STACK April 2016 Issue 138

82 / 98

Another hour, another King
Gizzard album, but of course.
Here, kids, the concept is that
you can loop the entire nine-track
release and you’ll never hear the
joins; an endless jam if you will.
Brilliant, I tells ya! With sweat
flyin’ off the needle, Robot Stop
KING GIZZARD
AND THE LIZARD
WIZARD
NONAGON INFINITY
“Shoot and score, take what’s yours,” is a lyric
from Summer Flake’s fresh album Hello
Friends. It’s also a neat summation of what the
Australian artist Stephanie Crase achieves here. Song
after song hits the mark, pinpointing the best elements
of raw rock and dreamy garage, and combining them
in a way that is uniquely hers. The harmonious guitar arrangements and
slightly ‘90s-inflected nostalgia of previous EP and album releases are all
present, bringing the full songwriting skills and dynamic range of Summer
Flake into panoramic view. The music ebbs and flows with the lyrics, in
turns contemplative and calm, or vast and vehement.
(Rice Is Nice) Simon Winkler
SUMMER FLAKE
HELLO FRIENDS
opens to an urgent flurry of multi-
instrumental madness. We continue
down this jagged road throughout
Big Fig Wasp until single Gamma
Knife out-psyches any wizard likely
to float by. Not until People-Vultures
(track four) does the energy let up,
but even that’s only for a mere 30
STACK Picks
Robot Stop, Gamma
Knife, Wah Wah
With a golden triangle
of mood and sonic
similarity possessed within
this one outfit (Modern
Lovers, The Strokes, Talking
Heads), Parquet Courts are
easily one of the most exciting
indie outfits
active today.
There’s a sublime
maturity to the
punkish fun
always present:
“Mid-sentence
tremors, mind at
its weakest – one
way of shaking the thoughts
that it sleeps with” is just
one of the poetic ditties from
the title track, which has
to be watermarked as the
most complete and enduring
song of their six-year career.
Dancing between avant-garde
(I Was Just Here) and the
squint-and-you-can-easily-
imagine-Iggy-singing-it-late-
at-night of Steady On My
Mind, you’re soon thrust
into the sermonic urgency of
Berlin Got Blurry, complete
with a Shadows guitar and a
knowing snarl Elvis Costello
could relate to. Fans
may find this album
perhaps a tad too
evolved, although
the opener Dust
sounds like it’s
straight off Light Up
Gold (as does Two
Dead Cops) with its
joyous ode to the depressing
nature of the constant
maintenance involved in life.
A flag-waving addition to
the prolific output of these
creative anomalies, and one
that will be pored over for
many years to come.
(Rough Trade/Remote Control) Chris
Murray
PARQUET COURTS
HUMAN PERFORMANCE
visit MUSIC REVIEWS
10 APRIL 2016
MUSIC
seconds, and once again we’re
thrust into a spiralling vortex of
colour and overwhelming passion
for immersion. This band is not
human… clearly.
(Flightless/Remote Control)
Chris Murray