STACK #143 Sept 2016

NEWS MUSIC

The annual Big Sound festival and conference – sometimes referred to as the Aussie SXSW – is upon us this month. Over three days, industry professionals, musicians and media gather to forge new relationships, discuss the industry and hear the newest music our land has to offer.While we can't wait to hear the conference keynote speakers (Kim Gordon!), here are the names punters can look forward to catching on the various stages of FortitudeValley over September 7-9.

BIGSOUND 2016

TASH SULTANA

SAMPA THE GREAT A maestro of graceful beat poetry, fascinating rhythms, inventive melodies and self-reflexive lyrics investigating personal and social themes, Sampa The Great has deftly grabbed a bunch of comparisons to Erykah Badu. Her debut album The Great Mixtape dropped in July this year, and made a big fat stir with brilliant tracks like Black Dignity, Blue Boss and F E M A L E . Soon you'll get to hear her feature on REMI’s upcoming release Demons & Divas (out this month), and we are champing to see her play the triple j Unearthed Stage on Thursday September 8.

You can’t stop, won’t stop, Tash Sultana. The Melbourne multi-instrumentalist’s grand ascent to notoriety began with busking, then a few filmed bedroom recordings featuring her electric guitar and loop-station (and all the signs of life a sharehouse will exhibit, such as a pooch running through the room and housemates peeking around the door), and on to an enviable management deal and a scramble for interviews. She’ll be playing the triple j Unearthed Stage on Wednesday September 7 at 10.30, and we predict it’ll be one of the most sardine-squished events of the festival.

Oh Pep!

I n addition to those three lions to the right, here are the other acts we want to see: hypnotic folk man William Crighton ; adorable and talented girl-next-door Alex Lahey ; emotive and super smart Melbourne duo Oh Pep! ; MORE TO LOOK OUT FOR

atmospheric slayer of hearts Ainslie Wills ; irresistible pop cats Dorsal Fins ; intriguing weirdo Mossy ; the ethereal and

INTERVIEW MIKE NOGA

certainly very influenced by certain immersive theatre productions I've seen recently and the one thing that struck me about those is that the 'fourth wall' is utterly destroyed. It's not there. And so I wanted to incorporate that theory somehow into this album.

KING by Mike Noga is out now via Cooking Vinyl.

gritty Gabriella Cohen ; melodic punk boys Ceres ; the stirring and stunning Gawurra ; needs-no-introduction Harts (see our interview on page 8); dirty-pop and psych man Jarrow ; fiery post-grunge vocalist

Q2/ You’ve done something odd to your voice on that main background melody in Mary (Reprise) ; is it a vocoder? It cracks very weirdly, it’s amazing. My voice naturally cracks up at a certain register... years of not learning how to sing properly and smoking will do that. But I believe there's a small amount of a distorted effect on the vocal in that song. That's actually one of my favourites. It was really fun to weave together the four different vocal parts. We approached that song almost like a hip hop song. There's a sly reference to Elvis at the end too. Another reason the album had to be called KING . Q3/ Woyzeck [the play on which KING is based] was an unfinished script – did you tinker with a few ideas for how to conclude the narrative? I have a very clear picture in my head of what happens to Jack and Mary... but I'm keeping it to myself! Ha-ha! Only I will know how the story really ends! I wanted to keep it open to the listeners' own interpretation, rather than the ending being just plain 'happy' or 'sad'. It's purposefully quite surreal and yes, enigmatic at the end. Is the last song all in Jack's head? Is Mary still alive? Or was the whole album in Jack's head and the last song is the only 'real' moment on the whole thing? I leave that to you to decide. Good luck!

EccaVandal ; the dynamic Olympia ; powerful pop foursome TigerTown ; astonishing MC Tkay Maidza ; the powerful electronic beauty of

Q1/ Your choices with the narration are really interesting. The Narrator’s voice starts off very separate, as an outsider to the story, but then he turns up in all kinds of places. What were your ideas behind this? I wanted to use Noah [Taylor] in various different ways. Although he does play a lot of 'characters' on the album – Jack, Mary, the DJ on the radio – in a broad sense he is 'the devil' or 'Jack's demons' if you like. He's guiding us through the story and at the same time weaving in and out of it himself and popping up in various guises. I was Ex-The Drones drummer Mike Noga returns with another fascinating solo album. Set in small town 1950s Australia, KING tells the sad and macabre story of couple Jack and Mary, and utilises the voice talents of actor NoahTaylor for narration.

Vera Blue ; boogie-funk-soul-disco-with- sick-beats duo GL ; jangle pop-rock darlings LooseTooth ; post-punk jammers Terrible Truths ; the eerie, thumping electronica of RebelYell ; and awesomely talented New

Zealander Jess Cornelius, AKA Teeth &Tongue .

13