Hemy- 2013-2020

HemyAndMarshall Rise & Fall EP on TripleJ Unearthed

• World I Live sounding for all the world like The Whitlams c.Pokies and Trophy Wives “In It For The Money” c.2004
• Sanctify rocks it up along Elton John’s lines on Yellow Brick Road, including a flautist Jethro Tull-style but lacking the pace of a drum kit (TMBG sing that a song sounds like it has stopped without drums- while that isn’t true here, drums would help greatly)
• Rise & Fall returns to the Whitlams muse with some harmonies in the chorus. 

The downloads and other stats from the page suggest some follow-up through TripleJ / Double J up to and immediately after the release of this record; and Hemy’s solo effort early last month suggests little more came from it. It is always disappointing to hear one release and then no more. 

Hemy Brave through iTunes A week short of 6yr later and Hemy is out on his own with Brave through iTunes. As the blurb on the HemyAndMarshall page suggests, this collection is slower and more soulful than the earlier-collective outing. 

Suitcase Heart, the standout of this offering, brings a jazzier version of “Rise & Fall” to our ears with vocals akin to Pinky Beecroft of Machine Gun Fellatio fame. 

Hemy: available through iTunes for those times when you need a break from headbashing, doov, or pop-cheese.

Yallows

My exposure to music from Japan has been limited to Shonen Knife, Cokehead Hipsters, and J-pop (to which the YouTube rabbit-hole took me at the end of it all!). So when I came across the YouTube channel for J-Rock outfit Yallows, I was literally blown away!

Inside One’s Mind was my introduction to the project, followed by Who Am I? These two not-quite-metal but beyond-rock tracks create the chunk and groove to which many bands can only aspire. There is a distinct flavour of 1990s/2000s emo, along with the mood created by Christopher Larkin on the Hollow Knight soundtrack; Sydney alternapunk Screamworld, and 1990s pedestrian-rockers Shotgun and IGNITE: the latter of whom were inspired by early Black Sabbath and mid-career Iron Maiden. You will also find sounds akin to 1990s grungemeisters Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden, Hole, and Rage Against The Machine; Ego changed direction completely with a tilt at Ben Folds.

The biggest drawback to the recordings is a lack of clarity. Having listened to this through both my laptop and my phone, I found the top-end lacking on every track. This in turn led to muddy lyrics, etc, but the bottom-end carried through all of this. A little cleaning-up of the recordings might improve this issue. Inside One’s Mind, Who Am I?, 6 , and Ego were the cleanest recordings; Dear Enemy is my standout of the collection to date.

There are twelve tracks on this YouTube channel, including a couple of demos which I skipped because the raw power in the other tracks demanded that only the finished product would do. The artwork for each song is also indicative of what one can expect therein: dark, brooding and, mostly, unerringly heavy.

Yallows – Japan’s next big Rock Act. Track them down, look them up, encourage their development!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson

9 February 2020

Raquel Aurilia - Shattered video

The look of Shania Twain, the sound of Eva Cassidy: this is what Raquel Aurilia delivers in her video Shattered (https://youtu.be/kcUA4D6tfgo).

Complete with her own variation of the Gotye/Kimbra-styled body-art, Shattered delivers a simply-shot heartfelt reaction to an unexpected betrayal that left her heart shattered into so many pieces, she may never be able to find them all.

Shot at Ghostwater Films, Inc, by Darrin Dickerson and David P. Stevens just outside Nashville TN, the simplicity of their production matched the choices by the single's producer Billy Smiley. Simple instrumentation of a synth, dobro, bass, and drums creates the straightforward plea, "Why?

Raquel came to our attention in 2007 with her debut release "Finding My Way" and hasn't narrowed her work into one niche, working with the likes of B.B. King, The Gin Blossoms, Eddie Money, Pat Benatar, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, and Lisa Loeb in that time.

Following the YouTube rabbit-hole from the video for Shattered and the mix-playlists elsewhere available shows Raquel's work to be quiet and simple. No over-production, no pretence; just stripped-back heartfelt work that portrays her life's experiences.

Raquel Aurilia - if you haven't heard by now, seek her out.

PG (Jacky) Gleeson

19 January 2020

Victim Of Illusion - the first three releases

Victim Of Illusion- When one thinks of the music of Italy, one generally considers either Eurovision, Umberto Tozzi, Al Martino, Vivaldi, Puccini, or Monteverdi: Prog and Metal don’t usually figure. So when Victim Of Illusion popped into my Twitter feed recently, I knew I needed to find out more. 

My exposure to prog goes back to Kansas, Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull, etc, and more recently The Mars Volta, Tool, and maybe even The Butterfly Effect. So the chance to enhance this experience was eagerly taken up. 

Pierro Giaccone, Paulo Gurlino, and Luca Imerito are the core of this three-piece Turin-based outfit who have been doing this since 2010 and have three releases to their credit. My introduction to their work came through their video teaser for Invisible Light (https://youtu.be/UXXXqBKoKrQ) which promises much: 

2011- What Senses Blow Away

Created entirely by the band: written, recorded, produced, engineered, mixed, mastered, marketed, the whole deal. This 5-track release came from jams that were developed and fleshed out over seven months. 

Ethereal and chill in places accompanying multiple phrasing and time-signatures; full-on shredding session here with heavy distortion there; loops from the banks used by DefFX (I’ll Be Your Magick) and Caligula (Ruebenesque), and vocals befitting Maynard James Keenan and Trent Reznor all combine to show the world what VOI are all about.  

Spiral is the stand out from this collection, suggesting either a slow trek in on itself or outward from itself with the drummer letting loose as the journey along the spiral continues. Guitar loops and bass riffs weave around the beats that create confusion as to where we are in the journey along the spiral. Passages reminded me of Sydney-based alt-rockers &i/Broken Word and some of the sounds they were creating in the mid-to-late 1990s.

2014- Oxodyes

Tool and Scary Mother sounds combine on this result of three years’ honing their craft live and in the studio. A very different collection from Senses. More fitting with the prog/metal label, as well, with the varying time signatures, extended and varying phrasing, and Adam (Tool) Jones guitar styling with Keenan-styled harmonies and layering, interwoven with Mike (FNM) Patton vocals. 

From the hopelessness of the day that would never come and the bleakness that was Jamie’s World (https://youtu.be/uqDDiZcJrmQ), VOI explore and expand on what they created from their first meeting and create a melodic work that would fit as comfortably on alternative radio as on main stream stations. 

2017- Invisible Light

The teaser for their last album came across in the same vein as Brian May’s tribute to the Ultima Thule achievements the past year. More chill than prog or metal, it intrigued enough to encourage delving into the Italian definitions of these genres.  

This this opus is heavier and driven by more guitar work influenced as much by Jones as by James “Big Jim” Martin of Faith No More’s 1980s/1990s classic line-up. 

Hollow Man stood out with contrasting hard-rocking and ethereal guitars leading into quieter keyboard/piano breaks. I’ll admit that my hearing, being not quite what it once was, didn’t allow for a lyrical critique, but the musicianship isn’t hard to miss, which grows with each new release. 

I would be proud to add any or of these records to my collection and just as happy for any of these tracks to come up randomly on my playlist.

Victim of Illusion- do yourself a favour!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson
19 January 2020

The Big Dirty - the first three releases

The Big Dirty- this not what one would expect when one uses the term, “British rock”. Raw Aus-pub feel with hints of US-stadium rock in a self-proclaimed hat-tip to the “classic legends of 70s and 80s rock and metal”.

These guys ramp it up in their Bandcamp contributions to the world of straight-ahead-rock music and promise more in an album-release later this year. 

What a fine introduction following a random tweet that answered the question “What are you looking forward to in 2020?”

Under The Crimson Moon (August 2016):
A veritable rhapsody until the vocals kick in from around 90sec. This is my and the world’s introduction to the band with a hybrid of Axl Rose/Guns’n Roses and Bernard Fanning/Powderfinger weaving throughout a big, dirty, hard rocking sound that promises much for this Northampton four piece

Rhythm of my Drum (March 2017):

More G’nFn’R in this assault on the aural senses. Straight out of the blocks, I am sure I’ve heard this hook on either of the J-stations I happen across from time to time. 

As with Crimson Moon there is a surprise to keep listeners on their toes.

It’s music like this that make me wish Australia wasn’t as far away from the rest of the world; that just popping out to see them in full flight was possible. We’ll just have to wait for the ground swell to make an Antipodean tour worthwhile for them.

Sex Rock City (December 2018): 
An extended EP? A mini-album? iTunes calls any music release an album but the usual definition is 10+ tracks. Whatever you call it, here is The Big Dirty in full flight with seven songs to keep you keen: 

• Sex Rock City: Detroit Rock City but dirtier? Hell No! This eats KISS for breakfast and shits them out at bedtime! Keen on tempo changes, surprise dips and multiple stops throughout a song, these guys keep it rockin’ like it’s 1979!

• Safeword: for when it gets too much to handle. Maintain the rage! Maintain the volume! Maintain the self-proclaimed hat-tips to 70s and 80s rockers with 30-40 years’ input to keep it as fresh as anything else being created today. James Shaw’s vocals rival the vocal exercises Freddie used to do during his live performances. 

• The Day The Devil Came To Town: was he carrying a fiddle? No, but he was reaching back to the early-70s dirty Les Paul sound that made bands like Kansas, Mountain, and Blue Öyster Cult the legends they are today, sans cowbell. Add in some Chris Cornell throat-killers to make this track keep kick it along

• Punch Drunk Crazy: Brings guitarist Chris Datson’s influences out onto his sleeve!!  

• Pheromones: My favourite track so far. Had me reaching for superlatives which wouldn’t ever be able to capture the pace and emotion of this song.

• Paradise on Fire: With an opening akin to Angus Young’s Black or Salute days, a quiet intro lures one into expecting a chill out. But no, the pace is maintained. Dedicated, perhaps, to the Australian summer experience of 2019/2020?

• Queen of Hearts: The Big Dirty want to give it to us, and they have done that in spades!! But where you might walk away from your device sated by all this hard rock, you wouldn't be finished just yet
  

• Wicked Game: If you're not a collector of hard-copy music any more, make an exception for this record, even if it's only for this last track. We all know Chris Isaak's version of this song, but don't expect anything from this one- just let it smack you like the rest of this record. In true Big Dirty style, this one keeps driving over the cliff like Thelma and Louise, but unlike those passed heroines, it keeps going after it bottoms out. What a way to finish!!
  

In Richard Ayoade-as-Moss’ paraphrased words, these guys kick bottom! All killer. No filler. And a new record in the offing as we speak. How they maintain this pace is described in their tweet of 16/01/2020: 

What's your poison this morning, guys? 

I'm on a triple-shot cappuccino with vanilla syrup, 2 cans of red bull, 50ml of rum, 2 ibuprofen, an extra large jam doughnut and I've got a Tony Robbins audio pep-talk on repeat! 😝☕️⚡️💪💪🍆💦

Today is my bitch!

Get onto The Big Dirty bandwagon now, before they explode. It will be so good to be able to say, “I knew them when...”!

Rock and fucking roll my friends. Rock. And. Fucking. Roll!!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson

17 January 2020 (edited to include Wicked Game from the CD version 31/01/2020)

Polaroids and Postcards Interview with Amanda Easton, Christmas Eve 2019

Amanda Easton talks about her new “Polaroids & Postcards” EP
-- Christmas Eve, 2019 --

Peter: First of all, thank you for bringing me out of retirement to review this release! Second of all, congratulations! I said it best when I said, this is an amazing record!

Amanda: Thanks so much! It’s great hearing a review from someone who has known me from the beginning – there’s more context in what you’re saying and hopefully you’ve seen improvement along the way!

P: I wouldn’t say improvement; I would call it change. And for the better! But I just have a few questions to put to you about the new record. I know you had a site on the “Dark Web” where subscribers to your email list could download each of the tracks over a five day period, or elect to buy the record instead. What gave you that idea?

A: I think the world has become more about immersive experiences. People want more than just ‘things’ nowadays and the internet has given us the tools to create multimedia experiences out of our music. There is a movement I’ve been noticing, particularly among US-based indie artists, where they are doing this type of thing and so I’ve been watching and learning and decided to try a version of my own for this new launch. I think the traditional way of releasing music: trying to get on the radio, in the press and in the record stores; is less relevant nowadays, particularly to indies where the millions of dollars needed to make that happen effectively is not available to us! But we have the tools now to bypass many of these gatekeepers and reach potential fans directly. But I think to interest new people in music they’ve never heard of, you need to stand out and offer more than just the songs. Giving people more access to what the artist is thinking and how they are creating the art – in this case music – is one way to do that. People can go press a button on a music streaming service and hear anything they want, but the danger is they will click away 3 and half minutes later and never revisit. If you’ve managed to create a meaningful connection with the person, because they now know the story behind the song, you’ve potentially made a long term fan. I would rather have 2000 real fans than a million streams.

P: Personal connection is very important, but so is what those more established artists have. And I can only hope to have this sort of connection with an artist whose work I have been following for so long. And I’m glad of the opportunity to ask you a few questions that this amazing record brought to my mind in the hope that the viewers at home can strengthen their connection with you as an artist. First of all, I’ve noticed, after reviewing your last three releases now, that there is a distinctive Eastern flavour to your music.

A: I lived in Japan for 2 years, singing 6 nights a week with a cover band. I'm obsessed with the place and its culture and revisit every couple of years.

P: You revisit musically, and artistically. Have you been able to physically revisit?

A: Yes I actually revisit physically every 2 years or so.  I have family in Europe and so often stop over in Asia on the way – so any excuse to go back to Japan! I still have lots of friends there too so I feel like the Japanese connection is an ongoing one even if I’m not there.

P: In the cover-art for “Polaroids and Postcards”, I picked up some other kitsch that could also be related to this obsession. The imagery for your Bowie tribute, for example, for all the world looked like you were holding a radio mic. But through your subscriber-only pages, we see that it was actually a ray-gun which I would date back to perhaps Flash Gordon, Captain Proton, or even some Japanese science fiction from the 60s or 70s.

A: I’ve always been into scifi – the more schlocky the better! I loved Doctor Who and Star Trek as a kid and prefer them both when the special effects were less fancy than today’s. When I lived in Japan, I discovered how big a role scifi played in their pop culture so, of course, that made me love Japan even more. All the kitchiness of their pop culture is attractive to me – the colour, vibrancy, cuteness and theatre of it all. Japan is such a mix of its traditional heritage and its cutting-edge modernness and so you still see vintage scifi imagery – like Godzilla – in current artforms. I just love that!

P: And the science-fiction feel to the record extends to the sounds you’ve created. Do you listen to much vintage synth music or is it just something that you found in your Nord and wanted to share with us?

A: Goldfrapp is one of my favourite music groups ever and they use a lot of vintage synths, so that would be my main influence. That’s actually why I bought the Nord in the first place – it’s what they use! I’m not an expert in ‘sounds’. I play around on my Nord and get something that I Iike for my demos but I need to give credit to my producers (Mavoi for track 5; and for tracks 1,2 3 and 6 a guy who enigmatically wants to be known as ‘Wow and Warmth’) for coming up with the end results. Of course I am executive producer so they get a lot of guidance from me but they are the master at translating the ideas from my demos (and my head!) into what you end up hearing. ‘Wow and Warmth’ always says to me: “It’s good you know exactly what you want” – which I think might be his polite way of saying I’m a bit bossy, but I do have a very fixed idea of the sounds I want but not always the skill at creating them.

P: And how good is it that you have found someone who can do that for you! Definitely a keeper! Now, the credits on the sleeve liner for the record show only three musicians; that you did everythingexcept the bass guitar and cello. Yet you’ve managed to capture the sound of a whole band line-up on the title track!

A: Thank you – again I have to give credit to the producers. There are no additional live musicians or live musical instruments being played on that track. Sounds have been created/layered and built up from synths and samples. It’s weird that I perform live with amazing musicians all the time but in my recording world there is something I really love about synthesized sounds! Yes, track 5 ‘Polaroids & Postcards’ does sound more live than the others but really that is just some of the samples that were chosen – and of course that is a different producer than most of the tracks, so that may have been his influence at play there. I did film some of the live recording sessions so you will see that pop up in some music video but they probably won’t be recreated in a live context – more a unique coming together that happened just for a particular song recording.

P:  Speaking of videos, can we expect any more?

A: Yes, there are two released at this point. There is ‘I Saw the Message’ and also ‘Polaroids & Postcards’. ‘I Saw the Message’ is based around a retro computer screen – the old black screen with green writing, which spells out some of the lyrics. I showed the first rough cut to my email list but the finished version is here: https://youtu.be/e8KKK4upOOc. I’ve also released an anime video for ‘Polaroids & Postcards’ here: https://youtu.be/sMjr0B9V3oY. I have shot the green screen component of ‘Man Who Fell to Earth’ (I am an alien) and that is going to be edited in to an existing (public domain of course) vintage Japanese sci-fi movie to create a music video – so that one will probably be next. I also have some footage from the recording sessions of ‘Letter to a Small Boy’ and being a more organic song, that will have a more natural music video too. There will probably be a video for every song eventually – I love working with video but it’s very time consuming since I like to do most of the editing myself, so I tend to release them quite a bit after the actual songs!

P: And, from the eye of a music collector since the mid 1970s that notices small and probably insignificant things like catalog number and liner notes, this is EP3 of 3(1. Blue; 2. Disco; 3. Postcards). Is this a hint at perhaps there is a full album coming? A best-of? A box-set? Yes, we can access them online as they were released, but is there enough interest to be able to provide those who want one with a hard-copy of everything in the same place?

A: Love that you noticed that! No, no best-of planned, but a full length album planned for end of next year. We’re half done already!

P: Can you tell us what we can expect? New stuff, previous releases?

A: All brand new but direction-wise in the same ball park as ‘Polaroids & Postcards’, at least in part. P&Pis a very emotional and nostalgic collection of songs and so are some from the album, but I will also have a bit more attitude and fun on some of the new stuff.

P: Amanda, you must be so proud of this new record! I have never had a reaction to a release as I did with this! I should expect that you’re going to be taking it to the people as much as possible?

A: Thank you! I find it so hard to judge my own work – I’ve always been proud of everything I’ve done at the timebut the world doesn’t always like it! And of course looking back sometimes I agree with the world too! I do love this record and the signs are that there are quite a few others that agree so if that’s the case I will continue to promote it!

P: Thank you for your time, today. I really hope to be able to see you live very, very soon! I haven’t seen you since the release of Skinat Fox Studios back in the 90s.

A: Wowee I was such a babe in the woods then! I feel more at home with everything now – I feel like I have found my place more musically. Yes I hope to see you at a gig soon! Thanks so much for staying interested in what I’m doing!

…

Review of Amanda Easton's "Polaroids & Postcards" - an Independent release

Amanda Easton - Polaroids & Postcards – Independent release

Every three years we are treated with a new release from Sydney’s Pop Princess Amanda Easton. This year’s release was timed for Christmas and, like all of the previous releases featured on this blogspot, this one will not disappoint.

“Polaroids & Postcards” is an inspiration. It inspired me to seek her out for a full-on interview about the songs, the packaging, what’s been happening in her life between records, etc. But without the tech, the platform on which to post it or, at the stupid end of the year, the time, my curtailed written reaction to this new collection will have to suffice.

If you have an expectation when you hear the name Amanda Easton, forget it at once. Polaroids & Postcards retains some of these sounds / feelings but extends the lady more than ever before. Think Steve Strange in 1980 or Gary Wright in 1972. Think Peter Osborne’s 1998 soundtrack to Fritz Lang’s 1926 masterpiece “Metropolis”. Think Kraut Rock exponents Tangerine Dream’s “Ultima Thule Part 2”, also from 1972. There are some vintage synth sounds emanating from Amanda’s fingers which make this record as current and vibrant as anything else available today.

Man Who Fell to Earth had me thinking of Bowie even before putting the disc on. This is an outpouring of love for a man who affected so many of us “even though we never met”. The instrumentation harkened me back to the soundtracks of Eastern European movies of the 70s and 80s; perhaps even Japanese cinema from a decade or two prior? It’s a feature of the record which carried through Eye to Eye and Rockabilly Blue: the portable record player on which Amanda is standing on the cover suggests so .. or is it, like all art, all open to the beholder?

The other tracks include the dealbreaker I Saw The Message, which is also the first video from this record: love gone wrong, from (someone else’s) experience; the missive from mother to son Letter to a Small Boy: He may get it now, he may get it when she can no longer put her arms around him, but it is something anyone with a son would want him to know; and the title Postcards & Polaroids: the other tilt to Blue and Disco- a full-band sound with a hint of twixt-disco-and-chill beat. Fell could also be released or remixed in this vein.

This is an amazing record. Each song had me stopping what I was doing: taking heed .. taking it all in .. absorbing the emotion that went into it, came out of it; I was even welling up at some points! There are no adequate words to describe what this record did to me on the first hearing .. I should have been recording my facial expressions as the best way to express what I was feeling was each track unwound. The second, the third hearings: my words cannot convey what this collection did.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Decade from Amanda! «««««