Pitchfork
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During the ’80s, the Australian pop culture exports seemed to be comprised of Mad Max, Paul “Crocodile Dundee” Hogan, INXS, Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett, Yahoo Serious and of course, Jacko. It’s a motley group that speaks to the spiky strangeness inherent in the continent’s figures. But leave it to Michael Kucyk (host of Noise in My Head on NTS Radio) to unearth the sounds being made in Australia far off the radar. His Efficient Space label has already pulled out some blissful Australian house, weirdo new wave and last year’s stark but haunting Sky Girl compilation.
The ten tracks on Oz Waves might be their most peculiar set yet. Culled by a DJ who goes by the handle of Steele Bonus (he also has a series of thrilling Soundcloud mixes), he’s unearthed rare examples of Australian DIY rendered in the ’80s amid the macho pub rock sound of the decade. With most Aussie major labels wholly uninterested in such strange drum machine-laced sounds (though INXS did have a penchant for dub weirdness), most artists and short-lived bands opted instead to make artful cassette-zines instead. As the Oz Waves notes attest, many were dubbed in editions ranging from 5 to 100 copies.
Not that any of the acts had dreams of pop stardom when they plugged in their guitars, Groovebox drum machines, and primitive synths to make their lo-fi din. Bands bearing names like Ironing Music, He Dark Age and the Horse He's Sick don’t really have Top of the Pops in mind. These bands revel in freedom, knowing that with no major labels, no crowds to perform in front of and, for the most part, no drummer, they were free to document the strangest noises that sprung from their heads. It’s ostensibly punk rock, but 30 years on, time has a way of changing such meanings. The primitive beats and befuddling noises that bounce off the walls of each song make it come across as endearingly insular dance music.
Much like New Yorkers in the early ’80s who identified more as art collectives than bands, the acts here also dabbled in video art, painting, and visual design. Irena Xero was on the Brisbane punk scene in the late ’70s but also into cross-discipline arts. She sounds like a one-woman automaton on “Lady on the Train,” programming chilly handclaps and delivering lines with even less affect than Nico. Andy Rantzen’s “Will I Dream?” went unreleased in 1989, but it makes sense considering he soon moved from doing industrial-styled noise to making rave tracks. Deeming it the most dancefloor-friendly track in the set seems like a misnomer, as it’s a strange puddle of funky bass and peppy snare, flickering sinewaves, submarine alarms and mewling voices.
While Prod’s “Knife on Top” features a limber Can-like groove to it and Zerox Dreamflesh do woozy Augustus Pablo-esque dub on “Squids Can Fly,” most bands here prefer sputtering drum machines, which make for the set’s most charming moments. They provide the stitching underneath the flanged accordion and Urszula Dawkins’ plainspoken delivery on Software Seduction’s “New Collision” and the lo-fi sampledelica of “Jesus Krist Klap Rap (Orthodox Mix).” The Groovebox that Ironing Music utilized makes them sound like the Down Under version of Young Marble Giants on the sparkling bedroom murmur that is “Don’t Wish It Away.” A heavier beat gets sampled by the Horse He’s Sick, but rather than try to move a dance audience, it instead gets strung out to a crawl. It's these micro-moments, operating in the shadow of their more popular contemporaries of the era, that allow Oz Waves’ dusty charms to shine through four decades later.
Fri Feb 24 06:00:00 GMT 2017