Wzt Hearts- Heat Chief and Thread Rope Spell Making Your Bones

Baltimore’s experimental noise group Wzt Hearts now have two challenging, expansive and encapsulating records to their name. Bloody Baltimore, new bands are erupting from that city everyday that would put so many cities to shame. Over the course of two albums Wzt Hearts have travelled far in their journey through their apocalyptic soundscapes. Both albums follow a deeply experimental and coarse path that arrests the ears. The method of creation is quite similar between the two but the presentation of their ideas is quite different.

In the creation of the two albums the band recorded hours of improvisational material. By setting no time limit to the construction of their music a looseness is ever present. If one saw these tracks being laid they may have come across as aimless, button fiddling, self absorption but thankfully the listener is entitles only to a handful of glimpses of something to large for us to probably comprehend.

Heat Chief is essentially constructed as a double sided LP. There are four tracks with 1 and 3 being large and slowly progressional and 2 and 4 being smaller and more intense. 2 and 4 are like antidotes, a quick ambient fix after an intense ride through an abrasive, volatile world. The larger two are dark trance demons that rely on high frequency glitches and body quaking bass.

Thread Rope Spell Making Your Bones sees the editing process taken even further and with greater success. These seven tracks seem almost premeditated in their sound. Instead of dense walls of twittering and deep groaning bass these tracks can be isolated and listeners can relate with analogies and comparisons between the music and themselves much more easily. Jeep Uzi is reminiscent of a boat harbour at night, the hulls of boats calmly nudging each other while they croon with chimes and bells through the morning sea mist. Spells on the other hand shocks one right to the bone as they spelunk through dark echoing caves that are possessed by a seething, overwhelming force.

It is this contrast between tracks that gives TRSMYB its longevity. What it lacks is continuity between these very isolated worlds. Heat Chief, in that respect, is a perfect companion to the second release because it relies on its continuity to create a singular brooding voyage. Listening to these two albums in succession really highlights the bands deep desire for experimentation. They are still a band without a ‘sound’ but they are going about it the right way, trying every possibility and every instrument. They may not have a sound but they sure do make beautiful noise.

Heat Chief: http://rapidshare.com/files/63928897/wzt.rar Password: trunk

TRSMYB: http://rapidshare.com/files/90600614/WZT_Hearts_-_Threads_Rope_Spell_Making_Your_Bones_Car_Park_2007_.rar.html

Freya Hollick- 2007 (When Madness Overcame the Deer)

Freya Hollick is a singer/songwriter from Ballarat and occasionally Melbourne, Victoria. Over the past few years she has been pumping gem after gem from her humble home studio while slowly building a dedicated fan base via word of mouth. With no official releases to her name, the quality of demo material is only tempting listeners of what is to come.

The deceptively simple guitar echoes throughout a quiet house, never to clustered, never to sparse. Coupled with a ghostly, spider webbed voice sometimes clear like the day and other times intangible as smoke rising from a still room the musical beauty resonates just long enough to tantalise. Around this floorboards creak, ceilings crack and distant voices bounce through hallways and living rooms. These two elements are nothing without direction and it is the position as a story teller that solidifies them. With unassuming charm Freya takes us through lo-fi stories of love lost, childhood fantasies, forests and the quiet lives of animals. For me it is the theme of challenging childhood innocence that is most enduring. Costume follows the story of how family turmoil can affect a child. When scared he is cloaked in ‘costume’, a blanket of security that protects him from the outside world. It is this idea of emotional protection from something as simple as clothing that reminds me of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Before the sobering realities of the world are yet to take hold escapism for a child can be as simple as wearing their favourite costume and turning in to somebody else. Ophelia also gives the impression of life through the perception of a child. The song follows an obsessive love story of a boy infatuated by a woman/a girl/a dream. This is an omniscient love from the perception of the child. Ophelia is commanding, controlling but it seems this way only because of his innocence and ignorance. It is not necessary to anthropomorphise Ophelia, she is an emotion, a state of mind, uncontrollable anomaly that is typical within the blamelessness of childhood.

In a live context Hollick is an incarnation of her songs. I was privileged enough to watch her play at Glitch Bar, one of her first gigs in Melbourne, where she presented material she had written over the past 2 years. It was something really special. Here are 8 demos from 2007 which is but the start of her back catalogue.

http://rapidshare.com/files/91678957/2007.rar.html

Fionn Regan- The End of History

Fionn’s 2006 debut The End of History for me was one of the most simple and astoundingly gorgeous releases of that year. For a musician to strip away the security blanket of loop pedals, drums, bass, post production etc. can be a daunting and ruthless ordeal. Songs of acoustic nature almost always serve as a sobering rendition that challenges the core structure and integrity of a song. To rely on one instrument to create unique song after unique song doesn’t necessarily show outstanding musicianship rather it is more telling of ones vision as an artist and lyricist. Mind you, this is not a ‘perfect’ album in the sense that every song is a single or that there is one narrative created, formed and finalised in to one grand vision. It is an album of hopes and near misses, occasionally verbosity and humbled voices but most importantly when the elements are aligned it is an album of poetic brilliance.

Thankfully Fionn is a great guitarist. His deceptively simple finger plucking grows on you with every listen. It lays down the path for Fionn’s hypnotised meditations on past events, objects people and emotions. As a lyricist he is extremely unique, seemingly unrelated phrases are whittled and moulded into beautiful melodies until they attain an ethereal association. They are poetic mixture of traditional heartbroken prose and everyday normalities such as:

I read to you on Saturdays
Museum has closed down
Sell all your things
At the end of the drive

Be good or be gone

For me the highlights of the album are when Fionn is at his most simple and direct. Put a Penny in the Slot is written like a stream on conscious thought sung over some of his most simple guitar work. There is no hint of rhyme, instead the words compliment each other on a more enunciated level. Others that follow in a similar vein are Snowy Atlas Mountains and Abacus. On the strength of this debut Fionn’s follow up is already highly anticipated even considering that there has been no word of any in the near future.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/usau9u

Jackie-O Motherfucker- Candyland

Jackie-O Motherfucker are well renowned for genre-hopping but they do more than just borrow from history. Unlike many bands, when JOMF loan from the past they use the basic theories, moods and connotations and use this as a platform for their own distorted reaction to the present. They enlarge these familiar sounds then transform and manipulate the genres into a religiously and culturally transcendental plethoric mutant of a song. What results are sprawling soundscapes littered with distant voices, offbeat experimental jazz backings, field recordings and so on and so on.

There is no point listing the different influences or subgenres that this band includes because it would make for a futile description. Improvisation is an important factor in the creation of JOMF music. With this ingredient there songs have a great space and freedom that allows ample time for transition of genres and gestation of form and ideas.

Candyland is a collection of live recordings and unreleased tracks. I’ve read very little on where it has come from and it is often left out of discographies that I have seen. It includes a selection of shorter tracks with a popular song format. Corn Pan Bean Pan plays out a murder of a little girl and is shockingly unnerving.



http://www.sendspace.com/file/o45lrm

Fionn Regan- Singles/EP Offcuts

Irish Singer/Songwriter Fionn Regan materialize from nowhere with his debut album The End of History. Before this he had 3 marginally successful EPs called Hotel Room, Campaign Button and Reservoir. Looking through these older releases further strengthens the elusive and romantic nature of Fionn’s public character. This is because the dramatic progression as a songwriter and producer occurred so quickly between the EPs and the Album. To use a clique, looking at his catalogue as a whole suggests a ‘devil at the crossroads’ epiphany at some point in his musical career though in reality this phrase is probably far from the truth. When one looks back into Fionn’s history we nostalgically cannot resist the though of his album springing fully formed from his deep subconscious as his lyrics and natural musicianship would suggest.

This selection of offcuts from the slightly better parts of Fionn’s EPs are meant as a glimpse of his origins as a songwriter. Many of these have been re-worked into better arrangements and others have benefited from years of familiarity and increasing confidence. Special mentions go to Ice Cap Lullaby at just over a minute long is a glimmer of beauty. Perfectly constructed and surprisingly unsoothing, not because of disturbing lyrics or brooding guitars, but because of its fleeting presence ever tantalising the listener for more. Ballad of the Toad Eaters is an example of a extremely well written song but poorly executed. I have included it as a comparison for those that have heard it live. I heard it 2 years after it was released and in that time the spirit of the song has been unlocked and is coming in to its own.

For those that are always searching for more Fionn it’s a hard task. His live shows include many beauties that have either not been released or never recorded. It may suggest a new album is on the way.

p.s. Please contact me if you know of any rare tracks and where to get them

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ppuq2r

I Heart Hiroshima- Tuff Teef

Formed in 2005 I Heart Hiroshima have been slogging it out and have released their debut album. They are one of those bands that have hung around on the outskirts of conversations about Brisbane, The Go-Betweens or small time punk bands for a long time but finally people (including me) are just shutting up and listening.

I don’t really like describing a bands sound by comparing them to others but IHH sound extremely similar to my much loved Life Without Buildings. They are similar in the way that they make a seemingly average, everyday phrase encapsulating by repeating, repeating and repeating. This economy of words compliments the tight drum work and bare-boned angular guitar. The three focus on the percussive intricacies between guitar, voice and drums rather than creating memorable melodies to make their catchy 3 minute rough gems. The congested, bass-less double guitar from Matthew and Cameron is reminiscent of many of the more punky Melbourne bands but it’s their lyrics that reveal their Brisbane heritage. Part giddy, part sadistic and part youthful exuberance the band treads through scenarios of murder, robbery, big city nostalgia and childish love. The song Crime plays out the emotional dismembering of a said person/lover in the most frivolous of tones but the most gruesome of words. What really sticks from this album is its endearing simplicity. 3 instruments, 3 voices and three kids shouting as hard as they can till their voice boxes hurt. And that’s it.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5k0zvf

Racoo-ooo-oon- Behold Secret Kingdom

Racc-ooo-oon are from Iowa City and from what I have read they have been around for quite a while. Behold Secret Kingdom has been my first introduction to them probably because it is their most widely distributed and easily accessible release. All their other albums and splits are on record or tape and a few have been re-released to CDR.

Racoo-ooo-oon concentrate on creating a world of musical discord and devastation through repeated construction/deconstruction of percussion and ambient noise. Through the progression of many tracks these two elements succumb to grinding, foaming, distorted guitars and are pierce by possessed moaning and yowling voices. Musical similarities have been drawn between Racoo-ooo-oon and Animal Collective. This is understandable in regards to the band’s psychedelic/trance like elements but the palate of sounds that the two bands use are vastly different. Rac-ooo-oon rely heavily on thick, pulsating guitars, synthetic noise, and progressive layering. Animal Collective on the other hand are more inclined to explore manipulation of found sound coupled with orchestrated intricacies.

On Behold Secret Kingdom the theme of the tainted forest and malicious nature is ever present. Names like Black Branches, Antler Mask and Fangs and Arrows compliment the use of distant bells and bestial guitars. On Tail at Prospect Peak a griping monstrous moan is followed by an intense, hunting party march. Voices and chants coalesce from a fog of noise and distortion and proceed to hack and destroy what was originally a brittle melody till all that is left is a slow and sloppy drum beat. Throughout the album the band plays with destroying what they create over and over until, through this repetition a sense of disorientation arises. The listener has no choice but to succumb to their omnipotent, grinding power as they are tantalised with distant promises of ethereal bells and whisps of lucid melodies.

http://rapidshare.com/files/91708217/raccoo-oo-oon_-_behold_secret_kingdom.zip.html

The Necks- Townsville

I heard this album driving home one day around about midday. The drive was probably about 10 minutes long. Instead the drive took an hour which roughly the length of this monstrous, free jazz masterpiece. I was completely encapsulated and unable to move from my car. Any song, let alone album that stops me from leaving my shit bomb (but much loved) of a car is worth my praise. By far this is my favourite album from 2007.

Briefly for those that don't know The Necks they are a free-form experimental jazz group from Australia. The group consists of Chris Abrahams on piano, Tony Buck on drums and Lloyd Swanton on bass. The three are concerned with exploring improvisation and the removal of ones self from the music making process. Chris Abrahams said on ABC radio this year that ‘the point is to avoid those conscious, ego driven decisions’ and any performance that has a feeling of premeditation is regarded as substandard to ones that don’t. This is music without cognisant suggestion though the only way to explain it is to do just that. I’ve heard many descriptions such as it’s like seeing a world in a grain of sand, the shrilling of birds or a cluster of mountain goats from the Himalayas. The fact that the three avoid applying these worldly connotations to their music actually allows the listener to find these analogies more easily. Without egotistical input the movement of the music follows a natural progression that is mediated by human imprecision.

The album consists of one hour long piece recorded just outside of the Australian town of Townsville. The band records all their live performances but they believed that this one had an exceptional form and progression. Chris also mentioned that fact that when they arrived the concert standard Yamaha that they asked for was not delivered. Instead he used a much older piano and thankfully this meant a unique performance. In some sections he precedes to give the piano a great workout, pushing the keys to their limits to create a distortion that isn’t typical of a piano’s range.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/yad22c

Hate Rock Trio

Hate Rock Trio are a band originally from Melbourne, Australia. They believed that moving to Berlin would open their music up to a more appreciative audience than the inward looking Australian music scene.

Their music revolves around a dark, slow and mechanical drum beat. Screeching, wailing guitars consume the rest of the sonic space. This guitar sound, in my opinion, is typical of Melbourne though the band's sound is changing drastically due to their residency in Europe.

Nostalgia was created in one night in a basement somewhere in Melbourne town. It was to be in response to the band's digust in regards to up and coming bands mercilessly pillaging from 60's/70's rock and roll (most notably Jet and Wolfmother).

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tpl33j