Archive for March, 2019
If you brought my accountant Trevor in here and said “Trevor, break the numbers down for me”, he’d immediately tell you that across the board, through the years of Sound Doctrine, Simon Lam is the most written about artist. I’d ask you not to though, because Trevor bills by the hour and I’ve not paid his last two invoices so I’d prefer if you didn’t invite him onto my digital property. Oh good grief, he heard you say his name and he’s here already. GO HOME TREVOR.
Admittedly I’ve never written about Simon Lam under his own name, covering him as one third of I’lls, one half of Kllo and one hundred percent of Nearly Oratorio. It’s in his most holistic format that we’re hearing him again tonight, the face voice and production behind Nearly Oratorio. I like to think of this as his low-risk project, where he can release whatever he damn wants and to hell with the critical and commercial outcome. It’s the liberation from consequence I suspect, that means it’s here that he offers up some of his best art, and the new one Juniper proves me right again.
His vocals are tiny, the keys are caressed and it’s the sort of song you find yourself physically leaning towards, hoping to glean its inner secrets via closer inspection. Try as you might, you won’t crack it, for Lam is warlock of the highest order and his secrets won’t be plumbed by your normie energy. Cop the song, EP on the way soon.
Last time PD graced the glossy pages of Sound Doc was April 2016, when they unceremoniously made their opening move – a two-tracker featuring a single by the name of ‘The Living Man’. Roundabout a year later and both those songs found their way onto a full length (also called The Living Man). In the time shortly prior to its release and in the months thereafter, they lent their full weight to their anvil-heavy live show and are, in my humble opinion, one of the very few truly essential Australian live performances currently in effect. It’s blistering catharsis, strobing intensity, distorted horn blasts, synth stabs and Jonathan Boulet’s best efforts to lay waste to his kit. They’re a band who’s byproduct is not just light but also heat.
And now, we arrive in the now, with the duo having just releasing their first new music of the year. It’s simply titled ‘Party Dozen’, chosen because the song itself is a fair, holistic reflection of what the duo are all about. The accompanying video parallels that same frenetic anxiety that’s in everything the band do and just like their previous output, this song transcends all efforts made to categorise the sounds. It’s a ven diagram with variously labelled circles like ‘rave’, ‘metal’, ‘jazz’, ‘experimental’ and ‘instrumental’ and the band found squarely within the imbricate space. Noone knows what this business is and scientists have put thousands of hours and 2 million in funding into the issue and we’re none the closer. Apply your ears and eyes to the great mystery below.
The video was shot by Jack Saltmiras who also shot Exhibitionist’s glorious ‘Hands’ video in 2017. Makes sense too, given that Exhibitionist is in fact Kirsty Tickle, saxophonist and one half of Party Dozen. And for one final connection, Jack Saltmiras makes/once made music under the name of Skeleton Jack who turned up on Sound Doc back in 2013.
Artists you need to know rn
| 1. 1300 |  |
316 |
| 2. Voidhood | |
259 | 3. jamesjamesjames | |
186 | 4. Zan | |
174 |
| 5. Sesame Girl | |
147 |
