Tagged By video

PREMIERE: White Lodge – ‘Bella-Union Creep’ Video

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white lodge

When most folks want some kickass garage rock, they look to whatever the latest Thee Oh Sees or Ty Segall release happens to be gracing the window of the local record store. But the time has come to expand and accept a new prodigy to the ranks: Gold Coast’s White Lodge.

For their latest track, “Bella-Union Creep”, White Lodge pummel their guitars with a newfound passion more evident here than their previous works. The opening “WOOP!” is enough to signify that this song will probably become an immediate favourite for fans of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. And for the rest of the song’s duration –  White Lodge charge ahead with such fury, it’s a wonder they don’t break the sound barrier. They play hard, bending melodies to their fuzzed out extreme, crooked notes crying out under the pressure they’re being put under. Essentially, if you’re after some garage rock that hits its stride within milliseconds and doesn’t stop going until the last droplet of feedback has dried up, you can’t get much better than this.

Accompanying the unrelenting fuzz is a video that informs the viewer that there are worse things one can find in a Gold Coast toilet block than fake tan stains on your seat. DIY gimp masks, discarded supermarket trollies, and animal skulls that have definitely been used for a Satanic ritual all make an appearance in a clip that is just as bent out of shape as the song that soundtracks it.

 

Folks in Byron Bay and Brisbane can catch White Lodge at these upcoming shows:

March 26th – The Northern, Byron Bay w/ Peach Fur and Draggs 

April 1st – The Outpost, Brisbane

 

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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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WATCH: Sarah Mary Chadwick – ‘Aquarius Gemini’

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Sarah Mary Chadwick

In April, Sarah Mary Chadwick released her stunning second album, 9 Classic Tracks. That descriptor gets thrown around more than a footy at the local park, but in Chadwick’s case it’s one that resiliently sticks. Heartbreakingly honest and as raw as a Bali burn, Chadwick spares no details in her songwriting, nor her ragged projection.

A major feature of 9 Classic Tracks was its vibrant artwork. A bright watercolour drawn by Chadwick herself, the painting is brilliantly graphic; thrusting eye-popping sexuality at its finest. It appears that Chadwick has taken that same approach with her video for the album cut ‘Aquarius Gemini’. Directed by Chadwick and Geoffrey O’Connor, who also produced the album, the video is a vivid and no-holds-barred look at sexuality.

Slick and minimal, Chadwick and a suitor rub and writhe, but nudity is barely a part of the clip. Instead, the video picks up on the passionate, and occasionally violent, moments of sex and love. Paired with Chadwick’s haunting vocals and a shadow of sparse brushed guitar and drum machines, the clip becomes asphyxiating. The final shot of Chadwick stroking the camera that has captured these naked moments is especially powerful – she knows the permanence that lies behind the lens, and there’s a certain fascination in her eyes.

It bears repeating – ‘Aquarius Gemini’ is simply one of nine classic tracks available on Chadwick’s album, which is out now through Rice is Nice and Siltbreeze Records.

Sarah Mary Chadwick will be launching the album at the Gasometer in Melbourne on Thursday, 4 June with Mad Nanna, Shame Brothers and Geoffrey O’Connor (DJ).

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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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BEHIND THE SCENES: Okenyo – ‘Just a Story’ video

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A few days ago, Sydney neo-soul artist Okenyo dropped the video for ‘Just a Story’, the slinky and dexterous lead single from her forthcoming EP, Mirage – and we got a sneak peek at the behind-the-scenes photo shoot. As you would expect from Zindzi Okenyo (remember this tour-de-force appearance?), the results are sexy and very stylish.

Photography by Shantanu Starick

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More photos after the jump

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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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LISTEN: Ella Thompson – ‘Arcade’

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Ella Thompson has been seriously busy. You might recognise her sweet-as-custard pipes from Melbourne electro-funk duo GL, or Dorsal Fins, or you know, the days when she kicked it with the Bamboos. Thompson has just released ‘Arcade’ off the back of supporting Angel Olsen last month.

The single is a melancholy synth pop introduction to her debut album, Janus, slated for release later this year. Despite her impressive resume, ‘Arcade’ sees Thompson come into her own distinct sound, with gravelly synths, moaning melodies and vocals layered with harmonies and subtle distortion. The clip is generally what I want out of a synth pop track – blue-washed silhouettes pressed through a VHS time machine.

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