by King Parrot
King Parrot - Ugly Produce (PBS Feature Record)
Who would have thought a decade ago Australia's best metal band would be this ugly, making music this ugly? In 2010 when the musicians from some of Australia’s best bands got together and created the mighty King Parrot they did just that. Their third album Ugly Produce is just over 30 minutes long, but that’s alright, because you'll want to listen to it again straight away.
Songwriting is one of King Parrot’s strengths and tracks like ‘Pisswreck’, ‘Die Before You Die’ and ‘Ten Pounds of Shit In A Five Pound Bag’ will bite your head off on what is the band’s most solid album to date. If you don't know their sound it’s a distinctly Australian take on thrashy grindcore, laden in humour – live and on record this band is an absolute weapon.
A return to recording at Goat Sound, where Jason PC (Bloodduster) has created some of the best heavy sounds in Melbourne this year, has really paid off, making Ugly Produce sound huge and brutal. You can't make good metal without being ugly – luckily these guys have ugly in spades. Enjoy.
Review from Kene Lightfoot (Burning Bitumen)
Moses Sumney - Aromanticism (featured on The Breakfast Spread)
Since emerging onto the scene in 2014, Moses Sumney has ridden a wave of word-of-mouth praise, hushed recordings, and dynamic live performances. It's an organic, patient ascent all too rare in today's musical climate. In a voice both mellifluous and haunting, Sumney makes future music that transmogrifies classic tropes, like moon-colony choir reinterpretations of old jazz gems. His vocals narrate a personal journey through universal loneliness atop otherworldly compositional backdrops.
Following the self-release of his debut cassette EP, Mid-City Island, and 2015's 7", Seeds/Pleas, Sumney has performed around the world alongside forebears like David Byrne, Karen O, Sufjan Stevens, Solange, James Blake and more. With his 2016 Lamentations EP, The California and Ghana-raised troubadour widened the spectrum of his heretofore "bedroom" music, incorporating songs that feature more elaborate production and evocative songwriting. Now his inspired ascent continues.
His proper debut album, Aromanticism is a concept album about lovelessness as a sonic dreamscape. It seeks to interrogate the social constructions around romance.
This week's Top 10:
