Sparkly magic mountain-drops fall from the outer cosmic reaches in the re-imagined mind-forest of The Flower Captain. Gloom/doom singer/songwriter Sasha L Smith envisions a brave new dark age of droney bliss in the sonic bazaar. Domenic Evans fret wizard, Deon Slaviero bass dealer, Andy Nunns time machine & Gabbie Potocnik Italian keys are on the magic bus we call “The Black Heart Death Cult”.
This is the first release of new music from TBHDCult since their debut album in Jan 2019. Will be released as a limited edition 7″ pressed by Salty Dog Records, available for pre-order on the 28th of March 2020 from saltydogrecords.com.au
Band Members:
Sasha L Smith – guitar & vox
Domenic Evans – guitar
Andrew Nunns – drums
Deon Slavieros – bass
Gab Potochnik – keys
Releases March 15th, 2020
Special thanks to David Balaban for the beautiful sitar work
Teasing new music yesterday, the Melbourne faves followed through this morning and produced a music video to boot. “Honey” is the brand-new single from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Revisiting the microtonal theme, Honey feels sombre and slightly eery, which seems fitting for the times in 2020. Honey has an accompanying video by frequent collaborators/studio mates PHC, it’s an eerie, yet gorgeous tune in ‘Honey’.
“I wrote this song a couple of years ago,” Mackenzie said on Twitter. “It’s nice to have it out in the world.” ‘Honey’ is the first we’re hearing from King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard since 2019’s Infest The Rats’ Nest album and (hopefully) an early taste of another dive into microtonal goodness. 2020 has kept the band busy so far, delivering three bushfire benefit albums, as well as their first concert movie Chunky Shrapnel, all the while working on a new album which will be their 16th! release.
Filmed at sunsets during Melbourne’s first lockdown Stu Mackenzie performs alone in the video directed by longtime King Gizzard collaborator, John Angus Stewart. Which features StuMackenzie taking his isolation to the sunsetting streets of Melbourne. Recently, King Gizz also shared a live documentary film online in RATTY, which gives fans an insight into the making of the record.
The full video is now on YouTube after originally only being available to view with a small price tag attached to raise money for the Indigenous Social Justice Association Melbourne, BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation and DJIRRA organisations.
Amby: Harmonica Cavs: Drums, Percussion Cookie: Piano Joey: Bass Stu: Guitar, Vocals, Percussion, Keyboards, Bass, Clarinet, Organ
Recorded and mixed by Stu Mackenzie Mastered By Joe Carra
After two critically acclaimed EPs, Flyying Colours are set to release their second album ‘Fantasy Country’ later this year on Club AC30. Residing in a dream-world that sits somewhere between psych, indie, grunge and shoegaze, the Australian band’s beautifully dynamic new offering showcases their talent for uniting a delicate vocal melody with a satisfying thick wall of abrasive drums and guitars. Flyying Colours premiere their video for Big Mess and let’s just say, we haven’t seen such an aptly named video for a while.
“The video for Big Mess was made with our long time collaborator Thomas Russell,” explained vocalist and guitarist Brodie J Brümmer. “We filmed it in the kitchen at The Bergy in Brunswick, across the road from where the guitars for the album were tracked. We didn’t think we would make such a mess when filming started but as you will see things escalated and we ended up covered head to toe in unbaked sponge cake.
“That’s what happens when you spend as much time with one another as we do and you have an opportunity to crack an egg over your bandmate’s head. “I think the video kind of represents what the song is about – doing what you think is right, but ending up making a big mess of an entire situation. As for the recipe, I wouldn’t suggest trying it at home.”
Leading track and first single “Goodtimes” further stirs the melting pot. Opening with a chaotic looped squeal, the knockout punch of the frenzied opening riff and steady, driving drums sets the bar high for the tracks that are to follow.
In case you weren’t aware already, here’s a friendly reminder that The Beatles‘ legendary Melbourne concert from the ’60s will be on TV across Australia tonight.
Starting at 9.30pm on Nine, One Night Only – The Beatles In Oz “is a stunning broadcast of the concert, completely remastered, that also includes never-before-seen footage of the Beatles’ tumultuous and only visit to Australia“.
Channel Nine was given access to film The Beatles‘ final sold out Melbourne concert in 1964 which took place at Festival Hall. “When they touched down here in 1964 on their first world tour Australia went into hysterical Beatlemania,” a statement from Nine reads.
“They captivated the nation for 13 amazing and unforgettable days. Wherever they went, tens of thousands of screaming fans lined the streets hoping to catch a glimpse of John, Paul and George, as well as Jimmie Nicol, the drummer filling in for Ringo, who missed some dates of the tour due to illness.” Beatlemania was at fever pitch in the summer of 1964 as the band prepared for its first tour to Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. But on June 3rd, the day before the Beatles were to leave, Ringo Starr collapsed at a photo shoot and was hospitalized with tonsillitis.
With hotels and concert halls booked and thousands of tickets sold, manager Brian Epstein understood that cancelling the tour would have been a financial disaster. A scramble began to find a replacement for Starr.
Epstein had to convince the other three Beatles to accept a substitute drummer. And where would he find a musician competent enough to back the biggest group in the world – and fit into Starr’s stage clothes? John Lennon and Paul McCartney accepted that hiring a replacement was necessary but George Harrison balked at the idea. Enter Jimmie Nicol, a 24-year-old London drummer whose studio work had impressed Epstein. McCartney also knew Nicol; the Beatle had recently caught a performance by Nicol with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.
After a six-song audition, Nicol was hired, given a Beatle haircut and told to pack for the flight to Denmark the next day. In the hospital, Starr recalled that he’d replaced Pete Best as the Beatles’ drummer two years earlier. “It was very strange, them going off without me,” Starr said in Anthology. “They’d taken Jimmie Nicol and I thought they didn’t love me any more – all that stuff went through my head.”
Jimmie Nicol became a Beatle for 13 days, participating in press conferences and enjoying the adulation of fans. Nicol played eight concerts and taped a TV show as the Beatles’ drummer. Ringo Starr was released from the hospital and rejoined the Beatles in Melbourne, where he performed on June 14th. The next day, Jimmie Nicol did his final television interview as a Beatle and went to the airport for the lonely trip home. Before he left, Epstein presented Nicol with a gold watch inscribed, “From the Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmie – with appreciation and gratitude.”.
It was over 50 years ago that The Beatles made their one and only tour of Australia. The Beatles touched down in Sydney on June 11, 1964 and for an amazing 13 days they captivated the nation. Hundreds of thousands lined the streets everywhere, Beatlemania was more intense here than anywhere else in the world. It was a time of massive musical and cultural change and a time for teenagers to challenge and defy authority. Over 300,000 people turned out in Adelaide – it was the biggest crowd anywhere in the world, anytime! The Beatles performed 20 shows across Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane leaving in their wake a trail of euphoric, captivated youth. Australia was never the same following The Beatles 1964 tour. This montage captures the highlights of their tour and the euphoria that followed.
Esther Edquist is Melbourne artist Sweet Whirl. She is also one of the best songwriters you have heard in a very long time. The debut Sweet Whirl album “How Much Works” was released May 29th on ltd white vinyl, black vinyl and digital. Gorilla Vs. Bear just premiered the album’s lead single and video “Something I Do”, calling it “one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard thus far in 2020…a perfect introduction to the album’s quiet, yearning intensity and understated, poignant brilliance.”
“Something I Do” is a languid lament accompanied by an evocative video directed by James Thomson. Esther says of the song, “To be honest I was inspired to write this song while I was seeing this total a-hole and felt like I had to carry the flame of my desire around with me all the time, lest it die.” How Much Works is Sweet Whirl’s debut album proper, after a handful of releases acclaimed by the likes of Gorilla Vs Bear, The Guardian and Clash Magazine. How Much Works arrives fully formed, a classic ten song album from an artist with both a command of history and a drive for new expression.
The album is a beautifully crafted triumph over bleak moments. It’s the love-addled confessions of a seasoned party girl, romantic yet sardonic, a troubadour who sings of the heart with a knowing sense of the timeless victory of song. Esther dissects experiences with wit and depth, emerging as a powerful, indomitable voice. Musically and lyrically, How Much Works draws on wells as deep as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jean-Paul Sartre and Sheryl Crow.
It distills personal, reflexive narratives into something universal and wondrous. Esther produced the album and plays almost everything on it, with guitar and therevox from engineer Casey Hartnett (Sui Zhen, Sleep Decade) and drums from Monty Hartnett (Dreamin Wild, Sleep Decade). Fellow Chapter Music recording artist Gregor contributes backing vocals to Make That Up For Me and Conga Line. Esther has previously served in Melbourne duo Superstar, who released two delay-drenched albums during the mid 10s. She has also been a member of Scott & Charlene’sWedding.
Love for previous Sweet Whirl releases: “An exquisitely bleary-eyed gem” – Gorilla Vs Bear, “With music this soft on your skin, small acts of rebellion feel big.” – The Guardian “A gentle sense of grace, an unhurried sense of beauty” – Clash
Welcome to the debut album from Melbourne, Australian psych quintet The Black Heart Death Cult.
A side: droney sitar sling (Setting Sun), space rocked mellotron flutes through fuzz pedals (She’s a Believer), walls of verb (Black Rainbow), psych folk wanderings (The Magic Lamp) & guitar-o-rama (Aloha from Hell) show these future sailors know their way around the high psych seas.
Droney & dark but always with some light shining through, expect pretty much the same thing from the B side, an intergalactic fret board freak out!!.
Recorded over a sprawling 2 years (Sing Sing & Newmarket Studios) from early 2015 & produced by Ricky Maymi from The Brian Jonestown Massace, their self titled debut LP was released Jan 2019 through Oak Island Records (Kozmik Artifactz).
Debut single “She’s a Believer” & the “Black Rainbow” EP
>This is Sparkly magic mountain-drops fall from the outer cosmic reaches in the re-imagined mind-forest of The Flower Captain Gloom/doom singer/songwriter Sasha L Smith envisions a brave new dark age of droney bliss in the sonic bazaar. Domenic Evans fret wizard, Deon Slaviero bass dealer, Andy Nunns time machine & Gabbie Potocnik Italian keys are on the magic bus we call “The Black Heart Death Cult”. Awesome Psychedelic Flower Doom that is reminiscent of Turtle Skull; but with a bit more 60ies flare. The LP has 3 tracks from the EP which is both a good & bad thing. Good in that they are the cream of the EP, & the EP is very creamy. Bad in that if you already have the EP, you have a third of the LP. Having said that, I have the EP but after hearing the LP I just had to have it. The new tracks build on the brilliance of the EP & the structure of the LP ensures each song complements the next.
Influenced by primal garage-rock and the hypnotic grooves of African and South American music, Melbourne’sBananagun have evolved from the home-made ideas of guitarist, vocalist and flautist Nick van Bakel to a full five-piece set-up. Their new debut album, “The True Story of Bananagun”, was born from extended jam sessions and presents a grand vision for their self-professed ‘global tropicalia’.
There’s an enticing lost world exoticism to the music of Bananagun. It’s the sort of stuff that could’ve come from a dusty record crate of hidden gems; yet as the punchy, colourfully vibrant pair of singles Do Yeah and Out of Reach have proven over the past 12 months, the band are no revivalists. On debut album The True Story of Bananagun, they make a giant leap forward with their outward-looking blend of global tropicalia.
The True Story of Bananagun marks Bananagun’s first full foray into writing and recording as a complete band, having originally germinated in the bedroom ideas and demos of guitarist, vocalist and flautist Nick van Bakel. The multi-instrumentalist grew up on skate videos, absorbing the hip-hop beats that sound-tracked them – taking on touchstones like Self Core label founder Mr. Dibbs and other early 90’s turntablists.
That love of the groove underpins Bananagun – even if the rhythms now traverse far beyond those fledgling influences. “We didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing,” the band’s founder says. “We wanted it to be vibrant, colourful and have depth like the jungle. Like an ode to nature.”
Van Bakel was joined first by cousin Jimi Gregg on drums – the pair’s shared love of the Jungle Book apparently made him a natural fit – and the rest of the group are friends first and foremost, put together as a band because of a shared emphasis on keeping things fun. Jack Crook (guitar/vocals), Charlotte Tobin (djembe/percussion) and Josh Dans (bass) complete the five-piece and between them there’s a freshness and playful spontaneity to The True Story of Bananagun, borne out of late night practice jams and hangs at producer John Lee’s Phaedra Studios.
“We were playing a lot leading up to recording so we’re all over it live”, van Bakel fondly recalls of the sessions that became more like a communal hang out, with Zoe Fox and Miles Bedford there too to add extra vocals and saxophone. “It was a good time, meeting there every night, using proper gear [rather than my bedroom setups.] It felt like everyone had a bit of a buzz going on.”
Tracks like The Master and People Talk Too Much bounce around atop hybrid percussion that fuses West African high life with Brazilian tropicalia; the likes of She Now hark to a more westernised early rhythm ‘n’ blues beat, remoulded and refreshed in the group’s own inimitable summery style. Freak Machine is perhaps the closest to those early 90’s beats, but even then the group add layers and layers of bright guitars, harmonic flower-pop vocals and other sounds to transmute the source material to an entirely new plain. Elsewhere there’s a 90 second track called Bird Up! that cut and pastes kookaburra and parrot calls as an homage to the wildlife surrounding van Bakel’s home 80 kilometres from Melbourne.
Oh, and there are hooks galore too – try and stop yourself from humming along to Out of Reach’s swooping vocal melody.
Bananagun are first and foremost a band enthused with the joy of living and The True Story of Bananagun is a ebullient listen; van Bakel – as the main songwriter – is keen not to let any lyrical themes overpower that. There’s more to this record than blissed out grooves and tripped out fuzz though: The Master is about learning to be your own master and resisting the urge to compare yourself to others; She Now addresses gender identity and extolls the importance of people being able to identify how they feel. Then there’s closing track Taking The Present For Granted, which perhaps sums up the band’s ethos on life, trying to take in the world around you and appreciating the here and now.
A keen meditator, van Bakel says of the track: “so often people are having a shit time stuck in their own existential crisis, but if you get outside you head and participate in life and appreciate how beautiful it all is you can have a better time.”
Even the band’s seemingly innocuous name has an underlying message of connectivity that matches the universality of the music. “It’s like non-violent combat! Or the guy who does a stick up, but it’s just a banana, not a gun, and he tells the authorities not to take themselves too seriously.”
The True Story of Bananagun then is perhaps a tale of finding beauty in even these most turbulent of times.
The Band:
Nick Van Bakel – guitar, voice, flute, trumpet, harpsichord, percussion
Jack Crook – guitar, voice
Charlotte Tobin – percussion
Josh Dans – bass guitar
Jimi Gregg – drums
Pierce Morton – alto saxophone
Miles Bedford – tenor saxophone
Zoe Fox – voice
Songs written by Nick Van Bakel.
Then on the heels of two stellar EPs, Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever first appeared on our radar at SXSW 2017. The marvelous quintet piled on guitars unapologetically in each of their breezy pop songs with life on the world’s roads and skies laid ahead for them. Their excellent 2018 debut LP, Hope Downs, solidified their status as a touring powerhouse, but the grind eventually made the band turn inward when writing “Sideways to New Italy”. “We saw a lot of the world, which was such a privilege, but it was kind of like looking through the window at other people’s lives, and then also reflecting on our own,” says singer/guitarist Fran Keaney. “She’s There” opens almost unconsciously with a nasty guitar hook that threads into a song about longing and pondering someone’s absence who might be thousands of miles away. “Falling Thunder” is a more traditional pop groove that’s still heavily stacked with guitars and asks “Is it any wonder? We’re on the outside / Falling like thunder, from the sky.” And while RBCF is shifting to make sense of their place in the world, they’re still very much committed to doing so while absolutely shredding.
Just two years ago, This Australian indie pop band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever rose to international prominence with the release of their critically acclaimed debut LP ‘Hope Downs’ which found an eager audience around the world. Showing absolutely no signs of second album fatigue, they make their welcome return with the newly released ‘Sideways To New Italy’.
Inspired by the New South Wales village of the same name where drummer Marcel Tussie grew up and spent his formative years; nostalgia plays a major part in this wonderfully wistful record which channels the melancholy and turns it into a dynamic explosion over ten tracks.
It also reflects on how immigration is increasingly becoming a contentious issue thanks to the dangerous rhetoric of popularist politicians, which contrasts sharply with the bands views who see the benefit of blending cultures as proven by the Venetians who came to New South Wales in the 1800’s and brought their rich history to their new home.
On their second full length record, “Sideways to New Italy”, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have turned their gaze inward, to their individual pasts and the places that inform them. From a town in regional Australia that serves as a living relic to how immigrants brought a sense of home to an alien place, to the familiar Mediterranean statues that dot the front lawns of the Melbourne suburbs where the band members live, the inspiration for the record came from the attempts people make at crafting utopia in their backyard (while knowing there is no such thing as a clean slate). In searching for something to hold onto in the turbulence, the guitar-pop five-piece has channelled their own sense of dislocation into an album that serves as a totem of home to take with them to stages all over the world.
“These are the expressions of people trying to find home somewhere alien, trying to create utopia in a turbulent and imperfect world.” These guys continue to grow as songwriters- there are a ton of catchy melodies across this album, and not a weak track. I can’t wait to see them perform these songs live! . The tightest 3-guitar band I have ever seen, full stop. The dual-lead guitar crescendo in Cars in Space is pure bliss, something Verlaine and Lloyd would have been proud of.
Released June 5th, 2020
2020 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever under license to Sub Pop Records
‘Sideways To New Italy’ is now available on Limited Edition Sky Blue Coloured Vinyl, Standard Vinyl and a Bundle containing both records.
The Citradels are a band of Melbournites who defy time and space. Sitars, handheld shakers, rattlers and rollers, open-D fuzz jams and unstoppable feedback driven 3 guitar odysseys that force unwary listeners to stare deeply into the depths of an infinite nothingness, The Citradels make some of the darkest, most intense drone music I’ve heard in a long time and make The Black Angels look like a pop group. The latest release from the Geelong five piece, drawing on all the regular spaced out influences from The Velvet Underground to JMC.
Drone music uses the interplay of different musical tones and timbres to create interesting music. In doing so, it fervently avoids things like key changes, melodic riffing or even chord changes in some instances. This means that listening to a drone album is like stepping into a black hole.
Tracs is the 10th album the band has produced in 7 years. Recorded over the space of a year in their home studio in rural Victoria, this album we have stripped back a lot of the instrumentation of our previous releases, taking songwriting and arrangement inspiration from the likes of Neil Young, The Band, The Byrds, Big Star and Cut Worms. We hope you find enjoyment listening to it.
The dark themes and hymn-esque vocals of the beginning of the album, this time revisiting the musicality of the entire album in one short mix. By short, I mean 8 minutes. There’s sweet atonal organ licks, some bent, screaming lead guitar and splashy, cymbal heavy percussion –
The band have been launching their LP relentlessly all over the east coast and have already cracked out the 12 string acoustics, the teardrops and the sitars to start production on their fourth album. If you’re into prolific psych jams, check em out and pay some money for their album – lord knows they deserve it.
Melbourne-based band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever will release their highly-anticipated second album, “Sideways to New Italy”, this Friday, June 5th via Sub Pop Records. Today, they release the album’s fourth single, “Cameo,” which follows previous tracks “Falling Thunder,” “She’s There,” and “Cars in Space.”
“Cameo” begins with open guitar strums and Fran Keaney’s sweet, assured voice. Then, it thrums with plucking bass, crisp percussion, and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.’s signature ability to create a stirring, anthemic track. Undoubtedly an album high point, “Cameo” shows a band at the peak of their power, both instrumentally and lyrically.
“This is a love song. It’s about reaching through time portals,” says Keaney. “The lyrics were pieced together over about a year like a little puzzle. I found the first pieces in Rushworth, and the last pieces in Darwin.”
Sideways to New Italy is available for preorder from Sub Pop. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, the U.K., and Europe, will receive the limited Loser edition
The Fat Angel Sings 