Words: Doug Wallen
Band image: Gunay
After nearly a year and a half between releases, Naarm/Melbourne psych-punk trio Bitch Diesel are suddenly a flurry of activity, dropping a new four-song tape on the way to a full album later this year.
Category Archives: Listen
New tracks and first thoughts can be found here.
Premiere: JULIAN TEAKLE – NEW HOBART (ROUGH SKIES RECORDS, 2021)
Words: James Frostick and Julian Teakle
Artist image: Wil Moon
Cover art: Brendan Boucher
Julian Teakle of iconic Nipaluna/Hobart two-piece The Native Cats is pivoting from TNC’s signature throbbing bass-heavy post-punk sound on his brand-new solo album. Via his own interpretation of stripped-back (but still punk-influenced) jangle, New Hobart (out today via Rough Skies Records) sees Julian exorcising his frustrations with the more aggravating aspects of modern living, delicately balancing the airing of grievances with personal musings on mental health, perseverance and living without regrets. We’re extremely privileged to be giving the record its debut spin, which we are sharing alongside a Q&A with the artist himself.
Continue reading Premiere: JULIAN TEAKLE – NEW HOBART (ROUGH SKIES RECORDS, 2021)
Premiere: DEVOTIONS – ‘FINAL GIRL’ / ‘MODELING’
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Ruby Gabe Varbørton and Bridghid Russell
A couple of years on from the release of introductory statement ‘Nil By Mouth’, dream-pop duo Devotions return with a lush double A-side single. Serene and surreal, both tracks boast blissful waves of luxuriant dream-pop sound – the kind that is effortlessly easy to sink into, but impossibly hard to extricate one’s self from.
Continue reading Premiere: DEVOTIONS – ‘FINAL GIRL’ / ‘MODELING’
Premiere: TANGLED SHOELACES – ‘THE BIGGEST MOVIE EVER MADE’
Words: James Frostick
Album art: Carolyn Hawkins
Continuing its recent trend of bringing sounds from bygone decades into the present, esteemed label Chapter Music is today announcing the forthcoming release of Turn My Dial – The M Squared Recordings and more, 1981-84 – a reissue of tracks from Meanjin/Brisbane-born teenage-pop prodigies Tangled Shoelaces. Charting the group’s recorded work over a three-year period, this compilation showcases not only the group’s undeniable knack for song-craft, but also eerily prognosticates sounds that would come to shape Australia’s music scene in the ensuing decades.
Continue reading Premiere: TANGLED SHOELACES – ‘THE BIGGEST MOVIE EVER MADE’
Premiere: CRAZYTOWN! – XMAS IN JULY (DERO ARCADE, 2021)
Words: James Frostick
Naarm-based crew Crazytown! is indulging in a bit of belated festive cheer with Xmas In July – a splendid slab of sweaty, synthetic strange out today via Dero Arcade. Hard to pin down but easy to pick up, the members of Crazytown! have hijacked Santa’s sleigh and set about delivering this gift far and wide. Today we’re chuffed to be premiering the release, a collection of crocked club-friendly carols for the subterranean set.
Continue reading Premiere: CRAZYTOWN! – XMAS IN JULY (DERO ARCADE, 2021)
Listen: BODY MAINTENANCE – ‘SHEETS’
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Holly Buckley
Drawing in and extrapolating on the sounds of its 80s-era Mancunian forebears, Naarm-based post-punk quintet Body Maintenance is following up a demo and live tape with a bristling self-titled 12″ EP. The band’s severe and surly sound is encapsulated on lead single ‘Sheets’, an austere assault of anxious writhe and pitiless pace.
Video Premiere: BABY DOLL EYES – ‘PIZZA FACE BOY’
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Daniel Ward
Bedroom pop made with a punk attitude, the music of duo Baby Doll Eyes is a masterclass in scuffed-up energy and campy spunk. Yesterday the two-piece dropped a nine-track cassette full of bent and subversive jams via Dero Arcade and are keeping the release celebrations going with the visuals for standout track ‘Pizza Face Boy’, a punchy encapsulation of Baby Doll Eyes’ eclectic and electric approach to danceable discord.
Continue reading Video Premiere: BABY DOLL EYES – ‘PIZZA FACE BOY’
Premiere: SPIRITUAL MAFIA – ‘BODY’
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Lewis Hodgson
Cover art: Roland Hlavka
An assortment of musicians from underground hitters such as Cuntz, Exek, Ausmuteants and Spray Paint have converged to form Spiritual Mafia – a five-man unit that taps into a more primitive side of post-punk. In March the crew will release its debut album Alfresco via Anti Fade Records, but not before making pulses quicken with lead single ‘Body’ – a muscular slab of vigorous and vaguely malevolent chug that is propelled by a sense of primeval physicality. Continue reading Premiere: SPIRITUAL MAFIA – ‘BODY’
Premiere: LOW FLUNG – ‘CHIPBOARD’
Words: James Frostick
New South Wales-based producer Danny Wild is kicking off 2020 with a brand-new full-length Low Flung album. Microscope Impressions – out later this week via Nice Music – sees Danny synthesising organic and inorganic sound into something both innately familiar and decidedly alien. The album’s second single ‘Chipboard’ exemplifies this dichotomy perfectly – elemental ambience is warped and re-contextualised, creating vast new sonic realms to explore.
Premiere: MOPE CITY – ‘ROCKET SURGERY’
Words: James Frostick
With a new full-length album primed and ready to drop at the end of April, Bulanaming/Marrickville downer-rock four-piece Mope City begin to whir and crank into gear. To build anticipation for the release, the group is whetting appetites with a somewhat unusual taster – a limited-edition four-track cassette EP containing first single ‘Rocket Surgery’ and three bonus tracks. ‘Rocket Surgery’ sets a suitably dour tone, pairing claustrophobic creep and browbeating fuzz with lashings of disaffected ideation. Continue reading Premiere: MOPE CITY – ‘ROCKET SURGERY’
Weirdo Wasteland 