Tagged By melbourne

PREMIERE: Baptism of Uzi – ‘Believe’

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buzi

2013 was a good year for Melbourne’s Baptism of Uzi. Their single ‘Stray Current’ was on high rotation on triple j, and it received a bunch of positive reviews – including from the King of the js himself. They performed at Laneway Festival and scored a slot at Splendour in the Grass as winners of that year’s Unearthed competition.

So it came as a surprise when in February a series of elliptical posts showed up on B’uzi’s Facebook page that seemed to announce a hiatus, or even a premature split for the band, the last post closing with an ominous ‘To be continued…’.

As it turns out, Baptism of Uzi were experiencing something of an identity crisis in the wake of the Daft Punk/MJ-inspired pop excursions of the Stray Currents EP. This is, after all, the same band that once took its cues from Tony Iommi and toured alongside Krautrock greats Michael Rother and Damo Suzuki.

With the departure of drummer Leif Gordon-Bruce earlier this year, the tension came to a head. Singer Bojan Stojanov told me:

“After the success of ‘Stray Current’, which was an experiment with pop, B’uzi were a divided band. … We come from a ‘heavy’ background and the tune was a departure, and it split B’uzi in two sides: the pop side and the rock. This made for some pretty weird shows, with power metal songs like ‘Fist of the Western Suburbs’ being pitted against songs like ‘Believe’. In the end we stopped playing those pop tunes and just did our rock set because it seemed more like us.”

B’uzi are now airing the last of the material produced during the Stray Currents period in order to move on, in search of The New Sound…

First up, we’re premiering the video for ‘Believe’, the EP’s breezy second single. The clip was directed by Thomas Russell, who’s also responsible for the band’s previous video and album art. It features Bojan in a starring role, as he prepares a neat conjuring trick with romantic results.

According to Bojan:

“[The video] combines a few influences: the show Around the Twist, sigil magic, the movie Evil Dead and the idea of being committed to a belief regardless of how incredulous it seems. Some people call it a ‘leap of faith’, like that guy Kierkegaard. T. Russell did a great job with the edit and Artemis Ioannides was terrific and a good sport to get in the freezing cold water in a dress at a beach on the Mornington Peninsula. It was filmed at a spooky old house in Sassafras and Half Moon Bay.”

Finally, guitarist Tom Battersby has made film clips for a couple of ‘Stray Current’ remixes – one by the Go! Team, the other from Melbourne’s own Yolke.

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PART 2: Remission & Other Songs – Interviews with Australian Musicians in Healthcare

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(Read Part 1 of the interview series here.)

Djarmbi Supreme

 Illustration by Geoffrey A Thorsen

DJARMBI SUPREME.

Tensions can arise when a young professional also wants to try their hand at art, especially when that art is their “outlet for all the dodgy shit [they] would love to be able to say everyday but they know isn’t politically correct”. Djarmbi Supreme is the pseudonym of a 29 year-old Aboriginal health education officer, who writes lyrics that would make most of his colleagues cringe, or at least reconsider whether this closet “sociopath” should remain in their email network. Although, that’s only because they view Djarmbi Supreme within the hospital that they work in and not from within the parallel universe where the self-described “cage rattler” exists.

“I’m a new-school version of Barry Humphries. Djarmbi Supreme is like Sir Les Patterson. He’s a concentration of all my sleaze-bag, outspoken instincts that I actually have. It’s an extension of me. It’s not me, but just an outlet for me to be able to produce exactly what my instincts are telling me to do and not wonder if it’s somehow going to affect me personally…”

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MS: So you do the Djarmbi character so it doesn’t clash with your professional life?  DS: Yeah, that’s one of the big reasons I’m fairly anonymous. I try to make it clear that it’s just a stand-alone entity. Because of the work that I do I have to be able to retain a certain amount of respect socially, in the community and professionally. When I’m at work, I’m someone who people are supposed to listen to and trust my words and actions. I’m an educator. If they heard the music that I’m making as Djarmbi it would be really hard to retain any respect. It’s a technique of being able to have this outrageous personality as well as have this sensible professional career at the same time.

Professional wrestlers are not at home in costume smashing their kids over the couch. They are just regular people when they are off duty. That’s what it’s all about. Finding out how you can be an authentic artist or entertainer and just keeping it there. I still dip in and out of it. I’m on Twitter all day as Djarmbi Supreme but I’m still at work doing my stuff. I kind of get a thrill out of thinking I’m getting away with something. It’s an indulgence. I’m pretty vain in that regard.

You seem to want to elicit anger through the character Djarmbi Supreme. Where does your anger come from? 

There was a lot hard shit in my youth and teen years. I sort of battled a bit. I suppose I learnt how to express all that through other avenues instead of lashing out. I’ve seen my role models being not very good at doing that, which made me better at it.

Can you tell me about what happened with Andrew Bolt?

[Andrew Bolt] went to court and was found to be negligent in his journalism and was found to be a racist by law. Since then he has been attacking people and perpetuating the Darwinist theory that light-skinned Aboriginal people aren’t authentic and we’re sponges on welfare. Through his careful choice of words, he has basically got a whole army of ignorant people thinking that he is true and everything he says is gospel because it makes so much sense to them because they haven’t got enough education to know any better. He is sort of like Davros or something. He has all these little Daleks running around aiming their lasers at light-skinned Aboriginal people but they don’t have brains of their own to actually stand back and learn. They refuse to learn. So I wrote a fake open letter to him. It was a play on the fact that lots of people in the community were writing open letters to him and feeling like they had to elevate their language to reach his level. I was trying to make a point that we should be lowering our intelligence to communicate with him because he is such a fucking bottom-feeding, shit cunt. I took it down to the street level.

He’s trying to label me as a sponge because the work I do is government funded. Well, fuck. He is funded by Gina Rinehart. What’s worse? How can such extreme conservative thinking be mainstream and accepted? You asked me before about what makes me angry. That’s it. How does that get through the gates? People think they are scared and sitting in danger so they think we need to freeze Australia the way it is.

I’m interested. You are seemingly misanthropic at times but you also work in healthcare.

Well, I don’t hate humans. I’m just a fucking snob.

 

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PREMIERE: Lowtide – ‘Blue Movie’

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Lowtide

Since releasing last single ‘Underneath Tonight’ back in 2011, Melbourne four piece Lowtide have returned with their new track ‘Blue Movie’. It’s obviously not the real deal (sorry fans), although it was probably was only a matter of time before the band named a track to resonate with every slow-burning euphemism used by music journos to describe shoegaze, ie. astral lullabies, torrential walls of guitar, climatic ennui and all the other volitional melancholia that comes with the sort. Plus, the 90s are ‘back’ – all the kids are fornicating to Slowdive again, right? Good.

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The video for ‘Blue Movie’, which features some brilliant bokeh effects & camera work, was directed by Melbourne visual artist Jamieson Moore.

The band are launching the track next Friday, 23rd of May at the Worker’s Club in Melbourne. Lowtide’s self-titled debut will be released via Lost & Lonesome on July 18th. The LP will be be available digitally, but god-damn, buy the vinyl for date night/your euphoric listening pleasure.

 

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PREMIERE: The Zebras – ‘Try’

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It’s been six years since we last heard from the Zebras, who brought their shimmering pop to Melbourne via the sunshine state in 2007. Well, the twee-lovin’ kids out there can finally quit biting their nails because the band is back, with their third full-length release, Siesta, due out in June.

We got a taste of the album late last year with the punchy ‘Chase’, which featured on Lost and Lonesome‘s 15th birthday sampler alongside gems from the Icypoles, Milk Teddy and more. Today the Zebras are following up with lead single ‘Try’, a pop song written in classic style that again shows off the band’s effortless feel for melody – and what appears to be something of a fetish for analog synths.

‘Try’ is a bubbling track that showcases the tight interplay between musicians who’ve been working together for almost a decade. The gorgeous production and mixing were done by band leader Jeremy Cole and Architecture in Helsinki‘s Gus Franklin. 

‘Try’ is available now on Soundcloud as a free download.

The lush Siesta – which is, in part, a tribute to the band members’ childhood home of Cairns – will be out on 27 June through Lost and Lonesome (Aus) and Jigsaw (USA). The Zebras are gearing up to play some dates in the US at the end of the month along with label mates Bart & Friends and Monnone Alone. Keep your eyes peeled for launch dates upon their return.

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PART 1: Remission & Other Songs – Interviews with Australian Musicians in Healthcare

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“Djarmbi Supreme is like Sir Les Patterson. He is a concentration of all the sleaze-bag, outspoken instincts that I actually have. It’s not me, but just an outlet for me to be able to produce exactly what my instincts are telling me to do and not wonder if it’s somehow going to affect me personally.”

Living within the health system can be grounding, but it can also derail. I interviewed three musicians, all who’ve had significant exposure to our health system as both practitioners and consumers. Peter Emptage from Paddock spoke to us about about improvising everything – including landing an artist residency in Taiwan, while Aboriginal Health Education officer / rapper Djarmbi Supreme who describes himself as the “new school version of Barry Humphries” recalls the time he took on Andrew Bolt. The final interview in the series comes from Anna Davidson from Major Leagues‘ who had some interesting experiences making friends in the emergency department. 

 

Peter Emptage Paddock by Geoffrey A Thorsen

Illustration by Geoffrey A Thorsen

PETER EMPTAGE: PADDOCK.


“I’m really lucky to have a job. I think it’s really good to have your bills covered and not necessarily make a living off music. It’s pretty murky waters when you’re setting out with the sole intention of cashing in on your arts and crafts.”

I’m caught off guard by Pete’s positive aura. He’s worked in disability for 8 years and is delighted by that. Unlike most of the burnt out health professionals I’ve met, he seems spiritually revitalised by living.

On the other hand, Pete’s primary band Paddock is often devastatingly intense and visceral, only interspersed with a big grin when he isn’t delivering lines. In fact, everyone who attends a Paddock concert sits glued to the performance, like they just might learn something. The controlled vocals sound unmistakably ‘Australian’.

MS: So, is the rest of the Paddock improvising a lot of the time?

PE: They mostly make up what they are doing. It’s a largely a go-for-it affair. If it really fucks up, it can often turn out better than what I came up with. They are good at fucking things up, in a pleasant way.

And how do the songs come to life?

For Paddock I write the words, but there is no formula set in stone of where songs go. So far, I’ve come up with the words and things are built around that.

The song writing process is varied, really varied. It’s different depending on where the impetus to write a song came from. It may come from some garbled melody or it could come from some rhythm slapped on your thighs. I feel like that’s the exciting parts of coming up with songs, it’s not necessarily a clear route to anything in particular, so as long as you’ve got the impetus to make something, the end point will. That’s the beauty of it. It’s an infinitely exciting craft. It’s something you can chip away at.

So why do you continue with songwriting?

Something I feel like could be interesting to work on in songwriting is to blow up a little bit of the structures that singer-songwriter material often has embodied in it; verses, choruses and bridges – but the bands are freed up to improvise because people feel more fluent and less inhibited. Outside the form of rapping or spoken word or poetry, I guess you don’t often hear singer songwriter material changing from gig to gig, that’s the one part of the music that is cemented in. I would love to be able to write in a way that words or sounds of the voice could be the same quality dynamic and engaging in the present moment as the music. I’ve also just been getting back into Public Enemy. Chuck D is the king.

I hear your lyrics and think there are sometimes parallels between your work in healthcare and your words?

I guess it’s a part of my lived experience, so there’s definitely influences had on my life. It’s similar to music, there’s a real human element to it. Its a community based job, you get to work closely with people and hear where they’re at.

For words, its nice just hearing how people speak and people’s stories. That’s one part of the craft of writing words I really love – just narrative, abstract writing that plays more with sounds like ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ or something like that. Its got intention but it’s not always clear what it’s driving towards. It’s more working with big picture stuff or a mood. I don’t think you need to always set out knowing where you’re trying to get to….

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PREMIERE: Dark Fair – ‘Poison’

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darkfair

Dark Fair is guitarist Ramona Moore and drummer Ellie Dunn, and they make rock’n’roll music. I mean properly: leather jackets and Chrissie Hynde hairdos. The pair met in Brisbane – where presumably they grew up on a strict regimen of Hole and Magic Dirt – on the live circuit, playing together in Ramona’s band Kate Bradley and the Goodbye Horses.

Via their own circuitous routes, both ended up in Melbourne in 2012 and promptly recorded the debut Dark Fair EP, Penny Universe. Second release, You Shouldn’t Be Mine, is due out in May, and they’ve just dropped the single ‘Poison’.

A driving ballad led by Ramona’s frayed vocal and insistent open strings, ‘Poison’ is punctuated by a sharp bass cameo from pal Adalita – who’s championed the band since catching them live at Yah Yah’s about a year ago. Check out the track below.

Dark Fair are launching the new EP at Old Bar in Melbourne on Saturday, 31 May. You can also catch them playing the final show of their April residency at the Tote tomorrow night, alongside Ohms and tinsmoke.

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