Dan Bigna

The Black Keys

The sticker attached to the cover of this latest Black Keys album reads “Play it Loud”. This recommendation makes perfect sense from the onset of the lowdown, somewhat sleazy opening chords to Lonely Boy, an all-out rocker in the vein of that fantastic raunch from early 1970s Rolling Stones. That wobbly decade perfectly suits the funky, stripped back yet over the top vibes suffusing each hard hitting nugget on El Camino. Like on Gold on the Ceiling, where the enthused female chorus raises the earthy rhythmic stomp to the roof in the vein of Ziggy Stardust, Marc Bolan and all those rockin’ pre-disco glam tunes. It all works well, so when vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach is ready to “run right back to her”, he does so to fulfil a pressing physical need expressed by the music. I still find it fascinating that no-count ‘60s garage punk could exert a strong pull in early 21^st century Ohio where the two-piece first hooked up to tap into a rock ‘n’ roll authenticity with little other than a guitar, basic drum kit and a primal desire coursing through the veins. When the band teamed up with esteemed producer Danger Mouse in 2005 the sound opened right up particularly on Brothers from 2010, but this didn’t necessarily mean a refined sensibility was on the cards. El Camino is a conscious step back into the garage, and reveals a positive direction in the eternal quest for an essential stripped down wail.

SoundOut 2012 - Experiments In Sound

It becomes a drag finding oneself seemingly forever stuck in queues at rock festivals where you're subjected to cheering for sounds hopelessly out of reach. But a complete turnaround of this feeling took place at free music festival SoundOut 2011. Held at The Street Theatre last January the experimental/free jazz/improvisational event featured a stellar line-up of local and international performers who traversed an arc encompassing microtonal electro-acoustics, uniquely configured group improvisations and full on sonic blasts from the likes of Swedish power trio The Thing that shook the floor and ceiling of the intimate theatre with visceral force.

So too will SOUNDOUT 2012 enliven the senses of discerning music fans with an engaging line-up including Japanese electro-acoustic artist Toshimaru Nakamaru whose instrument of choice is a mixing console; French saxophonist Christine Sehnaoui; and Melbourne based percussionist Robbie Avenaim. Festival organiser Richard Johnson is devoted to promoting the many joys of improvised music, and has overcome funding difficulties this year to ensure festival goers are treated to diverse and stimulating performances from musicians the world over that will illuminate limitless possibilities and unique configurations.

In this respect SoundOut has been inspired by an observation from guitarist Derek Bailey when organising European Company performances in the '70s that “for some time it has seemed that the most interesting results in free improvisation come from the semi ad-hoc groupings of musicians.” Johnson improvises on a variety of instruments himself, including conical gourds, and he has enthusiastically run with Derek Bailey’s idea in order to promote improvised music in Canberra.

“Experimental music, especially free improvisation and free jazz, always has a place and it speaks volumes to the fact that we can keep on drawing both performers and audiences to a festival of this nature and to Canberra,” he says. “We have things here like Summernats and we’ve now got McDonald's in full frontal view in Civic. The McDonald's culture is about fast food, and SoundOut is about deep listening and if improvised music is doing anything worthwhile it’s opening people’s ears.”

This intent stems from the very nature of improvised music to focus on deep creative exploration beyond quick fix capture and dissemination. Free improv isn’t about momentary distractions that are all the rage in mainstream culture. To fully appreciate what is going on the audience needs to engage with the music which, in turn, is a product of both the environment in which it is created and the combinations of featured performers.

“Each individual festival is unique in the sense of the individual musicians appearing at it,” Johnson says. “And they don’t necessarily come to play together at any other time. So a festival of improvised music is unique in that it creates an environment for people who’ve hardly played together or never played together. People are coming together with a common language or maybe striving towards a language that is diverse and open in a free improvisational setting; a new language in sound.”

This idea of working towards a new musical language is taken up by percussionist and SoundOut performer Evan Dorrian who is also known as one half of improvisational music duo Spartak. Dorrian says the language of improvisation is about, “spontaneity and making things up in the moment, and for me it has a strong reactionary element to it. Especially the sort of improvising that will happen at SoundOut. It’s to do with the performers reacting to each other and playing with people you have never performed with before. In that sense there is a conversational element to it by being able to get together with players with a common language that involves being able to adapt and improvise.”

Dorrian likens improvising on the drum kit to a free flowing discourse between performer and audience in much in the same way as the punk rockers of the late '70s pursued an open exchange of art and ideas that negated commercial ‘artists’ pandering to passive consumers. “It’s about relating music and sound to a conversation," Dorrian confirms. "At one point somebody will perhaps take the lead and then other people will contribute. Then somebody else will have a strong idea and have a go at the lead and it goes on like that.” 

The outcome is a joyous musical freedom, and festivals like SoundOut promote an openness of expression that is new and spontaneous. Dorrian observes that, “there’s an exciting element about improvisation by being unsure about what’s going to happen at any given moment. The spontaneity of the collaboration is something that will only happen the once.”

When melded with musical textures and non conventional approaches to familiar instrumentation, the spontaneous flow of ideas advances cultural expression in enjoyable and innovative ways. Anyone who cares about the art they absorb should be checking out SoundOut 2012. This goes for both the audience and participating performers. Richard Johnson points out that for younger musicians such music events “illuminate different directions, making them realise that they can do other things, that they can be composers and improvisers at the same time.” Johnson cares greatly about the music he performs and enjoys, and is living proof that without a high level of enthusiasm and commitment to the cause, such events as SoundOut would remain the stuff of dreams. “Yesterday I thought ‘this is fantastic,’” he says. “Last year everyone had a ball, everyone got into it and I know the same will happen this year.”

SoundOut 2012 event happens at Canberra Repetory's Theatre 3 on January 27 (7pm-midnight) & 28 (1-5pm & 7pm-midnight). Tix are between $25-40 from 6257 1950 orwww.canberrarep.org.au .

Snowtown

Snowtown jabs viewers sharply in the ribs to remind them that high quality, low budget Australian films continue to drop into cinema land every now and then. The closest Australian comparison is Rowan Woods’ 1998 directorial debut The Boys as both are gritty, semi-fictionalised accounts of horrific murders in suburban working class settings. In both films the crime is the narrative climax to themes that provide insight into the hidden casualties of economic impoverishment and the potentially unpleasant consequences of geographic and social dislocation. Snowtown is set in a faded working class Adelaide suburb where momentary escape from despondency comes from playing the pokies at the local pub. Into this forlorn scene steps John Bunting, a charismatic figure who rallies the local community to the cause of clearing out drug users and sexual deviants. He befriends a single parent family and draws the impressionable Jamie (excellently played by Lucas Pittaway) into a misanthropic eye for an eye world view that is used to justify torture and murder. This is pretty full-on stuff and first time director Justin Kurzel pulls no punches in portraying a vicious lack of human empathy. But Kurzel cleverly avoids resorting to graphic depictions of violence. His expertise is in stark, unsentimental character portraits and muted colours to convey an unsettling desolation and an engaging, slowly unfolding narrative that explores how someone with charisma and confidence can exert influence over others to commit terrible acts. This DVD release is harrowing viewing to be sure and although utterly humourless all the way, is nevertheless compelling Australian cinema at its best.

The Red Crayola

The 1960s conjured all the right stuff when it came to music. For instance, the creative arts would be somewhat lacking had it not been for The Velvet Underground blowing minds in 1966. The Velvets were from cultural centre of the universe New York, and for a while all roads stopped there. But music fans open to new experiences in America also looked south and turned their attention to Texas in particular, a southern US state which turned out some of the most incendiary garage rock of the 1960s attuned to psychedelic delights in a particularly potent way. We all know the blissful gifts from the gods dispensed by the likes of the 13^th Floor Elevators. But then came along the consciousness expanding brilliance of The Red Crayola, who took the lysergic experience to greater heights on acid drenched avant-garage nuggets like Transparent Radiation, giving you the world and a universe of possibilities in short, highly charged bursts. The Parable of Arable Land originally appeared in 1967 on which parched Beatles melodies on churning tunes like Hurricane Fighter Plane

mixed with free-form freakouts from psychedelic travellers in tow named the Familiar Ugly. So, thank the gods for the Charly label which has repackaged this essential missive with attentive remixer Sonic Boom (he formerly of psych-rock obsessives Spacemen 3) who extends mind enlightenment to the nth degree. The inclusion of a wonderful mono mix and revealing bonus tracks is just gravy.

Scaramouche

WILL YOU DO THE FANDANGO?

In earlier days I figured that heaviness was the key to salvation and the heavier the better. I then realised intense music could also be highly psychedelic which is why mind and body expansion from the likes of Sleep and Kyuss worked a particular magic. So too does former Canberra band SCARAMOUCHE craft a fine balance between sounds that heighten consciousness as well as rattle the innards. This becomes clear on the band’s EP Access Denied which brings on rhythms tight and fluid, but also lets rip with the guitars in shifting, multi-coloured patterns. The title track embraces a grungy earthiness with edgy funk driving forward understated progressive moves in case you weren’t paying attention. But that’s not all. Set Sail kicks off with hard and fat riffage from the Radio Birdman songbook with an extended mid section that allows the band to stretch out for a bit.

Scaramouche guitarist Leigh Barker says that “I think a lot of people can find music really exciting if it doesn’t necessarily conform to a particular label, because it’s more likely to be surprising. And I personally love the psychedelic element because it provides a spatial atmosphere that adds a whole new dimension to traditionally heavy rock, and it also opens up for more interesting song structures and musical tangents. As a band, we make a conscious decision not to tie ourselves to any specific genre or label which we hope will be interesting musically.”

Scaramouche formed in 2009 and have successfully translated these ideas into recordings and live performance. A move from Canberra to Melbourne suggests a desire to keep the momentum going and Barker’s perception is that Melbourne “feels to me like a bigger version of Canberra”, which is true to the extent that both Melbourne and Canberra embrace new sounds from bands who are into pushing boundaries. At any one time individual members of the band will embrace the progressive sounds of Motörhead, Earth and Mogwai but a unified vision remains intact. “I think each of us is constantly on the search for musical inspiration,” Barker says, “and incorporating this into our jams always keeps things interesting for us.”

Scaramouche are working towards an album and Barker says that “our big challenge is to blend the raw energy we try to present onstage with a recording that also has depth and imagination which hopefully takes the listener on a journey.” The kick for the band comes from live performance which for Barker is akin to a tasty, sensual high. “We love to play live shows and we get a massive kick out of that feeling when we play well. And when we get a good response from the crowd, or when people approach and congratulate us, it makes it that much sweeter for us.”

Catch Scaramouche, supported by Looking Glass and The London Circuit, live at The ANU Bar on Friday November 11. Tickets are $10 on the door.

1991: The Year Punk Broke

You’d be hard pressed to find a better snapshot of the early 1990s alternative music scene than David Markey’s 1991 tour film The Year Punk Broke. The ‘punk’ in the title is appropriate too as the featured bands (including Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Babes in Toyland) had each taken cues from the 1980s music underground which reveals a line of continuity that belied any notion ‘grunge’ had appeared out of nowhere. In fact the line goes back much further, so it is entirely appropriate that The Ramones are on board to let the kids know that loud and rebellious didn’t wholly belong to Kurt Cobain and J Mascis. A loose narrative thread is provided by Sonic Youth who headlined a rollercoaster 1991 European tour with an entourage that to this day remains a music geek’s wet dream. The in-between concert shots mostly comprising guitarist Thurston Moore engaged in pretentious performance art are a tad annoying, but an undeniable enthusiasm is nevertheless infectious. The upside comes from those moments on stage when a band gels, the energy is pulsing and the crowd love the cascading distortion. There is lots of that in this film which is new to DVD, 20 years after the event. Witnessing Nirvana tear through Negative Creep with Kurt Cobain in full on punk rock destructo mode is sheer viewing pleasure. And what a joy it is to hear sexy Kat Bjelland from Babes in Toyland shred her vocal chords on the wild ride Dustcake Boy. Of course Sonic Youth also come up with the goods with Dirty Boots being simply delicious goo.

Canberra Punk And Beyond

I grew up in leafy Weston Creek and still live there as I’m alright with birds chirping in the trees on a quiet weekday morning. But sometimes I prefer noisier environs once upon a time inhabited by classic punk rock bands like The Saints and Radio Birdman, and for that fix I will head elsewhere. It turns out that had I been of reasonable age in the late 1970s, a short walk to a local hall would have scratched that nagging itch for loud and fast sonics. This I learnt during an illuminating chat with former Canberran Chris Shakallis from punk rock pioneers Young Docteurs, a band which formed in late 1970s suburban Canberra to express an innovative and exciting musical expression well removed from mainstream banality.

This ongoing aim underpins a forthcoming gig with the banner heading CANBERRA PUNK AND BEYOND featuring four key bands with local origins – Young Docteurs, Hellyes, YMGP and Bladderspasms – showing the kids how it should be done. “This gig is the first in a series of things to give people the chance to find out about the wealth and variety of music that has come out of Canberra,” Shakallis says. “It pisses me off that Canberra gets omitted from the wider picture of Australian music, and Canberra was actually part of our uniqueness. We created our own scene with deep roots. The overseas punk scene had filtered through and teenagers in the suburbs heard the murmurings of this new music. It was a real do-it-yourself ethos.

Bands with names like Myxo, Cough Cough (featuring Cathy Green who would go on to play with seminal Sydney punk rockers X) and Guthugga Pipeline sparked life into a nascent alternative music scene that thrives to this day. The Young Docteurs were a driving force and Shakallis’ knowledge of the little documented Canberra punk rock scene which matched the excitement, freshness and energy of its interstate brethren is impressive. “We were just trying to deal with being young people in a city like Canberra and at the fringe of the mainstream,” he says.

Local bands from the suburbs immersed themselves in new and exciting sounds which included healthy and necessary urges to experiment and shake things up. The ongoing fulfilment of such desires has motivated Shakallis to make Canberra Punk and Beyond happen so that music fans can taste a key period of the Australian music underground that hit hard in the nation’s capital. “Punk music used to be a pretty broad style and everyone had their own unique sound which forms the Beyond part of Canberra Punk and Beyond,” he says. “People are going to hear four good rock bands that all have their roots in the Canberra scene. And people can come along, get in amongst it and hear some cranking good music.”

Canberra Punk and Beyond will take place at the ANU Bar on Saturday November 5. Tickets cost $20 + bf and can be purchased through Ticketek.

Nirvana

The entry point to this album is its simplicity – simple riffs, simple arrangements and simple production. Things get more complicated when it comes to the expression of feeling that distinguishes this album from so many punk records that arrived in the wake of the early 1980s hardcore scene. There is an emotional weight to the 12 songs comprising the original 1991 release that although communicating the world view of one individual – songwriter Kurt Cobain – nevertheless found favour with a generation of disaffected teens who catapulted Nevermind to the top of the charts. A deal with the Geffen label and an introduction to producer Butch Vig provided momentum, and this superb 20th year reissue includes on its bonus disc some early sessions recorded with Vig at Smart Studios in Wisconsin in April 1990. This was some twelve months before the Californian sessions that yielded the released version of Nevermind, and those tracks included on this superb deluxe edition reveal a band well rehearsed and entirely comfortable with the sonic intensity found on In Bloom and Lithium. Particularly revealing is a somewhat faithful cover of The Velvet Underground’s Here She Comes Now which provides context for the whole grunge thing and accentuates Nirvana’s extraordinary achievement in introducing a vital legacy to mainstream audiences. Bonus material aside, the real treat on this essential reissue is the fantastic remastering which brings out a concentrated heaviness that completely transforms the original mix.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Esteemed UK magazine Uncut gave this highly enjoyable compilation a bad rap on the grounds that BJM main dude Anton Newcombe peddled little else than second rate garage rock. This is kind of unfair because of the skin tingling in-the-moment feel to the garage good stuff that is a big part of this band’s appeal. It’s distinctly possible there is a new BJM album on the cards because this compilation includes the band’s latest single Illuminomi which – as far as raggedy ass, yet beautifully simple rock ‘n’ roll is concerned ­­– hits the mark with its ultra-cool Velvet Underground downtown vibe. This track is coupled with b-side There’s a War Going On that unashamedly draws on the riff from the ‘60s folk-rock classic Codeine but with distorted production qualities and an always appealing too-cool-for-school attitude to bring it into the here and now. But Anton Newcombe is about so much more. Earlier tracks are represented by a devotion to the slow burning influence of My Bloody Valentine’s ripped sonics which, along with other shoegazer psychedelic music fans/performers, had it sorted in the early ‘90s and sprinkled some magic on American psychedelic garage fans like Newcombe. When classic rockers like Not if You Were the Last Dandy on Earth are linked with the cool psych moves of When Jokers Attack, you know these are the stirrings of something good.

Mercury Rev

What strikes the listener on this beautifully remastered album originally released in 1998, is the stunning sound quality with vocal and instrumental parts in sparkling clarity. Mercury Rev were in the habit of recording onto magnetic film tape, and a standout bit on the 1992 debut Yerself is Steam is the expansive sound. When that album hit the shelves raw production values and dirty guitars excited the public imagination, and although great washes of noise took hold whenever the music peaked, there was nevertheless an obsessive attention to detail accentuated by a meticulously crafted spaciousness. Although the band managed to hang in with a major label despite the affecting strangeness of the music it looked as if Rev was finished when Deserter’s Songs dropped in the lap of record label executives in 1998. This album became one of the finest of that decade with a heightened creativity birthing a cosmic Americana song cycle of epic proportions, and Jonathan Donahue pitching his vocals to just the right level of melancholy without overstatement on lines like, “she collapses down upon the ocean floor again.” A dreamy pensiveness and longing for unnameable lost things seeps into music that is simply beautiful in its intent and execution, much like Brian Wilson attempted on his magnum opus Smile. Although the bonus material on this essential reissue offers worthwhile glimpses of songs in their untreated state, the final versions are what matter.

SoundOut 2011 @ The Street Theatre, Saturday-Sunday January 29-30

City West heading up to the ANU is usually quiet on a weekend apart from students out for a leisurely stroll or bike ride. But The Street Theatre this past weekend was a hive of activity as free music improvisers from all over the world came together in the intimate space of Theatre 2 for a series of performances that were mostly first class, and unlike anything Canberra has experienced before.

However, in keeping with the peacefulness of the surrounding area quite a few of the performances throughout the festival kept sound levels to a minimum as various micro-tonal strategies were implemented and explored which left much to chance as should be the case when improvised music is involved.

However, when the noise levels picked up they really picked up. This was inevitably true of explosive Scandinavian sax/bass/drums trio The Thing who turned in a blistering set to a full house on Saturday night. Their rapid fire, high register attack summoned forth the ghost of Albert Ayler with scattered hints of post-bop towards the end, which in turn evoked the textured sound-colours of Ornette Coleman.

This set was a major highlight of the festival, but let’s return to the quiet micro-tonalities for a moment and an interesting thing that occurred during Chinese feedback artist Yan Jun’s set on Sunday evening. Jun had Sydney performer Monika Brooks accompanying him on accordion, yet she was content to sit in dreamy reverie and very, very lightly stroked the keys while Jun coaxed the tiniest of sounds from his electronics set-up that sometimes sounded like chirping crickets. I became almost hypnotised by Brooks’ non-movements and the great swathes of silence that defined the set.

Although not intended to have such an effect, I did at one point almost start laughing aloud as I noticed some people begin to squirm a little in the their seats particularly when the silence became profound, but for others this was an opportunity to become lost in thought which I did while clutching my beer and thinking about a girl. Then the inevitable happened – somebody’s mobile phone went off – and the everyday world entered a sanctified space. This should probably have happened at some point because no one wants to get too precious about these things, and when it comes to improvised music the surrounding environment should have some impact on the direction of the sounds.

So it goes that little hints of the everyday world entered the music when small discs placed onto a piano’s metal strings by Cor Fuhler transformed their sound to startling effect, paper cups generated crackling when interacting with electronics and whooshing sounds when placed into the saxophone bell by Rosalind Hall, balloons squeaked and wheezed when attached to a variety of instruments, metal cans droned with the aid of electronic devices, and all manner of percussive effects were generated on various drum configurations by masters of the craft. Each performance conjured new and exciting articulations of sound, and some were simply extraordinary.

The Magda Mayas/Tony Buck duo summoned forth a sonic whirlwind with prepared piano and percussion, a wind instrument ensemble on Saturday afternoon revealed the beauty of a group mind-meld as did the Spartak/Mike Majkowski/Michael Norris performance on Sunday afternoon where pitch, tonality and form achieved a beautiful harmony.

The festival wound up on Sunday evening with an all-out collective improvisation. This was a fitting conclusion to an event that had been well organised by director/performer Richard Johnson with attendees well looked after by Street Theatre staff, and which showcased highly talented musicians from diverse disciplines coming together to illuminate new possibilities through a free exchange of ideas and sounds.

Now, bring on SoundOut 2012.

Dan Bigna

The Runaways [Sony Home Entertainment]

I can’t recall a rock music bio-pic that I haven’t enjoyed on some level and The Runawaysis no exception. For starters, the soundtrack music features classic proto-punk nuggets from the likes of David Bowie and The Stooges, and the raw energy of such songs matches a fast paced narrative capturing the strangeness of the Los Angeles hit making machine in the 1970s. The story is pretty strange anyway, what with a bunch of suburban teenage girls aspiring to make some noise on stage and finding themselves at Rodney Bingenheimer’s eye-opening English Disco which was the place to be seen insofar as bands, talent scouts, groupies and fans all converged to check out some cool music. The recreation of the disco which proved to be integral for the coming together of The Runaways is handled well by director Floria Sigismondi who uses motion, light and sound to conjure an exciting vibe without going over the top. A mainstay at the disco and major figure in The Runaways story is weirdo scenester Kim Fowley who considered this group of potential teenage superstars his ticket to success. I always enjoy screen depictions of bands getting it together in the first days, and the moment when Fowley coaxes that fantastic hit Cherry Bombfrom these precocious teens is a sight to behold. All the performances are good, and although much fuss was made about starlet Kristen Stewart playing defiant guitarist Joan Jett, I reckon Dakota Fanning who plays vocalist Cherie Curry steals the show. It is Curry’s story anyway, and reveals what can happen to an ambitious teenage girl who oozes sensual desire on stage, does a bunch of drugs, experiments with sex, tours Japan and finally ends up working in an anonymous retail outlet when the glamour and fame ends – who wouldn’t be interested?

Dan Bigna

Magic Lantern Platoon [Not Not Fun]

Much respect is due to the inventor of the wah-wah pedal because my general well being might not be the same without it. It kinda makes me think of the story about Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones that when he first heard blues guitarist Elmore James run his slide over the frets he felt the earth shudder, and I guess when I first heard Jimi Hendrix all those good bits well and truly shook. It turns out that Magic Lantern guitarist Cameron Stallones hits the right spots on the band’s second full length because he trots out the wah-wah effect as if his life depended on it.

Well, it certainly seems that way. What we get on Platoon is the slow burn rather than the short sharp shock. This is alright, as the most satisfying psychedelic music is often about a pleasant seeping into the inner consciousness that works well when the groove is a good one. In this case the grooves on opening track Dark Cicadas do the job when the urge takes hold, and significant musical precedents become clear. I still reckon Ozzy-era Black Sabbath is up there with the greats, and that particular influence comes out on Platoon at the right moments. Magic Lantern might not set the world on fire, but the band sure as hell know about those essential psychedelic ingredients, especially when it comes to giving the guitar a seriously solid workout.

Dan Bigna

When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors [Eagle Vision]

Whenever The Doors appear in visual form, first thoughts often turn to the 1991 Oliver Stone bio-pic, followed by a roasting of the unpleasant kind. But I happen to think this movie is one of the most satisfying cinematic portrayals of any band, because it achieved a proper balance between a major 20^th century artist, namely Jim Morrison, and all the bullshit that goes along with mainstream devotion. The bullshit aspect was somehow dealt with by a rebellious youth who wrote many of the band’s greatest songs without any formal training, and whose alternative perspective on the world was channelled into compelling music and lyrics. Music documentaries of varying quality are all over the place these days, but Tom DiCillo’s superb doco on The Doors is a winner on every count. DiCillo decided against the standard talking heads format, instead opting for a detailed sequential history of the band using original footage only, with thoughtful narration from Johnny Depp. The many incendiary bits of live footage reveal what an incredible experience it would have been to witness The Doors on stage and the strange dichotomy that Jim Morrison raised between failed film student in the mid-1960s and erotic poet of the counterculture with millions of records sold is one that continues to fascinate. DiCillo has done his research and takes us through the early garage band days and subsequent success along with all the weirdness that rapid attention brings. But it seems The Doors were more interested in getting their message across through free creative expression – which is a good thing – rather than alienating themselves from a receptive audience with money and fame. Unfortunately it all turned to shit as Morrison became far more interested in hard liquor than poetry. But a commitment to the craft nevertheless remained which is made clear on this first-rate film.

MV & EE Liberty Rose [Arbitrary Signs]

People get sucked into appreciating all sorts of things in popular culture that probably don’t matter too much, whereas great stuff worthy of attention often exists under the radar. The latter aspect fits superb psychedelic group MV & EE, having released a voluminous amount of full length albums, CD-R live performances and experimental jams since getting together in Vermont in the early part of the last decade. My favourite recording remains the Ecstatic Peace album Drone Trailer from 2009 which found the perfect balance between cosmic strangeness and earthy acoustic blues in a way that has not been experienced since The Grateful Dead. But it so happens that the core two-piece has a wealth of lysergic improvised blues up its astral sleeve, and committed listeners are duly rewarded. 

This is the case on Liberty Rose originally released in an edition of 99 copies. I guess when a band releases up to ten albums in any given year, small first editions are understandable. But discerning listeners should also make an effort to seek out unique music of the mind-expansive kind when the opportunity exists, and each of the six tracks comprising Liberty Rose make the grade. With this in mind, I really like second track Flow My Ray which might have fit comfortably on that classic 1975 Neil Young album Tonight’s The Night with little fuss, but other acid excursions on offer pleasantly haze up the night sky.

Elliott Smith - An Introduction to Elliot

I once tried to reach out to a girl through the common humanity of Elliott Smith. I figured that if you ain’t got the words to explain feelings, the truly talented artist can step in. The only problem was that the girl in question found Smith a little too intense for her liking whenever letting out a lyric like, “do what you want to, whenever you want to / although it doesn’t mean a thing,” from Ballad of Big Nothing, the opening track on this appealing but not overly thorough survey of this masterful talent. But would the world be the interesting place it can be if only the good times deserved a mention?

What I really like about this dude is that he wrote melodies that pierced the skin just like The Beatles did all those years ago, but Smith also had an understandable suspicion of the mainstream. This meant that he sometimes sounded a bit ragged even when a particular tune was so delicious that you knew it was going to hit the sweet spot every time. Smith also understood that exposing vulnerability can be a risky business, but you can never be entirely certain. In any case, the music on this 14-track compilation is weighted more towards the raw acoustics found on early fantastic albums like either/or, but inclusions like the superb Miss Misery from the Good Will Hunting soundtrack get me going
every time.

Syd Barrett - An Introduction to Syd Barrett [Harvest]

So much has been written about the troubled life of psychedelic music pioneer Syd Barrett, there isn’t much left to say in that department. Better then to focus on the music, and biographer Rob Chapman’s observation that “Syd Barrett was at his most prolific at a time when pop music was arguably enjoying its richest period of experimentation.” That period was the mid to late 1960s when seismic shifts were taking place in popular culture, and listening tastes were so opened up that radical noise making might even reach the top 10. The Beatles did some pretty good stuff on the always acclaimed 1967 album Sgt Pepper, but it should also be remembered that right down the hall at London’s Abbey Road studio, Pink Floyd were putting down some of the most mind blowing sounds ever committed to tape with vocalist/guitarist Syd Barrett at the helm. 

The first six tracks on this carefully mastered compilation feature early Pink Floyd singles with some tasty offerings to keep obsessive fans on board including an intriguing version of Matilda Mother from debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn which gets those lysergic happy trails running free. The remaining 12 tracks survey Barrett’s short lived solo career with lighter moments interspersed with the deeper intensity of something like Dark Globe. Although his take on the world became increasingly tenuous as time moved on, this music is first class all the way.

Mogwai - Special Moves [Spunk]

One of the most rewarding gigs I’ve seen was Mogwai at Sydney’s Metro Theatre in 2006, because I seem to enjoy a particular musical dynamic predicated on aching build-ups and sustained joyous release. This kind of thing happens in similarly pleasurable areas in life, and I guess Mogwai is attuned to capturing certain urges in musical form, although not quite as you would expect. There has always been something a tad unsettling about the sounds emanating from this ultra-atmospheric band where an illumination of the dark heart through intense emotional expression is built on a turbulent soft/loud equation, and the soft part is as compelling as the noise whiteout. Each of the band’s seven studio albums explores this particular aesthetic in a consistently rewarding manner, and so it goes that a live album in the right environs will leak the good stuff which one would expect from a band on top of its game. This eleven track performance was recorded with the minimum of fuss, yet with fireworks in the right places, in a smallish venue in Brooklyn in 2009. It includes sense stimulating highlights from a first-rate body of work, and demonstrates that when you hit upon a good thing stick with it, as the ironically titled and more recent I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead crosses paths with raging epic Mogwai Fear Satan from the very early Young Team album. And I wanted to be there.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest [4AD]

Deerhunter vocalist Bradford Cox is a rather interesting bloke who seems equally attuned to the dream-pop scene of the late 1980s with its beautifully ethereal psychedelia, and the Brian Wilson school of sublime melody writing. Either way, his contributions to this fantastic album contain the right amount of sweet tunefulness and unsettling lyrical traits that make this band’s music a totally engaging experience. Opening track Earthquake begins with unusual atmospherics while Cox’s slurred, distorted vocals that include such stark utterances as, “do you recall waking up on a dirty couch in the grey fog,” blend with multi-coloured arrangements that require repeat listens to fully absorb. Unlike the equally compelling Microcastle/Weird Era Continued album, Deerhunter has toned down moments of shoegazer distortion on Halcyon Digest so that all those great tunes skewed in the proper direction can shine through, along with little stand out bits like the liquid percussion on Helicopter which anchors a radiant melody. Deerhunter has once again broken free from merely coming across as the sum of its influences on this fourth album, and arrived at something that distorts reality in a not unpleasant way which the greatest psychedelic music has always sought out. But it has done so in an understated manner which likeminded bands like The Flaming Lips are seemingly incapable of these days. And so on Desire Lines, Cox sings, “Walking free.  Come with me.”  I think I might.

Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart [Jagjaguwar]

This is where the good stuff happens, and it has been some time since I’ve listened to something this tight, heavy and all embracing. Putting aside second album In The Future which probably pressed those prog rock buttons a little too hard, Black Mountain often hits those sharpened riff pleasure zones just like previous greats Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath did when psychedelic meandering gave way to something a bit grittier and more hard-hitting. I mean, let that super riff on fifth track Let Spirits Ride from Wilderness Heart cut through all that difficult routine and habit and you’ve got the wild ride of early 1970s Hawkwind all over again. But the energy levels are kicked into overdrive with the opening trackThe Hair Song with such call to arms lyrics as, “children having their fun with the blues / Let your laws come undone,” attached to an instrumental kick with enough propulsion to well dislodge those headphones. The winner has to be second track Old Fangs which gets right to the political point on opening line, “is it safe for the cowards to do what they’ve already done?” while the razor sharp chorus and ultra blister post-punk grunge brings it home. Black Mountain want to accentuate the universal power of self expression by encompassing cutting-edge observation and intimate concerns like, “roses won’t make her feel better tonight,” often within the one song. Could this be album of the year?

Grinderman - Grinderman 2 [Mute Records]

 If Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ return to form album of 2008 Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! was any indication of the creative trajectory that Nick Cave et al had set themselves after Grinderman’s debut of 2007, then it’s no surprise that Grinderman 2 has met and surpassed the expectations created by both its own predecessor and that of the Bad Seeds. On Grinderman 2, this Bad Seeds spin-off - consisting of Cave, Ellis, Casey and Sclavunos - have cranked up the volume, the humour and the sleazy violence all in equally gluttonous measures. Cave’s brutal tongue-in-cheek narratives give the impression of a film script or the beginnings of his next novel (When My Baby Comes and opener Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man stand out in particular), while Casey’s domineering bass and Ellis’ notoriously haunting bouzouki have been promoted from the position of supporting cast to leading role players. Cave and his crew have fought hard against attempts to pigeonhole them as ageing, tempered rock stars and in doing so have created an album that is loud, indulgently fun, and one that will stay with you for a good time to come.

Various

The New York no-wave scene was about liberating artistic expression from all that pretty melody and steady beat, and riding a pulse that pierced the veins of comfy mainstream entertainment with a potent dose of unashamedly raw noise to liven things up a bit.  Even the early stirrings of punk rock in the mid to late '70s didn’t quite do it for the no-wavers because there was too much homage to previous decades going on among the alternative set.  No-wave was all about breaking with the past altogether and tapping into an enticing ageless clatter. So, on this excellent compilation to accompany a DVD documentary on cool happenings in the New York urban wonderland, we find guitarist Rhys Chatham running one note into the ground as he frees himself from harmonic constraint. We also discover all girl three-piece Ut paving the way for the riot grrrl movement in the years ahead, and Theoretical Girls cutting loose with an angular and agitated blast of big city noise that takes all the best bits from punk rock like energy mixed in with loud guitars and attitude, and whacks them in a blender for the benefit of the music loving public.  The 16 tracks on offer were recorded live in a downtown New York loft in 1979, and because of those blazing no-wave trails, bands that we all know and love like Sonic Youth happened. DAN BIGNA

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Year One [Shout! Factory]

When the grunge rockers were worshipping all things Black Sabbath and Black Flag in the early 1990s, Jon Spencer and his Blues Explosion were busily peeling back the layers to reach the raw throbbing heart of rock ‘n ‘roll, and like The Cramps and The Rolling Stones before them, Spencer and crew worked out that at the core, which had already absorbed so many teenage wet dreams, resided a pulse that was messy, decadent and nicotine stained.  Spencer had previously done time in Pussy Galore, a band that rejected outright all those steady rhythms and pretty melodies which sustained popular music. It was much better to seek out the primal grunt with squealing guitar and banging stick as musical accompaniment. But Spencer was too smart to let raging hormones off the leash for the mere sake of it, and figured out that if the artist paid enough attention to the best bits in rockabilly, funk and punk rock which deeply penetrated that throbbing sonic heart, the potential unholy racket would sound like it made perfect sense and was as it should be.  So it goes for Year One which, as part of a Blues Explosion reissue series, compiles 38 tracks from the first two albums plus a few loose singles. The listener knows that when Spencer shouts, “I’m going to write a number one mutherfuckin’ hit song” on the aptly named track Write a Song, the dude means business.

Various Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas: Tropicalia Psychedelic Masterpieces 1967-1976 [World Psychedelic Funk Classics]

The gritty rock ‘n’ roll of the so-labelled ‘British Invasion’ bands of the early 1960s like The Rolling Stones and The Animals hit Brazil sometime later that decade, and when combined with the emergent psychedelic wonders of the Tropicalia scene that fused the much loved bossa nova beat with melodic and lyric adventurousness, musical fireworks were the inevitable consequence. American garage bands of the mid 1960s poured a sizeable amount of oversexed adolescence onto many sonic nuggets, but those Brazilians also picked up a thing or two.  If I was looking to engage a beautiful girl in a slow dance with anticipated fun stuff to come, I might fast forward to Ele Seculo XX, track 11 on this super appealing compilation of Brazilian psychedelic rock. According to the liner notes, this song is a major rarity released in 1969 from the exotically titled group Com Os Falcoes Reais and serves the dual purpose of setting a desirable mood, and offering a transformed Latin American sound that was conceived in a harsh climate courtesy of a mono-culture loving dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964. Although facing imprisonment, exile and possibly worse, the Brazilian Tropicalia garage-rockers deserve much respect for not only planting a middle finger firmly in the face of an oppressive authority, but also coming up with some first rate psychedelia that would get a dance dufus like myself blissing out under multi-coloured strobe lights.

The gritty rock ‘n’ roll of the so-labelled ‘British Invasion’ bands of the early 1960s like The Rolling Stones and The Animals hit Brazil sometime later that decade, and when combined with the emergent psychedelic wonders of the Tropicalia scene that fused the much loved bossa nova beat with melodic and lyric adventurousness, musical fireworks were the inevitable consequence. American garage bands of the mid 1960s poured a sizeable amount of oversexed adolescence onto many sonic nuggets, but those Brazilians also picked up a thing or two.  If I was looking to engage a beautiful girl in a slow dance with anticipated fun stuff to come, I might fast forward to Ele Seculo XX, track 11 on this super appealing compilation of Brazilian psychedelic rock. According to the liner notes, this song is a major rarity released in 1969 from the exotically titled group Com Os Falcoes Reais and serves the dual purpose of setting a desirable mood, and offering a transformed Latin American sound that was conceived in a harsh climate courtesy of a mono-culture loving dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964. Although facing imprisonment, exile and possibly worse, the Brazilian Tropicalia garage-rockers deserve much respect for not only planting a middle finger firmly in the face of an oppressive authority, but also coming up with some first rate psychedelia that would get a dance dufus like myself blissing out under multi-coloured strobe lights.

Edgeplay: A Film about the Runaways [Shock]

2 out of 5

This doco is not be confused with the recently released biopic on The Runaways that promises to be a good one. And so it should, considering that the primary element is five sexy girls who kept the girl power flame alive by rockin’ out in an enticingly hard manner, but doing so alongside the usual sex and drugs stuff that is ever present in the glittery rock world and sometimes contributes to a good story. Into the mix comes a very weird dude by the name of Kim Fowley who put out a couple of notable psych-rock singles in the 1960s, but who also favoured himself as an ideas man and talent scout when putting together the original Runaways lineup in the mid 1970s. It turns out that Fowley was also a total creep who abused various members of this promising teenage band in the hope that great art and lots of money would be made. It’s a rather sad story, and this appalling documentary does little to tell it as it deserves to be told. Interviews with strong, beautiful women such as vocalist Cherie Currie and guitarist Lita Ford keep the story moving along, but the editing is of the kind more likely found on those teenybopper TV music shows where the camera disruptively leaps from one multi-angled frame to the next with unrelated ‘cool’ muzak playing in the background. And here we get to the problems. Little is offered in the way of the band’s musical achievements, replaced instead by ongoing discussions of bassist Jackie Fox’s supposed hypochondria. Also, where the hell is the music? The Runaways came up with one of the great proto-punk tunes in Cherry Bomb, but not one fragment of this song or any original music from the band appears in the doco, which is a major oversight.

Deutsche - Elektronische Musik Experimental German Rock and Electronic Musik 1972-83 [Soul Jazz/Inertia]

5 out of 5

When things got really interesting in popular music like psychedelic rock, funk and the experimental leanings of bands like The Velvet Underground, psychedelic German musicians of the 1970s paid close attention and particular aspects set some fascinating sounds in motion.  I still reckon Pink Floyd stands out as the primary influence on German psychedelia, but adapted to suit a particularly inquisitive and forward thinking sensibility. So, when listening to the 1972 IBliss track High Life which runs for an appropriate 13 minutes, hallucinogenic vibes of an epic sort contain traces of such lysergic journeys as Pink Floyd’s Echoes.  But the German bands were too smart to merely imitate, and sought out an original expression which in part arrived as the motorik beat, courtesy of key artists like Harmonia, Neu! and polyrhythmic funksters Can who are all represented by first-rate tracks on this outstanding two CD set. The compilers have not scrimped on diversity, and familiar names like Tangerine Dream share space with enticing trip-outs such as the 11 minute track Rambo Zambo from Kollectiv who might never have made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, but probably should have.

The Rolling Stones - Stones in Exile (Shock)

4 out of 5

Considering that The Rolling Stones significantly contributed to ending the counterculture dream with the Altamont festival debacle in December 1969, one might have thought that the band’s libertine rock ‘n’ roll expression would come to a crashing halt shortly afterwards. With regard to Mick Jagger on that fateful US Stones’ tour in late 1969, influential promoter Bill Graham is quoted as saying that, “every fucking gig, he made the promoter and the people bleed.”

It seems that the band had become too arrogant for its own good. But the quality of the music around this time was so good that the Stones could be forgiven for just about anything. This could also be said for the release of the band’s 1972 masterpiece Exile on Main St., which was the magical outcome of the usual sex and drug debauchery, and rock-god messing about that had become expected flavours. And who wouldn’t want to hang around Keith Richards’ Nellcote mansion in the south of France indulging in a variety of sensual pleasures to the heart’s content? However, Stephen Kijak’s excellent documentary on the making of the Exile album reveals that the band had transplanted itself to France out of financial necessity rather than decadent choice, and despite the many pleasures on offer, bunkered down in the basement of Richards’ mansion and battled technical hitches, searing heat and the many temptations from upstairs to nut out the basic tracks for what would eventually become one of the great rock ‘n’ roll albums of all time.

Kijak has done a superb job bringing together interviews, original footage, photographs and music to keep the story moving without scrimping on detail. The bonus features also deserve attention, particularly Keith Richards’ insightful reflections on the songwriting muse which tell us far more about his particular brand of genius than all the hype and myth.

The Cure Disintegration (Deluxe Edition) [Fiction Records / Universal]

4 out of 5

When I was in high school and looking for something that might provide a better understanding of this strange world, the sparkling pop tunes and melancholy soundscapes of The Cure arrived at just the right moment.  I was having considerable trouble making it with girls, and it somehow helped a lot that Cure vocalist Robert Smith seemed to know all about such things. I would still like to know what the Goth subculture with its cultivated existential cool - and once having a noticeable presence on the Canberra alternative scene with The Cure as a guiding light - thought about the band’s meteoric rise to the top of the charts in the late 1980s. This occurred when ninth album Disintegration was originally released in 1989 which brought all that mascara, voluminous hair and overflowing angst to stadium performances, and can be heard on the third of this generous three disc set, although The Cure live never quite matched its fully formed studio creations. The second disc comprising studio outtakes is kinda interesting, but all it really does is offer a taster for the album itself, and this is where we get to the good stuff.  Disintegration has been beautifully remastered, and the richly textured sound is something wonderful to behold. This album of 12 meticulously crafted tracks is a soul enriching, at times bleak, but nevertheless utterly rewarding listening experience that confirms its place among the greats.

The Triffids - Wide Open Road: The Best of the Triffids [Liberation]

4 out of 5

What could be better than reclining with a beautiful girl by candlelight with the emotive yet soothing baritone of David McComb imploring the object of his affection to bury him deep in love? On The Triffids’ luscious 1988 single Bury Me Deep in Love, McComb expresses an all-embracing passion that can make all the difference. And given that a defining quality in the best Australian music is a commitment to free creative expression, these feelings are genuine but with a pinch of vulnerability. This thorough survey of the band’s finest moments across six albums and various EPs also reveals that McComb was coming up with the good stuff early on. Formed in Perth in the late 1970s, The Triffids’ remarkably consistent sound was characterised by strong melodies attached to arrangements and vocals with dramatic overtones. This combination couldn’t fail when the band travelled to the UK in the mid-1980s and was briefly lauded by the indie press. The overseas experience also inspired the flawless album Born Sandy Devotional in 1985, and its striking mini-epic Wide Open Road opens this collection which is a smart placement. The only sour note comes from John O’Donnell who concludes his liner notes by stating that the band played its final show in 1989 in “soulless Canberra”. This suggests O’Donnell might not know what he is talking about, as I’m sure those in attendance treated the band with the respect they deserved.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid – Classic Album Series (Shock)

I always have a laugh when preconceptions about a band are proven incorrect, particularly when personal traits are involved. With this in mind, it becomes clear in this typically detailed Classic Album instalment that Black Sabbath riff master Toni Iommi projects a gentle manner that one might otherwise find behind the counter of a sedate bookshop. The same could be said for the other three band members who combined to form one of the most satisfyingly heavy bands in popular music. In terms of confounding expectations, it is also heartening to see Ozzy Osbourne providing insights into the making of 1970 album Paranoid – undoubtedly one of Sabbath’s finest moments – rather than struggling to comprehend a remote control in reality TV land, an image unfortunately stuck in the popular imagination. The documentary treats Sabbath as four talented artists worthy of respectful assessment, unlike those critical appraisals in the early days that saw the band as Led Zeppelin’s poor cousin. This time the focus is on interlocking musical characteristics that defined the Sabbath sound, and this is what really matters. Interviews with each band member are interspersed with live footage revealing what a fierce live band Sabbath could be, and segments at the mixing desk emphasise those many monolithic riffs. Somewhat disturbing footage of nuclear explosions and US soldiers blowing Vietnam to pieces also provides appropriate context for socially aware downer tracks like War Pigs and Electric Funeral. I still reckon that the super intense Vol 4 is the band’s crowning achievement, but when the visceral dynamic on such a Paranoid album track as Hand of Doom is considered, this album choice makes sense. Anyone can put three chords together and crank the distortion pedal, but bassist Terry ‘Geezer’ Butler talks about a perfectly balanced chemistry as the secret ingredient, and the Classic Album series once again fills out the story.

4 out of 5

The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street (2010 Remaster) [Universal]

4 out of 5

I often champion remastered recordings because I want to believe that enhanced sonic detail makes for a better listening experience in this age of pristine digital. But sometimes a deliberate unrefinement can add to the mystique of a classic recording, and such considerations are tossed up by this newly remastered edition of The Rolling Stones’ finest hour Exile on Main Street. Without ever having heard the original version, I gather that a cultivated gritty consistency might have been the right stuff all along. Nevertheless, full band arrangements are allowed breathing space on this meticulous remaster, and it all sounds good.

Exile was originally released in 1972, and its murky, back alley vibe suggested free reign given to experience and experimentation with a lot of musical ground covered from the original Delta blues onwards. Prior to recording, the band had decamped to southern France which brought on a useful spell of sordid sex and drugs, but from decadent environs great art emerged now revealed in sparkling high fidelity. As for the much anticipated bonus tracks, I would place the remarkably polished reworking of a number of unreleased tunes from the original sessions in the good but not great category. The alternative version of Loving Cup is, however, a real treat that reveals a particularly loose swagger from a band usually so careful about image and presentation. But all that really matters is Exile itself, and its bloody fantastic opulence.

Iggy and The Stooges - Raw Power (Legacy Edition) (Sony)

We are dealing with an undeniable masterpiece here, so caution is required when mentioning anything that might taint one of the great rock albums of all time. Firstly, anyone out there who has even the slightest inclination for self expression should always take a look at the more intense end of the scale because that is where the good stuff often happens, and so it is with Raw Power. This album originally appeared in 1973, and its failure to hit the charts tells you much about the often questionable taste of the listening public.

What helped things along for a band on the verge of dissolution was the intervention of David Bowie who realised early in the piece that his successful Ziggy Stardust persona was indebted to those in the know like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, and all credit to him for prodding Iggy and his band to wallow in the further extremities of rock ‘n’ roll. However, one significant problem was Bowie’s odd production work which sucked the life from parts of the album, apart from James Williamson’s screaming guitar which certainly hits the listener with full force on opening track Search and Destroy. Iggy Pop addressed this issue with his own brutally appealing 1997 mix, although this remastered original version nevertheless communicates its own savagery, and the bonus disc which features an incendiary 1973 Stooges performance in Atlanta Georgia, is pretty much the icing on the cake.

Various - Afro-Rock Volume One [Strut Records]

I recently experienced a quiet night at Hippo Bar where an acoustic two-piece played lilting tunes which kept everyone firmly in their seats. This was disappointing, as our group happened to include several beautiful females, and some solid beat-action from the sound system would have helped things along nicely.

In fact, this collection of deliciously infectious Afrobeat would have had people scrambling over each other to bring about sweet sensual stuff on the dance floor.  This music often features strong political content attached to highly desirable arrangements, and there is something joyous about the coming together of voices, horns and guitar under the starry night of soul enriching rhythms, that will make listeners feel better about the world and all the unfortunate things that happen in it. This compilation of Fela Kuti inspired African funk focuses on the mid to late 1970s which turned out to be a particularly fertile period. It is, in fact, a re-issue of a Korma Records compilation from 2001 on the always dependable Strut label, and originally appeared at a time when compilations of this nature were few and far between. And in terms of geography, much ground is covered including places like Kenya and Zaire, where the Afro funk influence from Nigeria - the mother lode state - had spread with great success.  All 12 tracks are winners with killer rhythms that get those juices flowing right over.

Various - Off The Wall Volumes 1 and 2 [Past and Present]

Once upon a time I walked into Landspeed Records, and the garage rock mania filling the room turned out to be the Primary Colours album from Eddy Current Suppression Ring.  It was good to once again be reminded of the considerable mileage gained over the years from a combination of three chords and snarling attitude.  And given the sheer volume of garage rock compilations that have appeared in the wake of that momentous pre-Ramones Nuggets set released in 1972, the success rate has been pretty good. Off The Wall first appeared on LP in the early 1980s when the garage rock reissue market was still in its nascent phase, and contains bucket loads of impolite hormone saturated rock ‘n’ roll that sprouted all over the place around 1966.

It is in fact heartening to consider that raw-beat rock music has maintained its place in the pantheon of the greats because of sheer perseverance, if nothing else. This welcome Off the Wall reissue compiles a bunch of bands that were destined to never receive much attention from the mainstream music industry for the simple reason that the guitars are way too distorted, the production is sometimes a product of the stone age, and that niggling suffering at the hands of the opposite sex is ever present. With this in mind, The Purple Underground with its unrestrained 1967 rave-up Count Back will tell you pretty much everything you need to know.

Various - Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sound in 1970s Nigeria [Soundway]

Some top-notch African funk compilations have been hitting the shelves in recent times which transcend all the messy political turmoil of the 1970s, and present that decade as a totally exciting period in African popular music. In particular, the Soundway label deserves a big thumbs up for its ongoing series which explores variations of popular music in Nigeria and neighbouring Lagos in the ‘70s, and which reveals the influence that the extended funk workouts of late 1960s James Brown had on upbeat highlife sounds suffusing Nigerian music. An emphasis was placed on butt-shaking rhythmic patterns accentuated by horns and guitars that were uplifting to the point that listeners could only respond with exuberant dance moves that would push to one side somewhat harsher realities. In terms of conjuring a sustained joyous groove, this latest Soundway compilation sits comfortably alongside its peers, and I have to say that around half-way through the first listen even a hesitant dancer like me had to tongue and groove in a most satisfying way. The album opens with an infectious workout from the one and only Fela Kuti who brought to the fore the absurdly vibrant afrobeat sound, and his 1971 total-funk contribution Who’re You? brings out the right stuff at a relatively concise eight minutes in length. Fela gets things off to a good start, but other included artists would pick up on the influence and well and truly run with it.

Pavement - Quarantine the Past [Matador/Inertia]

There’s nothing like a dose of top-notch indie rock to make the world a better place, and this 23 track Pavement compilation which coincides with the band’s reunion tour does just the trick. Pavement were the quintessential guitar band of the 1990s, and disrupting influences like the compromises required to achieve chart action on someone else’s terms were ignored in favour of an opened-up approach to songwriting and recording that allowed for a multitude of ideas to come together in any given song. This resulted in a succession of vitally off-kilter tunes attached to free-flowing lyrics that suggested many new possibilities. Early Pavement tracks like Box Elder offered a sardonic world view that seemed to resonate with those disaffected youth like myself who were looking for art that encouraged self-expression, and it was heartening to discover other bands like Nirvana and Built to Spill doing the same kind of things. On this first time compilation, which surveys five album releases and a handful of compilation and EP tracks, Pavement is revealed as a risk taking unit that enjoyed the esoteric post punk experimentation of bands like The Fall while also questioning the mainstream promotion of “attention and fame” that Pavement vocalist and main songwriter Steve Malkmus mentions in the catchy 1993 track Cut Your Hair. This tune happily reminds us that surface appearance doesn’t necessarily deserve admiration – whenever I look into the mirror after a messy night out, I must agree.

MV & EE Barn - Nova [Ecstatic Peace]

I can recall being in a particularly psychedelic frame of mind with a bunch of friends and playing the classic 1969 Grateful Dead album Live Dead.  At one point, the band locked into an improvisation that was the manifestation of a single group mind just as I locked eyes with a beautiful girl who knew that everything was going to be alright. How often does that happen? Not often enough for us ordinary folk, but there have been MV & EE occasions where I have come close to re-living the Grateful Dead moment, and I’m not just saying that because of the influence the latter band has had on the core MV & EE line-up of Matt Valentine and partner Erika Elder. In recent years this two-piece has kept the psychedelic music flame alive by sometimes coming across as a cosmic Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but with an enticingly off-centre sensibility that commands attention in an all-embracing kinda way. On Barn Nova, there is a continuation of roots music transformation as second track Get Right Church taps into an early blues form, but filtered through some fabulous acid rock leanings with Erika Elder’s gorgeous vocals the icing on the cake. On the eleven minute Bedroom Eyes, an all-out rock ‘n’ roll vibe emerges, perhaps due to the influence of J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr who sporadically works with the band, and whose presence complements the already righteous blend.

Grant Hart - Hot Wax [Fuse]

There is little to compare to the exhilarating sonic rush that burst forth from 1980s US punk band Husker Du despite the often worthwhile solo efforts from former band members. The intense emotional release on classic albums like Zen Arcade and New Day Rising resonated with similarly inclined boundary breakers like The Pixies and Nirvana who also understood that catharsis through raging guitars and a bit of screaming was the most effective way of dealing with that pesky artistic sensitivity.  Husker Du was an incredibly integrated unit, so it was unfortunate that it all ended acrimoniously. Guitarist Bob Mould subsequently embarked on a hit and miss solo career, as did drummer Grant Hart who has broken a long silence with a new solo album that teases out all those melodic hooks that Husker Du often buried under layers of noise. Hot Wax seems to happily explore a 1960s garage rock vibe through an emphasis on organic instrumentation and the suggestion that a simple melody is often the best one.  In this respect, such tracks as I Knew About You Since Then pursue a whimsical breeziness that would have been right at home on a Kinks album of the late 1960s. On the final offering My Regrets, Hart strangely sounds like former Husker band mate Bob Mould. I wonder if such lines as, “I’m sending you all my regrets,” were meant for him, or possibly any one of us?

DVDevotee Dogs in Space (Umbrella Entertainment)

Nirvana - Live at Reading [Geffen]

It is not always the case that a live album adds a great deal to the catalogue of any band unless an unexplored dimension is revealed. With this in mind, there is nothing particularly revelatory on this major label recording of Nirvana tearing it up at the 1992 Reading Festival, but it sure is one hell of a good summation of a focused body of work, and serves to remind that at its heart, Nirvana was all about no-frills punk rock of a somewhat awesome kind.

The Reading gig was performed when the band was at its musical peak. Grunge was all over the place in 1992, and the rapturously received Nevermind album released the previous year had revealed a band that enjoyed The Beatles as much as 1980s hardcore.

This album opens with a blistering attempt at Nevermind track Breed, and the pace never slackens. It also becomes clear that the crowd love every minute of it. What I particularly like about the album is the sheer confidence on display which strengthens the sound, and also genuine engagement with the audience in the best punk tradition.

Sound quality is good, and Kurt Cobain gives his vocal chords a thorough shredding to match the whirlwind distortion and frenetic pace on intense tracks like Lithium and Negative Creep. This album is also a valuable historical document of a time when first-rate punk rock oozed onto the charts.

Elegy

As Isabel Coixet's latest film Elegy became increasingly painful, my attention wandered to some notable sexual encounters in cinema. At first thought I came up with that memorable café scene featuring Meg Ryan's spontaneously simulated orgasm in When Harry Met Sally, and those extraordinary activities that went on in department store change rooms in Bad Santa. These came to mind because I was searching for something to make me laugh as a way of negating the misanthropic drudgery of this utterly humourless and potentially agonising home viewing experience. Elegy seems to be about an aging university professor, played by a committed Ben Kingsley, who uses meaningless sex as a way of avoiding meaningful human interaction until spicily named student Consuela Castillo enters his life and he somehow begins to appreciate the significance of connecting with an actual person. Penélope Cruz certainly plays her role well for various reasons. However, it all becomes a tad laborious. The narrative unfolds very, very slowly and the lengthy still shots featuring Kingsley's character grappling with his pitiful existence in a tastefully decorated apartment might have better suited a well scripted monologue. But his fragmented ramblings to ex-partners, aggrieved son and Penélope Cruz in the bedroom become ponderous to the point that I began to suffer. The sex scenes certainly have their place in a gratuitous art house kind of way, but I realised that I had run out of beer halfway through the viewing and I wasn't sure how I was going to cope with the rest of it. What went wrong? Initial reviews were mostly positive; a novel by Philip Roth and actor Dennis Hopper were both involved, and it deals with a potentially accessible theme. In the end, 'tasteful' close-ups of Penélope Cruz's undressed body dominate all other considerations. For a much better exploration of non-romanticised despair, I highly recommend Mike Leigh's 1993 masterpiece Naked.

DVDevotee The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter (Warner)

About midway through this sharp and revealing depiction of the Rolling Stones' explosive 1969 US tour, the band is filmed at the famous Muscle Shoals studio listening to a playback of the recently recorded Wild Horses that eventually appeared in sensuous glory on the Sticky Fingers album. The Maysles brothers' camera surveys the studio and settles on a serenely smiling Keith Richards with well worn python skin boots resting on the mixing desk, listening to a first-rate recording take from a band that was then hitting its creative peak. With the inclusion of such moments, Gimme Shelter probably deserves classic status within the music documentary genre, as artifice is stripped away from The Stones who come to reflect the volatile late 1960s. The filmmakers ensure that a proper insight is gained into the touring realities of the self-proclaimed greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world, amidst the splintering post-psychedelic culture of the late 1960s. The doco comes on hard at the onset with a super octane version of Jumpin' Jack Flash and with Mick Jagger decked out in his satanic majesties outfit that added to the heavy vibes on this infamous US tour. The band turns out some blistering rock 'n' roll throughout with Keith Richards looking as cool as he ever would, and the sexually charged Ike and Tina Turner as the Stones' support. In the guise of some kind of mischievous imp, Jagger introduces American fans to the possibility of decadence as a path to salvation. It all culminates in the apocalyptic Altamont gig of 1969 which flashed warnings about an over-ripened counter-culture and culminated in the killing of a spectator. This was chillingly captured on film by the doco makers who also include the Stones members' saddened and weary responses. At the end, Jagger projects bewilderment, but also projects a determination to go on.

DVDevotee Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Hopscotch)

Watching a Woody Allen film is often like watching Monty Python's The Meaning of Life on repeat, although the former is more focussed on capturing the eruption of emotional turbulence within seemingly ordinary people who are nevertheless afflicted with various existential neuroses. At times, Allen's characters are attuned to the absurdity of human existence to the extent that considerable effort is devoted to its negation through the fulfilment of desire which is sometimes futile and destructive. This essence flows through Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which explores a slightly subversive romanticism in a well constructed, sharply paced and often hilarious manner. It seems as if Allen has turned the quality tap back on after his other minor masterpiece in recent times, Match Point. That one featured a compelling narrative and included the considerable talents of Scarlett Johansson who reappears as a suitably sultry persona in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Although Match Point was gripping in an almost Alfred Hitchcock kind of way, the basic premise was quite simple - some people are lucky and some are not. Similarly, the veils Allen throws across Vicky Cristina Barcelona, in the form of an unfolding human drama that explores the intricacies of preserving passion in relationships, mask another very simple yet fascinating idea. This is something along the lines of how things turn out for a passionate, artistically-minded Spaniard who likes having threesomes with women he comes across in daily life, and what can happen to those who decide at certain moments to explore innermost desires.

Allen tackles his movie with a talented cast who achieve the right mix of fatalism and exuberance, with the striking beauty of Barcelona as a main backdrop. At the end, there is a reluctant acceptance of fate on the part of the three main characters, but watching the voluptuous Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz making out along the way is a momentary distraction about which I have no complaints.

Flipper / I Exist / Slowburn / Jerkstore

So there I was, seated in candlelit living room style décor in a Canberra drinking establishment, pondering how rarely I go anywhere above ground floor when in the city. The discussion at hand concerned the ever present day job, but I was quite content to soak up the warmth on what turned out to be the coldest Canberra day in some 40 years. I was also knocking back beers as fast as they arrived in front of me which put me in an amenable frame of mind. The cocktail lounge beats in the background were, however, starting to get on my nerves. I also had a gig to attend, and all employment and climate factors aside, I was going to attend goddamn it! I am sure the supporting lineup proved itself worthy to be opening for San Francisco based avant-hardcore band Flipper and demonstrated that the Canberra scene, regardless of musical genre, always deserves consideration. But I suppose Flipper has a particularly distinctive post-punk aesthetic that distinguishes this band from many others in alternative music, which became apparent on this occasion.

 Where other bands in the hardcore scene can be tight and fast sometimes to the point of absurdity, Flipper set themselves apart by playing loose and slow. The band’s grungy guitars and churning rhythms allowed for a join the dots kind of thing between themselves and the Seattle grunge scene that was to follow, with Kurt Cobain in particular giving the band the thumbs up. I needed to get those cocktail beats out of my head and Flipper provided the cure. The crowd was miniscule – a bit of cold weather is no excuse – although that meant I got to stand right at the front and allow for total sonic absorption from sheets of guitar noise attached to heavy, heavy rhythms from drummer Steve DePace and newly installed bassist Rachel Theole. Flipper are big fans of lengthy workouts and after a while those repeating rhythms really get under your skin and provide some sort of clarity and focus. It was also kind of a casual affair, as at one point appropriately named vocalist Bruce Loose made use of the ANU Bar’s bathroom facilities and then jumped back on stage to lose (loose) himself in the music once again – all in a day’s work.

Flipper

In his liner notes to the 1995 reissue of FLIPPER’s Sex Bomb Baby compilation, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm describes the band’s intense punk rock as “unusually slow, sloppy and messed up.” This was intended as a compliment in the best possible way, because discerning music fans like Mark Arm know that honest self-expression is always preferable to flashy technique and studio polish.

When Flipper formed in San Francisco in 1979, US punk music was about to transform into the hyper speed thrash of hardcore. In response, the band’s rhythm section, comprised of bassists Will Shatter, Bruce Lose and drummer Steve DePace, favoured loose, weighty sonics, overlaid with chaotic vocals and Ted Falconi’s wall of guitar. DePace explains that, “there was no discussion or planning about how we were going to sound. It’s one of those things that just happened. In the very early days we had some fast punk songs, but we pretty quickly fell into a style of music that was kinda slow and grungy.”

DePace says that the band’s aesthetic vision was formed from the creative diversity characterising the San Francisco music scene. “In San Francisco in the late ‘70s there were artists of all kinds in the punk scene, like photographers and film makers, painters and sculptors...  What was great about that scene was that no two bands sounded alike.

DePace had learnt the drums playing along to old blues and rock ‘n’ roll records and, like many other aspiring musicians in the mid 1970s, pursued an alternative creative path after discovering the incendiary rock ‘n’ roll of The Sex Pistols, but was less interested in the limitations of the hardcore punk sound. “The hardcore style of music was not something I wanted to play, and playing slower rhythms seemed far more interesting. In Flipper, a bass riff was generally how the songs started, and then I would lay a drum beat down... so the foundation of the Flipper sound is really bass and drums.”

A heavier rhythmic emphasis was explored on the classic Generic Flipper album from 1982, and a single-minded intensity was further pursued by the band, but the tragic death of bassist Will Shatter in 1987 halted the creative flow for some years. They’ve nevertheless proved resilient and are set to tour their new album, Love, featuring the songwriting contributions of former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. Flipper’s thunderous racket was a big influence on Kurt Cobain. “A friend called me one Saturday night and said, ‘turn on Saturday Night Live,’” DePace says. “So I turned on the TV and there was Kurt Cobain wearing a Flipper shirt on national television, and that was when the Nevermind album was really taking off. Then I started seeing him wearing that shirt in magazines and videos, so I became hugely aware of the fact that Nirvana thought much of us.”

Flipper play ANU Bar on Friday June 12, with I Exist, Slowbourn and Jekstore. Tix through Moshtix.

DVDevotee - The US vs. John Lennon (Roadshow)

At various times so far in my life, I’ve had ‘older’ relatives tell me that The Beatles were a great band in the early days when churning out variations of I Want To Hold Your Hand, but interest waned when they started coming up with ‘weirder’ sounds later on. John Lennon is usually named as the culprit responsible for steering the band down the path of both unusual behaviour and music. Could that be right? This engaging documentary checks out John Lennon’s introduction to the late 1960s radical protest movement in the United States which coincided with the first term of the troubled Nixon administration.  After watching it, I wondered whether or not I preferred sitting back and getting good vibes just from classic solo albums of the early 1970s like The Plastic Ono Band and Imagine or also seeing the dude develop as a political activist.

The film makers flash on to the counter culture struggle of the ‘60s and ‘70s and Lennon’s growing political activity which included supporting activist groups like the Black Panther Party, for which he was seen as a threat to US national security.  It seems that John Lennon was not merely content to sit in some mansion somewhere, but wanted to use his public profile to engage with common humanity while at times writing and recording great music.  The narrative doesn’t get bogged down while mapping out such things as John Lennon’s determined efforts to gain permanent residency of the United States after the break up of The Beatles, and the many obstacles placed in his way from tentacles reaching to highest levels of the US Government.  With the other stuff, some good visuals and interviews drive the story as well as cool early post-Beatles music and much footage of John Lennon expressing his passionate libertarian views with the stoic and faithful Yoko Ono always at his side.

Alan Brough - Music Geek Speck-tacular

Allan Brough

I am sure there are many music geeks out there, and I am most likely one of them. Some distinguishing features might include name-dropping obscure 1960s garage bands in inappropriate social situations, or ignoring that party invite in favour of a television documentary on John Lennon that simply can’t be missed. I suspect that ALAN BROUGH from ABC music quiz show Spicks and Specks belongs in this category. Not only does he enjoy talking about music, popular or otherwise, on national television, but it turns out that Brough is very much welcome in those furthest corners of alternative music fandom where one can unselfconsciously pursue their interest outside of the mainstream entertainment industry.

The show has become a much loved part of Australian popular culture since its first season in 2003, and its ongoing appeal has much to do with the casual and often hilarious discussions that take place each week where popular music icons are given the opportunity to shed the studied cool and talk about whatever happens to be on their mind. Brough, who happily admits his devotion to US hardcore punk music from the 1980s, appreciates the relaxed atmosphere on the Spicks and Specks set. “To me it’s just chatter, and what we’ve been very lucky to have engendered in the show is a feeling of a group of people coming together and having a good talk about music, and in that respect I think there is a certain freedom. We are very lucky to be on the ABC because had we been on a commercial channel we probably would have been cancelled.”

The show has certainly been a success, due in part to Brough’s passion for music which can be traced back to his teenage years in 1980s New Zealand when he began to investigate punk rock and supercool indie-pop music from bands like The Clean and The Bats. “I had been a punk fan at school and had been in a punk band as lots of people were at the time,” Brough says, “and I then got into post-punk stuff like Joy Division, but also stuff like The Stooges, The MC5 and Television, all those progenitors of what became the American hardcore scene. It just seemed like the logical next step for me from The Sex Pistols and a lot of the Flying Nun label bands from New Zealand.”

After arriving in Australia, Brough became involved in stand-up comedy and landed various roles in film and radio, but his musical taste was by this time well refined. “I remember on my sixteenth birthday buying Tally-Ho by The Clean. Not a lot of my friends were listening to this kind of thing, so it was very underground but also a really thriving scene. I think there are people out there attracted to music that others either don’t get or like and I was one of them.” There is something admirable about music fans willing to express disdain for commercialised entertainment, and Brough is content with the implications. “I think it is really about mapping out your territory, and also a lot of good music is made by people who have had similar experiences to you. That music talks directly to you, and so you form a relationship with it.”

This sense of engagement also translates to Spicks and Specks in a live setting. “It is a step beyond people yelling at the TV screen and wishing we could hear them,” Brough says. “The format of the show is basically the same, but it is a lot more interactive with the audience and I really love doing it. I know people who know a lot more about music than what I do, but I happen to know a little bit about a lot of things, and I very much enjoy the job I’m doing.”

The Spicks and Speck-tacular will go off like a frog in a sock from Wednesday December 10 to Friday December 12 at the Canberra Theatre . Tickets are $54.90. Tickets from Canberra Ticketing.

Pivot - The Soundtrack of their Lives

Pivot

There is a thriving impulse at work within the ranks of Australian experimental group PIVOT . This comes across on a website listing some of the band’s favourite keyboard music featuring, along with usual suspects like Brian Eno, names such as David Bowie and Pink Floyd, both of whom were major selling artists who at times came up with some pretty compelling stuff. It might also be the case that the inclination to transform existing forms is mandatory for anyone who truly cares about the creative act. This notion certainly comes across on Pivot’s second album O Soundtrack My Heart, which features a charged collection of well organised instrumental constructions involving laptop, guitar and percussion. The album has been picked up by reputable UK label Warp, joining other colourful artefacts from purveyors of otherworldly sonics such as Aphex Twin and Battles.

In this respect, Pivot percussionist Laurence Pike is quite content with the label’s interest in the band. “When we finished the album we were very happy with it, and we thought it could have a place at Warp,” Pike says. “Back in the ’90s when we were all going through uni and high school, the kind of stuff the label was putting out was just so consistently different and pioneering, and all those records from groups like Aphex Twin, Autechre and Boards of Canada were like listening to something from another planet.” From this varied miasma, the all-
encompassing term post-rock could be applied to Pivot’s music, perhaps due to the band’s focused approach to shifting, yet fluid textures, but Pike wonders about that tag. “I find that the kind of bands coined with the post-rock label are generally versed in lots of different kinds of music, and they’re just trying to find their way in the world like everyone else. I guess it’s about making music that doesn’t fit neatly into categories like indie, electronic or rock. We don’t really think much about those kinds of labels. We just do what we do.”

Pike is more content with Pivot’s proclivity for experimentation. “Music should always be in a state of flux of some kind, and in hindsight, most great artists are the ones who constantly tried to expand their sound or tried to find new ways of saying things. At heart, we are an experimental band. But it’s not like we sit down and go, ‘right, we have to make this music as weird and as challenging as possible’. It’s just the nature of the music we make that happens to be inherently experimental.”

Given this outlook, John McEntire as choice of producer was a good one. McEntire’s claim to fame comes from his ongoing commitment to such luminaries as Tortoise and The Sea and Cake, both of whom have accentuated a highly detailed approach to music-making that incorporates a range of musical styles in the best post-punk tradition. “It wasn’t an obvious choice like, ‘let’s get post-rock poster boy John McEntire to produce our record’, or anything like that,” Pike says. “I think it was genuinely more to do with the fact that we liked the sound on a lot of his records. But there is no denying that Tortoise was a big influence, and their music really turned my head around.”

That inspiration has filtered into Pivot’s opened-up songwriting process. “We generate things from all sorts of places, either starting with electronics or jamming and then recording, and then pulling it all apart and putting it back together. There is a period of construction and a cycle that repeats on itself, until we’ve got something definitive.”

O Soundtrack My Heart is out August 9 on Warp via Inertia. Pivot launch the LP at the Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, on Friday August 8 with Fabulous Diamonds (Melbourne) and Kirin J Callinan.

Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff (Deluxe Edition) (Sub Pop)

When Nirvana hit the charts in 1991 with the Nevermind album, grunge quickly became the most convenient buzz word to describe the band’s music, although the term was a bit misleading. Grunge was supposed to be about raw, sonic leakage that bore little resemblance to the pristine gloss of usual chart toppers. But producer Butch Vig brought a metallic sheen to Nevermind that in some ways cleaned up any lingering grunginess, and helped that album to the top of the pops. However, little of this bothered Mudhoney, who represented the grunge aesthetic more vigorously than just about any other band from the Pacific North West in the late 1980s, and whose distortion drenched nuggets encapsulated the desire felt by many aware teenagers to escape from the conformist mould of mainstream society. Where Nirvana mixed up the melodic sensibilities of bands like The Beatles and Cheap Trick with the raging intensity of American hardcore, Mudhoney looked further back to the teen-scream of 1960s garage punk. Superfuzz Bigmuff, originally released in 1991, is a superlative example of this expanded outlook, featuring some of the band’s earliest and most significant recordings. Back then, Mudhoney hit the ground running with the menacing growl of early single Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More, but it was the b-side Touch Me I’m Sick that became something of an anthem for the dropout generation. This deluxe version of Superfuzz Bigmuff, with an added bunch of bonus live tracks and demos, also features attentive remastering that increases by tenfold the potency of the messy, yet glorious noise on offer.

SNOG - Kiss Off

The creative act becomes a democratic process when it reflects a sharing of knowledge between the artist and audience. In this sense, intense electro outfit SNOG reacts against the homogeneity of capitalist culture through a creative expression that aims to enhance the listener’s awareness of the world. Formed by David Thrussell in the late 1980s, Snog has ruggedly pursued a singular agenda within the Australian independent music scene and song titles such as Corporate Slave, an early single from 1992 that I remember seeing on Rage a lot, bears this out. The band has also successfully contributed to the tradition of experimental electronic music in Australia that has its origins in the late 1970s with electro pioneers like SPK, Severed Heads and Ollie Olsen.

Reflecting on the detail of Snog compositions, Thrussell says, “We make dark, kind of playful electronically based music that is centred around songs. When we began, we identified as a small indie band, and we were entirely comfortable with that. I guess we would describe what we did then as dark electronic music with attitude. We were somewhat aware that there existed a tradition of this kind of music in Australia which has largely been forgotten, but we were definitely aware of it with bands like SPK and (Ollie Olsen’s) No. We knew all that music and definitely liked it.”

As the band began to take shape it also pursued a specific political view point, suggested by the title of the 1993 debut album, Lies, Inc. “Our philosophy has a few different prongs,” Thrussell says. “Probably the most obvious one is to be wary of the mainstream media and other external influences. I try to be honest and down to earth about these things, and one of the great things about alternative culture is that it lets people know they are not alone.” Thrussell’s sharp perspective is reflected in the band’s music, which has in part been influenced by a hard-edged form of electronic music whose origins can be found in the dark, intense experiments of post-punk groups like Throbbing Gristle in the late 1970s.

Thrussell points out that although he is not a big fan of labels being attached to Snog’s fire-brand electronica, there are certain aspects of industrial music that have influenced his ethos. “At the root I found this kind of music more honest than straightforward pop music. Yes, it’s dark, electronic and foreboding but it can sometimes be quite cheeky.” These latter aspects can be found on Snog’s 2007 album The Last Days of Rome and follow-up EP City, whose title track conjures a brooding atmosphere that would not sound out of place on one of Barry Adamson’s imaginary soundtrack albums. “That song follows a classic theme in music that you could say goes back to the industrial revolution,” Thrussell says. “Cities can be prosperous, exotic places, but they can also be places to beware of. It’s quite a sentimental quasi-romantic song, and it’s also quite ironic that the demise of the protagonist in the song is connected to inanimate objects such as a bunch of buildings. As for the music, we started off with a minimal and spacious feel and we felt that it worked well.”

Apart from the recorded material which runs to eight albums, Snog in live performance should be worth checking out given Thrussell’s colourful description of the band onstage as akin to “a very shaggy, unkempt Kraftwerk concert. It’s pretty electronically based. There are some guitars in there, a couple of keyboards and then there’s me hurling myself around. Think maybe of a very shaggy Kraftwerk in a bad mood.”

Snog make their live debut in Canberra on Saturday July 19 at the Holy Grail Civic, alongside Sobriquet (live), the  Vamp DJs (Robot and Evil Chris) and the Chrome DJs (MetaVirus, Stealth.Elf, Salem).

Helmet / Using Three Words / Tonk @ ANU Bar, Friday May 2

What a great show this was. Its only unfortunate aspect came in the gap between Using Three Words and Tonk’s appropriately heavy rock and roll, and headliner Helmet taking the stage, when I was introduced to a Canberra-based music writer who responded to a complement about his work with a blank stare. It seemed that by speaking to him I had somehow disturbed the stirrings of a great mind. It’s not as if this person, who must consider himself to be some kind of revered local celebrity, is an ace reporter for Rolling Stone or anything like that - in fact, far from it. Anyway, there were far more important things to be concerned with such as Helmet’s first appearance in Canberra, and what turned out to be the band’s fantastic live set.

Both supporting bands turned out solid performances to an increasingly appreciative crowd, and both were well chosen as supports, as the sound flowed well from one band to the next. The sense of anticipation for the main act could be felt in the break, to which I paid far more attention than the aforementioned music writer, and it was also encouraging to overhear a number of committed fans speaking about Helmet’s music in admirable detail. This was a good thing, because it negated a perception of the band as only being capable of playing outdated punk-thrash by people whose only experience with the music was the funk-metal of the House of Pain collaborative track Just Another Victim. Not that this track is without merit. I’m thinking it might even have closed tonight’s show in suitably energised form. In any case, the band has maintained musical ties with a stream of experimental, post-hardcore noise music that emerged from New York in the mid to late ’80s and this came across while Helmet performed the intensely layered Meantime album from 1992 - but in reverse - just to keep us fans alert (but not alarmed).

Page Hamilton sprayed distorted note clusters from his guitar and kept his playing in tight symmetry with a fiery rhythm section that sustained a high energy level throughout. Meantime also overflows with razor sharp riffs, and there were streamlined textures and riffs aplenty as the band tore through the album. Before that part of the show began, Helmet warmed up with more recent material, possibly including a track from the under-appreciated 1997 album Aftertaste. But it was when the raging chords of Role Model, the monster tune that concludes Meantime roared into life, that the show really got underway. The band attacked that album’s ten tracks with sharp precision and hit a peak with the crowd during the final three, Give It, Ironhead and In the Meantime, which revealed the music at its heaviest. But the band peaked again when it trotted out a number of blistering tracks from the Betty album, including a scorching version of the opener Wilma’s Rainbow and the slow burner Tic, where the crowd was treated to ongoing dissonant blasts from Page Hamilton’s guitar, melding with the heavyweight crunch of the rhythm.

Hamilton maintained total control over his instrument and it also turned out that he’s a pretty easygoing bloke who likes to engage the crowd between songs. Although maybe a little too meandering at times, Hamilton nevertheless kept us entertained with the myriad woes of his love life, his fondness for Cooper’s beer – of which he was particularly fond throughout the show – and his lively appreciation of enthusiastic Australian audiences and guitar players. In fact, it seemed by the end of the show that he was on first name terms with half the audience. This friendliness also extended to a number of females down the front who requested and were allowed to get up on stage. They then proceeded to thrash about while the band ripped into the tight-funk of the Betty track Milquetoast. Girls, audience and band all seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I’m choosing to assume it was all quite innocent. And if I’m not mistaken, at one point I witnessed a stage dive of sorts. Now, that is something I haven’t seen in a while, and was essentially the icing on the cake as it were. The thought occurred as I staggered out into the icy Canberra air after the lights came on, with cigarette dangling from my lips, that it had all been pretty cool. It was an entertaining show for various colourful reasons other than the music itself; the Meantime album sounded great in live performance and the band was in top musical form. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Helmet - Safety First

Life is full of irony and there exists much evidence to support this view. Some weeks ago I got on the phone to New York to speak to Page Hamilton who is the vocalist/guitarist for full-on hardcore exponents HELMET . Since the late 1980s, Hamilton has fronted a band for whom the term ‘heaviosity’ should have been invented. This is a band known for its pummelling rhythms, slashing guitars and Page Hamilton’s razor sharp vocal roar. It turns out that he is also one of the most softly spoken people I’ve ever come across. This might be because Hamilton wisely saves his energy in the everyday world for the lumbering musical monster that is Helmet.

Now, if only the embattled music writer could hear him in conversation, then the seemingly placid nature of the man and the raging intensity of the music could be brought together in beautiful harmony. But aside from this amusingly ironic situation, audiences will be treated to what can only be described as some much needed head cleaning, or maybe head clearing, on Helmet’s forthcoming Australian tour. The band will also be performing the 1992 classic hardcore album Meantime in its entirety.

I saw Helmet at the Big Day Out that year, and I still remember the thrill that accompanied the serrated chords and concrete rhythm of that album’s opening title track. Assisted by the many beers consumed in full sunlight before entering the cavernous Hordern Pavilion on that steaming Saturday afternoon, I became excited by the fact that Helmet had arrived in Australia with a distinctive metallic music that brought a new dimension to US hardcore. Melodic punk rock from a raft of grunge bands dominated the indie scene at the time, but the compelling intensity of Helmet was an altogether different proposition. Given this, it seems even more amazing that Helmet was snapped up for a substantial sum by the major label Interscope on the heels of the band’s crunching debut album Strap It On, released on the Amphetamine Reptile label in 1991. That album effectively established a signature sound that was comprised of a muscular instrumental roar, whiplash rhythmic repetition and screaming vocals.

But there was something else going on as well, and Hamilton is keen to talk about his formal education in jazz guitar before forming the band. The outcome was that Helmet came to represent a fusion of New York’s downtown experimental music scene, which incorporated the corrosive anti-melodies of no-wave and free jazz, and the hardcore sounds of Black Flag, Hüsker Dü and Big Black.

Hamilton tells me that his musical training brought out an attention to detail that emerges on the tighter-than-tight arrangements of a Helmet composition, on which each of the sonic elements are carefully slotted together for maximum impact, as are the words. Hamilton’s lyrics are

more barked than sung and reflect the surreal atmosphere of New York’s dense urban environment where they were written. And then there are the guitars. On such tracks as Ironhead and Turned Out from the Meantime album, Hamilton turns out rapid notes that incorporate an internal logic and skim across the dependable repetition of the beat.

I got the impression that Hamilton is quite proud of his achievements on guitar which becomes clearer when contrasted with his lack of enthusiasm for the nu-metal tag with which the band has been labelled at various times. “I don’t attach labels to what we do like hardcore or nu-metal,” Hamilton says. “We are really just a rock and roll band and I don’t really know any nu-metal records.” I, for one, am more than happy to tell Hamilton that Helmet’s powerful hardcore is far removed from the pseudo funky, light metal of such poseurs as Limp Bizkit and Korn.

There might possibly be vague similarities between Helmet’s tight and minimalist funk and looser grooves found elsewhere, but the music on Meantime and the follow-up album Betty from 1994 - which represents the high point of the band’s achievements - sustains motion through a piston-like regularity. And given the tough workouts on the more recent album Monochrome, Hamilton seems content to continue pursuing his single-minded vision.Monochrome was produced by Wharton Tiers, a veteran of the downtown scene who worked with the band in earlier days. “I had always felt comfortable working with Wharton and I had just moved back to New York,” Hamilton says. “But it wasn’t necessarily to capture a certain sound. The songwriting is a lot different these days, although there have always been certain elements that I’ve loved a lot.” Hamilton also points out that he has always been keen to develop the band’s music and this began to happen with the release of the album Betty, revealing a more textured approach that softened the edges a little but was still a blast to listen to. That album featured a fuller noise-drenched dynamic than previous work, distinguishing it from pretty much everything else at the time, and Hamilton tells me that Betty represented his increasing devotion to the songwriting craft, as well as the desire to pursue his own distinctive approach to the guitar.

Australian fans will get to see all this in live performance and also experience the blistering sonics of the Meantime album as an added treat. Wth this in mind, the fact that Page Hamilton is a quiet-talker is merely a minor detail.

Helmet play at the ANU Bar on Friday May 2 with locals Using Three Words and Tonk in support. They’ll perform Meantime from start to finish, plus all the classics and a couple of new tracks too. Tickets on sale from Landspeed Records, ANU Union and Ticketek (132 849).