First published in Metro (Sydney Morning Herald), May 2012
In the opener from LA post-metal trio Marriages, five bursts of down-tuned distortion growl from the undergrowth, then retreat, leaving their hot, predatory breath on your skin and the thrilling question only metal can pose: how heavy is this going to get?
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald (Traveller weekend section), here, May 2012
This is not how I imagined my Namib Desert tour would begin. Myself, three Germans and an English couple are held captive in our guide’s Land Rover as he flips through a booklet of disturbing aerial photographs of the yellow sand dunes we’re here to see.
The car is stationary, poised to cross the Swakopmund River. It’s not clear when the tour will resume, at least in a locomotive sense. It appears first we must learn some facts about the vast ocean of sand before us that in December 2010 became part of the largest national park in Africa and the eight-largest protected area in the world: The Namib Skeleton Coast National Park.
Yellow Dunes. Translucent palmato gecko. Image: Kate Hennessy
First published in Metro (Sydney Morning Herald), May 2012
Cut loose from the mooring of a unifying concept, This Machine is a series of unrelated pop songs, disparate in sound and spirit, and marred by some real clangers. Enjoy Yourself shoots for anthemic slam-dunk but bounces awkwardly off the hoop and boing-boings around pointlessly, unaided by an ill-advised kazoo, and pleading you to press ‘skip’.
First published in Metro (Sydney Morning Herald), April 2012
A challenge throbs deep in the flesh of this EP from UK dubstep producer Burial: to listen without feeling heart-sore. Just try. And when you fail, trace your fall. You’ll find what’s responsible are the trademark sounds Burial – real name William Bevan –deployed on previous releases to the same devastating emotional effect.
First published in Mess+Noise, here.
KH: In his welcome message in the Dig it Up program, Hoodoo Gurus’ frontman Dave Faulkner says: “Dig it Up is NOT seeking to carve up the potential audience into marketing segments with a little bit of this for the ‘this’ people and a little bit of that for the ‘that’ people.”
