All photos by Joseph James
I fell in love with Blueneck as soon as I heard them. I heard their song “Man Of Lies” when I was listening through the mammoth Post Engineering compilation that came out last year. That was it – I was hooked. I looked up Blueneck’s Bandcamp page and purchased their catalogue.
The Outpost (Denovali Records) is Blueneck’s sixth studio album, and latest since 2014’s King Nine. It is also well worth a listen.
The Outpost was first planned as a side-project from singer-songwriter Duncan Attwood and guitarist
Rich Sadler, before it became truely realised as a full Blueneck release. How did the two of them come up with such an expansive sound? Herein lies some of the wonders of digital instruments. And although I usually prefer “real” instruments above their electronic counterparts, I must admit that Blueneck do a stellar job. Everything works together in cohesion to complement each part that makes up the ambient soundscape.
I’d appreciate slightly less autotuning, but Duncan Attwood’s vocals are standout and enhance the tender ballads dramatically. He borders on whispering at times, just loud enough for you to hear the hurt. His melancholy is almost tangible in “Hypnos”.
Image: Stewart Black Photography
Opening track “From Beyond” features a drum track that reminds me of Phil Collins’ signature hit “In The Air Tonight”. Like in Collins’ song, the drum track helps to build suspense as we escalate into a climax. The song slowly transforms into a synthetic, industrial feeling track, with autotuned vocals, heavy reverb and a tortured screaming crescendo. This well-crafted masterpiece sets the tone for the album beautifully.
Next up is lead single “Ghosts”. It takes me back to when I first heard “Man Of Lies” and reminds me of why I first fell in love with Blueneck. Like “From Beyond”, this track just gets better as it progresses. The catchy chanted bridge leads into a gorgeous high-pitched guitar riff, before dynamically reverting back to the sparse piano mantra that first tied the song together.
An underlying tension boils beneath many of these tracks, coated with an ethereal glossy veneer. I love how Blueneck walk the line so well – balancing the calm solemnity with the awesome distorted moments. One great example is the during the spacious bridge in “The White Ship” that leaves us hanging. It’s so empty, but full of promise, because you know that this ambient segment is going to end with something huge.
We hear everything you’d expect to hear from most major post-rock releases: swirling riffs, big swells, crashing crescendos. There’s great guitar playing and brilliant drumming, as well as the haunting vocals which are rare to find within this genre. But somehow this album seems to pack more than the sum of its parts. Something is immediately enticing and accessible, despite the depressing nature of the lyrics, and the longer playtimes of half the tracks.
The Outpost is an incredibly moody album. There is such stunning beauty in the music, topped with Attwood’s mournful vocals. If you like eerie post-rock drawing on electronica and saturated in feeling then I suggest you give Blueneck a listen.
The Outpost is out via Denovali Records on 25 November
Joseph James
Like any Australian who watched Rage after coming home from a night out or waking up early on a weekend – I’m aware of Helmet.
They are the band with a pink guitar, the shorts wearing guys with a video that kept popping up every time a heavier act got to program the songs for the show.
Armed with lots of stock footage of industrial machines, their classic 1990’s video for the track Unsung has become etched into my mind as a 3am Saturday or Sunday morning nostalgia trip.
The fact that this song aired so regularly obviously meant that they were an influential band to many, yet I never really had exposure to them beyond the Unsung video.
The years pass from my late teens, the 3am Rage viewing sessions become less frequent. Adulthood sneaks in and so do responsibilities.
Playing in bands comes and goes and every now and then you jam with a musician who plays two bars of a Helmet song and is clearly distraught that you hadn’t picked it up.
“Maybe he didn’t hear properly” they think to themselves, I’ll play it again and maybe sing a few words”.
My blank stare continues.
The cycle repeats, they play it again and this time throw in a bit of chorus.
“Surely he must know the chorus”
Nothing. I am clearly an idiot, clearly the four year age gap between myself and those who seem to be the Helmet crowd is enough.
“Dude, it’s Helmet!” they exclaim.
“Oh, yeah pink guitar, Unsung…. From Rage!”
“How can you not know Helmet” they say with a thinly veiled look of disgust like I’ve kicked their cat.
Clearly I am not true metal. Funnily enough the other bands where this situation happens to me all the time are Nirvana and the Deftones.
If I were to play them a Black Sabbath riff that isn’t Iron Man, Paranoid or War Pigs I’d probably get the same blank stares and pull my best cat kicker face right back at them. It’s part of an attitude that I hope I’m weaning myself off, the close minded aspects that come with playing to a genre of music rather than making music that you like, no matter the genre.
Back on track. . .ear
Last year, mid Reuben binge I found myself drawn to the line in Return of the Jedi (The Reuben song, not Star Wars movie), a brutally honest narrative on the prospect of being an independent musician in the Internet age.
OK, so there they are again. Helmet keep popping up.
Another band who I respect and adore mentioning Helmet, this time immortalised in their lyrics, not just in an interview.
I shall have to investigate Helmet and see what all the fuss is about. Thankfully for me, Helmet have a new album coming out, so here goes.
It turns out the reason I’ve not heard much from Helmet lately is that they’ve not released an album in six years. Dead to the World is the 8th full length release from Helmet and their second in the last 10 years.
From the first 30 seconds of Dead to the World all of the elements are there. There is no extended instrumental opening or theatrics, the first verse has started in the first five seconds.
The vocals are double tracked and dirty, the bass and drums are driving the song forward relentlessly. From the get go the attitude is there, this is rock music full of the counter-culture staples that think of when you think of the genre. The rebellious, angry at everything and everyone rock music.
“Catch phrases, punchlines, guns, bluster, ammo, incivility, impatience, murder. You, me, us, them, life, liberty and the pursuit of property.” – Page Hamilton, Helmet front man.
It reads like a George Carlin monologue. The intent is clearly there, the attitude is there. Do the songs match up to the intent?
Bad News features some harmonies that I can’t help but subconsciously link to the Beatles. There is songwriting talent on display here.
Does it sound like a new album? Not necessarily, it could have easily been released in the 1990’s aside from the mastering differences.
For me it becomes a great what if game, I think that I would like this album more if it had more of a modern production sound, but would doing that make it not sound like Helmet?
The songs are near as makes no difference four minutes or shorter, so nothing overstays the welcome. Look Alive near the end of the album provides a beautiful slow contrast compared to the rest of the album, its inclusion makes the album feel more whole.
People new to Helmet might find some songs on the album that please, particularly fans of 90’s rock (think Jon Bush era-Anthrax). Using the people I know who love the band, Helmet fans will buy this album either way.
This review was originally posted by Murray Stace at his site Relative Silence
What is the story behind your band?
Hey guys its Barry, lead singer and rhythm guitarist from Audio Impulse. I met Nate back in college through our bassist Pat. We quickly became friends and always discussed writing music together. We ended up living around the corner from each other and found ourselves without bands and a lot of free time. I went through a break-up and ended up moving about 45 minutes away from Nate. He came over twice a week to write music and keep me sane. Eventually when we had several songs written we decided to make it a full line-up and asked Pat to join as our bassist. The search for a drummer was a little tricky, we ended up placing an ad on Craigslist and Freeman answered it. He was the first and only try-out we had. The first night he played with us it all gelled perfectly.
How would you describe your sound?
Our sound is somewhat unique but still accessible. Most people say it’s hard to pin us directly in one specific genre but overall we identify as Punk Rock. We have heavy Pop Punk influences that mesh with our love for 90s era grunge. We all have specific bands that we pull our influences from but the common ones across the board would be Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Rise Against, Incubus, Nirvana, Wonder Years, and Thrice.
What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?
I would actually recommend our EP that we just released in March called “Straight Shot”. It’s four songs that will definitely get you up and moving. My personal favourite from the EP would be “For The Road” which we are getting ready to release a music video for!
What lessons did you learn from your previous bands that you brought with you to this band?
There are more lessons than I care to list here but there are several main points that we all agree on. Everything we do is done as a team, we either sink or swim together. A good work ethic when it comes to practicing on a regular basis. We don’t ever play a song in the studio or live unless we know it like the back of our hands. Practice makes perfect and we make sure we hold true to that mentality especially in reference to our live shows. We take pride in being able to put on a great live show every time and we can only do that if we are well rehearsed together.
A lot of your vocals remind me of Fat Wreck signed punk bands. Would these acts be counted among your influences?
Absolutely! I grew up listening to NOFX, and Lagwagon is one of my all-time favourite punk bands. Rise Against has already been listed as a main influence in our sound, and they sit in high regard along with No Use for a Name, Less Than Jake, None More Black, Nerf Herder, and the Real McKenzies. All of those bands have definitely influenced my singing style over the years just from constantly singing along to their albums in my car! I always find it pretty cool when people can pick up on musical influences in our songs. It shines the light on how influential music can really be in somebody’s life.
What are some key themes and messages that you cover with your music?
This is probably one of the most important questions you can ask us. All four of us have experienced moments in our lives that had completely wrecked us emotionally. When we were at our worst, there was one constant that kept us sane, and that was music. We each have an album that we define as “the album that saved me” and picked us up from the ashes to grow stronger. Our main goal is to create that album that helps somebody get through life. We understand the therapeutic principals that are within music and do our best to create a safe haven for the fans. Whether we are playing a show to one person or one million people, if somebody walks away feeling better about life then we’ve done our job. Our songs reflect that by portraying the message of you are not alone in a hopeful and sympathetic manner.
What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]
Honestly that depends on the day. I usually end up streaming my music when I’m on the computer or driving, but when I have the time to sit down and appreciate the music, I will rifle through my dad’s old vinyl collection and see what I can find.
Tell us your best tour story.
Well we haven’t been on a tour yet, but we just booked our first one for the month of September this year. We will be heading down south with the Extreme Tour and we couldn’t be more excited about it. I will definitely get back to you with some stories when you interview us again!
What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?
We’ve gotten a few but our biggest accomplishments have been three things. First we opened for Alien Ant Farm and Hed PE and sold out the bill! Then we won the greatest Alternative Hard Rock album in the country in November 2015 by the Akademia Music Awards. Lastly our most recent accomplishment was selling out our EP release show in March at Connie’s Ric Rac in South Philly!
Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?
I can safely say that the entire band would be tickled pink if we could tour with Foo Fighters! Dave Grohl seems like such a fun guy and collaborating with him would be hysterical and educational all at the same time.
What plans do you have for the near future?
We have a busy schedule ahead of us! We are playing several festivals this summer along with local shows. Then we will be going on tour in September for most of the month. We also will be releasing a new music video for our latest single off of “Straight Shot” called “For the Road” in which we got to work with a great director named Scott Hoon. Then we plan on releasing a single sometime in August or September that we recorded with Shane Garland from Hunger Before Greed Productions. After all of that we are planning on releasing a new album sometime in the next year.
Here’s your chance to say anything that we haven’t covered.
Outside of the music we are all big gamers. In fact, we got our name from one of the greatest RPGs ever made. There was a game released for the Super Nintendo called Chrono Trigger and it has been rated as one of the best games of all time. There is a move in the game called “arc impulse”, after some research, we found out that name was already taken. So we ended up deciding on Audio Impulse after some short deliberation. It was a name that as soon as we heard it, we knew that was it.
Links:
Joseph James
Novacrow are a UK based hard rock band with a generous dose of zombies and sleaze added to the mix – think along the lines of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. They’ve just released debut EP Black Syrup, so I sent them some questions to learn more about the band.
What is the story behind your band?
Kitty: Seeing as the truth is pretty straightforward, in that Jonyx and I started making music together and we acquired Freddy and Torben for Novacrow purposes, here is an extravagant backstory.
Jonyx: Originally conceived on the planet of Sexlexis in the Andromeda system, we were sent to dominate Earth through the power of pelvic-thrustingly good music. Unfortunately Sexlexis became struck with the extremely erotic disease ‘Sexlexia’ and we were given the task of finding a cure, the fastest way to spread the word…Novacrow! (continuity errors in storyline may occur…)
Torben: …and then I joined
Where are you from, and what prompted you to start?
K: I have always loved playing in a band and I think the four of us were drawn together, because we all enjoy making lots of noise and embarrassing ourselves. Jonyx and I are from Wolverhampton, Torben is from Norfolk and Freddy is originally from Italy.
How would you describe your sound?
Freddy: A sextastic sonic force.
K: Fat juicy riffs, sleazy vocals and groin-grabbingly good choruses.
T: Top stuff.
What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?
F: Our EP ‘Black Syrup’ is a must listen for anybody who enjoys being a person. I’d say ‘Fat Frog’ off it would give the best idea of what we’re about.
J: Black Syrup, it’s the tits!
T: I’d personally go for Fight the Horde, I consider it a stomping song.
Why kazoo? It’s definitely not a conventional instrument.
K: Kazoos are just hilarious. We first used one when we did a terrible cover of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a Valentine’s gig. People loved it, so we thought it would be funny to add a bit of kazoo into all of our shows. We ended up recording it on the opening track of our EP, Fat Frog.
Torben, you appear to be the punk in a band of metalheads. Does this cause any conflict?
T: When I first joined I wanted to play everything much faster, but whilst punk is my favourite genre, I grew up on metal, owning every Opeth record and listening to them on repeat. Gojira were also big for me, and still are. But having said that, I wouldn’t say it has caused tension, at core we’re all just looking to have fun playing music we love.
Sadly, rock music is still male dominated. Do you find that you’re treated differently to other bands because you have a female singer?
K: It’s hard for me to be objective as (obviously), I’ve only ever been in bands with a female member, but I’d say that we are treated differently to an extent. ‘Female fronted’ is regularly treated like a genre, which is a bit strange, as we often find ourselves billed alongside a load of symphonic metal bands. To us, the fact that we have a female member isn’t an important part of Novacrow. I’ve had my fair share of derogatory comments, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a couple of snide remarks to stop me from rocking my ass off.
It looks like you have a lot of fun playing on the zombie/horror theme. What are some more creative examples of where you have taken this theme?
K: We did a big cheesy B-movie music video for our single Fight The Horde!!! Which was super fun to film. We’ve used this in our live shows too, in one we used a giant screen to show clips creating a ‘storyline’ and had zombies coming on stage and out into the audience. At our EP launch we did zombie face painting too, so we had a whole crowd of the undead.
Between you all, the band covers recording, production, writing and art. Tell me about your DIY motives.
F: For us it pretty much came naturally, we all seem to fit together like a sort of jigsaw puzzle. John has the most experience in photo editing and designing, so he just took on the role of artwork designer. I’m a producer of my own accord outside the band, so I took command of recording, production, and video editing when needed. This leaves most of the artistic direction up to Kitty, so she’ll write most of the songs and we all chip in accordingly.
And then there’s Torben.
Paint me a picture of what I should expect to see at a typical Novacrow gig.
Kitty: Picture yourself at a dingy venue with a cheap pint of beer in one hand. Novacrow comes onstage and suddenly you are weak at the knees. Each member is dazzlingly attractive and unimaginably talented. Their music is so fantastic, you feel faint. Their stage banter is so hilarious, your sides actually split from laughter. The crowd around you are going wild, foaming at the mouth, tits everywhere. You fish out your wallet and you’re literally throwing handfuls of money at the band, they are just that good….
Kitty, I saw that in the list of books you read last year you covered a lot of classic literature and graphic novels, especially some dystopian texts. Talk me through some of your favourites. I know you have a degree in English Lit, so I’m expecting some good recommendations.
K: YES. Excellent question. There are so many incredible novels that everybody needs to read! Obvious choices include Fahrenheit 451, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1984, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse 5 and any of Poe’s short stories.
My longtime favourite author is Stephen King. His first person narratives are unbeatable and I love his great sprawling fantasy epics. It, The Stand, The Dark Half and The Green Mile, are a few of my top choices.
In terms of a quirky recommendation, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, or Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. I’ve also just finished the trilogy of 1Q84 novels, by Haruki Murakami, which were fantastically written.
What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]
F: I mostly download my music, and when I buy CD’s I’ll import them to my laptop. I ain’t got the time to pick out a CD and put it in a CD player and shit, I just want it THERE!
Torben: MP3s or digital music, whenever I travel or walk I have music in. I have a vast collection of CDs which I listen to whenever I can, because I love having a hard-copy of the music I love most.
Tell us your best tour story.
F: We once played a biker club in the middle of Derbyshire and camped out on their fields. There was a HUGE slug that turned out to be just two regular slugs. There was also a lot of booze, some cooked chicken, a broken pump, and a giant fake plastic horse. And Showaddywaddy.
What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?
K: The fact that we’ve somehow tricked people into believing that we’re a real band, rather than a group of attention seeking idiots. I’m super proud of the EP and the excellent feedback we’ve had from it.
Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?
F: The almighty GWAR.
K: Wednesday 13, Rob Zombie, Skindred or Alestorm.
T: Murder Dolls or Green Jellÿ who were great fun to play with… anyone who’s up for fun and some heavy music basically.
What plans do you have for the near future?
K: Loads of gigs, working on new material and general badassery