Gurgling Sand

Nowhere Forever
Love Of Diagrams
Unstable Ape, 2009
3.5 stars

Love Of Diagrams have always had a knack for making the complicated sound simple. Their sound has been a mathy, ordered-mess of guitar patterns, repeated vocal chants and tight, taut drumming, but with Nowhere Forever they’ve succumbed to the late-noughties shoegaze bent and ramped-up the fuzz. The album’s title is a more-than-obvious (perhaps too obvious to be intentional) reference to Ride’s wonderful 1990 excursion into noisy pop Nowhere, and they’ve done the reference justice – the squalling guitars on Forever sound like gurgling sand, and blended with washy, muted walls of noise and some seriously catchy pop tunes these guys have nailed it. The beauty of this record however, is that they’ve managed it without losing any of the qualities that have endeared them to so many, both here and abroad. Tracks like Lookout and A Part Of You are up there with the nicest – I’d even go as far as to say ‘sweetest’ – they’ve ever laid down. Whether this is true shoegaze is up for debate, bit I personally think we’re going to need to come up with another name for it, because these guys aren’t wasting time looking at their feet.

Published in mX, Thursday August 20, 2009.

Daydreaming

Yes To Fear, Yes To Desire
Panoptique Electrical
Sensory Projects, 2009
4 stars

This is really beautiful. Panoptique Electrical, a Melbourne group led by Jason Sweeney (also of Mist & Sea), have created a 57-minute instrumental mood swing with this album; a wistful, world-wise soundtrack, ready to wrap itself around the listener whatever activity they find themselves engaged in at the time. Fans of Sigur Ros should hunt down a copy of this album yesterday – the slow, haunting chords of tracks such as Some Rooms Become Us are reminiscent of those found on the Icelandic lads’ wonderful ( ), with the sea-shanty vibe of fellow countrymen múm’s Summer Make Good. It’s a simple formula really; piano notes stretched-out over washy, lingering strings and elongated samples to form a series of meditative, melancholy instrumentals - it’s been done before, but rarely this well. The vibe of the album is not intentionally depressing, nor uplifting, but it is definitely one that will calm a listener’s nerves and amplify any pesky, meandering thoughts.

Published in mX, Thursday August 13, 2009.

Scrub Serenade

Kes Band II
Kes Band
Mistletone, 2009
4 stars

For the last few years Karl Scullin has been one of the most productive men in town, popping his head out of the Melbourne underground scene every so often to put out some great experimental solo work, contribute snakey basslines to Mum Smokes and, recently, find a poppier incarnation under the ‘Kes Band’ moniker. I’ve been a fan for a while now, but there’s always been one hitch; I share a home with a nice young lady who just so happens to have a problem with Karl’s slightly-off vocals, and I have therefore only been able to listen to his records outside of headphones when said nice young lady isn’t home. Well, the headphones are back in the drawer, because Kes’ latest release is an all-instrumental affair. It’s a slow-burning collection of bush-bashing post-rock and ethereal wind-driven waltzes, with the ebb-and-flow of recent Do Make Say Think albums but the ramshackle, eucalyptus haze of Kes’ excellent 2007 LP The Grey Goose Wing. Individual tracks are not as immediately catchy as those on Kes Band I, but the aim here, if I’m not mistaken, is for more of an overall experience, as suggested by the album’s Arts Centre launch.

Published in mX, Thursday August 6, 2009.