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| No Anchor - Steam (Self Released) Posted: 18 May 2009 07:36 PM PDT
Good packaging is a surefire way to my heart, and for Steam, No Anchor has pulled out all stops. A beautifully black cardboard concertina sleeve around a disc and booklet with evocative photos which avoid cliches - I’m pretty much sold before even taking out the disc. No Anchor is a drums and bass duo from Brisbane. As in a bass guitar and a drum kit, not the genre. This music is at turns beautiful, aggressive, funky, moody and primal. Starting with a brief drone and cymbal introduction, the album then drops into the a wild 9 minute ride built around a solid, distorted bass groove that is ‘Everything You Say’ (I think - the artwork lists only 4 track names, the CD contains 5 tracks). While that groove remains the basis, a few tempo changed interludes and, finally, a briefly melodic song round out a truly exhilarating opening. Although it’s noisy, the duo never settle into noise music ruts. There is great contrast - the next track, ‘Steam’, meanders about as a solo bass melody for over 4 minutes before blasting into a cymbal clanging rock groove. The multi-tracked bass utilises distortion to fill out the sound spectrum that might be lacking without the hi-end grit the overdrive provides. This blends with the yelled/distorted vocals, lending a heavy core to the 13 minute track. This is followed by an almost pure, gentle distorted drone in ‘Cut Adrift’, before ‘K’ finishes the album with a blast of boomy punk and then settles into a scizophrenic cut-up of bare boned drum groove, thrashing interludes and feedback drone. It’s a fairly remarkable sound that No Anchor make. It’s not metal - it’s way too raw for that. A few terms like grunge or post-rock could actually be usefully descriptive, were they not already taken to define genres which sound very little like these tracks. And the duo are obviously too keen on creative gestures to be thrown into the noise underground. What they do do is deconstruct the possibilities of what can be done with rock instruments and build a new image of it for themselves. It’s simultaneously brutal and beautiful and a remarkably strong statement for a self-released band who realise that DIY does not automatically equate to nihilism. Adrian Elmer |
| “Seven Deadly Inches - Small Vinyl Special” - Extended Playlist 180509 - www.2ser.com 107.3FM Posted: 19 May 2009 12:51 AM PDT This week, a celebration of the small black round plastic thing, the seven inch vinyl single, with lots of material from the Touch label's series of sevens, Mariachi and Klezmer and underwater interpretations of the National Anthem of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland on Ash International, a retro trio from early The The, John Foxx-era Ultravox and The Neon Judgement from Belgium as well as newbies from Melbourne's brothersister primitives and Perth's Meupe! ————————- More themes at your leisure, please, to extendedplay@2ser.com. Mokira - The Bum That Will Bring Us Together Khonnor - Burning Palace The Memory Band - Green Grows The Laurel (Jon Hopkins Remix) Kharkov - Space Magnétophone - Something I Can Understand Wooshie - Chewbacca’s Lament The The - Controversial Subject Ultravox - Hiroshima Mon Amour The Neon Judgement - Who Do You Love? Inquiet - Revisiting The Andes Mariachi Azteca Principal - A Klezmer Chidesch - The Kingdoms Of Elgaland-Vargaland National Anthem #4 KREV - The KREV Underwater National Anthem Fennesz-Jeck-Matthews - Christian Fennesz Plays Charles Matthews Jim O’Rourke - Despite The Water Supply 1 Oren Ambarchi - Highway Of Diamonds Mika Vainio - Behind The Radiators 1 Aer - Speakers Static - Headphones (featuring Ronald Lippok) Do you like our playlists? |
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