Features
New Noise: Bailterspace, Sleep Decade, Battlesnake, Panoptique Electrical
By Doug Wallen
We've got resurgent Flying Nun heroes, intimate musings and a pair of very different instrumentals in this week's Soundcloud roundup of the latest new music.
– Lucky 13? It’s been that many years since we’ve heard a new recording from New York-via-New Zealand legends Bailterspace. An offshoot of The Gordons that at first included The Clean’s Hamish Kilgour, the band formed in 1987 and went on to release several robustly noisy albums on Matador and Flying Nun during the following decade. Now down to the duo of Alister Parker and Brent McLaughlan (both ex-Gordons), Bailterspace are still based in New York and sound as smudged and volatile as ever on ‘Blue Star’, despite its gentle ending. The song heralds the new LP Strobosphere, produced and mixed by the band and out now on the long-running London label Fire Records.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Bailterspace - Blue Star by FIRE RECORDS
– Having shared the stage with bands like Pikelet, Richard In Your Mind, Love Connection and Francolin, Melbourne’s Sleep Decade are pretty much a sure thing. And yep, the single ‘Bicycle’ confirms it. If it recalls the whisper-in-your-ear intimacy of Kid Sam, that’s because Nick Huggins produced the quartet’s album, Into Spinning Lights, in between bouts of Tim Tams and kicking the footy around (or so they say). The single gets launched Sunday, Sept. 16 at Bar Open.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Bicycle by sleepdecade
– It’s only two minutes long, but ‘The Electric List’ is a sturdy sampling of what Battlesnake do. That is, serpentine (pun intended) instrumental rock that more than makes up for the lack of guitar – in this case, with burly bass and dappled keyboards. The improvisatory Melbourne trio of Adelaide transplants include members of The Leafs and The Silvermine Tapes. This song is off their new album Your Life Is On Fire, which is getting launched at a warehouse party on Saturday, Sept. 1 at 18 Dawson St., Brunswick. In other news, they’ve followed up their dizzying clip for ‘The Cheshire Cat’ with a literally kaleidoscopic new one for this brief but potent single.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Battlesnake - The Electric List by Mess+Noise
– Panoptique Electrical, a.k.a. Jason Sweeney, hasn’t been entirely quiet since 2009’s Yes to Fear, Yes to Desire. But In a Field Away From the Sounds of the City is the first album since then, a five-track digital release that’s expectedly meditative. It was informed by Sweeney’s return at age 41 to his birthplace, South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula. “I think I've always been a child of the sea and I speak with it now, daily,” he says. While dwarfed in length by some of the other tracks, the closing ‘Out to Sea, A Quiet Place’ charts patient ambience that’s, yes, very tidal in feel.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Panoptique Electrical - Out To Sea, A Quiet Place by Mess+Noise
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