The city’s thriving underground music scene has emerged amid the chaos.
While punk, art-punk and eclectic music styles have appeared and established themselves firmly in the local Hobart soundscape identity, underground electronic music has largely gone unnoticed as a unique facet of the music scene.
The compilation CD ‘Synthesthesia 7000’ is a collection of songs by contemporary underground electronic artists based in Hobart.
The idea for the CD came to musician Graham Meredith (Atomic Deluxe, Warning Will Robinson) over a beer at a gig with fellow band member Craig Clarke
In early November 2018 Meredith and Clarke began approaching artists interested in recording songs for the CD release.
With the help of Cubbyhouse Records’ founder Peter “Pit” MacPherson, Clarke and Meredith collected and mixed 29 tracks of local electronic artists for the CD by the first day of December 2018 - a remarkable completion time of just three weeks.
‘Synthesthesia 7000’ feature tracks by post-modern progressive rabble rousers Dreamcast, darkwave deep-thinker Starklane and ambient solo producer Slumber. Beautiful ambient instrumentals from Arrdhu, Raymond Scottwalker and Soil bring the Chill to the vibe. Renowned artists such as Filthy Little Star and Baltimore have taken an opportunity to develop music divergent of their usual sound for the CD.
Soundscape tracks from Sisters Akousmatica and Julia Drouhin bring the sounds of radio waves, village sounds and ambient places in a wonderful collage of stereo spatiality. Energetic buzz saw night club tracks from Pixius, hdot and tVitch get the joint pounding, as well as D&B experimental tracks by others to increase the heart rate. There is something here to please everyone on this collection.
Release: January 12, 2018, Cubbyhouse Records
Words: Imogen Elliott