Album of the week: Liquid – Abdul’s secret movie

This week we are throwing back a quarter of a century to the days when Triple J unearthed one city at a time. Canberra’s 4 piece prog rock outfit Liquid were one of the first two bands to be unearthed from the Nations capital with the track ‘Polariser’.

Soon afterwards they were signed by Warner and put out “Abdul’s secret movie”. The release if filled with some amazingly unique sounds that explore all manner of atmospheric edges and melodic yet hard hitting soundscapes. The album curiously opens with the sounds of a pedestrian cross light, and later has a hidden backwards message which turns out to just be the lyrics from ’

Liquid followed this up a year later with their EP Mary Wonders.

Album of the week: Phebe Starr – Heavy metal flower petal

This week we are featuring the debut album from Sydney based solo artist Phebe Starr.

Phebe has put out a massive collection of amazing songs over the past decade or so from the emotionally charged “Alone with you” to the bright poppy ”Two hearts”.

On this her first full length release are 11 colourfully vibrant tracks that explore various indie-pop sounds ranging from melancholic and minimalist like the opener “Rollercoaster man” to more country rocking sounds like “Edelweiss”.

The album also features some of her standout tunes from the past couple of years such as the stripped back and heart felt ”Alphabet soup”, and the eerily energetic “Air”

The album also features Phebe Starr’s latest single, the upbeat spacey disco tune “My magic moon”.

Check out Phebe Starr’s Bandcamp page to find out more!

Album of the week: William Street Strikers – Baltimore Train

This week, the feature album is from Adelaide outfit the William Street Strikers. The Strikers once again showcase their own brand of South Australian pub rock. There is a certain vintage / nostalgic feel here as the music takes on a rough and raw feel. There is also a very snappy / lean feel across the 10 tracks with no filler or weak moments. this is very much the record for the old school rock purist!

Check out William Street Strikers website to find out more!

Album of the week: Sickboy – Vanity and velocity / Water never waits (throwback)

This week we are throwing back to Mark Spence’s previous band before starting Royal Chant. Back in the mid naughties Mr Spence fronted an Atlanta based three piece named Sickboy. The name inspired by the 1996 film Trainspotting. As both releases were EPs, we’re featuring both to provide an album’s worth of music in aggregate.

The band’s first release was ”Vanity and velocity”.

Following this release Mark relocated to Australia. Shortly after the move, Mark explained that ”After Vanity & Velocity came out, some good things were starting to happen with the band, but we kept dropping the ball, both musically and personally. Most of it, if not all, was my fault, but there was always this inherent crippled nature in the way Sickboy functioned as a band in the States. Eventually, I sort of threw the towel in (or many towels), and accepted an offer to play drums on a cruise ship. I was in a pretty bad way, rather wrecked, and mostly kept to myself. After I licked my wounds a bit I opened my eyes and found my other half. It just so happens that she’s an Aussie. After that, deciding where to live was an easy choice. Australia was the only answer.”

Soon after landing in Australia, Mark started up a new Sickboy and put together another collection of songs in the form of “Water never waits”.

“As soon as we were gone Sickboy evaporated, said Mark at the time. ”By the end of the band in the US we were in such shambles, it wasn’t going to continue anyway. But we took everything positive from the US and applied it to Australia and it’s really paid off! I think that it was the feeling of invincibility that gave us so much success!”

Following the release of EP number two, Sickboy changed their name to Royal Chant to avoid confusion with the Irish band of the same name. Thankfully, despite the name change, they haven’t deleted the music from existence on the internet, so you can still listen to it all!

Check out Royal Chant’s Bandcamp page to hear more!