ZONE EXHAUSTION Pt. 2

Jonathan Michell - Tone Defeat

I'm blown away by this solo track from the Ancients' Jon Michell, no fucking shit. This is like some sonic acupuncture the way it's just clamping down on a precise array of sounds that make my brain fucking melt. It definitely sounds exactly like a heap of Blade Runner replicants jamming out on some despondent Devo b-sides but they can't help getting a little krautrocky because of their semi-robotic nature. And shit. There's hints of more recent gloomy new-wavers too, like These New Puritans, but none of that accurately captures this song's amazing last-train-home oppressive vibe. Cool shit.

[The Ancients MySpace]

Fair Maiden - Lady Of Fortune

"Hauntingly beautiful", basically. This track sounds like Cat Power in the 90s when she was still smacked out & writing sad songs (heaps better than the new stuff with the "Dirty Delta Blues Band", amirite?). Totally simplistic guitars let the heart-wrenching vocal layers kick you in the kidneys but it feels so right. If you haven't already downloaded Special Award's new compilation Swan Vs. Raptor, do it now.

[Fair Maiden MySpace]

[Download Swan Vs. Raptor compilation from Special Award Records]

ZONE EXHAUSTION Pt. 1

Fatti Frances - Found A Picture Of Myself At 20 Years Of Age

Dig the opening track from this amazing compilation from Melbourne's Special Award Records. Here's what we can take from these tracks: Young Marble Giants and early Belle & Sebastian are big in the Garden City right now. Not that I want to reduce the sounds here to two (really excellent) influences. I mean, what's going on is subdued introspection and only the feeblest of beats, but really, it's not like the new wave "quietcore" well is dry. Hyperactive riffery is played out, but there's still plenty of interesting things left to be done with lethargy. God, it's fucking GREAT to hear bands playing softly again (don't care how feeble that sounds).

[Fatti Frances MySpace]

The Frightening Lights - Mr. Sun

I literally wanted to post every song on this Special Award compilation. I had to make a shortlist and put myself through an arduous process of elimination to narrow it down to five (there'll be other posts soon; if you can't be bothered waiting, download the comp). This shimmering slice of narcotic melancholia is from ex-Sir vox/guitarist Elizabeth Downey and takes the narrative of this post from faint beats to zero beats; it's almost certainly what people listened to at midnight before rock and roll was invented.

[The Frightening Lights MySpace]

[Download Swan Vs. Raptor compilation from Special Award Records]

GROUND SUIT

Denim Owl - Fantasy Dog Sled With A Man's Head

The music on this track shifts beneath Janita Foley's vocals, stretching and looping to accomodate her mood swings. The lyrics feel less like the words to a song than short accounts of, y'know, interesting stuff that's happened to her set to a soundtrack: "I bought two plain baguettes / And you wore them as shoes." It's a weird feeling, listening to these well-enunciated, coolly-delivered anecdotes and adding them up in your head and realising that they don't really make much sense. But they sound nice, coasting over the top of meandering tropical dreamscapes, then politely triumphal synths and Kings Quest-esque organ breakdowns and a sort of-rocking coda. It makes more sense when you realise Aleks of Aleks and the Ramps is the other half of this Melbourne duo. His unparalleled ability to fuck with the twee formula informs a big chunk of this track (and also Denim Owl's EP, The Dream Pocket): it's cute and lovable and surreptitiously bizarre.



[Denim Owl MySpace]

[Buy The Dream Pocket from Special Award Records]