Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Shit And Shine – 229 2299 Girls Against Shit (Riot Season/Inertia)

Posted: 22 Sep 2009 04:58 AM PDT

Shit And Shine would have us believe they are puerile neanderthals caught in the hardcore/crust/noise vacuum. Track titles on their latest album, 229 2299 Girls Against Shit range from schoolboy (non)humour to outright tastelessness (the cover image confirms such apparent obsessions). And the veneer of distortion bathing everything presents a mood of anarchic carelessness. But they’re not actually fooling me for a minute. There’s way more going on here than aimless bollocks.

The duo obviously know their way intimately around musical structure, performance and production. It took a few listens, but I finally worked out that 9 minute album opener ‘Have You Really Thought About Your Presentation?’ drives through a continuous 6/4, 6/4, 6/4, 9/4 cyclic groove. Once you get your head around it, it’s mesmerising. You don’t find that coming from your average two chord punk beginners. There’s too many interesting synth sounds, such as in ‘Yes 9 10′. There’s too deep an understanding of the function of dub delays and ring modulation on the title track. There’s too tasteful a use of guitar phasing on ‘Penthouse As A Must’. A listen that’s anything more than cursory will reveal that Shit And Shine are actually making incredibly intelligent, highly developed music. The noise is just an added bonus and unifying characteristic.

Shit And Shine actually pick their way through genres quite nimbly. ‘Yes 9 10′ could work with the early 90s Beastie Boys chanting over it. ‘Shit No!’ blurs out, of all things, a minimal house groove. Guitars are never too far away, exemplified by punk bursts like ‘I’m MAKING MY LUNCH!!’. ‘USA/MEXICO’ is one of the few disappointing tracks, settling into thrash metal cliches which are only heightened by the ludicrous overdrive of the production, rather than subverted as they are elsewhere. ‘The Cusp Of Innocence’, conversely, uses a metal cliche to brilliant effect, repeating the accented opening bar of a power groove ad nauseum for a few minutes with odd noise blips and voice samples. But where things work best are when a groove is pummeled, best heard on the previously mentioned album opener, or on the 11 minutes of ‘Roberts Church Problems’ where grinding repetition turns guitar and drum noise into psychedelic euphoria.

A few quieter, though no less grainy concluding tracks – ‘People Like You…REALLY!’ and ‘Goodbye And Good Gardening’ – confirm what 70 odd minutes of listening have suggested, that Shit And Shine also know how to construct a successful album as well as successful individual tracks. 229 2299 Girls Against Shit is going to be ghetto-ised into some noise sub-genre, but it’s actually so, so much more.

Adrian Elmer

Shit And Shine – 229 2299 Girls Against Shit (Riot Season/Inertia) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Charles Du Cane – Poets (Self Released)

Posted: 22 Sep 2009 04:10 AM PDT

“Electro-pop parlour hits in the Tasmanian fashion” is definitely a favourite line I’ve encountered in a bio. I must confess that, until a month or so ago, I’m not sure I’d ever heard any music from Tasmania. This is now the second, following the Native Cats, that has impressed me. I’ve been thinking of what I might consider a one-line sound byte to sum up the sound of Poets and what I’ve settled on is a mix of polished 60s Captain Beefheart blues pop and lo-fi bedroom electronics.

Du Cane (known to his mother as Fred Showell) throws many things at his music. Lyrically, he sways from surrealist philosophy (opener ‘Granny Smith’ analogises apple breeds with political leanings) to outright cultural critique (”I do not want I have not got” he catchingly repeats on the standout ‘Black Pepper’). His voice also wavers from Wayne Coyne scratchiness in ‘A Black Star On The Forehead’, the aforementioned Beefheartism of ‘Judgement Day’ and ‘Black Pepper’, and even becomes a dead ringer for junkband maestro Mic Conway on ‘The Beggars’ Union’. Sonically, the music is upbeat and based on established genre traditions. But his ability to slide around within and between these traditions, always sounding exploratory, is his great strength. ‘Mr Brewster’ features a Stones-ish blues shuffle, ‘Judgement Day’ is almost Screamadelic Primal Scream until the toy piano and kitchen sink sound FX fall in and ‘Oh! My Soul’ heads for an insistent psychedelic groove, borrowed from The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ (which I’m certain is also sampled briefly in its outro).

Mostly recorded in his bedroom, Du Cane has created a sound world which implies a much grander genesis than this, with high production values not averse to being undermined by grit and experimentation. Poets most definitely is pop music, but pop music of the highest order – catchy, simultaneously reminiscent and forward looking, full of intricate detail and constantly entertaining.

Adrian Elmer

Charles Du Cane – Poets (Self Released) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.