PREMIERE - 'Bali Hai', a New Track From The Austerity Program Pre-Project Polonium

NB - this post, like the next seven over the next couple days - were all written last week, but a Blogspot fuck-up has kept them hidden away - until now. But it seems fitting that I launch this premiere on Easter Sunday - it's like setting Buzz the Bunny on fire on his birthday. Bon appetit.

One of my all-time favourite EPs - nay, releases - has been Backsliders & Apostates Will Burn by New York two-piece The Austerity Program. It probably isn't even their best effort to date - 2014's Beyond Calculation was delightfully brutal - but the way in which this four-track behemoth grabbed me by the throat and never let go - it was electrifying, a sensation that doesn't dissipate the more I listen to it.

Now the duo are still in a form of hiatus (well, have sequestered themselves into the bowels of the earth). So in lieu of a new album, it is Sonic Masala's absolute pleasure to be airing for the first time 'Bali Hai', a furious cut from the guys' pre-Austerity project, Polonium. How is this new? Simple really - while writing their new record, the duo went back to the original recordings, some ten years ago, and re-recorded them. In the band's words, Polonium was an idea to be a not serious metal band, then got serious, then not serious again. The vocal howls, the double bass drum attacks, the fucked-up time signatures that have become AP staples, started fermenting and congealing in these moments. And the result is ten track behemoth Seraphim, out next month, cross-referencing Bolt Thrower thrashings, Big Business bombast and early Melvins minimalism with seething heat and ground-level anguish - Big Black with busted balls, then. It was originally written by kids in isolation, desperately creating sounds that they themselves couldn't access - now recorded with the brutality and finesse of musicians 20 years their senior (though not necessarily wiser). Seraphim sounds out on paper like a curio, a document of an event that only two people witnessed. Seraphim plays out like a crossroads purging, an aural snapshot of souls being sold, contracts irrevocably signed in blood, shit and tears of laughter. 'Bali Hai' signs off the record and is typically frenetic and wild (and most like AP) - and seeing as it's also the title of a recent Better Call Saul episode, a show whose character arc is foretold (the guy goes to the dark side, regardless of his good intentions) and yet we revel in Saul's struggle with the light and dark parts of his psyche, in both humorous and violent measures - it seems bizarrely apt. Except with Polonium, they turn into The Austerity Program, which is better news for us all. Buy Seraphim here.

Tinkerbelles Have Fine Asses

Chicago bastards Tinkerbelles have put together a belter of a 7" in Fine Asses. The bass on 'When Puppies Cry' alone is incredibly - reminds me of a parallel universe where The Austerity Program actually became Japandroids, with some of the members of Parquet Courts filling in the gaps. The duo produce a maelstrom of heavy noise-pop madness that doesn't take itself seriously at all - tearing down the walls while talking politely to the neighbours, promising them that the mayhem won't happen again. And they are so good that the neighbours lap it up, knowing they are full of shit but how can you stay mad at these guys? They chant while eating tacos - and it makes it onto the vinyl. It's far too short, yet it will fuel a night of degradation that will last the ages, chanting "I gotta go" into oblivion. That's it - these guys are my new best friends.

Fine Asses is out now through Teepeespeak Records - get it here.

This Austerity Program Is Calculated Brilliance

I don't remember exactly the moment I "discovered" New York noisy duo The Austerity Program - but it was probably around the time I was heavily into listening to Hydra Head records and in particular Helms Alee's Night Terror. if you haven't listened to TAP's seminal 2010 EP Backsliders & Apostates Must Burn, do yourself a favour and DO IT RIGHT NOW. Don't even read the rest of this post. Just do that - NOW (and if you live in Brisbane, there is definitely a copy of it in Tym Guitars - I put it on the shelf especially yesterday).


It's taken a bunch of years for these warped brothers in nascent narcissism and devilish grins to bring us a new release. They scurried from the embers of Hydra Head Records and formed their own label, Controlled Burn (along with fellow brothers Nonagon, whose own The Last Hydronaut LP was their first release - and we fucking loved it). But we FINALLY have Beyond Calculation - and it's everything I hoped for and more. With one guitar, one bass, one vocal and one pissed off drum machine (how else can it cope with such brutality? The machines seethe too...), this band flays the outliers of society, laying their situations bare and brandishes the remains with maniacal glee, jamming it down the throats of sympathisers and non-believers both.


Steve Albini's abrasive outfits will come to mind here, but there is something more inherently comical, garish and nightmarish about Beyond Calculation that he and his hoary brethren could never broach. Yes, each song is calibrated and refined to such a brutal dexterous distillation that they cut through the thickest of red tape and indifferent hides; yes, the impassioned cynical howl of Justin Foley turns from playful to destructive in a heartbeat (or heart attack). They can be tightly coiled mechanical beasts of burden; lumbering colossi of brutal metal dirge; intricate triangulations of technique, wit and excess. Overall, though, The Austerity Program is shining the magnifying glass on the 21st century with furious intent - and in most cases, the insects under scrutiny is us.

Pick up Beyond Calculation here - it's a must.

Those Idiots Are Dead

 

It often surprises me when I love something heavy. Not because I'm a poppy kinda guy, but usually because I'll have spent half the day listening to some guitar pop band, and then I'll hear something that is the polar opposite of what I've been enjoying and a perverse shiver of excitement runs down my spine. Today, that was Idiots, Melbourne metal miscreants Dead’s new album. Friends of mine, No Anchor, told me about this last year, yet I never really got around to listening to it. Even now, with it blaring out of the speakers, it attacks my brains with rusted skewers, my eyes feel raw, my teeth ache. Yet this kind of visceral dirge is electrifying. Plus, Dead are fucking funny. In most ways that’s the best thing – bands like Part Chimp, Melvins, The Austerity Program, Big Business – they don’t take themselves seriously at all, which is why their music rules. They play because they fucking love making a racket, without wanting to get tied down in the histrionics of being “metal”. The fact they are a duo and craft such a brutal sledgehammer of primitive noise makes it so much better also. How do they do it? Without a guitar? No Anchor should know – but they now have three members, so a double bass assault – yet Dead rivals them in intensity and annihilation.

A favourite? Hard to say. The slight, wraith-like opening before the explosion of entrails in ‘The Carcass Is Dry’ is sneaky, and all the more brutal because of it; ‘Couldn’t Keep His Mouth Shut’ is frenetic brute strength, a kick to the ribs and pliers to the teeth; ‘Up’ crawls along like an undead, unrelenting in its base desires, before bursting forth in a sudden rush of rage and wanton fury. ‘Murder Hollow’ is a freakshow, an ominous cauldron of pent-up fears and anxieties that coalesce into much darker emotions. ‘Bed Bugs’ is fast paced awesomeness, a rippling masterclass of musicianship that elevates itself above the sludge, propelling headfirst into the violence of ‘Inherit The Wind’, just before submerging again in the menacing yet restrained closer ‘Lego Men’.

This noise rock is what the world needs – a cleansing of the skin, one eradicated reality TV show and Madden brother at a time.

 

You can get Idiots from Melbourne label WeEmptyRooms here, either in black or white vinyl. There is a limited edition version too - it's a 180 Gram LP, a 7 colour screen printed insert on archival paper hand made by the band and all sold for way less than it is "worth" labour wise.

Dead - Couldn't Keep His Mouth Shut
Dead - Bed Bugs

Vale Hydra Head

Sometimes it's incredibly hard to wake up in the morning. At others you wish you hadn't. Today is the latter, because although I have so much work on, plus covering Big Sound Live tonight (more on that later), I felt pretty good about getting up early to have a long shower - until I cranked on the computer and found the following message from Aaron Turner, founder of Hydra Head Records.

"Hydra Head Records has never been a smooth-running operation. We've spent the majority of our existence excitedly scrambling from one thing to the next, taking on more than we could ever possibly hope to achieve, and never quite finding solid footing in the midst of our self-induced whirlwind of chaos. Though not every second of doing this label has been enjoyable, it has been a very rewarding and meaningful project for me, and I hope for many of the other lives to which it has been directly connected. The fact that it has lasted close to two decades at this point is astonishing, and much has changed during that time - the lives of those directly involved with running the label, the bands and artists we've worked with, and the nature of the music industry itself. Though many of these changes have been positive, or at least illuminating, the impact of our history and current industry circumstances are culminating into a slow and somewhat painful death for the label. It certainly isn't an entirely unforeseen event, but we didn't think it would come quite so abruptly, or (perhaps naively) ever.

The decision to pull the plug has not been an easy one, and in some ways is a not a choice at all. The simple fact of the matter is we've been running on empty for a while now and cannot afford to keep our doors open for much longer. Years of imbalance between creative ideals and financial realities, personal problems amongst the label operators, an unwillingness to compromise our aesthetic standards, a tendency towards releasing challenging (i.e. unmarketable) artists, and the steady decline of the music industry in general, are amongst the chief reasons for our inability to continue. It is a harsh but undeniable reality, and one which we are attempting to confront with as much integrity and grace as is afforded by the circumstances.

For the short term we will continue to operate as we have been, effecting our first step into shutdown this December, at which point we are cutting off new releases from the label. Thereafter, we will be remain operational only in the interest of maintaining our back catalog, with the ultimate aim of repaying our rather sizable debts. Grim though this prospect is, in the midst of it all I still feel an extreme gratitude for everything that has happened and for all the wonderful people with which we've been involved over the years. We've been lucky enough to work with some of the most unique and provocative artists of the last two decades, many of which have made indelible impressions in the underground, and by extension the larger world of music in general. We've also been fortunate to have had the support of a small but loyal following, who've constituted the very essence of our life force. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and love to each and every person who contributed to making this label what it is - all the artists who entrusted us as the custodians of their work, all the people that bought or listened to our releases, and all the people who performed the various label duties at various offices (and houses) across the continent.

...and this brings us to the present moment, where in all honesty we are in need of financial assistance from anyone and everyone who's willing to throw us a rope. Though it is highly unlikely we'll be able to resuscitate the label, we do wish to follow through on the final round of releases to which we're committed and pay off our debts to our artists and manufacturers. In order to do this we are initiating a massive sell-off of everything we can dig up and produce for the next 6-12 months. This will include discounted bundles of CDs/LPs/posters/etc, represses of certain titles for which we still have parts, test pressings, and whatever worthwhile items we can pull together. For anyone that is able and willing to fund our funereal arrangements please visit our direct mailorder or webstore and pick up whatever you can. Any and all support is greatly appreciated by our remaining team, and will be put to the best use possible.

There is no way to sum up nearly 20 years of incredibly important music, experiences, and evolution other than to say a big heart felt "thank you", and that we hope this closing will provide an opening into other even more positive and rewarding experiences for all of us and all of you who have been a part of our shared experience. For now we bid you all a very fond farewell...."

The LA-based Hydra Head label have been a brilliant and influential label for many noise and metal acts, finding and/or housing and/or supporting the likes of Jesu, Boris, Melvins, Big Business, Harvey Milk, Envy, Isis, Pelican, Oxbow, Torche, Prurient, The Austerity Program, Helms Alee and Old Man Gloom, just to name a few. This is mighty sad news indeed. Over the next 6 to 12 months, as stated above, they will be selling off all their wares, so make sure you get in there, buy some of the best shit out there and support Aaron and co. They will be sorely missed.

Austerity...With An Air of Abject Brutality

As I mentioned about a month ago, Torche are releasing their new LP, Songs For Singles, through Hydra Head Records. Since then all I have done is immerse myself in HH's catalogue of amazing loud aggressive releases - Helms Alee's Night Terror being the one of note in the past fortnight. Whilst over there I picked up a free sampler called Phoning It In - go on, you go do it too! And apart from reiterating why my mate from Oz Jason thinks Pyramids With Nadja's release from the beginning of the year is killer, it also brought to my frontal lobe The Austerity Program.

This two piece deal in dark aggressive attacks of noise sustained by a staccato drum machine. Imagine if you will that Nine Inch Nails had been formed by Steve Albini. Their album of '08 Black Madonna is a dark minor masterpiece, and the strength of that drawn out affair is honed to even stronger levels on new EP Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn.

I fucking love this band.

I know that sentence (either verbatim or in a paraphrased form) gets bandied around here at SM - mostly by me - but you may notice that I never stand down from these notions. They are not kneejerk reactions. Anyway, regardless of the past, The Austerity Program is a different beast - it sounds like it was formed from Satan's loins with me expressly in mind. Think new musical acquisition Helms Alee, some Shellac, a sprinkle of industrial noise a la Nine Inch Nails, a smidgen of Minutemen, and a healthy dose of nihilism, and the brutally seductive elixir is complete. This EP is angry, funny, stark, serrated, and oh so addictive.

The Austerity Program - Song 27