Tag Archives: Foghorn
Luke Escombe Releases Single ‘Sacred River’
“Sacred River” is the pulsating second single from Luke Escombe’s forthcoming album “Whale Beach Road”. Starting with some very funky catchy bass (Tina Weymouth style), then once Luke’s vocals start this could be a Talking Heads song for sure. Up-tempo, hooky, and immediate, this one is a winner for radio. Written around the hypnotic bass and drum loop, played live on the recording by bassist Zoe Hauptmann and drummer Evan Mannell, the track builds a suspenseful narrative of a man on the edge.
Luke says: “The song was inspired by certain characters I would see on small flights up to Mackay, the FIFO workers leaving their young families for weeks on end to disappear into the company of other men, working in deserted places.”
Musically, “Sacred River” draws on one of Luke’s deepest musical influences: “One of my earliest memories is going to see Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ live in concert at Earl’s Court in London when I was 4 years old. My Dad was working on the tour and showed me around the stage on the day of the show. I remember being really excited but then running out in terror as soon as the lights went down.”
Luke plays the lead guitar part on the track, recorded in one take at Damien Gerard Studios in Gosford through an old Fender Bassman amp that was, as Luke recalls, “cranked so loud I thought it was going to explode. I was sitting right next to it trying to manipulate the sound so it didn’t incinerate me with feedback. It was totally instinctive.”
Clayton Doley adds extra layers of swirling tension on the Hammond organ, and the epic choruses feature backing vocals by Sarah Belkner, Darren Percival, Alice Terry and Daniel Mifsud. It was recorded by Andrew Beck and Richie Belkner, mixed by Richie at Free Energy Device Studios in Newtown and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer William Bowden, who declared it his favourite track on the album: “hypnotic and awesome”.
About Luke Escombe
“Luke Escombe is a rock-soul singer, raconteur, blistering blues guitarist, comedian and songwriter, and very good at them all” – Sydney Morning Herald
Luke Escombe is an ARIA-nominated singer-songwriter who combines his blues, rock and soul influences with subversive humour, poetic lyrics and heartfelt storytelling. He is the creator of the internationally acclaimed one-man show “Chronic” and the writer and front man of multi award-winning Aussie kids band The Vegetable Plot.
Luke has released numerous albums and EPs with his band Luke Escombe and the Corporation and one album solely under his own name, 2017’s Skeleton Blues. The album was recorded direct to tape in a three-hour session at Damien Gerard Studios, featuring his smoky-voiced cover of Bob Dylan’s “Man in the Long Black Coat” alongside distinctive originals like Punctuation Blues and The Lipsi. A new Luke Escombe studio album, Whale Beach Road, recorded in between lockdowns with some of Sydney’s most in-demand session players, is set for release in 2022.
Luke received his early musical education in London, where his father’s job in the rock and roll industry enabled him to see hundreds of legendary performances by artists like Freddie Mercury, Prince and Bruce Springsteen while he was just a boy. When he’s not channelling his childhood idols, Luke is an ambassador for a number of health charities, a member of the NSW Arts Advisory Panel, a teaching artist with the Sydney Opera House’s Creative Leadership in Learning Program. He is also a song writing mentor with the Sydney Children’s Hospital’s Chronic Illness Peer Support program [ChIPS] with whom he wrote and recorded the track “Wake up Call” in 2021. He believes strongly that music and storytelling can play a transformative role in health, education and society. Among his more obscure awards is the title of “Sydney’s Sexiest man voice”, which he won in a competition on a once-popular Sydney radio station.
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Gareth Koch Releases Single ‘Flamenco Arabe’
More sublime Spanish Flamenco Guitar from Australia’s very own Gareth Koch.
Moorish influence in flamenco music goes back thousands of years, but it was the Islamic invasion in 711, that determined the musical influences from North Africa. The Moors and Arabs brought their musical forms to the Peninsula. The Emirate, and later Caliphate of Córdoba became a centre of influence in both the Muslim and Christian worlds where it attracted musicians from all Islamic countries.
This flamenco piece starts with a Tabor drum and includes some bass guitar filling out the lower frequencies. The song evokes a Middle-Eastern as well as a flamenco mood and as always the playing is superb and is a worthy addition to the monthly single releases Gareth is undertaking.
About Gareth Koch
Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Born in Milan, Koch began his musical studies on piano and clarinet, and at age 12 was accepted into the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before winning a scholarship for advanced guitar study at the Vienna Academy of Music. He holds a PhD in Music.
In 2002 Koch formed what might be termed the first guitar supergroup. Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet soared to number 1 on the classical music charts and appeared on the pop charts. The quartet released a total of 3 best-selling albums.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects & in 2020 released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).
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John Kennedy – New Review and Tour Dates
Heres the most recent review of John Kennedy’s Raining Treasure Volume 2 (More Australian Indie Gold Covers) by none other than Michael Smith – a bit of an Aussie Icon himself
Before the creative juices are once again unleashed in order to explore the next musical chapter, John Kennedy found there was still a little unfinished business from his past few years of activity, taking stock of various aspects of his back catalogue either as selections from across several releases with 2018’s compilationSecond Best, or remastering his most successful album,Always the Bridegroom, recorded with his band Love Gone Wrong, which topped the Australian Independent Music charts in 1987. Then there was his bit of fun, a collection titled Raining Treasure, loving reinterpretations of his favourite post-punk indie Australian pop singles.
Well, before he and the band kick into recording an album of new material, Kennedy felt that there was still some fun to be had from those classic singles – and some you would never have imagined crossed the defiantly defended “frontier of cool” that ruled in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Though, “I don’t think you can beat ’66, ’67 quite frankly,” he admits, “but ’72 gives it a good run.” Enter Raining Treasure Vol. 2. “In terms of engagement with music, it was really the punk, New Wave and then the DIY explosion that followed that which led me to get involved in my first garage bands after school, and then, after an old school friend (singer and guitarist) James Paterson returned from an overseas trip, we formed JFK and the Cuban Crisis and got involved in the Brisbane indie scene. We were the wave behind the Go-Betweens and the Riptides. So all of that was in the background, that early ‘80s golden period of Australian indie and of course there was a lot of great stuff that happened in the late ‘70s and all through the ‘80s on independent record labels, so that’s what was really the inspiration behind these two Raining Treasure albums.
“The first time around it was pretty much going through my own seven-inch vinyl collection, just picking my favourites or absolute ‘stone-cold’ classics of the genre, and then trying to find our own interpretation, or super-charging them. This time round I did look further to some acts that I would never have been into in that period. I also looked at those two compilations Do The Pop and Tales from the Australian Undergroundand then I was asking other people what they thought would make coolselections. One of the key examples of throwing a wider net for Volume Two came from the band’s bass player Phil Hall. He had noted my aversion to Radio Birdman the first time round and said, ‘Well, here’s one that we might be able to do something with,’ and pitched Radio Birdman’s ‘Hand of Law’. Apart from two or three songs I don’t know much of Radio Birdman’s catalogue, but he played it to me and I liked it but it’s pretty simple and doesn’t go anywhere. It just gets in a groove, which is a good groove, and he suggested that perhaps I could amend the melody and push it a little further – which is what I did – added a few chords to the chorus, and then rather than putting in the ‘Theme from Hawaii Five-O’, we put in ‘Pipeline’, so a little homage to Birdman’s surf-punk genre.”
The least likely song Kennedy could have chosen has to be The Angels’ ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’. “We have done it as a waltz live, in the past; not very often but in the wake of Doc Neeson’s death as a little bit of a tribute. It’s a great pop song in the original version but it was nice to actually to bring a completely different vibe to it – that’s Phil Hall playing vibes in the background! He’d provided the horns on a couple of songs on Raining Treasure Volume One. The Cruel Sea’s ‘The Drift’ was an interesting choice, and ‘My Pal’ by GOD was a left-of-field selection, but then Phil just worked them and worked them and turned those two into epics.”
And if you’re going to cover The Sports’ ‘Who Listens to the Radio’, why wouldn’t you kick it off with the riff behind Mental as Anything’s ‘Nips Are Getting Bigger’. “It just occurred to me that they’re not too far apart in the groove,” he chuckles. “In our band me and (guitarist) Murray Cook especially are both huge Sports and Mentals fans. And why the reggae groove? If you listen to the rhythm guitar in the Sports original, that’s the rhythm that’s being played. So I just sort of latched onto that with the proviso that we were not making ‘mock’ reggae. We just wanted to touch that flavour.”
Then there’s the upbeat country take on ‘Shivers’. “It’s odd, because I’d call this a classic, but for the Young Charlatans it might have sold in the hundreds, so it’s not a best-seller” – Kennedy perhaps tastefully ignores the fact that The Screaming Jets scored themselves a #19 hit single with it in 1993 – “but it’s still somehow iconic, so how do you take it and offend as many of its original fans as possible?! So we thought we’d go with a country song with banjo to the fore.”
Checkout Shivers Video
Raining Treasures Vol. 2sees Kennedy performing his first duet, on a tune titled ‘Face with No Name’. “Phil played in the last reformation of Flaming Hands about two years ago – he was actually playing sax. I obviously knew of them from back in the day but it was also obvious that Julie Mostyn still has a fantastic voice, so when we were thinking about how we would approach the song I asked Phil if Julie would be up for a duet, and happily she was.” And Kennedy unleashed his inner Jim Morrison as the song breaks out into The Doors’ ‘Do You Love Her Madly’. MICHAEL SMITH
Sydney Upcoming dates
Egg Records Instore, Sat 4 June
Golden Barley Hotel, Sun 5 June
Melbourne Tour Dates
Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Thurs 16 June (Melbourne album launch)
Dogs Bar, St Kilda on Fri 17
Post Office Hotel, Coburg on Sat 18
Stream or Download the album here
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John Kennedy – Shivers (Official Video)
Throwing Shapes Releases New Single ‘The Moment’
This song is about seizing the moment, because life is happening now. But it’s also about mindfulness and the importance of being in the moment. As we generally spend 50% of the time thinking about the past and future. We’re only truely paying attention to what we are doing in our lives, half of the time.
Frantic auto filtered drums begin this track along with thick keyboard arpeggios. This resolves into a fast up-tempo backing track layered with clean and big piano and synth lines. Some vocoder vocals and funky guitars and bass bring this track home and add some top line hooks.
Throwing Shapes is Fox Shannon: a musician, DJ and producer from Perth, Western Australia. Unique and forward thinking electronic music. With influences from Pendulum, Sub Focus and Shock One to Disclosure, Deadmau5. Pink Floyd and David Bowie.
Throwing Shapes have performed alongside other well established D’n’B artists such as Terrence & Phillip at local dance music festivals such as Reawakening and Back2Funk. Their energetic performances and catchy dance floor hooks have seen them feature on numerous compilations and won growing interest from community radio, with air play around the country and some US stations.
‘The Moment’ is out NOW May 13
Foghorn/MGM
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Slide Milligan Releases Debut Album ‘Blood Red River’
Slide Milligan’s musical journey has been half a life in the making but sounds as exciting as the latest Australian Rock & Roll export being paraded around the world. After years and years of playing in bands through the late 80’s/90s, Dave “Slide” Milligan gave up his musical dreams to pursue a trade in rural fencing and woodworking. To unwind after working all day in the paddocks of rural Australia and his sawmill, Dave built himself a lap steel guitar.
Over the years he started to write a collection of exceptional songs that weren’t your usual “roots” music fare, mixing his hard rock background and his ability to tap into that authentic Australian sound. Despair and dread mixed with sunshine and water, and he caught the ear of local producers and with some help with production from Indie impresario Andy Clockwise (he was working on a fence on Clockwise’s farm when he was back from LA and the two lit a bonfire in the paddock), “Slide” has produced a psychedelic slide guitar masterpiece called “Blood Red River”. A pastiche of outlaw country, psychedelic post-punk & a different approach to the slide guitar. This music sounds familiar yet fresh in the current musical landscape. At the ripe old age of 52, this new artist is sure to make a splash in the country-indie-rock crossover here and abroad.
Song Descriptions
Feelin’ Fine
The track is an undeniable summer anthem in the vein of the Sunny Boys, Australian Crawl & The Church, and features vocals by Slide’s daughter Lani. The up-tempo “Australiana Classic” song rolls along with infectious melody and nostalgic production. Sure to resonate with fans of Classic Australian Pub Rock, Pink Floyd & Waylon Jennings.
Gasoline
Up-tempo drums begin this blues rock/indie tune. Produced by Andy Clockwise, who also did a brilliant job on the kit, this song is peppered with modern sounds but maintains a retro feel. Think Black Keys, Jack White and adding it to your list you can’t go wrong.
Slide Milligan – Blood Red River is out NOW (May 6th)
Foghorn/MGM
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Gareth Koch Releases Single ‘Soleares Flamenco’
Soleares is one of the most profound forms of flamenco, often referred to as the heart & soul of the genre. The mood is solemn & grand & when sung the lyrics are deeply heartfelt. The style originated among the Calé Romani people of Cádiz or Seville in Andalusia. The metre or ‘compás’ of Soleares is one of the most widely used in flamenco & is the foundation style for many flamenco forms. The track was recorded in a single take on a beautiful Ignacio Rozas flamenco guitar, hand-built in Madrid.
Song Description
Tasteful nylon string guitar begins this full sounding flamenco piece. Traditional guitar ‘knocks’ feature here and there on the percussion side. The song is so masterfully played it’s hard to imagine that it is just one guitarist and done in one take.
About Gareth Koch
Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Born in Milan, Koch began his musical studies on piano and clarinet, and at age 12 was accepted into the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before winning a scholarship for advanced guitar study at the Vienna Academy of Music. He holds a PhD in Music.
In 2002 Koch formed what might be termed the first guitar supergroup. Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet soared to number 1 on the classical music charts and appeared on the pop charts. The quartet released a total of 3 best-selling albums.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects & in 2020 released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).
Soleares Flamenco is OUT NOW – via MGM
Stream / download here:
Connect with Gareth Koch:
John Kennedy Releases Raining Treasure Vol. 2
Volume 2 of Raining Treasure from John Kennedy – iconic Aussie Indie Covers from the golden age – Physco, Shivers, The Nips are Getting Bigger to name a few
John Kennedy’s 2019 album Raining Treasure Vol.1 celebrated the golden era of Australian independent music from the late ‘70’s and the 80’s. This album, Raining Treasure Vol.2, goes both deeper and wider into the world of Australian indie music. Kennedy compiled a list of classic indie songs (and some obscurities) from that era and with his band, John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special, has covered songs from Radio Birdman, The Riptides, The Cruel Sea and more.
Some selections covered are likely to create controversy with indie music diehards. The Sports and Mental As Anything? Indie? Really? The Mentals released their records on Regular Records, the Sports on Mushroom; both Australian independent labels. The Angels ?!?! They were on pioneering Australian independent label Albert Productions. Weddings, Parties, Anything (WPA) were on major label WEA. What defines these songs as indie for Kennedy is the independent spirit of the music and the bands who originally recorded them.
An enthusiastic young music journalist once described John Kennedy as a humble genius. Kennedy is neither a genius nor particularly humble. He is the writer and performer of many fine songs, some of which have found a place in the hearts of music fans of the golden era of Australian independent music. Kennedy started his music career in Brisbane in the ‘80’s with his band JFK and the Cuban Crisis. The band moved to Sydney and after establishing itself on the indie music scene, broke up, leaving Kennedy to pursue a solo career with his band vehicle, John Kennedy’s Love Gone Wrong.
Despite numerous indie hits, commercial crossover proved to be elusive leading to his decision to leave Australia. Kennedy spent the ‘90’s living and playing music in Berlin, Hong Kong and London before returning to Sydney’s Inner West in 2000. He formed a new band, John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special and continues to perform and produce independent releases.
Over the years Kennedy has shared stages with many of the acts covered on this new album. His band members have come from or gone on to The Triffids, the Go-Betweens, Pop Mechanix and the Lime Spiders. The current line up of the band boasts its own fine indie pedigree. Long time drummer, Peter Timmerman was an original Love Gone Wrong member before moving on to the Widdershins.
Bassist Phil Hall played with Sardine v and the Dropbears. Guitarist Murray Cook started out with indie hopefuls Finger Guns before going on to form what is probably Australia’s most successful independent band, the Wiggles. Together with Kennedy they have created versions of these Australian indie classics, reinterpreting some, expanding some and celebrating them all.
The tracklist is:
The Album Launch Show is on the 6th of May @8pm
At the Petersham Bowling Club
Raining Treasure (Australian Indie Gold Covers Vol.2) is out now 22 April 2022,
on Foghorn Records through MGM.
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Gareth Koch releases new single ‘Zambra Flamenca’
Gareth’s second flamenco single for 2022 is the Zambra Flamenca – an upbeat, high adrenaline, skirt-swirling flamenco guitar solo. The track was recorded in a single take on a beautiful Ignacio Rozas flamenco guitar, hand-built in Madrid.
The Zambra is a style of flamenco dance, typical of the Gypsies of the provinces of Granada and Almería in Andalusia. It was often danced during wedding ceremonies, although nowadays it is frequently performed in the caves of Sacromonte in Granada and in the caves of Almería. It is danced barefoot with finger cymbals; the blouse is tied under the bust and the skirt is very tight around the hips, then flares out and has a ruffle at the end.
Song Description
Gareth’s Zambra Flamenca shows the mid-tempo side of Spanish flamenco nylon string guitar. This allows for more intricate finger picking and a deeper emotional message from the music. Gareth’s delivery is nothing short of astounding and the sounds capture you straight away. Highly recommended.
About Gareth Koch
Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Born in Milan, Koch began his musical studies on piano and clarinet, and at age 12 was accepted into the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before winning a scholarship for advanced guitar study at the Vienna Academy of Music. He holds a PhD in Music.
In 2002 Koch formed what might be termed the first guitar supergroup. Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet soared to number 1 on the classical music charts and appeared on the pop charts. The quartet released a total of 3 best-selling albums.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects & in 2020 released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).
Zambra Flamenca is OUT NOW – via MGM
Stream / download here:
Connect with Gareth Koch: