Discontent | In Teen Dreams

January 16th, 2010 Stu

Do you remember those teenage dreams?  For some it may be a recent memory, for others, it’s somewhat more distant.  To the latter, teen dreams exist simply as faint, fading memories -  idylls, fantasises, hopes and nightmares, never to be lived or experienced, destined only to be ravaged and degraded by time.  The nostalgia for lost teenage dreams is balanced by the fact that the actual shape and substance of those dreams can no longer be recalled – it’s simply a sense-memory, an instinctual belief that something has been lost, but with no recollection of what the ’something’ actually is. This mixtape somewhat boldy tries to capture that sense memory – a hankering for a past, refracted through the eyes of the future.  Everything contained herein is stretched and strained over time, not so much hypnogogic as hypnotic, post-nostalgia – lulling us into the security of a place and time that is simultaneously familiar and unknown. We drift from Roj’s Ghost Box intro, to Salem’s screwed goth-hop remix of Playboy Tre and Tan Dollar’s funeral wedding march, projecting via White Rainbow’s astral tones, Kharkov’s elusive and ultimately unobtainable folk melody and Ancient Crux’s dark pean to romantic longing, dripping with echoes of music from half a century ago. It’s full of promise and mystery, yet it ultimately unsettles and perhaps never truly satisfies – the true mark of a real teenage dream.   Stuart Buchanan

DOWNLOAD: Discontent | In Teen Dreams (103MB)

1. Roj – You Are Here / England [1:29]
2. Black Vatican – Night Is Come / U.S. [4:18]
3. Railcars – Cathedral With No Eyes (white rainbow remix) / U.S. [6:24]
4. Playboy Tre – Sideways (Salem Drag Chop remix) / U.S. [4:48]
5. Shlohmo – Couch / U.S. [3:34]
6. Tan Dollar – Untitled / U.S. [2:36]
7. Ancient Crux – In Teen Dreams / U.S. [2:33]
8. Pina Chulada – Someone Like You / U.S. [3:39]
9. Blastcorp – Last (Harp mix) / Australia [2:25]
10. Syntaks – Sudden Dream / Denmark [3:00]
11. White Rainbow – Mind Haze Is Clear Delights / U.S. [10:29]
12. LJ Kruzer – Tam8+ei4 / England [1:02]
13. Kharkov – Folkal / Australia [5:34]
14. Mokira – Seven Ply / Sweden [7:16]
15. Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood – Precognition / Australia [2:14]

img: Nyalee (via Flickr, Creative Commons)

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New Weird Australia | Volume Two

September 12th, 2009 Stu

nwa2-470

Grant Hunter’s cover artwork for the free download compilation, New Weird Australia Volume Two – featuring our country’s endearing emblematic marsupial with black claw outstretched and a murderous fleck in his eye – perfectly illustrates the ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ binary of the Australian story.

On one side, the world is sold on paradisal visions of Australian reefs and plains, care-free surfers racing down golden sands, and the classic long-shot of a sun-blemished Uluru. On the flip, with just as much fervour, we mythologise and peddle stories of perpetual gangland warfare, malevolent outback serial killers and dingoes eating babies for their morning snack.

If only the same warped duality could be brought to bear on the world’s vision of our musical worth. The exported track record is however largely one-sided – our place as the shiny, electro party-starter of the Southern Hemisphere is unrivalled, along with a seemingly endless passion for rock, culled from a 40-year old tombstone. Ask the world to identify a prominent Australian undercurrent and they will remain largely tight-lipped. Hence New Weird Australia – a project aimed as much at curating a contemporary library of alt-Australiana, as promoting that collection to the rest of the globe.

For Volume Two, we once again represent a strong geographic diversity with music from Tasmania, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. We embody genre diversity from 21-year-oldWilliam Gardiner’s neo-classical work to the sprawling sample ephemera spread by Newcastle’s Cock Safari; from Maddest Kings Alive’s shoegaze chip-tunes to a seemingly perfect drift plain soundtrack, hewn by Solo Andata’sPaul Fiocco. There are also multiple exclusives from Kharkov, Lucia Draft, Mieli, No Art, Karoshi, Transmissions and Jason (Pretty Boy Crossover) Sweeney’s Panoptique Electrical project, and new work from Broken Chip, Ghoul, Oceans, Sam Price and Splendid Friends.

In mapping and redefining the local terrain, New Weird Australia represents a new breed of Australian musicians that cast an essential shadow over Australia’s sunny disposition.

(cross-posted from newweirdaustralia.com)

New Weird Australia Volume Two, September 2009, NWA002

DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE (AUDIO & ARTWORK):
Standard Quality, 192 kbps (103MB)
Higher Quality, 320kbps (159MB, via Rapidshare)

1. OCEANS, 02 + 03 (5:11) From ‘album’
2. GHOUL, Swimming Pool (Remix) (3:04) From ’Swimming Pool’
3. WILLIAM GARDINER, Sonance Arboreal (4:39) Previously unreleased
4. SAM PRICE, AutoHackney (5:28) From ‘Rand’
5. BROKEN CHIP, Summer Stars (5:06) From ‘POWWOW Seven’
6. KHARKOV, Crustacean (3:12) Previously unreleased
7. COCK SAFARI, 8MH (6:36) Previously unreleased
8. LUCIA DRAFT, Not Interested (1:16) Previously unreleased
9. MIELI, Hometime (3:34) Previously unreleased
10. KAROSHI, Re-Animate Me (2:44) Previously unreleased
11. NO ART, Fight In The Nocturnal House (3:56) Previously unreleased
12. TRANSMISSIONS, Staring At Lightning Strikes, Catching Every One (2:45) Previously unreleased
13. PANOPTIQUE ELECTRICAL, We Was Them (7:32) Previously unreleased
14. MADDEST KINGS ALIVE, Measels (4:05) Previously unreleased
15. SPLENDID FRIENDS, Holy Shears (1:42) From ‘Summer Moon Illusion’
16. PAUL FIOCCO, Torsions and Drifts (13:34) From ‘Torsions And Drifts’

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan & Danny Jumpertz
Artwork by Grant Hunter, granthunter.daportfolio.com

Click artist title for background information and links.
All music donated by the artists for use in this compilation only, all rights reserved.

New Weird Australia is a not-for-profit initiative established to promote eclectic and experimental Australian music. Free compilations are available to download every two months from www.newweirdaustralia.com. Contributions from Australian musicians and designers are welcomed and encouraged – submission details and terms can be found on the ‘New Weird Australia’ site.

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