Features
New Noise: Front End Loader, Heavy Beach, Edward Deer, Dark Arts
By Doug Wallen
It’s all about craft beer, name changes, self-production and Ballarat in this week's Soundcloud roundup of the latest new music.
– Eat Drink your hearts out, other bands: Front End Loader has teamed up with Sydney brewery Young Henrys to create a beer named after one of their songs. Enter ‘Fresh Six’, written for but left off the band’s ARIA-winning 2011 album Ritardando: in addition to being the title track of their new EP, it’s a one-off “agave rye pale ale” with a devilish alcohol content of 6.66%. Likened to “the slightly wrong half-cousins you lock in the cupboard when respectable company arrives for an unexpected visit,” the EP’s five songs will nonetheless get launched at the Tote in Melbourne on Sept. 7 and at the Sando in Sydney on Sept. 13. As for the beer, get it on tap at limited locations around the city or from Young Henrys Brewery at 76 Wilford St. in Newtown.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Front End Loader - Fresh Six by Mess+Noise
– Fact: Heavy Beach is a much better band name than Ferry Tails. Good thing the Melbourne trio changed it, then. ‘Good Intentions’ is a solid, even weighty, reintroduction to the band, which includes the prolific Ali Edmonds (Damn Terran, Little Athletics, Ali E), Mark Renall (Howl at the Moon) and Clayton Pegus (Spun Rivals). These guys have cited Dinosaur Jr, Dead Meadow and Magic Dirt, and all of those are certainly apparent in their fuzzed-out, stoner-friendly pop, which breaks up its brooding vibe with some quite gripping guitar hooks.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Good Intentions by Heavy Beach
– Sydney’s Edward Deer will probably turn heads purely by covering Tom Waits (‘Clap Hands’) and Miike Snow (‘Animal’) on his first album, but his original material is just as worthy of our attention. Opener and lead single ‘Washed Ashore’ showcases both his soothing singer-songwriter side and his fondness for loops and nuances. Out next Friday (Sept. 7) through Laughing Outlaw, About Monsters was produced, mixed and mastered by Deer himself. He launches the album the day before (Sept. 6) at The Vanguard in Sydney.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Washed Ashore by Edward Deer
– Ballarat quartet Dark Arts aren’t a far cry from that city’s recent breakouts Hunting Grounds, if their single ‘Heart Strings’ is anything to go on. Softening its taut propulsion with timely synth streaks, it recalls Hunting Grounds’ ‘Flaws’ in some of its dreamy moves. More than anything, though, it looks fondly upon Interpol and that ilk – only not so dour.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Heart Strings by DARK ARTS
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