Ausmuteants review from dynamite hemorrhage

DECEMBER 5TH, 2013

DYNAMITEHEMORRHAGE 

Daylight Robbery

Ausmuteants

AMUSEMENTS

I stayed on the sidelines for the great synth-punk excavation and revival the past decade, preferring instead to stare at my hand or dream of England. Matter of fact, even the much-beloved Screamers, the ancient seminal synthpunk band of yore, went further on attitude, iconography and timing more than they did tip-top songs - but who’s really to say, right? Australia’s AUSMUTEANTS have a synth, and they’re punkers, and no small number of their songs on their debut LP even recall the Screamers, Factrix, Devo and that whole ilk.

Unlike them, their album is tip-top, a breakneck collection of dead-to-rights dance/punk, right in line with San Francisco’s Numbers from over a decade ago, and nearly as good. Song titles like “Kicked In The Head” and “Stepped In Shit” betray the fact that these guys are total wave-os, too, with a few songs that might even be heard on the radio if you fiddled with the dial enough. That’s just fine, because execution is everything, and Ausmuteants can vary it up enough to keep it all exceptionally interesting, brash and fun. Despite a song called “Pissed Myself Twice” that wins this year’s least-likely-to-be-played-a-second-time award, the Ausmuteants record’s one I’m pretty sure you’d better hear. This track’s called “Daylight Robbery”.

Bunch of new stuff in and in-coming

Gravel samwidge lp and lovely legs 7" from swashbuckling,half high lp, love chants lp, and red red kroovy 7" from rip society.  Running behind but unity floors lp should be here soon.  Yeah, lots of stuff

Angie review

Angie “Stars and Dust” from Turning (2013)

Turning is the almost aggressively sullen debut LP from Angie, better known as Angela Bermuda from Circle Pit, Ruined Fortune, Southern Comfort, and probably a few more. Who can keep up these days? Angie picks up where those excellent Ruined Fortune and Southern Comfort 7”s left off with this dead-eyed stare of a record, erasing any ebullience in favor of half-speed rockers that’ll sit well next to your copy of Yer Last Record or 11:11. “Shared Futures” limps toward the miserable idea of its title, “Missing Out” sorta sounds like the UV Race’s “Memenonome” except unable to get out of bed, and “A Certain Friend” is plain devastating. “Shadow Twin” and the motorized "Parallels" pick up the tempo but Angie’s vocals never leave the tarmac. I’d be lying if the change in seasons didn’t affect me in any way, and Angie’s LP is perfectly timed to coincide with this widespread not-so-phenomenal phenomenon. Those unaffected by something that happens with regularity every year shouldn’t shrug this one off, though: there’s enough riffs and repetition to get lost in on this record, and a ton of standout guitar leads (such as the chilling one starting at 1:13 in “Stars and Dust” above) to navigate you through the murk. It’s unclear to me if this is Angie putting a particularly turbulent episode of her life to rest or not - it sure sounds like it! - but it’s a helluva way to work through a dark time. This here’s one o’ the best records to come out in recent memory.

http://goodbysunball.tumblr.com/post/66036920889/angie-stars-and-dust-from-turning-2013

Angie - Turning lp - EB-003

They are here, and look fucking great, start shipping this week

Turning is the debut LP by Angie, a Sydney-based musician whose guises include Circle Pit, Southern Comfort, Ruined Fortune and Straight Arrows.

The album was produced and recorded by Owen Penglis (Straight Arrows) at his home studio in Sydney from February to April 2013. Drums and percussion are by Owen and bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, organ and vocals by Angie. Production assistance by Lincoln Brown (Housewives) and additional locals by Nathan John Roche.

The songs themselves have been burgeoning, shining, turning, for a long time.. devised through half melodies returning in wake and sleep, wine and coffee, confidence and paranoia.. themes spurred from a myriad of notebooks recounting travels in North America, Croatia, Cambodia, Turkey, and everyday life in Australia. The melodies have been floating around for years in loose form, only now to be assigned their rightful place.

The record will be released digitally by Rice is Nice and on 12" vinyl by Easter Bilby on October 25th.

the link for the video is https://vimeo.com/71239618

Kitchens floor review

http://7inches.blogspot.com/2013/08/kitchens-floor-deadshits-on-easter.html

Lower Plenty - Hard Rubbish (EB-001)

Kitchen's Floor - Deadshits 7" (EB-002)

Kitchen's Floor at its most naive, primitive and pure. Before the electric guitars, multiple line up changes, Lou Reed, and 'Insects'. These songs were recorded one afternoon in 2008 when Julia and I were a couple of wastoid 21 year old depressives that thought we could defeat the waves of bland musical shit that was permeating Australia at the time. I will say we lost that battle but almost won the war, and all it took was an old guitar, some bits of a drum kit, and beer. These songs would go on to be re-recorded for 'Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress' and 'Live in Brisbane', but what you hear here are the original and arguably best renditions. Remastered for wax and posterity, and also for your audiophiliac enjoyment.

some new reviews in The Wire

The Wire

July 2013

Page 70

The Wire

July 2013

Page 70

Batpiss

The lp has arrived, will start getting it out to stores on Friday

The Wire reviews

The Wire

May 2013

Page 70

The Wire

May 2013

Page 70

The Wire

May 2013

Page 70

The Wire

May 2013

Page 70

there is also a sprot review that was split in columns

old southern comfort review for you know who

The Wire

January 2013

Page 82

Coming right along

EB-002 Kitchen's Floor - Deadshits 7"








Kitchen's Floor at its most naive, primitive and pure. Before the electric guitars, multiple line up changes, Lou Reed, and 'Insects'. These songs were recorded one afternoon in 2008 when Julia and I were a couple of wastoid 21 year old depressives that thought we could defeat the waves of bland musical shit that was permeating Australia at the time. I will say we lost that battle but almost won the war, and all it took was an old guitar, some bits of a drum kit, and beer. These songs would go on to be re-recorded for 'Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress' and 'Live in Brisbane', but what you hear here are the original and arguably best renditions. Remastered for wax and posterity, and also for your audiophiliac enjoyment.



test pressing approved, artwork turned in,  look for it to be out in early June

Good news for the label

The test pressing for kitchens floor 7" will, hopefully, be okayed next week(approved, just waiting on art)

Angie (straight arrows, circle pit, ruined fortune) has finished her solo lp, waiting for final mixes, name of band, and name of the record

Couple new reviews

THE LOST DOMAIN An Unnatural Act LP (NEGATIVE GUEST LIST) I first encountered this long-running Australian band in the early 2000s when the trusted Rhizome label brought us a CDR of their music called Something Is.... It was just two tracks, the first a whopping 46 minutes, the second almost 30, and I gave it a couple intensive listens, but I confess it left me cold. The musicians had clearly built a confident and personal sound together, but it sounded like stuff I'd heard before . . . long-form instrumental minimalist desert-landscape mood music . . . and it seemed to take a very long time to not go very far. Years went by and I forgot all about them, but then along comes one of the greatest rock zines I've ever encountered, the Negative Guest List from Brisbane, Australia, and I'm reading as many issues as I can get my hands on, $7 import cover price be damned, and what should be published in #18 but an extensive history and discography feature on The Lost Domain. It turns out they're from Brisbane as well, described in fact by NGL writer/publisher Brendon Annesley as "Brisbane's first band," and I think I know exactly what he means by that. I had grown to appreciate and admire Annesley's taste in music, and even though I'm sure there was some hometown pride and bias behind the article, it made me want to give Lost Domain another chance, this time through Brendon's ears, as it were. Right away I pulled that Something Is... CDR back out -- it was still right there where I had last filed it almost 10 years ago -- but to be honest, it still left me almost as cold. The article had maybe thawed things out a few degrees warmer, but it wasn't enough, and I refiled it again.


Ah, but this time I was not going to forget them; just a couple months later, what should arrive on the Blastitude doorstop but a package bearing Lost Domain vinyl, on none other than the Negative Guest List label. Annesley-approved material! It's called An Unnatural Act and wow... I like it better. A lot better. For one thing, they sound like a much different band. Where Something Is.... had that dry-as-dust desert noir thing going on, this starts out like a really messed-up noise band, and then goes into absolutely primo swirling and spinning psycho-blues. Believe me, after the side one closer double shot of "Sweet Haunch Woman" and "Funeral March for Charley Patton," you will be moved too. You'll have no choice. The intensity doesn't let up on side two either, though it does have some more elongated space-out instrumental sections to help the medicine go down. After re-perusing the NGL article, I learn that this sweet skree is an LP reissue of their very first record, which came out in 1990 about a year after they formed, when it was self-released a few times on cassette. It was reissued as a CDR by the Foxglove label in 2006, and now, with fewer tracks, it has come back to life on this LP. To sum this review up, when a band debuts with something this revelatory, it's going to shed light on their entire career and pretty much guarantee them a lifetime pass, which means I'm going to have to re-evaluate Something Is... yet again! Good thing I know right where I shelved it. (NOTE: This and many other new releases from Australia are available stateside from Easter Bilby Distro.)

http://blastitude.blogspot.com/

Yowzer

A couple of forthcoming releases on AARGHT:

EASTLINK - Wild Dog - 7''
OOOGA BOOGAS - LP
EXHAUSTION - LP
LEATHER TOWEL - 7''

AARRGHT! Records is dead, long live AARGHT.