Those familiar with Martin Frawley’s time as co-leader of Twerps will take comfort in hearing his deceptively simple songwriting is still intact on his solo debut Undone at 31. The big reveal here is how new instrumentation and influences seamlessly expand Frawley’s playground.
 
Named for the year in his life when the bottom fell out following a long-term romantic partnership, Frawley sequenced Undone at 31 chronologically to emphasise his journey.
 
To reinforce this new path forward and move away from the familiar, the Twerps co-founder employed fresh, imaginative approaches in the recording studio. “We spent three weeks in John Lee’s Phaedra Studios in Melbourne’s Coburg neighbourhood, first week tracking, second week experimenting, third week mixing.”

Release: Merge Records, February 22nd
Words: Merge Records

Sunset Cities is a new musical project created to explore questions concerning one’s own presence, spiritual essence, belief, love, and mindfulness while in rotation around the life light. The group is comprised of two emcees and two producers; four human perspectives judging the light and the dark of life, manoeuvring between the two while the fundamentals of hip-hop culture and psychedelic soul simmer on the coasts of South Australia.
 
Last year in Adelaide over a plate of Ethiopian food, MCs Nelson Dialect and Cazeaux O.S.L.O. crafted the basic principles for waxing poetic over two distinct sonic dimensions - a record made up of two sides, the first produced by Melbourne beatmaker Skomes (known for his work with Caseaux O.S.L.O. under the moniker SO.Crates) and the second by Adelaide resident Alnitak Kid. The record follows the cycle of the sun, no beginnings and no endings, just answers to this and many other questions using the voice, the drum and the body electric.

Release: February 22nd, 2019, Bedroom Suck Records/Remote Control
Words: Bedroom Suck

Los Angeles duo Girlpool, comprised of Harmony Tividad (she/her) and Cleo Tucker (he/they), has released their new album, What Chaos Is Imaginary, out February 1st, 2019 via ANTI- Records.

The music Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad release as Girlpool occupies a transient space. Their constant evolution makes it perfectly impossible to articulate exactly where their project falls within the contemporary musical canon; this is one of the many reasons Girlpool’s music is so captivating.


Never before has a group’s maturation been so transparently attached to the maturation of its members. This is due in large part to the fact that Girlpool came into existence exactly when Girlpool was supposed to come into existence: at the most prolific stage of the digital revolution. Both online and in the flesh, Tividad and Tucker practice radical openness to the point where it may even engender discomfort; this is exactly the point where it becomes clear why theirs’ is such a special project: they accept the possibility of discomfort and show you how to figure out why you might feel it. 

The growth they have fostered in one another over the years explains the project’s disparate discography; each record is a photograph of Girlpool, growing over time. Their roots are a certain shade of punk—organized chaos dressed as earworms. 

Where Harmony embraces chaos, Cleo organizes it. “It’s hard for me to feel completion without achieving a vision that I have. I’ll imagine the kind of climate I want to create inside a song,” says Cleo of his process. “Once I fall in love with the direction, it’s getting there that can take time.” Finishing a song may take time and even prove to be difficult for him at times, but the product is invariably polished. Considering the near-perfect balance in the songs on What Chaos is Imaginary, their dynamic makes sense. “It took a really long time to record this record. It feels like a photograph of a very transitional time.”

What Chaos is Imaginary is a collection of songs unlike any Girlpool songs you’ve ever heard, exactly what Powerplant was to Before The World Was Big. For the first time, it is clear who wrote what song. 2019 will see drum machines and synthesizers and beautiful/new harmonies and huge guitars and at least one orchestral breakdown by a string octet.

“It was invigorating playing stripped down and raw when Girlpool began. As we change, what gets us there is going to change too.”

Release: February 1st, 2019, ANTI- Records / Cooking Vinyl Australia
Words: ANTI-