HORSE MACGUYVER, Live at Refraction vs New Weird Australia, Serial Space Sydney, 29th June 2010 from New Weird Australia on Vimeo.

KUSUM NORMOYLE, Live at Refraction vs New Weird Australia, Serial Space Sydney, 29th June 2010 from New Weird Australia on Vimeo.

New Weird Australia presents the next event in its 2010 series on Friday 23rd July 2010 at the Red Rattler in Marrickville, Sydney – featuring:

ANONYMEYE (QLD)
ERASERS (WA)
AMBROSE CHAPEL (QLD)
TEXTILE AUDIO (NSW)
TR-10 (LUKASZ KARLUK & GENTLEFORCE) (NSW)

ANONYMEYE (QLD)
Anonymeye is the nom de plume of Andrew Tuttle, an experimental musician from Brisbane, Australia who reconfigures various country and folk musics within an abstract sonic framework, utilising electronic and acoustic instrumentation including acoustic guitar, signal processing, synthesisers, and effects units. Anonymeye straddles and blurs boundaries between improvisation and composition, experimentation and pop, acoustic and electronic, rural landscapes and urban landscapes. Anonymeye’s second full length album ‘The Disambiguation Of Anonymeye’ is out now on the sound&fury label.
http://www.myspace.com/anonymeye

ERASERS (WA)
Erasers are a new two-piece band from Perth, that started mid 2009 with Rebecca Orchard on vocals and Rupert Thomas on instruments. They formed with the desire to create and produce music completely on their own. With little recording experience and borrowed equipment, Erasers produced and released their debut self-titled release upon forming as a band. The result is songs made up of primitive & tribal beats, melodic guitar loops, atmospheric synth and chanting vocals; creating what has been described as dreamy yet somewhat disconcerting post-punk.
http://www.myspace.com/erasersonpencils

AMBROSE CHAPEL (QLD)
Ambrose Chapel is the solo project of Brisbane musician Ian Rogers (also of No Anchor). He is mainly influenced by The Melvins and is allergic to cats.
http://www.myspace.com/ambrosechapeldestroysyou

TEXTILE AUDIO (NSW)
Textile Audio is a solo project for operatic mezzo soprano and electronic musician Eve Klein. Eve has taught music technology at Macquarie University and is an active music writer and composer.
http://www.myspace.com/textileaudio

TR-10 (LUKASZ KARLUK & GENTLEFORCE) (NSW)
A generative audio / video interactive installation, with music from Sydney’s Gentleforce.
http://www.julapy.com/blog/2010/02/16/tr-io-dorkbot/

Tickets $10 on the door.

Facebook Event page

This event has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Formed almost twenty years ago, CLAN ANALOGUE remains one of the most prolific and interesting collectives in Australian electronic music. ANT BANNISTER and ADRIAN ELMER (Telafonica) join Stu Buchanan on this NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA Podcast to talk about the Clan’s new career-spanning retrospective album, and its launch party in June 2010 in Sydney. Performing two exclusive tracks live in the studio are Clan members ACTUAL RUSSIAN BRIDES (pictured).

DOWNLOAD: Podcast Eight: Clan Analogue & Actual Russian Brides (June 2010)

The New Weird Australia Podcast Series features selected interviews and exclusive, in-studio recordings from our FBi radio show. Subscribe to our podcast feed by using this URL: http://www.cpod.org.au/feed.php?id=211orclick here to subscribe directly in iTunes.

REFRACTION feat. Tom Hall, Horse MacGyver, Kusum Normoyle and Jordan Dorjee
Tuesday 29 June 2010, 19:30 – 21:30
Serial Space, Chippendale, Sydney
Entry by donation

Curated by New Weird Australia, organised by the UTS Sound Collective and proudly supported by Sound Travellers.

TOM HALL (Only show in Sydney!)
Tom Hall is a media artist based in Brisbane, Australia. Hall’s eclectic works flourish by utilising a variety of mediums, each that reflect on his varied background and interests. With a strong focus on elements of the ‘everyday’ Hall’s practice involves considered explorations into place, space and time. In a live performance context Hall projects multi-channel video pieces drawing from a data base of found footage, composing and layering in real-time, this imagery is at times linked directly and indirectly to the sound, that Hall is also producing in realtime, through amplitude control.
tomhall.com.au/
myspace.com/digi_destroy

HORSE MACGYVER
After releasing a CDR through US label Disaro earlier this year, Horse Macgyver (Tim Dwyer) has recieved some genuine interest both locally and internationally – most recently in a Pitchfork article covering the emerging Witch House/Drag “genre”. His new tape is released via new label Bad Sound, established as a part of last year’s “Lets Paint TV” tour. More releases are planned including a vinyl compilation featuring Sniggle and Jonny Telafone. (info via Dream Damage)
myspace.com/_v_o_i_d_

KUSUM NORMOYLE
Kusum is a musician and performer who works with voice in volume, feedback, tension and noise. She has developed a vocal style recognisably her own, set out to disrupt, divide, that is devoid of language but makes up in texture, density and ferocity. Working mostly as a solo musician she also produces vocal noise performances specific to site such as the city streets, laneways and hill-tops and also works collaboratively with local and international musicians, and is one member of Sydney based “Hard Hat”. Having recently performed In Japan and New York, and for the Biennale of Sydney 2010, these performances are too short to miss; don’t blink. Turn up on time. Think twice about bringing your mum.
myspace.com/kusumnormoyle

JORDAN DORJEE
Fighting against traditional perspectives of the DJ, Jordan Dorjee has fathomed how the turntable itself can become a musical instrument. Sculpting collaged works that re contextualise fragments of sound to create new musical structures, utilising sounds that vary from traditional instruments, spoken voice, machinery, nature or any other sound objects he can gather together. He is currently completing his BA Sound and Music Design at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Refraction is dedicated to the support, mentorship and development of student projects as they take their practice from the classroom to the community. New Weird Australia is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Graphics by Daniel Stone.

UPDATE, JULY 2010: View video of event performances from Kusum Normoyle & Horse MacGuyver.

Sydney artist Kate Carr has been making music since 2007, developing a pallate of drones, soundscape, glitch, opera and pop. In this podcast edition of the ‘New Weird Australia’ radio show (recorded in May 2010), Kate talks about her work to date, including her 2009 album ‘First Day Back’ released via German label ‘Retinascan’, and plays two tracks live in the studio.

DOWNLOAD: Podcast Seven: Kate Carr (44:08)

The New Weird Australia Podcast Series features selected interviews and exclusive, in-studio recordings from our FBi radio show. Subscribe to our podcast feed by using this URL: http://www.cpod.org.au/feed.php?id=211or click here to subscribe directly in iTunes.

New Weird Australia Volume Six, June 2010, NWA006
DOWNLOAD FREE at newweirdaustralia.bandcamp.com

1. AMBROSE CHAPEL, Black Lava (7:47) previously unreleased
2. JONNY TELAFONE, Stardate 2012.1221 (3:33) from ‘Rainbow Genesis’ (self-released)
3. CHROME DOME, She Said (1:13) from ‘Chrome Dome’ (Lexicon Devil)
4. WIGWAM, Ancient Path (3:31) from ‘Sweat Lodge’ (Badminton Bandit)
5. J NEWMAN & R SQUIRES, The Church Of Our Lady Of Pompeii (Excerpt) (3:50) from ‘Our Lady Of Pompeii’ (Gift Project Audio)
6. KYNAN TAN, Melt (4:44) from ‘Two Clouds’ (self-released)
7. TRJAEU, Hull (4:56) from ‘Home EP’ (self-released)
8. EASTERN GREY, 24-5 (9:23) previously unreleased
9. PANEYE, Staircases Under the Sea (3:20) from ‘Lying Under Moribund Waves’ (Secret Station Records / Butter People Records)
10. ISLE ADORE, Keep A Lid On (4:53) from ‘Perfect Dust’ (OWLS)
11. UNDERLAPPER, Elephant Shoe (2:51) previously unreleased, from forthcoming album ‘ Softly Harboured’
12. DANGER BEACH, Milky Way (2:02) previously unreleased
13. PHILIP SULIDAE, Dead Horse Gap (6:07) from ‘An High Land’ (dontcaresulidae)
14. ANNA CHASE, Lines (3:42) previously unreleased

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan.
Artwork by David Egan, www.badmintonbandit.com
Click artist title for background information and links.
All music licenced via Creative Commons (Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives), except track 9, all rights reserved.

Sleeve Notes, June 2010:

Curating and sequencing the New Weird Australia compilation series is a difficult business – underpinning each track-listing is a desire to present both a sense of cohesion and one of contrast. They might at first seem at polar opposites, but in fact it is the latter that provides the aural glue for the former – as we believe this latest volume clearly proves.

We open with a track that could only placed at the start – a statement of intent that clearly signals that all bets are indeed in the off position. Ambrose Chapel’s patient slice of epic drone metal takes nearly five minutes to introduce any percussive elements, by which point a growing sense of disorientation has already dislodged any preconceptions about what might follow. If you’re not already feeling paranoid by the end of track one, Jonny Telafone will certainly drive you there – signalling the end of the world in track two (happening sometime next year, apparently). However, his apocalyptic vision is tempered with an electro clarion call, insisting that we take a moment of heady refuge and get it on with whoever might be closest.

The contrasts and cohesion continues throughout the volume: Chrome Dome‘s furious, motorik rant against needy members of the opposite sex is juxtaposed with Wigwam‘s sweaty, stumbling percussion and mid-tempo tribal shuffle; Eastern Grey‘s lengthy, freeform piece pitches analogue machine against analogue machine in a squealing and unsettling battle for aural domination, whereas Isle Adore calms us all down with a perfect drop of experimental pop, culled from a sadly neglected album that richly deserves wider acclaim.

Nowhere is the yin / yang more obvious than in the closing couplet. Philip Sulidae‘s dense slab of black tar drone falls into Anna Chase‘s tempered closing shot of sparse vocals, guitar and accordion – all of which belies a fitting moment of quiet defiance, with Chase insisting that we’re simply “not going to take it any more”.

This line in the sand is an appropriate finale to Volume Six, and indeed to both Year One of New Weird Australia and our process to date. Our next releases will see a change in direction – with guest curators, thematic and genre-specific compilations and a new series of artist EPs, released free with limited CDs available on the side. A contrast to what has gone before, but nonetheless a cohesive and natural evolution to our new, weird, Australian story.

New Weird Australia is a not-for-profit initiative designed to promote and support new eclectic and experimental Australian music. Our current projects include a free download compilation series, a weekly show on Sydney’s FBi Radio and an irregular program of live events. Contributions from Australian artists are welcomed and encouraged.

We’re on the cusp of celebrating our first birthday at New Weird Australia, and thus we felt it was a perfect moment to stare lovingly at ourselves in the mirror for a few hours.  Alas, our reflection was not all that we’d hoped for, and so we decided to get under the butcher’s knife and give ourselves something of a makeover.

Inspired by his exceptional work over the last few years, we called up our favourite Newcastle designer Heath Killen and offered him as much candy as we could muster, luring him to come on board as de facto Art Director for the project.  Thankfully, he turned out to be a truly awesome bloke and he agreed straight away – and the first fruits of our ongoing collaboration are now available.  For the initial instalment, Heath has developed a New Weird Australia logo and a exquisite poster for our next event at The Red Rattler in Marrickville.  Next up, remaking the web site and developing a new publication series, slated for launch later in the year.

Heath has written an extensive essay on the process and influences on his blog at madebyhk.com – here’s a taster:

“Stu and I share a strong love of classic Swiss modernist design, and this formed the core of the visual direction for the project, with sans-serif typography, simple shapes and clean layouts built on grids and formal structure. From day one there was the desire to use the simplicity, functionality and beauty of this design theory as a foundation, and build something new, unique and personal from there.

“We also looked at Julian House’s work for Ghost Box as a point of inspiration, which itself has a particularly evocative and unique take on Swiss modernism. The Ghost Box artwork is interesting in that it retains a certain amount of formal structure and sameness with each edition, however it also changes and evolves over time while still somehow maintaining its essence and identity. The imperfections in the designs and the overall ambience of the collection is something that provided great inspiration too.

“Other points of design inspiration have come from the work ofKim Hiorthøy, German studio Hort, and Sydney based Mark Gowing, who have all done extensive, ongoing design work for musicians and record labels. These designers share a commonality in their work in that it is often strikingly modern while also featuring quite gentle, handmade qualities. It is this philosophy and style that I have worked on achieving with New Weird Australia.”

View the full post at at madebyhk.com.

New Weird Australia, Unputdownable & Sunday Night At The Movies present
Unpopular Music 2009, A Benefit Album For FBi Radio, NWAUM001

Seven exclusive tracks, recorded live at ‘ Unpopular Music 2009′, a benefit gig for Sydney community radio station, FBi 94.5FM. All artists have donated their tracks for use in this album, and 100% of all sales go directly to FBi.

DOWNLOAD AT newweirdaustralia.bandcamp.com, Price $10

1. NICK WISHART, Untitled (Live at Unpopular Music 2009) (04:22)
2. ANNA CHASE, Lines (Live at Unpopular Music 2009) (04:52)
3. SCISSOR LOCK, Untitled (Live at Unpopular Music 2009) (12:08)
4. ANON, Untitled (Live at Unpopular Music 2009) (16:29)
5. kyü, Sunny In Splodges (Live at Unpopular Music 2009) (05:19)
6. MANDALA TRAP (Pimmon & Jeff Burch) - Untitled (Live at Unpopular Music 2009) (7:02)
7. PIMMON, Untitled (Live at Unpopular Music 2009) 6:13

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan.
Artwork by Sopp Collective, soppcollective.com.
Recorded live at The Red Rattler, Sydney, November 2009.
Recorded and mixed by FBi Radio 94.5FM.

Click artist title for background information and links.
All music copyright of the artists, all rights reserved.

Sleeve Notes, April 2010:

Three FBi radio shows, New Weird Australia, Unputdownable & Sunday Night At The Movies, came together in November 2009 at the Red Rattler in Sydney to present ‘Unpopular Music’ – a benefit to support their station. They pooled their collective networks and gathered twelve of Sydney’s innovative, experimental artists – all of whom donated their time, with all proceeds going directly to FBi, helping to ensure the ongoing survival of Sydney’s home of new music.

‘Unpopular Music 2009, A Benefit Album For FBi Radio’ collects seven exclusive tracks, recorded live at ‘Unpopular Music 2009′. Once again, all artists have donated their tracks for use in this album, and 100% of all sales go directly to FBi.  The album includes music from:

- PIMMON, an artist that has forged an international reputation for creating dense, challenging and engaging electronic music
- MANDALA TRAP, a new collaborative project between PIMMON and JEFF BURCH, solo artist and one quarter of Sydney band, SONGS
- kyü, an experimental pop outfit, building a reputation for their original and innovative sound
- ANON, aka noise artist, musician and label manager Anna Vo
- SCISSOR LOCK, an experimental project from musician Marcus Whale
- ANNA CHASE, a multi instrumentalist and vocalist who weaves melodies into familiar yet dreamy pop constructions.
- sound artist, musician and chronic circuit bender NICK WISHART – long-standing member of Toydeath

New Weird Australia broadcasts a weekly show on Sydney’s FBi 94.5FM – an independent, community-based radio station, delivering the best in new music and emerging culture. FBi plays 50% Australian music, with half of that from Sydney. As a not-for-profit entity, FBi relies on the financial support of listeners in order to stay on air, primarily by subscribing as an FBi Supporters. Every dollar raised from this release goes directly towards keeping FBi on air. For more information, visit fbiradio.com.

THE NECKS are one of Australia’s most innovative cult bands, channeling experimental, avant garde, jazz, ambient and minimal sounds via a back catalogue that runs to fifteen albums over twenty years. Each of THE NECKS also has an equally impressive solo and collaborative career – however they always find time to regroup and return to Sydney at least once a year for one of their renowned live shows.

Ahead of their Sydney show in February 2010, Chris Abrahams from THE NECKS joined Stu & Danny on NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA Radio Show for a chat about their ever-evolving career and, in particular, the new album ‘Silverwater’ – a single 67 minute piece, representing some of their best work to date.

DOWNLOAD: Podcast Six: Chris Abrahams, The Necks (34:05)

The New Weird Australia Podcast Series features selected interviews and exclusive, in-studio recordings from our FBi radio show. Subscribe to our podcast feed by using this URL: http://www.cpod.org.au/feed.php?id=211 or click here to subscribe directly in iTunes.

By their own admission, Crab Smasher are a NSW based group of “improvisational sound sharks crafting a frenzied hodgepodge of weirdo psychedelic noise rock and experimental pop delicious”. Having morphed through a variety of lineups and styles since their formation in 2002, their current incarnation took time away from recent Sydney gigs to visit the New Weird Australia radio show with guest presenter Brooke Olsen. The band deliver a rare live acoustic set and discuss what it means to be “the first carbon neutral noise band”, playing in a Newcastle scene big enough to fill a small living room.

DOWNLOAD: Podcast Five: Crab Smasher (31:06)

The New Weird Australia Podcast Series features selected interviews and exclusive, in-studio recordings from our FBi radio show. Subscribe to our podcast feed by using this URL: http://www.cpod.org.au/feed.php?id=211 or click here to subscribe directly in iTunes.