Debut album from Australian Supergroup feat. Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White), Chris Abrahams (The Necks), & Gareth Liddiard (The Drones, Tropical Fuck Storm). Recommended If You Like: Will Oldham, Protomartyr, New Testament-era Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Mark Lanegan, Richard Hawley, A Vegas lounge act from another planet. As the world continues to plunge into a fiery blaze of calamity, the Southern Hemisphere’s air warms, its leaves glow green, and the damp earth jolts awake. Springtime is coming to Australia, and it will be ushered in by three sonic shamans who are no strangers to our ears.
Springtime’s self-titled debut combines free jazz, poignant lyricism crafted alongside renowned Irish poet Ian Duhig aka Gareth Liddiard’s uncle and improvisation to craft austere portraits of a world paralyzed by shellshock. It’s as monstrously ravishing as it is clumsy in its elegance. Words run into each other with little regard for one another’s injuries. There are sounds which come out of nothingness to wallop and brutalize their fellow sounds. The live recording of Will Oldham’s “West Palm Beach” is treated with love and respect and would certainly be met with open arms by its author. Across the span of seven tracks, Liddiard incants with wild-eyed fury as White and Abrahams lay down stuttering strings, fizzling electronics, and feathery piano melodies. It is within these raving abstractions that one may find an answer to the enduring question, “What fresh hell will this new season bring?”
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: You don't get much better member lists than that of Springtime, consisting as it does some of the biggest names in the Australian underground. Classical leaning in parts, but mostly hovering somewhere between the instrumental maelstrom of Dirty Three and the fractured ambient passages of Nick Cave / Warren Ellis with a vocal swagger reminiscent of Shane McGowan. Intense, evocative and unforgettable.
TRACK LISTING
1 Will To Power
2 The Viaduct Love Suicide
3 Jeanie In A Bottle
4 She Moved Through The Fair
5 The Island
6 West Palm Beach
7 The Killing Of The Village Idiot
