my skin without my notice or permission. It kinda hurts my head, because I can't put my finger on it, yet there it is, on repeat, making me happy and maudlin at the same time. Their new album, Better Luck Next Life, is coming out through Kanine next week, and it will be interesting if there is a similar sensation to the first. Likewise, I'll keep you posted as to whether it bewitches me the way the first one did, or if I genuinely dig it (or genuinely loathe it - nothing is off the table here...).

UPDATE - Royal Baths will be playing in Brisbane! Yep, they have lined up Woodland for Thursday March 29. I think it's time I settled my love/hate stance once and for all...

Royal Baths - Black Sheep
Royal Baths - Darling Divine

Mesozoic Laurels

Photo courtesy of Sangye Christianson

A few months ago, Texan psych legends The Black Angels toured Australia. I went to the Brisbane show at the Hi Fi Bar. It was the third time I had seen them, and the show was notable for three reasons - The Angels' killer set (as per usual), Brian Jonestown Massacre's Joel Gion's abysmal DJ "set", and the incredibly loud shoegaze proffered by Sydney act The Laurels.

The quartet have a six-track EP out called Mesozoic that isn't overly new in terms of its shoegaze aesthetics, but what it does it does bloody well. Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, even newer exponents such as Beaches and A Place To Bury Strangers (both of which they have toured with) - it's all there in spades. Shit, Swervedriver's architect Adam Franklin is a devotee! But not only is it good, it such an awesome punch, a miasma of visceral noise that permeates the tracks that excites. This is how shoegaze ought to be played.

The Laurels were just in Brisbane, supporting Seekae, but you won't have to wait long for a return tour de force. They will be here as part of next week's live music and conference extravaganza Big Sound (Sept 7-9).

The Laurels - Black Cathedral

SCUM Splits And Multiplies...

There really is no stopping 'Amber Hands', is there? The track by London upstarts S.C.U.M. has been remixed to the shithouse, but that hasn't stopped a couple more rearing their heads. Luckily for everyone, the people responsibile for this decadence are none other than New York psych electronica duo Silver Apples and uber producer/ex Spaceman 3/Spectrum dude Sonic Boom. They're pretty great - but seriously, let's get some new blood hey? The album is coming out soon (via Mute Records) - let's hear a new cut! (That's me pleading, not actually showcasing a new song...sorry.) Or you can see them at ATP's Ill Be Your Mirror... Or Field Day... Or whatever.

S.C.U.M - Amber Hands (Silver Apples Remix) by Mute UK

S.C.U.M - Amber Hands (Sonic Boom Remix) by Mute UK

Say Farewell To Psychological Disorder - Through Dream

I once again have to apologise. Andrea Drongoski, Brian Winters, I am sorry. I received the EP for your band Folie Adieu about two months ago - the first such release I got since moving back to Australia - and because I was still moving in and such it has filtered down into the depths that is my musical listening pile.

Well, today I make amends! This self-titled EP by the Wichita duo contains four slices of languid shoegaze pop, as ambient as it is awash with sonic sheen. The influences of the likes of Spacemen 3 and Slowdive, even Jefferson Airplane. Its beautiful in its simplicity, and washes over you in such a fashion that its criminal that there are only four tracks on offer here. I certainly hope we hear more in the future - and I promise to be more punctual with my replies!

folie adieu is out now and can be bought here.

folie adieu - Sacrificial Anode

folie adieu - Ghost Dance

White Noise Sound Head For Space - And The Windmill

Im always filled with trepidation whenever a new band is given glowing accolades by the likes of Q magazine and Artrocker. These once-biblical musical tomes are now often behind the times, showcasing acts that fail to be anything more than pale imitations of greater bands of yore. Or are just plain shit. So Im happy to say that White Noise Sound live up to the hype, which I should have guessed seeing as their debut self titled album was produced by Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3 and Cian from Super Furry Animals. The sound is so steeped in My Bloody Valentine/Jesus and Mary Chain/Spacemen 3 musical tropes that its hard not to think of those bands' seminal masterpieces, especially Spacemen 3's output. (NB - its eerie to think that only a week ago I was listening to Play With Fire with renewed vigour, just for this release to come across my desk). White Noise Sound are very accomplished at tiptoeing along the tightrope of aggressive distorted white noise and ethereal dreamlike psychedelics, therefore marking themselves at the forefront of the true shoegaze acolytes.

You can check them out yourselves tonight at the Brixton Windmill, before they head off to spend February touring France and Belgium. And as White Noise Sound have honed their live stage chops supporting the likes of Spectrum, The Warlocks and Super Furry Animals of recent times, this is a prime opportunity to see what will in all probability be an awe-inspiring set up as close as possible - dont miss out.

White Noise Sound - Sunset

White Noise Sound - Fires In The Still Sea

Can't See The Psych For The Trees

Swan Fungus are hitting home runs all over the place musically this week. Yesterday was Yume Bitsu - today is Woodsman. Lefse Records (they of class acts such as Keepaway, A Grave With No Name, and Neon Indian) have just released EP Mystery Tapes to pave the way for their upcoming LP. There is enough mingling of kraut, motorik, space-psych jamming and shoegaze aesthetics in their sound to shake a hundred sticks at, and all with the relative lack of vocals. They have been compared to the likes of Spiritualized and Spacemen 3 - I think the Denver based Woodsman are much ballsier than all that. To make up your own mind, have a sample below. While you're at it, chase down their previous LP Collages - its pretty damned good. These guys are definitely ones to watch...

Woodsman - No Drone

Woodsman - Spirit Stone

When a hater becomes a fan

You might notice that Paul put up a post near the inception of Sonic Masala about Woven Bones, the Austin, Texas trio/duo (they are yet to settle on a steady drummer) that thrash out garage psych in all its inherent ugly beauty.  And I wasn’t impressed. Which surprised Paul, seeing as proper growling psych rock is a mainstay on my musical palette.  However, the track ‘If You're Gold, I'm Gone’ just didn’t turn me on.  It sounded like so many other bands that were raping the scuzzed out lo-fi/no-fi sound. So I quickly discarded them.

Fast forward to May, a few months has gone by, and I am a convert.  You see, that track was not indicative of what Woven Bones are capable of. Their music is lean, grizzled, flea bitten and more than a little pissed off.  There are sonic meanderings that emulate Spacemen 3, Jesus and Mary Chain and their ilk – but for the most part we are talking precise slabs of wails, squalls, snarls and drones, all cobbled together to make a dirty quasi pop song.

Don’t believe me? Fine. I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I haven’t had my forearm twisted in a vicious Chinese burn by the band’s manager, or been given the waterboard treatment by Paul. I just chanced upon their debut album In and Out and Back Again. It is a taut record of dirty, distorted bliss. It is so concise that it pulls up at just on half an hour, and there was no way I was leaving the room until I had another listen. And another. It was that good.

There is nothing better than being born again; to see the light; to be a fully fledged convert. Onward Woven Bones soldiers!

And whilst there aren’t any registered dates for Woven

Bones to appear here in the UK, Id warrant that a visit will be a high priority before the year is out – and I for one will be in the front row. Listen to single If It Feels Alright and belter Creepy Bone, buy the album, and join the brigade.

Woven Bones - If It Feels Alright
Woven Bones - Creepy Bone