{"id":10123,"date":"2011-02-16T16:06:36","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T05:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuartbuchanan.com\/?p=10123"},"modified":"2021-01-30T23:38:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T23:38:06","slug":"new-weird-australia-we-are-after-all-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stuartbuchanan.com\/archives\/2011\/02\/16\/new-weird-australia-we-are-after-all-here\/","title":{"rendered":"New Weird Australia, We Are After All Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThroughout 2009 and 2010, we were listening to a heap of bands and artists that were clearly\u00a0starting to coalesce into some form of vague and abstract grouping. Either through sound, technique, image, a reverence for the past, or just a common, skewed take on a hauntalogical notion, there was a broad church emerging that would count these artists among their flock.<\/p>\n

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[otw_shortcode_button href=”https:\/\/newweirdaustralia.bandcamp.com\/album\/new-weird-australia-we-are-after-all-here” size=”medium” bgcolor=”#000000″ shape=”square” target=”_blank”]Stream \/ Download.[\/otw_shortcode_button]<\/p>\n

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Sleeve Notes.<\/strong>
\nLast year, we shifted the focus of the New Weird Australia compilation series away from a free-for-all approach to something that would have a sharper curatorial focus. Something you could put handles around (so to speak). \u00a0Something you could clearly identify as \u201ca compilation about X or Y or Z\u201d. \u201cWe Are After All Here\u201d, volume eight in our compilation series, does have a theme and identity of sorts, but defining it becomes increasingly problematic. Let me explain:
\nThroughout 2009 and 2010, we were listening to a heap of bands and artists that were clearly\u00a0starting to coalesce into some form of vague and abstract grouping. Either through sound, technique, image, a reverence for the past, or just a common, skewed take on a hauntalogical notion, there was a broad church emerging that would count these artists among their flock.
\nFortunately, no one dared to define it. If you speak of the devil, he\u2019s sure to appear, thus keeping quiet and refusing to conform to definition worked well for all concerned. Having no such definition, and thus having artists co-opted or excluded based solely on the whims of the individual listener, was the perfect scenario.
\nBut, of course, someone had to define it, and in doing so, they killed it. Hipster Runoff dropped \u2018chillwave\u2019, The Wire started talking about \u2018hypnogogic pop\u2019. \u00a0Then followed glo-fi, witch house, drag, screw gaze and so on and so on. (Our favourite remains \u2018crunk shoegaze\u2019 \u2013 meaningless, yet somehow quite endearing).
\nThe list of artists lumped together under these various microgenres was often contradictory and bafflingly random \u2013 they were subsumed to the will of the writer, desperate to force round pegs into square holes. And once this grouping was\u00a0anointed\u00a0with such dubious definitions, the scrutiny began \u2013 spotlights were shone in all manner of places, and backlashes naturally came thereafter. The edifice soon crumbled.
\nWe, on the other hand, are (after all)\u00a0here<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 \u2018down under\u2019 \u2013 doing our own thing, far removed from such recklessness. We have our own obliquely connected and amoebic group of similar artists, remaining unaffected by trend, hype or weak stylistic interpretation.\u00a0And it is to this group that we turn for this compilation.\u00a0If, by virtue of their geography, they had birthed their projects in North America, they might well have all been raped and pillaged by now \u2013 raked over the blogeratti coals for their part in an ill-defined \u2018scene\u2019.
\nAlthough our upside-down location can often be a curse, in this case it\u2019s a blessing \u2013 all these artists survived unscathed, their mission no more or less impossible, living another day to \u2018fight the good fight\u2019.\u00a0And we shall leave this group unnamed, for all our sakes. Suffice to say, it\u2019s another new, weird slice through the unsung underground of abnormal Australian music.
\nPostscript: At the time that this compilation was looking for its own defining title, we were saddened to hear of the passing of Trish Keenan from Broadcast. \u00a0As a band that pursued its own unique investigation of such territory and no doubt inspired many of these artists in whole or in part, we chose to draw on a highly pertinent track title from their 2009 release \u2018Broadcast And The\u00a0Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age\u2019. \u00a0And it is to Trish that this release is\u00a0respectfully\u00a0dedicated.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Tracklisting:\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1.\u00a0CAMRYN ROTHENBURY, Racing Across The Void (3:37)\u00a0from Patina (Grave New World)<\/em>
\n2.\u00a0THE CARNAGE VISORS, Ledge (3:15)\u00a0from Wailing Walls EP (self-released)<\/em>
\n3.\u00a0RITES WILD, Rites Wild Theme (4:12)\u00a0from Ill Health & Rites Wild Theme Cassingle (Faux Friends)<\/em>
\n4.\u00a0STITCHED VISION, Healing Pattern (5:38)\u00a0previously unreleased<\/em>
\n5.\u00a0GUERRE, Travellers Home Blues (2:41)\u00a0previously unreleased<\/em>
\n6.\u00a0NO ZU, Horoscope (7:02)\u00a0from New Age EP (New Editions)<\/em>
\n7.\u00a0STRANGE FORCES, Soul Window (6:04)\u00a0from forthcoming debut EP<\/em>
\n8.\u00a0COLOURS, I\u2019ve Watched You Suffer (6:22)\u00a0from s\/t EP (Free Loving Anarchists)<\/em>
\n9.\u00a0JAVIER FRISCO, Mad Flutes of Strange Incensed Lands (Excerpt) (6:18)\u00a0from Opiate Southern Gardens of Orchids C60\/CD-r (Emerald Cabal)<\/em>
\n10.\u00a0PANEYE, Misery Portholes (2:30)\u00a0from Lost In A Dark Aquarium (New Editions)<\/em>
\n11.\u00a0YOLKE, Sunrise Eyes \/ Western Star (7:32)\u00a0from Poppy Wash EP (Fallopian Tunes)<\/em>
\n12.\u00a0MARK BARRAGE, Rubicon Drive (2:32)\u00a0from Rubicon Drive EP (self-released)<\/em>
\n13.\u00a0ANDREW SINCLAIR, Ritual Beat \/ Stolen Drums (5:30)\u00a0previously unreleased<\/em>
\n14.\u00a0DESFONTANE, Cannibal Cod (3:56)\u00a0previously unreleased<\/em>
\n15.\u00a0MUNDARING WEIRD, So Hard (6:00)\u00a0from So Hard (Grave New World)<\/em>
\n16.\u00a0ORBITS, Feel Burn It (3:39)\u00a0previously unreleased<\/em>
\n17.\u00a0EDWIN MONTGOMERY, Alone In The Museum (2:17)\u00a0from\u00a0Travel Ideas (Lesstalk Records)<\/em>
\nCompiled by Stuart Buchanan.
\nArtwork by Camryn Rothenbury.
\nAll music donated by the artists for use in this compilation only, all rights reserved.
\nCatalogue.\u00a0<\/strong>NWA008<\/p>\n

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Press.<\/strong>
\nFeatured in WMFU\u2019s \u201cFree Music Archive \u2013 Top 20 Free Albums Of The Year\u201d
\nFree Music Archive, January 2012<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cFocusing on a group of electronic artists steeped in the ominous will of what we would call in the western hemisphere \u201cHypnogogic Pop\u201d or \u201cHauntology\u201d. For the most part these guys succeed in distinguishing themselves as a different breed, but all in all it shouldn\u2019t really matter. It\u2019s a pretty good deal, and the quality here is not too shabby.\u201d
\nFoxy Digitalis, June 2011<\/strong><\/a>
\n\u201cNWA is a non-profit initiative promoting \u201cnew, eclectic and experimental Australian music.\u201d Their latest sampler, \u201cWe Are After All Here,\u201d succeeds on all three counts. I\u2019d recommend this compiliation on purely break-your-routine grounds, but several tracks stand out; my FLFs (First-Listen Favorites) are Horoscope from NO ZU, Camryn Rothenbury\u2019s Racing Across the Void, and Cannibal Cod by Desfontane.\u201d
\nCognitive Buffet, May 2011<\/a><\/strong>
\n\u201cI\u2019m very excited to introduce the eighth and latest New Weird Australia compilation, entitled We Are After All Here [and] a track-by-track description of the release in its myriad glory \u2026 Stitched Vision craft blissful electronic drone with billowing, textured furls\u2014not unlike the music of Ben Frost or Tim Hecker \u2026 [No Zu\u2019s] soundscape hearkens back to a lost era of electronic psychedelia\u2014reminiscent of both early Kraftwerk and late Roxy Music \u2026 The NWA comps have consistently featured music which depart from world-music influences and arrive on the other side of the frontier\u2019s horizon\u201d
\nReviler, February 2011<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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New Weird Australia Catalogue.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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