Features
New Noise: Mesa Cosa, Pleasure Symbols, Ara Koufax, Nonsemble
By Mess+Noise
Synth seances, party punks, producer duos and adventurous chamber groups comprise this week’s roundup of new music.
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– While you were busy nursing that Halloween hangover, Mesa Cosa went and dropped a new album. YaYa Brouhaha doubles down on the party-punk side of the Melbourne garage fixtures, cramming in easy sing-alongs without losing their raucous, bilingual brashness. Even the group refrain “I don’t wanna go to Sydney” seems more celebratory than snide. Recorded by Paul Maybury (King Gizzard, The Pink Tiles), with great cover art by Jase Harper, the album follows 2012’s Infernal Cakewalk EP and last month’s precursor 7”. It’s out now digitally or on CD via that first link, with the CD out through Off the Hip. Mesa Cosa launch the album tomorrow (Nov 7) at Howler supporting Drunk Mums alongside White Lodge and Keggin. Tickets here.
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– Pleasure Symbols are the Brisbane synth duo of Phoebe Paradise and Jasmine Dunn. They’ve got two songs to their name so far – the sleepy and foggy ‘Control’ and ‘Ultraviolence’ – but there’s a lot of promise there. Specifically, in how they slow down candied synth-pop into a séance of gauzy uncertainty. Both songs were recorded and mixed by Multiple Man’s Chris Campion, who certainly knows his way around gloomy synth manoeuvres. Pleasure Symbols are playing a free Melbourne gig this Sunday (Nov 9) at Grace Darling as part of the Minimum Wage series, alongside Drug Sweat and fellow Brisbane champs Woodboot. Doors are at 7pm.
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– Remember that Melbourne electronic comp that Cut Copy curated? Well, first, it’s streaming in full on Pitchfork Advance. Second, one of the first tracks made public from it is the excellent ‘Brenda’ by Ara Koufax. The new mind-meld from Melbourne producers Sam Gill and Luke Neher of Naysayer & Gilsun fame, Ara Koufax takes things in more of a marathon pop direction. Following their debut single ‘Converge’, the nine-minute ‘Brenda’ is soaked through with squishy melody and an increasingly delirious vocal loop. It’s got a contagious vibe of warm-weather liberation without squandering its thoughtful architecture. Oceans Apart comes out next Tuesday (Oct 11) through Cut Copy’s own Cutters Records imprint. It launches at Melbourne Music Week’s QVM pop-up venue on Saturday, November 15, with sets by Andras & Oscar, Roland Tings, NO ZU, World’s End Press (electronic set), Sleep D, Speed Painters and Nile Delta.
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– Last featured in this column in mid-2013, Nonsemble continue to carve out a very specific niche in the Brisbane landscape. Founded by Mr. Maps’ Chris Perren, the adventurous chamber group return with the surprisingly accessible single ‘Go Part 3C’. Distilled from the half-hour piece – and forthcoming second album – Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke, the track plays dreamy string and piano motifs off layered snatches of drums, guitar and electronics. Nodding to post-rock, classical and indie rock, it arrives at something else entirely. Recorded by Thomas Green and paired with a MeekSounds remix of ‘Practical Mechanics Mvt II’, the single is out now digitally through unique London label Bigo & Twigetti. Nonsemble play tomorrow (Nov 7) in the cinema room at Fortitude Valley’s New Globe Theatre, performing the aforementioned Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke in full (among other work) while accompanied by live visuals. Tickets here.
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