eclectic and experimental australian music

NWA Podcast #14. Axxonn, Interview

(November 2010) AXXONN is the self-described “pop/synth/doom/electronic music project” from Brisbane’s Tom Hall. Originally exploring territories solely of doom and drone in his earlier EP releases, his recent debut album ‘Let’s Get It Straight’ deploys a barrage of wider influences – from 80s mullet-metal, abstract electronica, hardcore noise, synth-pop and the blackest of black metal. Stu Buchanan talked to Tom Hall during the album launch tour, shortly before he was due to take to the stage in Hobart and ahead of dates in Sydney, Geelong, Melbourne and Perth, rounded off with a lap of honour in Brisbane.

DOWNLOADNWA Podcast #14. Axxonn, Interview (November 2010)

The New Weird Australia Podcast Series features selected interviews and in-studio recordings from our FBi radio show, as well as live performances from events, video interviews and more.  Subscribe to our podcast feed by using this URL: http://newweirdaustralia.libsyn.com/rss or click here to subscribe directly in iTunes.

NWA Erratic News, 27th August 2010.

The first in an erratic and unplanned series of updates from the NWA universe.

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.

refraction-flyer

Refraction, Curated by New Weird Australia

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.