Fox On Stilts

Melbourne’s finest space-punk raconteurs are back with a new single, titled ‘Fat Monk’, taken from their hotly anticipated second album Let Music & Bodies Unite, out through Sensory Projects in September. Strangely though, this new track reminds me more of Adrian Tregonning, Andrew Noble and Daphne Shum’s other band No Zu, whom they perform live with rather than write material for (that’s left up to No Zu’s Nicolaas Oogjes). And unlike Rat vs Possum’s excellent debut album Daughter Of Sunshine, which was heavily infused with a riotous jungle spirit, with a lot of eclectic electronic sounds mixing with unusually warped percussion, ‘Fat Monk’ rides heavily on a scatty multi-layered synth line and a bouncy bass riff. Shum’s vocals are also a dominant force, much like those of a staunch shoegaze artist shouting through a wall of vociferous noise. There’s also a lack of layers attached to this new song, unless you count the intertwining synths, which perhaps suggests that the band is sticking to a more traditional formula, closing the lid on further ambitious experimentations. One critic has already noted that Let Music & Bodies Unite is more accessible than Daughter Of Sunshine.

Melbourne fans can see the band play their first live show since finishing the album, on August 20, as part of the launch of SMEG’s Fringe play Nausea’s Reprieve at TopShed in Fitzroy.

You can purchase Rat vs Possum’s debut album Daughters Of Sunshine and other selected band merchandise from their bandcamp page.

Rat vs Possum- Fat Monk: MP3

Grab a high quality download of ‘Fat Monk’

Rat vs Possum on Facebook

Posted by Nick Fulton under Australia, Melbourne
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I’m A Lost Cowboy

Former Christchurch – now Melbourne – dweller Dove Bailey has created a sequel to his previous musical project FuturNari and has called it A art. In line with his previous solo release Another Unlikely Hero: II, the Game Boy/chiptune artist has stuck with the game sounds but gone all sentimental, with lyrics about indecisive feelings and conflicting emotions. Using two Game Boys, one playing chords and the other providing drone (filtered through a Korg Monotron), and a distorted floor tom, his songs are bleak and saturated with sad miscalculations about life. One would hope Dove’s music doesn’t reflect what’s going on in his real life, because his songs reveal a very negative outlook. Unlike his previous release, which sounded more like a boy messing around creating quirky sound effects, A art can not be dismissed as in-offensive dance pop. The songs here portray characteristics of his previous experience with chiptune, but offer a more discerned and mature approach towards creating something meaningful and musical.

You can name your own price for a download of Dove’s A art EP from his Bandcamp page.

A art- Every So Often: MP3

A art- I Can Guess: MP3

Posted by Nick Fulton under Australia, Melbourne
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Beard/No Beard

A Dead Forest Index finally have their first video. Directed, shot and edited by their friend Leah Robertson, the video for ‘Distance’ (from the band’s Antique EP) has a natural feel that captures the band really well. Interlacing clips of them playing on a deck with footage of them and a few others observing a strange, slow, gypsy dance performed by the suavely-suited Vachel Spirason, the easy, straight-forward video style lends a relaxed nature to the band. Instead of going for something dramatic and atmospheric, which could have easily accompanied a song of such emotional weight, Leah has captured the band at their casual best, and given Sam (percussion) and Adam Sherry (vocals, guitar)’s personalities the space to shine. It’s great to see further things being released by one of our favourite bands.

Download A Dead Forest Index’s Antique EP for free (released via New Zealand label Sonorous Circle).

A Dead Forest Index- Facebook

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Australia, Melbourne
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Spiritual Heatwave/ No Doz

NO ZU were one of the best kept secrets of Campus A Low Hum 2011, a wonderfully surprising party band that encouraged everyone to dance. Once Nick and I arrived home in Auckland and wiped the grins off our faces and the camping grime off our skin, we discovered a lovely email from NO ZU’s main man, Nicolaas Oogjes. The multi-instrumentalist (who played in Tantrums for a year and also Tic Toc Tokyo) alerted us to his band of revolving members’ free download EP that was released by New Weird Australia on February 10. A warped and wicked, slanted psych dance collaboration of unsettled horns, itchy drums, plunky bass and seriously sun-damaged synths, New Age is a mind-bending, lighthearted listen. Standout ‘Ghastly Blank’ installs My Disco-style brutal bass chunks with The Fall’s brand of spontaneous and distant vocals with foghorn melodies. It’s other-world dance, alien trance and visceral punk all rolled into one, and while it feels considerably different to their high-energy, relentlessly funky CALH sets, it still has the same enrapturing, curious style that made them so exciting in the first place.

NO ZU- Ghastly Blank: MP3

Download NO ZU- New Age for free

NO ZU- Facebook

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Australia, Melbourne
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Turning The Distance Into A Pattern

Adam and Sam Sherry have been sitting on these songs for about a year now, having recorded a full album’s worth of material at Auckland’s York Street studios in October 2009. Finally they’ve made the decision to release a new EP, using three tracks from the York St sessions and a live recording of their song ‘Turning’.

The four tracks carry on A Dead Forest Index’s dark, ethereal vision, combining heavy drum beats and layered vocal patterns to form haunting saturnine melodies.  ‘Anchoring The Hands’, previously posted here on EMJ, begins as a chugging pop song before Adam Sherry’s voice is put into a spiralling loop, repeating two poetic phrases simultaneously.  ‘Under A Winter Sun’ is a brilliant piece  of vocal tapestry, with vocals layered on top of each other like building blocks creating a powerful church-like chant. New single ‘Distance’ is where the brothers combine, through a series of fiery metaphors. You can hear the determination in Adam’s voice as he becomes more impassioned as the song progresses, before fading out via a beautiful melodic hum.

A Dead Forest Index’s latest EP, Antique, can be purchased via Bandcamp for just $4.

A Dead Forest Index- Distance: MP3

A Dead Forest Index- Myspace

Image by Leah Robertson

Posted by Nick Fulton under Australia, Melbourne
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Fifteen Golden Balls

By now the name Sharpie Crows should be inscribed on your work desk. They’ve already cemented themselves alongside Die! Die! Die! as the best New Zealand band of the last decade and this song just confirms their ferocity, derailing rumours of a band rift and an impending breakup. ‘Fifteen Golden Balls pt. 2′ appeared on a recent Mole Music sampler; showcasing a bunch of new and old bands associated with the small New Zealand indie label. The Sharpie Crows song is clearly the highlight of the 6 track sampler, which also features songs by Rifles, Nevernudes, Mild America, The Body Lyre and Deer Park. Returning to Melbourne after touring New Zealand last November the band expelled their original bass player Josh Jenkins and has been playing with a temporary bass player who, according to Mole Music’s Sam Walsh, has also now left the band. However ‘Fifteen Golden Balls pt. 2′ and several other Golden Balls tracks, rumoured to be from an upcoming Sharpie Crows EP were recorded with Jenkins, and his unmistakable bass notes perfectly in time with drummer Jackson Hobbs’ heavy beats again give the band a thumping echo. Like many of the songs on the band’s last album Greed, ‘Fifteen Golden Balls pt. 2′ is driven by the rhythm section that lay a staunch foundation for keyboard/vocalist Sam Bradford and guitarist Casey Latimer to play cat-and-mouse, interlocking their unpredictable instrumental personalities. It’s Sharpie Crows’ most colourful song to date, with delay and reverb used on Bradford’s voice to provide a harmonic cushion from the more abrasive elements of their sound. There are rumours of a Sharpie Crows album and an EP before the end of 2010.

Sharpie Crows- Fifteen Golden Balls pt. 2: MP3

Sharpie Crows- Myspace

Download The Burrow Pt.1 free Mole Music sampler

Posted by Nick Fulton under Australia, Melbourne
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Salem To The Moon

Those of you who witnessed Salem’s totally suck-arse performance at SXSW earlier this year and consequently gave up on the band might now have something new to champion. Australia has a death drone band up to the challenge, contorting and weaving a bleak electronic pulse that will pinch every nerve in your spinal chord. Unlike Salem, Caught Ship sound more like a power surge than a dead circuit. Their music is littered with starry electronics and is built around a repetitive wave of bass and keyboard drone. It’s more organic with a strong emphasis on instrumentation, both live and recorded, allowing fans to interact and recognise the music being built in front of them. There are no dead ends, Caught Ship are live-wire zombies; a gloomy sound with an extroverted personality. Vocalist Ben Snaith is reminiscent of a young David Byrne, dancing like a spazz with his arms swinging and he leans into the microphone like Richard Hell. Their performance from Saxbrowl Sunday on May 30th looks more like a scene from CBGB in 1976 New York, during the height of new wave when freaks like The Voidoids and Blondie ruled the throne, than from a small bar in down town Melbourne.

The band has two official releases, both on small boutique labels. A split CD-R with Whyte Lytening released on Bedroom Suck Records and a cassette tape released on Totem Tapes, a cassette label based in Melbourne. They also had a song included on a recent volume of the New Weird Australia mixtape, released in March.

Caught Ship has played shows with A Dead Forest Index, Sharpie Crows, Paint Your Golden Face and TANTRUMS and come highly recommended by our friends in Melbourne.

Caught Ship- BlackHoleSlashSweetBeat: MP3

Caught Ship- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under Australia, Melbourne
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Pistol Grip Prodigy

This is what happens when three of New Zealand’s best bands move to Melbourne. Street Chant‘s Alex Brown, Sharpie Crows‘ Casey Latimer and Damsels‘ Adam Fulton have joined forces to create a hellishly exciting new band named Eeling. The trio shred, scream and pound their instruments into a furious ball of noise, creating a wickedly brutal sound reciprocating bands like Holy Molar, Head Wound City and their Three One G brothers, plus bands like Aids Wolf and Athletic Automation from the Skin Graft Records label. Local fans might find them similar to TFF or one of Casey’s former bands, Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing. Check out this track they sent me, it’s called ‘Raetihi’.

Eeling- Raetihi: MP3

Eeling- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under Australia, Melbourne
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Echo My Unborn Children’s Voices

In August 2009, brothers Adam and Sam Sherry returned home to record their debut album (out in early 2010) at Auckland’s York St Studios with their friend and engineer Simon Gooding (Over The Atlantic, 7 Worlds Collide). The brothers, who once called Auckland home moved overseas in their late teens. Sam moved to the UK and Adam travelled throughout Europe, following around one of his musical heroes, a Romanian gypsy band named Taraf de Haidouks. They both now live in Melbourne, Australia.

‘Anchoring The Hands’ is the duo’s first single and comes after their entrancing first EP Empty And Dark I Shall Raise My Lantern, that introduced fans to their unique blend of chemically infused vocal loops, dark minimalist drum beats and sparse, audacious guitar chords. The song perfectly displays a complete cross section of their musical collection, and brings together different elements of their vast song writing structure. They are at one time a chugging indie pop band; at another turn they blend Gothic rhythms and Eastern European symphonies; and around another corner they are a beautifully disciplined vocal group. Where some of A Dead Forest Index’s other songs focus on just one of those elements, ‘Anchoring The Hands’ contains them all.

A Dead Forest Index recently completed a month long reservation at Melbourne music venue The Workers Club, where they gained some rave reviews for their unique use of vocal loops and haunting harmonies. In January they are heading to New Zealand to play at the Campus A Low Hum festival and a show at Auckland’s Wine Cellar.

A Dead Forest Index in New Zealand

January 23,24,25- Campus A Low Hum Festival, Bulls

January 27- The Wine Cellar, Auckland (with Dear Time’s Waste)

 A Dead Forest Index- Anchoring The Hands: MP3

 A Dead Forest Index- Myspace

 Buy A Dead Forest Index’s EP Empty And Dark I Shall Raise My Lantern

Posted by Nick Fulton under Australia, Melbourne
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Midi-Evil Disco

Colourful triptychs of melancholy melodies collide with frosty drum machine ticks and rainbows of atmospherics layered upon eachother. The imploding sound cleverly dubbed “midi-evil disco” is the creation of Melbourne’s T A N T R U M S; Jade McInally (vocals/guitar/keys), Sarah Phelan (guitar/keys/production/programming) and Nicolaas Oogjes (percussion/trumpet). Taking the moodiness and bleak aura of Joy Division, extracting the relative revelations of PiL, and the subtleties of entirely their own doing, they have stumbled upon the makeup of a greatly unique and intriguing band. Like abstract symphonies soundtracking an art school thriller film instilled with the tribal percussion of Telepathe (particularly on song ‘Third Movement’) and the airy eeriness of The Virgin Suicides soundtrack, the output of this relatively new band has been documented some, and they’re currently recording some more. Keep your eyes and ears open for their upcoming releases, they’re bound to be interesting.

T A N T R U M S- Myspace

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Australia, Melbourne
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