New Weird Australia : Eclectic & experimental Australian Music.

Our latest compilation is titled 'Gloss & Moss' - 22 tracks of new, eclectic and experimental Australian music co-curated by Melbourne-based label Fallopian Tunes, and Stuart Buchanan from New Weird Australia.  Here Stuart Buchanan talks about the background of the compilation - download for free on the Free Music Archive.

Finding Fallopian Tunes’ early release ‘Berlin Mixtape‘ was nothing short of a godsend.

Hunting down music to play on the weekly New Weird Australia radio show is never a chore, the hunt can be both exhilarating and frustrating. Yet, finding one relevant new release may take hours, and only yield a single track. Hence the night when ‘Berlin Mixtape’ was discovered remains firmly etched in memory – sixteen tracks of new, eclectic and experimental Australian music, and all of them gems. The concept seemed eerily, and generously, familiar.

Naturally enough, the mixtape received a ritual flogging on the radio show – I simply couldn’t get enough of it – and it also conveniently led to the first release on the then nascent label, the stunning debut from Yolke, titled Poppy Wash. Yet, at the same time led nowhere – Fallopian Tunes had no web site, and little web presence – which, contrary to what a manager might tell you, simply added to the allure of the label.

Many months later, we finally met each other virtually, complemented each other for our respective output, and danced around the idea of perhaps linking arms and working on a shared release. ‘Gloss & Moss’ is the result: 22 tracks, 11 a-piece, representing precision and imprecision – controlled chaos and chaotic control. In splitting hairs over definitions, this ‘Australia Mixtape’ has both its cake and devours it – we can pay attention to the difference, or ignore it all together. Like Fallopian Tunes and New Weird Australia, it’s two sides of the same coin – a collection of exceptions that prove the rule.

New Editions, an offshoot label imprint for New Weird Australia, winds up its schedule with two new albums – from Thomas William vs Scissor Lock and Strange Forces. Since launching in 2010, the series has released albums and EPs from Caught Ship, Blake Freele, Paneye, TANTRUMS, No Zu, Kris Keogh, Forenzics and Spartak. Each release has been available in both physical and digital formats.

The final two releases in the series see Sydney experimental electronic artists Thomas William and Scissor Lock coming together for their debut collaborative release, ‘Jewelz‘, as well as the first Australian physical release for Brisbane psych-rock ex-pats Strange Forces, who have been tearing up a storm in Berlin over the last two years.

Both releases are available for download in full from FMA:

Stream / Download 'Jewelz' by Thomas William vs Scissor Lock

Stream / Download 'Strange Forces' by Strange Forces

Ducks Battle Satan on Thomas William vs Scissor Lock: "Like Sigur Ros mixed with Pimmon with Birchville Cat Motel producing the most wonderful chill out experimentronica ... both transcendent and challenging, Jewlez is a very fine release indeed."

20jazzfunkgreats on Strange Forces: "Rattling, monstrous invocations of acid-rock breakdowns both mental and musical ... The Old Ones would be proud."

Vox - Volume 10 in New Weird Australia’s compilation series – is now available for free download through the FMA.

Exploring the voice in experimental, alternative and eclectic musics, Vox is co-curated by artist and musician Gail Priest and NWA’s Stuart Buchanan, and features exclusive, unreleased material from Kusum Normoyle, Paul Heslin, The Deadly Nightshades, Kučka, Mimic Mass, Major Napier, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Scissor Lock and ronnu panda, alongside music from Donna Hewitt, Sky Needle, Furchick, Mosaic Mosaic, Rabbit Island and Juarez.

Sample three tracks below, or visit the release page for download information, artist links and sleeve notes from Gail Priest.

Last year, we shifted the focus of the New Weird Australia compilation series away from a free-for-all approach to something that would have a sharper curatorial focus. Something you could put handles around (so to speak).  Something you could clearly identify as “a compilation about X or Y or Z”. “We Are After All Here”, volume eight in our compilation series, does have a theme and identity of sorts, but defining it becomes increasingly problematic. Let me explain:

Throughout 2009 and 2010, we were listening to a heap of bands and artists that were clearly starting to coalesce into some form of vague and abstract grouping. Either through sound, technique, image, a reverence for the past, or just a common, skewed take on a hauntalogical notion, there was a broad church emerging that would count these artists among their flock.

Fortunately, no one dared to define it. If you speak of the devil, he’s sure to appear, thus keeping quiet and refusing to conform to definition worked well for all concerned. Having no such definition, and thus having artists co-opted or excluded based solely on the whims of the individual listener, was the perfect scenario.

But, of course, someone had to define it, and in doing so, they killed it. Hipster Runoff dropped ‘chillwave’, The Wire started talking about ‘hypnogogic pop’.  Then followed glo-fi, witch house, drag, screw gaze and so on and so on. (Our favourite remains ‘crunk shoegaze’ – meaningless, yet somehow quite endearing).

The list of artists lumped together under these various microgenres was often contradictory and bafflingly random – they were subsumed to the will of the writer, desperate to force round pegs into square holes. And once this grouping was anointed with such dubious definitions, the scrutiny began – spotlights were shone in all manner of places, and backlashes naturally came thereafter. The edifice soon crumbled.

We, on the other hand, are (after all) here – ‘down under’ – doing our own thing, far removed from such recklessness. We have our own obliquely connected and amoebic group of similar artists, remaining unaffected by trend, hype or weak stylistic interpretation. And it is to this group that we turn for this compilation. If, by virtue of their geography, they had birthed their projects in North America, they might well have all been raped and pillaged by now – raked over the blogeratti coals for their part in an ill-defined ‘scene’.

Although our upside-down location can often be a curse, in this case it’s a blessing – all these artists survived unscathed, their mission no more or less impossible, living another day to ‘fight the good fight’. And we shall leave this group unnamed, for all our sakes. Suffice to say, it’s another new, weird slice through the unsung underground of abnormal Australian music.

DOWNLOAD / STREAM FULL RELEASE HERE

Sample tracks from the release:

Earlier this year, we alluded to a departure in format in our free compilation series of eclectic and experimental Australian music. 

Up until now, the series has effectively been a snapshot in time of new, weird Australian music, dropping once every two months.  Over nine compilation albums, we faithfully represented that broad and loose concept, however the time has come to sharpen our focus.  The series will now morph into more structured compilation releases – structured either by genre, geography or theme, or structured by the guiding hand of a guest curator.

The first of such releases scores on two counts – ‘The Sound Of Young Canberra‘ is the first release to be selected by a guest curator, in this case the double-header combination of Shoeb Ahmad (hellosQuare) and Tim Guthrie (Dream Damage). It is also the first compilation to focus exclusively on one geographical area, and what better place to start than our oft-scorned nation’s capital.

Together, Shoeb & Tim have been a beacon for new Canberra music  – via Shoeb’s label and tireless commitment to live events, and Tim’s outstanding blog, where many Canberra artist receive their first online editorial.  This new collaboration between that pair is a wild and truly eclectic mix of styles; some familiar, some entirely new; some residents, some expartiates – featuring Pollen Trio, Teddy Trouble, Spartak, Jonny Telafone, From The South, Readymen, Reuben Ingall, Danger Beach, Shoeb Ahmad, Assassins 88, Kasha and Bum Creek.

The 12-track compilation is available for FREE download from the Free Music Archive at: 
freemusicarchive.org/music/New_Weird_Australia/The_Sound_Of_Young_Canberra/

Sample three of the tracks below: