Bushwalking
First Time
10 Track, LP (2012, Army of Bad Luck)
Related: Bushwalking.
Formerly known as Zsa Zsa, Bushwalking unite bassist Ela Stiles (Songs), drummer Nisa Venerosa (Fabulous Diamonds) and guitarist Karl Scullin (Kes). The trio opt for open, droning jams over tightly regimented songs, making their debut album – released on the US label Army of Bad Luck, run by Deerhunter’s Josh Faver – a loose-ended experience that also happens to be steeped in undefinable spookiness. Vocals by Stiles and Venerosa surface fairly often – sometimes just as wordless harmonies – but these songs would be convincing purely as instrumentals.
That’s especially true of the Krautrock-informed ‘Visual Jam Doughnut’, which wakes things up after the sleepy tambourine thuds and cymbal washes of the Mazzy Star-ish ‘Bath Sex’. Clarity is not a priority for this band, as you can tell from the smudged aesthetic of the romantic opener ‘Doona’, not to mention Stiles’ dragged-out words on ‘Dedication’ and the frayed guitar passages of ‘Natural Vagina’. The vocals can feel like instruments in themselves, while Scullin’s eagerly ranging guitar has an almost vocal personality to it. He leads the way on ‘Seventeen Once’ and on the title track, the sort of candlelit psych hymn Espers do so well. His lustrous picking makes ‘Hair’ the most melodic song here, and he gamely flirts with surf, as well as Mick Turner-style bleariness on ‘Depression (No Baby)’.
Bushwalking, "Visual Jam Doughnut" by The FADER
The deadpan quality to the singing (though Stiles’ is sweeter) enforces First Time’s vibe as an album to stare out the window and lose time to. Recorded half by Casey Rice (Dirty Three) and half by Jack Farley (Beaches, Twerps), it’s meditative in a way that’s sometimes lovely and sometimes vaguely disturbing. “We’re in our own world,” sings Stiles on the closing ‘Warmth’, summing up band and album both.
by Doug Wallen
STEPH KRETOWICZ tries to get to the bottom of guarded Melbourne/Sydney…
Woah, that's a great track.
looking forward to hearing the whole thing
It's so effing good.
It's all up on bandcamp.
sick
WOW
My little hipster intern put me onto this record and I haven't looked back.
Interesting. Reminds me a bit of No Art's latest single.
Great album
The synth on that track honks like an old homeless man trying to play a broken saxaphone. Love it.
jack farley must have the highest strike-rate of any producer in work today. mess + noise should do a feature on him.
Simon Grounds did a fantastic job mixing this record. This was recorded by Casey and I with several months in between. Simon had the hard job of making a cohesive album out of these two sessions and while i never heard the unmixed tracks he got off Casey, I know he made the tracks that I recorded sound great.
Jack Farley
Track is great.
terrific.
even still, you've worked on some of the best releases of the last few years so...good job!
Bushwalking launch 'First Time' @ The Gaso Fri Aug 24 with Super Wild Horses
Where can you buy the album?
Safeway Cafe are also playing....
it's only been out in the states for about a week, reckon you'll have to give it another week or so before it makes it to australia
oh.
No local release? I don't mind buying it on CD.
you can currently buy copies from repressed records..
Oh. My friend said Title has them.
HIPSTER INTERN = great band name
weird interview at The Quietus. This sounds GREAT though
weird because of the prince rama comparison?
oh hold up i just read the rest of nisa's interview. hehe
Ha
I bought the vinyl at Polyester weeks ago. Blue vinyl. Not the smoothest vinyl copy I've seen and sounds a bit flat but it's a great album. That interview isn't great. Why bother publishing that?
TOMORROW NIGHT
Bushwalking album launch @ The Gasometer Hotel
w/ Super Wild Horses + Safeway Cafe (feat. JZ from Fab D and Repairs members)
Tonight at the Gaso
Bushwalking 11:20
Super Wild Horses 10:20
Safeway Cafe 9:30
scoop
Saw Bushwalking last night and they blew me away completely. A lot more upbeat and rocky than the album. Can't wait for the next recording.
Opening for Cat Power in Melbourne.
I'll be in the front.
delightful band!