Tagged By New Music

INTRODUCING: ORB

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It’s fair to say that Geelong’s ORB have taken a fair bit of inspiration from Black Sabbath. Actually, I’m certain these guys love Sabbath so much that they’ve stapled all 19 Sabbath records into a Sabbath suit and Mission Impossible-d a face mask replica of Ozzy Osborne’s face to wear while they wail to ‘Sweet Leaf’ and ‘Children of the Grave’. Doesn’t really seem like a bad way to spend a lazy Sunday, now that I’ve said it out loud.

Despite their tendency to mimic their favourite band – or perhaps because of it – ORB make for an incredible listen. Their debut EP, which was released to tape in January of this year but only uploaded to the www.com’s a week or so ago, is molten sludge goodness. Over five tracks of plunging, schlocky metal, ORB remind everyone what made this music so fun to listen to in the first place. These guys kick like a horse on acid, reeling off one gargantuan riff after another. The blistering centrepiece ’11th Commandment’ is exemplary of this vintage headbanging approach.

Even when we’ve got legends like Batpiss, Worm Crown and Horsehunter keeping metal well and truly alive, it’s good to herald the addition of ORB to the ranks. Over the next couple of months, they’ll be playing Maggot Fest 6 down in Melbourne, joining King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard in support of GOAT’s Australian tour, and playing with the Murlocs in Sydney and Brisbane.

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INTRODUCING: Almost Violet

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Almost Violet is the project of Sydney lass Jess Meier, who has been producing some dark electro-pop for a while now, developing a signature production style by piecing together sparse electronic samples with cut up vocals from old news clips. In the wake of the recent SOS BLAK AUSTRALIA protests, her latest track ‘Ivory’ works through some serious white guilt.

Throughout ‘Ivory’ you can tell that Meier’s voice would really pack a punch if she went full pop ballad, but she balances the blasts with subtle nuances. The overall tone is sultry enough not to sound out of place with the atonal samples but pretty enough to carry the melodic load of the track. The song opens with the crackling voice of an old (probably) white guy assuring us that ‘The new Australians are real Aussies’, and Meier sets up the protest message with lyrics that are pointed but not overwrought.

She’s described the rest of her tracks as ‘#cinemasadcore’, which is super apt. The meticulous production across all her tracks can only be a labour of love crafted by someone who has done the technical legwork to create compelling stories with her music.

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Sex on Toast – ‘Oh Loretta’

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In this series, ‘First Impressions’, we’re going to subject a bunch of songs to the immediacy test – getting our contributors to review a track they’ve heard only once. This is Grace’s take on ‘Oh Loretta’, the new single from Sex on Toast.

Sex on Toast are 10 dudes out of Melbourne who just can’t contain their feelings anymore, so good luck Loretta, whoever you are. Their debut album was a sonic adventure of soulful harmonies backed by an extremely well-equipped brass section and a generous smattering of jazz keys – a winning formula they have reproduced on their latest single ‘Oh Loretta’.

The sheer force of the testosterone-powered vocal arrangement on ‘Oh Loretta’ is like a rugby choir serenading the hot little sister of one of the guys: kind of awkward but kind of endearing. With lines like, ‘If you were a bus you would be double decker,’ I don’t rate Sex on Toast’s chances of scoring, but they’re gonna give it their brassiest, loungiest crack. ‘Oh Loretta’ contains about a thousand different hooks that will flood your head for hours after listening, and even though I still can’t tell if Sex on Toast are taking the piss out of the old trope of guys joining a band to get laid, their talent is absolutely undeniable. I just really hope at least one of them can play the keytar.

Listen to this track prepared to get swept up in their cheese appeal – you’ll be groovin’ in spite of yourself. They’re playing some shows in Sydney and Melbourne for their single and video launch.

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LISTEN: Lonelyspeck – ‘Wring’

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TEEF Records have rallied some of Australia’s most exciting electronic acts for Imperium in Imperio, a compilation album whose artist list reads like a warehouse party of your dreams, with Setec, Yon Yonson and Collarbones to name a few on the stellar line up. They’ve treated us to an early peek at Adelaide producer Lonelyspeck’s (aka Sione Bouts Teumohenga) contribution to the record, ‘Wring’, and boy oh boy has he auto-tuned his way right into our hearts.

‘Wring’ would sit in the middle of a James Blake/Oliver Tank/How to Dress Well venn diagram to represent emotionally swollen and poignant-as-hell electronic music. It’s a big, beautiful cloud of a track, with extremely well-crafted vocal effects hovering above a slew of atmospheric layers and tense beats that show off his knack for tension/relief breaks.

The lovely airiness of the production appears to be a Lonelyspeck specialty – Teumohenga deftly replaces the trademark electro-banger drop with a luscious sound wall on this Rihanna bootleg he magicked up a while back.

The TEEF compilation will be out June 1st, and in something of an electronic and significantly less cringeworthy ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ move, TEEF will be donating all profits to Oxfam Australia’s Nepal relief efforts.

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INTRODUCING: White Dog

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white dog

How angry is that name? How aggressive is it? It’s a snarl, a bark, not afraid to tear out your throat. This Sydney band is vicious, rabid, brutal – all things that punk bands should be. Like the great Siberian husky of olde, White Dog will bleach your soul with a song so ferocious, you’d swear Freddy Krueger was directing your personal nightmare into a grotesque orchestral maelstrom.

Whether blaring away on record or putting on one of their fierce live shows, White Dog can’t help but impress. They give off the same aura of primal carnivorousness that made bands like Lubricated Goat, Cosmic Psychos, and The Birthday Party so exciting. You get the overwhelming feeling that WHITE DOG are going to explode out of whatever speaker system you’re listening to and immerse you into their cult of noisy oblivion.

Although they only have three songs to their Soundcloud, the standout, ‘No Good’ points to a band that will soon lord over Australia’s basements and pubs. A combination of the hardcore stylings of Red Red Krovvy and the immersive ockerism of Low Life, White Dog extend upon that with lunging bass lines and snarling fuzz. Furthermore, the band aren’t afraid of an aneurysm-inducing guitar solos, adding a Stooges-esque flavour to their Jesus Lizard/Pissed Jeans indebted growls.

For the fans of uninhibited punk that refuses to drop below a bludgeoning, White Dog are your new favourite band.

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PREMIERE: Primitive Motion – ‘Same in the Same’ video

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Brisbane artists Sandra Selig and Leighton Craig have been collaborating since 2003, when Craig began creating soundtracks for Selig’s art installations. They’ve since played together in a number of experimental outfits, including Deadnotes and Fig., making music based around improvisations and delighfully arcane instrumentation. (Over the years, the liner notes to Primitive Motion records have listed contraptions ranging from the stylophone to euphonium and flugelhorn).

‘Same in the Same’ is the latest single, and one of the loveliest moments, from Craig and Selig’s second LP as Primitive Motion, Pulsating Time Fibre. Taken from the record’s fleeting A-side – the pop half of this gorgeous and eccentric collection – the track clocks in at a succinct 1 minute and 14 seconds. Like most Primitive Motion songs, ‘Same in the Same’ exhibits the playful DIY impulses of early post-punk, circa the Raincoats or Young Marble Giants, as well as the lush expansiveness of electronic pioneers like Laurie Spiegel.

The track’s title is drawn from a poem Selig wrote several years ago – a verse (quoted by Craig in this 2011 interview) that seems to contain the seed for the pair’s entire creative project: “the primitive motion phenomena, the same in the same, left to chance”. This, in a nutshell, is the science of a Primitive Motion track – perpetual iterations of a melodic motif, recorded imperfectly, live, bubbling and warm.

‘The Same in the Same’ is accompanied by a video directed by Selig herself, a woozy meditation on the play of movement and light.

Primitive Motion are launching Pulsating Time Fibre on Saturday, 18 July at the Skukum Lounge in Brisbane. RSVP on Facebook.

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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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