Occupied With An Unspoken Golden Retriever

Occupied With The Unspoken is the new record from Portland duo Jonathan Sielaff (of Au) and Matt Carlson (of Parenthetical Girls) AKA Golden Retriever, and their first through esteemed experimental label Thrill Jockey. The album is both a meditation on and a study of how music can be made, by focusing on the ways in which polyphonic music can be molded from monophonic instruments. The bass clarinet and the analog modular synthesizer are generally both capable of playing only one note at a time. By intertwining electronics into the mixing and layering the results, a tapestry of sonics emerges which feels organic in origin but is anything but. This is the kind of extrapolation of sound that the Inner Islands stable would find inimitably fascinating. Much like contemporaries in these exploratory realm, Golden Retriever wouldn't ever play these concise versions of songs, tended for a 25-to-30 minute interpretation which allows for pondering and feeling out, thus making Occupied With the Unspoken a unique experience all its own. I always surprise myself about which experimental sound installation I will connect with, and which to me doesn't lead anywhere - but Thrill Jockey is a pretty good indicator of where my cards normally fall. Golden Retriever, whilst not a safe bet for some, is a risk worth taking.


You can grab Occupied With The Unspoken here. Check out the song and video 'Canopy' below.

Golden Retriever - Canopy

Video Vacuum - Eagulls, Crime & the City Solution, Opossum, Idles

I'm going to be quick with these, loose with the PR and bios, and just have at it because it's been a long fucking day...I really need to get the band back together...

Straight from the horses' mouths about the Eagulls new video/track 'Moulting' - "The lyrics in this ‘number’ are reflecting my feelings of how I felt I had nothing left. Everything I’d done so far in life just seemed to be worthless. I wrote most of the song in my freezing cold bedroom which is the size of a single bed. I would wake up wet from the damp all night and my feet would be covered in mould off the walls and I’d had enough. It felt like I was dropping to bits like a cat loses its hair or a snake sheds its skin." Life doesn't feel so bad now does it? Eagulls have some cool shows coming up if you are UK bound in the next couple months (although their incredible support score with newly-90s-angst-burst Cloud Nothings is sold out), especially seeing as they are supporting Liars in Norwich before running around with 2012's Scandinavian punk sensations Holograms (if there's a new one of these every year, it will be fucking amazing, everyone else can give up music).



Crime & the City Solution

An Introduction To… is a new series of compilations on Mute of Sydney-via-Melbourne-via-England-via-Berlin post-punk deities Crime & The City Solution, with the tracklisting chosen by the band. For A History Of Crime - Berlin 1987 – 1991, the band has selected tracks from the three Berlin era albums: Shine (1988), The Bride Ship (1989) and Paradise Discotheque (1990). The album also features the band’s swansong, ‘The Adversary’, from the film Until The End Of The World (Wim Wenders, 1991). Simon Bonney is a great writer, and seeing that Mick Harvey (The Bad Seeds) was in the last two true incarnations, and Troy Gregory (bass, The Dirtbombs/Swans/Spiritualised) and the Dirty Three's Jim White is currently playing drums for them, they are an incredible band that were much overlooked, so to see them out and about once more is truly exciting. Listen below, then go back and get everything - Mute are making it easy for you...



Ruban Nielson may have been the first to climb out of the Mint Chick wreck with last year's breakaway warped pop sensations Unknown Mortal Orchestra, but brother Kody (along with bassist Michael Logie and ex-NZ chanteuse Bic Runga on drums) isn't far behind with psych pop mutation Opossom. The debut record Electric Hawaii comes out on Fire Records in August (it's already out here in Australia), and this is the second single (and one of the best tracks). Unfortunately the bastards are playing the same night as my Sonic Masala-endorsed Iowa album launch here in Brisbane (that's Saturday August 18, at the Waiting Room, you should all totz come!!!), but I'm sure they will be back. Plus they are touring the US and Europe in the latter months of 2012 so they will be busy bees...



Finally we have Bristol, UK act Idles with second single off their Welcome EP (which only came out two days ago on Fear Of Fiction Records) called 'Germany'. I wasn't sure if I would dig this, but it's doing the do today, and the vid is weirded out AND has interpretive dance - what's not to like? Get up and cut those weird shapes in a work cubicle that isn't yours, go on!



Have fun? Yeah...NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Don't Mess With The Midnight Ghost Train

It's funny how a band's name can throw you for a loop. As it was when Karate Body Records sent me Buffalo, the new album from Kansas-based group The Midnight Ghost Train. For whatever reason, I was expecting at best rockabilly blues act, at worst some MOR indie bluster or folk bore. Not the unholy progeny of a menage a trois between Young Widows, Kyuss and Tom Waits. There is probably a better reference here - there's a song that is licking my earlobe, but I can't quite remember it, it's bloody annoying - but where blues, desert stoner rock, riff-tastic solos and some gruff mewling with an evil glint in the eye fuse together, I will surely follow. It's pretty great all round, bottom heavy to hell and back, and the slow chug of 'Tom's Trip' that explodes in the final third is worth the price of admission alone. And possibly the best covers-based about-turn in 2012 is here too in the guise of an acappella rendition of Lead Belly's 'Cotton Fields' as done by a traveling freakshow. I shit you not, Buffalo is white-hot, jampacked full of ferocity, twists and turns, worthy of a face-melting.


You can grab Buffalo here and here. Seriously, you won't find many bands with thicker rock riffs this year.

Taking Artistic Control

Two Sound of Science releases in two days? Well, I never! Wisconsin instrumental math rockers Control put out this tasty cassette Schulte A little while back, that is now out on all formats (vinyl, digital and CD). The trio have been doing EPs with artists doing screenprints, a great collaborative interest that at $15 each is a deal and a half. I was originally turned on by their influences - Fugazi and The Minutemen, how can you go past that? - and the music fulfils my taking a chance. The music is tight, athletic, energising and a lot of fun. They are worth checking out, and you can get their stuff in any format you want (three guesses which one Ill be championing...) right about here.

Creating Stories With Endless Fire

I doubt Ill do this record justice - I've been sitting on this so long, using it whilst I write a existential short story about as boy who finds a Colt revolver in his backyard that speaks to him (it's probably as shit as it sounds), that the lines have been irreversibly blurred. Another great release from Immune Recordings, With Endless Fire is a bit of a mind fuck album from drone/folk/something explorer Ilyas Ahmed. I hadn't heard his stuff before, until I found out that he is one half of Visitor (the other half being Elizabeth Harris AKA Grouper). There is a certain timbre that emanates from Ahmed's croon that, mirrored with the acoustic and electric guitar, the harmonium, the loops, it seems torn between warmth and isolation, an utterly intriguing listening experience. Scoring swirling skies over a scorched earth, a peyote totem search through the desert - or a boy with a gun as the ash starts to fall.


You can get With Endless Fire here - it's a compelling record well worth you time.

Ilyas Ahmed - Stained Sky
Ilyas Ahmed - Now Sleeps

Little Dreamers #4 - Nitzam, Fierce & the Dead, Sleeping In The Aviary, TV Buddhas

Here are some belated releases by bands I've featured in the past that I thought warranted a quick mention...


First up, Brighton psych folk rock hybrid Nitzam put out a self-titled EP last year that I quite liked, and since have pumped out two more - called Nitzam 2 and Nitzam 3. They also opened The Great Escape festival this English summer (not sure if that's even a term anymore...) All three releases are free and can be got here. Get got, good.

Nitzam - High Tide (from Nitzam 2)
Nitzam - Answer Phone (from Nitzam 3)


Another UK band, London-based instrumental quartet The Fierce And The Dead impressed with their long-and-amusing-titled debut If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe. They followed this up earlier this year with EP On VHS (which you can grab here), which they also recorded videos for the four tracks onto VHS tapes for special purchase - nice. The EP has some great moments, and with titles like '666...6', still haven't lost the sense of humour.

The Fierce & The Dead - 666...6


Now across to the US, Minneapolis to be exact, to check in on Sleeping In The Aviary. The five-piece put out a fun LP last year called You And Me, Ghost and last month re-issued their sophomore album Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Motel on vinyl. More lo-fi, steeped in tragedy but run through with hope, the album is a ragged rush at the sun - no lollipops here, just soldiering on with a glint in the eye. Good stuff. You can grab it (and their other stuff) through Sound of Science here.

Sleeping In The Aviary - Write On


Finally we are trekking way over to Tel Aviv via Berlin for post punk gurus TV Buddhas. The latest EP Band In The Modern World (out through Austrian label TROST Records, produced by Steve Fisk) sounds anything BUT modern, like its a lost tape from the 70s London era. I'm really tired, so all Ill say is this is a great release - GREAT release - that you should get right now. RIGHT. NOW. Here. Do it.

TV Buddhas - Don't Tell Me It's Gonna Be OK
TV Buddhas - In The Shadow Of A Wave

Here's the whole thing...

Marching Up Arch Hill With Big Sounds From My Transistors

I've been a little neglectful of cool little NZ label Arch Hill of recent months, and I was only made aware of this when I noticed that a band that I wrote about back in 2010, Transistors (now called The Transistors apparently), were on the Brisbane BigSound bill in September this year. So it's catch up time, starting with Beach Pigs.


A ramshackle four-piece outta Auckland, Beach Pigs brought out an electric self-titled EP last year that didn't both to to break ten minutes. They inject as much beat, spunk and junk into their pop ditties that it is impossible to stay still, to not smash stuff, or to not sing along with Tourette's style abandon. The latest track is somewhat longer, sunnier, languid yet still raucous and fun. Pity they aren't hurdling the ditch come September...keep an eye out for these guys for sure.

Beach Pigs - Catch Up In The Sun


Now we have Transistors, who are touring their home country as the special guests of Aussie band King Cannons in a preamble to their BigSound soiree. Their last EP Flux Pentaphile was pretty killer, so I'm expecting them to blow all punters away when they take to Bakery Lane on Wednesday September 12...

Transistors - Abandoned

Sex Hands Are There For You (And All Over You)

Manchester produce some funny folk, don't they? They produce some pretty stellar bands too. Sex Hands is one such group. Three friends from Wales with a Manchunian add-on, the awesome foursome write scuzzy, wonky garage rock about Friends. Not their friends, but everyone's Friends - Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe.


They even have an entire album glued to the obsession, called Season 1. Some of the instrumentation actually reminds me of Royal Headache at times, such a great thing.It's pretty rad, even moreso seeing as they have an amazing cover of The Clean's 'Sad Eyed Lady'. No cover of the Rembrandts' "AMAZING" title tune though, instead naming a song after the band. Small victories. Grab it here.

Sex Hands - Joey
Sex Hands - Sad Eyed Lady (The Clean cover)

But that isn't all, they have been on a couple of excellent splits this year. The first one, a 7" put out by Icecapades, with now-defunct band Daily Life. It's a little clearer in production, but just as awesomely (and gleefully) bent out of shape. He can still grab it here. Here are the four songs put to some film clips:









And in case that isn't enough, here is the other split they did, a cassette on Birthday Tapes with ____ band Golden Grrrls as part of their Zodiac collection. Called Taurus, we get more of the same, but different. But essentially the same. Woo! PLUS, their cover of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's 'Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Eu Gilydd' is just as rad as their Clean cover. These guys cover goooood. you can buy this cassette for 2 squid here.



They also have this 12" 4-way split out through Song, By Toad Records with SM faves Paws, as well as Waiters and Dolfinz. Grab it here (the Sex Hands song is 'Jingle Bitch' off Season 1).

FINALLY! Here is ANOTHER few Friends' related track, including a newie called 'The One Where The Stripper Cries'. Ah, Danny Devito...Dr Romano...Susan...the memories! And why I'm at it, Ross and Rachel, WTF! Don't get me started (*starts humming 'I'll Be There For You'...)

Animal Collective Get Supernatural Today

You've probably heard this already - their album Centipede Hz has pre-orders up the wazoo, so many are gagging for it - but Animal Collective released a new track recently called 'Toady's Supernatural.' Have a listen and leave a comment below about what you think. Is August 31 taking forever to come, or are you nonplussed, or even dreading this release?

Friday Cover Up - Going Greek In The Dunes

I know it's been out a whiles, but I didn't feel like searching for a cover, but wanted to provide one, and these are damned sweet. Earlier this year Amen Dunes put out the Ethio Covers 7", three tracks of Ethiopiques songs culled from unnamed tapes. After hearing these songs coming each night from his neighbor’s room upstairs, he decided to learn the tracks note for note and replicate the full band’s sound through the Amen Dunes lens, overdubbing all the instruments and vocals. It ends up sounding like Amen Dunes really, albeit somewhat happier, like being caught in a prism hit by mid-afternoon sunlight, before being thrown in a muddy ditch. That actually sounds rather pleasant to me...


You can still grab this from Sacred Bones and probably your nearest and dearest record stores. Grab it from the source here.

Amen Dunes - Ethio Song

Enjoy your weekend people!!!

No Sleep In This Weird Wild World

I spoke not all that long ago about Sleepies - check that out here. Well, I was speaking to Nick Sylvester of Mr Dream, who runs the God Mode label, and he let drop that New York mentalists Sleepies were releasing their new LP Weird Wild World through his label in August. Literally the next day, two of the band's members, Tom and Josh, separately emailed me raving about Ty Segall and Dope Body posts respectively, then passing on their track 'Seriously'. Serendipity indeed.

And of course, it's bloody good (I'm so into this delving back into 90s raucous dirgey rock and tweaking it for the 21st century - Cloud Nothings, anyone?). But it isn't even the best song - not by far. This album is so filled with killer that it slays me. Opening with the pent-up swagger of 'Cool Boy' and intensity of 'Combat' (amazing track), it walks through molasses for 'Strange Feelings', and the slowed down mode doesn't affect their attitude one iota, making it all the more powerful because of it. And it keeps rolling on. Which shouldn't come as much of a surprise, seeing as their taste in Mr Dream, Ty Segall and Dope Body is complemented by roping in The Men's Ben Greenberg to produce the damned thing!


You can pre-order Weird Wild World here. This is a great album, one of the better things I've heard this year.

Sleepies - Seriously

Party Crashed By Doomed War Ghosts

I received this cassette and 7" in the mail on Tuesday from new DIY label outta Fort Worth, Texas called Lo Life Recordings. Both are splits between War Party and Doom Ghost, and they are both great.

The cassette, entitled Love At First Fight, Vol. 1, is as scuzzy as you'd expect yet there is some quality snotty rock to be found here. Im particularly enamoured with War Party's '(A Little Hell) From My Fringe' and Doom Ghost's stomping 'There Is A Room Filled With Blood'.

War Party - (A Little Hell) From My Fringe
Doom Ghost - There Is A Room Filled With Blood


Then the Introducing... 7" kills further. Doom Ghost let rip on their side, all garage disdain and wanton abandon, none more so on the incredibly plaintive 'Road Rat'. War Party throw forth the party vibes once more, helped in no small part by the warm and tight instrumentation emanating from the cracks in between the seams.

War Party - Road Rat
Doom Ghost - Blame The Blues

You can get yourself these releases from here. I really enjoyed these, and hope that these bands (and Lo Life Records) keep bringing the hits.

This Youthful Cult Will Prevail

Very excited about Love Will Prevail, the upcoming record from New York weirdos Cult Of Youth (out September 4, again through Sacred Bones). From the sound of released track 'Man And Man's Ruin', this will be a sunnier yet no less theatrical affair - less dank Pogues on meth and more sunny pagan folk psychedelia. Seth Ragon apparently recorded most of the album himself at his newly-constructed home studio, and the experience certainly appears to be an enlightening one.

Cult Of Youth - Man and Man's Ruin


You can pre-order Love Will Prevail here. A new track off it is 'Garden of Delights' which shows that the woozy swaying darkness that the self-titled predecessor was steeped in hasn't been entirely bleached away - listen to it below. Get excited!!

Hack No More (If It Was Ever Hacked...)

I have a veritable mountainload of tenzenmen releases that have been rolled up and really deserve your attention, but I thought I would focus on this one, the self-titled record by Sydney night-people Hacks. The act are supposedly a mysterious band of edge dwellers even on the alternative music scene in Sydney, emerging occasionally to swagger effortlessly through a chaotic set of improvised tunes only to drop out again into the realities of life. Not only is their existence relatively unrecognised (no one I know ever saw them play - are they even real??), but unlikely to blow up any time soon as one of their members looks set to set up shop in the European wilderness, no sign of return. It's a real shame, because the four tracks on Hacks are all kinds of beautiful improvised noise and mayhem.


Hacks can be gleaned here. It's good.

Hacks - Between Hawk And Buzzard

Peter Dreams Of Glowing Bones And Other Such Delusions

Some time ago I posted an interesting track by Michigan band Dreampeter called 'Mason Jar'. Well the two guys behind the outfit have put out a split cassette (it's Cassette Thursday!) under the monikers Boneglow (Peter Wiley) and Delusions (Matt Gilles). Boneglow's side is a surprisingly catchy blend of woozy, RnB-tinged grooves, Wiley's vocals drifting over chopped beats, a syncopated summer jam sandwich. Delusions' side is more on the tangential side, a warped excursion in lo-fi pop that is undeniably attractive also. Three songs each, and it isn't enough - full length releases please!!!

The split, put out through Kassette Klub, can be picked up here.

Boneglow - Lost & Found
Delusions - Have It (ft. fthrsn)

Sonny Times Two - Cuckoo!

Sonny Smith is an iconoclast in San Francisco, a city that seems full of them. His work with Sonny & The Sunsets needs no introduction (especially seeing as it has as members Tahlia Harbour of Citay fame, and one Kelley Stoltz), but the truth is that the man is just as interesting as the sonic stories he weaves. His elaborate tales stem from a youthful attempt at scriptwriting whilst he busked his way around Central America, the characters and dialogue and setting all painted vividly in his head like a wide angle panorama, playing out in the theatre of his mind. He has since lived out the dream of seeing a short go through all the way to completion, as well as writing and producing plays, writing columns, acting and obscure musical art installations. He's a bright shining star, and now you can delve into two other facets of this hard-working man's oeuvre.


Firstly we have the third album from Sonny & The Sunsets, Longtime Companion (out through Polyvinyl Records). It's being touted as his "country" album, (which shouldn't be much of a surprise to those familiar with Smith's other band The Fuckaroos) and true to form Smith has delved fully into this realm. In many ways this genre speaks most true to his whimsical tales of outsiders and reprobates, failed loves and bitten nails, beaten down drifters and hopeful dreamers. Things are slowed down from a swagger to a melancholic shuffle, but the wonderful language is the same - most notably on the reworked 'Pretend You Love Me' (which appeared on previous LP Hit After Hit), which has transformed from a doo-woop swinger to a heartbroken tumble in the dirt. This is a very solid album, and a testament to how Smith's songwriting complements just about any genre. Best of all, when his heart lies shattered around his feet on the wooden saloon floor, Smith is wryly shaking his head, smiling wistfully, dusting off his denim coat, and moving right on. You can buy the album (in 180g yellow vinyl, no less) here.

Sonny & The Sunsets - I See The Void


The second release is more of a re-release bu SF label Secret Seven Records of One Act Plays, Smith's "solo" record of 2006, seen here for the first time on vinyl. Featuring the likes of Jolie Holland (The Be Good Tanyas), Neko Case (The New Pornographers), Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), Andy Cabic (Vetiver) and John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees) amongst others, One Act Plays "started out as real one act plays written for the theater, but in writing them I began to make them songs at some point," Smith states. "I can’t remember when this mysterious shift happened. However, ultimately the plays as songs were performed on stage in a play called The Dangerous Stranger, so somehow it came full circle. The Dangerous Stranger was supposed to be about reality being the dangerous intruder of fantasy, and fantasy being a dangerous intruder to reality. I can't remember if the play was successful at conveying this idea at all. That was the kinda stuff on my mind at the time I guess. I had a few influences at the time I was writing them. One was Terry Allen's Juarez, a concept record with recurring characters. Also I was really into Sam Shepard at the same time so I was reading a lot of his stuff. A few of the songs, like 'Eddie and Rita' even have some stage directions lifted directly from one of his plays. The song 'Following Father' took a bunch of facts from my dad's cousin, a Texan who always had some get rich quick scheme that never lasted. I was trying to make some kind of Tennessee Williams like thing apparently. Epic! Large! Family! Redemption! Well, anyway, most of these plays are fictional, except for 'Freaks In Space' and 'Honey Roy Rockwell'. Those two are the complete truth. The terrible truth." I especially love the loneliness and longing that leads to desperate sex that underlines 'Troublesome Affair', Smith's duet with Case, but they are all great. You can grab One Act Plays here.

Sonny Smith - The Stick Up!
Sonny Smith - Troublesome Affair

Hits From The Box #54 -Olympretard

I love the Olympics. Seriously. I have many weird and wonderful memories of Olympics past. But I'm finding myself somewhat alienated by the way the media is ravaging the Australians, particularly the hotly touted swimming team, for their "lacklustre" performance thus far in the pool. I'm sorry, but we are bred to believe we are the best and deserve the gold? Fuck off. The fact that these people slog their guts out for four years, are in a pool with the seven others that make up the best in the world, seems to allude everyone. The fact they are representing their country seems to be a point lost to most people. I'm more than a little ashamed to be Australian when these things happen. And Emily Seebohm, pull your head in! Don't go blaming Twitter for coming second. You want to read what people are saying about you, then you need to roll with the punches. Besides, you came SECOND. Some may say second is the first loser, but most others will say you came second IN THE WORLD. Be proud of your achievements, then better them.

Ahem. Sorry, tough day at the office, and this was the most inoffensive yet enraging thing I could think of to vent about. So...let's have some music!


Field Hymns recently put out Vital Organs, a dark trance swirl of a record by Minneapolis artist Detainee. Kicking off with manic, disturbed 'Speed Demon', this record never lets up, a dark hallucinogenic downward spiral through an America that is retro-futuristic, whose sleekness is juxtaposed by 16 bit jerkiness, that is all about leather, latex and Death Races. I don't think I've liked an electronic album more than this other than Errors' Have Some Faith In Magic, and yet that is with much more live instrumentation in mind. Dark, twisted, fantastic. You can grab Vital Organs on cassette here.

Detainee - Speed Demon
Detainee - California


Continuing the cassette craziness is WaMu and their Viafukt release. This is batshit crazy stuff, something in between The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower and Foot Village - with violins and lots of screaming, something they themselves have coined as shrillwave. Eric Ostrowski, once part of noise duo Noggin and accomplished solo violinist and filmmaker decided to join forces with Garrett Kelly & Rachel LeBlanc, the master minds behind Seattle’s self-declared worst band My Printer Broke,. Brittnie Fuller joined shortly after to fill out the sound. It's ramshackle, bordering on implosion kind of stuff, blurring the line between premeditation and accident, all at top velocity and volume. Brace yourselves... Viafukt is out through Talking Helps Records - get it here.

WaMu - Diana & The Deep Bore Tunnel
WaMu - Celebrate/Celebait


In keeping with my trans-Tasman allegiance with Hits From The Box, next we'll look at the excellently warped psychedelia from the self-titled release from New Zealand band The All Seeing Hand. Primarily based around heavy, improv drums, dark foreboding synth and turntables, and throat vocals (really), this is one hell of a trip - that overwhelmingly works. Its a rad album that deserves far more exposure, Please, check this out - it is some of the best percussive psychedelic intensities that you are ever going to take in and space out to. Grab the album here.

The All Seeing Hand - Throat


More cassettes! Very cassette heavy today. DZ Tapes sent this to me AGES ago, but I have only recently gotten around to getting a cassette player (I cannot believe that I have a cassette recorder in 2012 haha!). The release - Unscharfe, a split between the Berlin-based shambling spectral jammers Ghostandthesong and Texan organic drone divinist Chris Rehm. It's actually a honest record which fits together somewhat seamlessly, something that isn't always the case with split releases, and there are some tasty songs to be mined here. Grab Unscharfe here.

Ghostandthestory - Dress To Fail
Ghostandthestory - 01000001
Chris Rehm - Free William Cosby


Now flying towards the Arctic Circle, we are touching down in the otherworldly richness that is Iceland, and a band that is drinking what's in the water is Ourlives. Out of Place is their debut EP (out now on Spartan Records), and follows in the emotive, quiet/loud epicness aesthetic that Sigur Ros mine, and although they don't hold a candle to that band (and at times waver on the side of MOR stadium anthemics a la Coldplay or Snow Patrol - easy there boys...), there is much to like here.

Ourlives - Where Is The Way?



Finishing with Yourself In Peace, a project started in Los Angeles by college students Westley Ulit (Drums/Synth/Vocals) and Justin Corral (Lead Vocals/Guitar), it's good to delve into a band that are in it just to hang out and make tunes, valuing surrealism over going for gold (ahem, sorry about that segue, but don't you love continuity!?!) Their take on pop is to infuse it with shoegaze, lo-fi folk and more abstract textured, or in their words, they "make beats and whine over them". The self-titled EP is pretty good for all this malarkey, and you can grab it here.

Yourself In Peace - Watch You Breathe
Yourself In Peace - In Transit

HAPPY THURSDAY!!

A Guide To Three Saints

In the first of a few posts about recent "underground" Australian releases, I thought I'd focus on something local. Affiliated with Room40, Brisbane-based cassette label A Guide To Saints presented their first 3 releases recently, the first in a series entitled "Cassette Diaries". It features contributions from Brisbane's Heinz Reigler (Not From There/Nightstick), northern New South Wales' electronic collective Tralala Blip, as well as an international drone flavour from American Rachel Evans AKA Motion Sickness Of Time Travel.

The process is borne out of a series of momentary musics, recordings made in a short period of time - from a day to roughly a week. Motion Sickness Of Time Travel's Traces offers two trance-like pulse of electronic light, Evans eschewing more affronting sonics for something richer and altogether more benign. Reigler's Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never Had) is an aural document of his time spent hibernating in a wooden cabin in the Austrian Alps, and as such is the most "linear" of the pieces. Tralala Blip rarely have a template, yet the album title Submarine Love Songs rings pretty true to these warped tales of love and woe.

Motion Sickness Of Time Travel - Colour Changing Eyes

Heinz Reigler - Dissolve
Heinz Reigler - Ascent (Vollmond II)
Heinz Reigler - Sleepwalker

Tralala Blip - Angry Ghosts

You can grab the bundle here. A Guide To Saints is guaranteeing a consistent flow of releases in the near future, so expect to hear more from them very soon.

Sicalpglyphics

Who else is excited for the new Sic Alps album? Their last Napa Asylum didn't get the love last year that I thought it deserved, yet after their sneaky little 7" Pangea Globe and now if new track 'Glyphs' is any indicator, they are about to rend apart the space-time continuum. Yes there is fidelity in production, yes there are string arrangements, and YES, it's undoubtedly Sic Alps, Mike Donovan et al (with Ty Segall definitely in tow) doing what they do because they can and because they're good. It'll be self-titled, and is coming out on Drag City on September 11 (no connotations necessary). Pre-order it here.

Sic Alps - Glyphs

Those Beautiful, Strange Fountains

A little while ago I wrote about the cool releases from Palmz and Model Railway Exhibition that London-based label Verulamiam Records put out. The founder also runs a club night called Beautiful Strange. In the interests of combining the two, the label is now also Beautiful Strange, and the first release from the newly monikered crew is Easily Led/Repetition, an excellent two-track 7" by London band Fountains.

This piece of wax is the closest thing to Interpol channelling Joy Division, without being Interpol (although I love Turn On The Bright Lights to death), with a bit of Brit shoegaze beefing up the production. Produced by the irrepressible Rory Attwell, this is a major coup for a renamed label, and an incredibly strong calling card for a strong new act.


Easily Led/Repetition is out now - get it, it's great!