Posts Tagged ‘Sydney’

May
07
posted by tommy

I should preface this right now by saying that the record in question isn’t for the faint of heart. If you’re looking for sweet sounds, close this page and come back later in the week. Consider this a temporary respite. It’s simply that Oberon will likely find itself in my top five Australian releases of the year so I figured I’d better write something on it so that when that list appears there isn’t gross public outcry. “What!? Why haven’t didn’t you mention it then, tossbag!?”. The band is made up dudes from Parades, I.I, Jonathan Boulet, Light Giant and Sleepyhands. Plot that on a genre graph why don’t you.

Look, let’s get this out in the opening early: I’m smitten with this record. I’ve been listening to it constantly and unabridged for the past two weeks, declaring it the bees balls and mostly sweating on anyone who’ll listen. Amongst this I’ve wondered how folks that have never been purveyors of heavier music have picked up on this record so excitedly but I think the answer is simple enough; Oberon transcends traditional genrefication. Snakeface refuse to attend to your heavy music heart using the tried and tested formula. Here’s a list of features that are absent on Oberon:

• Breakdowns • Gutteral vocals
• Drops • Mosh
• I don’t know how to make it a noun, but the nominal form of ‘unrelenting’. This record relents. • Constant, directionless noise

For better or for worse, Oberon has somehow managed to position itself outside the spectrum of heavy music, at least in my eyes. It could be the absence of the earlier listed features or it could be some other unidentifiable anomale. There are moments where I know I should say “this smells like Converge” but I don’t, and I don’t know why. So you can keep your Northlanes, your Dream On Dreamers and your freshly cut cookies, I’ll have Oberon thanks.

The record opens with the Spaghetti Western brooder ‘Listen Up’. What I actually thought was electric guitar I’ve since discovered to be vocals auto-tuned so as to be unrecognizable and the effect is disquieting to say the least, and indeed, the most. It’s disconcerting and a worthy introduction before the meat arrives in track 2 ‘Devil’s Leap’, which is the first the first of the the record’s decelerations of grit. ‘Devil’s Leap’ is a lurching drunk, wandering the streets shouting obscenities while his late life, years-of-green induced neuroses lend themselves to voices in his dome.

‘Cash Grab’ is a more straight down the line nadcrusher laced with societal rage. “When was the last time you looked at your surroundings?”. Probably not recently enough. The track swells and swells with a third voice making its entrance before the vocal swarm takes over then the wave once again crashes back into uncertain twings and twangs punctuated by silence as much as noise. The song crushes out before it can build into the mosh part that kids have saved their best two-step for and I think that’s why I’m appreciating this record so damn much. There’s no pavlovian moments where Snakeface buy into the prevailing way of things. Somehow modern hardcore has convinced itself that the only way to demonstrate anger, sadness, rage or guilt is with more noise. Not so Snakeface. The tracks ‘Oberon’ and ‘Oberon ii’ are interludes between the interludes, both backed by a single resounding, organ tone. Ergo, the album rings out with of the run-down, the poor and the underfoot. Let’s also take a moment here to welcome ‘ergo’ to the Sound Doctrine word family. A great debut appearance.

A good portion of the record is centered on throbbing riffery, notably tracks like ‘Scum’ and ‘Occupy’ though this isn’t to be confused with “crushing guitars” which are thankful absent. ‘Occupy’ is a brash call to action prefaced by the slamming of a rusted door, that places the entirety of the song in abandonded country yard, probably in the deep of night, and if the house’s occupants are anything like the band members they’re touching themselves inappropriately. Distortion swells until it swallows.

I think music pundit Joe Hardy put it best when he said that this record contains “a tangible sense of Australian identity that feels neither contrived or forced, nor cringeworthy”. At no point during the 29 minutes that is Oberon did I feel like Snakeface were trying to demonstrate a sense of Australianism yet the record is unmistakeably Australian.

Oberon: $10/$10

Head to the Snakeface bandcamp to get a hold of the digital release or pre-order the vinyl/documentary combination which will ship in a little over a week.

Apr
26
posted by tommy

The Falls are a two piece from Sydney that appear to have pretty equally portioned male and female vocals. While I have nothing negative to say of the female vocals I really like the dude’s voice and when the two come together it’s generally a good time. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. They are a fairly straight down the line folk outfit sans gimmicks and frills. It’s simply a pair of voices mingling over what is for the most part just an acoustic guitar, and as it has for hundreds, nay thousands of artists through the years, it just works. The highlight from their “four track demo”, which strangely only features three tracks is ‘Home’, a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes release. They may not be breaking down the door of musical ingenuity but there’s an authenticity residing in their simplicity that will speak to even the most folk-jaded soul.

They’re playing a whole swathe of shows over the next few months, including a residency at the Art Gallery of NSW’s Art After Hours, which I will be clearing my schedule to attend. If you live in Bathurst then you’d be a fool to miss their show with Packwood at the Australian Fossil & Mineral Museum which will be both a fun night out and a geological adventure.

The Falls – Home [DOWNLOAD]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[EDIT: I’ve had this one in the bank for a little while now and since the time of writing, the shows mentioned, Fossil based or otherwise, have already taken place. AND there were no strings in the version I was listening to at the time.]

Apr
24
posted by tommy

Your already great day is about to get even better with the introduction to a song you’ll be hearing time and time again on Triple J over the next few months. This song is called ‘This Song Is Called Ragged’. See what I did there? It’s far less abrasive than Trounce (which, to make clear, I loved). I like that you can hear the rumbling guitar underneath it all still, which makes me think this will be a guitar driven record in a way that his first was not. His self-titled debut was all about those big, big drum sounds. The base level tribalism that also characterised the first record is still here but the undertone is stonier. You might even say… rockier? I’ve close friends that hated the production on Boulet’s debut but I’m going to stand strong here and say I’m all about this. The weight garnered when those gang vocals come in is undeniable. Let the public rejoice.

Don’t forget to hit the download button over there to get a copy for keepsies. We Keep the Beat, Found the Sound, See the Need, Start the Heart, will be out on June 11 through Modular.

Apr
18
posted by tommy

All we have here is a pair of voices and a Rhodes but my word, I’m liking what happens when the two combine. Seriously, the warmth of that Rhodes sound is enough to fully account for the torrential downpour that’s going to ruin the football I’ll be playing on this, on Darling Harbour this evening. No joke. I don’t pretend to understand the chemical release activated when that Rhodes tone hits my primary auditory cortex but I do get more than appropriately excited, I’ll say that. The party responsible for this recording are a pair of brothers called Mrs Bishop. Hailing from Sweden originally (like The Hives whom they here cover), the duo now reside in Sydney making their particular blend of lilting pop.

You can also here an original of theirs called ‘Broken Wing’ which I don’t think quite as highly of, potentially because it reminds me of a few artists for whom I have very little time. They have a debut EP out at the end of next week and if they can keep the xylophones, glockenspiels and all manner of other twinkling sounds to a minimum, it may be pretty decent.

Apr
16
posted by tommy

My first worry for Sydney band Pockets was that their name had almost certainly been taken by another band somewhere else on God’s green earth, and we were about to see a battle play out on similar proportions to the One Direction vs One Direction conflict which has deeply affected us all. My fears proved unfounded however, as Pockets have since broken up. A new set of fears then arose, derived from my worry that I’m only now listening to the goodworks of a band that I’ll plainly never hear live. Yes, there are other incarnations of the same band members (see the Mountains) and I’ve seen them play way back when, but I want to see these songs played live. Why world, why?

If you couldn’t already tell, I think Pockets are really, really good. There’s a strength of musicianship that transcends the ability to play music that’s popular here and now. These are songs you could come back to in years and still appreciate the craftsmanship of even after the fact, when trends and styles have come and gone. To give you some idea of what you’re about to to listen to, the recipe is something like the following:

  • 1 part Real Estate
  • 2 parst Silversun Pickups
  • 1 part Copeland (ca. 2004)
  • 1 part I Heart Hiroshima

It’s not as black and white as that and there’s a whole lot of exclusive influence tumbled in with the rest but that’s what I’m hearing, that’s what I’m feeling. Below are my two favourite tracks from the record. The sun-soaked vocal harmonies in ‘Caretaker’ are pleasing, wrapped around a guitar melody that’s reclining on a bed of doo-wops. ‘Telescopes’ starts with some rare lone wolf vocals from Trevor Davis (which the record could easily have had more of) and concludes with a guitar part to delight any lo-fi, post-rock officianado. If you don’t have any money to spare, worry not, you need make no greater offering than the thirty seconds it’ll take you to click this link and hit the ‘Free Download’ button.

Previous
Next