In the ancient days of 1992, when dinosaurs still ruled the Earth, young (17) Guy Blackman formed Chapter Music, which would go on to become one of Australia’s longest-running independent music labels.
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Author: Lev Lafayette
John Schumann & The Vagabond Crew: “The Redgum Years”
For the past fifteen years former Redgum lead singer John Schumann has been performing with John Schumann & The Vagabond Crew.
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Bleak Squad, Queenscliff Town Hall
A 1980-2000s Australian alternative supergroup, consisting of Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Turner (Dirty Three), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting) who was the original driving force at bringing the group together.
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His Spine Was the Bassline: Remembering Dave Allen
Dave Allen, former bassist of the Gang of Four, Shriekback, King Swamp, Low Pop Suicide, The Elastic Purejoy, and finally Faux Hoax passed away aged 69 after living with early-onset dementia for several years.
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Buddhadatta and Friends: Two Melbourne Shows
Buddhadatta describe themselves as Japanese buddhist-punk, which is an thoroughly enticing combination of adjectives.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus and KAGAMI in Melbourne
As part of the Asia TOPA (Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts), Melbourne experienced “KAGAMI” (Japanese for “mirror”), a “mixed-reality” performance by Sakamoto and Tin Drum.
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New Order, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne 2025
It must be said that I am a bit of a fan of New Order and Peter Hook and, of course, their immediate precursor
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Slipknot, Babymetal et al. Knotfest 2025 Melbourne.
I must start this review with identifying the source of my ticket; the Isla Bell Charitable Fund. Isla Bell was a young artist and
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The Garbage and The Flowers: In Valhalla (2023), live at the Tramway Hotel (2024).
The first thing one must know about “The Garbage and The Flowers” is that we’re talking about a single group here.
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Duolingo Music.
In October last year, Duolingo announced it was adding a music course to its suite of languages to learn.
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Carbon Based Lifeforms: Seeker (2023).
For the better part of thirty years, the Swedish duo operating under the name of Carbon Based Lifeforms have produced some of the most rhythmic ambient music of our time.
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Ride, The Forum, Melbourne, November 30
In times past your author would have expressed a positive indifference to most of the bands of these broad British genres of the early 90s, and that opinion largely still holds.
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Pop Will Eat Itself, Sept 10 Corner Hotel
It made perfect sense of course, that a thirtieth-anniversary tour would perform.
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Maybeshewill: No Feeling is Final (2021).
Always great, they have even gained in skill, orchestration, and passion with their latest album.
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Valedictions, Vangelis
It seems to be all a little bit disturbing to write shortly after the death of Klaus Schulze, that one must also put finger to keyboard to comment on the loss of Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, better known as “Vangelis” on May 17th.
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Valedictions, Klaus Schulze
We should reasonably expect that sizeable books will be released in the near future which in themselves will only provide a summary.
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Daniel Sloss, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, May 4th, 2021
Daniel Sloss is certainly deserving of the credits that are lauded in his direction.
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The War of the Worlds: The Book, The Drama, The Musical, the Film
Is it not the most appropriate time to consider the great disaster story The War of the Worlds, as a pandemic continues to sweep the globe, with no end in sight?
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Art Damage through Self-Referentialty
In the early 90s I was introduced to the notion of “art damage”, appearing as an editorial rant in the glorious glossy cyberpunk magazine, Mondo 2000, now sadly forgotten by most.
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Mark Burgess: View From A Hill (2007).
Sitting on my “to do” list since 2011, and already at that stage four years old, View from a Hill provides the autobiography of Mark Burgess, frontman of The Chameleons and associated acts.
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65daysofstatic: replicr (2019).
Dark and morose, ambient and industrial, with occasional contrasts, replicr is an album for particular moods.
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Grum: Deep State (2019).
Experientially and holistically, this is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of work of which Grum can be pretty proud of.
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Valedictions, Andy Gill
Elder statesman, co-founder, and guitarist and vocalist of post-punk legends Gang of Four, Andy Gill, died on 1 February, aged 64.
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We Lost The Sea, Howler Bar, Melbourne, 30 November 2019.
The Howler Bar in Brunswick initially looks like a large open-plan bar but has an enclosed back-room which is just the right size for bands with a moderate following, and a brilliant second bar which provides a windowed view to the stage.
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We Lost The Sea: Triumph & Disaster (2019).
The band started off pretty firmly in the metal genre, but transmogrified into something that is a cross between math rock and metal, like a love-child of 65daysofstatic and Dream Theater.
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Gang of Four, Croxton Bandroom, November 2019
After being a music reviewer for over 30 years, and being a Gang of Four fan for a similar period, it is about time I owned an electric guitar.
So I picked up Andy Gill’s from the Gang of Four concert last night.
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Tears for Fears, Rule The World: Greatest Hits (2017)
This eighteen-month late review of Tears for Fears latest compilation, released in November 2017, absolutely has to be done, for reasons of aesthetic duty if nothing else.
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The Cure, Disintegration 30 Years Anniversary, Sydney Opera House, May 2019
Disintegration’s popularity is absolutely deserving of a 30th anniversary and real credit is given to the band for having the courage and principle to have the entire show live-streamed and added to YouTube.
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Underworld, June 1st, 2019 Sydney Opera House
Possibly one of the most iconic progressive house bands of the 1990s, Underworld’s appearance at Sydney’s Vivid light and sound festival was exceptionally appropriate.
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Gary Numan: Savage (Songs from A Broken World) (2017).
For those most familiar with the classic synth-pop Gary Numan, this will be quite different. For those who have followed Numan in the past thirty years this is not a surprise.
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