STACK #161 Mar 2018

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Endless Heights Vicious Pleasure

What So Not Not All The Beautiful Things It has been said that artists spend a lifetime writing their debut album and What So Not (Emoh Instead) is no exception – it's been a long time coming. Emoh enlisted a slew of collaborators to create an immersive and varicoloured piece of work. Skrillex and Perth’s Slumberjack lend hands to drop respective bangers Goh and Warlord ; Rome Fortune continues his hot run of form from last year’s Buried on the stripped- back Demons ; Boston everyman rapper Michael Christmas spits wild on Chance-esque Monsters ; and Australian icon Daniel Johns pops up multiple times – the most striking is the San Holo collaboration If I Only Knew . Johns' familiar shrieks on the back end of the track gave me head- to-toe goosebumps. But the star of the show is What So Not; diverse and cohesive, this is a rollercoaster vision. (Sweat It Out/Warner) Tim Lambert

Lucy Dacus Historian

Lowtide Southern Mind

There's some grand imagery going on across the second album from Sydney's Endless Heights. On You Cowards , the jiggering, subsonic vocals sound like singer Joe Martorana is desperately fighting a kelp-clogged undertow. Toxic is bookended by fuming, quaking guitars bending very slowly up to their destination chords, like something huge and gilled rising out of the water. Across the whole, guitar effects sort of meander where they will, sliding down a scale like an exhausted person down a wall. On stand-out Goldleaf , Martorana showcases some great, subtly swerving vocal ideas that circle around a dime, and the heartache is palpable. Some of his lyrics can be a little pedestrian, but all up, this is a very imaginative release. (CookingVinyl) Zoë Radas

It’s evident from the first moment of Lucy Dacus’ sophomore album Historian that there’s something undeniably special about her music. A gentle guitar eases the listener into the sweeping Night Shift – a six-minute odyssey where Dacus’ frank lyrics are delivered via her gloriously smooth vocals. Things take a turn for the neo-psychedelic during The Shell , the layers of guitars introducing unexpected elements of sound into the mix. Yours And Mine weaves a gripping story that leaves you hanging off Dacus’ every word, while Body To Flame has you enraptured from the very first intake of breath heard during the song’s opening. Dacus seems to possess a natural talent for songwriting, making her music both immediately appealing and eminently relatable. (Matador/Remote Control) Holly Pereira

Prepare to surrender yourself to the spellbinding sophomore album from Melbourne’s Lowtide. Through pushing the limits of their instruments further than ever before, the band take their hypnotic sound to staggering new heights. Like iconic shoegaze bands who came before them, Lowtide utilise dreamy harmonies from vocalists Gabriel Lewis and Lucy Buckeridge to leave you swooning. There are two sides to the band evident on the album: the giddy post-punk of tracks like Alibi and Elizabeth Tower , and the glacial dream-pop of A.C and Olinda . With an album that’s full to the brim with rich sonic textures, there’s plenty to be uncovered with repeated listens. It’s this that makes Southern Mind an album that needs to be sat with, and appreciated with focused intent. (Rice Is Nice) Holly Pereira

Stuck Out You Won't Come Home EP Underrated Melbourne punk band Stuck Out’s new EP You Won’t Come Home has all the ingredients necessary for a classic pop-punk release: confident riffs, rhythmic bravado, and lyrics full of emotional vulnerability. The high energy of opener Stitch is a thin veil over the emotionally reflective lyrics underneath; Self Doubt - featuring Between You And Me's Jake Wilson - is full of feel good hooks; and Weight squeezes a lot into its ambient and ominous 90-second life. Soft and slow lead single Fade Away is a gleaming highlight in the six track effort. Considering YWCH clocks in at under 20 minutes long, the five-piece have delivered a well- thought out and emotional record

Various / Kendrick Lamar Black Panther: The Album Black Panther: The Album is just as good as – if not better than – the film from which it draws inspiration. Pray For Me (The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar) and Black Panther (Lamar solo) focus on the film’s hero T’Challa and villain Killmonger, while personal favourite Redemption (Zacari and Babes Wodumo) is more of a wide-sweeping tribute to the beauty of the Wakandan nation. Kendrick’s carefully curated collection – also featuring the skills of Vince Staples, Khalid, Anderson .Paak, and then some – perfectly captures the Black Panther film in musical form, and is an essential companion for any fans of the movie wishing to linger in the rap-heavy, war-torn universe just that little bit longer. (Universal) Alesha Kolbe

Car Seat Headrest Twin Fantasy Will Toledo, AKA Car Seat Headrest, must never sleep. One can only assume so, given the number of albums he’s released (11 and counting) in the space of eight years. Those familiar with the project will be aware that Twin Fantasy was first released back in 2011 to critical and cult acclaim; now in its re-recorded format, we gain a sense of Toledo rising above the album’s themes of awkwardness, unrequited love and substance use. That’s not to say he’s become complacent – the urgency of his 13-minute epic Beach Life-In- Death is still there, along with the crippling self-awareness of Nervous Young Inhuman . It just goes to show that confronting old demons can be a liberating experience, with Toledo proof that you can always make the best out of a bad situation. (Matador/Remote Control) Holly Pereira

Nils Frahm All Melody German ambient electronic (or

“modern classical”) artist Nils Frahm has found his tent pitched in the Max Richter, Einaudi and Hauschka camp, and that certainly makes sense, but All Melody is a world all in itself. It has much in common with French producers Air; on tracks like A Place and All Melody , the electronic piano and slivered samples of organ transform the expected rhythm/ melody relationship into something else entirely, while on Human Range , the muted trumpet sounds so much like a wailing human voice it’s kind of creepy. Frahm has said of the album: “My pipe organ would turn into a drum machine, while my drum machine would sound like an orchestra of breathy flutes. I would turn my piano into my very voice, and any voice into a ringing string.” He has magicked these sounds and more – a stunning effort. (Erased Tapes/Inertia) Zoë Radas

that is all killer, no filler. (Greyscale Records) Tim Lambert

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MARCH 2018

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