Cyclic Defrost reviews Juarez's 'Revontulet'

Cyclic Defrost has reviewed the debut Juarez release, Revontulet. Here's what they had to say:

The opening piece Favourite purposely pisses you off, a low repetitive cyclical drone begins, forcing you to adjust the volume and then a short abrupt aggressive jolt comes unexpectedly at a ridiculously higher volume. It’s music that doesn’t want to be friends with you, and it’s a highly provocative act that is a sledgehammer technique devised to make you uneasy.

To read the full review and many others go here.

Revontulet is out now in indie stores across Australia and via the Sabbatical online shop.

Absoluten Calfeutrail and Default Jamerson to support France's Monarch

Both Absoluten Calfeutrail and Default Jamerson will be supporting France's doom lords, Monarch this Wednesday night for their second Melbourne show at Horse Bazaar. It's presented by Heathen Skulls and the wonderful Stutter. The two are on second and first respectively. $10/5 at the door.

MONARCH (France)

Female fronted, funeral doom lords Monarch are set to embark on their maiden voyage of Australia. It's been a long time coming but the wait is over! Hailing from the south of France, since 2004 Monarch have been creating ear bleeding walls of feedback via the slowest riffs. Their music ventures on drone as the tempo is slow and throbbing. Think Sunn O)) meets early Melvins and Black Sabbath.

In the middle of doing two Melbourne club shows Monarch have graciously chosen to play a special low key show for Stutter, much like Pig Destroyer did a few months back. Monarch are presenting something special that's strictly a one off.

CANDLESNUFFER / BLACK WIDOW
Candle Snuffer (Dave Brown of Embers, Pateras/Baxter/Brown, etc.) and Black Widow (Robert MacManus of Grey Daturas) have been projecting their improvised twin guitar attack on the Australian public for some time now. They recently open for, and played in Guru Guru (Germany) on their Australian Tour and are currently looking forward to their debut release.

BONNIE MERCER (Melb) / TOM HALL (Bris)
Grey Daturas' main Wah Wah axe master Bonnie Mercer and Brisbane sound artist Tom Hall have been dueling it out on an irregular basis these past months. Given the distance between these two artists when timing permits they unleash a collaboration worth documenting. Lets hope they finally do, at some point.

ABSOLUTEN CALFEUTRAIL
One man power electronics artist Mark Groves (White Horse, Collapsed Toilet Vietnam) has been creating seriously confronting noise for some time now. Every show is like a punch to the skull, totally uncompromising extreme noise through the aid of manipulated vocals, pedals and contact mics. Awesome!

DEFAULT JAMERSON
Industrial, Goth, drone, noise, sound artist Marcus Cook is for the lack of a better work, a lord in the world of analogue technology, creating mind altering sonorous brutality.

090217 Documentation: TRM at hellosQuare Showcase

Here are some shots from the hellosQuare Recordings showcase at the East Brunswick Club last week. It was a great night or really interesting piano-based music. Many thanks to Shoeb from hellosQuare for inviting True Radical Miracle to perform.

True Radical Miracle
In the absence of guitarist Scott O'Hara the group performed using samples of his guitar work in an improvised set based around the building piano wanderings of Evelyn Morris. Crashing key work met high-pitched oscillations and low end rumble for a set inspired by their Roaches EP on Sabbatical.

Austin Benjamin Trio
Semi-structured modern jazz compositions met with extreme musicianship in this tight set. Clearly a musical forced to be reckoned with the trio would routinely snap from moody solo pieces into cacophonous, bass-driven riffs accompanied by virtuosic percussion work.

Klumpes Ahmed
Bringing things back into the 'noise' realm, hellosQuare label boss Shoeb Ahmed and pianist Adrian Klumpes stuck a perfect balance between melody and terxture, tone and dischord. Recreating their debut release, In Bed We Trust, the duo performed a set rich in both texture and depth. A real treat for the brave Tuesday night audience.

Video documentation from 6/7 February shows

Over the course of last weekend's Brassskulls and Chrysalis shows, Andrew of Screwtape fame captured sections of these incredible shows on camera. They are presented below for your viewing pleasure.

Marco Fustinato from Friday night at Pony.


Ebola Disco at the Gulag Projects warehouse.


Chrysalis vs Absoluten Calfeutrail cage match.


An interview with the incredible Brassskulls inter-cut with footage from their Gulag Projects set.




To view all of Andrew's videos check out his YouTube Channel, Lamronormal.

Sabbatical presents: Crab Smasher

Thursday 19 February at the Old Bar Sabbatical Presents welcomes a number of interstate artists, and a couple of familiar locals. Opening the show is Automating, the solo project of Sasha Margolis (of Y35.3). Second up is a solo performance from JK Fuller (of Zond and Mum Smokes among others), followed by Scissor Lock, a Sydney based project of one Marcus Whale. Closing the evening is Newcastle based ensemble Crab Smasher. Doors are at 8:30pm, with the first performance kicking off shortly after 9pm. Entry is $6.

True Radical Miracle piano-based improvised set

Next Tuesday, 17 February True Radical Miracle will perform a rare, striped back improvised set at the hellosQuare Recordings showcase at the East Brunswick Club. The show is part of a national tour being undertaken by the label. For the evening True Radical Miracle will base their improvisations around drummer Evelyn Morris' piano work in the vein of the Roaches Parts 1 & 2 Sabbatical release. It will be a beautiful night of avant and improvised piano (and noise) music.

Here's what hellosQuare have to say about the performance:

hellosQuare recordings in association with Sound Travelers and the Australia Council is proud to present Klumpes Ahmad and Austin Benjamin Trio on tour throughout February and March, showcasing their new releases ‘In Bed We Trust’ and ‘Unraveled, Rewoven’.

Using electronics, jazz improvisation and modern classical technique, the improvising duo of pianist Adrian Klumpes (ex-Triosk, Pivot) and guitarist Shoeb Ahmad stand live beside the young Canberra trio of Austin Benjamin, Chris Pound and Evan Dorrian in a series of performances that typify the hellosQuare sound.

Supporting them will be one of Melbourne's favourite R-A-W-K institution True Radical Miracle, performing a special piano based free noise set in the vein of their awesome release 'Roaches' so it should not be a night to be missed!

Doors 7:30pm :: $10 entry

090207 Documntation: 46 degrees heat

Brassskulls

Chrysalis vs Absoluten Calfeutrail

Ebola Disco

Screwtape

Thanks to all who braved the heat and came down to this show, it was a great afternoon.

Mof Far Far Rah reviewed at Aquarius

Almost two years after it landed on the shelves of San Francisco's premiere music establishment, Aquarius Records, Mof Far Far Rah's Sabbatical album Little More has been given the famous review treatment. Here's what they had to say:

"We only have 5 or 6 of these which is probably enough, cuz boy is this a weird one. We've had these for a really long time, so can't remember the story about who this guy is or what else he's done, but this record, well, it starts out with SEVENTY FIVE super short vocal experiments, as in 6 seconds to 29 seconds, running the gamut from animal like growls, wild hysterical shrieks, disembodied humming, percussive experiments, heavily effected beat box, sort of throat singing, growly death metal grunts, operatic howling, and pretty much all manner of fucked up vocalizations. Think an audio test record featuring nothing but Eye from the Boredoms doing vocal exercises. Fucked up, weird, a novelty, totally cracked and demented. Definitely worth it to disrupt your next party or to torture your downstairs neighbors, but hold on, there's a nearly hour long final track, also seemingly constructed from vocals (?) and it's gorgeous, an extended soundscape of layered hum, of shimmering drones, distant click and skitter, deep bell like tones, murky floorcore, looped stuttering rumbles, moaning and groaning warbles, all drifting beneath a thick fuzzy haze. Almost sounds like it could be the first 75 fragments combined into one thick swirling morass. Definitely cool And quite weird. We only have a tiny handful, so act fast if you want one of these..."

Great to see one of our earliest releases (the second, to be precise) get some recognition. Little More is available from the Sabbatical online shop, at most independent record stores around Australia, and of course from the good folks at Aquarius.

Absoluten Calfeutrail on YouTube

A two-part video interview with Absoluten Calfeutrail is up on YouTube. We present it below for your viewing pleasure.

Part One



Part Two



The interview is part of a series. You can view all the artists, including Clinton Green, at the YouTube channel Lamronormal here.

Sabbatical presents: Brassskulls (NSW) and Chrysalis (TAS)

These shows centre on return visits to Victoria from Brassskulls and Chrysalis after brilliant sets in Melbourne during 2008. Please note the early start time for the second show on Saturday 7 February.


Live at Pony (68 Little Collins Street City)
at 9pm on Friday 6 February
Sabbatical presents:
Brassskulls (from Newcastle NSW)
Chrysalis (from Hobart TAS)
Marco Fusinato
Absoluten Calfeutrail
Microvom (formerly Sonand)


Live at Gulag Projects (6 Jenkin Street East Brunswick)
at 3pm on Saturday 7 February / six dollars entry
Sabbatical Presents:
Brassskulls (from Newcastle NSW)
Chrysalis (from Hobart TAS)
vs. Absoluten Calfeutrail
Ebola Disco
Oranj Punjabi
Screwtape

090122 Documentation: A view from the mixing desk

Dead Boomers
This wall of noise's length was on this occasion determined by double vodka and sodas, no fruit.

Ev & Shags
Performing outside of the Pikelet Big Band the duo performed an incredible set of semi-improvised keyboard intricacy and bliss.

Chrome Dome
Part Joy Division, part Suicide, synth/pop/no wave tunes filtered through two over the top minds.

Paeces
The free-folk/pyche implosion on this occasion and the collective sounding more cohesive than ever. Fantastic stuff.