Tag: Melbourne Australia

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Velatine Shares Forceful “Whisper Park”

Melbourne-based songwriter and producer Loki Lockwood is the creative mastermind behind the darkwave/goth recording project Velatine. For the bulk of Velatine’s history, Lockwood collaborated with different vocalists while crafting a unique and fresh take on the familiar and beloved darkwave/goth sound.

If you were frequenting this site over the course of last year, the Aussie producer and musician collaborated with Nocturna on “Till Death Do We Art” and Holly Purnell, who was discovered through an Instagram ad for “Oh See Me — The Siren.” While working on “Oh See Me — The Siren” Purnell joined Velatine as the project’s full-time vocalist.

Velatine’s latest single “Whisper Park” is a subtle change in sonic direction, seeing the band leaning more towards a forceful, goth and doom-like direction than their previously released material. Anchored around slashing, angular guitar attack and dramatic drumming, the cinematic “Whisper Park” channels contemporary fare like Bonnie Trash and others, while showcasing Purnell’s remarkable vocal.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: CAVS Shares Gorgeous and Groove-Driven “First Light”

Best known for drumming with acclaimed JOVM mainstay King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Michael Cavanagh is the creative mastermind behind the solo instrumental project CAVS. Cavanagh’s sophomore CAVS album Sojourn is slated for an April 24, 2026 release through p(doom) records.

Unlike the fantasy and sci-fi driven storytelling found in much of his work with King Gizz, Sojourn‘s 10 compositions builds its world entirely through music, shaped by Cavanagh’s long-standing interest in spiritual jazz, prog rock and krautock while simultaneously moving beyond traditional genre boundaries. The album’s material follows an imagined journey, using shifting moods, textures and rhythmic structures to suggest exploration, confrontation and transformation.

The King Gizz drummer began developing Sojourn during the recording sessions of his solo debut, 2021’s CAVS, a percussion-only album. Determined to expand his musical palette, he took on the roles of composer, arranger and musical director for his sophomore album — despite not playing pitched instruments. Early demos were constructed from sampled bass, drums and synthesizers, which were expanded and further fleshed out through collaboration.

Cavangh’s key collaborators for Sojourn included Mildlife‘s Jim Rindfleish, who co-arranged the material, alongside a group of Melbourne musicians that included Adam Halliwell (flute, guitar), Siwei Wong (harp), Archibald Pommelhorse (sax), Selene Messinis (keys), Robbin Poppins (percussion) and his King Gizz bandmate Joey Walker (bass). Recording sessions combined structured takes with free-flowing improvisation, which were later edited and arranged to retain a cohesive, live-sounding feel.

Drawing from artists like Herbie Hancock, Alice Coltrane, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham and Harvey Mason, Sojourn‘s material emphasizes atmosphere and groove over technical prowess.

Sojourn’s second and latest single “First Light” evokes the woozy yet awe-inspiring moment of capturing a brilliant burst of dappled light across rippling water while sonically nodding at Midllife and 70s jazz fusion with the composition being anchored around a deep, funky groove.

“The first rays of a gentle sunrise touching a river’s glassy surface, painting the water in soft hues of gold and emerald,” Cavanagh says of the new single. “Slowly, your eyes flutter open — not to the velvet darkness of the night before, but to an unfamiliar brilliance that seems almost too vivid to believe.” 

“Two persons and a yowie got a room at a halfway house motel for the night with three beds but only one was ripped apart, the others left in tack [sic]. This is real footage, Cavs is now a Cavsquatch and this proof that sasquatches are real,” the video’s director Jackson Devereaux says of the accompanying video. “Sojourn is an odyssey of an album, and so we wanted to add another chapter to the story, building off the first music clip. In the video for ‘First Light,’ we follow Cavs transition to his new tree form, and his first stages of coping with this new reality. We found a literal halfway house and booked a room for him to tweak out.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jimmy Kirra Shares Upbeat Banger “Change”

Melbourne-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jimmy Kirra, who started writing songs when he was 12. Since then his work has been rooted in the sounds of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s rock and pop. Although […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tom Woodward Shares BruIsing Neil Young-like “Phoney Messiah”

Over the course of the past two decades, Aussie singer/songwriter Tom Woodward has crafted a unique brand of baroque folk-rock, cosmic country psychedelia and fuzzed out lo-fi jams through the release of 11 albums and 10 EPs.

During that same period, Woodward has lived a deeply fascinating life, writing songs that document his thoughts and experiences: He cut his teeth and honed his craft in the Canberra and Melbourne music and arts scene in the mid-2000s before touring across Australia, Japan and the States.

2015’s Beautiful Shadows received critical acclaim from international media outlets including For Folk’s Sakes and The Huffington Post, and earned him a Canberra Critics Circle Award. Adding to a growing national and international platform, Woodward has played sets at the National Folk Festival and The Multicultural Fringe Festival, as well as opening slots for Abbe May, The Drones, Mikelangelo & the Black Sea Gentleman, Cash Savage & the Last Drinks, Machine Translations, Steve Poltz and a lengthy list of others.

Back in 2023, Woodward put down his guitar and embarked on a two-month walk up Australia’s east coast, which ended with a hospital stay and a hard-earned respect for the fragility of life. 18 months later, he got deported as an illegal alien from the USA.

Woodward’s 11th album, the recently released Adam Casey-produced Come Come Karma features the previously released “Termination Day” and “If You Wanna Stay Alive,” “Sails In Your Heart,” and the album’s latest single “Phoney Messiah.”

“Phoney Messiah,” is bruising song that seemingly channels Crazy Horse-era Neil Young, anchored a swirling haze of fuzzy power chords and Woodward’s urgent, incantatory delivery as his song’s narrator guides the listener through a world of conmen, carnival barkers, gurus, strongmen and internet demagogues prey on our hunger for meaning and her need for easy answers to deeply complex solutions.

The accompanying video is an uneasy, reeling fever dream featuring a collage of our current hellscape, presented as entertainment and clickbait, which further emphasizes the song’s critique’s of false prophets in the digital age.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Howling Bells Shares Bittersweet “Melbourne”

Since their beginnings, London-based, Aussie trio Howling Bells — siblings Juanita Stein (vocals, guitar) and Joel Stein (guitar) and Glenn Moule (drums) — have been a bit of anomaly: They relocated to the UK to pursue their dreams of making it. And then, they broke through a British indie scene of three-and-four-dude-wearing-skinny-jeans bands with their acclaimed, self-titled 2006 full-length debut. 

Those dreams of making it big actually became real: They played an NME Tour and then in stadiums opening for a Coldplay, while winning acclaim from the UK music press. 

Throughout their nearly two decade history, the band has gone through a series of lineup changes but some things have remained the same: the core trio’s deep, unbreakable bond and their hypnotic sound, influenced by Tom Waits, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac and Björk. 

Howling Bells’ fifth album, Strange Life is slated for a February 13, 2026 release through Nude Records. The long-awaited album is the band’s first album of new material in over 12 years and was recorded with their longtime friend and collaborator Ben Hillier at Agricultural Audio Studios. The new album is reportedly both a vibrant document of and an exploratory testament to the alchemical magic between its core members. 

Late last year, I wrote about album single “Chimera,” a song that showcases Juanita Stein’s gorgeous and expressive vocal and the band’s knack for big hooks and choruses. Strange Life‘s latest single “Melbourne” continues a run of jangle pop-like indie rock with big hooks — but at its core is a confusing and familiar mix of yearning for the familiar and the grief over the tacit acknowledgement that the familiar can no longer be had. You can’t go back home again, as the novel says — and that’s often more true than not. And it’s all anchored in bitter, lived-in experience.

“‘Melbourne’ is a song about deep yearning and ultimately grief. It explores a unique inner conflict many of us feel when we leave our homes and families to start anew somewhere else,” Howling Bells’ Juanita Stein explains. “This aching can be especially intense when we’re faced with something traumatic and all we want is the safety and warm embrace of the familiar. I experienced a heightened version of this when I returned to Melbourne a few years ago to play some shows, having not been back for a while. It felt slightly surreal and tragic being there without any family to share this with, as they had also left Australia over the years. Then, within 24 hours of touchdown, I got a call from a hospital in England telling me that my father, who was ill, had taken a turn for the worse, and so I had to pack up and return to the UK before I’d even played a show. It was brutal. I felt a thousand things that day, from the physical weight of having to lug around 2 huge suitcases full of merch I was planning to unload, to sitting alone in tears at the airport in Singapore during the layover. All these experiences left me with a deep well of sadness and a longing to return to my homeland to find what it is I’d now lost forever. This is something I carry around with me every day. All it takes is the glimmer of the sun at a certain time of day, or the occasional scent of an eucalyptus tree, or the sharp twinge of nostalgia when I hear the melody of a particular song, to remind me of the sadness and beauty that is now my Australia,”

Directed by Safiyya Lea, the accompanying video for “Melbourne” stars a beanie-wearing Tilly Woodward, driving down a country road before she pulls over to get out of her truck and expressively dance by a tree.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Velatine Teams Up with Holly Purnell on Brooding “Oh See Me — The Siren”

Loki Lockwood is a Melbourne-based songwriter and producer and creative mastermind behind the darkwave/goth recording project Velatine, which for the bulk of is history saw him crating a unique and fresh take on a familiar and beloved sound through experimenting and working with different vocalists.

Earlier this year, the Aussie producer and musician collaborated with Nocturna on the slow-burning and broodingly cinematic “Till Death Do We Art.” But with Lockwood’s latest Velatine single, “Oh See Me — The Siren,” the Melbourne-based musician and producer collaborates with Holly Purnell, who was discovered through an Instagram ad seeking a vocalist and then recruited to be the project’s full-time vocalist.

On “Oh See Me — The Siren,” Purnell’s remarkably Siouxsie Sioux-like vocal is paired with a brooding and glitchy industrial-meets-post-punk production that continues to showcase Lockwood’s unerring knack for catchy hooks.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Velatine Teams Up with Nocturna on Brooding and Cinematic “Till Death We Do Art”

Melbourne-based songwriter and producer Loki Lockwood is the creative mastermind behind the darkwave/goth recording project Velatine, which sees him crafting a unique and fresh take on a familiar and beloved sound. In fact, with Velatine, Lockwood is unafraid to experiment and works with different vocalists while weaving aspects from goth, Darkwave, post-punk and industrial music.

His latest single “Till Death We Do Art” feat. Nocturna is a slow-burning, and brooding bit of goth-tinged post punk which features Nocturna’s Anika-meet-Nico-like delivery paired with layers of eerie synths, bursts of strummed guitar and cinematic strings. “Till Death Do We Art” may arguably be the most cinematic-leaning post punk song I’ve heard in sometime, while showcasing Lockwood’s penchant for catchy and anthemic hooks.

Lockwood explains that “Till Death We Do Art” is for the creatives of the world, focusing on the highs and lows creative endure while following their muses. He adds that the song is dedicated to a Ukrainian painter named Ksenia, who regularly shared Velatine’s music with posts featuring her art on Instagram before the project was on the platform. He got to know her a little through the site, but because he’s an Australian, who is often far from any sort of violent conflict, it was the first time he knew someone living in the middle of war.

“Having that ever present threat as part of your life, disruption to normality, what we take for granted here and the devastation of losing her lover I found her often in my thoughts. If I didn’t see her post, I’d check to see if she was alive.” He adds that song was largely written before all of this but the chorus wasn’t there. One time, he checked in on Ksenia on Instagram and her instagram tag “Till Death We Do Art” jumped out of him. He was convinced that was the missing piece that summed up the emotion of the song. ” I’d read these words before on her page but this time I saw them in a new light, I knew immediately where they also belonged. Everything fell into place and the last lines, “we’re upset by war, and worry for them all” are for her,” he explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: HighSchool Shares Breakneck and Hook-Driven “149”

Rising London-based post-punk outfit HighSchool — Melbourne-born, London-based duo Rory Trobbiani and Luke Scott, along with live backing members Lilli Trobbiani and Lucy Lamb — exploded into the scene with their debut, six-song EP, 2021’s Forever at Last, an effort that saw the band distilling circa-’86 indie lo-fi, New Wave, goth and post-punk through a new, very modern lens.

With self-directed, deeply arresting videos for each of the EP’s six tracks and multiple vinyl runs selling out, the band began to receive attention globally. Beginning with a stint residing London, the duo and their live band played shows across the UK, European Union, North America, Japan and back in Australia, making a run of the international festival circuit, while sharing stages with CHVRCHES, Sam Fender, NewDad and Wet Leg among others.

The rising post punk outfit followed up with 2022’s Only a Dream, which was recorded with Dan Carey and released through his Speedy Wunderground and 2023’s “Colt.” The duo signed to [PIAS], who released their sophomore EP, last year’s Accelerator. Accelerator saw the duo taking their sound to a much darker, reflective place while being an effort that revealed new layers and added depth with each listen. The band went on to support the EP with a successful UK tour with Wunderhouse.

Building upon a growing profile, the band has received praise from NME, The Fader, Clash, DIY, Dork Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, Paper Magazine, Rolling Stone ANZ, So Young and airplay from triple j, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, KEXP and several others across the globe.

The band’s highly-anticipated full-length debut is forthcoming, and the album’s first single, the Ben Hillier and Finn Billingham-produced “149” is a breakneck, mind-melting mix of shoeagze, New Wave and jangle pop and Brit pop that reveals a band with an unerring knack for catchy hooks. And at its core, the song captures languorous, boring and seemingly carefree summers in your teens and early 20s.

“‘149’ is about slow, teenage suburban summers – long, dry days, sprinklers on cracked lawns, the smell of cut grass and cheap beer, halogen-lit tennis courts and supermarket car parks. Nothing to do but kick rocks, ride your bike, hang at the skatepark or by the pool. 

You end up at a shit house party you weren’t invited to, with the girl you’ve had a crush on all year – the one you thought never noticed you. Someone’s playing Benny Benassi on a light-up Bluetooth speaker. People spill onto the porch, your breath tastes like warm wine from a sack. Maybe you hold hands or she kisses you. ‘149’ is a brief moment in the noise, knowing it won’t last. And that’s the point”. 

The accompanying, self-directed video finds the band and friends commandeering a London double-decker bus and driving around London. The band plays an impromptu set onboard. But the video has some impromptu origins: The band borrowed the bus from Nev, who lives next door to the band’s studio. Nev runs a dub radio broadcast out of his kitchen; but he happened to own a party bus. It’s the sort of surreal set up that can only occur late at a night in a big city, with indelible characters.

“The video captures the feeling we wanted for ‘149’ — the dizzying elation of a rambunctious night out, full of promise and unpredictability. It’s about the seemingly endless possibilities a party can bring, and that fleeting feeling of being pulled out of your head and into the present, knowing it can only last until the night ends.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: CIVIC Shares Jangling and Nihilistic “The Fool”

Since their formation back in 2017, Melbourne-based punks CIVIC — Jim McCullough (vocals), Roland Hlvaka (bass), Lewis Hodgson (guitar) and their newest member Eli Sthapit (drums) — have developed a reputation for reimagining the reckless intensity of proto-punk for our era of seemingly unending and unceasing uncertainty and strife. 

The acclaimed Aussie outfit’s forthcoming third album, the Kirin J. Callinan-produced Chrome Dipped saw its official release today through ATO Records. Eager to step beyond the raw, unmistakably Australian punk rock sound of their first two albums, Chrome Dipped sees the band pushing into uncharted sonic terrain without scarfing the long-held fierce energy that has defined them. 

Thematically, the album touches upon loss and grief, following the death of Jim McCullough’s mother, as well as broader essentially reflection. In a larger sense, Chrome Dipped is about casting off old shells — both musically and emotionally — and finding meaning in the messiness of human life and evolution.

The band tapped Aussie singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kirin J. Callinan to produce Chrome Dipped. It was his idea to spend a week recording at Hobart, Tasmania‘s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), a far cry from the outback house in which the band laid down 2023’s Taken By Force. “We’ve always done our records DIY,” CIVIC’s Jim McCullough says. “This time we wanted to step up and make it sound as big as we could.”

“We kind of stuck to the rules a little bit earlier on like, do Australian punk rock properly and all that,” CIVIC’s Lewis Hodgson says. “But after touring around the world and seeing what all these other bands are up to it’s like, you can really do whatever the fuck you want. And so it’s fun to just kind of let go.”  He continues, “I hope people feel a little confused at first. Then a bit angry, and then feel good, and then interested, and then they feel like, ‘Oh, this is sick.’ That process exactly. I hope it’s a bit challenging.”

CIVIC also brought on a filmmaker to capture behind-the-scenes and in-studio footage, with plans for a longer documentary in the works. The film explores the physical and emotional place that inspired Chrome Dipped,  following the band through their journey of making the album. 

Last month, I wrote about album single “The Hogg,” a song named for its “disgusting sounding riff.” Fittingly, the song is a bruising ripper, anchored around a grimy, chugging riff and thunderous drumming paired with McCullough’s punchy delivery. While continuing to channel the grime, filth and fury of their previous work, “The Hogg” showcases a band pairing delicate and dreamy lyrical imagery with sinister, deeply unpleasant overtones and a subtle yet slick, studio polish.

As the band explained to Flood Magazine, the song is about “staring into the abyss and seeing nothing but its pure beauty. Surface level pleasure with sinister undertones. A porcelain dancer draped in flesh, pirouetting to the infinite beat. ‘The Hogg’ is my reality. ‘The Hogg’ is my destiny.” 

“The Fool,” Chrome Dipped‘s final pre-release single is a jangling and metallic, cretinous stomp of song that showcases the band’s melodic sensibility while retaining the punchy and feisty punk quality they’ve been known for. The Aussie quartet say “‘The Fool’ is a nihilistic death march about dreamers and idiots. A jangley [sic] punk song meant to provoke the senses. It recalls the story of the fool and what’s behind the 1000-yard stare.

Directed by Conor Mercury, the accompanying video for “The Fool” is a lush yet brooding and cinematically shot visual that’s set in a world that’s both harsh yet surreal, as we see struggling and desperate folks with odd, somewhat unnecessary super powers.

CIVIC is currently in the middle of a North American tour that includes a June 13, 2025 stop at TV Eye before heading to the UK and European Union. Check out the rest of the tour dates below. Tickets are available here. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yumi Zouma Shares Breakneck and Melodic “Bashville on the Sugar”

Formed back in 2013 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the multinational and multi-continental JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma — Melbourne-based Christie Simpson (vocals, keys), New York-based Josh Burgess (guitar, bass, vocals, keys), London-based Charlie Ryder (guitar, bass, keys) and Wellington, New Zealand-based Olivia Campion (drums) — have had an acclaimed run that began with their shoegaze and dream pop-driven debut EP, the aptly-titled EP I and included their critically applauded albums, 2014’s Yoncalla, which saw the band dabbling with synth pop; 2017’s Willowbank, 2020’s Truth or Consequences and 2022’s Present Tense.

The JOVM mainstays have received praise from Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence, The FADER, SPIN, The Guardian while receiving airplay from SiriusXM and Australia’s Triple J. The multinational and multi-continental outfit have also developed a reputation as a mainstay on the global touring scene — first through opening slots for Air France, Jamie xx and Lower Dens, and then as a headlining act.

Recently, Yumi Zouma signed to Nettwerk Music Group, who will be releasing the band’s latest single “Bashville on the Sugar,” their first bit of new material in over 16 months or so. Beginning with a Foo Fighters-like “I’ll Stick Around“-like drum fill, the acclaimed outfit’s latest single may be the most downright breakneck tune they’ve released to date while continuing to showcase Simpson’s ethereal yet expressive delivery paired with cascading and chiming guitar work from Burgess and Ryder and MTA field recordings. Written in bursts across Mexico City, New York and New Zealand, “Bashville on the Sugar” captures the energetic pulse of commuting on public transportation in a large city, as well as the excitement and sense of infinite possibilities that could happen — right before that subway door closes.

“The first song on our forthcoming project that we really dug into, it’s an ode to the subway and public transport, New York’s in particular. The band has a deep affinity for it; its reliability and the access it provides are unlike anything we experienced in New Zealand,” the members of Yumi Zouma explain. “At the same time, its unpredictability—what you’ll see, who you’ll bump into—keeps each trip rooted in the present.”

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Bashville on the Sugar” features a blend of photo studio footage, Mini DV footage shots in New York and clips, and manages to capture the band’s sweet and goofy nature while evoking the endless motion at the heart of the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ecca Vandal Shares Bruising Ripper “Cruising to Self Soothe”

South African-born, Melbourne-based Tamil multidisciplinary artist Ecca Vandal strutted her way into the music scene back in 2016 in traditional punk style with an edgy disposition and something to say. Her musical work is fearlessly genre-bending and frequently sees her weaving together punk, hip-hop, jazz, trip-hop and electronic influences, informed in part by her formative years as a jazz musician and her passion for improvisation. which lead her to fall in love with the DIY punk world. Her work is anchored around a boldly rebellious, tenaciously politically-charged voice that demands to be heard.

Her unrelenting stage energy has brought her a history of touring alongside globally renowned acts like Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus, IDLES and The Prodigy. Adding to a growing international profile, she has made the rounds of the global festival circuit, playing sets at Download, Reading and Leeds Festivals in the UK, Afropunk Paris, as well as, Splendour in the Grass, Falls and Laneway Festivals in Australia.

Fresh off a recent tour supporting IDLES, Ecca Vandal shares her latest single, “Cruising to Self Soothe,” a bruising and grungy punk ripper that subtly nods to Nirvana, Bikini Kill and 80s New Wave while displaying the South African-born artist’s knack for razor sharp hooks and shout along worthy choruses.
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“‘Cruising to Self Soothe’ is about cultivating your inner strength when navigating life on your own, even when it feels a bit isolating,” Ecca Vandal says. “It’s about that pivotal moment when you recognize that you’re stronger without the people who were weighing you down, and there’s a real sense of empowerment in that for me. It captures the feeling of breaking free and moving forward, no matter the challenges that come. Even when others are waiting for you to fall, you’re still rising — stronger than ever.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aussie Punks CIVIC Share a Furious Ripper

Hailed by Stereogum as “an unholy lo-fi pile-up of garage rock, punk and 90s-style noise rock,” Melbourne-based punks CIVIC — Jim McCullough (vocals) – Lewis Hodgson (guitar) – Roland Hlavka (bass) – Jackson Harry (guitar) – Matt Blach (drums) — have developed a reputation for reimagining the reckless intensity of proto-punk for an era of unending and unceasing uncertainty.

Earlier this year, the Aussie outfit released their acclaimed album Taken By Force through ATO Records. They supported the album with a European tour, which brought their brand of masterfully controlled chaos, which blurs the line between furious catharsis and unbridled fun. And they’ll be embarking on their first Stateside tour this fall. The tour will include an October 7, 2023 stop at Elsewhere Zone One, an October 8, 2023 stop at Johnny Brenda’s and several others across the country, as well as sets at this year’s LEVITATION Festival and Gonerfest. All tour dates and ticket info can be found below.

Along with the tour announcement, the members of the acclaimed Melbourne-based punk outfit share a new single, the blistering ripper “Hourglass.” Built around scorching riffage, breakneck drumming, an angular bass line and Jim McCullough’s snarled delivery, “Hourglass” is a mosh pit friendly anthem that’s furiously cathartic yet upbeat. The song manages to evoke the sensation of wanting to bust out of rut, even if you don’t know how.

“Off the back of Taken By Force we wanted to create something new, an evolution of sound for us,” CIVIC’s Jim McCullough explains. “We’d dropped down to a 4 piece so already Lewis [Hodgson] had more space to come through with his guitar parts, be more experimental, less chaotic; more defined. Lyrically I am touching on aspects of change, more specifically the process during change. Going through some kind of shit and sediment and coming out the other side; a hopeful development of a refined version. We start again”

Directed, filmed and edited by Oscar O’Shea, the accompanying video follows a Mickey Mouse sweater-wearing man with headphones rocking out throughout various locations in suburban Melbourne, while the band drives around aimless and goofs off in a claustrophobia-inducing room. Proudly DIY and endlessly goofy, the video accurately captures the sense of wanting to bust out of a rut.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Divide and Dissolve Share Trippy “Want”

Melbourne-based duo Divide and Dissolve — Takiaya Reed (sax, guitar) and Sylvie Nehill (drums) — have long been focused on Indigenous sovereignty: Reed is Tsalagi (Cherokee) and Black, Nehill is Māori. As a duo, they released two albums 2017’s Basic and 2018’s Abomination through DERO Arcade before signing with Invada, who released their widely acclaimed third album, 2021’s Gas Lit. Gas Lit Remix EP was also released in 2021 and featured reworkings and remixes of Gas Lit material by Moor Mother, Chelsea Wolfe and Bearcat. 

Last year, the duo toured across North America and Europe, opening for Low, which included a stop at Webster Hall, as well as headline dates and festival appearances. 

The acclaimed Aussie outfit’s fourth album, the Ruban Neilson-produced Systemic was officially released today through Invada. Thematically, the album sees the duo exploring the systems that intrinsically bind us — and calls for a system that facilitates life for everyone. It’s a message that fits firmly with the band’s core intentions: to make music that honors their ancestors and Indigenous lands, to oppose white supremacy, and to work towards a future of Black and Indigenous liberation. “This music is an acknowledgement of the dispossession that occurs due to colonial violence,”  Divide and Dissolve’s Takaiya Reed explains in press notes. “The goal of the colonial project is to separate Indigenous people from their culture, their life force, their community and their traditions. The album is in direct opposition to this.”

Recorded as a duo, the album according to Reed is a continuation of Gas Lit. “Because of what was built with Gas Lit, Systemic is able to express itself.” She adds, “The album is a prayer to our ancestors. A prayer for land to be given back to Indigenous people, and for future generations to be free from this cycle of violence.” 

Reed emphasizes that it’s crucial for their music to be instrumental. “I believe in the power of non-verbal communication,” she continues, “A huge percent of communication is non-verbal. We learn so much without using words.”  There’s one exception on the album, the spoken word track “Kingdom of Fear,” which features writer and artist Minori Sanchiz-Fung, who contributed to previous Divide and Dissolve albums. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two released singles:

  • “Blood Quantum,” a composition built around a dissonant and insistent thumping of crashing cymbals, thunderous snare, Melvins-like guitar sludge, wavering synths and horns paired with mournful yet gorgeously orchestrated passages meant to evoke brief moments of respite. The song is rooted in — and expresses awe-inspiring beauty and heart-wrenching anguish of human existence. “The heaviness is really important,” Reed says. “It’s congruent with the message of the music, and the heaviness feels emblematic of this world’s situation.”

  • “Indignation,” a composition, which begins with a gorgeous introduction featuring looping and mournful saxophone and yearning strings that quickly morphs into the song’s second and longest section, a stormy and forceful dirge featuring power chord-driven guitar sludge, thunderous drumming and wailing strings, before ending with the mournful saxophone and yearning strings of its introduction. Divide and Dissolve’s Reed says that the song “is a prayer that land be given back to Indigenous people. A hope that future generations no longer experience the atrocities and fervent violence that colonisation continues to bring forth.” 

Systemic‘s third and latest single “Want” is a noisy yet yearning composition built around shoegazer like layered textures that include doppler effected-like oscillating feedback and brooding undertones. “‘Want’ is a deep dive into longing within a decolonial framework,” Divide and Dissolve’s Takiaya Reed explains. “We can want many things, but how will it happen? What is necessary, what systems must be broken in order for people to live?”

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with director Sepi Mashiaof, the accompanying video for “Want” features a variety of imagery that spins endlessly to the song’s oscillating tones. “As ‘Want’ is the song that introduces us to ‘Systemic’, the concept for the video emulates this kind of infant yearning for worlds beyond our current heartbreaking reality. There are so many beautiful textures above our heads that are inaccessible (as there are so many desired modes of existence that are inaccessible), and the rotation emphasizes the limbo of what that desire feels like. Trying to reach something, but succumbing to the loop of failure. Still, that infant yearning is persistent, and that compliments the need for hope and cements the importance of idealism as essential tools in our greater struggles for liberation.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Nat Vazer Shares Atmospheric and Introspective “Strange Adrenaline”

Nat Vazer is a rising, Melbourne-based singer/songwriter, who can trace the origins of her career to learning classical piano between the ages of five and 14. But throughout her life, Vazer has had a long-held fascination with singer/songwriters and bands, having grown up with her family’s record collection from the 60s, 70s and 80s. As a high schooler, the Melbourne-based artist stole her father’s guitar and started to learn Nirvana, The Strokes, and Death Cab for Cutie songs from internet guitar tabs.

In true DIY fashion, and like countless other young, aspiring musicians, she began writing songs in a high school punk bands, and attempting to record that material on old PCs with built-in microphones and free software. 

Vazer’s full-length solo debut 2020’s Robert Muiños-produced Is This Offensive and Loud? was released by Hotel Motel Records in Australia and Perpetual Doom Records here in the States. The album featured hit singles “For A Moment” and “Higher Places” and received critical applause at home and elsewhere: The album was nominated for a 2020 Australian Music Prize and laded on several Best Album of the Year Lists, including NME Australia, The Music, and others across the globe.

Earlier this year, Vazer released “Addicted to Misery,” the slow-burning first single off her highly-anticipated sophomore album, slated for release later this year. Rooted in the sort of deeply confessional lyricism that has drawn comparisons of her work to Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Julia Jacklin, and others, “Addicted to Misery” saw Vazer subtly pushing her sound in a more folk-tinged, pop direction: a finger-picked, looping guitar line,. gently stuttering drums and atmospheric electronics were paired with Vazer’s achingly delicate, yearning vocal.

Vazer describes the forthcoming album as a fast cat on a lost highway, searching for the unknown. “Each song on th album is a unique story told through the people, places and memories that have shaken me and stayed with me over time,” Vazer says of her sophomore album.

The album’s third and latest single “Strange Adrenaline” is an atmospheric and introspective track built around reverb-soaked propulsive drumming, gently buzzing guitar paired with Vazer’s achingly plaintive delivery and the Aussie artist’s penchant for heart-worn-on-sleeve, earnest lyricism and catharsis-inducing choruses.

“In the world of ‘Strange Adrenaline,’ there are 2 am diners where it’s too dangerous for lovers to hang, long drives back to childhood places, dark tales of Hollywood, recurring trauma, and visions of global warming and the end of days,” Vazer explains. “‘Strange Adrenaline’ were two words that jumped out at me one late night, while reading a Patti Smith novel.  The phrase captures that feeling of when you’re on the brink of something terrifying but extraordinary.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: RVG Shares Shimmering and Earnestly Defiant Ballad “Common Ground”

Acclaimed and rising Aussie outfit and JOVM mainstays  RVG — currently Romy Vager (vocals, guitar), Gregor’s and Hearing’s Reuben Bloxham (guitar), Rayon Moon‘s Marc Nolte (drums), and Isabelle Wallace (bass) — have released two critically applauded albums:

  • 2017’s A Quality of Mercy, which was recorded live off the floor at Melbourne’s iconic rock ‘n’ roll pub, The Tote Hotel. Initially released to little fanfare, the album, much to their surprise received critical acclaim both nationally and internationally, landing on a number of end-of-year Best of Lists. 

  • 2020’s Victor Van Vugt-produced Feral was released by Fire Records globally, excluding Australia and New Zealand, where it was released by Our Golden Friend. The album received breathless praise nationally and internationally, with Rolling Stone Australia calling the album “the record of a lifetime.”

The Melbourne-based band’s highly-anticipated third album Brain Worms is slated for a June 2, 2023 release through Fire Records globally with Our Golden Friend releasing the album in Australia and New Zealand. Between the band’s members, Brain Worms captures the band at their most confident point they’ve ever been in as a band. Sonically, the album reportedly sees the band moving past their influences, trying new things and pushing themselves towards what they believe is their best album of their growing catalog to date. 

“Hype is scary. After two years of COVID it felt like the hype had gone down so we were able to just do stuff,” RVG’s Romy Vager says. “This time around we were like, this is what we’re doing, we’re taking control, we’re taking risks, and we’re going to make an album that sounds big so that when we hear it on the radio we want to hear it again. If we could only make one more album, it would be this one.”

Deriving its title from the hyper-recognizable experience of each day bearing witness to a world of private obsession being aired out in the infinite, Brain Worms may not be wholly new territory for the acclaimed Melbourne post-punk outfit and its frontperson, but there is a newfound radical acceptance. Recorded in London’s Snap Studios with James Trevacus, the ten-song album surges with lush sounds and clear intentions — and the magic of an acoustic guitar, once owned by Kate Bush, given to her by Tears for Fears, who legend has it, wrote “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” on it.

Over the past couple of months I’ve written about three of the album’s singles: 

  • “Nothing Really Changes,” an angular, 80s New Wave-inspired track rooted in enormous arena rock friendly riffage, paired with the Aussie outfit’s long-held penchant for anthemic hooks and choruses and Vager’s lived-in, heart-worn-on-sleeve lyricism: The song features a narrator desperately missing someone while confronting the lingering ghosts of their relationship — with frustration, despair, anger and a begrudging acceptance. As the band’s Vager explains, the song “started off as a songwriting experiment to write something catchy with an obnoxious riff, a cross between Divinyls and ‘Smoke on the Water.‘ It’s a song about missing someone but protecting yourself from being hurt.”

  • “Squid,” a rousing arena rock friendly anthem that brings Heaven Up Here-era Echo and the Bunnymen and Starfish-era The Church to mind: Swirling and shimmering guitar textures are paired with angular guitar attack, thunderous drumming, shout-along worthy hooks and choruses. But while rooted in an absurd, Kafkaesque-like nightmare in which the song’s narrator imagines what might happen if they were to go back in time, step on something and become a squid, Vager’s delivery is so desperately earnest and urgent that it feels very real.

  • “Midnight Sun,” an urgent, hurtling ripper built around Vager’s defiant, furious delivery, jangling guitars, and a thunderous and propulsive rhythms action paired with the band’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses Fittingly, the song deals with matters of disbelief, and what it feels like to live in a culture — and a world — that often prefers to argue about semantics rather than save the world from burning. If it hits close to home, it fucking should. It’s our current hellscape, where we constantly deal with a seemingly unending and pervasive, cynical, self-serving stupidity and myopia. 

Brain Worms‘ fourth and latest single, album opening “Common Ground” is a shimmering and anthemic ballad rooted in heart-worn-proudly-on-sleeve earnestness and lived-in personal experience. And at the center, Vager’s commanding presence, delivering the song’s lyrics with a mix of heartache, weariness, resignation, yearning, acceptance that can only come with the recognition of a relationship being over — irrevocably and irreparably over. “Common Ground” is in many ways about heartache and those moments of begrudging acceptance in our lives; but it’s also about the resolve to defiantly and proudly dust yourself off and figure out what’s next. If you’ve been there — and I have been many times in my life — the song speaks of the experience with a profound wisdom, unvarnished honesty and deep sense of hope.

“I think that there’s something relieving in knowing that no matter what you do you can’t sway certain peoples feelings for you,” says Vager. “I wrote ‘Common Ground’ in a deep depression but it has evolved into a mantra to tell myself that there are some things I am unable to change, and that’s okay.”

Directed by Tom Campbell and shot in a gorgeous black and white, the accompanying video for “Common Ground” features the members of RVG performing the song in the round at a local gym while dancer Jayden Lewis performs striking choreography by Zoee Marsh that sees Lewis physically struggling — first to get up off the floor, and then against his own body.

“Together we wanted to do something that was stripped back, reduced to its simplest form, with only the most basic and essential features,” Campbell explains. “There is no contrivance, no attempt to cover up or hide the infrastructure of the band’s instruments or our film gear, we embrace that chaos, but we also wanted to play with our audiences expectations to land somewhere in the middle of narrative and performance. Visually, I wanted to represent the struggle I heard in the lyrics in a physical way. How we fight these feelings, how we try to beat them down, or free ourselves from them. These feelings get inside us, under our skin – ridding ourselves of them, or exorcising them from within, becomes a kind of exercise in healing.”