STACK #190 Aug 2020

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Erasure The Neon Unlike their enduring contemporaries in NewWave, Erasure have always stood apart with a basic sense of optimism to their songs. Full of warm melodies and propulsive rhythms, Erasure’s 18th album is a shot of serotonin to the brain. It’s not all rays of sunshine: Fallen Angel deals with self-doubt, Diamond Lies with betrayal, but each finds a self-confidence in the end. Even when the record’s energy takes a downturn, on the stunning ballad New Horizons , it’s with uplifting sentiment like “When all is lost / Don’t you ever give up hope.“ It’s a cheerful innoculation against wintry cynicism.

Hockey Dad Brain Candy

Entrenched in a rich lineage of savage Australian rock thrashers and hopeful burnouts, Hockey Dad's immediate ascent has been marked with track after track of riffage-backed ennui and Brain Candy only exhibits it at its absolute best. Every song here builds on the band's strongest elements: careening sing-alongs, introspective stompers, and a sense that though this may all come crashing down at any minute, maybe we’ll get through this together. With a major international tour put on hold given the current circumstances, Brain Candy is a stellar recreation of Hockey Dad large and in charge. (Fat Possum/Inertia) NathanWilliams

Widowspeak Plum Plums symbolise the start of spring, with their flowering blossoms. If conditions are kind perhaps half these flowers will be pollinated, transforming into fruit. It's a natural magic that Brooklyn duo Widowspeak know well. Their own songs unfold with the same graceful pace of seasonal cycles. Each record is filled

with atmospheric arrangements that draw from the traditions of folk, rock, pop, country and Americana. With its languid melodies and rhythms, Plum is then a continuation of their craft, and a new beginning. Molly Hamilton says of the title track: “I wrote Plum about wanting to be more comfortable and casual with thoughts I tend to avoid. Especially when I’m feeling very out-of-step with the world, there’s no use in being nostalgic for 'the end of an era' or being afraid of what could happen. But, avoiding the present is kind of my default. I’m trying to be more aware that everything is on its own trajectory, in its own time, slowly becoming something or becoming nothing.“ These songs glow with the warmth of an early spring morning, and carry the chill of a winter not yet forgotten. (CapturedTracks/Remote Control) SimonWinkler

(Mute/PIAS) Jake Cleland

Naretha Williams Blak Mass Blak Mass is the debut album from Naretha Williams, an accomplished experimental audio artist, sound engineer and composer. Immense and immersive, Blak Mass stands as a rare artistic and technical achievement. Commissioned as a live performance for the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ, here is a collection of original works never before heard

on an instrument of its type, and performed in a way that's never been attempted before. Williams harnesses the thunder of four storey-high pipes and commands the organ's wires and keys using an array of synthesisers and sequencers. Across the record we hear deep droning chords that swirl and resolve around cavernous techno beats and eerie electronic signals. It represents an extension of Williams' existing CRYPTEX project, which explores themes of identity, place and body. Williams is a Wiradjuri woman of mixed lineage, born and based in Melbourne on the Sovereign Land of the Kulin Nation, Victoria, Australia, and Blak Mass is described as a reflection on “the city’s jarring civic history and the impact of colonisation on its First Peoples and Land. Blak Mass considers the Grand Organ as a significant symbol of European domination and reaches deep in to the psyche of the instrument to create a haunting, avant-garde sound work.“ (Heavy Machinery Records) SimonWinkler

Katy Perry Smile Read our track-by-track review of Katy Perry's new album online at stack.com.au, fromAugust 24. Smile by Katy Perry is out August 28 on JB-exclusive red vinyl, regular black vinyl, CD, and deluxe edition (with digipack and lenticular front cover) via Island/Universal.

28 AUGUST 2020

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