Album Review: Electric Trails From Nowhere by The Golden Rail (2017) (Label: Pretty Olivia Records and Off The Hip)

Although Ian Freeman and Jeff Baker have had a song writing relationship that has spanned 30 years encompassing notable Australian bands like Header, The Rainyard, The Palisades and the Summer Suns, they perhaps may not have envisioned being as prolific as they have in the last 18 months.

Where Are The Strange People by KiDD (2017) (Label: Pretty Olivia Records)

An unexpected bonus of writing this blog is to share a little bit of cyber space with a few of my heroes who follow me on social media.

One of these kind souls is Stuart Kidd who has performance credits with bands such as BMX Bandits (current band), Primary 5, Dr Cosmos Tape Labs and Daniel Wylie's Cosmic Rough Riders and more recently a critically acclaimed project with The Wellgreen. In effect Mr Kidd has been a purveyor of fine, around the fringes jangle-pop for nearly 15 years and any release promises pedigree.

He did not disappoint. Initially there is a lo-fi/bedroom pop chic (juxtaposed with the most subtle inflections of psych) aesthetic that defies the normal wallowing introspection that often accompanies such genres. However Kidd is not using this album in true lo-fi style to express just how intensely bad his life is or how evil his parents were for once refusing to let him have a rabbit and this in itself starts the album with a notable and refreshingly different nuance.

Album Review - Edge of a Dream by The Jangle Band (2015) (Labels: Pretty Olivia Records / Off The Hip / Egomaniac Music)

Things I love get bastardized. Poetic social commentary is forgone for rappers informing how to kill in rhyming couplets. Tranquil, skillful 5 days cricket now gets more attention when played by huge thugs clubbing the ball with a plank for two hours a night and getting huge sums of money for regularly scoring 19 runs off 7 balls.

The concept of books/novels is being challenged by two line internet micro-stories that clever sorts then attribute 97 pages of meaning too and German '63% Glonckenspeil Reisling' makes the fine wine top 20 as published by Supermarkets R Us...blimey even the 'bun' is now seen as a viable addition to the list of possible hairstyles for a man.

Jangle-pop has certainly not escaped such bastardization. In the last five years the guitar melody has drifted increasingly towards all things shoegaze and as such seems to get forced through the echo, reverb and fuzz productions tubes so that it fits more precisely with the vocals that have already been tortured in the same manner.