Tagged By electronic

VIRTUAL MIXTAPE: Making

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Virtual-Mixtape_Lucy-Roleff

Illustrations by Lucy Roleff 

Sydney trio Making have been crushing skulls on the Sydney live music scene for a few years now, and after a number of setbacks their full-length debut Highlife was released via Trait Records in September this year.

Following on from their debut EP and a couple of standalone singles, Highlife is a decidedly darker affair full of discordant guitar, razor sharp bass lines and complex rhythms. The album is an uncompromising aural assault, showcasing the band’s evolution both sonically and technically.

Fans of My Disco, Ohana and New York band Extra Life take note; Making are your new favourite band.

For the fifth instalment of the Virtual Mixtape series, the trio reminisce on avant-rap royalty Kool Keith and his somewhat chaotic discography.

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Making:

Kool Keith is a pretty hard sell in the current rap climate – most people are into Drake and Rich Gang (so are we), but sometimes you need to go a bit more fringe. This video is probably the best intro – really let yourself become acclimatised to the logic at play here. 

Kool Keith – ’98 Year Old Refrigerator’:

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About ten years ago I (Pete) became aware of Dr. Octagon. I think I ended up picking up Dr. Dooom next (check out his ongoing obsession with food…) The vibe here is split destroying the rap game (this track, ‘You Live At Home With Your Mom’ etc.) and brutal serial killer (‘Apartment 223’ etc.). Key line:

“Your fans are mad – your performance was garbage bag,

Look at these videotapes,

Walkin back and forth grabbin’ your nuts like the Planet of the Apes”

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INTRODUCING: Pills

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Pills make some great trip-hop. Pretty basic sentence, gets the job done. But do you have any idea of how rare that is in Sydney, let alone done well? We’ve got an overdose of incredible electronic stuff, a small army of fantastic hip-hop artists, but the melding of the two? You might as well be asking for the Knights to take out a premiership.

After a few promising singles, Pills have hit their stride with ‘Slugger’, a scowling grimace twisted into a syrupy spellbinder. A taunting mantra twirls around clipped production that wouldn’t feel out of place as the soundtrack to a snake charming session. It’s friendly – but you just know that if you let your guard down, it will bite you.

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Pills also have an awesome video to boot, featuring unsettling strobes, bottle-sipping bedroom boogying, and a general atmosphere that David Lynch wishes he could call his own. It’s disconcerting, weird and beautiful; a perfect match to the song itself.

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PREMIERE: Cēas – ‘Atlas’

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Ceas

‘Atlas’ is the new track by Swedish/Australian artist Cēas (CJ Lofstrom). His previous single ‘Verge’ gave a nod to Standish/Carlyon’s late night confessionals; submerging the seemingly banal with sweeping vocals and slick bass. ‘Atlas’ spurs on his sound even further. The track opens lofty and low; breathing machinations into choral verses before it continues to take on a life of its own.

This video for ‘Atlas’ was filmed by artist Beth Dillon. It follows what looks like the saddest sardine in the Nordic circle, grappling with an existential crisis – or just a lack of daylight I suppose. There’s also some phenomenal cinematography, thanks to Iceland being Iceland.

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‘Atlas’ features on Cēas’ upcoming second EP, Upper Hand.

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PREMIERE: Jamil Zacharia – ‘Magic Snuff Box’

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I’ve always associated the word ‘snuff’ with some mobster sending someone to their aquatic death. You know, setting someone’s feet in cement and throwing them off a boat.

Jamil Zacharia‘s ‘Magic Snuff Box’ I imagine is something far less sadistic. I mean, if he was ever to ‘snuff’ you out, his magic box would probably chuck you an LSD-infused rainbow beforehand. And this should come as no surprise, given his guitar work’s found on tracks from Silentjay, Kirkis and Clever Austin—all musos who seem to write in time signatures straight out of a psychedelic Willy Wonka tunnel ride.

Zacharia’s track is a lot gentler though. You’d be excused for missing out on the multitudes of micro-beats he packs into this, given that you’ll be required to listen to this a fair few times to really take this all in. It’s reminiscent of the aesthetic that Bjork’s Vespertine adopted, a world where a string of intimate samples were used to pursue a wintry sound. This track coming out in the thick of the Australian winter is merely serendipitous, though ‘Magic Snuff Box’ could certainly add a similar cinematic pathos to yours.

Writing on his Facebook page earlier this week, he said writing the song was about “letting go of one’s crapness”, but I’d be curious to hear him explain why. He’s been sought after by influential Melbourne musos precisely because of his talent. And sure, all creatively-minded individuals are bound to go through another existential crisis by sunset, ‘Magic Snuff Box’ certainly says a lot about another Melburnian musician who shouldn’t be worrying about that just yet.

‘Magic Snuff Box’ is the first track off Zacharia’s debut EP, The Soft Tread That Inspires, set for release later this year on his own label, Wabi Sabi. 

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WATCH: Silicon – ‘God Emoji’

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SILICON

Silicon is the latest musical incarnation of psych multi-instrumentalist madman, Kody Nielson. Following an instrumental solo release and an unsettlingly lengthy period of inactivity, Nielson returns to the world of pop for weirdos previously he touched on with Opossom. The first release under his moniker Silicon, ‘God Emoji’ hears Nielson venture his ever-present love of vocoders to icy new depths to the tune of lush mid-tempo future funk.

Teetering between reverential and remorseful, Nielson creates a sound not unlike a robotic reconstruction of a 70s disco track. While the tune is more of a head-nodder than a dancefloor filler, its syncopated stabs of vocals are no doubt catchy and provide plenty to love.

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The subsequently music video sees the blank-faced, blue eyed vector mask which was recently featured at the project’s debut shows.

The debut album from Silicon will be out later this year through Weird World.

 

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WATCH: friendships – ‘Monarch to the Kingdom of the Dead’

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friendships

When premiering friendships’ latest vid, the UK’s Clash Magazine lead with a description of Melbourne being a “hub for the arts”. Yes, this is true. Our CBD council boats of its arts prowess, and we’ve had a knack for producing globetrotting creatives who romanticise the bluestone-lined streets of Melbourne’s inner suburbs. Each one has its fair share of Melburnian tropes at the ready – cafes with Edison lightbulbs, white tiles, or a disinterested barista put-on for effect.

But, the Melbourne represented in this clip isn’t what you’d initially jump to if you’re looking to romanticise our fashionable inner city. The suburb, Footscray isn’t going to be featured in some Monocle roundup anytime soon. It’s one that hasn’t really given into the full force of gentrification, where wave after wave of immigration still continues to makes its mark. In the vid local cameos such as Ming Ming’s, Franco Cozzo or Little Africa shine like time warped diamonds in the rough.

It’s always funny to see this place get featured. It’s romanticised by outsiders who consider it ‘exotic’ — it’s ‘Footscrazy’ or ‘Footscary’ to others. It’s a world where a technicoloured multitude of random shit greets you at a dollar shop, where said colours have faded from years of neglect. friendships’ Misha Grace (a Footscray resident) produced this in collaboration with Melbourne-based artist Ami Taib. So it’s funny to see them capture the ‘burb’s mundane reality.

For a long time, listing Footscray among Melbourne’s ‘cool’ haunts would’ve been a no-go. But now a string of younger Melburnians are capitalizing on cheap rents and large post-industrial spaces, and hosting Laneway is sure bound to shake off perceptions that it’s the inner city’s poorer cousin.

But for past or current residents, we just get on. Nobody’s getting knifed anytime soon, and nobody’s getting deprived of some ridiculously cheap okra. So take this video as an interesting juxtaposition of Footscray in its current state of flux — a perfect reading of the old and the new: a place where a gun shop can turn into an Ethiopian restaurant.

friendships are heading to the US in late May and are holding an art-show tour fundraiser. ‘Digestiblez’ will show at Friday May 1st at Forgotten Worlds, Collingwood. DJ sets from the duo and RaRa.

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INTRODUCING: Yaws

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yaws

One thing Australia certainly isn’t suffering from right now is a lack of left-field electronica. From Lower Spectrum to LUCIANBLOMKAMP, there has been a noticeable rise in both the quantity and quality of local electronic music, with those on the fringe yielding some weird and wonderful sounds. However, you are unlikely to come across anything as immediately strange and ultimately compelling as Yaws. The London-based, Adelaide-bred producer crafts dense sonic soundscapes as alien as the obscure tropical disease that forms his namesake.

His first release, ‘Seventh Continent’, was recently debuted by up-and-coming net label Etched Traumas. Emerging from an oblique flanged rhythm that wouldn’t sound out of place on the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, the track evolves into a bold minimal-techno jam, adding intricate layer upon layer over the course of its 11 minutes. There are shades of HTRK‘s hazy electro-surrealism, alongside overtones of Factory Floor’s ruthless proto-punk industrialism. The track’s ascent is so subtle that you barely notice it, until the glorious static-soaked climax hits.

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