| #580 |
|
2001 |
Perilous 580 Two books on Australian music have landed on my shelf in the last few weeks, both related to the other - Bob Blunt’s anthology Blunt : A Biased History Of Australian Rock (Prowling Tiger Press), and Graham St John’s e-book FreeNRG : Notes From The Edge Of The Dance Floor (www.feelergauge.net). Blunt and FreeNRG chart a hidden history of music and people, places and events; Blunt focussing on the fertile late 80 and early 90s in Sydney and Melbourne’s indie and experimental undeground, while FreeNRG tracks the space where politics and dance music collided from the mid 90s onwards. Bob Blunt has been around in Sydney writing his fanzine Blunt and releasing various compilation records for years and his anthology bursts with lively photos and personal stories from over a hundred key bands and figures he has managed to interview and photograph. What Blunt charts is a rise and fall of indie and experimental music which roughly parallels the shifts in venues and the nationalisation of JJJ, which takes a chapter on its own. The Evil Star, now gentrified and turned into a yuppie pub replete with designer apartments above, takes a chapter to itself as well, recording an essential history of experimental music that would otherwise disappear. Distant Locust’s Matthew Bright contributes fitting coverage of The Evil Star along with the Gunnery as well as retelling the story of his own band and his later affiliations in the mid-90s with 8-Bit as Krang. Elsewhere it’s the Annandale Hotel, the Hopetoun, the Landsdowne, the Lewisham Hotel – all key venues at one point for the development of bands during those fertile days. Bob Blunt has also put out a companion double CD which provides a fantastic aural companion to the chapters and features a lot of the bands in the book including Plug Uglies, The Plunderers, and Non Bossy Posse. Free NRG is a collection of writing by activists and young academics at the sharp end of politics and dance music. Tracking the origins, Sydney’s seminal Vibe Tribe is well documented by Enda Murray’s piece of DIY Sound Systems as well as Pete Strong’s own honest account of the transformation of Vibe Tribe in to Ohms Not Bombs. This transformation from anarchic loose-fit urban party people into a focussed on-the-ground reconciliation road trip captures a theme that runs through the book perfectly – reconciliation and ecology. Whether it’s the Green Ant trance parties in Victoria or the Labrats vegetable oil-powered PA system, the combination of land and indigenous land rights is a powerful combatant to accusations of wishy-washy ill-defined politics that can at times be rightfully levelled at the subjects of some of the other chapters – Reclaim The Streets, S11. FreeNRG’s chapters that take a more academic approach are a mixed bag. Graham St John gives a solid overview of the state of ‘doof’ and eco-soundsystem activism but over emphasises its impact. Whilst these activists are crucial, they are not as prevalent as in earlier years. In Sydney the activist soundsystem culture has in part been forced out of the city by rising rents, changing demographics, anti-party laws and changing musical cultures. Although there are sporadic bursts of activity – the Broadway squats, and the upcoming RTS (Dec 1), the regular events and street culture are long gone. In its place it is a softer activist voice carried by people like Dase Team 5000’s MC Ozi Battla rather than the armageddon beats of the remaining free party crew System Corrupt that are reaching out to new and diverse audiences. Even the sniffer dogs have barely raised eyebrow. Susan Luckman’s piece on Reclaim The Streets is disappointing and reads like a chronology and international history of RTS – neither unique. And the chapters on psychedelic drugs and rave shamanism are given too much space and sound too much like the work of nutter like Fraser “Shamanarchy In The UK” Clark. Nevertheless, FreeNRG is a solid history of a certain period in the mid-to-late 90s of activism, DIY music, and eco-indigenous politics, and reveals a little more about the state of things today. Frigid this week features Berlin’s Jan Jelinek playing a live set with accompanying video work alongside Simon Caldwell. Its $10 to accommodate Jelinek whose warm glitch sounds span a set of superb deep micro-house 12”s for Klang Electronik; lush electronic ambience as Gramm for Source Records; and his most recent collection Loop Finding Jazz Records for Pole’s label ~Scape. Quoting Mark Richard-San, “That Jelinek would create his deep anti-pop for Stefan Betke's ~scape label makes sense, as Pole is definitely the most apparent reference point. Though his ideas are similar to a degree, Jelinek has far surpassed Betke in terms of expressiveness. Among the current spate of glitch artists, Germany's Jelinek designs his tracks with an ear for emotion. Part of this comes from the textures he chooses, which veer toward the liquid and organic”. On the 2nd, Lorna drops in with her electro and wild mixing. Frigid’s low key, “no-internationals, early finishing” New Year’s Eve event Flush goes on sale soon and is limited to 300 only. www.snarl.org for info. Yellow Peril  Goto
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