STACK #132 Oct 2016

NEWS

MUSIC

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B ig Sound is over for another year but you can't stop the rock, stop the rock; it's flying down the hill like that boulder that lands at the bottom of the pool in Sexy Beast . Julia Holter (left), recently announced for Meredith Music Festival, spoke to us about her beautiful new album; Link from The Meanies tried to remember why the band decided to record again; 'Yass Queen' Peaches thinks we're all too repressed; and Dan Kelly will shortly be bringing the sounds of Leisure Panic! to a venue near you. Happy days. Zo ë Radas (Music Editor)

Julia Holter

On My Speakers

Kelela Hallucinogen

Nothing But Thieves Nothing But Thieves

Born Ruffians RUFF

Palms Crazy Rack

ALEX G BY THE SEA T here's something really secretly major going on in the music of Alex G. Just the sparse song titles communicate something of the slipshod beauty of Beach Music : there’s the ineffably enchanting single Bug ; the sound of Giannascoli’s fingers sliding along his frets alongside organ and brushes on Thorns ; the chordal slouch of Kicker ; Salt has a drum beat like someone’s turned on one of the pre-set pulses on an organ and then thrown it into a cave; and the creaky vocals and bright solo trumpet of heartsick ballad In Love . The whole thing has the dreamy electronic spine of Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore , but it’s also just as acoustic and naturally unrefined as its shoreside title suggests. The tracks were written in Giannascoli’s home in between tours for Gardens & Villa, Elvis Depressedly and Cymbals Eat Guitars, rather than all in one rapid chunk; it means the ideas float across genres in beautifully surprising ways, all the while suggesting the emotive stuff of Elliott Smith. “Every song is coming from a different place,” he's said of the release. “It branches off in all these directions, but it has its own sound. It’s not something I do intentionally, but I’m the common thread.” Other critics have variously mentioned River Cuomo and Neil Young in their efforts to describe the album, but we highly recommend you listen for yourself.

BOY & BEAR: JON HART

gear and Gabriel’s gear… a drum kit from the 1960s he’d played on a lot of Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne records, a really nice Wurlitzer, an old B3 organ, heaps of guitars, and a grand piano. The only thing I contributed was a Roland Juno from the ‘80s; it’s an amazing analogue synth.” In recording new album Limit of Love , Johns and engineer Dom Monks managed to produced an extremely clean sound despite the fact there was no separate control room or partitions between players. The whole thing was taped in real time. “[Normally we’d] build the song in layers as opposed to capturing it live,” Hart explains, “and we realised there was a bit of a disconnect between [live shows] and what was getting recorded. Ethan was just sitting there listening to us play, he wasn’t listening back on speakers. It was just him being a listener in the room and being able to tell whether or not we had a take. And that was really exciting.” It’s clear that Jon and his bandmates are fanboys of the revered producer, but apparently their nerves cleared within a day or two. “I mean, he has rock and roll stories that go back like you wouldn’t believe, because his dad worked with The Rolling Stones and The Who and The Beatles,” he says. “So when we had a down moment we’d talk Ryan Adams stories or Kings of Leon stories… it just went on.” The result of that snug rapport is a beautiful record which moves through several eddies of style: Hart’s own grace note- inflected piano on Where’d You Go , the gorgeous arrhythmia in Man Alone , the spectre of Nick Drake on Fox Hole , Hart’s delayed and reverbed Juno on the wonderful Ghost 11 and the stand- out, pretty as hell Just Dumb .

P eter Gabriel’s studio looks a bit like the isolated, wood-bound mansion from Ex Machina , and its insides might be even more magical. “It’s unusual for a studio, isn’t it,” Boy & Bear’s Jon Hart tells us. “It has a lot of vibe but it’s also got a lot of natural light. [Gabriel] has a ridiculous collection of instruments, but Ethan [Johns, producer] has a collection that would rival Peter Gabriel’s. It was a mix of his

Beach Music by Alex G is out on October 9 via Domino.

Limit of Love by Boy & Bear is out October 9 through Universal.

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