Random Audio Transmissions

I heard a scream and I think it was me

Sorrow &…

Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed All The Madmen The Man Who Sold The World Queen Bitch Five Years Soul Love Rock “N” Roll Suicide Panic In Detroit Rosalyn Future Legend Breaking Glass Be My Wife Sons Of The Silent Age Sense Of Doubt DJ It’s No Game Up The Hill Backwards Cat People Buddha Of Suburbia Hallo Spaceboy Little Wonder Sunday Love Is Lost

The Fall – Metro Theatre Sydney Oct 21st

Through a mass of sweat and chandeliers we watched the old timers check in on ancient phones and realise it’s late for a school night. Sticking to floors where the dead can’t dance. Carlsberg with water chasers, fingers dip in potato spills too late, just sing. The support bands impress us punk princesses, you look a lot like Ian Curtis.

The unmistakable is heard from the wings. Mark E Smith has the mike and he ain’t letting go. Faux smashing ghosts or whatever is in his way while we all move however we want. Thinks he can hide in black curtains while his back burns with eyes, waiting for the bile or inanity whichever comes first to enter his throat. Pledge rips me. Rested, squeezing through the amps, playing with buttons, not satisfied with his own distortion. Finally loud as fire, two mikes are spat on.

The Falls repertoire is huge, how many fucking songs has he got, never expect yours to be played, always the new, always the new… bless. He keeps the song list crumpled in his trousers, the old stuff he keeps in his socks, who cares, it’s Mark E Smith, he can do whatever he wants. His skin finally fits his don’t give a fuck theatrics, he’s earned it, more that that, he always was that, and continues to be.

The whole show an encore feeding off respect, though these short sets suck, praying mantis struts and gurns his way backstage without a hitch. The band’s eyes make contact after tight shambolics and hard beats, Elena puts on her coat and bags like she’s just whipped up the shops and follows. The lights come on and there is an air of the unsure, yet acceptance that it is all over.

October 23, 2015 0

Rough n Ready

Random Audio Transmissions #7

The Horrors – Whole New Way

The xx – Basic Space

Pablo – Record Shop

The Heart Strings – Jose Fernandez

Department Of Eagles – Classical Record

Arthur & Yu – The Ghost Of Old Bull Lee

Andrew Liles – Orvilles Engastrythmic Divinations

Envelopes – Free Jazz

Princess Superstar – My Machine

The Pipettes – It Hurts To See You Dance So Well

October 8, 2015 0

New Order – Music Complete – Review by Lorne Johnson

A new, possibly incomplete, yet ordered take on New Order’s Music Complete

1. This is the most bouncy, melodious and infectious New Order album since the immortal Technique from 1989.
2. Peter Saville’s cover is a nod to Mondrian’s iconic art. Saville puts a spin on things by using bold diagonal lines and green. For some reason, Mondrian avoided green. Is Saville saying New Order are pushing boundaries or reinventing post-modernism in 2015?
3. The inclusion of Iggy Pop – yes Iggy Pop – mumbling about falling into a mire on Stray Dog is an aberrant moment, yet priceless. He’s the green in the Mondrian-inspired cover!
4. Tutti Frutti starts off like a crazed piece from eccentric Swiss/German duo Yello and seems rather twee until it hurls at us – with La Roux’s fearless assistance – the most catchy chorus New Order has ever conjured. I’ve been singing it all week. Tutti Frutti should have been the first single from this album.
5. Bernard Sumner continues to warble about the need for having true faith in people and avoiding bizarre love triangles.6. Some of the lyrics are as lacklustre as a midwinter Manchester sun eg. ’higher than the sky’.
7. The album’s constant rhyming couplets annoyed me. I predicted many words the second lines ended with.
8. Sections of this disc swept me back to the delicious 90s oeuvre of Brit synth-supremos OMD and The Beloved, as well as Queensland’s pop heroes Boxcar. And that’s an absolutely fabulous thing.
9. Brandon (Killers) Flowers channels a swooning George Michael at the end of the soaring Pet Shop Boys-like Superheated. It’s overkill though.
10. I miss Peter Hook’s ferocious bass lines.11. Music Complete could’ve taken more risks sonically and lyrically – this would’ve produced a more edgy, diverse affair, reminiscent of 1986’s breathtaking Brotherhood.
12. Sampling murmuring crickets has been done before. Yawn. How about gibbons or indri-indris?
13. Tom (Chemical Brothers) Rowlands’ production work on Unlearn this Hatred comes across like a firefight in an Afghan village.
14. The aerial view of a walking figure in Mute’s logo is always a comforting thing. It makes me thing of Depeche Mode, who I adore.
15. I’d like to know Ian Curtis’ thoughts on Music Complete.
16. Listen to Music Complete continually when you’ve had enough of life’s obsession with power, corruption and lies.

LJ is a writer from Bundanoon NSW you can find more of his work via

The Ultraviolet Range or twitter

October 7, 2015 0

Billy Bragg – Tooth & Nail

Even though I still have my ‘Capitalism Is Killing Music’ T-shirt, Billy Bragg had been out of my thoughts for a while. I was disappointed I missed his ‘Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me’ tour. His main focus was to celebrate the legacy of Woody Guthrie. A major influence on Bragg, a shared road of folk and protest.

Americana can often seem to be the last refuge of the scoundrel. Artists with roots in rockier realms with nothing left suddenly remember how much they love the slide guitar. But this is not the case with Bragg’s 2013 studio release. This seems so natural for him, a heartfelt affinity with this ilk. On Tooth & Nail Billy is looking better than he ever has. A silver fox maturity, even his voice has changed in accent and octaves, his emotion and delivery sturdy. A downbeat weary passion strolls through every song. The words and arrangements keeping the listener focused and moved. Tales of romance, honesty and defeat.

January Song opens with a beautiful heart, a sadness “I’m so tightly wound in tension, feel just like a guitar string. Waiting to reveal emotions, touch me and you’ll hear me sing” moving into dabs of questioning “politicians selling freedom, bumper sticker 50 cents, ask him what he wants to be free from, answer don’t make any sense.”

No One Knows Nothing Anymore gives us our first taste of slide, lyrics a modern setting for ancient questions of life are gorgeously realised. It’s psychedelic ending swirls gently with neon tumbleweeds. Handyman Blues gets a laugh, jug band steps and strings gives us a witty look at the struggle and justification of the artist trying to make a living with his gift of song.

Hearing Bragg tackle the man of the hour, Woody Guthrie’s I Ain’t Got No Home, is perfect. A reverence, simple acoustic with a shiver of cymbal rumbles in the dust and dirt. The songs continue to mosey on. Swallow My Pride choked tears of love and forgiveness, Do Unto Others and Over You grow into a more swinging lament. Goodbye Goodbye should make this years greatest funeral songs top ten list – but you can’t dismiss too offhand as it soars above in a sorrowful contentedness. Bragg moves into Boss territory with There Will Be A Reckoning three more tracks finish this 12 track homage. Tomorrow’s Going To Be A Better Day ends this songbook of soul and journey perfectly. Bragg has given us porch songs to stare into sky and horizons, lay back into its filtered sunlight and be still. I’m glad I found this piece of Billy Bragg’s life story to add to my collection.