To those obsessed with traditions, setting out to create heavy music then taking guitars out of the equation would not only be akin to blasphemy, but tantamount to an impossible dream. Of course, just about anything suggested by musical gatekeepers can readily be shown up for the absurd notion that it is, and there are plenty of artists that have come and gone that have shown that a pulverizing heaviness can be created with a rhythm section and vocals alone. Ghold are a duo based out of London that have been proving so since their inception three years ago. On their second full-length album released via Ritual Productions earlier this year, Of Ruin, Ghold have produced a record of truly explosive and primal menace that delightfully belies their minimal framework.
If one was skeptical of the capacity for such an arrangement to produce something sonically devastating, then they could just skip right ahead to the album’s second track, “Partaken Incarnate.” From its very beginning, Ghold bludgeon you with swirling toms and a dynamic swarm of distorted down-tuned bass riffs. It’s the sound of earth being torn to pieces and cruelly mixed with masses of blood and flesh from a cohesive and punishing full armoured division attack.
Ghold are frequently referred to as doom, but once again, there is much more to what they have put together than just a single stream of thought. There are far too many crescendos of pace, energy, and musical detail to ascribe any fairness to such categorization. Certainly, there are plenty of dramatic moments where minimal riffs linger and evolve at funeral pace, but Of Ruin manages great strength through great variation. Likewise, in one instance the vocals will rage primitively over their bestial tattoo, then metamorphose from such raw sound into surreal effected choral passages or whispered psychedelic mantras.
Of Ruin adds to the proof that stripping things down need not create limitations for what an artist wants to achieve. Some of the best creations in any field are achieved by keeping things simple, which is not to say that Ghold are simplistic. This is an engaging and punishing record that will definitely appeal to fans of The Melvins (whom Echoes and Dust pointed out are an obvious influence), as well those who love dark and oppressive doom and progressive and experimental metal. With what they have chosen to work with, to have produced a collection of songs with so many different gears of energy and intensity (both within each individual work and between them all) is to Ghold’s great credit.
The Black Captain hosts RTRFM’s Behind the Mirror on Wednesday, July 8, at 11pm (+7GMT).
“Around the time grime was evolving from garage – in the simplest terms – so too was post-metal emerging from noisecore. Noisecore was the culmination of the fast-and-complex style of thrash and metallic hardcore. Between 1997 and 2000, bands like Botch, Kiss It Goodbye, Dillinger Escape Plan and Coalesce were twisting hardcore and metal into increasingly technical shapes, blurring the brutality with jazz, pop and, well, Gregorian chants. Eventually, the time passed for noisecore, and those young intellectuals decided to slow it down, growing oddly tender at times.”
“For many, the contrast between the highs of a successful show and the anti-climactic low that often follows can be hard to adjust to, a phenomenon that has been termed “post-performance depression’, or PPD. Mental health professional John C Buckner writes: “When the body experiences major shifts in mood, it is flooded with several different neurotransmitters, resulting in a biochemical release that leads to a feeling of ecstasy. After these moments the nervous system needs time to recalibrate itself to prepare for another release. After an exciting performance the body starts to balance out the level of neurotransmitters, and therefore it is not releasing the same level that caused the exciting feelings, resulting in the lingering sadness. In normal day-to-day life, biochemicals are released and rest/recovery follow, causing the typical ups and downs of life. In the case of PPD, the process is more extreme with higher highs and lower lows.””
Only now as I’ve made my permanent home in the U.S. have I begun to understand what kind of determination and resources it takes to have a successful band, career, and meaningful artistic life. This land of opportunities with no public funding and a queue of talented young musicians lining up for the big time is very, very brutal, albeit exciting and nowhere near perfect. My first year in Los Angeles I damaged my thumb in a wood cutting machine. The medical bills totaled $6,000. The real dark side of being in America, the aloneness of it, how one error or unlucky turn could set you back was terrifying. I remember being in an apartment in West Hollywood lying in the dark in the middle of summer, forcing myself to try to sleep so I could avoid the fact that I had no prospects. Everyone networks very blatantly here. Handing out business cards, and striking up immediate friendships (very un-Danish). Everyone hustling, promising, hyperbolizing everything. My gut-terror and this bazaar-like atmosphere also gave me an energy. There is something about trying to fight through the masses of people and reach the sprawling musical tapestry, sometimes failing intensely and sometimes not.”
LISTEN
French Rockets — Pulling Metal
“What repeats makes me stronger.” Such has been the ethos of Perth synaesthetiacs French Rockets, and it continues to serve them well on “Pulling Metal”, the second single from new ablum Arc. Rather than build layer upon layer for the Great Wall of Sound that’s been the group’s calling card for the last several years, this song is about subtraction; the bass drops out to give way to wiry electronic philandering emerges, returning to fill the rhythm once the guitars drop out. And while repetition serves them well, French Rockets have perfected another part of their artillery here: how to write a catchy-as-fuck hook. Arc is out on June 29.
Scott Kay — Stargazer
Your weekend meditation comes courtesy of Scott Kay, better known as the guitarist of metal outfits Voyager and Statues. There are no axes here on Stargazer, though; just seven minutes of exultant celestial atmosphere built around a simple but striking piano motif. The track is available for $1 and all proceeds go towards Women’s Community Shelters which helps women in crisis find safe spaces, so if you enjoy it throw a buck towards a good cause.
WATCH
Sannhet — Atrium
The latest clip from Sannhet’s under-appreciated Revisionist makes for uncomfortable viewing but a welcome reminder to delve deeper into the Brooklyn trio’s brutal and beautiful sophomore record.
Chelsea Wolfe — Carrion Flowers
Keeping with the trend of disturbing black and white montages is the first video from Abyss, Chelsea Wolfe’s forthcoming new record. Shot on what looks to be several different cameras, the clip is an assemblage of growth and decay, industry and nature, punctuated by striking imagery — honestly, how amazing is this shot? Wolfe’s material has been getting darker with every record, and the drum-and-guitar combination on this track — which is emphasized here with some clever editing — is utterly haunting. If it’s any indication of how the rest of the album will sound, Abyss is shaping up to be one of the most bleak collections of music in a long time.
One of Australia’s finest and most talented beard-wearers, Josh Pyke, is about to release his new album But For All These Shrinking Hearts at the end of July, and to celebrate more divine Pyke music on its way, we’ve got the man himself coming into the Music Feeds studio for a live stream.
Having teased us for months with snippets of new music, Josh recently released the video for track There’s A Line, alongside the announcement of the album, his fifth, and followed it up with the first official single Hollering Heights a couple of weeks back.
Josh will be streaming out to you LIVE from our Sydney studio this Friday June 26th from 4pm AEST, playing some brand new, never-before-heard songs from But For All These Shrinking Hearts. You’ll probably want to go ahead and pre-order that bad boy here, it drops July 31.
One of Australia’s finest and most talented beard-wearers, Josh Pyke, is about to release his new album But For All These Shrinking Hearts at the end of July, and to celebrate more divine Pyke music on its way, we’ve got the man himself coming into the Music Feeds studio for a live stream.
Having teased us for months with snippets of new music, Josh recently released the video for track There’s A Line, alongside the announcement of the album, his fifth, and followed it up with the first official single Hollering Heights a couple of weeks back.
Josh will be streaming out to you LIVE from our Sydney studio this Friday June 26th from 4pm AEST, playing some brand new, never-before-heard songs from But For All These Shrinking Hearts. You’ll probably want to go ahead and pre-order that bad boy here, it drops July 31.
I spent months thinking Prisons were a post-rock band. When I stumbled across their Bandcamp page under the tag “noise rock” back in March, all that existed was one track, and a link to a disused Facebook page with under 50 likes. Bandcamp is full of these anomalies: long-defunct bands uploading old records, new bands from unheard of corners of the world (in this case: Underjord, Sweden, a town that Google Maps can’t find) who fizzle out after one release. That one track, Sun Factory, was addictive, bathed in nuance, flirting with post-rock tendencies yet steering clear of its banality. It was simple: a four-bar, five-note guitar refrain maintaining rhythm, while a flurry of layers segue in and out. In the background, reverbed radio interference cut in and out, and the whole song bleeds out before you realize the crescendo already hit.
The follow-up released earlier this month is anything but post-rock. On EP, Prisons’ sound is steeped in dread and unresolved tension, an industrial dirge underpinning riffs that float in and out of dissonance. On Electric Sleep, the reveal comes two minutes in as an uncomfortable build-up gives way to violent screams heavy-as-fuck-riffage. There are flourishes here that recall the criminally underappreciated Suffocate for Fuck Sake, another short-lived Swedish act who married post-rock sentiment with agonizing heaviness and attracted a small but dedicated following with pretentiously titled but admirably ambitious debut album. But who’s to say these guys ever heard of them. In any case, the URL group’s Bandcamp URL does them justice: Prisons hurt.
Melbourne indie-pop legends Saskwatch are riding high at the moment, having just released their third full-length Sorry I Let It Come Between Us, and to celebrate, are heading into the Music Feeds LIVE studio to stream their delicious musical goodies straight to you!
Having kicked off the year with an Aussie tour and an appearance at the Groovin the Moo tour, the six-piece have seen a reinvention of their sound after a lineup change and their new album is being heralded as an exciting evolution of their bluesy, jazz-infected sound into new gritty sonic realms.
Make sure to tune in, right here, on Wednesday June 24th from 2.00pm AEST to see a stripped back performance of a handful of their tracks. We dare you to stay seated.
UPDATE: Due to technical issues out of our control the live stream has unfortunately been cancelled. Stay tuned for a pre-recorded live set of Saskwatch, coming your way soon.
Melbourne indie-pop legends Saskwatch are riding high at the moment, having just released their third full-length Sorry I Let It Come Between Us, and to celebrate, are heading into the Music Feeds LIVE studio to stream their delicious musical goodies straight to you!
Having kicked off the year with an Aussie tour and an appearance at the Groovin the Moo tour, the six-piece have seen a reinvention of their sound after a lineup change and their new album is being heralded as an exciting evolution of their bluesy, jazz-infected sound into new gritty sonic realms.
Make sure to tune in, right here, on Wednesday June 24th from 2.00pm AEST to see a stripped back performance of a handful of their tracks. We dare you to stay seated.
UPDATE: Due to technical issues out of our control the live stream has unfortunately been cancelled. Stay tuned for a pre-recorded live set of Saskwatch, coming your way soon.
Nature Trails sound like they could have come from anywhere. This isn’t intended as a slur against the band, but rather an attempt to describe their immediate sense of timelessness and internationality. The foreboding gothic vocals, which could have come from London or New York, the mix of 80’s cold wave with modern digital recording, their characteristic use of only a single guitar and bass. It’s all very in-line with international, rather than local trends in the genre, exemplified by experimental gothic revival bands like Algiers, The Soft Moon, or Trust. It’s an interesting sound to hear in Australia, and especially from somewhere like Brisbane, a city which is hardly known for its worldliness or internationality. That being said, the internet is everywhere, and the existence of any kind of identifiably local trends in influences or sounds shouldn’t be seen as any less of an anomaly than bands like Nature Trails that could have come from anywhere. Still, it remains relatively rare to hear an album from Australia that sounds this little like the product of an Australian band. First of all, there’s little hint of any kind of influence from shoegaze, building comparable depth and power with layers of subtlety constructed digital synths, rather than the wall-of-noise distorted guitars more common to the genre in Australia. It’s also got a bigger focus on harmony than anything you might have heard this year, while somehow sharing little of the pop sensibilities expressed by similarly melodic Australian bands like Soviet X-Ray Record Club, Nite Fields, or Day Ravies. It is, in short, an incredibly confident, surprising debut album, one that’s definitely worth a listen if you’re into goth or cold wave.
Opening track ‘Chaste’ begins with trashy 4/4 drum machine percussion and retro darkwave synths, with a classic gothic vocal line reminiscent of genre-defining 80’s vocalists like Peter Murphy or Andrew Eldritch, built on the back of a strong, repeating guitar riff. Their sound is at once nostalgic and recognisably modern, with its crisp digital production allowing all the instrumental elements in the track to stand apart from one another while still contributing to the densely layered music of the whole. It’s atmospheric without being overwhelming, with the careful use of subtlety layered synthesizers and guitar effects making for a sound that feels much denser and heavier than a closer listen reveals the songs to be. The guitar riff and synth lines repeat until monotony, creating a droning, hopeless sort of an affect: exactly the sort of bleak but beautiful emotions darkwave is designed to create. ‘Hollow State’ begins with a smoky, jazz-noir type of sound reminiscent of the Twin Peaks score, adding in a gothic vocal line to create a laid-back, almost dream-pop kind of feeling, despite working from an almost completely different set of musical influences. ‘Fragment’ is the same, with militaristic drumming and parallel guitar and bass lines, taking elements of classic cold wave, goth, and post-punk and turning them into this romantic, contemporary pastiche, which evokes nostalgia for the classic goth of times gone by, while sounding distinctly different to all of it. The synths are clean and probably digital, but they’re mixed and recorded so well that they feel like they’re authentic. ‘In Glass’ sounds like it could have come out in the 1980’s, while relying on digital synths and hi-fi recording practices that are all 2015. It gives the album a kind of ageless quality: neither throwback, nor revival, but a modern recreation of an older set of sounds and emotions. It’s similar to the breakout debut Silence Yourself from London band Savages in 2013, but recorded and performed independently, without any apparent kind of industry support or record company backing.
This too is a strength of the album, and an indicator of raw, creative potential of the modern music scene. If Nature Trails can create a sound like this, on their own, in a studio in Brisbane, without any kind of prompting from the wider music industry; an album that’s retro, contemporary, authentic, and distinctive, all at once… How can anyone ever say that the industry’s in trouble? We live in an age where possibilities for creative expression are broader and more accessible than ever before, where high-quality new material in almost any genre can be produced by anyone, at any time, without the limitations of market-centric demands from record labels, local venues, or the radio. Nature Trails do their own thing, and they do it very well, and because of that they can be heard and praised for their achievements. It doesn’t matter if they’re young. It doesn’t matter if they’re old. All that matters is their music and the way it makes you feel. In this case, even money’s not a problem. ‘In Glass’ is available right now on Bandcamp, for whatever price you choose to make it. You can keep it forever if you like. What a wonderful album. What a time to be alive.
Heads. are a German-Australian sludge and noise rock band receiving rave reviews for their self-titled debut LP and upcoming support slots in the German wing of the European tour for Toronto noise rock band METZ. Like METZ, Heads. play heavy, noise-infused guitar rock, but while METZ are more about the energy and speed, Heads. run at a comparatively languid pace, allowing you to pay close attention to their detailed, psychedelic compositions. I had a chat with Ed Fraser, lead singer and founding member of the band, about his origins, influences, and plans for the future, just weeks ahead of the band’s European tour with METZ:
Matthew Stoff: One thing I really loved about your new album, it felt like three guys just jamming together in a room, but with these really crisply recorded, carefully constructed songs. I was wondering how you put the two together. You’ve got these really organised, subtle compositions, but the energy and spontaneity of a live show. Did you record the album live or in the studio, or was it a mix of both?
Ed Fraser: We recorded in a makeshift studio so we could do the whole album live. The majority of the record, except for the vocals and the overdubs, is just us playing in a big room. That’s why we went to Switzerland to make it. There’s a huge space there in a venue called Bikini Test, which is a live venue that’s closed over the summer, and we knew we could hire out the whole thing. It was kind of like hiring out the Corner Hotel. We set everything up in a big horseshoe, and we had a large number of microphones all over the building. Then we tracked everything live. We tried to get the feeling right and a good vibe, and then we played the songs.
MS: How did the music come together? I know that you wrote most of the lyrics, but what about the instrumental elements? Were they a collaborative effort, or did one of you handle the majority of the song-writing?
EF: It was definitely collaborative. One of the things I really enjoyed about writing these songs was that we did everything all together. But it was definitely done in a way that was different for me. I’m used to playing in rock bands in Melbourne and playing with friends. Rehearsing together once, twice, three times a week, we all get together in a room, we jam, someone has an idea… it was completely different with Heads, and a lot of that was because of necessity. Peter, our drummer, lives in Hamburg. And Chris lives in Berlin, but we’re all travelling around a lot. Chris, with his commitments to The Ocean and Peter being a part of their road crew meant those guys weren’t at home all that much while we were writing the record either. So for us to get in a room and write songs together in that traditional band kind of way just wasn’t viable. So essentially what we did was we had a shared Dropbox folder, and we wrote large portions of the music while we were all in different countries. Which was something completely weird to me, but I think it worked.
MS: It’s an interesting sound you guys came up with too. I thought the long-form, almost metal compositions were a bit like The Ocean, but the energy and structure seemed closer to traditionally Australian noise rock, like Zeahorse or Narrow Lands. What sort of bands were you involved in before you moved to Berlin, and how did they affect the music?
EF: I basically just played in a couple of rock bands in Melbourne. I most recently played in a band called Cut, which was a three-piece noise rock kind of thing, and before that I played in a grunge rock band called The Mourning Suns for a few years. Similar kind of stuff, but different to Heads. in that I think the stuff I was playing in Melbourne was a lot more basic in terms of its compositions and song structures, and it was more straight-ahead pub rock; screaming and yelling sort of stuff. Whereas Heads. definitely has big elements of that, particularly live, a lot of it is screaming into the microphone, making a lot of noise. But a lot more thought went into the song structures and compositions and the meanings of the songs. And a lot of that was down to having more time to do it. And using that method of song writing, writing essentially from different countries, just using the shared Dropbox system – in some ways that gave me, and probably all of us, the ability to spend more time thinking about things, and more time putting things together. Rather than, oh we’ve only got three hours together in the room, so let’s write this song as quickly as we can, it was more like, let’s take our time, you know what I mean?
MS: You’ve got this central source for all your ideas, so you take your time and figure out what to do with them.
EF: Exactly, yeah.
MS: How did you get involved with Metz for their German tour? Did you know the band before?
EF: I actually don’t know them personally, but I’m looking forward to meeting them.
MS: I thought your albums were quite similar in a lot of ways. In tone and energy, if not so much in the way they’re put together. Would you say you were drawing from a similar set of influences?
EF: I think so. That’s definitely something I would like to agree with. I really like that band. I love the way they sound and the amount of energy that they put across, in quite a nasty way.
MS: You guys are a bit more laid-back, I think.
EF: I think we’re a bit slower. And that’s kind of how we approach things generally: when we write a song, we kind of slow it down a bit. We write this kind of sludgy feel. Still very heavy, but just slowed it down a bit. It’s kind of fun to play it like that too.
MS: How did you meet the rest of your band?
EF: It was actually completely random. We didn’t have any mutual friends or contacts or anything like that. I’d kind of just arrived in Berlin. It was probably only a matter of weeks. I really hadn’t been here very long, and I was looking for some people to play music with. I wanted to do some touring, write some songs. I was looking for people to make a band. So I started doing it in that kind of way I’d always done it in Melbourne as well. I’d always played with friends or people I knew, or people who knew somebody I knew. But that wasn’t really happening here, and I had a couple of buddies who said: “you should go on Craigslist, there’s a lot of musicians on Craigslist,” and I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder to be honest. I was like: “Fuck that, I’m not going to go on Craigslist and find musicians,” because I’d never done it before. But then my buddies were like: “Just do it, it’s a good way to find people.” So I did, and the first day I was on there, there was a post from Chris, just saying something like: “Bass player looking for new band mates.” And I clicked on it and he had a couple of links to his bass playing, and it was just like: “This guy is the perfect bass player.” Then I sent him some of my stuff, and he liked it as well. And I don’t think I’ve been on Craigslist since. So it worked out in that way, but it was almost instantly we had a mutual love of the same type of bands and music. So I think I was what he was looking for and he was what I was looking for, so we just kind of clicked instantly. And at the time he wasn’t in Berlin. He was on tour with the Ocean in China or somewhere, and we started exchanging ideas through Dropbox and stuff like that. So almost straight away it was like this very new way of creating and writing songs. We’d never even met face to face before.
MS: How long were you exchanging ideas before you started on the album?
EF: It was quite a long tour that he was on, so I think it was like a month and a half, maybe two months, before we met face to face, and we were just exchanging ideas that whole time. And Peter, our drummer, was on the road with them and he started hearing some of the stuff I was sending through, and some of the stuff that Chris was doing and what we were starting to slowly put together, and he liked it, and basically said I want to be a part of this as well.
MS: So the whole thing’s just been an expression of pure serendipity?
EF: Yeah, it’s nice that these things can happen sometimes. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, I’ve been looking for musicians like this for 10 years, and I found them purely by chance. That’s awesome. That’s the world-wide web.
MS: Was a similar process involved with your band being signed to This Charming Man and Heart of The Rat, or did they approach you specifically for your work with Chris from The Ocean?
EF: Well, Chris knew Chris Charming, the label boss of This Charming Man. Those two knew eachother from playing in hardcore bands in the late 90’s and early 2000’s around Germany. Chris used to be in a band called Lynch, so those guys already knew eachother from that, but we sent the record around to a couple of people. And we actually had a few different labels who wanted to put it out. So that was a really nice feeling. But then Chris Charming was in Berlin for a record release party, so Chris Breur went down to meet him. And I just started talking rubbish, like: “Well, noise rock, a lot of people are liking at it the moment,“ all this shit. And then he just sort of stood there and patiently listened to me and said: “Yeah, not really. But I liked your record so I’m going to put it out anyway.” So I was like: “Alright, I think I like this guy. I think they’re the right label for us.” And that was it. As for the Heart of The Rat guys, I wanted someone to release it in Australia. That was very important to me. I’d never actually met the guys but we had a mutual friend called Len Hyatt who plays in a band called the Dead Salesmen. And I was just talking to Lenny and he put me in touch with these guys and said they might be a good home for me. And I just got talking to them online and they were really down to earth, no bullshit. It just seemed like the right place for us.
MS: Speaking of Australia, do you have any plans for a local tour in the future?
EF: We are talking about some stuff at the moment. Nothing’s been set in concrete, but we’re looking at a lot of different options. We’re looking at about March next year, so a little while off yet. But we’re looking at doing at least the east coast around to Adelaide, if not a little bit more. We’ll see how it goes. But that’s something that I’d really love as well. And Chris was in Australia with The Ocean in March, April, and had a pretty good time, I think, so he’s pretty keen to come back. And Pete’s keen as well, so yeah.
MS: Does his work with The Ocean affect you guys at all?
EF: We do our best to work around it as much as we can. It’s been painful a few times. We’ve had some offers to go with a band that I’ve really liked personally that I’ve had to say no to, but that’s just the way it is. We do our best to work around it, but as long as we plan ahead, we’ll be alright I think.
MS: Are you working on any new material?
EF: Absolutely. We’ve already started writing the next record. We’ve written a bunch of songs already, and I think it’s going fairly well. It’s always hard to tell. It’s almost like the last record but everything’s a bit more extreme. That’s kind of the mantra for this one. If we have a section that’s repetitive and hypnotic, we’re going to make it extra repetitive, and go for even longer. And if it’s heavy it’s going to be even heavier, if it’s quiet it’s going to be even quieter.
MS: So how many songs have you written for the new album so far?
EF: There’s probably three that I’d say are finished and another seven or eight in the works. When we recorded the last record, we recorded thirteen songs as well but only released six. So we’ve got a bunch just sitting there as well, which we’ll revisit and work out what we’re going to release as well.
MS: How long did the recording process take with the last album?
EF: I can’t remember exactly. We were in Switzerland for about a week, I think it took us maybe five days to record everything.
MS: But a lot of the ideas were being transferred before then. It was like a culmination of your early period?
EF: Yeah, it was basically written before we went in. We got a guy called Louis Jucker, who’s the singer for Coilguns. He came and did some guest spots with us on the last day which was really exciting. He’s got this kind of creative genius, coming up with a thousand ideas at once. So that was really cool to watch him come in and explain his ideas and stuff.
MS: When do you think the next album will be ready? In time for your Australian tour?
EF: I’d like to think that by early next year we’ll have another record out, but it’s always hard to know how long these things are going to take. We’ve got another few small releases coming out over the next few months as well, like a Blacktop cover for a Helmet tribute compilation, which should be really exciting.
“It was also almost inevitable that at some point the band would reach a creative crossroads. Iommi wanted to keep experimenting in the studio and investigate new directions, while Ozzy hankered after the early years of knocking it out in a few days and then hitting the road. The spectre of the emerging American FM radio sound also looms over Sabotage as the band’s popularity in the US continued to mushroom (my favourite example of the apparent disconnect between Sabbath’s proto-doom metal and the stadium rock culture they were increasingly living inside is their performance at the California Jam show in 1974 – Ozzy implores the audience, “C’mon, let’s have a party!!” while Iommi stands in front of a giant rainbow grinding out the opening chords to ‘Children of the Grave’). All of which makes for an album that’s reaching out to more mainstream rock tastes (without fatally over-balancing yet) while also trying to pull new rabbits out of the hat – the fact that it’s as enjoyable, and at times genre-defining, as it is shows how imaginative and resilient Sabbath were even under considerable duress.”
“In spite of being raised in a household financed by a struggling actor, I didn’t learn anything useful in my young life about the challenges of living on an artist’s unreliable income. In my adolescence, punk rock taught me that you never sell out. Ever. Of course, things like selling out were entirely theoretical at that point. No one was trying to pay me a salary to make music — I couldn’t even yet imagine it. Just a few years later, though, I was able to leave my last day job selling Dr. Martens boots at a small store called NaNa’s. The surprising popularity of my band, Jane’s Addiction, and the money we made in spite of the fuck-all attitude of our decision-making, enabled my youthful, uncompromising artistic worldview to extend far beyond my adolescence. I hadn’t yet found a replacement that incorporated both the creative life and its newly acquired dimension of regular employment. Artist, not yet artisan.”
“We tend to believe that art is—or at least should be—an all-encompassing thing: If you’re doing it right, you aren’t doing anything else, and your identity can’t help but be consumed in the process. But Mogwai’s longevity suggests that good art isn’t synonymous with self-destruction or self-delusion; nor is it endangered by normalcy or decency—in fact, it can be built on those things.”
LISTEN
Spirit Level — Wanderer
There’s an intoxicating quality to Spirit Level’s simple repetition. The jangly acoustics almost recall the tinny treble of old video game soundtracks, and I can’t tell if the images of landscapes conjured on my head are of real meadows or waves of pixel green. In any case, this latest taste from Lyndon Blue and Rupert Thomas is perfect zone-out music for lazy Sunday afternoons.
Facemeat — Compliments To Your Band
Like some kind of Mr. Bungle-soundtracked Lynchian nightmare, the first track on Questions for Men induces furrowed brows, indigestion and inexplicable feelings of arousal. Facemeat are the antidote to easy listening. Questions for Men is out August 25 through Art as Catharsis.
WATCH
Lanark — Mojave (Live at Foxhole Studios)
Judging by their recent live shows, Lanark’s new material has taken a sinister shift, forgoing Damian Diggs’ celestial vocal melodies for an alternating synth/guitar assault that moves from comfortably sublime to nervous and unsettling several times a song. Last month, the quintet debuted another new cut at the recently-opened Foxhole Studios, forwhich the pro-shot video has just emerged. There’s a welcome heaviness to the track, and though it’s likely a good half-year before anything’s put to wax, exciting things are ahead for one of Perth’s best-kept secrets.
To those obsessed with traditions, setting out to create heavy music then taking guitars out of the equation would not only be akin to blasphemy, but tantamount to an impossible dream. Of course, just about anything suggested by musical gatekeepers can readily be shown up for the absurd notion that it is, and there are plenty of artists that have come and gone that have shown that a pulverizing heaviness can be created with a rhythm section and vocals alone. Ghold are a duo based out of London that have been proving so since their inception three years ago. On their second full-length album released via Ritual Productions earlier this year, Of Ruin, Ghold have produced a record of truly explosive and primal menace that delightfully belies their minimal framework.
