Locals, In Your Area
I keep on having conversations about how quickly this year seems to be passing by, but also how slowly it seems to be moving in the moment. Maybe it’s been the mid-year lull in gigs that’s meant that I haven’t been able to signpost the passing of time. Maybe I’m just getting ‘old’… But this hasn’t meant a mid-year lull in physical media releases. When it rains it pours!!!
A bunch of new releases in the past week that are in the running to take out the award for “Album Title of the Year” (ARIA producers, feel free to give us a buzz for award suggestions) and I’m sure are gonna get a fair bit of play over the store stereo. Local heroes Low Life return with their third album, ‘From Squats To Lots: The Agony and XTC of Low Life.’ With a title that reads like an epic novel, the music kind of matches. The kind of dark and woozy yet uplifting trip through the underground of Sydney’s West/Inner West that we’ve come to love from LL.
Alongside this Friday release came Tam Vantage’s new LP, ‘Laughing Gas & Apple Pie.’ Big indie-rock shredder tracks that would be up the alley of anyone who’s been spinning The Stevens, Shrapnel, Mope City, REM, or Pavement lately.
Another box also rolled in last week from Efficient Space featuring a reissue of Wilson Tanner’s 2016 ambient album ‘69’ and a more beat-orientated work from elusive WA producer J Walker.
But that’s not even taking into account the flood of new local titles coming that have come through in the past month!
On the vinyl-based guitar-heavy front there’s been a new scorching rock’n’roll 7” from Satanic Togas (‘The Shit That Killed Elvis’ – also up for the previously mention “Title of the Year” award), the debut of regular guy Lou/VU meets friendly Country Teasers tunes from Power Supply, a 10” of sharp and rickety tracks from Glen Schenau under his Deck In The Pit moniker, a Tim Rogers-bolstered return from punk stalwarts The Hard-Ons, and the latest from Melbourne trio Mod Con.
Tapes have also been coming in thick and fast. A collection of murky and dark song writing (in the vein of Bill Direen or Lakes) from friendly face around the store/town/the bands Xilch and Perspex, Toto, under his new project moniker Fully Feudal. Also! A self-titled cassette from Wollongong/Sydney noisy indie rock band Miners, the latest release from Ivory Whips (and a restock of the fantastic Impatiens tape) courtesy of Altered States Tapes, and three newbie outsider/experimental offerings from Cosmic Drag, FRAK, and Utility Structures on Chemical Imbalance.
Coming to the realisation that this blog post is getting rather long and rambling…. BUT just wanted to also nod to a few things that sit outside the rock-heavy recap that this blog offers, including: the CD reissue of Cured Pink’s 2020 classic Current Climate, the latest industrial/art-rock-ish synth driven LP from Laughing Gear, and the meditative Satie-esque piano of Blue Chemise.
- Mitch
11 November 2021