Mess+Noise album review: The Holidays
An album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.
The Holidays – Post Paradise
Somewhere between Cut Copy’s electro wonderland, Gypsy And The Cat’s soft rock, and Empire Of The Sun’s delusions of pop grandeur sits Post Paradise, the debut from Sydney’s The Holidays. Despite such reference points, the album somehow remains interesting. Put it down to the strength of the songs, which unerringly achieve that rare pop trifecta: accessibility, originality and memorability. Tony Espie, who’s worked with The Avalanches, Midnight Juggernauts and Cut Copy, has mixed the album, which may account for its overall slickness and sheen.
Favourite moments? The way the guitars intercut the vocal melody in ‘Broken Bones’; the ethereal introduction to ‘6AM’, which dissipates upon meeting the sound of an alarm clock and takes a right turn into tropical pop-land; the double-tracked phaser effect applied to the guitars in ‘2 Days’, and the joyous, nonsensical vocal hook in its chorus; and the seemingly effortless chillwave upon which ‘Conga’ rides (accompanied by bongos, widdly-widdly guitars and an incessant, sensual bass throb).
Full review at Mess+Noise. More of The Holidays on MySpace. The music video for ‘Golden Sky‘ is embedded below.
Mess+Noise album review: Surf City
An album review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.
Surf City – Kudos
Kudos is an anachronism. It simply shouldn’t be. It is the antithesis to modern music. While every other band is doing their best to sound like the future, New Zealanders Surf City are stuck in the past. There’s nothing futuristic about it, and yet, like a Magic Eye image, if you stare into their gaping sonic void for long enough, a conclusion reveals itself. Suddenly, it all makes sense: Surf City sound so fresh because they’re not trying to sound fresh.
From the moment the first glassy guitar notes of ‘Crazy Rulers Of The World’ stream from the speakers, it’s clear that the six years the band have spent working toward their debut were worth it. In fact, just why Kudos succeeds so resolutely could be put down to the band’s patience. Their self-titled EP wasn’t released until 2008; likewise, nothing about Kudos feels rushed. Again, Surf City is antithetical to modern music, and the forever fast-forwarded release cycle perpetuated by tech-savvy musicians. Their social networking sites are neglected. Too busy making amazing music, I guess.
Full review on Mess+Noise. More Surf City on MySpace.
I wish I could embed a video or something to show you just how amazing this band is, but there’s fuck-all info about them online. You can stream the album’s best track, ‘Icy Lakes’, via Polaroids Of Androids, however. Do it.
Rolling Stone story: Hungry Kids Of Hungary
A story for the November 2010 issue of Rolling Stone, on Brisbane band Hungry Kids Of Hungary.
Click the below image for a closer look, or read the article text underneath.
Hungry Kids of Hungary Stay Close to Home for Debut Disc
Queenslanders finally drop their debut after a pair of promising EPs
For Brisbane-based indie pop quartet Hungry Kids Of Hungary, the three-year path to their debut album was paved with transcontinental correspondence, two EP releases, and a stack of national tours supporting the likes of OK Go, Little Birdy and Bertie Blackman.
Escapades took shape in the suburban home of producer Matt Redlich, with whom the band recorded their second EP, last year’s Mega Mountain. Over cold drinks on a warm Brisbane day, singer/guitarist Dean McGrath and singer/keyboardist Kane Mazlin reflect on a recording process that began in January 2010 and concluded six months later.
Ultimately, the band were faced with a choice: record with a familiar face in a comfortable, inexpensive environment, or return to Tony Buchen’s studio in Sydney, where the band recorded earlier single “Let You Down”.
As an indie band faced with financial realities, though, the decision to remain Brisbane-bound seemed simple. ”We love Matt’s recording space,” says McGrath. “It’s underneath his house; it’s just cosy, and suits us down in the ground. There’s a pool out the back. We started recording in January – when it was far hotter than this – so we could do takes and then go for a swim. I was interested in doing something different and pushing us out of our comfort zone, but I think the right decision got made in the end.”
The band also found that removing time and money constraints had a positive effect on their songwriting. “We actually did some pre-production this time,” reveals Mazlin, in reference to an exhaustive process of rehearsal, deconstruction and rearrangement of each song.
“Sometimes you end up putting it together exactly the same as you started,” says McGrath,”but I think it’s a dangerous thing to have an album’s worth of songs ready and then just recording those 12. The cool thing about stretching it out over a long time is there’s four songs on the record now that weren’t written at the start of the recording process.”
Hungry Kids formed in mid-2007. Drummer Ryan Strathie had played in separate bands with both Mazlin and bassist Ben Dalton; McGrath was a mutual friend. As McGrath and Mazlin share vocal duties, the band agonised over Escapades‘ tracklisting. “It was always going to be a little tricky for us to make everything flow,” says Mazlin. “But I think we managed it.”
When asked to pinpoint the band’s sound, McGrath is laconic. “Pop’s the simplest way to describe it. It’s what we do. I think it’s unnecessarily complicated to give it a whole bunch of sub-genres.”
More Hungry Kids Of Hungary on MySpace. The music video for their song ‘Coming Around‘ is embedded below.
Mess+Noise EP review: Bigstrongbrute
An EP review for Mess+Noise. Excerpt below.
Bigstrongbrute – We Can Sleep Under Trees In The Morning
Written partly between “a brutal Brisbane summer and a bitter New Jersey winter”, this EP from Bigstrongbrute – musical alter ego of Paul Donoughue – is the successor to his self-released album, Gardens In The Gutter (2008, now out of print). What began as a solo project has blossomed into a group effort, both on stage and within this release: friends lend bass, trumpet, flute and piano to augment Donoughue’s frail guitar tone. Besides a contribution from Jessie Warren (aka Carry Nation), who provides guest vocals on ‘In My Own Mind’, it’s Donoughue’s deep, distinctive voice that dominates the mix. His songs are meticulously crafted, yet the end product is played loosely enough by the band to impart a sense of spontaneity and charm.
Although the middle tracks are populated with guests and musical bluster – Fergus Hill’s trumpet on ‘You Were Always Right’, a jarring, distorted electric guitar solo by Andrew Ford on ‘Supply & Demand’ – the EP begins with Donoughue alone, backed by acoustic guitar and piano. These six songs are kept intentionally uncomplicated and lo-fi (though Todd Dixon’s recording is clear and warm). They’re the sounds of loneliness forced into social interaction, before again seeking solace.
Full review at Mess+Noise, where you can also stream the track ‘You Were Always Right’.
More Bigstrongbrute on MySpace. Highly recommended.
Mess+Noise track review: Cut Copy
A track review for Mess+Noise.
Cut Copy – ‘Where I’m Going’
Viewed in light of their past releases, ‘Where I’m Going’ is a black sheep, for never before have Cut Copy leaned so far toward the pop end of the musical spectrum. All four singles from 2008’s chart-topping In Ghost Colours – ‘Hearts On Fire’, ‘So Haunted’, ‘Lights & Music’ and ‘Far Away’ – had both feet planted firmly on the dancefloor. Here, the Melbourne-based act – a newly-minted quartet with bassist Ben Browning joining full-time – ease off the multi-layered synths that characterised their second LP in favour of a prominent rhythm section and a winning vocal melody.
Full review at Mess+Noise. More Cut Copy at MySpace; you can also download this track for free at their website, if you give ‘em your email address.
The Vine album review: The Boat People
An album review for The Vine.
The Boat People – Dear Darkly
Over three decades ago, a pair of aspiring Brisbane musicians set down two rules that they’d follow throughout their long partnership: they were to equally share the amount of songs that appeared on each album between themselves, and they’d never do anything without the other’s permission. That pair was Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who founded seminal pop band The Go-Betweens in 1978. In 2010, whether conscious or not, another pair of Brisbane pop writers – James O’Brien and Robin Waters – have tapped into this same ethos for their band The Boat People’s third album, Dear Darkly. Like every Go-Betweens album, they touch upon romance and melancholy in equal measure. And like every Go-Betweens album, Dear Darkly consistently errs on the side of greatness.
Augmented by guitarist Charles Dugan and drummer Tony Garrett, the duo each author six songs on an album that exhibits the best work of their decade-long career. Though their last LP, 2008’s Chandeliers, was subject to a three-year gestation process, they’ve opted to work faster this time around. The result is their most eclectic collection to date.
Full review at The Vine. More Boat People on their MySpace. Music video for ‘Soporific‘ is embedded below.
The Vine album review: Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane
An album review for The Vine.
Mike Patton – Mondo Cane
I’m coming clean: I wouldn’t be listening to Mondo Cane if Mike Patton’s name wasn’t on the cover; I can’t understand Italian, and I’ve never heard the original versions of these songs (barring one track, ‘Deep Down’, which was the theme song to ace 1968 comic book film adaption Danger:Diabolik). These factors could conspire against my capacity to enjoy this album – but they don’t. Mondo Cane is a wholly thrilling ride. Patton possesses one of rock music’s most distinctive and admired voices, and while he’s the star here, these 11 songs are filled out with depth and colour by the contributions of some 65 orchestral performers.
While recent Faith No More converts – via their widely-celebrated reunion world tour – might find Patton’s latest project a little too challenging, I’d argue that Mondo Cane shows the singer fronting his most accessible act yet. This music speaks to me in a language that the average rock band can’t fathom, and I’m not just referring to Patton’s fluently-sung Italian. I’m of the opinion that orchestral music moves humans far beyond the emotions that can be summoned by any configuration of guitar, bass and drums; here, Mondo Cane proves my point. From the opening strains of ‘Il Cielo In Una Stanza’, I’m hooked.
Full review at The Vine. This album is the shit. To get an idea of what the hell I’m talking about, watch the video embedded below.
Elsewhere: I interviewed Mike Patton for The Vine about Mondo Cane. Read it here.
The Vine interview: Mike Patton
An interview for The Vine.
Mike Patton has a reputation for restless innovation. He’s best known as singer of Faith No More – who toured Australia with the Soundwave Festival earlier this year – as well as his other experiment rock acts Fantomas, Peeping Tom, Tomahawk and Mr Bungle. Patton’s voice is one of the most distinctive of this era, and he’s also lent it to collaborations with artists like Dillinger Escape Plan, Dangermouse, Dan The Automator and Rahzel.
His latest project is named Mondo Cane (pronounced ‘Carn-ay’). The newly-released album sees Patton singing 1950s- and 60s-era Italian pop songs before a 65-piece orchestra. It’s effectively a love letter to his time spent living in Italy a decade ago. The Vine discussed this concept with Patton during our half-hour conversation, in addition to touching upon his fascination with Italian composer Ennio Morricone and whether his record label, Ipecac Recordings, could be considered a tastemaker among alternative and indie music fans.
Full interview at The Vine, which includes a couple of Mondo Cane video embeds. I can’t recommend this stuff highly enough.
On a personal note, this was an immensely satisfying interview to research and conduct. I have a lot of respect for Mike Patton; I remember being enchanted by his voice when I first heard it via my brother Stuart‘s copy of their greatest hits record, Who Cares A Lot?, which even my parents dug. So it was a thrill to speak with the man and uncover some aspects of his latest projects that other interviews hadn’t considered.
Sidenote: I put the call out for interview questions on Twitter and Facebook, and was contacted by a Chilean guy named José Ignacio Vidal, who runs a Mike Patton fansite. He emailed me several questions that I ended up using, including those related to Mondo Cane’s musical arranger, Daniele Luppi and the album art designer, Martin Kvamme. José translated and republished my interview on his blog (!!) alongside a couple of kind introductory paragraphs, which I’ve translated (from Spanish, via Google, to amusing effect) below. Thanks, José!
Exactly two weeks ago I read online that a guy named Andrew McMillen was looking for people, “x” to send him questions and Mike Patton Mondo Cane and specific about was how to send you a simple question of entry, which I’m liking very grateful and asked me if it was possible to send him more. Blindly I did send him seven questions of which one of them Pogo gave me the lights for one of the funniest questions regarding this interview Daniele Luppi and another involving a female question and thinking in those days who had the disc their hands? I went to Sofi ^ ^ who enlightened me to ask about the cover art and oddities, like a butterfly because the pole.
Addition and continues with the romantic effect Patton’s Mondo Cane and some subtleties that are seen in this most entertaining interviews in recent days, if not more than five years. Mike Patton talking a lot, reveals the most intimate nuances of the new album from Mondo Cane, full of surprises that really had not read before. Patton was very comfortable and it shows because they are about 8 sheets of non-stop interview.
Without further ado and especially thanking Andrew, all the best for you buddy, thanks a lot! I leave this great interview, in our view the best of 2010 ;)
Visit José Ignacio Vidal’s Chilean Mike Patton fansite here.
A Conversation With Hunz, Brisbane Electronic Artist
Hunz is a Brisbane-based indie artist who intersects innocent pop melodies with dark electronica. He’s Johannes van Vliet when recording, but his killer sound is augmented by a bassist and drummer on stage. I first saw Hunz perform in support of Yeo & The Freshgoods at Brisbane’s Press Club in November 2008; his music is brilliant, which is why I bought his debut album, When Victims Fight, immediately afterwards.
Hi Hunz! It’s 2009. There’s ten trillion bands on the internets who want our attention. Why should you have ours?
My music is a throw back to my teens, when video games were my escape to the problems that surrounded me.
I use glitches, beeps, pops and the original programs that were popular for writing music back then. I try to cram the songs full of my heart so that when I sing, it all comes out connected and very personal.
I have visions as I write this music, and it is my hope that soon people will see what I see as I embark on animating my music as well.
Your debut – 2008′s When Victims Fight – was marvelous, but I understand you’ve since written a new album.
My new album is called Thoughts That Move, and it was inspired by the RPM Challenge. My wife read about RPM on a website and said, “You should do this”. The concept behind the site is to record an album – ten tracks, or 35 minutes – in a month.
As I logged onto the website I started having doubts. It looked a bit dodgy – I should say I’m a graphics snob, and I feel I have the right to comment on web design and layout; I don’t – but as I looked around, it was evident that my initial doubts were wrong.
The RPM competition is about community and creating an outline that will help people – from bedroom guitarists to performing musicians – record an album within a month, albeit within February, the shortest month! In a matter of moments, I ran out into the lounge room and announced that I would accept this challenge.
A summary of what followed in the month of February was as follows:
- “Optimistic” Hunz would wake me up.
- “Creative Ideas” Hunz would hug me during my day-job and whisper sweet nothings in my ear
- “Realistic” Hunz would put me to sleep (well, keep me awake).
Halfway through the month, “Realistic” Hunz would wake me up. “Creative Ideas” Hunz had stomach cramps and had to go bye-bye, and “Optimistic” Hunz was being bashed.
In the last week, I just let everything go, and it all fell into place. Out popped this album Thoughts That Move, and wow, RPM was done for this year. There’s a more detailed account of the challenge at hunz.com.au.
As an electronic artist, the ability to quickly tweak and modify your songs lends itself to this sort of time-constrained project. How much live instrumentation did you use?
For this album, I asked a friend of mine in Nashville, Jesse Palmer (from a band called Skate Party, who did some tunes for HomeStarRunner) to work on a guitar part for You Said Hello. That was it. Everything else is mostly hand-drawn, which involves drawing in your waveform; another name for this is an oscillator. I would then do some basic ADSR (Attack – Delay – Sustain – Release) on it and use multiple channels to do the Add, Subtract, Multiply setups. It’s like creating your own SoftSynth VSTI plugin, but doing it right in the program instead.
I used the Renoise audio composition software for this project. The other instrumentation was from a lot of old, old loops I have found over time. I love flavour in drums, so I love to cut up live loops and shove them into new beats. I love it when hi-hats ring into snares or kick drums. It adds imperfections, and electronic music needs this to make sure it isn’t so rigid. I used string and Rhodes samples for a few tracks too.
I will eventually merge the live aspect of the music into the recordings, which will be heard on the next album. The guys in my band are amazing, and I would be silly to not have them influence the outcome of my tracks. There are parts they have both come up with that I miss dearly when I listen to When Victims Fight, and I’m not going to let that happen again. The only track on When Victims Fight that mixes electronic elements and the live band was Who Knows, and I feel like it’s a good start.
When do you expect the RPM album to be in stores?
This album will be free.
We are currently working out how to present this though, as people have requested physical copies and others are interested in paying something. We are also looking at ways of getting it into some digital distribution outlets so that people get it how they want.
I’m also releasing the original song files in a tracker format for Renoise (.xrns), which means they are 100% destructible, a bit like a GarageBand session.
I really want to pay my respects to the scene that inspired most of how I write music today. Back in the early days when I wrote music, it just got shared around the internet for everyone to pull apart. I guess with this album, I’m going back to that mentality a bit.
So the free album release is more a recognition of your past musical experience than a comment on the nature of musical distribution in 2009?
For me it was just how I used to release music in the past. You just released it online and hope for the best.
I was so excited when I saw that Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead successfully released music this way, for free. It is a step in a different direction that feels like it might just work.
‘Free’ for bands like NIN means that they can live off their live shows.
‘Free’ for bands like me may mean that more people will be attracted to the idea of my music, and then fall in love with it, which will thus provide more demand for me to tour around a bit.
It certainly is a game of “wait and see”, because I have no idea. But it just feels right, and ultimately, I won’t be disappointed. I’m doing music because I love it, and my close friends asked me to release it.
Kickass mindset, man. You’ve already won. I love that you’re already planning the next album. Have any themes solidified yet, or are you still mulling it over? Is it going to be another free digital release? Or more importantly – do you see any alternative to releasing music for free or near-free? I have this notion that music in 2009 primarily exists as a vehicle to get bodies to shows, which you seem to believe as well.
The next disc is going to be more like what our live show sounds like. I’ll create the initial song ideas, work with the guys in creating fresh bass/drum ideas, then take that all into the studio and record. Then I’ll take that home and manipulate it and then go back for mix-down later on.
The theme for the next album is introvert versus extrovert relationships, and I’m nearly done with the creation of the first phase.
I haven’t yet decided how I’ll approach the release of the next album, but I love the idea of free music. I agree that music might move into a promotional realm for the artist, instead of being a source of major income.
It’s hard for me, because the city in which I work is small. If I play every other week in Brisbane and have people come along, they’ll burn out quickly and will only come to shows every 3-4 months. So my crowds thin out until I have a major release; then it packs up again.
If you’re a touring band around the globe, I could see this working a treat; or at least, somewhere where the population can support it.
Maybe having options for the user would be a treat. Or you sell your album with a ticket to come to any show. So people can just buy the album and support, or people can get the album for free with their ticket purchase. And that ticket works anywhere you play. Maybe it’s universal. Haha, still thinking about that one…
I’m guessing you’ve got a pretty sweet home recording set up.
I have:
- A SoundCard RME FireFace 400
- Some Truth B2031a Monitors
- A Rode NT2000 Microphone, and
- A laptop
I then use Buzz, Renoise and Cubase to create everything from there. I stay away from VSTIs (virtual studio technology) and instead draw the wave forms – which can represent percussion or synth sounds – into Renoise.
I also never got into the gear race, which makes me kinda feel like I missed out on something. But it’s been only over the last few years that I’ve played my music live, so I know my future will be more gear-centric.
I imagine that you have some mundane day-job, and that your music is your creative outlet. Am I on target? Hunz – accountant by day, musician by night?
Haha, that’s so great. No, I’m a Creative Director for a production company running the motion design team. Motion design is best generalised as “very pretty movie titles”, but like music, it has very, very deep paths that push to the other side of the spectrum.
I’ve just embarked on setting up my own motion design company called iv motion [eye-vee mo-shun]. It’s a partnership with the company where I work now. It has been a big dream of mine to see music and animation together, all made by the same creative agency, so this is a step in that direction.
In the past, I tried to do all the music and animation on my own, but I couldn’t. I need help. I need crews, and I need to pay them for their work. I am hoping this year brings about some completeness in Hunz, where people will see the two together and understand the music more. My graphics team used to be a part of a production house, but by breaking off on our own, iv motion can work with many production houses to get a broader range of work.
Okay, so I was (thankfully!) way off on my accountant-by-day assumption. Creative Director – that’s awesome. This certainly explains the kick-ass artwork and animation that accompanies your music. I friggin’ love the promo vid that you did for When Victims Fight [below].
You mentioned that you’d like to try and integrate visuals into your live show – what do you have in mind?
Thanks for the love on the promo vid! I stumbled on that idea during another job and saved off my work knowing no client would want zombie-like people walking across the screen! It often happens as you work: something will glitch out, but it looks so freek’n cool that you have to show it somehow down the line, and Hunz works out perfectly for that.
The live video aspect of Hunz will happen over a long period of time. It’s more a money/time thing, and then wanting to do it right. I have invested time into researching some fresh ideas, and with technology, the proper implementation wins over simply being the first one to use it.
I am aiming for interaction of the artist with the video to enhance the mood of the songs. The way that NIN just did their last tour was exactly along the lines of where my head space is at. I haven’t seen it, and I don’t think I am going to watch DVDs of the tour. I’ll try and remain fresh and not taint my creative ideas just yet. I heard Reznor would push on these LED displays and the video on them would move around him to make it look like he was pushing through it. Just so good to see this happening.
Your well of creativity seemingly runneth over. Music is your passion, that much is obvious. Do you have those moments where you wake up in the middle of the night and have to record something, or do you stew on ideas before working on a track?
Melodies greet me often. I’ll be walking along, looking around at life and then the shapes and colours start singing in my head. So I have a phone that records these moments as I hum in the melodies. Most of the time I sit down on the computer and start messing with sounds. Usually it starts talking to me, a flood gate opens up, and then the song is complete.
I feel like I watch the music being made for me and then I pass it on to everyone else. I had this one song that didn’t make sense to a few years back and I thought “Man, How neat is that? I can sit there and create and not know at the same time”.
The influences of artists like Boards of Canada, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are identifiable in your sound, but your MySpace mentions that you’re interested in “anyone who complements music with computers”. Can you elaborate on this statement, and describe how your music taste began to lean toward electronica?
That “anyone who complements music with computers” is a way to say ‘hey’ to all the demo sceners of the day, and also to give people an idea that they don’t always have to use guitars for accompaniment. It also is a subtle request for people who use computers to send me their music. I’ve come from the demo scene, and we all used computers to help bring our ideas out into the open, and this helped introduce me to electronica. I’ve always had a soft spot for hand-drawn sinewaves and sawtooths.
The lyrical content on When Victims Fight seems intensely personal; is this a trend you plan to continue?
When Victims Fight was a complex one. It was about all those arguments you have in your head as you’re thinking. I do write about myself, but very exaggerated versions of it. Enough to protect the source but to still be honest and feel it. It will continue out like this; it’s just how I work.
I have a few songs that didn’t make that album because the lyrics were so argumentative. One line is “you should do this”; the next is “well, I’m not sure if that’s where I need to go” .. and it flips around like this with no resolve.
I’m not really into much resolve either, I’m really into the reality of the journey. It’s beautiful to watch the process of people.
You currently handle most aspects of the Hunz project – production, visual, booking, promotion – yourself. Have you accepted this as par for the course due to the part-time nature of your musical career, or do you envisage enlisting external assistance?
I’m really fortunate to have a helpful band. Both guys in the band are helping me out in any way they can, but that is dependent on how much I can “let go”. Which I am learning to do. I have very high standards; some would say too high. So I’m learning that it’s okay to accept what is “second best” in my eyes, because that is still higher than what most people might expect.
I don’t know if the truth of that statement is in my heart yet, but I think it will get there.
My wife also helps out as well and has challenged me – as only someone who knows you can – to do things differently, which has been awesome.
Apart from that, I do need help. I’m creative, and although I’m learning that business is very creative too, it still isn’t my strong point. I do know what I want to achieve, and where the music is heading; I’ll just start constructing that now, and hope that I meet the right people to make it happen.
Finally – as a musician in 2009, what’s the biggest barrier to getting your music heard? How do you overcome that barrier?
As I’ve developed as a musician, there are a few ways I’ve noted that you can explore as a band to get heard. I think for Hunz it’s all about people discovering the music kind of on their own. Because these themes are in the music, to do it any other way would be a lie.
I don’t want to push Hunz. I want to let it sit and take on its own life. It’s been wonderful to watch, because often when someone connects with Hunz, they become a fan and want to help me out, which just overwhelms me in the best way. Because of that approach, things take a longer amount of time, so it’s finding the balance between that and connecting with the right people who can help build a platform for you.
I will continue to perfect my art, video art and music over the years to come, and I hope you all decide to watch this process as it unfolds!
Watch the process unfold in real time by following Hunz on MySpace, Twitter and his website. You can stream his newest creation, Thoughts That Move, through the RPM Challenge site.
