Naked On The Vague

Naked On The Vague – ‘All Aboard’

The first time I met Lucy Phelan, one half of Sydney duo Naked On The Vague, was at about 1am last year in the FBi studios. She had just finished her presenter course, and she was paired up with me for a couple of hours of a graveyard shift so I could guide her through her first on-air shift. I’m crippled with the inability to explain anything (I would be the world’s worst teacher), but she’s still hanging around the studio, so perhaps what I showed her stuck?

Lucy, along with Matt Hopkins, creates a cacophonous melange of no-wave, psychedelica, ravenous punk and electronic soundscape. Their abberant, seemingly non-directional noise tunes are fucked-up lo-fi pieces of music that jab straight at your eardrums. It’s almost bordering on art moreso than music – I’m hesitant to call it “noise art” because that brings to mind 11 minutes of static. The music found on their debut record, The Blood Pressure Sessions, is monochromatic, dense and at times claustrophobic – thrashed-out guitars, jackhammer drum beats, Lucy and Matt’s throaty vocals and waves of keyboards conjures music brimming with an anarchic punk ethos.

They’ve previously released a self-titled 7″ record, and the Sad Sun EP. They’re launching their debut record (being released through Dual Plover Records) at Sydney’s coolest new venue, the Oxford Arts Factory, on Saturday October 12. Guaranteed to be weird, but in a good way, not the Britney Spears way.

http://www.myspace.com/nakedonthevague