Clever Kewdi Nightmares

Brisbane noisy nihilists Clever burst out of the gutter a couple years ago, wiping the floor with blood-and-sweat-stained alacrity. They started littering stages in 2014, after I had left, and I quickly lined them up to last year's Sonic Masala Fest - an amazing set, one of my favourites across the two festivals thus far. Their visceral gurning and flailing felt brutal and new, at least in these parts - aside from the dour disintegration of Kitchens Floor and gnashed madness of Sewers, this is the kind of sound more accustomed to the diseased denizens of Melbourne mainstays like Cuntz, Mutton and others that spill from the feedtime wellspring. But it shouldn't be a surprise that such arced anarchy was born out of the melding of dark-matter minds from members Per Purpose, Psy Ants and The Wrong Man. And now they have locked horns with Homeless Records (Cuntz, Spray Paint, Yes I'm Leaving) for their first LP Kewdi Udi. First cut 'Your Eyesore's Sweat' may not be the deepest, but it is infected with acrid angularity and fevered spit. Pre-order this denigrated gem here - first 100 LPs are piss-yellow, of course they are.

Losing My Pale Head

As if I wasn't going to love the fuck out of Headless, the new (and wholly unexpected) album from Pale Heads, the hastily assembled Melbourne super/uber/shitgroup. Featuring Batpissers, Nation Bluers, Harmonisers, Droners, and a Pair, Pale Heads come together as a rusted barrel mess, sloshing their wrecked memories, battered bodies, and twisted limbs into one destructive black mass that rides the pendulum between these guys' past influences (blue collar nihilism, violent drunk diatribes, bucolic flannel punk, frenetic numbskull noise), the filaments drawn into a swirling abyss of madness and mayhem.

From the brilliantly explosive (and slightly unhinged) 'Thomy Cut Off A Head' Headless careens off all of the walls - the dour-with-weird-effects 'Pale Head', the charged throbbing rock of 'I Can't Lose You', the caterwauling black hole and SY instrument annihilating of 'Milk Eyes', the nobrain attack of 'Transitioning Out' with the stumbling moments of tooth-nerve-ending bloodcurdling screams of madness masquerading as lucidity; the singalong skree of 'Devotion', the melancholy outro to 'Homeless'; the roughhousing spit-drenched outlier 'Small Town Casualty'; the twisted out of shape bent sonics and wrenched emotions of 'Power & Privilege'; the inherent vitriol spewed forth out of 'The Pits'; the charged groove and growl of 'Chrome'; the gleeful destruction and Morricone twang undercurrents of 'Accountancy Is Hard' (a great track this one); and the closing title track, which feels the closest to a true amalgam of the band members' former selves (and the last few seconds of banter IS the band).

There isn't much cohesion amongst the songs per se, but seeing as the band played together five times before slamming these down on tape at The Tote is a huge reason why Headless remains so loose. But it is a badge of honour too - these guys have bashed out songs that are jammed, crushed, gutted and burnt into their contorted, blackened angularities, and are all the more cathartic for it. For something so instinctual and instantaneous to be so brutally accomplished (albeit streamlined and battered) is bloody good. Imagine what the boys will be like when in each other's faces for a little while longer. There might be more scabs and scratches on those pale heads, but the ferocity and noisy abandon could be monumental. Headless is out now through Poison City Records on blue, red or black vinyl - get in.

Pale Heads launch the album this Saturday in Melbourne at the Gasometer with excellent support from the likes of Spinning Rooms, Steve Miller Band and Slab Knackers (an Eddy Current Suppression Ring "side" project), and play two shows in Sydney the following weekend. I'm sure there are more shows to follow (Brisbane, watch out). 

EXCLUSIVE STREAM - Worm Crown's Debut LP Trauma

Super excited to open up the week, and June (winter in Australia, summer here in Europe), with an exclusive listen to the debut album from Melbourne scuzzrats Worm Crown. Ever since bassist Andrew contacted me about getting shows in Brisbane a couple years ago, I've been keeping a close eye on these guys. The tenaciousness and feverish desperation that accompanies these bursts of fetid noise are what makes Worm Crown a frightening prospect - from Dasyi's eye-rolling trance and spit-flecked yowls, Seb's sinew-stretching stints behind the kit, Andrew yoyoing between contempt and glee, a schizophrenic metronome. A show in Melbourne last year saw the trio become a duo due to an illness with Seb, and the decrepit drum machine that took his place called it quits a few songs in. Katie (Deep Heat/Shaking Hell) gamely stepped in and took the show in a new direction, but the nihilistic effort that oozed forth in those first songs was the kind of gritty anguish and ambiguous anger that I simply cannot get enough of.

Trauma, recorded by Simon Cotter at Headgap Studios, is a record that extends these notions, tempering the serration with moments of measured madness. Kicking off with fit-inducing drumbeat, bleeding in feedback squall and then a thick, dirty bassline, Dasci's vocals suitable stripped from his oesophagus in unkempt rage, 'No Glamour' is quintessential Worm Crown. (I have always found the word 'baby' said in anger, anguish or pain is hilarious, for whatever reason - as is the case here). 'Organism' steps the fever up a notch, and I felt transported out of the inner suburbs of Melbourne and in the winter climes of Berlin - this isn't post punk, but there is a seasonal freeze embedded within here, the night and the desperation, that European landscapes can easily evoke. 'Pacific Drift' is more sinuous in its fever; 'Limbless' continues this downward spiral. 'Hollow' shows the slow build of insanity before the catastrophic meltdown, which occupies half the song. Which sees a turning point in the record - 'Reliever Deceiver' is a slowly coiled boiler, the inexorable fall from grace that lingers in the blood; 'Retire' is a punk relic, Dasci barking syllables, yet it is all relatively muted, the bass strangely at the forefront, almost poppy in its addictiveness. 'Nine' (the eighth track here) is a lengthy number that barely shifts from its unkempt intensity, a six minute exercise in pressurised endurance. 'Sunlight' pricks this bubble, the more frenetic unleashing of anguish a welcome return. 'Teen Life' somehow simultaneously plods through a sea of evisceration and does it in under two minutes - the fury unbridled yet also maintained. 'Ritual' picks up the pace with the intensity before the devastating title track ties things up in a bloody bow.



Bands like Yes I'm Leaving and Sour Cream from Sydney and God Bows to Math in Auckland are probably the closest contemporaneous comparisons to be made to these guys, but Worm Crown will stick out like a diseased thumb no matter how many of their peers' bodies you pile them under. Trauma is exactly that - an exercise in tension, anxiety and desperation - but on that you come out of grinning fearlessly, cracked teeth and bloodied mouth, no longer of sound mind, and proud never to turn back.

Worm Crown launch Trauma Saturday June 6 alongside The Kremlings, Plyers and Cosmic Kahuna at Yah Yah's.

Beast Singing, Flood Dancing

Wollongong rabble rousers Beast & Flood came across my radar late last year, their ramshackle and angular take on indie rock striking a chord. They supported Roku Music when they played at Blackwire Records on their national tour (also joined by the legendary Sounds Like Sunset) and really impressed. They are more akin to another of the Sonic Masala stable, Tape/Off, in their propensity to infuse sunshine and stupidity into serrated off-kilter guitar pop shenanigans, a noisy melange of desperation and elation. Other bands such as Adelaide's Sincerely, Grizzly mine these Pavement-via-woodchipper depths, and I wish there were plenty more.

'All Singing, All Dancing' is the most atonal yet sonorous I've heard the trio on record, and to balance such a disparate act is a hard task. OK, so there were some bands in the late 90s/early 00s in Australia that did similar tricks - but if you are mentioning names such as Gaslight Radio or Bluebottle Kiss, that is an inherently great comparison to make. The toy-effect underlay reminds me of the former; the unhinged march through the early stages of the latter. All up, 'All Singing, All Dancing' makes me happy to yell out the window of my south London flat in the waning hours of oncoming winter at bewildered pedestrians who aren't accustomed to any outside interaction other than jostling, dog-eat-dog arseholery (and the more-than-occasional eccentric) - so all boxes have been ticked in bold red.



The trio support the excellent Yes I'm Leaving on their Slow Release tour at the Imperial Hotel in Sydney 24th October - get yourselves along to that.

Video Vacuum - Yes I'm Leaving, Mesa Cosa, Cobwebbs, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, USA Nails

I don't know about you, but today is a drag. Let's punch through the walls with some raucous noise coupled with stupid visuals!

Yes I'm Leaving have inexplicably built up a true head of steam with the incumbent launch of 3rd LP Slow Release. I'm not saying it is unwarranted - far from it; I have maintained everywhere, including this here blog, that the Sydney trio are one of the best live acts in Australia and have been for the past couple years. But just seeing these guys in reviews and post on US music sites has been a bit of a weird notion - I mean, they still are lucky to pull ten punters to shows in their hometown! Well people better start taking notice, because they are brilliant. Aren't sold? If the nightmare/hilarity of 'Fear' doesn't hook you, you are probably dead (at least to me).

Mesa Cosa is another band that are slaying the stages across Australia, although their brand of rock is certainly more party friendly. The Melbourne garage wild boys have launched into the zombie zeitgeist with latest track 'Creepy' - well, hordes of pantyhose-wearing acolytes anyway. It's stupid and awesome in equal measure, and the bulk of noise that comes out of  the backend of this band is truly felt here. 

It always feels like self-promotion nowadays when I talk about a band that has released material through Sonic Masala Records - but things need to be seen (and heard) to be believed with Brisbane's Cobwebbs. Having just released their second album WORLD WIDE WEBBS through our label (on 12" orange vinyl no less, and now at much more affordable digital prices), the dudes have just come away from a support slot with Iceage and a Sydney show alongside another group that should be on everyone's radar at the moment, Exek. Here is the decidedly batshit crazy video for second single 'Easy', filled with everything that makes Cobwebbs tick - airplane interiors, fast cars, Dubai, models, and bad CGI, amongst other snatch grabs of brain-frying ephemera. The world we live in, eh?

Who wants some 60s B-movie 3D? King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have you covered. The latest clip for new track 'Cellophane' has a bored night in front of the idiot box transformed by psychedelic robed hippy red-blue-yellow madness - there's fuzzy lines! There's gold chains! There's flying! The last couple of seconds are amazing too. A great all round trip.

I'm  finishing with USA Nails because, well, this band just slipped into my slipstream this morning. 'Sometimes I'd Rather See It All' has a clip that feeds into its title, which is always an added bonus. The strobes, the sliding blood, the interfered-with facial close-ups - it's all disconcerting. The London band (really) play out like a more crystallised A Place To Bury Strangers - something I am extremely excited about. Hopefully you are too.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!

Zeahorse Pooling Their Brutal Strengths

I have to say that the success of a couple of my favourite Sydney bands recently have really surprised me. First seeing Yes I'm Leaving on Stereogum, now Zeahorse embarking on their US tour. Not that either of these bands don't deserve it - they are two of the heaviest, brutal and rad bands in Australia - but they have been bands slaving away in an environment that has never seemed to suit them. But then again, with the rise of likeminded creeps like Narrow Lands, Tanned Christ and Sour Cream in the city, the world is becoming a much more accepting place for festering scuzz. Now we see Zeahorse are releasing their Pools EP Stateside too (through Dine Alone Records). Zeahorse's sound is a bit easier to palate I suspect - their hardened riffs are given a shoegaze wash, softening the blows in just the right way - but a song like 'Pool' still maintains the power - it's a great song. And then 'Career' - well, that just rips in and doesn't really let up.





Zeahorse will be doing the US rounds in October. Good luck lads.

The Food Court Keeps You Young

Sydney's Food Court continue to impress. I dug their Smile At Your Shoes EP, and off the strength of it I convinced Tape/Off to include them on their album tour bill back in June. They stand a little apart from most of their Sydney brethren - mainly because their brand of fun involves slack jawed grins, cars with the windows down and no a/c, head banging good times. Well, actually that could fit with much of what Straight Arrows do - but seeing as they are one of the most fun live bands currently on this wide brown land, it's a great feeling to know they have support. And whaddaya know - SA's Owen Penglis recorded the sucker! And Mikey Young (*trademark*) mastering to boot. You can't get more Aussie garage rock than that. Except they're named Food Court, so... maybe more Aussie Hungry Jack's rock. You can catch em play alongside Yes I'm Leaving and Black Zeros at the Sly Fox in Sydney on September 4 before they officially launch the single on September 20. An EP is in the works. Tasty.

No One Is Leaving Here Homeless

There is something going on in Sydney. Something very different to what the harbourside restaurants, beaches and opera houses would have you believe. There is something soaking up through the drains, rising through the damp. And it’s asking questions. What about the rest of us? The ones who don’t get a run in your elevators and views and corner offices?

Yes I’m Leaving are at the forefront of it. The forefront of a disaffected noise that pummels and pummels at the wrought iron bars of old Sydney. Forget your interior design anxieties and fall back into your foam mattress; this is a world away from the innocuous pleasantries of the latest inner city wine bar. It’s stained and loud and open to everyone.


Pre-order your copy of Slow Release from Homeless Records to get one of the hundred Grey Splatter versions. Because if ‘One’ is anything to go by, Grey Splatter is the colour this should be. They are honestly one of the best bands in Australia.

Brendan Masala's Albums Of 2013 (Top Ten, Hobourable Mention, and Another Fifteen Because Im Fickle)

Happy New Year! Well I guess this list is kinda redundant now, it being 2014 and all. But I had the list kinda written up, so it may as well be here. I won't bother with links and such - you can do that on your own - but rest assured, we have written about these albums, and you can hunt them down quite easily...

1. Bed Wettin' Bad Boys - Ready For Boredom

2. Batpiss - Nuclear Winter

3. Michael Beach - Golden Theft

4. The Spinning Rooms - Complicating Things

5. Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

6. James X Boyd & the Boydoids - James X Boyd & the Boydoids/Super Low

7. Pissed Jeans - Honeys

8. Kwaidan - Make All The Hell Of Dark Metal Bright

9. Yes I'm Leaving - Mission Bulb

10. Running - Vaguely Ethnic

Honourable Mention - Ensemble Economique. Brian Pyle's myriad releases were all of a stellar standard this year, and I found it too difficult to settle on just one. You should hunt them all down though - the guy's stretchin the outer limits.

See also - 11. Thee Oh Sees (Floating Coffin); 12. Dollar Bar (Paddington Workers Club); 13. Barn Owl (V); 14. Shocked Minds (Shocked Minds); 15. Violent Soho (Hungry Ghost); 16. Hey Colossus (Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo); 17. Surf City (We Knew It Was Not Going To Be Like This); 18. Ooga Boogas (Ooga Boogas); 19. Bone (For Want For Feeling); 20. Ovlov (AM); 21. Marnie Stern (The Chronicles of Marnia); 22. Cuntz (Solid Mates); 23. Transistors (Is This Anything?); 24. Popstrangers (Antipodes);  25. Wonderfuls (Salty Town)

Eleven from Thirteen

It's pretty hot in Brisbane today. I have no memory of who my secret Santa is anymore. But there's some things I'll never be able to forget about this year (in no particular order and with some of them actually released last year):

Violent Soho - 'In the Aisle'

Violent Soho have killed it this year. There is something behind this that I still can't quite put my finger on. That's a good thing. Plus, I can find no better contender for a nude bike riding anthem.



Parquet Courts - 'Stoned and Starving'

This is the first Parquet Courts track I ever heard. I went straight home and ordered the album on the strength of it. The best feedback of the year. The best solo of the year.



White Walls - 'Transmission'

The White Walls album spent the most time out of any on my player this year. There is a dirge that runs through these gems. The tone at 0:40 here is un-fucking-believably good.



Mogwai - 'Re-murdered'

From most played last year to an early contender for next year already. Brendan told me he listened to this 16 times in a row. I didn't believe him. Then I listened to it. Then I believed him. The I listened to it  fifteen more times. The bass tone at 3:17 could surely be used in place of a defibrillator.



Pop. 1280 - 'Nailhouse'

This Pop. 1280 record is also full of all things good for the soul - especially 'Nailhouse'. I was listening to this on headphones in my lounge room so that my housemates could hear the telly. Too bad for them when the "in a nailhouse" part came along. If I could do this on Karaoke, I would go to Karaoke every night.



Yes I'm Leaving - 'Creepy Man'

The Yes I'm Leaving we put on at the Waiting Room this year was really up there for me. And this song live is a revelation. If you haven't got Mission Bulb, don't worry. Tenzenmen have got your copy (and the Yes I'm Leaving back catalogue) waiting for you.



Cloud Nothings - 'Wasted Days'

Though technically released in 2012 - same with the Whitewalls album, actually... - I only got 'round to listening to this this year. I love bands who aren't afraid to hold a groove for as long as needs to be held.  I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate the 'Wasted days' sentiment either.



Dollar Bar - 'Everyone's Everyone'

Oh, man, talk about feeling good about music in Brisbane this year. These guys are bloody legends who write bloody great pop songs. The album launch at the Beetle Bar was a damn love-in. And rightly so! When do Dollarbar get there plaque on Brunswick street?



Courtney Barnett - 'Avant Gardener'

Another singer who writes bloody good, bloody clever, pop songs. Never have I smiled so much after hearing a song. I fucking hate gardening and now have a legitimate excuse in the medium of song. Hedging on genius.



Batpiss - 'Loose Screws'

Genius again here. Evil Genius. A Bat Pisses on a dude. This band is formed. If there is a necessary connection between animal urine and insanely rad music, here's hoping for further such incidents.



The Spinning Rooms - 'Julia'

The Spinning Rooms at the Waiting Room (and then at Tym's the next day) was the best gig of the year for me. Hands down. Frenetic, pacing, torpid they are really something to behold.


If I've forgotten anything (which I have), I blame the weather. And budget cuts to my brain.

Brutally Populating Narrow Lands

Fresh out of the hellwaters that fork from the fiery rivers of Tenzenmen Records and Octopus Pi comes Sydney band Narrow Lands' Popular Music That Will Live Forever. It may surprise some to introduce the four-piece as such, seeing as their self-titled EP, whilst a decidedly dark affair, was a moody crawler with whiffs of post-punk inebriation; this record is much more bottom-end brutality. Heaviness pervades, the feedback much more condensed and foreboding, and whilst the tongue-in-check acerbic barbs still litter the record, this is more than cajoling the masses into the pit - this is lunging out of the shadows with a sledgehammer stuff. I mean, listen to the doom dirge that opens up awesomely-titled first track 'Triple J Drive Time Hit' - it's disturbing in all the right ways, ratcheting up the tension in a way that listeners instinctively know must burst in an avalanche of throat-tearing vitriol. It's electrifying stuff - you can see why they have shared stages with Yes I'm Leaving, for example - and a welcome addition to the burgeoning pantheons of modern Australian noise rock gems.

You can pre-order Popular Music That Will Live Forever here - it doesn't come out until Nov 20 - hopefully Sonic Masala or someone equally as rad can bring these guys kicking and screaming into the Queensland sunlight soon.

Four Score Ebb And Thrall Of An Alpine Decline

I was sent one of those anonymous Bandcamp emails yesterday, telling me that Shaun over at Tenzenmen Records was releasing yet another album. I still haven't paid lip service to some of the killers that have come through this year (sorry Birdstriking, apologies White+), yet some are frontrunner favourite albums of 2013 (hello Yes I'm Leaving; hi there Bone) so I thought I'd head over and look. It was Disappearance, the third album from Beijing-based band Alpine Decline. But as I scrolled down the side, I saw that there were a glut of albums that Tenzenmen had put out, or were about to put out - and all were from Alpine Decline. Investigation, both aural and journalistic (well as journalistic as I get), was necessary.



Seems that the band released their self-titled debut in 2010 (which comes across like Built To Spill in a near murderous sonic sense of brutality) in LA, where they had formed, then travelled to China and into the Himalayas, before coming back and recording Visualisations later in the same year. It follows a similar pattern to Alpine Decline, yet with a wider expansive of crackle and drone - it was like the trek had started opening a hitherto unknown propensity for languidly and porous drone, albeit still kept in check by an innate drive for melody and conciseness.



Yet something had been awakened, and the band could not sate this creative hunger. In 2011 the duo returned to the studio where they recorded Vizualisations (again helmed by M Geddes - who had helmed productions of Robedoor and Pocahaunted records in the past), and the resultant works, collated into third album Disappearance (the album that brought me on this mystic journey) is decidedly more insular yet kinetic; more warped and yet more focused than their predecessors. The third eye was well and truly alive within these two. A deliberate exercise in hypnosis and concerted, controlled elongation (yet with the inherent melody and groove a cell-level mainstay), the twelve tracks on offer still remained succinct, yet each appeared to contain their own alien technology, their own enveloping worlds. Such strong and clear evolution in such a short timeframe is frightening.



Then the duo disappeared, back to the outskirts of Beijing, for a year. Finally they returned with a fourth album tucked firmly under their grimy arms, and Night of the Long Knives was another transmogrification of Alpine Decline - this time more contemplative, more glazed, more ethereal. There was more of a thousand yard stare here - like returning from self-imposed exile to find the world you left behind rent asunder, nothing left behind, nothing recognisable. There are songs that still echo the very best, maudlin BtS (see 'Sleeping Gas' for example) yet with a gauzy, dystopian hue.


These four albums are still sinking in - yet I think I may have stumbled across a band that is creating albums that I will fall in love with for different reasons; that will seep into my very being; that are, in other words, quintessentially essential listening. And the more that these albums are listened to, and embraced, and revered, the stronger Alpine Decline's id grows - the albums will continue to tumble forth, fully formed and magnificent - and the world will evolve along with them.

Grab all four albums here. Seriously, for the betterment of mankind.

SONIC MASALA PRESENTS - Yes I'm Leaving/Thomas Covenant/Roku Music - TONIGHT!!!

That's right, it's time for another Sonic Masala Presents. At the Waiting Room we have Sydney rabble and one of the best live acts in the country Yes I'm Leaving finally bringing their excellent sophomore record Mission Bulb to your ears, in a set that CANNOT BE MISSED. They are dragging party boys Thomas Covenant up here with them, whilst the other support slot is being locked down by Brisbane shoegaze alchemists (and 2013 Australian Arts Council poster children) Roku Music. As always cover is a tenner, it's Bring Your Own alcoholic beverage/s, and kick off is at 8pm. Double thanks to Jacinta Sutton for the hand-drawn technicolour yawn dog poster! COME!

No Anchoring The Dead

Not so local noisemongers No Anchor (Ian is being all literary-y and full of disdain in Melbourne these days) haven't been overly active in the live sense in 2013 (hence the electricity of their shows that have rolled around - the Sonic Masala show in May, the show they did only last week), but they do have some new wares courtesy of a split 7" they've put out with fellow maniacs DEAD. Perfect marriage this one - two bands blatantly fucking off the guitar and brutalising the bass. So far, so angry. Would you expect anything less? The NA trio feel 'Bogan Ash' is the poppiest thing they've ever done. They aren't reaching for the mascara and microphone headsets (yet), but as far as No Anchor goes, it is a much more straight down the line number. Sorry lads, but whilst this song really rips, it makes DEAD's whorling bloody maelstrom 'Scratching My Arts' look even better. Backhanded compliment? I can keep em comin all day. Its the kind of lurking leering head explosion that I absolutely love; Jem absolutely kills it on drums; my skin is flayed without notice. Well done, lads, well done.


No Anchor have one more show up their sleeve at the end of November at Crowbar. They will have the crazy up-and-comers Clowns in support - they eat Juggalos for breakfast. If you still need your NA fix in any form (and let's face it, who doesn't) Donnie's band Roku Music is supporting the sublime Sydneysiders Yes I'm Leaving this Friday at the Waiting Room - it's another Sonic Masala Presents show, so you should all be there. Finally, Roku Music and Greig (Alex's new band) are the other supports for what could very well be the best show of the year - The Nation Blue and Batpiss, also at Crowbar, on Saturday October 5. I have a wedding that day, so Ill be the dude in the suit. Pete from The Spinning Rooms has promised to spew on me too, so I should be pretty recognisable. No Anchor, in whatever form, rule hard.

Leaving Is Ignorants

One of the best releases of 2013 is undoubtedly Mission Bulb, the second album from Sydney's Yes I'm Leaving (see what we thought of it in more depth here). One of the most unrelenting acts in the country right now, Sonic Masala is blessed to have them gracing a Sonic Masala showcase in September. And to celebrate here is a slice of angular nihilism (who'da thunk it?) from those same sessions, 'Ignorants'. If you aren't excited about the prospect of these guys wiping the walls of the Waiting Room with their spit-flecked fury, you have been lobotomised.

Stellarium (Tenzenmen Update #1)

Having gone through some releases from the stellar Thrill Jockey and the always-intriguing Metal Postcard, this fortnight will be spent looking at some of the 2013 releases from Australia's resident global noise distributor, Tenzenmen Records.

The baby of Shaun Tenzenmen, the label aims to highlight the huge Australasian DIY music scene. Therefore many Asian bands that would otherwise not find a market outside their own regions can now be discovered by their own right. In the past few years I have discovered the likes of God Bows To Math, Yes I'm Leaving, True Radical Miracle, Dear Eloise, Mere Women, Hira Hira, Bare Arms, Hedgehog, Fanzui Xiangfa, Chui Wan, and Carsick Cars, PLUS they support local boys Nikko, Scul Hazzards, Quiet Steps, Make More, Little Shadow...all because of Shaun and his incredibly hard work. So thank you Tenzenmen!

The first Tenzenmen release I'm focusing on is from Singaporean abrasion provocateurs Stellarium. Their self-titled LP bears some resemblance to NY noisemongers A Place To Bury Strangers, albeit with a slighter sense of space - adopting a shoegaze wash alongside hushed vocals, Stellarium ensures their flood of feedback and guitar distortion becomes even more of an assault, both aurally and physically. The four-piece offer their sound up as "earbleedwaxpopsupersonicwhitenoisesoundfuzzkill" - and that's pretty much on the money. MBV by way of early Swans perhaps? Buzzsaw aggression, constant addiction - all very, very good (just not on the eardrums).

Grab Stellarium here - there's only one CD remaining! The digital album is free however, so it's win-win.

Stellarium - Any Day Is Fine
Stellarium - Harbinger

Australian Noise

Finally let's ride this tsunami of Australia sound out with a cataclysmic tremor of noise, starting with ebullience and ending with apocalyptic destruction.

Brisbane's Velociraptor are about to launch into an overseas onslaught that will leave every pundit in their wake feeling sucked dry from over-drinking, over-dancing and over-rejoicing (I have actually heard someone say they "rejoiced" when Velociraptor came on stage...) To get the European hordes well and truly lathered up, they are releasing this cassette through Heart Throb Records. Set out just like a Streetfighter video game - nice. Get your twinkle toes in order, because this twelve-headed beast won't KO you with a flurry of punches, but an overload of cocky swagger. Preorder the cassette here.

Melbourne duo Super Wild Horses have followed up their attention-grabbing debut Fifteen with an even more confident showing in Crosswords. Still showcasing the spiky, effervescent garage rock Amy Franz and Hayley McKee have become renowned for, the album nevertheless takes us to places hitherto unthought of - slower jams, country twangs, boys' germs, and Smokey Robinson. You thought they had arrived before - Crosswords truly heralds their arrival, slightly eschewing the garage they were inadvertently placed in for bigger, comfier, more kick-ass digs. A great live band finally has a truly befitting album to back it up - you can get Crosswords here.

Super Wild Horses - Memphis
Super Wild Horses - West Coast
Super Wild Horses - Alligator

Next up we have the ever evolving instrumental band Making. Initially following in the vein of minimalist angular titans No Disco, Making have added colour and verve to the industrial edges to become an altogether different beast. 'Stay Stil' is the newest example of this evolution - finding a middle ground between the aforementioned band, Whizz-Fizz contortionists Fang Island and the earliest math-rock leanings of Foals before they disappeared into their emo stadium shoes. Making's live shows are incendiary too; make sure you catch them in their volatile element. Listen to the new track below, head here to hear what else they have to offer, and see their version of 'Pascal' that they let loose on revellers at this year's Camp A Low Hum festival in NZ. Amazeballs.

Making - Stay Stil

MAKING / PASCAL / LIVE AT CAMP A LOW HUM 2013 from jackyp on Vimeo.

Back down to Melbourne and some incessantly loud yet drunkenly amenable punk in the form of Bad Vision. Their 112/VISIONS 7" is goddamn killer (you can grab it here), as were the shows they pulled off up in Brisbane late last year. The bassless quartet are carving their way through Europe as we speak, having a blast, and so should you...be (that doesn't sound right, does it?). Suffice to say that this kind of racket is impervious to pain and boredom - it charges on, and leave you with an empty wallet, a sense of wanton abuse and a sloppy grin plastered on your face. Win win.

Bad Vision - 112
Bad Vision - Visions

From the unholy bowels of Wollongong spews forth Bruce!, a four-piece enraptured by beer, weed, souped up cars and rocking out. A heady mix of balls to the wall rock and Josh Homme man love, Bruce! don't cop airs and graces, and will batter such bullshit into the ground with a maniacal quivering tic the only movement on the stony faces, before necking a tallie and screwing your mum. The thing is, you will all laugh about it in the morning. I saw these guys play the Record Store Day show at Tyms Guitars on Saturday - and man, they were fun. Booze very much needed to appreciate this - no dry runs here. Grab Bruce! here for a good time...

Bruce! - Hell Gig
Bruce! - Bottle In A Brown Paper Bag

Getting even dirtier, we head into the demonic depths with Sewers, a diseased squadron of cellar dwellers dishing out acid reflux and refuse, an atonal IV into the core of you're basest instincts. At one time playing every second show, Sewers are being more selective, preferring to slink in the shadows, all the more potent because of it. Their show on Saturday with Living Eyes was as depraved and nihilistic as ever. They've got a few releases out, I only picked up this cassette the other day, and my ear canal developed eczema. Can you smell the human roast? Feedtime.

Sewers - Human Spray
Sewers - Grease My Chain

Dastardly downer improv instrumental misanthropes Die On Planes have a new album called Our Work Matters, and it's free. Yep, all free. You want such brutality as a handout. Such cerebral cleansing. Such follicle annihilation. There is no hatred here - just cold, emotionless being. Feel your fears and anxieties sucked into a black hole at the pit of your even darker soul. Everything will be all right. You are already on the other side. (Seriously though, heavy shit, belting sandpaper noise, good good times).

And to finish this gargantuan undertaking, we have the new LP from Sydney's excellent Yes I'm Leaving. Mission Bulb (out on Tenzenmen in May) finally captures how brilliantly unhinged these noiseniks can really be. I only got it yesterday, so I'm still ingesting it. But I'm pretty sure Ive got something insidious growing inside me as a result. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, then I might very well have metamorphosed. Ah well - when it's this delectably ear-shattering and deliciously visceral, scurrying up the walls is the least of my concerns. Or going all Michael Shannon from Bug. You seen that movie? It's damn good I reckon. Small, but good. And it's a William Friedken piece! Precursor to Killer Joe. So you can see what kind of twisted hole we're hurtling down here... These guys played with God Bows To Math and Lennon Lenin the other night in Newcastle. Jesus, what I would have done to be at that show, you don't wanna know. Here's a track from it - you're welcome.

Yes I'm Leaving - Song For You

...and I'm spent. Night.

Tenzenmen Tsunami

Shaun Tenzenmen is awesome. I seriously love this guy. He has brought to my ears the amazing self-titled debut by Auckland noise rockers God Bows To Math, and the subsequent Sonic Masala-run show at The Waiting Room killed (plus they are super nice guys). He is also a very busy man, bringing us music from all over the world, all of it excellent. But he has been uber busy lately, releasing a whole bunch of seven-inches and albums, so I have some serious work to do to ensure the word is out! So, here are some of the Tenzenmen releases floating in the ether (and at your local record store - I picked up a couple 7"s at Rockinghorse last weekend...)


First up we have Yes I'm Leaving, a Sydney noise act that is far too underrated for any sane man to comprehend. This three piece are crafting some beautifully dissonant rock that does everything you want from the genre and more, and on new release Nothing they truly nail it.

Yes I'm Leaving - Untitled
Yes I'm Leaving - Nothing

Now, who's up for some Asian hardcore? Yeah, me too! Why not throw some Spanish screamos in the mix too! This split 7" features a few tracks from Malaysian brutalisers Inquiry Last Scenery, as well as the last recordings of Spain's abrasive brethren El Eje Del Mal (translates as Axis Of Evil). It's fast, furious and fun - pretty essential then. (Plus the crudely drawn Star Wars riffing cover is pretty ace!)

El Eje Del Mal - El VHS Contenta
Inquiry Last Scenery - I.L.S


Remember Bikini Eyebolt? Not really? Shame. They existed (if you could call it that) in Melbourne around 2007-2008, and featured DEAD's Jace on guitars and vocals. This release showcased what most of the world missed - a band willing to follow in the footsteps of the post-punk giants such as Gang Of Four and Wire, without succumbing to malaise, pretension or disco. This is authentic, serrated, and above all none of it is throwaway. It sure is a shame that these guys aren't still killing it - but then again, Dead might not exist as it does now, so swings and roundabouts I suppose...

Bikini Eyebolt - Rats Love Me
Bikini Eyebolt - Walking Asleep


Heading back to Asia - Shanghai in China, to be exact - we'll finish off with Duck Fight Goose, an experimental math rock hybrid who are causing ripples all over the world since forming back in 2009. History is a 7" preceding their upcoming 2nd LP Sports, and is a worth precursor. There are only 50 copies in Australia (well, 49, because I am now a proud owner!) in white vinyl, and is well worth the purchase.

Duck Fight Goose - History

There are more to come this week, so keep the goodness flowing! You can get these releases and shedloads more here