Hits From The (Mail)Box #3 - Vacant Valley, Astral Skulls, Sonic Jesus, 10 000 Russos, Klozapin, Braeyden Jae, Triptides, The Kumari

Over the past three to four months a quite a few physical releases have come through my letterbox that have been quite brilliant. I have been able to write about most of it; but here are the other awesome bits that have been languishing on half-written posts that deserve to be heard...

First of all we have Living In A Shadow, the new(ish) compilation out of Aussie underground label Vacant Valley that shines a dirty light on a disparate bunch of Antipodean acts (while also marking the fifth year of the label's inception). Some you might recognise from Sonic Masala posts (Orlando Furious, Useless Children, All The Weathers, Treehouse, Bi-Hour, Per Purpose Psy Ants, Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing), but there are a lot of other great discoveries to be made. The bottom of the barrel cyclical jazzed immolation of Bitchratch; the banshee tear of Whitney Houston's Crypt;
the atonal growl of Bridal Gnome and The Bunyip Moon; the drone roar of Hex On The Beach; the dismantled squall of WASP; the propulsive growling rock of The New Season; the cathartic fuzz punk of Shiny Coin and King Tears Mortuary... It's yet another great snapshot of bands in Australia and New Zealand that are tearing things apart and showing how excellent and diverse the scene really is as it ferments in the cracks.

Astral Skulls has released 7" Sexism Sux/Bite My Tongue in lieu of a full length album Contact:Light (hopefully out at year's end). It continues the synth punk mantra that Kurt Eckhardt continues to toy with, intent to blur all lines as possible. The A-Side is a feminist bite, offering both a rock riff and an infectious 8-bit synth cycle in what transpires to become a dark yet poignant dance post-punk hybrid. 'Bite My Tongue' is more straight up in its approach, taking a Strokes riff and a basic, skittish drum beat that slowly builds in synthetic intensity. This is good - and you feel that Astral Skulls is only getting better.

I have actually referenced Neither Virtue Or Anger, Italian psychers Sonic Jesus' new album, before. The band played The Waiting Room herein London and I was publicising the event - unfortunately I got caught at work and was unable to make the show. However I have kept on coming back to this unrelenting album - holding onto those earlier darker excesses that The Black Angels constructed, the album opens with 'Locomotive', a song that delves in its cavernous expanse and contemplative insularity before breaking the levee in a cacophonous blast that is cathartic and euphoric without losing any tension or intensity built up over the six minutes. The double-LP spills into krautrock, darkwave, post-punk, Gothic rock - but all blackened by a monochrome outlook. It's bloody great.

10 000 Russos are stablemates to Sonic Jesus on Fuzz Club Records, and the Portugal based trio also released an album this year. Their self-titled LP is a definite product of its construction, being recorded in an abandoned shopping mall (no working escalators, plastic bulbs the only light sources), evoking apocalyptic mantras from the lost souls both living and dead. Downtune, devolve, rinse and repeat. Everything is manipulated and calibrated to tick over into the abyss at its own mantric pace, and like a Pied Piper cipher we are destined to follow suit, at sway with their insidious beats and motorik measurements. These scorched, shadow-dwelling jams will invade and infect you, pulsing in your veins, until the end of the world. Thank fuck.

Brisbane label Conquest Of Noise has been smashing it out of the park with their Dreamtime reissues and the huge success of latest Hits album Hikikimori, but they do delve further afield. Klozapin is a NY band that hard to pinpoint - they have a warbling overtone that pushes their guitar rock/pop into a sunburnt parallel world, a narcotic afterburn that is difficult to grasp or define, with instrumental moments that swing surreptitiously across genres without any regard for the implications and trembling consequences. They aren't careless - these are carefully constructed pop songs - but Klozapin have a very singular defined view on how to create music so that it feels out of sync (think of the first Unknown Mortal Orchestra album, perhaps, for some semblance of what I'm getting at - although even UMO is easier to categorise). But who cares about this square beg/round hole conundrum when there is much more 'Perception' to be had? Grab it here.

I've actually had Turnings, the new Inner Islands output from Braeyden Jae, for a few months now. It's been stuck in the cassette player (AKA my girlfriend's awesome old-school Dictaphone behemoth) for all of that time - as soon as I have listened and reviewed something, out it comes and back goes this pink number. It deserves its own elongated post (and I have tried a couple of times). I could talk about the roughness of the mix, how the fuzz and hiss of the recordings meld with the guitar strumming to create a disintegrating white world of euphoric ascension (actually that is pretty good haha) - but in the main I struggle to say anything other than how fucking great this album is. The tape manipulation and guitar undulations come together as a miasmic whole that I cannot ever really remember aligning in such a serendipitous fashion before. In short, this is an ambient drone masterpiece.

Now we turn to Austria and Lehnen. We head into post-rock territory here - a la Russian Circles, Red Sparrowes, Thrice, Oceansize etc, complete with spoken word soundbite and all. Reaching Over Ice And Waves is their fourth album and focuses on how geographic isolation and travel can affect the individual (two of the band members are actually from the US but now live in Austria). This exploration of the constant homesickness no matter where you are, and the affinity you end up having for the plane, the airport, the train, the station, is clearly something that I connect with. I am the only one I know who travels to Australia once a year and looks forward to the flight irrespective of the time. The journey has become as much a part of me as the destination is. I just have never thought to put it into sonic noise. Touche.

Triptides are a band outta Indiana (now based in LA) who have just released their fourth record Azur through French label Requiem Pour Un Twister. And wow - this is a pretty accomplished record, managing to straddle the sun-drenched jangle and overcast dapple of guitar pop from either side of the Atlantic. 'Wake' feels like Deerhunter and Real Estate fighting for pop ascendancy (for a band I never actively listen to, I do reference Real Estate a lot, don't I???), while the brilliant 'Dark Side' feels like it's thawing out of the amber of the lovelorn 60s (there were plenty of lovelorn troubadours in the Love generation, trust me). It just gets better from there. Upstart strummer for a burgeoning summer.

And let's finish with The Kumari, an English garage-psych-rock band named after a revered Nepalese goddess (of course!). Walking is a 7" brimming with confidence, class and psychedelic swirl, evoking the Paisley pride of the Byrds in their take on ye olde rock and roll. It isn't something that is overtly new, but there is something about the languid 'Beam' that has me coming back for more. They are touring OS at the moment, but expect to see them shoring up shows as the summer disappears.

Lost In Loobs

Melbourne trio Loobs are preparing to launch their second EP (Loobs 2, doncha know) and it's a good'un. Taking the dissonant legs-splayed post-punk approach and throwing it to the ground in abject disgust, these four tracks machete their own path through the sonic jungle, a sweat soaked fever dream of anguish and despair. The chanted vocals and spidery, spiralling guitar is reminiscent of bands like Women and Sonic Youth, albeit more stripped back and ramshackle, but when things cascade into shards of noise, it's a sight/sound to behold. And the narcoleptic closer 'Pingu', whilst not my favourite track on the EP (that's split between 'Dysentery' and 'Great Wall Of China') the marked change of pace and weight of desperation with promises of hope in the last lyrics, despite the trainwrecks (I feel the closest I ever have), shows Loobs are onto something special here. Buy Loobs 2 here.

Hits From The Box #109 - Holiday Comedown

It's Friday; it's miserable; I haven't left the house other than to hit the off licence since coming back from Spain. Netflix, Bandcamp and Heinz have been my friends. Ah, the holiday comedown. No amount of sight and sound can stop me from realising that the bubble has burst and I am back in the "real world". So I need some real tearers to get me to the end of the normal "working" week. Here are six bands who are getting the adrenaline going for obvious and obtuse reasons...

I'm gonna start with Happy Forever, the fourth LP from Austin noiseniks Coma In Algiers. These guys aren't exactly unheard of, nor is this the freshest cut (the album came out in January). But as I trawl through the backwaters of the inbox, I stumbled across this just as I read a review of it on Terminal Boredom. I'm going to put my neck out there and say this is the best record Ive heard this month - alongside Deaf Wish's newie (which I will speak of soon) and Newcastle psychers Blown Out. It fits into many of the musical sensibilities that I have - the narcotic abrasion and gleeful, manic disregard of Jesus Lizard or Pissed Jeans; the frenetic multilimbed guitar insanity of Action Beat or Don Caballero; the hushed tension of Unwound; the unkempt, acerbic tension of Spray Paint or Shellac; the explosion of said tension like Big Black or early Mclusky...it's all there, a million ideas at a million miles a minute. Whether they are as good as any of these acts remains to be seen, but Happy Forever is a damn good tilt at the title. Stay weird (and come to London/Europe ASAP).

Now this self-titled album from Italian weirdos Tetrolugosi actually came out last year, but has just been released on cassette last week. I absolutely love it. The OTT Gothic baritone, crackling thunder and Castlevania synth of opening track 'The Golden Bug' is worth the price of admission alone. The horror pastiche is corny yet prescient - a seductive afterthought on both 80s New Wave glow and 70s synth other-worldliness. Would definitely love to see this act in a live setting, a small darkened room, all faux-Nosferatu and quasi-ABC - sounds amazing to me. (I've also watched some Giallo films lately so...)

I have actually written about Canadians Zuzu's Petals back in 2013 when they released The Fire Breathing Dragon (read and listen here). The five-piece have just released their new album At Long Last, and it continues in the same ramshackle indie rock vein. Favourites - the punchy bark (sorry) of 'Family Dog', the dark brood of 'Scorpio Woman', the rambling down-home burn of 'Loretta Lynn Madam' - which reminds me of Jason Molina, which makes me sad. A good little album, this one.

This Heel is a solo dude from Malmo in Sweden, Martin Månsson Sjöstrand. He has just released his second album of sorts, maybe an EP, called This Heel II, and this understated, slightly cracked 60s/70s pop is pretty great. The guy on the front cover is Sjöstrand's father in the 60s - the closing song 'Cold Outside' (a cover of The Choir) was one of his favourite songs - and it feels like the whole release is an ode to the man. I really can't get 'Empty-Headed Man' out of my head - I was singing this into an empty spaghetti tin over lunch. This could say a lot about my cabin fever, but it could say a lot about the hooks inherent within these songs.

Another song to burrow under the skin today is 'Pell Mell' from Ontario dudes Bronx Cheerleader. It starts off light and jangling, a twinkling daydream, with slight krautrock undertones, but this shimmering dream starts to colour darker at the seams. It never really bursts its beautifully cultivated bubble, but things move from carefree to careful, from infectious to infected, in increments. It's a wonderfully calibrated slice of indie rock. More please.

Rounding out the post (and the week) is Yorkshire act Grass House. The four-piece just started a month long residency at The Waiting Room here in London on Tuesday, and their track 'Unknown In The Scene' is an alt-pop gem that reminds me of Grandaddy dusting off the cobwebs with Malcolm Middleton while entrenched in Edinburgh in the 90s. It's a lot of fun, even if the sentiment of the song is somewhat maudlin. Next week though is the show to go see, when they play with Moon Gangs and have Winter Drones DJing - get a ticket here.



Happy Friday, everyone!

Going For Gold Weathers

Just to show how skewed the scene is in Tasmania in Australia is Wrong Place Right Time Records. The Native Cats, Bi-Hour, Steven Wright (of Bi-Hour fame), Naked, RBP, Treehouse, Mess O' Reds - they have shone a light on them all. The latest release they have unearthed, excavated, dusted off and thrust into the light is 6 For Gold by trio All The Weathers. Kicking off with the irascible, off-kilter clusterfuck that is the baiting, bracing 'ABC', with Georgia's hyperventilating howl demanding centre stage, things bleed into more sinister realms with elongated tracks 'Wipeout' (with screaming, desperate sax solo) and '1838'. Think of bands like Bent or Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing for a semblance of the desiccated, rural gothic avant deconstructions on offer here. There is even a little of the Raincoats/Trash Kit about their shout-and-response fanaticisms and altered-state percussion, all done with tongue buried alive in the cheek. 'OH And Yes' though is the epitome of the band in my opinion - a heady mixture of chaos, texture, expulsion and implosion. Always deliciously unhinged, regardless of (all) the weathers.

Buy 6 For Gold on vinyl here. All the Weathers play tonight in a church (St George's Church in Battery Point, to be exact) alongside Adventurers, All The Best and Filthy Little Star - sounds bloody amazing.

Hits From The Box #108 - Grimoire Weather

Another London day, another dose of grim overcast weather. I was going to go to the Ben Rivers installations over at the old BBC building - and I know the majority of it is inside - but I can't be bothered to leave the house. It's only 8:49am, but fuck it, I'm fixing myself a wine and getting stuck into another Hits From The Box...sounds like the only spell that'll do the trick today.

Media Jeweler have just signed to Fire Talk (Woodsman, Tjutjana) and are about to release their album $99 R/T Hawaii through them next month (pre-order pink vinyl here). Their frenetic Don Caballero caterwauling is bloody infectious and a hell of a lot of fun. Such kinetic twitching can be infuriating, but here the clean-as-cut-glass guitar picking is bursting with wanton enthusiasm and mischief; the trumpet on 'Autopilot' could easily fit on more austere efforts here, but both lends an added degree of gravitas and gratuity to the proceedings. Sure, it holds a lot of the math rock trappings, but such is the strength of the musicianship and ingenuity of these guys that such bonds are immediately broken, fusing into their DNA rather than the other way around. Get on this ASAP.

Boston three-piece Glass Rifle are prepping to launch their self-titled debut next month on 100m Records (Soccer Mom, Relations), and first taste 'Paint The Walls' shows a frenetic maelstrom that is underpinned with a basic chorus that wouldn't be out of place being belted out by a pub crowd. It might have something to do with the vocals reminding me of Steve Kilbey (The Church) for some reason. Then there is a decided post-punk undercurrent here too...it's all very interesting. Looking forward to hearing the album.

Let's head over to Japan now and The Piqnic, who are about to release ZyouK (through So I Buried Records) which could be one of the best shoegaze-related albums of 2015. Hailing from Shizuoka, the band have a distinctly darker take on the wall of guitar noise, offering velvety vocals as Gothic incantations and riffs like thunderous ritualistic chants, enveloping, hypnotising, corrupting. You can see elements of Japanese contemporaries in the mix - Boris-esque brutality, Mono-esque monolithic song construction - but the sensibilities here are some way removed from either of these touchstones. Cannot wait to hear this in October.

Let's keep the night-time with us, but go into the rockabilly rabbithole with Holy Motors, who are releasing their Heavy Flow EP (out now through Soft Power Records). Swinging from scabrous Jon Spencer to a cadaverous Roy Orbison to a witching hour Holly Golightly, the Glasgow trio are stalking the shrouded backroads of country in all its bastardised variants. Then when 'Valley of Decision' hits, it feels like a desert blues behemoth like Pontiak playing a Ween song. Devilishly fun.

Now this is an older addition, in that London duo The Moon Apes haven't really put anything out in a year, but as I'm doing the clean-out of the inbox I stumbled across their Plastic Preacher EP and haven't stopped listening to the title track since. It is bluesy, broken, brackish, brazen. When it speeds up, it energises; when it distorts, it explodes. An exciting song from a band I know next to nothing else about - watch this space.

Let's finish off today with Thud, a Hong Kong 5-piece whose ebullient shoegaze offers gossamer lilts and gargantuan tilts. They have taken a bit of notice from the fact that Yuck's Max Bloom mixed their Floret EP, but there aren't many correlations after that connection. The floating dreamscapes that Thud constructs are incongruous to their name - songs like 'She's A Loner' are gentle caresses, both melancholic and cathartic in their execution. This kind of dream pop will always be beautiful, and when it fills up a room it will stop the heart. Impressive.


Happy Thursday, everyone!

Ruined Sooks on The Edge of Virginia & Lake Michigan

(Virginia Sook)

(Lake Michigan)

Ruined Smile Records just keep the hits a-comin'. New release off the shelves this week is this international split between Brisbane's Virgina Sook and London lo-fi outlier Lake Michigan (the UK distributor will be Wolf Town). Lake Michigan is Chris Marks, and he has already featured here on Sonic Masala with another split, that one with Hopelesstown; while Virginia Sook features one Lindsey Roser, who also is known here as part of hip-hop anomalies Nana Vigilante and holds pride of place of being the opening act of the first Sonic Masala Fest last year. Both acts are breathtaking in their patience, their slow build of a warm atmosphere that revels in the space between the notes. Lake Michigan reminds me of many artists in Australia that I really enjoy, in particular Mark Zian (Curlew) and Jake Core (Soda Eaves); the lyrics are almost mired in the atonal delivery, but the hushed background noise and plucked guitar brings everything into focus. Virginia Sook may have a harp, but there is something inimitably warmer and relatable that you don't get from Joanna Newsom - there is a twang in the tales here, a rustic charm that endears. You can get the split here - it's a good'un.

Blown Out Boxes

There is something diabolical brewing up North. It seems that every time I hear a release is coming out of or near Newcastle here in England, you can expect it to be seriously warped. Like black pitch, A Field In England warped. Where everything is in monochrome, is melting out of the frame, slowed down and sped up in all the wrong/right places. At the epicentre of such alchemical bastardisations is Box Records. Their compilation from earlier this year, Vol. 1, included bludgeoning drawn out brutality (Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Khunnt), schizophrenic noise (Foot Hair, Luminous Bodies, Beauty Pageant) and SM faves such as the psych daemons Gnod, warped bedroom warrior Waskerley Way and the inimitable anti-folk soothsayer Richard Dawson.

One of my favourite tracks to come off the compilation though was from Blown Out, whose album Jet Black Hallucinations (also out on Box Records) is a three-course degustation of drawn-out, drawled, dank and dark psychedelic r'n'r. Gorge yourself on the kinetic ferocity of the title track, which you think would sate your hunger. But no - when those seventeen minutes are up, along comes 'Transgalactic World Eater', a full-bore funereal dirge into the bowels of the outer reaches of space, the clarity of its brutality measured through sustained speed and propulsion. But then you come to the final act, the "brief" nine-minute 'Ultrawave Communications', a track that seems to take it down a notch yet is just as unrelenting as what has come before. Feed off the hypnotic teat and rejoice - THIS is what psych rock is all about.

Buy Jet Black Hallucinations here - STAT.

Hits From The Box #107 - Sciatic Celebrations

Back from holiday for a day - and I stir up my Sciatic nerve. So I am stuck in this chair, at this laptop. Makes sense that I get on with more Hits From The Box, then!

Still floating high on the Spanish seaside break, I thought I would start off with Beach Beach (so good they named it twice), a Barcelona guitar pop band who brought out an album earlier this year called The Sea - the theme threads are endless... There is a nice segue between the warped sensibilities of Jonathan Richman and Mac DeMarco with Real Estate doing David Byrne as a foundation in these tracks, which makes them shimmering slivers of pop genius, embedded eternally into your headspace. It may be overcast in London (what's new?), but it's always summer in my ears when Beach Beach strike up.

To something louder but just as great is Atlantis, the new album from Israeli shoegazers Soda Fabric. The four-piece manage to make the wall of distorted squall anthemic and euphoric, especially as 'Bitter Moon' attests - and fun, as 'Teenage Illusion' squeals out into the freakzone towards the end. Alongside Vaadat Charigim, Soda Fabric shows that there is some truly tectonic noises coming out of Tel Aviv (even if they are now based in Berlin). Really awesome stuff.

London trio Abjects are three rocking, bruising girls who know how to have a good time. I managed to catch the last two songs of their Flashback gig for Record Store Day this year and they blew me away. A hell of a lot of fun, straight up. Their EP Gone, out through Stolen Body Records, is good - it is pretty great punk rock in leathers and grime, pounding in and out of time - but it doesn't do their live show justice. They are about to record new things, and in the meantime are likely to be playing a London gig near you soon, so keep your eyes/ears peeled.

Heading to Sydney now we have three-piece Sleepy who are just on the cusp of launching their self-titled EP. It's four tracks of gauzy, punchy indie rock, scuzzed out and poppy as all get out - the opposites holding a nice equilibrium. While Cooky from Yes I'm Leaving gets behind the drums here, this is not in the same guttural terrain - there is a lot more fuzzed-out hope here. Sure, this won't get played heaps on the radio - but it would have ten, fifteen years ago. And that's how I know that Sleepy works for me (plus the band self-reference Teenage Fanclub in a self-deprecating way, so I'm all in). If you are in Sydney Saturday August 22, head along to their launch at Brighton Up Bar - it promises to be special.

Now for something to tear the membrane from your brain. The apocryphal drone inherent in Atlanta psych mavens Warm Deltas' latest track 'All U Need' is miles away from the hallucinogenic beats and oscillating high of 'Slow Rays Pt 1'. The amazing/terrifying thing? These two tracks are back-to-back on the band's upcoming release, Burning Paisley - a title that gives a fair indication of what to expect from these psych rock dismantlists. It comes out at the end of the month through Grabbing Clouds Records - very interested in hearing the rest of this for sure.

And finally (in more ways than one) we have Wildhoney. I actually started writing about these guys last year due to a 7" they put out, but it somehow fell by the wayside. Come to 2015 and the Baltimore band have a full length release in the shape of Sleep Through It, and it's some stunning shoegaze pop. What makes Wildhoney such an enamouring proposition is that the pop is more important than the shoegaze - its the sonorous noise that complements the melodies and Lauren's vocals, not the other way around. And they also know their way around a might fine hook too. Sorry it's taken a year guys, but goodness shines through in the end...


Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Haunted By The Sandwitches

Not an intentional run on from the food-obsessed holiday I've just had - but I am a little obsessed with Our Toast, the new record from San Francisco's The Sandwitches that came out a couple months ago. What's added to the obsession is that the trio appear to be splitting up after this. The way they shuffle along, blues imbued with bruises and steely-eyed determination underscoring the elegance, is captivating. There is a nervous energy here also, possibly due to the knowledge that the band are going their separate ways. It's beautiful, elegiac, wistful, effervescent - all the best parts of the Sandwitches' wild brew brought into sparkling focus.

The Sandwitches will be 'launching' the record in the US this month, then that is pretty much it. They will be selling a 7" as well, strangely called You Only Get What You Want, Baby (preorders through Southpaw Records here) - and if that were the case, the girls would be sticking around for some time yet. Nevertheless, if you are lucky enough to get to one of these shows, shed a tear for me.

Hits From The Box #106 - Searching For Sun

(missing this already...)

After a month of quiet, Sonic Masala is back. Basking in Barcelona and the Basque Country has me in very high spirits. So we are kicking things back off with a week - yes, a week - of Hits From The Box - because there is a hell of a lot of good stuff overflowing from the emails of recent times. There will also be a lot of Aussie tips of the cap too, and a few SM classics. And as I settle the booze, cigarettes and pintxos detox with some gorgonzola and ham, a glass of Rioja and some criminally cheap Camel Blues (because you can't go cold turkey off the holiday high, can you?), here are six bands that keep the Spanish-sun-bruised smile plastered on my face

Brooklyn trio Arm Candy blast the cobwebs out with some visceral, lightening pop punk on their debut self-titled LP. 'Waste of Time' is such a great opening blast, a shapeshifting enigma of angular punk, New Pornographers-esque harmonies, and some space to breathe before the whole thing builds to maximum meltdown - Kate Molasses' bassline is relentless here too. Its a great track and a true sum of the band's parts. Elsewhere songs like 'Lounge Lizard' and 'Chemical Waste' (remember Go Sailor???) transports me back to the 90s when DIY was about making zines and flyers and handing them out to eager kids. Which a lot of people still do, but then it was a necessity, a fresh breath of creativity. Arm Candy is out through Tye Die Tapes.

Sydney melopsychs Upskirts have released their third EP Barely Moving and are preparing to tour the East Coast of Australia this month. Barely Moving swirls from contemplative and brooding with 'Where' to a languid rocker in 'Open Yourself To The Sky', while 'Swirling' feels like a blurred facsimile of modern-day mainstream psychedelic pop with 80s prog-pop outliers. Plus the name of track 'Nothing Happens In Roseville' is enough to give them a nod of approval; the fact its a woozy number that explodes out of the ennui with oscillating force is more cause for celebration.

This self-titled gem from NZ artist The Winebox Inquiry originally came out last year, but has been put out on cassette by Melted Ice Cream recently (and is down to 10 copies, so get on it pronto). Its a shimmering beauty of a thing, a mix of Flying Nun guitar pop whimsy and frazzled 60s psychpop malaise, and it's all the work of one William Daymond (Terror Of The Deep). Favourite tracks - opener 'It's Obvious To Me' and the contemplative mischief that is 'I'm A Cliche'. It's great all round.

Another day, another Copenhagen thunderer. Less Win have just released the EP Further (with another release apparently around the corner), and it's deconstructed noise that rifles along due to the gunshot drums, the serrated scraping guitar and howling vocals. I've heard comparisons to Metz in the past, but that's a little unfair - there is a more restless verve underneath it all, not as relentless but just as cathartic. There is a bit of Joy Division here - but more in the shaking and shuddering vitriol that lurks in the instrumentation. It's great - can't wait for the album.

Melbourne band Figures have roughed up their melancholy shoegaze riffs on Power of Purity, offering a powerful grungy counterpunch to most one-man bands out there. Nic Belor utilises the aggressive wall of distortion that other Melbourne band White Walls uses, and while not reaching the heights of those guys, Figures has a scuzzier take on melody and construction and with more space for silences and dragged-through-the mud riffs. Power of Purity plays with noise and melody, much like many underground guitar bands of the 90s and early 2000s did; worth checking out.

Clairaudience is a psychic skill, allowing people to hear things through extra-sensory ability. It is also a five-piece from Brooklyn, featuring a few Aussies, who have just released Sun Damage (out through Feral Media - grab the ltd ed cassette here). It's 6 tracks of warbling sun-dappled pop eloquence - I'm especially loving the chugging 'April' and 'Sovereign Of The Seas' - reminds me of Yo La Tengo somewhat - while the little organ underpinning 'Step To Step' is heaps of fun. Can't wait to hear more, ESP or no.



Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Achieving Next Level Leisure Stress

The inimitable Brisbane outre rock outfit The Stress Of Leisure released their new album Achievement recently, and it is an absolute corker. It isn't the kind of thing you see up here on Sonic Masala that often - probably because Ian Powne and his fellow art apothecaries are such an idiosyncratic proposition. There is no outward impression on or acknowledgement of trends and musical cycles; no desire to slot into a scene or movement. Sure there are whiffs of touchstones - the prickly yet mischievous Graney twirl of 'No Idea Is The New Idea' or the Flying Nun guitar-spangled banner that flutters from 'Goodyear Blimp' - but in the main Achievement slinks along in its own inimitable slipstream, an eternal silent disco that only those embracing the Stress Of Leisure's mode of entertainment can fully appreciate. Powne is a laconic, devilish lyricist, striving to be both self-deprecating and absurd in the same breath, a Pied Piper of abstract angles, taking the edge of accepted norms and living in the wonderful world inside his own head. How often is it that you can chow down on sparkling gems called 'Sylvia Plath' without feeling entitled, overtly literate or dour? Sometimes shirking expectations and enjoying yourself unashamedly is the real achievement of life - and The Stress Of Leisure are here to show us the way.

Totally Mild Time

I stumbled across Totally Mild pretty much by accident in February 2013. The year before I'd asked Melbourne troubadour du jour Lehmann B Smith to come up to Brisbane to play a show for a Lofly gig. I missed it due to an emergency operation, but we kept in touch, and I finally caught him in the flesh when I was in Melbourne to see the MBV & Drones ATP (also playing that night at Bar Open - The Menstrual Cycle AKA Snowy Halliwell Nasdaq et al). He was playing in a friend's band which was - yep - Totally Mild. I really dug it.




It's great to see Elizabeth Mitchell's brainchild not only metamorphose into a larger band concern, or because my memory that night has always been hazy (I raced into Bar Open after two days of drinking at the Altona sweatbox, and had just finished up with Einstürzende Neubaten). It is that Mitchell's melodic music is excellent and deserves to be tickling at everyone's spine. Down Time is TM's debut LP (out through Bedroom Suck and Fire), and it is chock full of pop altruisms and melancholic mantras, knitted together with an elegance and a subtle mischievousness that is impossible to ignore. 


 
A stunning achievement, Down Time can be grabbed here.

Blank Longing

Brisbane's kaleidoscopic pop mavens Blank Realm are keeping their high strike rate with 'River Of Longing', the new single from their upcoming album Illegals In Heaven (which I will review shortly). 'River Of Longing' continues the glossed psychopomp rollercoaster, sped up and shuddering, Sarah Spencer's synth refracting in all directions like a smashed prism, Dan Spencer's vocal stylings extending from last year's 'Reach You On The Phone' as he powers through giddily psychedelic altruisms such meet you on the other side/ and we’ll make up for stolen time. The track mirrors the band's trajectory to be honest - starting out in the outliers of improv noise, slowly compressing into a whirled psych band, while pop machinations ooze through the cracks as the centrifugal forces rise in speed, intensity and insanity... Cracked genius.



You can pre-order Illegals In Heaven from Bedroom Suck and Fire Records. Blank Realm are coming to the UK in September/October:

                                                             14 Sep - Paris - Espace B

15 Sep - Antwerp - Het Bos

16 Sep - Hamburg - Hafenklang

17 Sep - Berlin - Monarch

18 Sep - Offenbach - Hafen 2

19 Sep - Tilburg - Incubate Festival

20 Sep - Rotterdam - Roodkapje

22 Sep - Amsterdam - Sugarfactory

23 Sep - Barcelona - BAM Festival

27 Sep - Dublin - Workmans Club

28 Sep - Glasgow - The Hug and Pint

29 Sep - Brighton - The Prince Albert

30 Sep - Bristol - Start The Bus

01 Oct - London - The Shacklewell Arms

Never Happier When Diving Bunted

Sorry about the inadvertent "week off"! Just as I was saying how great life outside of work has been - and it has been - work felt its ears burning and kicked my arse.

But other half of Sonic Masala Records (AKA the guy still in Brisbane) Nathan is here and the beer and good times floweth forth once more. So to kick off a week that will be predominantly Aussie based, I've inexplicably chosen 'So Bunted' a raucous stab of fuzz-fried rock from Happy Diving (we really enjoyed their Big World record from the beginning of the year). They still love starting their songs with signal squall - brilliant - and drawling through the white noise. Fits into the mould of distorto pop that raucously littered the 90s and is ecstatically back in fashion, 'So Bunted' is on a 7" coming out through Topshelf Records - pre-order here.

SMR008 - Day Ravies' 2nd LP Liminal Zones

I know it seems we have been fairly quiet on here about our next release, but it is now time to shirk the shackles. Sydney four-piece Day Ravies will be bringing out their second LP Liminal Zones through Sonic Masala and their own Strange Pursuits label. Technically their release is this Friday, July 10 - but with vinyl issues in Europe, we won't have their records on call until September, after which they will be embarking on a national tour. Don't fret though! You can hear the entire album over at Rolling Stone here; you will be able to buy digital downloads and CDs from the Strange Pursuits store on Friday - and we will start taking on pre-orders for the vinyl, which includes a limited number of opaque pink LPs for those quick enough to get in! So have a read; have a listen; slide on through to those Liminial Zones.

Here are the dates of the Liminal Zones tour - supports to be announced soon...

October 9 - Brisbane - Bearded Lady 

October 15 - Canberra - Phoenix 

October 16 - Wollongong - Rad Bar 

October 23 - Melbourne - The Tote

October 24 - Adelaide - The Metro

November 6 - Sydney - The Roxbury Glebe 

November 14 - Hobart - The Grand Poobah