Wednesday's Selection - Three Fine Contenders
Luna Sands - Wake Me From Sleep.
Background - Luna Sands began as a studio project in late 2012, and after reworking and refining their sound for two years, they have completed recording their debut album "Tales of Night” in 2014. The first half of 2015 has seen Luna Sands demonstrate their style of psych grunge across prominent Brisbane venues such as The Zoo, The Triffid, and The Brightside. Now they are releasing their third single ‘Wake Me From Sleep’ through Sydney based label The A&R Department. The song wake me from sleep was recorded in 2014 at Recording Oasis, Taliebudgera Valley, Gold Coast, as well as Alchemix Studios, South Brisbane. The song was produced, and mixed by Rob Sharpe, and mastered by DOMC Mastering, Margate, QLD.
The song takes on the concept of dreaming, and being truly alive in our dreams. Front man of Luna Sands, Allen Ellis explained his inspiration for the song as:
“In a place some call the dreaming, between the borderlines of the awake and slumber you may find your lucid self. Here you are released to live out your dreams and desires where unrequited love and deeper longings are made perfect. How you get here may require a spell of medicine, a kiss from hades and for others the hand of midnight! Returning to your daily routine a tired reality sets in which suggests that maybe we are sleepers waiting to feel awake, made only possible in our dreams.”
A gentle song for a band described as psych grunge, this has more of an indie ballad meets alt rock feel to it, whatever it's a catchy little tune and the vocals are just right.
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Background - Almost a Melbourne institution in their own right, let alone the gigging and recording mentors of many of Melbourne's world conquering psychedelic garage bands; The Demon Parade have a brand spanking new EP, Stone Circles, released earlier this month.
Bringing it all back home to the sound of their first homemade demos at the turn of the decade, which would see them hand-picked by the likes of the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Swervedriver for tour supports, the new tracks see the band eschewing the dense and layered production of previous releases, deliberately keeping the knob twiddling behind the studio desk to a minimum. Instead, they've focused on song structures and creating a cohesive narrative between the songs to deliver their most fully formed release yet.
Inspired by the ancient stone circles of Southern Africa, which some researchers believe were used to create free energy with mind boggling frequencies and electro-magnetic fields more than 300,000 years ago; the EP ties together otherworldly, interstellar drones with sharp dirty guitar hooks. ‘She's Dope' extends a backwards glance to the pretty girl hanging out with Brian Jones in Marrakesh, front man Michael Badger wringing eastern mysticism out of a boy meets girl raga that's as old as time.
The featured track from the EP has a classic almost 60's psychedelic vibe to it (maybe Traffic's 'Hole In My Shoe') Having said that, the EP takes us in different directions with some harder edged songs and fine harmonies.
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Century Thief - Pillar - from the album 'Reverie'.
Background from the band - We've taken a collective approach to our new album 'Reverie' it features songs from four different members. These songs show a lot of diversity without comprimising on the unity that binds it all together. 'Reverie is out September 10th
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The studio allowed us to experiment as a band and brought us closer together as a unit. We ended up with a 13 song album about fighting stagnation. It’s an honest attempt to understand the boredom and comfort of unhealthy situations, poisonous loves, cruel social structures, doubt and dead end routines.
There’s a resistance to action that prefers a daydream. Although there is frustration in this, there is also solace in community that makes it more of a celebration of the struggle and our ability to persevere through love and acknowledgement. The music is sometimes upbeat, sometimes somber, and occasionally veers into manic noise, but we loved making it and we hope you'll enjoy listening to it.
There's only so much one song can provide as an idea of what an album might sound like. So 'Pillar' is just a hint of what amounts to a really fine collection of tracks. The songs take you in different directions, styles and vocals. If you like 'Pillar' then I have no hesitation in recommending the whole album.
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