Category: Writing

A collection of writing. Mostly reviews.

Nerve Net Noise: Meteor Circuit (2002)

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This is an older review of mine, presented here for archival purposes. The writing is undoubtedly different to the present, and the review style may differ between publications. Enjoy, if that’s the right word. 

No two ways about it, you’re either going to love Meteor Circuit or think it’s the most annoying con-job going in electronica. Nerve Net Noise, a Japanese duo, take homemade oscillators and basically let them play themselves. They claim to be going for the middle ground between planned and unplanned, suggesting that there’s a kind of life created here. Then again, their liner notes also make links between the creation of the world and their music, in a display of whimsy that elsewhere would annoy, but here appears to fit entirely with the project: machines playing themselves, humans acting merely as scribes. Continue reading “Nerve Net Noise: Meteor Circuit (2002)” →

Review: Frank Bretschneider – Super.Trigger (and some gear)

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A couple of months ago, I wrote a review of Frank Bretschneider‘s Super.Trigger album for Cyclic Defrost. Here’s a sample:

Eschewing romanticism doesn’t remove character, though some tracks are more favoured in this regard. ‘Pink Thrill’ is all nerdly tetchiness, but ‘Machine.Gun’ is the clear winner. Staccato drum rolls imitate the track’s titular weapons while a frenetic background conjures the image of a gunfight held over the top of a Blaxploitation soundtrack. It crackles, and when the end comes – in an echo-chamber of steely ricochets – it’s triumphant. Worth special note too is the album’s attention to bass sounds. On some tracks – the opener ‘Big.Hopes’, and ‘Day.Dream’ in particular – there’s window-shaking kicks and tones that are so immense that it’s difficult not to fist-pump in celebration. Coupled with the appropriate atmosphere, such as the dubby, dark sound of ‘Over.Load’, it’s overwhelmingly great.

You can read the full review here. But the reason I’m linking it today is that this rather neat article details Bretschneider’s studio setup and workflow. If you’re interested in electronic music (and like the track above) then you’ll find some good info in there.

(As an aside, I like reading this and discovering that I mentioned fist-pumping. I hadn’t even seen Regular Show when I wrote this, but the power of the Fist Pump can’t be denied. See below.)

 

Dirty Three: She Has No Strings Apollo (2003)

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Dirty Three: She Has No Strings ApolloThis is an older review of mine, presented here for archival purposes. The writing is undoubtedly different to the present, and the review style may differ between publications. Enjoy, if that’s the right word. 

She Has No Strings Apollo arrives as Dirty Three celebrate ten years together, playing dives and festivals and introducing gobsmacked punters to their particular blend of distortion-fuelled neo-classical gypsy heartbreak. It’s the product of fatherhood, abortive recording sessions and long sojourns as backing musicians for luminaries such as Nick Cave or Will Oldham. And more than any recording before it, it seems to nail the sound — and, more importantly, the sense of communication between players, the “feel” of things — in a way that their other discs haven’t.

The disc’s feel could be put down to the fact that it was recorded — after a couple of months of live workshopping — in just three days at Les Instants Chavires in Paris. And it shows; the tunes have a sparseness in places that bespeaks freshness — these are songs that have no fat on them. They’re fresh from the source. Continue reading “Dirty Three: She Has No Strings Apollo (2003)” →

John Hudak & Jason Lescalleet: Figure 2 (2001)

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This is an older review of mine, presented here for archival purposes. The writing is undoubtedly different to the present, and the review style may differ between publications. Enjoy, if that’s the right word. 

Take one NY-based sound artist (Hudak) and one New England-based composer (Lescalleet). Give them a load of recording equipment, an audience and place the whole shebang inside a Massachusetts chapel in the middle of a snowstorm. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Thankfully, such preparations have resulted in a recording of such incredible beauty that it will make you believe that there are benevolent gods watching over those who explore what constitutes music. Continue reading “John Hudak & Jason Lescalleet: Figure 2 (2001)” →

Film review: The Proposition

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This is an older review of mine, presented here for archival purposes. The writing is undoubtedly different to the present, and the review style may differ between publications. Enjoy, if that’s the right word. 

There have been few Australian films as hotly anticipated as The Proposition. The combination of director John Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave (who have created film clips together, and were previously teamed on the thoroughly disturbing Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead) and a cast including Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and David Wenham served to create quite an appetite. The good news is that the expectations created by such a gathering of talents are surpassed with this film. It’s a truculent, smouldering piece that, while managing to have a core story that’s straight out of a western, manages to address issues which still dog Australia today.

Continue reading “Film review: The Proposition” →

…And Then There Were III – The Immortal Lee County Killers

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This is an older interview of mine, presented here for archival purposes. The writing is undoubtedly different to the present, and the review style may differ between publications. Enjoy, if that’s the right word. 

Some days, rock requires a hearty constitution. You have to be in your prime to handle the mammoth toll of The Road and The Rock, and all the debauchery and seat-of-the-pants flying that that entails, to be ready to belt out screams, high kicks and overdriven, amped-gig freneticism.

On other days, you sit on your porch and comfort your cat during a thunderstorm. That’s what The Immortal Lee County Killers III’s vocalist and guitarist Chetley Weise was doing on the day that I caught up with him. Continue reading “…And Then There Were III – The Immortal Lee County Killers” →

The Immortal Lee County Killers II: Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble

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This is an older review of mine, presented here for archival purposes. The writing is undoubtedly different to the present, and the review style may differ between publications. Enjoy, if that’s the right word. 

Lee County, Alabama, USA. Home to a smooth-talking drummer who looks like he’s taking a brief break from carjacking and a lanky, snap-kicking guitarist who plays a horned axe that looks like it’s got the body of a redback spider. Put ‘em together and you’ve got The Immortal Lee County Killers II. Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble is the band’s second album (discounting an odds-and-sods collection), and it’s also home to the second iteration of the band, too: original drummer Doug “the Boss” Sherrard upped-sticks after the band’s debut disc. The gap – a big one, given the two-man setup of ILCK – was filled by guitarist Chetley “El Cheetah” Yz’s former bandmate J.R.R. Token… and what they’ve created is telepathic blues of the best type: fucked-up and angry.

Oh, and drunk. Continue reading “The Immortal Lee County Killers II: Love Is A Charm Of Powerful Trouble” →

New Arche review

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My review of the debut from Arche has been published on Cyclic Defrost.

Aside from the pads which flow over the track like bioluminescent waves, there’s a lot in opener ‘Elevate’ that would sit nicely on Coil’s Time Machines. The same late-period Coil approach to roiling, unfurling sounds is present, adding mystery to a soundscape that has distinct physical/inner-ear effects if played through headphones. It’s as if the listener is zapped with a ray gun of restful unease.

You can read the rest here.

New split 12-inch review

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My review of If, Bwana and Gerald Fiebig’s split 12-inch on Attenuation Circuit has gone live at Cyclic Defrost. You can listen to excerpts from the record here. 

Gerald Fiebig’s ‘Sustained Development’ features the same reedy organ tones, but with more organisation. They’re constructed in waves, creating a feeling of motion, of tidal drift. It’s a slow-burn piece, but seems more at home in the ambient Nurse With Wound part of the world; its slow iterations and feeling of bobbing, rising waves would sit well with any fans of NWW’s Salt Marie Celeste.

Read the rest here. 

New Yellow6 review

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Another Cyclic Defrost review has gone live. It’s a write-up of Yellow6‘s 5 EP, part of Silber Records’ 5 in 5 project. Five minutes, five songs. A buck to download. 

‘5.2’ sounds like Sling Blade-era Daniel Lanois, while ’5.3′ brings to mind Charlie Owen’s guitar work on Louis Tillett’s Midnight Rain. ‘5.4’ brings a venomous, plodding chunk to the mix, coupled with a howling noise which manages not to upset the measured, clean chord pluckings that command attention, leading to the EP’s final Godspeed You Black Emperor guitar-neighbourhood track.

The review is here.