| #582 |
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2001 |
Perilous 582 Another year is coming to a close and the shelves begin to fill with all the releases that record labels, big and small, have been saving up for the Christmas rush. And amongst the mountains of dross there will always be gems. But in some ways it’s a nice time to pick up some of the music you’ve been meaning to get hold of all year and so for this fortnight and next I’ll be rounding up a few of the best things this year. Maybe put a few down on your wishlist for your folks to buy you. Australian releases have blossomed this year, more in quantity than ever before. Adelaide’s Surgery Records have put out 6 stunning releases the best of the pack being Superscience’s debut Love Like Life In Minature. Superscience has his follow up album due for release in early 2002 and its even more impressive and continues his fertile crossing of indie lovesick lyrics, brittle electronic melodies, and rolling bliups and beats. There’s also an outstanding EP from another Adelaide producer, Frost. Frost actually works at the same record shop (Big Star) as Superscience, and his debut EP Music For Sad Children is a beautiful bleak release somewhere between DJ Shadow and spartan instrumental productions like Ice or those of Mick Harris with ultra slow breakbeats slipping under minor key piano motifs. In a similar vein, the still unreleased work of Sydney’s Betaville Orchestra. From Melbourne there has been the nutty freakshow of avant hip hop crew Curse Ov Dialect. Their performance in Newcastle at Sound Summit left everyone stunned and bemused but their playful crashing of their five multicultural backgrounds makes for an exceptional sonic mix. DJ Shehab’s production and beats are awesome with their sharp turns into Middle Eastern percussion. In Sydney, Elefant Traks have finally put out an album which captures their diversity but retains an all important coherence missing on their earlier compilations. The album as The Herd represents a lot of what is good about what has been happening in Aussie hip hop of late. Ozi Battla’s rhymes have gotten more complex and his flow more natural and the production work by all involved is excellent. The Herd is deservedly doing well on radio. In other local hip hop the razor sharp production of Serreck has helped ex-Fathom member 13th Son Of December’s lyrics find appropriately leftfield accompaniments, while Sleeping Monk sounds at home with his new group Upshot. Best local hip hop compilation for sheer breadth and quality has to be the wonderful Parallax View radio collection Airheads. Local Sydney breakbeat crew db Chills have delivered some excellent live shows and their forthcoming 12” on Offworld Sounds should be worth tracking down. Their combination of live electronic drums and rinsing bass drops has seen them developing a worthy local flavour to a lot of what has been going on overseas in the poorly named ‘nu skool breaks’ genre. On a more downtempo tip, Pivot and Ukiyo-E have been impressive with their two similar takes on post-rock, Pivot’s drummer Lawrence Pike must win the award for most energetic drummer, whilst Ukiyo-E’s debut mini-album Inland captures a slightly more contemplative side to them than their comparatively up live shows. Perfectly capturing their live shows, Prop finally released their debut album. Epic and beautifully produced Small Craft Rough Sea is something that has been worth the wait. That’s the close of part one. More next time. And as Frigid settles into a few low key Sundays we have Adi-B and the launch of the Don Meers album train Noise complete with live set from Don himself, followed by noise of another kind altogether with madcap sample nuts Wake Up & Listen hitting the decks on the 16th. Then there’s the Flush NYE event but you can find out about that at www.snarl.org. Yellow Peril  Goto
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