HEAR is the enema your iTunes needs. Bringing you the most thought-provoking and up-to-date music reviews this side of Lester Bangs, HEAR sifts through the ever growing mountain of press releases and promos to only feature albums, EPs, LPs and mixes that we want to, not that we have to. Also, we try and make things make sense in 200 words or less so that you can just listen to the music.
Ever been to the forest when it's still dark out so that you're awake to hear the near-invisible sounds of a thousand monsters coming to life through the woodlands as though you were in Fern Gully? They're the kind of sounds Nicholas D Futcher, aka. Kite Club specialises in. Esoterica, his debut EP sets the mood for spring (in both senses of the word).
Since starting out with some Circle Jerks and Bad Brains covers, a couple of demos and a seven inch, these Brisbane punks have been slurping on the 1.5 litre Haterade and are now hitting red on the rageometer. The result is Fad Cash – four tracks of blistering and intense hardcore.
A line from the first song 'Vermin's Tain't 'Why regain consciousness?' sounds a lot like 'so why Reagan consciousness?' It's just coincidence but their ultra-fast, ultra-pissed-off hardcore is reminiscent of much of the punk blasting from Reagan's America in the early and mid eighties.
Solar Flecks is possibly the most unified collection of pieces yet assembled by Sean Bailey. As Lakes, his music is relentlessly challenging, using analogue keyboards, tape recordings and weird percussion to make undeniably creative constructions.
First track 'Energy Garden' baits listeners with an intriguingly layered orchestration.
At the Birmingham Odeon in 1977, a barely-recovered Iggy Pop ad-libbed a ferocious anti-heroin diatribe, culminating in the desperate phrase; ‘Heroin Hates You!'. Bootleggers quickly put out a double vinyl set.
We're human, we make mistakes. Not everyone pays tax, but there's nothing surer in life than our ability to make mistakes except death.
!!!'s new full-length Strange Weather, Isn't It? is a reflection on the band's glary decade together. The lyrics point towards a serious life stock-take; "You'll never hear the same song again/nothing in the rear view mirror/except a trunk full of reasons" or "I felt strangely free as I caught the last bus from the place I'm supposed to be/and it's a good thing I like being alone I made a promise to the mirror long ago.
So Wavves - or namely, the bro behind Wavves a.k.a Nathan Williams - is pretty much universally known for his doucheism. He looks like your standard garden-variety cool dude, which comes with the matching attitude. Known for being a jerk-off in interviews/in general and experiencing an acid freak-out onstage at Primavera last year, it's lucky that his music is bangin' enough to make up for any personality flaws.
Twenty-two-year-old Finn Olli Aarni is a lot like Girl Talk. No, really - okay, he relies far less on the generosity of Fair Use, but both men compose primarily by sitting around, listening to mountains of music. What a living! The similarities end though when you consider what each man samples for.
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