STACK #153 Jul 2017

MUSIC NEWS

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Gizzard Murder Universe!

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I n 2013 a young woman from NSW named Celia Pavey wowed Australia with an appearance on The Voice. Now known as Vera Blue, she's back with an elegant new effort called Perennial , a true showcase for her remarkable voice helmed by Andy and Tom Mak (Bertie Blackman, Boy & Bear) with much of the material penned in California during a US writing trip. The album was written through the prism of that old chestnut, mending the broken heart and each song is placed to reflect three chapters. Indeed, the first album single was entitled Mended . " Perennial flows in phases, of how I developed as a person over 18 months, to include my thoughts, emotions and even fantasies," the songwriter tells STACK . "The second chapter of Perennial is very special to me. I was beginning to move past the pain and heartbreak. Songs like Private and Lady Powers are about dignity, strength and empowerment. Magazine is a shift of my attention to the curiosity of what it would be like to be famous." Of course, like any artist, Vera Blue takes the subject at hand and gives it a healthy twist. When she sings about a certain someone 'crawling back to me' on Give In, there’s a creepy electronic ticking effect, akin to a centipede. "Completely unintentional!" she insists. "That moment is chaotic and dramatic, surfacing feelings of anger and frustration. I am a lover of Trap music, so the use of ‘ticking’ trap hats and heavy drawn-out bass drops create the angst in that moment." Vera Blue has a burgeoning on-line presence as Vera BLue These days we all snap phone pics at gigs: but who sits and sketches a band? STACK proudly presents SKETCHY GIGS! SKETCHy GIGS

B link and you'll miss King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Apart from wowing North America on their current tour, and having their name mangled by Eddie Izzard on N.P. R ( Izzard, Wizard, Lizard, Gizzard : geddit?) Murder of the Universe is the Melbourne act's 10th album since 2012. So much for 'lazy musicians', then. M.O.T.U is a psyched-up stomp through visions of the apocalypse. A female narrator opens the album intoning "As soon as the dust settles/ you can see/ a new world/ in place of where the old one had been". Cue kookily molten riffing and quintessential 'evil madman' vocal stylings as K.G.L.W propel us through four variations on the track Altered Beast , before diving into tracks like Soy Protein Munt Machine, Han Tyumi the Confused Cyborg and Vomit Coffin. "We’re living in dystopian times...it’s hard not to reflect that in our music,” says frontman Stu Mackenzie. “Some scientists predict the downfall of humanity is as likely to come at the hands of Artificial Intelligence, as it is war or viruses or climate hooked up to a healthy sense of the absurd, Gizz are here with their deathray ready to destroy Metropolis, and you dear listener, are tied to the tracks. Four (!) more albums are rumoured to appear in the next 12 months. Hop on here, buy the ticket and take the ride. JA change." Dipping into any and all musical genres and

Perennial

by Vera Blue is out now via Universal Music.

well. Apart from a cheeky vocal warm up video with Montaigne (recommended for all aspiring vocalists), the clip for her track Private gained plaudits for a remarkable physical performance many can't believe wasn't digitally altered. "Alex is an incredible dancer. We didn't use digital manipulation, we didn't need to. His movements were all improvised. The clip was really bought to life through chaotic film techniques and Alex's body movements." ZKR

Bad Dreems sketched by Jennifer Dou at Woolly Mammouth, Brisbane June 8 2017. Check Jennifer Dou's sketches on Instagram: @sketchygigs

Murder of the Universe by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is out now via Inertia .

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JULY 2017

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