Sasha Margolis from AUTOMATING & CONSTANTLIGHT was a guest on the NWA radio show mid-August. We played his new CONSTANTLIGHT EP in full – which you can now download free at constantlight.bandcamp.com.

New Sydney producer GHOST_ also appeared on the NWA show recently and played a live set, backed by guitarist BLACK PYRAMID. He’s made the full set available for free download at ghostmusic.bandcamp.com

More free release material – from LUCIA DRAFT (NWA2). Her debut EP ‘A Pile Of Skeletons’ is now available for free download via Lesstalk Records.

ALPS (from NWA3 and our 2010 St Petersburg show) has a new (very limited) split live cassette with New Zealand’s Forest Spirits — get them before they’re gone at alps.bigcartel.com.

Another release featuring two artists from NWA4 – Sydney’s TEXTILE AUDIO and GENTLEFORCE. ‘The Pomegranate EP’ is TEXTILE AUDIO’s debut EP, featuring her unique mix of experimental sound and contemporary opera, released via Feral Media. The release comes complete with a GENTLEFORCE remix, who will shortly become one of the few Australian artists to feature on a ‘Wire Tapper’ compilation CD from the renowned Wire Magazine.

TOM HALL, who recently played our ‘Refraction vs New Weird Australia’ show has been signed under his AXXONN guise by Brisbane’s Useless Art Records. He’s released a new single ‘Lets Get it Straight’, ahead of a new album release in mid-October. axxonnband.blogspot.com

Line-ups are starting to be released for the 2010 This Is Not Art Festival, and the component parts Electro Fringe and Sound Summit, held in Newcastle NSW the first weekend in OCtober.. There’s an avalanche of great Australian music, including many NWA favourites such as TANTRUMS, DOT.AY, KYU, SCATTERED ORDER, COLLARBONES,. HOLY BALM, BLANK REALM, NO ANCHOR and more TBA.

Release, tour, other news?  Let us know – info at newweirdaustralia dot com.

NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA presents its first live event for 2010 on Saturday 27th March, featuring four acts from three states, held at St Petersburg in St Peters, Sydney.

With:
PAINT YOUR GOLDEN FACE (Hobart)
ALPS (Newcastle)
CAUGHT SHIP (Melbourne)
KAROSHI (Sydney)

DOWNLOAD 4-TRACK DIGITAL EP
with tracks from PAINT YOUR GOLDEN FACE, ALPS, CAUGHT SHIP & KAROSHI

Headliners PAINT YOUR GOLDEN FACE are a two-piece from Hobart who make music with choirs, drum loops, vocal loops, organs and tape loops.  Following last year’s three-track single “He Was Run Off The Road By His Amazing Face”, the band appear at New Weird Australia to promote their self-titled debut album, released this month on Tenzenmen Records.

Newcastle’s ALPS (aka solo artist Chris Hearn) play textured pop music with elements of shoegaze, folk, psych and drone – centred around analog keys, clean guitars, reverby vocals, drum machines, field recordings and pedals. Since 2005, ALPS has independently and through different labels internationally released three albums, two EP’s and a variety of 7” singles and splits. The new album, “Alps of New South Whales” is out now.

Melbourne’s CAUGHT SHIP developed from the Ben Pat, a.k.a Ben & Pat, two men with a mutual enjoyment of sweet hip hop beats and delay pedals. Later adding Jon and Kahli, Caught Ship continued to develop their sound; and have since been working towards carving their own style in a live setting. A new recording from CAUGHT SHIP appears on NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA Volume Five.

KAROSHI is Sydney based musician, Beres Jackson who plays a mix of melodic downtempo folk-tronica, fused with Berlin influenced glitch-techno. 4-4-2 Music will be releasing Karoshi’s debut album during 2010 which sees an expanded approach to his sound, with additional input from his live band and other collaborators.

NEW WEIRD AUSTRALIA at ST PETERSBURG
Saturday 27th March 2010, 8pm Sharp.
Tickets $10, available on the door.

SHARE THIS EVENT VIA OUR FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE.

www.myspace.com/wewillpaintyourgoldenface
www.myspace.com/alpsalps
www.myspace.com/caughtship
www.myspace.com/karoshimusic

Updated: Press for New Weird Australia at St Petersburg

Mess & Noise – Review “I love watching people dance to noise. It’s theatre of the purest kind especially when twirling, dervish moves ensue.”

The Brag – Interview “one of Australia’s most important champions of innovative music” (view online at Throw Shapes)

Two Thousand “Now that the music blog is leaping into live form with their latest show, it’s kind of like the Internet is dancing around in front of you – awesome”.

Title: New Weird Australia, Volume Three
Catalogue Number: NWA003
Released: November 2009

Free Download

Tracklisting:

1. JEFF BURCH, Untitled 1 (The Western Hour) (3:44), from ‘As I Remember, If I Remember Correctly, I Arrived Sweetly’
2. AFXJIM, Through The Woods (6:08), from ‘POWWOW Eight (Blackout Music)’
3. 48/4, Hlibt (3:39), previously unreleased
4. THE SINGING SKIES, September (2:52), from ‘September Sky’
5. K MASON, Of 2 Evils (7:15), from ’2 (Evils)’
6. ALPS, Goosebeak Whale (2:21), from ‘Alps Of New South Whales’
7. DRIVE WEST TODAY, Anthropology (4:37), previously unreleased
8. ADAM TRAINER, Corrosion Party (4:22), previously unreleased
9. COMATONE, They Fall Freely (6:05), previously unreleased
10. ZEAL, Wasps (2:34), previously unreleased
11. NAMATOKE, A Mountain With A Secret (4:53), from ‘Chiaroscuro’
12. LECTER MACABRE, Granelli (New Version) (2:43), previously unreleased
13. BUM CREEK, Fast Forrest (5:13), from ‘Bum Creek’
14. ANON, Quiver Crura Quaker (13:46), previously unreleased
15. ERASERS, Lost///Found (4:26), from ‘Erasers’
16. POMPEY, Actual Locks (3:20), previously unreleased

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan & Danny Jumpertz
Artwork by Lee Tran Lam, www.leetranlam.com

Click artist title for background information and links.
All music donated by the artists for use in this compilation only, all rights reserved.

Sleeve Notes: November 2009

The old adage still holds true – one man’s meat is indeed another man’s poison. Divert the same philosophy to music and the song remains the same. One woman’s rock is another woman’s roll – or thereabouts.

We make this point to simply note that our definition of ‘weird’ is purely subjective – and we make no claim otherwise. The artists that represent Volume Three of New Weird Australia truly stretch, invert and redefine the notion of ‘weird’. To some, this selection might well be perilously unlistenable, to others we’re toying dangerously with pop at various flash-points throughout the compilation. And therein lies the point.

Our mission is not to meticulously scope and define what is to be ‘weird’ (#FAIL). Our mission rather is to map out a loose terrain – one that skirts around the topological spread mapped by mainstream alternative media, and one that sits both simultaneously in and out of reach. New Weird Australia is designed as a bridge to reach fresh pastures – at some points that journey might feel familiar, at others it might be terrifyingly new.

Given that we’re now on our third volume, we understand that in order to go deep, we also have to go wide – which means fucking with the boundaries at both ends of the spectrum. From Zeal‘s quasi-Anticon hip-pop to Anon‘s 14-min noise excursion, Volume Three does indeed traverse considerable distances – along the way winding via Lecter Macabre‘s pitch-black slow-mo roar to Pompey‘s steel-drum romp that winds the set towards a final, optimistic flourish.  We could obviously go much wider and much deeper yet – there lies new worlds to conquer in future volumes.

For now, for this month, this is our definition of New Weird Australia. Some you’ll adore, some you’ll abhor – and with that very disagreement, we’ll all find common ground.

Press:

Throw Shapes “a meticulously curated exploration of left-field sounds – surreal, sublime atmospherics through to experimental electronic pop through to ten minute noise jams, all seamlessly ordered, and all from our very own shores”

Liz Berg, WFMU (NYC) / Free Music Archive “I’ve been hitting a few compilations pretty hard lately on the FMA, and I must say that a recent favorite has been “New Weird Australia, Volume 3.” …From mellow and woozy songs fit for a dream sequence, to repetitive krautrock jams, to dainty acoustic prances, to experimental electronic hiss, drones, and moments of glitch. This album won’t start any parties, but it does wonders if you’re driving, in a contemplative mood, just waking up, or stuck inside on a grey day.”

Alps plays textured pop music with elements of shoegaze, folk, psych and drone centered around analog keys, clean guitars, reverby vocals, drum machines, field recordings and pedals. Since 2005, Alps has independently and through different labels internationally released three albums, two EP’s and a variety of 7” singles and splits.

Alps has played hundreds of shows on multiple tours through Australia, New Zealand, USA and Europe, including playing alongside Animal Collective, Burmese, Wolf Eyes, Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Six Organs of Admittance, White Rainbow, Xiu Xiu and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone amongst others.

www.myspace.com/alpsalps