In-Frequencies #1: Absolute Boys, Pageants, Southern Comfort, Taco Leg

As part of a new series, SHAUN PRESCOTT rounds up the latest cassette, CD-R and vinyl releases.

Absolute Boys
Single Space
(12” single, Imperative Residence, 2010)

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] This Melbourne three-piece trade in sharp precision-oriented rock, the type that is automatically and unfairly aligned with the stern austerity of My Disco, or indeed Ohana, a group Absolute Boys share two members in common with. Thing is, Absolute Boys doesn't sound like a bunch of stiff-faced young men hitting notes to the line coordinates of a parabola. Discipline is integral to this music, but these are wonderfully bright and life-affirming pop songs, and Absolute Boys' happy marriage of these two notoriously incompatible traits makes them very special indeed.

'Single Space' continues in the vein of their first 12” 'Minimal Wage', albeit with a looser and more melodious approach to guitar, while the b-side 'Highlife' is the darkest Absolute Boys song yet, all scribbled high-neck guitar scree and disembodied vocal harmonies. The vocals here are alarmingly reminiscent of early Mark Kozelek at times, though it could just be the reverb speaking, and if you can't imagine that dour old man singing to music like this then that's all the better reason to check this out. Absolute Boys indeed.

Automating/Anon
Automating/Anon
(Cassette, Second Language Records, 2010)

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] This split cassette between Melbourne’s Automating (Sasha Margolis of Spitfire Parade) and Berlin-via-Sydney’s Anon (Anna Vo, previously of Sydney hardcore group Crux), couples two artists with cosmetically very little in common. Automating’s side is one of the most immediately enjoyable recordings in his steadily growing catalogue, with ‘Lost Air’ conjuring the quiet anxiety of surveillance. Listening to this is like sitting in a steel-tight bunker monitoring an anxious wanderer getting lost in a forest. With its thick metallic drone and leaf-crunching samples, there’s a strange sense of voyeurism here, as if we’re awaiting some grim climax. Anon’s side utilises what sounds like very loose and reverberated piano strings acting as a base for some breathy vocal manipulations, and is dedicated to her late friend and M+N contributor Adam D Mills.

Brain Drain
Brain Drain
(Cassette, independent, 2010)

Pretty but otherwise non-descript guitar fiddling from this Melbourne one-man artist, who throws some occasional synth fiddling in for good measure. It’s only his second release, but this tape sounds utterly determined to crawl as far away from your field of attention as possible. Peripheral pleasantness then? There’s a glut of stuff like this out there, but if you can get it for free (which you can, as a free digital download on his MySpace) then there’s no harm, is there?

Cistern Corrupt
Paisley Fucker
(Cassette, Spanish Magic, 2010)

Paisley Fucker is the five-track debut from Cistern Corrupt, a Newcastle three-piece teaming two members of Castings (Nick Senger and Mark Leacy) with a guy called Evan. If you’re a Castings tragic this is a must have. Ostensibly a punk band, Cistern Corrupt lurch, trip and collapse as spectacularly as Castings, though Cistern Corrupt sees their signature tension filtered through a more ‘structured’ approach. You can nod your head to it, but horse tranquilizer and a not-too-orthodox approach to rhythm might help.

Like everything these guys are involved with, Paisley Fucker sits somewhere on the lighter side of a monochrome gradient – depressive rather than angry, full of very inconspicuous nuance that even the group is probably surprised with. There’s meant to be a newer tape out shortly, so hopefully Cistern Corrupt won’t keep us waiting like Castings has for nearly four years now.

Cock Safari/Prehistoric Fuckin’ Moron
Cock Safari/Prehistoric Fuckin’ Moron
(Cassette, Confirmation Tapes, 2010)

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Cock Safari is the type of detritus ridden, high impact noise music that begs comparisons between the uglier side of Newcastle’s current noise scene and the lofty years of that city’s Bloody Fist label. During my last visit to Newcastle, a rusted Ford XD pulled up on a deserted Hunter Street blaring Gabba at full volume, so there’s probably amphetamines in the water up there, and Cock Safari trades in the type of gleeful gratuity that’ll put a shit-eating grin on the face of any fan of transgressive noise.

Meanwhile, Sydneysider Prehistoric Fuckin’ Moron’s side is contrastingly beautiful – a boiling cauldron of disparate sounds that suggests that if he marketed himself better (ie. stopped calling himself Prehistoric Fuckin’ Moron) more people would fall in love with this utterly seductive sound. If moody and emotionally ambiguous drift is your bag, he’s among the best in Australia at the moment.

Pageants
Pageants
(Cassette, Night People, 2010)

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Recorded and mixed by Mikey Young and released by esteemed US tape label Night People (Peaking Lights, Naked on the Vague, The Twerps and more), this cassette from Melbourne group Pageants comes with a lot of pre-loaded prestige. ‘Drink the World’ is very appealing, with its elongated surf guitar tones and coolly muttered vocals. There’s more sex here than you could feasibly expect from an indie guitar band, though ‘Airbrushed Dolphins’ is a retreat back into coyer-than-thou territory, complete with twinkling xylophone and a sparkling no-surprises (no reference to Radiohead intended) melodic hook. Pageants is a breezy and evocative listen rather than a particularly addictive one: they haven’t really nailed a memorable chorus on this tape but that might be beside the point. There will be a Sensory Projects EP eventually, so until then we won’t know whether this is a formative release or a representative one.

Silverbits
Silverbits
(Cassette, Full on Idle, 2010)

Is it daring to try your hand at a style as overcrowded as shoegaze? This Melbourne three-piece is competent enough but fails to leave much of an impression. The vocals sound as if wailed from within a windswept storm water drain, while the guitars do what guitars tend to do in groups like this: proffer low-end power chords that act more as texture emitters, like some kind of aural smoke machine. For those interested in a band stuck somewhere between Love of Diagrams’ recent material and Zond’s debut LP, this is likely to please, but frankly, there’s enough of this shit already. The B-Side drifts a lot more and is ostensibly the more experimental side, with finale ‘Premoral’ being the only legitimately moving or exciting moment on the album. The rest is competent.

Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort
(CD-R, independent, 2010)

Released a couple of months ago, Southern Comfort is a project teaming Angela Bermuda and Harriet Hudson of Circle Pit. There’s only two songs here, with ‘Silver and Gold’ displaying an achingly reverb-drenched Velvets vibe and ‘Hard to Have Fun & Me and my Baby’ stretching that template out a bit, leaving more space for Bermuda’s blues-tinged lead guitar. The vocals are a bit less pretty on this second track (ie. close to monotone) but overall Southern Comfort exude that lovely half-pissed-in-the-sun lethargy without sounding too lazy about it. There was talk of a 12” earlier in the year, and when that arrives (if ever) it’ll be interesting to see if there’s anything more to Southern Comfort than this dispensable but charming release.

Stitched Vision
Ocean Glow
(Cassette, Eternal Solitude, 2010)

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] More of the same from Jason Campbell’s Stitched Vision project. The aesthetic he established with his out-of-print debut Open Palms (think an antipodean Oneohtrix Point Never) is one he can continue to bleed dry, because it’s a good one. ‘Ocean Glow’ offers more mournful and cosmic sci-fi synth tones embedded in TV white noise, like some kind of ambling and slow-to-descend alien visitation on a rainy night. When the ship lands (on your ceiling, while you’re watching 3am reruns of MacGyver) they have some pretty despairing tales to impart about the imminent decline of humanity. When the sadness becomes too much to bear the white noise ascends in the mix, leaving us poised somewhere between a dream and something unutterable. Where can Campbell possibly take this? There’s no imperative to change at this point, because he’s onto something very evocative indeed.

Taco Leg/Constant Mongrel
Taco Leg/Constant Mongrel
(Cassette, Wuss, 2010)

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Taco Leg is a group of Perth reprobates whose excellent 7” ‘Sunbathing in Squalor’/‘Freemason's Hall’ managed to cause a stir around these parts after experts observed that the three-piece couldn't play their instruments. They've not improved dramatically in that department, but their semi-songs are still here in all their passion pop and mi-goreng-diet glory, albeit buried beneath the hiss of a cassette which, in a fashion typical to this all-round clueless mob, needs to be played at full volume if you actually want to hear it. If Taco Leg had attitude alone they'd be very dire indeed, but a few plays of their side will unearth some infuriatingly sticky ditties indeed, which is all they're really in it for.

Listeners are advised to adjust the volume downwards when flipping to Constant Mongrel's side, whose louder but still technically bereft meathead rock is an altogether more palatable scree, though fans of Green Day or the fucking Clash are still warned to stay clear. 'Rich Fucks' is a highlight, but the general mood of Constant Mongrel indicates that any attempt to explain exactly why would be promptly laughed at. It's just stupid punk rock music for to-be rich fucks.