As a collective of seven permanent members and an ecosystem of many more, the audio and visual output of Sydney’s Telafonica is hard to keep track of. That said, the seemingly endless sprawl of creativity is ensuring that roots are burrowed deep into the ground beneath the feet of Sydney, and have thus become embedded in the very cultural fabric of the city.
The Telefonica catalogue dates as far back as 2001, with the release of ‘Dos’ – a split release covering one collection of beats, another of ambience and “dark d&b”. Around this time, Telafonica also appeared on a Clan Analogue compilation (‘Cognition 4 – Solid Gold‘) – and comparing their ambitions with that of the seminal Australian electronic collective would seem to hold safe and true.
Embedded around the founding duo of designer David Hughes and artist Adrian Elmer, Telafonica’s intention to mix the old with the new (or rather “cutting edge technologies” with “traditional techniques and aesthetics”) is borne out in their latest release, “I Saw This And Thought Of You”. The seven tracker blends clipped, minimal 4-4, 8-bit melodies, rough-hued dubstep and five-o’clock shadow electro – all liberally sprinkled with vocals that recall a short flight from early 80s post-punk or even that of old school Sydney electronic act, Severed Heads. It’s an album that seeks to confound our expectations of what might follow, and thus is always seemingly one step ahead.
The backstory of Telafonica is well documented on their label site 4-4-2 and much of their early material is made available for download at archive.org. As if that wasn’t considerate enough (especially in such wallet-diminished times), their free ‘Single Of The Month’ series on 4-4-2 is another eclectic godsend that deposits regular acts of electronic kindness. The cuts below are culled from a recent free Telefonica release described by the band as “two tracks of boom blip blip”.
The concept of sharing however goes much deeper – their Virb site was last year used as a space in which band members posted and traded demos of new material, all freely available for all to witness. The Telafonica blog is also just as much about us as it is about them – new tracks and articles as posted along side messages to one another such as “i appear to have misplaced the lyrics for time to move the nest. can you put them up here, blake, so i know where to find them?”. The very next day, Blake dutifully obliged.
Telafonica – Laughing At Trees | mp3
Telafonica – Tokyo Disco Bell (Luminarsi Version) | mp3
more | telafonica.blogspot.com
img | roujo