Archive for November, 2022
Full Circle member FRIDAY*’s been on a bit of a tear the last few months. He’s just released a new double single, p*nk, featuring the melancholic punk and the raucous pink. Individually, the songs are auditory collages, bringing together moments of FRIDAY*’s life for a split second, offering a pinhole camera-like view into his world. Together, they demonstrate FRIDAY*’s versatility, painting an image of an artist that’s driven not by genre but by the desire to create whatever he feels like at that particular moment.
Reading back on the tone of Sound Doctrine (as well as this frankly chaotic piece I wrote for Tommy a fair few years ago), I initially tried to work out how to be funny in this review, but quickly realised that I’d much rather be sincere. Australian music, by and large, has progressed in the last few years to a point where collectives like Full Circle can openly express their ambition and find a community that welcomes them for it. I find that refreshing.
I’m particularly entranced by ‘punk’. I’ve enjoyed all of FRIDAY*’s releases to date, but this one is arguably his most focused, clocking in just under two minutes. Bringing together elements like a gentle guitar line, slightly altered vocals and a driving drum beat, it’s lyrically self-admonishing, featuring snippets like “give me a contract and I’ll breach it”. There’s a sense that each line comes with its own story, but really, FRIDAY* leaves it mostly up to you to fill the gaps in ‘punk’ for everyone to fill in your own way.
That said, pink is just over a minute long, and if you squint, you can imagine your favourite garage rock act creating a song like this. Before long it collapses inwards, consumed by the chaos. Both songs could exist on their own but like the cover art suggests, they represent two different aspects of his artistry and best exist in parallel. One character sports a mohawk, the other the word “Yuth” – presumably a reference to the Sydney fashion label of the same name. FRIDAY* contains multitudes.
I might be completely wrong, though and that’s the joy of listening to music and writing about it – even when you’re wrong, you’re usually right (at least, that’s what I tell myself). Oh, one last thing – give FRIDAY* his Twitter account back. You can learn more about the campaign to get him unbanned here. #FREEFRIDAY
P.S: Not sure if Tommy will include this, but wanted to use this section as a chance to introduce a new joke. Back in the day, there was a joke involving 360 that went “Why is he called 360? Because when you hear his music you do a 360 and walk away”. I’m updating it for 2022. “Why are they called Full Circle? Because when you hear their music you do a Full Circle and walk away.” You’re welcome.
[editors note: That joke doesn't make any sense at all. a 360 degree turn would see you facing exactly as you were to start with. Nonsense.]
In 2020 the don Hau Latukefu showed me this clip of a teenage artist from Mr Druitt called Vv Pete. She’s sat in front of OneFour among others, spitting with total confidence having never formally released a record and commanding the space from nothing but an office chair. Fast forward two years and she drops her first single, a bouncy club record called Bussit. I gave that one a little four and a half star moment of triple j Unearthed (digital website, you gotta check it out).
That was June, this is November and now a nineteen year old Vv Pete has gone and offered up one of my favourite Australia rap releases of 2022. It’s called Frauds and in a nice little full-circle moment, you’ll hear that it’s largely the same song she performed in that office chair back in 2020. The evolution of it sees her flesh the record out more fully and rope in none other than Cassius Select on production duties which is… inspired. If the name’s familiar it’s because he’s been a staple of experimental electronic music in Australia for well over a decade, harkening back to one of his first projects Guerre which funnily enough, I wrote about around 10 years ago now. He was also part of iconic Sydney trio Black Vanilla around that time too, worth a little snoop if you never caught ‘em. The track and video is holistically surrounded by great people. Co-production by Trackwork record label founder UTILITY, additional mixing and production by T.Morimoto (another artist I wrote about under a different name many moons ago) and music video design by Russell Fitzgibbon (aka Skeleten / formerly of FISHING)
The partnership between rapper and producer here is so interesting because you can hear so much of both identities in the track while neither feel compromised. If you’re a hip-hop A&R out there rn, take notes, because this is a key example of how you don’t have to run the same beat track that every other next-up rapper is running on to make an impact. A week ago FBi gave the Sudanese icon their SMAC award for ‘Next Big Thing’ and you know what? Fairs. The hook on this record is immaculate and I can see why they opted to lean into it so hard in the chorus between her supremely laid-back verses. A proper favourite here.
Artists you need to know rn
| 1. 1300 |  |
316 |
| 2. Voidhood | |
259 | 3. jamesjamesjames | |
186 | 4. Zan | |
174 |
| 5. Sesame Girl | |
147 |
