Antipodean Antics And Other Strangeness

Different Noises 147

A veritable tsunami of Antipodean music, old and new, is mixed with an eclectic selection of other artists from the grass roots of the music world.

AUDIO

PLAYLIST

• Chimers - Red Chair - Parallel Lives/Red Chair ¹

• Deardarkhead - Letting Go - Letting Go ²

• Crow - You Can’t Turn Away - You Can’t Turn Away ³

• Occult Character - Information Pollution - Nauseus ⁴

• Fancy Weapon - Squirmin’ Merman - Squirmin’ Merman ⁵

• Kim Salmon and the Surrealists - Bad Birth - Hit Me with the Surreal Feel ⁶

• Primitive Ring - Lies From The Other Side - Primitive Ring ⁷

• Danny Short - Intro-You Should Know/Placidosyncrasies - Halt ⁸

• Bagful of Beez - Fever Dream - Fever Dream ⁹

• Earth Tongue - Symmetry Dripper - Dungeon Vision ¹⁰

• The Bordellos - Fish Race - Let’s Play Lo-Fi ¹¹

• The Go-Betweens - Caroline and I (Acoustic Version) - G Stands For Go-Betweens: The Go-Betweens Anthology - Volume 3 ¹²

• Dave Graney and Clare Moore - Half The Bastard - Laburnum Of The Mind ¹³

• Asteroid Ekosystem - Space Buzz - Sounds Have Dreams ¹⁴

• The Scientists - When Worlds Collide - The Definitive Article ¹⁵

• Moff Skellington - Getten, Gittin, Gotten/Faintly Torquise - Dawn Ablutions ¹⁶

• David Occhipiniti - Sotto le Stelle - Looking Glass ¹⁷

• Ecce Shnak - Vincent - Vincent ¹⁸

• Naria - Adrenaline Drip and Outer Walls - Lyra-La ¹⁹

• Jeff Gburek and Eryk Nowacki - New Found Whispers - Small Fires ²⁰

• Heir To The Squandered Millions - Thin Aspiration - Thin Aspiration ²¹

• Joseph Keckler - Believer - Believer ²²

• The Jackets - The Question - Essentials ²³

• Grihastha - Break Away - Break Away ²⁴

• Taxi Girls - Say It - Static ²⁵

• The Joy Thieves - No Anchor - No Anchor ²⁶

• Kim Salmon and the Surrealists - Intense ²⁷

• My Heart, In Inverted Flame - You Alone - My Death Is More Beautiful Than Your Life ²⁸

• Michael Plater - Ouranos - Ouranos (Rossco Version) ²⁹

• The Scientists - Fire Escape - The Definitive Article ³⁰

• These Future Kings - The Whisperer - Via Dolorosa ³¹

NOTES

1. Chimers are a Wollongong‑based two‑piece formed in 2020 by Padraic Skehan and Binx during the first pandemic lockdown. The project marked Skehan’s shift from long‑time garage‑scene drummer to guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter, drawing on his Irish upbringing and influences from Dischord‑era post‑hardcore, Hüsker Dü and The Wipers. Built around discordant guitar, off‑beat drums and sharp melodic vocals, the band developed quickly from backyard sessions into a recognised post‑punk/noise‑pop outfit, releasing their self‑titled debut in 2021. Red Chair was released in April 2026 as Chimers’ contribution to a split 7” with Chicago group FACS, issued by 12XU.

2. New Jersey alt-rock dreampop outfit Deardarkhead presents their new single ‘Letting Go’, the first taste of new album ‘The Pendulum Swings’. It’s an instrumental anthem built around soaring guitar leads and melodic bass hooks. A piece about growth and change, centered on releasing old patterns and embracing new directions.

3. Legendary Sydney band Crow, who were feted by Juice magazine when they emerged in the early ‘90s as “the best band in Australia since the Birthday Party”, have premiered a video for the new single “You Can’t Turn Away” ahead of their first album in over 15 years, which will be entitled Hold Sway, and released later in the year on Cheersquad Records & Tapes.

4. Further lo-fi electronic wonderment from Matt Nauseous

5. Fancy Weapon, a new Melbourne-based group whose members Mick Turner, Claire Birchall, Joel Silbersher and Guy Maddison have all left indelible marks across the underground music landscape with the extended version of the second single and video “Squirmin’ Merman” from their forthcoming debut album.

6. The “Godfather of Grunge” is a busy man at the moment including the re-release of the classic 1988 debut from his Surrealists band with Brian Hooper and Tony Pola.

7. They are Bert Hoover (Hoover III, Groop), Jon Modaff (JModaff, Hooveriii, Groop), and Charles Moothart (Fuzz, GØGGS, Ty Segall Band, Mikal Cronin, Iggy Pop). The three LA based musicians found each other in a collective state of high functioning de evolution and collectively agreed to bend the knee to the primal instincts of melody and rhythm. From the self-titled debut.

8. New album from the bard of Horwich - no details received as yet.

9. The Meghan Maike-sung first single from the revamped incarnation of Link Meanie’s formerly solo DIY pop project Bagful of Beez. Link explains the changes to the band: “Bagful of Beez is now a full band, so no more glitching backing tracks and more band members which is handy for gang fights.” Now a full band featuring Matt Cotter (Even), Meghan Maike (Meghan Maike and the Cactus Flowers) and Chip Wardale (Snapshot, Rat Kangaroo and more).

10. Winners of Best Group at the 2025 Aotearoa (New Zealand) Music Awards, Berlin based, New Zealand heavy psych rock duo Earth Tongue - guitarist Gussie Larkin and drummer Ezra Simons -with their third album Dungeon Vision released on Los Angeles’ In The Red Records label. The album was produced by contemporary garage-rock luminary Ty Segall.

11. Further Lo-Fi fun from St Helens and the Shea’s - essential listening.

12. Stripped back version from the Go-Betweens 3rd Box Set

13. Another track from Dave and Clare’s new album

14. Another track from this featured album

15. More Kim Salmon. Recorded in 2017 at The Triffid in Brisbane by 4ZZZ’s Branko Cosic, The Definitive Article features the line-up of Kim, Tony Thewlis, Boris Sujdovic and the late Leanne Cowie. It will be the last new Scientists recording to feature Leanne, who passed away unexpectedly a year ago.

16. Further tracks from Moff’s new one - more details here

17. Acclaimed Toronto composer and guitarist David Occhipinti offers a unique continuation of the trajectory established through his recent output with his Camera Ensemble, and features intricate ensemble writing centring his guitar alongside, violin, viola, and cello. His frequent collaborators Aline Homzy and Steven Dann are heard on violin and viola respectively, with Maria Zachariadou, associate principal cellist of the BBC Philharmonic, filling out the trio. Occhipinti’s singular music is preoccupied with colour and probes this both through elegant chromatic harmonies and subtle use of specialized techniques.

18. The NYC art-rockers are back with “Vincent”, the first single from their “Dandy Variances” album, out later this year. Operatic trills collide with frantic rock energy in a high-decibel takedown of a formulaic antagonist through the power of one’s own voice. Formed in the mid-1990s and forged in NYC’s experimental scene, Ecce Shnak has a reputation for astounding performances, their music a volatile yet meticulously crafted ecosystem, where technical precision meets a sense of inspired mayhem.

19. A further track from their recent album featured on Different Noises 141

20. Polish-based guitarist and composer Jeff Gburek ()acoustic guitar, mandolin, modular synthesizers, prepared swarmandal) and Eryk Nowacki (saz, sitar, electronic tambour) release a selection of exquisite Eastern compositions on Small Fires. “Our title Small Fires derives from the practice among certain Indigenous American people of making small fires periodically, often enough to prevent the build-up of fallen wood that could fuel large forest fires. It is also said that one makes a small fire to get close to, to get down to earth, keep warm, cook, and remain discreet, as opposed to the colonialist bonfire seen for miles off, done for show, to mark territory, frighten”.

21. The debut single by Melbourne’s newest “compact, tight” power pop band taken from the band’s soon to be announced debut album. The current project of Ross McLennan, formerly of ‘90s Australian power-pop outfit and Triple J faves Snout. After leading Snout from 1991 to 2002, Ross undertook a side project, Meuscram, with his younger brother, Lindsay (a.k.a. Link Meanie of the Meanies - see abpve), delivering a lo-fi self-titled album in 1995.

22. This single establishes a striking new direction and tone for New York based Keckler. Anchored by live strings, it’s built around a repeating orchestral phrase that forms a menacing, hypnotic groove. Vocally expansive, the piece artfully blends spoken and sung text with layers of vocal percussion, baritone rumbles, and theremin-like intonations that drift through the mix like passing specters in a haunted attraction.

23. Wild Swiss garage psych punk trio The Jackets - fronted by enigmatic vocalist/guitarist Jackie Brutsche, she of the Love It To Death-style eye makeup - have recently released the new collection Essentials on Portugal’s Chaputa Records. The album is a celebration of The Jackets’ 18-year band history and features their ten most defining songs alongside two brand-new recordings, “The Question” and “Rock & Roll Band”.

24. “Break Away” is Grihastha’s latest adrenaline shot—a fast, ferocious metal anthem built to shatter conformity. Fueled by blistering drums, scorching guitars, and a message of uncompromising self-reliance, the track doubles as both a pit-starter and a personal revolt. Recorded in Los Angeles at Black Lotus and 91 Sound Studios, it captures the band at their most urgent and unrestrained.

25. Montreal’s Taxi Girls kick off the next chapter with “Say It!”, the electrifying new single on Stomp Records. Formed in 2022, the all-female garage punk outfit has quickly emerged from the city’s underground with a sound rooted in punchy hooks, raw edge and rock ’n’ roll swagger, nodding to The Donnas, Joan Jett and Nikki Corvette.

26. Chicago alt-rock outfit The Joy Thieves’ presents ‘No Anchor’ hot on the trail of ‘The Wrong End of Your Rifle’, both featuring Chris Connelly on vocals. Previewing their ‘Apocalypse Pending’ album, this song addresses isolation and hopeless nihilism in a world slipping free of moral gravity.

27. as 6.

28. From the sophomore album from drummer Andee Connors and synth/electronics/vocalist Marc Kate – delivering another slab of their signature tectonic synth-doom. Despite what appears to be a spare sound palette and dispensing with the use of guitar and bass, the duo’s sound is utterly immense and wrought in dark emotional intensity, sprawling across nearly eighty minutes of morose slow-motion grandeur.

29. Michael says ““Hi friends, I’ve put a new track - Ouranos - up as a tribute to the memory of my dear old friend Rossco. This was the last track I recorded with him, and also features contributions from Danny Martinov, Arthur Karanikas, and Dave Bullock. It’s a rough mix recording that was recorded to 4 track tape back in 2023 xx”

30. as 15.

31. as featured on Different Noises 141