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 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.”
First published in The Big Issue
Please see review in PDF.
