Change Your Bookmarks!

Hi everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've got a whole slab of them planned, but they'll be featured over at the new domain: http://rollaroll.wordpress.com

So make sure you re-subscribe to the RSS feed and change your bookmarks.

Sorry for the hassle. See you over there!

New Date for Oren Ambarchi

Live Dates January 2009

Thursday 8 January

Oren Ambarchi & Jim O'Rourke duo
+
Haino Keiji solo
+
Oren Ambarchi/Jim O'Rourke/Haino Keiji Trio

@ Playhouse,
Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center (River Walk 6F)
Kitakyushu
Japan

Red Eye Records Top Selling Albums of 2008

You can determine exactly how much relevance the following lists have, comprising of Red Eye records' top selling albums, staff picks and so on.

Top Selling Records

1. SIGUR ROS - MED SUD I EYRUM VID SPILUM ENDALAUST
2. RADIOHEAD - IN RAINBOWS
3. GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU - GURRUMUL
4. KINGS OF LEON - ONLY BY THE NIGHT
5. NICK CAVE NICK & THE BAD SEEDS - DIG LAZARUS DIG
6. PORTISHEAD - THIRD
7. VAMPIRE WEEKEND - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
8. FLEET FOXES - FLEET FOXES
9. BON IVER - FOR EMMA FOREVER AGO
10. MGMT - ORACULAR SPECTACULAR
11. DEERHUNTER - MICROCASTLE
12. PRESETS - APOCALYPSO
13. BLACK KEYS - ATTACK & RELEASE
14. DRONES - HAVILAH
15. MARS VOLTA - BEDLAM IN GOLIATH
16. CRYSTAL CASTLES - CRYSTAL CASTLES
17. DENNIS WILSON - PACIFIC OCEAN BLUE / BAMBU : 2008 Re-Issue
18. RED SUN BAND - SHIRALEE
19. PAUL WELLER - 22 DREAMS
20. ROBERT FORSTER - EVANGELIST

Metal Store Top Sellers

1. METALLICA - DEATH MAGNETIC
2. MESHUGGAH - OBZEN
3. NINE INCH NAILS - SLIP
4. NINE INCH NAILS - GHOSTS I - IV : 2CD SET
5. OPETH - WATERSHED
6. SLIPKNOT - ALL HOPE IS GONE
7. EARTH - BEES MADE HONEY IN THE LIONS SKULL
8. EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN - ALLES WIEDER OFFEN
9. CAVALERA CONSPIRACY - INFLIKTED
10. DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN - IRE WORKS

Staff Picks

Abbe May - Howl & Moan
Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal
Asecretdeath - Secret Death
Beck - Modern Guilt
Black Mountain - In The Future
Bloodbath - Fathomless Mastery
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Bowerbirds - Hymns For A Dark Horse
Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Will Happen Will Happen Today
Cult Of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
Cut Off You Hands - You & I
Danny George Wilson - Danny & The Champions
Deerhunter - Micocastles
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue / Bambu : 2008 Re-Issue
Department Of Eagles - In Ear Park
Doug Wimbish - Cinemasonics
Drive By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark
Duffy - Rockferry
Dungen - 4
Earth - Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours
Emiliana Torrini - Me & Armini
Enslaved - Vertebrae
Eric Matthews - Imagination Stage
Exodus - Let There Be Blood
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords
Flo & Eddie - Phlorescent Leech & Eddie / Flo & Eddie (2 on 1 2008 Re-Issue)
Further - Tactics
Gas - Nah Und Fern
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game In Town
Haunted - Versus
Hush Arbors - Hush Arbors
Imaad Wasif With Two Part Beast - Strange Hexes
James Jackson Toth - Waiting In Vain
Jean Grae - Jeanius
Jeff Loomis - Zero Order Phase
Kills - Midnight Boom
Ladyhawk - Shots
Laura Jean - Eden Land
Lawnsmell - Lawnography
Lee Hazlewood - Strung Out On Something New
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Marnie Stern - This Is It...
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I Have Feelings Too
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Moffs - Collection
N*E*R*D* - Seeing Sounds
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Nick Cave & Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig
Ohana - Dead Beat
Optimo/Various - Sleepwalk
Padded Cell - Night Must Fall
Peabody - Prospero
Phoenix Foundation - Happy Ending
Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue
Portishead - Third
Quiet Village - Silent Movie
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Randy Newman - Harps and Angels
REM - Accelerate
Replacements - Let It Be : 2008 Re-Issue
Retribution Gospel Choir - Retribution Gospel Choir
Russian Circles - Station
Sam Phillips - Don't Do Anything
School Of Language - Sea From Shore
Scott Walker - Til The Band Comes In : 2008 Re-Issue
Sea & Cake - Car Alarm
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Songs - Songs EP
Starling Electric - Clouded Staircase
Streets - Everything Is Borrowed
Studio - Yearbook 2
Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha
Syclops - I've Got My Eye On You
Tan Or Boil - Seamstress In A Suitcase
Testament - Formation of Damnation
Todd Rundgren - Arena
Todd Sparrow - Modern Western
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Trus'Me - Working Nights
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
War On Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues
Wedding Present - El Rey
Week That Was - Week That Was
Whitechapel - This Is Exile
Wire - Object 47
Yael Naim - Yael Naim
Various - Death Before Distemper : Volume 2
Various - Nigeria Rock Special
Various - Nigeria Disco Funk Special
Various - Notwave

There are definitely some good selections made by the staff and consumers this year, but there are definitely some ones which are pretty embarrassing (read: all records that sold due to being fashionable and not based on their actual artistic merit). Hopefully sometime this week, I'll post up Rollaroll's "Best of 2008" and we'll see how that compares with some of the more corporate or mainstream lists out there, who most often focus entirely on trends and commercial sales and leave some people with the impression that as each year goes by less and less good music is being made. Hopefully our list will open you up to some music that will boggle your mind.

Experimental Australian Music Makers Directory Now Up

In edition to a wonderful new book on Australian experimental music, the editor Gail Priest has started up a growing directory of Australian experimental music makers. You can check it out at this location. The details for being included in this director are as follows:

This will be a growing directory of Australian experimental music makers, audiovisual creators (including collaborating video artists/VJs) and curators.

If you would like to be included download the form and on completion email it to info@experimentalmusicaustralia.net. Or contact for further information.

This directory will endeavour to be as open as possible, however your work must be of an experimental nature and inclusion is finally at the discretion of the editor.

In addition to the directory there are a slab of other resources, including a calendar for upcoming gigs across Australia and a list of other sites and books on Australian music.

Interview with Marcus (Scissor Lock)

Wrapping up the Rollaroll interviews for the year, this time with Scissor Lock:

How did you get into making and performing music under the name Scissor Lock?

When i was 14, i started playing around with all the shitty musical equipment i had, mainly with guitar, making this really delay heavy experimental music. Some of it sounds really quite otherworldly, and there's no way i could reproduce that kind of sound now, back then it truly was experimental. I had no idea what i was doing, which gives it a certain charm.

Why the name "Scissor Lock"?

Who knows. it has lots of meanings -- slang for sleep paralysis in north america, a wrestling move (think scissor, lock), and i generally choose whichever of them seems appropriate at the time. I think i just liked the sound of it, since i was a fan of the band Dredg when i was 14, who have a song called "scissor lock".



How many releases have you released under this name?

I think its around ten now. In some ways I wish I'd paced myself a little more, or been less tenacious or precious about the content that i allowed out into the public, because i've come to regret many moments one or two of those releases -- Above & Below particularly. Its all part of growing and shedding skin i'd imagine.

How would you define or describe your sound?

I used to call it experimental solo post rock but it never really had much of a stylistic focus. At the moment you could probably say its pretty focused on sonority and colour, particularly in terms of attempting to compose bits and pieces of sound electro-acoustically, whether it be
voice, or a reed instrument, or plain old guitar, without losing the integrity of either element, blurring organicism with the electronic. I've become a little obsessed with a lot South East Asian folk music, so that's another element i've been juggling with -- i think that began as a sidestep from the release i did which was based mainly around Himalayan singing bowls.



What equipment do you use to perform live with?

I used to play guitar and occasionally sing through a guitar amp -- the live show used to be a little more ambient guitar oriented, but now i've been playing through an interface running audiomulch on a laptop.

Forgetting all that, though, the central tool has been the loop sampler of the DL-4 delay modeler, which has been useful for me particularly because of the decay that it has, which encourages newer musical ideas to progressively push out older ones and has an interesting influence on the life of an improvisation.

This year has seen you move leaps and bounds; from performing shows with some of the heavyweights of the Australian experimental scene (e.g. Grey Daturas at Static Age Festival) to your upcoming collaboration with Jasper Tx and Mirrored Silver Sea, how does it all feel?

Firstly, that's a split with Jasper TX, which I'm unbelievably excited for, not least for it being my first release on wax. In terms of experimental music, Australia's a particularly friendly musical environment, its not all that difficult to find people who'll lend an ear, a word of advice, or even a show without much prompting. I've profited from this sort of atmosphere and I'm really grateful to people like Cam Webb (Seaworthy), Andrew Tuttle (Anonymeye), Seth Rees, Shoeb Ahmad and a number of others who've provided a motivation to continue with the project.

Tell me more about your upcoming split and any other future releases you may have slated for this year (or next).

The 7 inch with Jasper TX is part of sound&fury's Passeridae 7 inch split singles series, with pairs Australian artists with their international counterparts. As much as i feel far less than Dag Rosenqvist's counterpart, i'm really looking forward to see how the two pieces work against each other. I still havn't actually heard Dag's side of the 7 inch, so it should be a pleasant surprise for Christmas. Thanks Mr. Adam D. Mills!

There's a collaboration with Mousetrapreplica which should be arriving on Monstera Deliciosa, Crab Smasher's label, early next year. I'm launching a split 3 inch CD-R with Seaworthy at Bohemian Grove on 1st February, which involves Seaworthy reconstructing a piece of mine. There's also a CD-R on hellosQuare in around April called "Now", which i recorded the summer 2 years ago as a sort of last hurrah to post-rock. Then, we'll see what happens with the Mirrored Silver Sea material.

Which current bands interest and excite you?

From what was released this year, the albums by Richard Skelton, Why?, Atlas Sound and Nico Muhly have been the best of a huge number of bits and pieces i've been creaming my pants off to. Locally though, Qua, 3ofmillions, Ohana and Ghoul have been awesome to watch and listen to, "Silver Red", the Qua EP from earlier in the year is probably my pick of the Australian releases.

What really excited me right now though is a prospect of a new Solo Andata album. Those guys are my heroes. Elsewhere, i've been listening to lots of Art Ensemble of Chicago and Stravinsky, but my head's been firmly adjusted to stuff that's been released this year in the past few weeks, catching up on all the shit i missed out on when i was doing the HSC thing.

And lastly, Isis or Mogwai?

Mouth Of The Architect!



Note: Look forward to some more interviews with us in the new year!

New Book on Experimental Australian Music

UNSW Press have just published a new book called Experimental Music: Audio Explorations edited by Gail Priest. More info as follows:

Experimental music has been mostly unrecognised in Australia, but it is in this ‘underground’ area that the major innovations and creative developments in music occur. Through testing perceived boundaries, breaking rules and creating new forms, the artists in this field force us to question what, in fact, music is. Written by artists who have been actively engaged in the areas they are covering, Experimental Music explores the development of forms, ideas and scenes from the 1970s to the present.

The book costs $30 (plus postage) if you order it through UNSW Press, but only about $26 if you pick it up in person from UNSW Bookshop. I can say with confidence that this publication is worth the cost, as it also includes a CD of major pieces by experimental-musicians/groups, some of which are previously unrealeased.

New Issue of Unbelievably Bad

Issue number 8 of Sydney zine Unbelievably Bad came out a little a while ago, but based on the frequency of which they release their zine I can say that it's still quite fresh. Featuring Homicides, Neil Hamburger, Splatterheads, Extortion, Hellmenn, Cut Sick, Schifosi, Death Angel, Depression, Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson, I Spit On Your Gravy and Viking Skull (amongst other things), this issue is something you definitely want to get a hold of. You can pick it up from the following places (or alternatively through MySpace):

Re-Pressed (Newtown NSW), Paint It Black (Newtown NSW), Resist (Newtown NSW), Holy Moley (Newtown NSW), Redeye (Sydney NSW), Utopia (Sydney NSW), Mojo (Sydney NSW), Snapshot Distro (Sydney NSW), Music Farmers (Wollongong NSW), Landspeed (Canberra ACT), Missing Link (Melbourne VIC), Polyester Books (Fitzroy VIC), Sticky (Melbourne VIC), Off The Hip (Melbourne VIC), We Empty Rooms (Melbourne VIC), Metropolis (Melbourne VIC), Afterdark (Collingwood VIC), Fist2Face (Ringwood VIC), Rockinghorse (Brisbane QLD), Big Star (Adelaide SA), 78 (Perth WA), Tommy Gun (Hobart, TAS), Tasmanian Alcoholic Distro (Kingston, TAS).