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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Category: Record
Listen, mate, life has surface noise.
Mono: Nowhere Now Here (2019).
Tell you what I love about Steve Albini recordings: the drums.
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Records: Nora Roy, Laibach (2018).
An indie singer-songwriter and the return of an old favourite with a slab of excellence.
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Records: Frog, Keen On Keys, Metal Disco (2018).
Metal Disco is today’s pleasant surprise winner.
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Records: Dew, Irk, Transmaniacon featuring Lydia Lunch and Maya Berlin (2018).
Dew and Irk are both remarkable finds and produce the correct horrible racket, though the loved one compared Irk to a sack of hammers falling down stairs.
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Records: Nosound, Trash Deity, a Cabaret Voltaire tribute (2018).
Popular US industrial music has always tended less Throbbing Gristle and more alternative buttrock.
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I ran the Perth indie record charts, from 1989 to 1991. Corruption! Manipulation! Propaganda!
An excuse to get Perth bands into a published record chart, so they’d get some publicity and could use it in their marketing. And to propagandise Australian indie to the masses. Includes THE HITS OF 1989!
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Records: The Rolling Stones, Deerful, Benjamin Shaw (2016, 2018).
A party that everyone’s been looking forward to for weeks. They seem to be having a wonderful time.
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Lords of Acid: Pretty In Kink (2018).
Everyone’s familiar with Lords of Acid at a basic level, right? Dark electronic erotica? Techno songs about fucking? It’s all very nineties. Pretty in Kink was released in May 2018 but still puts out the oldschool LoA vibe.
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Blacklab: Under The Strawberry Moon 2.0 (2018).
Hey, are you interested in letting a couple of women from Osaka just completely melt your fucking brain? If so I have found the album for you.
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The Twinkles: We Come Along (2018).
A 10 song album that is everything you’ve been looking for if you’re sad that The Vandals haven’t had a full length release since 2004.
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Reviews: Aboleth, Zanias (2016, 2018).
Writing about music is the most ridiculous notion, and the review pile is only getting larger. So I’ll give just embedding players and mumbling something a go. This works for me, and that’s the important thing.
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Pastoratet: THLM (2018).
A nice combo of hardcore and surf punk, it’s got a mellow, melodic feel that edges toward pop-punk but brings in just a tiny bit of metal to keep an edge to the sound.
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Reviews: Marsy, Dot Dash (2018).
Yeah, putting a Bandcamp embed into reviews is clearly the right thing.
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Interview: Gina Cimmelli — My Little Lies (2018).
A brilliant five-track indie pop EP. And my first musician interview in a couple of decades.
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Limb: Saboteurs of the Sun (2018).
Excellent fare for people who really enjoy Tolkein. A supernatural tone and a solid pounding that most anyone who likes heavy prog will appreciate.
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rosewater: Love Bomb, rosewater AKA (2018).
Both little works have great songs on them but Love Bomb is mind-blowingly perfect. Clark and Brooke’s voices and guitars blend into a sweet, grungy, fun sound.
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Stelliferous: Canine Familiar (2018).
Ugh, it’s actually irritating how much I like this record. It’s like a white noise machine for ADHD.
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Shezoo: Agony Of Doubt (2018).
Agony of Doubt is a fun, fantastic, big-hair-eighties-style metal album that goes hard and fast but stays fun the whole way through.
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Ryder: For What It’s Worth (Live) (2018).
Buttrock band.
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Felix Colgrave: Royal Noises from Dead Kingdoms: The Music of Double King (2018).
Colgrave’s animation is beautiful. It is alternately stark and lush, full of repeating patterns and startling aberrations and the score, Royal Noises from Dead Kingdoms, mirrors the hypnotic visuals in its layered, thoughtful construction.
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Nekrogoblikon: Welcome to Bonkers (2018).
A lot of metal is full of goofy bullshit, a lot of which is very somberly growling about satan, hell, torture, shit, darkness, and other suitably grimy and nasty metal things. And sometimes it turns out that goofy bullshit is pure, distilled perfection and the concentrated essence of joy.
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The Cascades: Diamonds and Rust (2017).
While the rest of the world moves, changes, shifts, reshapes itself, and discovers irony you can always return to the comforting refuge of goth rock.
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White Cross: Take heart. You’re not alone.
Australian indie guitar favourites from the late 1980s, their complete catalogue available once more.
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Nemesis Inferi: A Bad Mess (2018).
The record is a solid piece of work with plenty of power. A sound that wavers between groove and thrash from song to song.
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Nervenbeisser: Zeitenwandel (2017).
If you’ve been hankering for some growly Germans who make music that complements PVC outfits and stompy dancing, Nervenbeisser might be for you.
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The Frozen Autumn: The Fellow Traveler (2017).
Are you into synthpop? Do you believe in heaven above, do you believe in love?
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Reviews: Cloud, LisaWars (2017, 2018).
Cinematic indie pop and some NDW revival.
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Andrew W. K.: You’re Not Alone (2018).
How do you feel about relentless positivity and good cheer? I’m a bit cynical about it myself, but once in a while something comes by that slaps a smile on your face and won’t get out of your head.
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Links: Peter Saville, pirates buy streaming, Bandcamp users buy music, vinyl demand, Mark E. Smith, Kam Franklin.
Medical journal Lancet Psychiatry ran a Mark E. Smith obituary.
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