Lev Lafayette

Image from Duolingo, showing screen options

Duolingo Music.

12 November, 202412 November, 2024 Musician 0

In October last year, Duolingo announced it was adding a music course to its suite of languages to learn.

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Seeker (2023).

12 November, 202412 November, 2024 Prog, Record 0

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.

Ride, The Forum, Melbourne, November 30

6 December, 20226 December, 2022 Indie, Live, Rock 0

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.

Pop Will Eat Itself, Sept 10 Corner Hotel

5 December, 20225 December, 2022 Indie, Industrial, Live 1

It made perfect sense of course, that a thirtieth-anniversary tour would perform.

Maybeshewill: No Feeling is Final (2021).

29 July, 202229 July, 2022 Prog, Record 1

Always great, they have even gained in skill, orchestration, and passion with their latest album.

Valedictions, Vangelis

5 June, 20226 June, 2022 Musician, Prog 0

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.

Valedictions, Klaus Schulze

7 May, 20227 May, 2022 Prog 0

We should reasonably expect that sizeable books will be released in the near future which in themselves will only provide a summary.

Daniel Sloss, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, May 4th, 2021

5 May, 20215 May, 2021 Comedy, Live 1

Daniel Sloss is certainly deserving of the credits that are lauded in his direction.

The War of the Worlds: The Book, The Drama, The Musical, the Film

14 August, 202014 August, 2020 Film, Record, Writing 1

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?

Art Damage through Self-Referentialty

30 July, 202030 July, 2020 Opinion, Rocknerd 0

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.

Mark Burgess: View From A Hill (2007).

23 April, 20202 May, 2020 Writing 0

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.

65daysofstatic: replicr (2019).

13 April, 202013 April, 2020 Prog, Record 1

Dark and morose, ambient and industrial, with occasional contrasts, replicr is an album for particular moods.

Grum: Deep State (2019).

5 February, 20209 April, 2020 Dance, Record 0

Experientially and holistically, this is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of work of which Grum can be pretty proud of.

Valedictions, Andy Gill

2 February, 20202 February, 2020 Post-Punk 1

Elder statesman, co-founder, and guitarist and vocalist of post-punk legends Gang of Four, Andy Gill, died on 1 February, aged 64.

We Lost The Sea, Howler Bar, Melbourne, 30 November 2019.

2 December, 20192 December, 2019 Live, Metal, Prog 0

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.

We Lost The Sea: Triumph & Disaster (2019).

2 December, 20192 December, 2019 Metal, Prog, Record 0

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.

Gang of Four, Croxton Bandroom, November 2019

10 November, 20198 December, 2020 Live, Post-Punk 0

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.

Tears for Fears, Rule The World: Greatest Hits (2017)

9 September, 20199 September, 2019 Pop, Record 0

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.

The Cure, Disintegration 30 Years Anniversary, Sydney Opera House, May 2019

9 September, 20199 September, 2019 Live, Pop, Post-Punk 0

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.

Underworld, June 1st, 2019 Sydney Opera House

9 September, 20199 September, 2019 Dance, Live 0

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.

Gary Numan: Savage (Songs from A Broken World) (2017).

7 January, 20198 January, 2019 Goth, Industrial, Post-Punk, Record 1

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.

The The, October 5 2018, Melbourne

1 January, 20191 January, 2019 Live, Post-Punk 0

A long concert, though more amiable than epic.

Blue Man Group, 20 July 2018, Berlin.

6 October, 20188 October, 2018 Live 0

The BMG themselves in this particular incarnation are Martin Marion, Kuba Piezchalksia, and Stefan Ruh, supported by the band of Jan Burkamp, Tim Neuhaus, and Nils Westermann.

The Chameleons, Corner Hotel, Melbourne, 2018-01-12

1 February, 20181 February, 2018 Live, Post-Punk 0

It was a good-sized crowd on the night with a surprising and pleasingly diverse audience, ranging from young post-punk revivalists who were born around the start of this century to those elder folk who had been there from the original days, now more than thirty-five years in the past.

Snog and Severed Heads — Corner Hotel, Melbourne, 5 November 2017

16 January, 201816 May, 2019 Industrial, Live 0

Severed Heads, Snog, frogs and Ikea rats.

Hans Zimmer, Benajmin Wallfisch: Blade Runner 2049 Soundtrack (2017).

7 November, 20177 November, 2017 Film, Record 0

The soundtrack is deserving of a short review in its own right, not the least for its own curious development.

Those Crazy Socialist Juggalos

5 November, 20175 November, 2017 Opinion 0

On the most unexpected political alliance of the year: the Juggalo youth subculture and organised socialism.

Peter Hook & The Light — The Corner, Melbourne, Sat 14 Oct 2017.

22 October, 201722 October, 2017 Live, Post-Punk 0

The last of a series of concerts, this one performing Unknown Pleasures and Closer.

The Residents, Croxton Hotel, March 2016

15 September, 201715 September, 2017 Esoterica, Live 0

Certain bands make an initial mark on the world with icons.

Mogwai: Central Belters (2015).

31 December, 201629 March, 2017 Prog, Record 0

As the year comes to an end there is the realisation that a half-complete text file has been languishing for a triple compilation released in October 2015. What a difference a day makes to being “somewhat late” to being “so old it’s a retrospective”.