North Melbourne Town
Hall
Twenty years in any industry is an achievement. Twenty
years in the Australian music industry is Herculean. That it's been done by
focusing on defiantly uncommercial music speaks to the passion Chapter Music
honchos Guy Blackman and Ben O'Connor have for music that is both distinctly
Australian, and yet ignored by most of Australia. Whatever it is that they look
for in an act is amply displayed today in a celebration that encompasses ten
hours, two stages, a small cinema and a large merch table.
Kicking
things off in a formidably distinctive style are nineties legends Clag. Inadvertent inventors of
their own genre 'kindergarten pop' though as much in debt to the Brisbane
grindcore scene as they are to Mr Men books, the six-piece sound like they're
struggling with their instruments as much today as they were fifteen years ago
when they released the legendary Manufacturing
Resent EP. To a near-capacity room of sharply-dressed thirty-somethings
and their transfixed children, Clag hammer out a set that features Goldfish
complete with gargling solo, Broken Brain, Fresh and finishes with a
spectacular Chips and Gravy. It's hard to think how a band this
accidentally brilliant could exist again.
Battling a misbehaving sound system, Beaches are
on resolutely arresting form. Featuring several new songs, the band's capacity
to issue pulverising waves of riff has only been hardened by their time away
from the gig circuit. What they lack in dynamic shifts and brevity, they more
than compensate for in the nuances that reward close attention. The fluidity of
Gill Tucker's bass, Antonia Sellbach's spidery lead lines and the sheer force
of their combined vocals, as on killer track He Doesn't Know is enough
to show there is far more going on here than the reductionist rock that a
cursory listen suggests. Final track Good Comet Returns is both new and a
highlight.
Shooing the kids
horsing around by the stage, Marty Frawley leads a tight and brilliant Twerps
through a blinder of a set. Unfolding
song after song of loose music played tightly, they sound sadder and angrier
than on record. New song On My Shoulder allows Frawley to wield a
12-string as Julia MacFarlane (one of the finest guitarists anywhere right now)
steps up to the mic to reveal yet another weapon in the band's arsenal.
Another act going
from strength to strength are Pikelet who today generate more positive
word of mouth than any Pitchfork review could engender. Highlighting songs from
their forthcoming album (tentatively titled Calluses), defying
genre and making old synths seem like something beamed back from the future,
there is something entirely 'next level' about the set tonight. Singer Evelyn
Morris and synth maestro Shags Chamberlain have mastered the art of combining
arresting sounds without ever swamping the song or distracting from the deft
rhythm section. Tracks Pressure Cooker, Forward Motion and closing Fleeting
amaze with their capacity to get the crowd dancing and responding as though
they've known the songs for years.
"Are you ready
for some folk music?" asks a relaxed and affable Laura Jean. We
are. Wielding guitar, autoharp and keyboard-stroking Guy Blackman to powerful
effect, Laura Jean tells us story after story of cold winter, trapped miners, sorry marriages, Smooth
FM and reluctant love. She's spellbinding, humble, funny and never anything but
wholly honest, and we respond loudly and warmly.
Meanwhile
downstairs, lurk DJs and an acoustic stage on which Dick Diver, pulling out all
manner of jangly dourness and sporadic hilarity. Songwriting skills shine on
new songs like Water
Damage from their forthcoming album and it's
these that really impress. As does latest Chapter Music signing Johnny Telafone, a prolific bedroom composer who seemingly lives trapped between
copulating robots. Electro explosions anchor songs like Broken Hearts Are Hard To Fix, Make Your
Pussy Cum and comparatively chipper
single Spirit Man, though it's Telafone's stage presence that truly
impresses.
Whatever it is that
unites these artists in the eyes of Chapter Music, if you were anywhere else
Saturday night, you missed out on something wholly remarkable.
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