Destiny 3000, a kewl new band from Sydney, Australia.
RECOMMENDED
PENETRATING noise/slash/thrash from Sydney, playing like they have wah-wah pedals open up all the way and the treble and mids cranked. Guitars are weapons too, y’know; they’re decent crowd control devices if you swing ‘em the right way, and if you’re creative-cum-destructive…
Whores Mob Reality / U.B.M. 7”
Most everything I wrote in regards to Low Life as per their effective transmutation of the Sydney air and grit into ugly music is fulfilled also on this 7”. And both within the space of a year. Harbour City Hooligans.
This one’s a little easier to peg than Low Life as far as immediate references go – there’s a lot of what make Drunks With Guns an unpleasant listening experience in ‘Mob Reality’ – but you’d have been hard pressed to find a better expression of hateful, downer punk in 2012 if it ain’t one of these 2 7”s. The American bands who shoot for this have Scratch Acid on their side, who were far more musically adept, offering some glimpses of transcendence with glistening guitar reverb and some vague hint of swagger and sexual allure. There’s little of that here, a funereal plod of horrorshow, occasional shards of dull saxophone pierce through the dense smoke of misery in a mob reality.
Mob reality, the crowd erupts, a woman without the appropriate facial garb is stoned to pulp, a man without the appropriate religious affiliation is castrated, a wog is on the wrong beach, a skip is in the wrong train carriage. Mob reality, your team wins the game, your mates start a brawl, the lead singer tells you to say no to eating prosciutto, the celebrity slut tells you to bleach your asshole. Mob reality, you need them, they protect you, you love them, they steal from you, they teach you to think, they tell you what to say, you pray to them. MOB.
RIP007: Kitchen’s Floor - Regrets 7” (out July 9)
Originally released in 2010 in edition of 300 and selling out within a couple of month. Re-issued (and I say re-issued as we had to get new plates made) in July 2013 as it’s an important part of the Kitchen’s Floor discography. Although some would argue that Still Night is one of the worst Kitchen’s Floor songs, the consensus at R.I.P HQ is that it’s one of the best. Here’s the mastermind of group Matt Kennedy’s recollection of the recording…
These 3 songs were recorded in an old dilapidated share house in Spring Hill, Brisbane. They were recorded by Jordan Sweeney (who would shortly afterwards do an excellent job recording the ‘White Cop’ EP) on an old reel to reel tape thing. This was late 2009, not long after ‘Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress’ had been released to massive success and I was finally able to make a living from selling photos and t-shirts of my house. Many people have commented on the complete lack of appreciable sound quality for this record. Some have told me that ‘Still Night’ is the worst song I have ever written. I don’t think it is my best either but I have written worse, ‘Insects’ for example. I am proud of this record, it is honest and is what it is. ‘Orbit’ and ‘Regrets’ were written from the heart, and these versions of them are raw as heck. Prominent in the mix is the sturdy bass playing of Glen Schenau, and the impeccable drum work of Julia Norris. That percussion pot never sounded finer than it does on this release. So go forth and listen! And hit me up if you want photos or t-shirts of my house.
Music Video for Regrets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQZaW25Y40
Discogs entry: http://www.discogs.com/Kitchens-Floor-Regrets-/release/2855444
RIP035: The Native Cats - Dallas LP
Out July 9 (LP/CD/Digital) on R.I.P Society (Australia) and Ride The Snake (USA)
Since 2007, Julian Teakle and Peter Escott have been operating musically from their home city of Hobart, Tasmania, under the name of the Native Cats; if not “working together” as such, then at least each asking the other’s permission before adding something to a song, and generally moving towards a roughly common goal. Now, with the release of their third album, DALLAS, the Native Cats’ grand plan is becoming clear: big shifts within a very small space. The band’s job description remains the same as it has always been Teakle plays bass, Escott sings and operates only the most user friendly electronics, and all the pieces are cryptically aligned in sympathy with your complicated troubles or steady anxiety but thanks to some adventurous songwriting, a criminally underrated Nintendo synthesiser, and a recent inspiring tour of noted musical hotspot the United States of America, DALLAS is a unique and unusual beast.
Even the structure is something of a puzzle. The album begins with its vulnerable emotional core, “Pane e Acqua”, in which all is silent but Teakle’s cold, weary bass line and Escott’s introspective tale of a lifelong teetotaller trying to get to grips with his hard living musical heroes. What follows is the sound of a makeshift electric fence being built around the exposed heart, courtesy of the synths, beats and noises of the Korg DS 10, a Nintendo DS cartridge that has been the tiny centrepiece of the Native Cats’ compact live show for several years but has not reached its full potential on record until now. It slices dissonant noise across the disorienting instrumental “Hit”, draws pulsing neon lines around the deep, dark torpedo of “I Remember Everyone”, adds Kraftwerk esque chimes to the lonesome disco stomp of live favourite “Cavalier”, and generates a gravelly beat and a piercing siren on “Scratch Act”.
If side 1 is the Native Cats building and improving upon their signature sound, side 2 is their journey into surprising and unfamiliar territory. “C of O” is the most complex piece they have recorded yet, a mountain range of downbeat, elegiac pop that builds steadily,
comes to a crashing halt, then roars triumphantly back to life with bittersweet blasts of melodica and heavenly backing vocals (courtesy of Claire Jansen and Emma Jane Cunningham of fellow Hobart band Catsuit). Conversely, “Mohawk-Motif” is the Native Cats at their most experimental and unstructured, recorded on the first and only take at producer Anthony Rochester’s studio in Rokeby, an unrelenting 11minute bombardment merging the thrillingly imprecise repetition of early ’80s Fall with the abrasive electronic exploration of late ’70s Suicide. It’s precisely the sort of hazardous move that typically exists solely to be vetoed, but with both band members still imbued with the kind of imagined invincibility that only a reasonably successful American tour and a stand-‐out appearance at Gonerfest 9 in Memphis can provide, and both labels (Ride the Snake Records in the United States, R.I.P. Society Records in Australia) looking to maintain their reputation for cultivating and supporting weird ideas, the magnificent hypnotic epic primitive electro noise jam stays.
The Native Cats may have started out as something of a lo-‐fi minimalist muck-‐about, but with DALLAS they are deep into something powerful and strange, something nobody knew they wanted until it was standing right in front of them, holding a bass and a portable video game console, sending the inner world to the outer world.
EARS HAVE EARS LAUNCHES NEW LIVE MUSIC SERIES 30.05.13
EXOTIC DOG is the solo project of Nic Warnock. He uses a pair of four tracks and answering machine cassettes to create disorientating sounds. This set up is also how he “performs” with a stack of tapes, a delay pedal, maybe a human voice, a large bottle of stout. Sound sources on tape include mundane field recordings, teenage synth experiments, broken casios, reactions to the comedy of Larry David & JB Smoove.
