Hey world, what’s good?

As usual there’s lots of shows and events happening plus the usual hordes of new stock on the shelves since we last wrote.

Autumn is here, we hope you enjoy the colours.

Easter Everywhere.

In this dark we call creation
We can be and feel and know
From an effort, comfort station
That's surviving on the go
There's infinite survival in
The high baptismal glow

Live where your heart can be given
And your life starts to unfold
In the forms you envision
In this dream that's ages old
On the river layer is the only sayer
You receive all you can hold
Like you've been told

Every day's another dawning
Give the morning winds a chance
Always catch your thunder yawning
Lift your mind into the dance
Sweep the shadows from your awning
Shrink the fourfold circumstance

All your lightning waits inside you
Travel it along your spine
Seven stars receive your visit
Seven seals remain divine
Seven churches filled with spirit
Treasure from the angels' mine

You think you can't, you wish you could
I know you can, I wish you would

Slip inside this house as you pass by

Love Lulus
Rest in Peace Roky

NEW ARRIVALS

MYSTIC 100'S - "ON A MICRO DIET" 2LP

*NOTE: THIS IS A PREORDER - 2LPS WILL SHIP WHEN THEY ARRIVE FROM USA*

LULUS:

To say that this has been highly anticipated around these parts is to state the obvious. The group of musicians formerly known as MILK MUSIC now go under the name MYSTIC 100's [I got milk in my eye as I write this - don't ask - the universe speaks!] and who can blame them? What a befitting moniker and with this double album it makes all the sense in the cosmos. The opening title track gets right into it and after just thirty seconds they've flexed their toned creative physiques with a preposterously stylish switch up. Then the journey begins - one of many. D'Mystics have achieved magic in the studio again thanks to Captain Tripps Ballsington [yep] and each sound is a treasure, so honest and pure as to be kinda surreal. Bravo, Captain, this joint sounds ultimately and intimately stellar.

Need we remind you that this is for serious listeners only? Only a handful of these songs are under the eight-minute mark with the group taking a leap of faith-in-themselves into the territory whispered of in myth by their esteemed teachers - jamming the fuck out. They get down with Jimi, light joints with Neil, brush their locks with Alice and take long [LONG] strolls with Jerry. They even do jazz - in a Flag way of course. God they're weirdos [thank God they are]. At a run time over an hour one can't presume that everything on this right here opus will fill every cup of tea. It moves in myriad directions and is prone to turning at the drop of a magician's hat but this soul is a sucker for the groovy tricks they play so we carry on.

If "Windowpane" is the gang at their Milkiest then "Have You Ever Chased A Lightbeam?" is them at their Mysticiest; a chakric journey beginning with a classic Coxen chord motif but this time 'round it's shinin' through a prism like that Pink Floyd album y'all know so well. There is a real 'dawning of an age' feeling in the air it pushes from your speakers - except by my reckoning it's in fact not heralding a new age at all; it's boldly embracing what we already have within. This jam sounds like mushroom tea, shrouds of incense/cigarette/pot smoke, sugar cubes, old carpet and a couple half drunk beer cans. A nineteen minute trip of sheer, delicate, heavy bliss. Who needs a saviour when all you need is a beam of light, y'know? A good question, and one that is emblematic of this album and the development in sound from previous releases - the brats have spent more time with their Strats. There's venom when it's called for but the snotty lips that spat in every direction have taken a few deep breaths. Grow your soul and let it shine. Mystic 100's are waiting for you.

ANOESIS - "MEMORY ON MEMORY" LP

Some Acidic Sunlight Raving wax right here. About as busy on the breaks as you could get while retaining that minimal tip. It's a treat hearing from someone who's been working in the genre since '94 and these modulated experiments spark joy. Though it's unsurprisngly not as raw or brute as the earlier ANOESIS material it instead has the confident touch of an artist who's learned to follow where the sounds take them. In this instance it's a moth flittering towards light to circumabulate until it drops, and that's techno innit?

UGLY THINGS - "ISSUE #57" MAGAZINE
UGLY THINGS - "ISSUE 58" MAGAZINE
UGLY THINGS - "ISSUE #60" MAGAZINE
UGLY THINGS - "ISSUE #61" MAGAZINE

UGLY THINGS MAGAZINE - FANATICS ONLY!! For lovers of 60’s, 70’s, 80’s music - this is for you. Ugly Things Magazine is up to 60+ issues and their look & feel is still stuck in the 60’s. Love it. Killer way to delve deep into favourites (Velvet Underground, Chrome, The Doors, The Dogs, The Magicians) and obscurities alike. They also cover reissues so you can seek out newly available old tunes as well as adding gold plates to your Discogs want list. They plumb the depths so it’s a little easier for you to find the nuggets.

SNOW BROS - "MUSIC" CS

Two anonymous jazzmen created these cold-rain improvisations for Sleeper Tape. Woodwind drones loop-de-loop, Chapel-court keys melodeys, thunder rumbles in 64-bit, astral synthesis, it's all quite hallucinatory.. The fact this music has been improvised and recorded live lets you know the calibre of musicians behind the veil; ain't no slouches. Coltranes, meet, D&D campaigns.

FUTURE LOVER - "ISSUE 1" ZINE

Doors, tracksides and walls adorned with illicit names. "But what about our lovely city?" All those vibrant advertisements some muppet worked so hard on? All the practical swashes of colours fit for a bin? Expression and unapologetic damage is greater than stark repression and paid manipulation. Uptight squares be gone. Hail the bombers.

WITNESS K - "WITNESS K" LP

As an outsider of the Sydney underground, Witness K had been a band that I'd feared I'd never get to experience. All the hallmarks were there; a reluctance to tour, little to no documentation, hushed reverence from people who's opinions I hold very high.

All I knew from the odd pic on social media was that Cured Pink's Andrew McLellan was involved, alongside Daily Toll's Sabina Rysnik and two others I didn't immediately recognise (being Lyn Heazlewood and Maeve Parker). This was more than enough information than I needed to be excited about this band, and fearful that like so many greats before them they would dissipate without leaving much behind.

It is then, with great delight, that I hold this album in my hands. On first glance there is temptation to compare this work to McLellan's past output (as much as anything due to the fact that the sheer weight of his oeuvre looms so large Australian underground music of the last 15 years) - a temptation I will indulge in a little. But it would be foolish to put this in the same category as something like Cured Pink, Enderie Nuatal, or Soft Power. While his touches are there, and it wouldn't surprise me if the overall production of the record was shaped by his sensibilities, this is first and foremost a band record.

The whole thing feels like a push and pull; teetering on the edge between free experimentation and grounding pop flourishes. Never fully falling one way or another. It's this tension that propels this record into truly great status, and which leaves it occupying space in my mind long after the second side ends.

More than anything, Witness K evokes (and evolves upon) an extremely specific and beautifully fertile time in Australian music. This album sits alongside Mad Nanna's "I Made Blood Better", Castings' "Punk Rock Is Bunk Squawk", and Vincent Over The Sink's "22 Coloured Bull Terriers" insofar as it creates a world all of it's own. A disorienting, magic space.

DISTORT #59: "MULCH - HORSE MEAT AND BRICK DUST..." BOOK

Mulch "Horse Meat and Brick Dust and The French and Other Oddities" is out now and you will buy it. Most of the stories are about food. The rest of them are about failure and never learning from it.

84 pages, full colour heavy cardstock cover. Australia’s Only Poet.

Second Edition of 100 copies - published by Distort. Australia’s Only Publishing House

This is Distort #59. Autumn 2023.

550BC - "HOOLICARDS" BOOK

Among the thugs. Throttled with your scarf, swallowed half your teeth, there’s a Headhunters card in a pool of blood and vomit. They took your Burberry hat and ripped the arm patch off your stone island parka and called you naughty words. Unthinkable slurs.

550BC contributes another book to their documentation of the aesthetics of football violence.

Hoolicards is a collection of calling cards from football hooligan firms. These reprehensible aesthetes with their fine clothing and thug mentality are ruining the beautiful game!

V/A - "TRAMWAY HOTEL LIVE SERIES: VOL 1" LP

Fitzroy AF. Fitzroy as watching a rivulet of Fanta trickle from a maccas cup down the 86 aisle. Fitzroy as a defaced mural. Fitzroy as a radius and a curfew.

Fitzroy as shutting down a venue with noise complaints. “We moved from the suburbs to the city for a bit of the culture. Just a slice, mind. My supervisor can’t hear me in this zoom chat over the hectic sound of Blonde Revolver - we have serious KPIs to hit. Why can’t it be smooth jazz wine bar with natty piss and sophisticated butter? Frawley not found at the end of that bar! I’m a resident - I demand to be respected - I have the right to read the Saturday Paper in peace!”

“The fucken Tramway” as the Notorious Our Carlson coined it - Fitzroy as - established in 1873 - but I have sources that may or may not play in the band Imperial Leather, sources who point to more esoteric beginnings that actually place its founding thousands of years in the future. I can’t say more about this, you understand. They are reading the back of every compilation LP, I’m no snitch. OUZO! hint at it in their song, the manic hardcore is dense with references to future tramway as sacred chapel, the muttering in the closing moments is a protective chant against neighbour nerds from future language - but I cannot say more!

What I can say is this - we live in interesting times - and the Tramway has had some interesting years. Live music was suspended in 1989 on the back of complaints by the aforementioned cowards, snivelling rats, the enemy! In 2018 it was overturned after 12 months of legal battle, angst, and community support. 2020! Release the bat flu - a couple years of virus stasis - I can’t say more about this - I bite my tongue to shreds!

This LP is the first of a series of compilations of live recordings at the Tramway, announcing a nu Melbourne, the return of live music and celebrating the unique venues that facilitate its growth, the soil and the fertiliser. These songs were recorded between January 22 to Aug 22. Most of these artistes were dormant for years - like Vintage Crop and Michael Beach, sharpening their teeth, writing, waiting and anticipating release - some of these artistes are nu Melbourne, formed and hardened in the pressure of lockdown - The Glass Picture track will melt you, the Lou track will tuck you in.

Do you like to hear the room in a recording? The Prize is the prize, and the murmuring of crowd approbation through The Shifters. The recordings are raw, do you like it fast and loose? Do you like the synpunq Phil and the Tiles demanding you give up on your health and body? Prime advice for modern life! I must quote a private email from the executive producer of this project, Dave Forcier - “lots of the sets had to be last minute rejigged due to covid, ie. TB Ridge doing karaoke to his own music, bands getting fill ins on the day of, or just bands jumping on last minute due to covid cancellations.”

This is the sound of modern love - and for this listener, it sent me, most particularly the Lower Plenty song ‘Bondi is Dead’, a special song, a show I’m particularly devastated to miss - for this listener, it sent me - the resilience of these bands, the pressure release.

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