REVIEW: Dead Man’s Hill Vs. The Earth King – Cycling Between Sun and Moon

A review for the probably-interesting-to-some-people-but-kinda-drawn-out-and-boring-for-me black-metal-meets-throat-singing-meets-industrial-atmospherics project, "Dead Man’s Hill Vs. The Earth King", and their album "Cycling Between Sun and Moon".   Review written for Heathen Harvest, and perhaps slightly over-edited by the invisible-but-ubiquitous Sage Weatherford.

"Even when Piette stops his wannabe-Tuvan vocalising, the music doesn’t do much for me.  Cycling Between Sun and Moon simply sounds generic. The riffs aren’t innovative and the entire album feels like I’ve heard it a thousand times before—better, more interestingly—and the only thing that makes the album at all different (the throat-singing) actually makes it more annoying."

Dead Man’s Hill Vs. The Earth King – Cycling Between Sun and Moon 

REVIEW: Antique Crumbling Framework – Triumph of Death

A review for the strange meeting of cold synths and gutteral death, "Triumph of Death" by the Melbourne two-piece "Antique Crumbling Framework".  Review written for Heathen Harvest, and mildly edited by the ever-present Sage Weatherford.

"What do you get if you mix John Carpenter-style cheesy ’80’s synth sounds with the most guttural pitch-shifted death metal vocals imaginable?  You get Antique Crumbling Framework."

Antique Crumbling Framework – Triumph of Death

REVIEW: Public Speaking – Build Another Boat

A review for the technically-excellent and subjectively-uninteresting release by "Public Speaking", "Build Another Boat".  It's probably very very good, really.  It's just not my cup of tea.  Written for Heathen Harvest, and edited maybe a little too much by Sage Weatherford.

"I’m sure there are lots of people out there who would enjoy this sort of thing.  I am also sure that there are many more people out there who would enjoy these strange poppy beats and “I’m so depressed” emo vocal stylings than there are people who like the kinds of things that I like ... I really didn’t get into Build Another Boat at all."

Public Speaking – Build Another Boat

REVIEW: Dog Hallucination - Serving Two Masters

A review for the wonderful dreamlike exploration of memory and remembrance and memorial (and all other memory-related variants), "Serving Two Masters" by the very interesting "Dog Hallucination".  Written for Heathen Harvest, and hardly edited at all by Sage Weatherford.

"[L]istening to Serving Two Masters feels like being allowed into something very private and personal, but at the same time, absolutely universal: every single one of us grieves and tries to remember (or forget), but the ways we go about it are intensely our own.  On this release, we have been let into something special, I think, and it’s an honour that feels very warm, welcoming, and very, very real."

Dog Hallucination - Serving Two Masters

INTERVIEW: Beyond the Noise Crowd Ghetto: The Birth and Death of Justice Yeldham

An interview with one of Australia's favourite art-noise visionaries and most famous sheet-glass player, Lucas Abela, on the beginnings and endings of his alter-ego Justice Yeldham.  Written for Heathen Harvest, and gently edited by Sage Weatherford.

"It would be more like a vindication to all the naysayers out there who think the glass is a shtick... Personally, I believe that everyone can bring something different to an instrument, so why not the glass?  I very much look forward to seeing Kanye jam that shit one day."


Beyond the Noise Crowd Ghetto: The Birth and Death of Justice Yeldham

REVIEW: Ak’Chamel, The Giver of Illness – My Form Has Been Extinguished

The most difficult review I have ever written.  Because I love this band so so much, and I liked their VHS cassette so very very little.  Written for Heathen Harvest, and barely edited by Sage Weatherford.

"In my heart of hearts, I honestly believe that this is just a collection of cool footage that was combined to look mysterious, without any real greater agenda than that: to seem cool and weird, and maybe trip someone out a little, as something for the eyes to do while the ears digest the music—music which, I insist, is still incredible."

Ak’Chamel, The Giver of Illness – My Form Has Been Extinguished

NEWS: Funding for convict sharehouse black comedy "Bruce"!

The producer and director team behind the hit web series How to Talk Australians, Jason Byrne and Tony Rogers, return to our screens with Bruce, a dark comedy set in a share house that just happens to be a prison tent in Sydney Cove in 1788. Written by Warwick Holt and Mat Blackwell, the series will be released for online platforms. - See more at: http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2015/mr_150708_multiplatform.aspx#sthash.CHrjoncX.dpuf

The producer and director team behind the hit web series How to Talk Australians, Jason Byrne and Tony Rogers, return to our screens with Bruce, a dark comedy set in a share house that just happens to be a prison tent in Sydney Cove in 1788. Written by Warwick Holt and Mat Blackwell, the series will be released for online platforms. - See more at: http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2015/mr_150708_multiplatform.aspx#sthash.CHrjoncX.dpuf

For many years now, me and my dear co-writer/friend Warwick Holt have been toiling away on creating a TV show with Wilfred's co-creator and director, Tony Rogers.  The idea is, it's a modern sharehouse comedy/drama, but it's set in 1788 convict Sydney - the British occupation/invasion of the land that became Australia.  The characters have no idea they're in some grand sweeping Period Of History: they're more concerned with their own petty human existences, whose turn it is to do the dishes, who's got the most room in the prison tent, that kind of thing.  Seems like a nice little concept for a show, we think: a much needed antidote to the constant stream of stuffy puffy period dramas mainstream media seems to constantly throw our way.

Anyway.  The three of us have been working on this for years (constantly aided and abetted by the immensely supportive producer Jason Byrne), and the road has been littered with drafts, redrafts, bibles, arcs, re-redrafts, and short-lists.  We've cosied up to the right people at the right funding bodies several times, only to have them all be sacked, retire, or leave for more commerical pastures.  The cycle of almost-funding has orbited us many many times now.  But finally, finally, we have triumphed!  Look!  Look!

"The producer and director team behind the hit web series How to Talk Australians, Jason Byrne and Tony Rogers, return to our screens with Bruce, a dark comedy set in a share house that just happens to be a prison tent in Sydney Cove in 1788. Written by Warwick Holt and Mat Blackwell, the series will be released for online platforms."

The producer and director team behind the hit web series How to Talk Australians, Jason Byrne and Tony Rogers, return to our screens with Bruce, a dark comedy set in a share house that just happens to be a prison tent in Sydney Cove in 1788. Written by Warwick Holt and Mat Blackwell, the series will be released for online platforms. - See more at: http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2015/mr_150708_multiplatform.aspx#sthash.CHrjoncX.dpu

The producer and director team behind the hit web series How to Talk Australians, Jason Byrne and Tony Rogers, return to our screens with Bruce, a dark comedy set i - See more at: http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2015/mr_150708_multiplatform.aspx#sthash.CHrjoncX.dpuf

So currently we're heads down, arses up, and occasionally doing some writing too.  We're aiming for a September/October filming date... more news later!

Until then, please, enjoy this trailer we made a couple of years ago.  It's not quite as good as what we're working on now, I think, but it definitely gives you a feel of how the final show might work:

"Bruce" - The 2013 Trailer

And here, for all the excitement of reading that quote up above in its orginal location, hop on over to Screen Australia's official press release:

Screen Australia's Official Press Release