SCROUNGE - 'ALMOST LIKE YOU COULD'

Formats

• BING215 - LP

  600197021514

Details

Almost Like You Could ignites its art punk fire with Lucy Alexander proclaiming, “Everyone wants something to talk about / But not a minute to spare, so be brief.” Not surprising from a song that’s 1:54 (‘Higher’), but the raw honesty in her lyrics ring far after the music ends. Alexander, along with bandmate Luke Cartledge, place the propulsive power of their beliefs at the core of their debut full-length album, and their guiding motivation towards social justice is as fierce as it is welcoming. “Living as part of the queer community, and being queer myself, leads me towards supporting every person’s truth,” Alexander says. Scrounge’s songs skip to a fast beat, electrifying the entire album with a sense of empowerment. Their approach is OG punk: they make music for their peers and themselves. Only now, with a world of connections possible, they’re able to open arms wide for a far-reaching embrace. Alexander’s rich vocals give their sound its central force, anchoring the songs with confessional lines (“If this is the pinnacle, then I need a miracle/ Cause everyone’s laughing at me,” “There’s not much left/ this corpse I have to keep/ Above board.”). They sing about economic inequality, political corruption, environmental destruction, and collective change. “We’re inspired by those around us, and we write about what we care about. Art has always existed for us as a means of catharsis, a way of expressing something we might not be able to otherwise, and we hope our music can be that for other people too,” says Alexander. “I think I’ve actually written a filthy banger,” she states while re-listening to “Buzz/Cut”, a grunge-honoring hammer of a song that takes a journey from disappointment, to self-realization, to release. Alexander and Cartledge’s gratification in making an album they’re proud of mirrors the empowerment conveyed in their lyrics. A follow-up to debut mini-album Sugar, Daddy (Fierce Panda, 2022), Almost Like You Could came together over 18 months, in between “teaching, touring, graduation, and a wedding”, as Lucy explains, for the band always has a handful of shows coming up. It’s a strange outcome for a duo who first bonded over their mutual love of SOPHIE. “She radicalized the structure of sound, and revealed herself through it,” Cartledge explains. “That was a massive inspiration when we started playing together, stripping everything away to open up new possibilities as artists and as people." Having already toured Europe and the States, Scrounge is preparing to be on the road throughout 2025. In a world where the idea of true community is ephemeral, Lucy and Luke seek to foster it everywhere they play. And their belief in change is ultimately buoyed by hope. “I know that it’s never been this good,” they sing.

Tracks

: 1. Higher 2. Pageant Queen 3. UTG 4. Waste 5. Dreaming 6. Corner Cutting Boredom 7. Melt 8. Buzz/Cut 9. Rat 10. Nothing Personal

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Audio & Video

CHIME OBLIVION - 'CHIME OBLIVION'

Formats

• DG002X - LP (COLOURED)

  657628452331

• DG002 - LP

  657628452317

• DG002CD - CD

  657628452324

Details

*EASTER YELLOW COLOUR VARIANT**CHIME OBLIVION began out of the blue. David Barbarossa reached out to John Dwyer saying he was a fan of OSEES and he was invited to a show in London. The two hung out and hit it off, "then I rabbit holed on Bow wow wow too…," Dwyer recalls. "I reached out to David and suggested that we try and write some songs together... I flew David out, we met at my studio and spent five days writing basin drums ideas." The two got to know each other and had a lot of laughs. Dwyer then brought in Weasel Walter, knowing that he would be perfect "to add all that legitimate old-school weird proto-punk no wave guitar scratch to it, which of course he did masterfully." Next came Tom Dolas to play fuzzy marimba, and the fabulous H.L. Nelly, "as I knew her from a record I’d put out back in the day for a band called Naked Lights from Oakland. I knew that she could pull off the vocal style I had in mind." Together, the group created their debut self-titled album, due for release via Deathgod on April 18th. CHIME OBLIVION will be released as a 45 rpm 12" vinyl, CD & on digital. They're sharing the first taste of the album today, in the form of lead single, "NEIGHBORHOOD DOG." "For fans of Adam & the Ants, Bow Wow Wow, Crass, The Slits, and any other wierdo punk we fell in love with as youths." CHIME OBLIVION is due for release on April 18th via Deathgod.

Tracks

: 1. INCIDENTAL SYNTH 5 2. NEIGHBORHOOD DOG 3. KISS HER OR BE HER 4. THE FIEND 5.INCIDENTAL SYNTH 4 6. HEATED HORSES 7. THE UNINVITED GUEST 8. AND AGAIN 9. THE MYTHOMANIAC 10. SMOKE RING 11. INCIDENTAL SYNTH 7 12. I'M NOT A MIRROR 13. GRASS 14. COLD PULSE 15. THE CATALOGUE

Press

New John Dwyer project featuring Dave Barbarossa (Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow, Fine Young Cannibals), Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers, Lydia Lunch's Retrovirus), Tom Dolas (Osees, Mr Elevator), H.L. Nelly (Naked Lights, FKA SMILEY) & Brad Caulkins (Bent Arcana, With Egg)

Audio & Video

CHIMERS - 'THROUGH TODAY'

Formats

• 12XU163-1 - LP

  5061041820922

Details

'Through Today' is the sophomore album for rising Australian band Chimers. A husband / wife duo comprising life partners Padraic Skehan (vocals / guitar) and Binx (drums / vocals). Recorded by Jono Boulet (Party Dozen) over two days at Stranded Studios, Wollongong and mixed at Boulet’s Sydney home studio, produced by the band and veteran manager / promoter / producer Tim Pittman (Feel Presents), 'Through Today' features ten tracks of tightly-coiled intensity that barely lets up for all of its 34 mins. In enlisting Boulet, the band were confident that due to his own experience of being one half of Party Dozen, they had someone who understood the confines of working within the structure of a two-piece but also the possibilities that creates. Boulet, in turn, rewarding that trust by capturing a powerful bedrock of sound that allowed the band's taught rhythms to circle and permeate and yet give full breathing space for the melody within. For Pittman’s part, having a third ear on hand to devote serious listening time and critical commentary was an added bonus. It’s a major step forward from the band’s 2021 self-titled debut. A twelve track effort that snuck out during covid and only hinted at the power within. "Our debut felt more like just trying to capture the songs we had at the time, we weren’t sure if we’d even release it or if it would be our only album" "This time around we were intent on capturing the energy and intensity of our live show on the recording but with a more produced sound than self-titled. We worked more on song structure previous to the sessions. We rehearsed a lot playing quietly so we could actually talk to each other whilst playing the song and iron out any kinks.” “Jono turned the whole live room into a drum room, mics everywhere. The guitar amps were situated outside to prevent too much spill but still recorded live along with about half of the vocals. Second guitar and the rest of the vocals were recorded the next day. Jono was super quick and had the same work ethic and mindset, get in, get it done. If the first take was good enough, move on.” - Padraic Lyrically Chimers maintain the intensity as they tackle the themes of love, life, death and relationships, distance from home (Padraic is Irish, moving to Australia in 2001) and the current political climate providing enough drama to fuel a forest fire. Guest musicians on the album include saxophonist Kirsty Tickle - also of Party Dozen - and violinist Jordan Ireland of The Middle East. Both of whom were invited in on short notice adding their respective parts in just 1-2 takes each without any prior knowledge of the material. Binx too showing added versatility contributing lead vocals to An Echo and sharing lead across 3AM, Generator and others. “Singing is not something that comes naturally to me, and it was at the last minute before we went into the studio that Padraic suggested I sing the lead in An Echo. Having very minimal musical instruments within the band I think having the two different vocals adds a nice dynamic to the record.” - Binx 'Through Today' is a great album. Solid and confident from the get go. No waste. No unnecessary fat. Should it be Chimers last it would remain a defining statement of originality and intent. But it’s not the last, it’s just the beginning. And there’s plenty more where that came from. BIO Like many good bands Chimers are a band born of isolation, not geographically though, via the pandemic. Irish born Padraic Skehan and his life partner Binx, formed the band in their Wollongong backyard during the initial lockdown of 2020. Veterans and drummers both of the ‘Gong’s vibrant garage-scene – The Pink Fits, The Drop Offs, Evol and more – Chimers is an altogether different beast, Padraic taking a giant leap forward by removing himself from the back-seat and assuming the role of driver; singing, playing guitar and writing the songs that would eventually become their 2021 self-titled debut album. It’s a sound and album that draws heavily on Skehan’s time as a youth in Ireland and the post-hardcore sounds of Dischord Records, Husker Du, The Wipers and which has seen the band find friends and favour in like-minds The Mark Of Cain, Henry Rollins, Guy Picciotto and Mudhoney. This is no mere nostalgia though, the band instead landing at the vanguard of a new generation of Sydney and surrounds bands – Body Type, Second Idol, Dust, Private Wives, R.M.F.C – borrowing from the past in order to create a future.

Tracks

1. 3 AM 2. Timber 3. People Listen (to the radio) 4. Everything's Green 5. Generator 6. Gossip 7. Shadow Boxing 8. Glossary 9. An Echo 10. Common

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ED KUEPPER & JIM WHITE - 'AFTER THE FLOOD'

Formats

• 12XU166-1 - LP

  5061041820939

Details

In the final days of February 2022, Brisbane received approximately 80 per cent of the city’s average annual rainfall in a mere 72 hours. Upstream, Wivenhoe Dam, the city’s main flood mitigation strategy, received close to three Sydney Harbour’s worth of water in less than three days. Nearly 3000 Brisbane streets were flooded and highways were closed for days, isolating some communities. Thirteen people lost their lives and over 23,000 properties were flood-affected. Let’s go back in time. Back in the mid-90s the Dirty Three opened for Ed Kuepper in Melbourne. That’s when Ed and Jim first crossed paths. Jim of course was well-aware of Ed; who wasn’t? This was an artist who had redefined Australian music not just once with The Saints, not just twice with Laughing Clowns, but was at it again for a third time. under his own name. For his part Ed was watching Jim play and making a mental note. Time passed… a lot of time passed. Jim left the country with the Dirty Three and built a formidable reputation as a collaborator and sideman. Ed was in his pomp, touring and releasing albums, building a remarkable body of work that now stands at over 50 albums. Roll forward to 2020. Time became malleable, even these most industrious of artists found themselves with time to kill. Jim was unexpectedly back in Australia, in fact stranded in Australia. Despite all the complexities of the pandemic Ed recognised an opportunity to capture the collaboration he’d long had in mind. The original idea was for the two of them to do a few shows together. It would be ‘casual’. But it proved to be anything but. Amidst the on-off restrictions and the threat of the virus the tour was a turbulent ride. They performed two sold out nights at the Sydney Opera House and fluked the only gig at Rising before the Melbourne Festival was cancelled. Other gigs were blown out and plans would be changed at the last minute. Touring was precarious with Ed and Jim unsure when restrictions would be announced, leaving them high and dry or forcing them to drive cross county late at night to cross state lines before the borders were closed. Ed refers to them at one point “operating like a guerrilla outfit on the NSW/Queensland border.” In amidst this turmoil a musical bond was forged. Ed appreciated Jim’s “rhythmic intent. It’s intuition based” he explains. “With Jim there’s an overlap of influences but Jim has his own character. “ The duo grasped an opportunity to enter Melbourne’s Sound Park Studio. Working quickly over four days they captured the music they had been performing. “We took what we’d been doing live and brought it into the studio” Ed recalls. “It was important that we captured the immediacy of what we’d been doing, that it wasn’t laboured over. Everything was laid down live”. The resulting album features eight tracks that provide, as Ed puts it “The broadest representation of what we did, with the most variety.” The widescreen selection of songs gives a tracking shot of Ed’s career to date. The earliest song reimagined here is The Saints' "Swing For The Crime", which originally appeared in 1978 on the 'Prehistoric Sounds' album. Ed’s early 80s band Laughing Clowns is generously represented and rewired with the songs "Crying Dance", "The Year Of The Bloated Goat" and "Collapse Board". His solo career is deeply mined for reworked hidden gems; "Demolition" and "Miracles" (both from 2007’s 'Jean Lee & the Yellow Dog') and "The Ruins’"(from 2015’s 'Lost Cities'). "The 16 Days" originally appeared on Ed’s second album under his own name, 'Rooms of the Magnificent' in 1986. More time has passed. Many of Ed’s long out of print albums have been reissued, his work with The Saints has been released globally as a deluxe boxed set. There has been associated touring with original Saints drummer Ivor Hay, Mick Harvey (Birthday Party/Bad Seeds), Mark Arm (Mudhoney) and Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys) joining Ed on the road. (“The towering impression left by the nights proceeding? That Kuepper is a motherfucker of a guitar player, his sound just as molten and unrelenting as back in the day - Uncut UK). Jim White remains as prodigious as ever, releasing his debut solo album, rekindling the Dirty Three for their biggest Australian tour and highest charting album. Creatively restless as ever he has recently worked with The Hard Quartet, Marisa Anderson, Bill Callahan, Myriam Gendron and Xylouris White. Deep into their careers, at the top of their game, ever curious, changing and searching, Ed and Jim reach another high-water mark.

Tracks

1. The Ruins 2. The Crying Dance 3. The Year Of The Bloated Goat 4. The 16 Days 5. Demolition 6. Swing For The Crime 7. Collapse Board 8. Miracles

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NITRO COSMETIC - 'S/T'

Formats

• CFUL0316 - LP

Details

Cardinal Fuzz (UK) and Feeding Tube Records (USA) are proud to announce the release of Nitro Cosmetic’s Self Titled LP. Nitro Cosmetic are Milo Smee and Demian Castellanos - Milo is an electronic music producer for nearly 20 years, he is the main drive behind several electronic dance music projects, and has released music as Kruton and Binary Chaffinch on Dissident, D.C Recordings and I'm a Cliche. He is also one of the founders/brains behind the unique doom disco ensemble Chrome Hoof. Demian Castellanos is best known as the man behind The Oscillation as well as Autotelia and BOOZE (among many others) but it was in BOOZE that both Demian and Milo first wrote and played together. Across ten tracks Nitro Cosmetic concoct a heady mix of pulverising Beefheart/Devo esk jagged ferocity coupled with the driving heavy electronics that is alternately mammoth and meditative. The Music rushes forth - a punk noir dissonance that conjures up a collision of Siouxsie and the Banshees at their most uncompromising and then cross pollinated with the Acid House scene of the late eighties. The rampaging opening track ‘Negative Inversion’ has a Teutonic, mechanized, nihilistic charge that leads you into a sonic black hole, it is a brutal mix that is uncompromisingly harsh and metallic (think Chrome). Each track feels like a sonic rush layered with a wall of sound approach, combining kinetic and jagged grooves, flashing and chaotic as the psychedelic soundscapes of chaos that has been created lead you sinking into the furthest and darkest reaches of the human psyche. By the time ‘Pulsed Detonation’ lands with its fusion of pulsating, repetitive oppressive beats landing like a jack hammer to the skull your third eye will be ready to pop out. Nitro Cosmetic is avant-garde and experimental - not a single note, sample or headache-inducing drum hit is out of place, the amount of layers that unfold with each listen is incredible - So please tune in and turn onto Nitro Cosmetic. Heavy rose coloured vinyl, presented in a 350gsm gloss laminated outer sleeve with incredible artwork by jake Blanchard

Tracks

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Audio & Video

SHIT AND SHINE - 'MANNHEIM HBF'

Formats

• 12XU146-1 - 2xLPs

  5061041821097

Details

***"So the bad news is, in a fit of pique, I asked Chat GPT (nicely) to compose a one-sheet for the new Shit and Shine double album, Mannheim HBF. The even worse news (yes, even worse than resorting to such tactics) is that the resulting biography is halfway passable and on some levels, superior to the sort of thing being published by what’s left of our weekly coupon-shoppers. But for fuck’s sake my friends, Craig Clouse did not get to where he is today today by settling for halfway passable and neither should you. That Shit and Shine’s discography is vast and dizzying is already well established; what’s not nearly as established are these recordings being specifically dizzying. I don’t know if there’s anyone else in modern music as skilled in waltzing around the periphery of so many disparate idioms ('noise', being one of the least prominent this time around) and somehow, against all odds, tying ‘em together in the most intricate of knots. And who doesn’t love knots? We all have our favorite ways to experience music that’s all-engulfing, but whether your preferred method is thru a stadium sized sound system or ear buds affixed as you’ve leapt off the tallest building in Bastrop, TX (the Jerry Fay Wilhelm Center for the Performing Arts, since you asked), not for the first time, Shit and Shine is entirely appropriate in either instance, possibly every instance. There are moments where I think this is a club record. The Friars Club, however. Far be it from me to provide guidelines for how and when you take in Mannheim HBF. 'No interruptions', 'no distractions' are merely suggestions on the label’s part, though we cannot be held responsible for what happens if you ignore ‘em. Thank you."

Tracks

1.Rorbach
2.Kircheim
3.Handschusheim
4.Neckargenm?nd
5.K?ln Hfc
6.E Lemon
7.Mannheim Hbf
8.Heidelberg Hbf
9.Weisloch-Waldorf
10.Aachen Hbf
11. Parkplatz

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Audio & Video

TAPE - 'PRELUDES'

Formats

• FC58 - 10"

Details

Following a trio of quick sell out, limited lathe cut 45 to kick off 2025, Feral Child now embark on a stash of more widely available full lengths (from the likes of Lake Ruth, The Jonny Halifax Invocation and Polypores amongst others). First up is a wonderful follow up to 2023’s “Refrains” 10” EP from Swedish band TAPE. “Refrains” figured in 2 or 3 notable UK stores’ end of year polls, noticeably Monorail in Glasgow where Stephen Pastel gave it a top 3 for 2023 nomination. “Preludes” is -if anything- even more majestic and acts as a superb follow up. The record is released 11th April on Feral Child as one time pressing 10” vinyl only release, featuring beautiful artwork once more from Peter Liversidge and the calligraphic hand of Klas Augustsson. The return of Swedish trio Tape has been reassuringly slow motion. They’ve always moved at their own pace, these three peripatetic musicians – brothers Andreas and Johan Berthling, and companion Tomas Hallonsten – though it’s been over a decade since their last full-length, 2014’s Casino. Not a disappearing act, rather a break for consideration, time to explore other avenues of creativity, perhaps… But their reappearance, with the Refrains 10”, was one of 2023’s most encouraging moments; doubly so, as it was proof they’d not lost their way, at all, in the intervening nine years. The Tape modus operandi is one of deceptive simplicity and artful innocence. On Preludes, a typically right, one-word Tape title, this means five wordless songs that move between fully fleshed out, lovingly tended folk threnodies – the beautiful opener, “Lights Out”, that spins webs via simple, hypnotically repeating guitar – and textural conceits that hover, appealingly, in a kind of no-place. “Naukluft Plateau” is lovingly dappled, with ruminative piano adrift on a cascading tonal waterfall. Then, feather-fall strums of guitar meet huffing harmonium and electronic scrum on the brief “Golden Gain”. Is there a more perfect song title for Tape than “Tangential Thoughts”? It sums up the way their music, nimble and dainty but also carefully tended, lends itself to the reverie, the meander, the anfractuous. The madeleine-like power of this song’s two-chord figure allows the music to take flight: rustling organ, oscillating cymbal, droplets of percussion, a spinney of sound. And Preludes slips away “On The Accordeon Bus”: there’s something lovely about the way that title collapses transit, articulation and bellows, reflected in the see-sawing sway and glitch-like rivulets of sound that course through the song. So, Preludes, then – alive to the moment, both gentle and sturdy. A copse of tone, and a most gorgeous wool-gathering.

Tracks

1. Lights Out 2. Naukluft Plateau 3. Golden Gain 4. Tangential Thoughts 5. On The Accordeon Bus 6. On The Accordeon Bus

Press

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