Monthly Archives For October 2014

PREMIERE: Gordi – ‘Nothing’s As It Seems’

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Gordi is vocalist Sophie Payten. ‘Nothing’s As It Seems’ is the new track from the Sydney based musician / medicine student. ‘Nothing’s As It Seems’ might appear polished, but if not for the hushed instrumental, it could easily carry on just entirely carried by Gordi’s vocal. Lyrically, it’s not overly ambitious – but Gordi’s pastoral nuances don’t call for it. The low-key arrangement keeps the folktronica twee-preening to a minimum. The track is still ethereal without being flail-your-guts-out emotive. (PS. I’ll be waiting for the Enya mash-up.)

Gordi plays Spring St Social in Bondi tonight and Goodgod Small Club on Wednesday October 22. Head here for a full run of show dates.

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LISTEN: The Frowning Clouds – Legalize Everything

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The Frowning Clouds latest release, Legalize Everything, offers psych vibes that’d be welcome in the UFO Club and a reflective and varied approach to production.

Sonic tweaks over the album’s 12 tracks highlight a number of different elements as the sounds move from clarity to ambiguity. Tracks like ‘Dead Growth’ are reduced to a handful of haphazardly mixed instruments, and the results are more like a bootlegger’s eavesdropping than a studio product. Meanwhile other songs, like the excellently titled ‘Sun Particle Mind Body Experience’, bring to mind your favourite 60s psych-pop bands with an extra helping of grit.

It’s refreshing to genuinely have no idea what’s coming next, and while consistent in vibe, the album lays down an impressive variety of tunes. There’s even a bit of kazoo!

Charming and addictive, Legalize Everything is well worth a spin. Pick it up now on Rice Is Nice, and hear lead single ‘Move It’ below.

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INTRODUCING: Yes I’m Leaving

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For those who are punk-inclined, I have found you a Fugazi. In a context where everything else resembles an actual fugazi (variously defined as a fake or a fucked up situation), Yes I’m Leaving is the brutal and efficient slap of sense that Australia has been missing. The new album is direct, punchy, cathartic and chaotic; it feels like a bandaid being ripped from the hairiest part of your skin, over and over again.

On their fourth LP, Slow Release (which is being released via Homeless Records), Sydney’s holy trinity sound dirtier, scummier and more savage than ever before. The production values have been extensively upgraded, with every scrape and bellow of their instruments being picked up and intensified. But rather than creating some sort of squeaky clean parody of themselves, the studio treatment has ensured that Yes I’m Leaving’s usual maelstrom is even more pronounced.

Opening track ‘One’ is especially fearsome. As all members link into a staccato pounding of the hooves, stampeding doom seems an impending reality. The finale is sheer ferocity, frontman Billy Burke screaming ‘One!’ in his banshee cry with enough force to rip the hair right off your head. Latest single “Fear” has a similar effect. It’s basically an expanded Drive Like Jehu track that’s been embellished with a particularly foreboding melody and a strong Australian accent.

Yes I’m Leaving may be more cynical than a Scrooge who’s been through the Vietnam War and create a more gnashing atmosphere than a Tasmanian Devil going through withdrawals, but that’s exactly what separates them from the rest and places them in a higher domain of punk music. Slow Release is an essential listen for anyone who likes to get their heads thumped in by carnivorous punk. And for those who haven’t had the pleasure of such an experience? The perfect introduction.

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