| Lower Plenty — Sister Sister (18 novembre 2016) |
Lower Plenty — Sister Sister (18th november, 2016)
♣ Melbourne’s Lower Plenty are comprised of some of Australia’s most talented musicians. The quartet are typically Australian in that they seem to exist on borrowed members, drawing together musicians responsible for bands like Total Control, The UV Race, Deaf Wish, The Focus and Dick Diver.
♣ Unlike the harsh and direct approach of many of these outfits, Lower Plenty take the circular route, preferring to dwell in isolation and self~reflection, the result being some truly astonishing home recordings. 
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genre: Indie Rock, Folk Rock, Acoustic
Album release: 18th november, 2016
Record Label: Bedroom Suck Records / Omnian Music Group.
Duration: 34:10
Tracks:
01. Bondi’s Dead 2:57
02. Glory Rats 2:17
03. So It Goes 3:13
04. Run Run Run 3:35
05. Ravesh 7:31
06. All the Young Men 3:13
07. On off on Off 2:03
08. Cursed by Numbers 3:37
09. Shades of Love 2:45
10. Treehouse 2:59
Personnel:
• Daniel Twomey (percussion),
• Jensen Tjhung (guitar + vocal),
• Sarah Heyward (percussion + vocal) and
• Al Montfort (guitar + vocal) 
♣ Featuring members of Total Control, Dick Diver, Deaf Wish, and more, Australia’s Lower Plenty sees a handful of the countries best and brightest garage and post~punkers trying something a little different. On November 18, Bedroom Suck will release the band’s fourth album, Sister Sister, but The A.V. Club is streaming it in full today. Sister Sister sees Lower Plenty showing how elastic its sound can be. While much of it feels like it’s using late~period Beatles records as an influence, Sister Sister never feels homogenous. Instead, songs like “Ravesh” make use of non~traditional percussion to build an ominous aura around it, reveling in that tension but never laying it on too thick.
♣ For reasons unknown to me, I’ve always been under the impression that Lower Plenty were volatile and due~to~be short~lived. Their first tape~only release Mean sold out before I got a chance to hear it, and 2012’s Hard Rubbish appeared in record stores without warning. 2014’s Life/Thrills received little fanfare, and now a fourth record in Sister, Sister has arrived. With members of ‘harder’ bands like Straightjacket Nation and Deaf Wish in their line~up, Lower Plenty seemed at first to be a side project ~ something to take the pressure off the ear drums ~ but with four records in six years, they’re now a staple of underground Australian folk. More so, with their restless spare part sound and odd forays into unconventional instrumentation, Lower Plenty feel peerless: I don’t expect anyone else in the country to release a record quite like Sister, Sister.
♣ Each Lower Plenty record has a mournful quality that draws me in quickly and obsessively. Rarely celebratory (except for the title track of Life/Thrills), they spend their time sprawled out on the floor lazily exploring their streams of consciousness. Appropriately, each record has been home recorded. This absence of studio quality equipment lends the records an intangibility that can make it feel as though you’re eavesdropping on someone else’s living room conversation. And it’s a likely scenario. Most of the songs detail half~finished stories and idle soul~searching, though it never reaches an epiphany: “All the young men off to work / Who cares? What for?”
♣ While Sister, Sister has many aspects of Lower Plenty’s previous records, it feels distinct, with brief appearances of unexpected instrumentation (a melodica or harmonium on ‘Cursed by Numbers,’ a saxophone on ‘Ravesh’) and odd, clipping interludes appearing through songs like ‘All the Young Men’ drawing a point of difference. This record then, is not just for the completionists; it’s a new take on Lower Plenty’s brand of unusual folk. While it’s appropriately calling in the winter for me here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s certainly not out~of~place of a Summer’s evening.
♣ You can mourn through the melancholy in all types of weather.
Review
♣ Named after a suburb perched on the outer fringes of Melbourne, Lower Plenty are comprised of some of Australia’s most talented musicians. The quartet are typically Australian in that they seem to exist on borrowed members, drawing together musicians responsible for bands like Total Control, The UV Race, Deaf Wish and The Focus. Unlike the harsh and direct approach of many of these outfits, Lower Plenty take the circular route, preferring to dwell in isolation and self~reflection, the result being some truly astonishing home recordings.
♣ The quartet of Daniel Twomey (percussion), Jensen Tjhung (guitar + vocal), Sarah Heyward (percussion + vocal) and Al Montfort (guitar + vocal) all hail from various areas in and around Melbourne, a city known for it’s ability to attract cultural expatriates from around the country, often leaving the rest of the continent devoid of activity. It is an incestuous town ~ communities are tight; bands share members, record in home~made studios, and often play to packed venues or back~alley warehouses alike.
♣ Of late, it seems as though Lower Plenty have come to personify this approach to music making in Melbourne. They meet rarely, in the down time between tours or jobs. Rumour has it they gather around a kitchen table, write and record on the spot, and call it quits for another year, heading home to pick up their other projects.
♣ As a result, their records take on a quality of restlessness. Songs enter the room, stir around, and depart just as suddenly, leaving the listener with a sense of something lost. It is this impact that has kept Lower Plenty active in Melbourne, despite all odds. Listeners demand it; they are a crowd favourite, and if word of a rare Lower Plenty gig gets around, artists and musicians from all corners of the city will be there, waiting patiently.
♣ This album was recorded in a kitchen in Collingwood, I was there, I saw it happen. It was probably freezing cold and grey outside, the band were rugged up against the cold of another Melbourne winter. We exchanged a few brief words before I retreated out the front door, leaving them to their reverie. They looked at peace in that small house, seated in a circle, each exploring a musical idea of another. The results are here on paper, wrapped up with a bow. Sister, Sister.
♣ https://www.omnianmusicgroup.com/ // Copyright © 2016 Omnian Music Group.
Bandcamp: https://bedroomsuckrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sister-sister
Label: https://www.bedroomsuckrecords.com/
_____________________________________________________________
| Lower Plenty — Sister Sister (18 novembre 2016) |
♣ Melbourne’s Lower Plenty are comprised of some of Australia’s most talented musicians. The quartet are typically Australian in that they seem to exist on borrowed members, drawing together musicians responsible for bands like Total Control, The UV Race, Deaf Wish, The Focus and Dick Diver.
♣ Unlike the harsh and direct approach of many of these outfits, Lower Plenty take the circular route, preferring to dwell in isolation and self~reflection, the result being some truly astonishing home recordings.
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genre: Indie Rock, Folk Rock, Acoustic
Album release: 18th november, 2016
Record Label: Bedroom Suck Records / Omnian Music Group.
Duration: 34:10
Tracks:
01. Bondi’s Dead 2:57
02. Glory Rats 2:17
03. So It Goes 3:13
04. Run Run Run 3:35
05. Ravesh 7:31
06. All the Young Men 3:13
07. On off on Off 2:03
08. Cursed by Numbers 3:37
09. Shades of Love 2:45
10. Treehouse 2:59
Personnel:
• Daniel Twomey (percussion),
• Jensen Tjhung (guitar + vocal),
• Sarah Heyward (percussion + vocal) and
• Al Montfort (guitar + vocal)
♣ For reasons unknown to me, I’ve always been under the impression that Lower Plenty were volatile and due~to~be short~lived. Their first tape~only release Mean sold out before I got a chance to hear it, and 2012’s Hard Rubbish appeared in record stores without warning. 2014’s Life/Thrills received little fanfare, and now a fourth record in Sister, Sister has arrived. With members of ‘harder’ bands like Straightjacket Nation and Deaf Wish in their line~up, Lower Plenty seemed at first to be a side project ~ something to take the pressure off the ear drums ~ but with four records in six years, they’re now a staple of underground Australian folk. More so, with their restless spare part sound and odd forays into unconventional instrumentation, Lower Plenty feel peerless: I don’t expect anyone else in the country to release a record quite like Sister, Sister.
♣ Each Lower Plenty record has a mournful quality that draws me in quickly and obsessively. Rarely celebratory (except for the title track of Life/Thrills), they spend their time sprawled out on the floor lazily exploring their streams of consciousness. Appropriately, each record has been home recorded. This absence of studio quality equipment lends the records an intangibility that can make it feel as though you’re eavesdropping on someone else’s living room conversation. And it’s a likely scenario. Most of the songs detail half~finished stories and idle soul~searching, though it never reaches an epiphany: “All the young men off to work / Who cares? What for?”
♣ While Sister, Sister has many aspects of Lower Plenty’s previous records, it feels distinct, with brief appearances of unexpected instrumentation (a melodica or harmonium on ‘Cursed by Numbers,’ a saxophone on ‘Ravesh’) and odd, clipping interludes appearing through songs like ‘All the Young Men’ drawing a point of difference. This record then, is not just for the completionists; it’s a new take on Lower Plenty’s brand of unusual folk. While it’s appropriately calling in the winter for me here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s certainly not out~of~place of a Summer’s evening.
♣ You can mourn through the melancholy in all types of weather.
Review
♣ Named after a suburb perched on the outer fringes of Melbourne, Lower Plenty are comprised of some of Australia’s most talented musicians. The quartet are typically Australian in that they seem to exist on borrowed members, drawing together musicians responsible for bands like Total Control, The UV Race, Deaf Wish and The Focus. Unlike the harsh and direct approach of many of these outfits, Lower Plenty take the circular route, preferring to dwell in isolation and self~reflection, the result being some truly astonishing home recordings.
♣ The quartet of Daniel Twomey (percussion), Jensen Tjhung (guitar + vocal), Sarah Heyward (percussion + vocal) and Al Montfort (guitar + vocal) all hail from various areas in and around Melbourne, a city known for it’s ability to attract cultural expatriates from around the country, often leaving the rest of the continent devoid of activity. It is an incestuous town ~ communities are tight; bands share members, record in home~made studios, and often play to packed venues or back~alley warehouses alike.
♣ Of late, it seems as though Lower Plenty have come to personify this approach to music making in Melbourne. They meet rarely, in the down time between tours or jobs. Rumour has it they gather around a kitchen table, write and record on the spot, and call it quits for another year, heading home to pick up their other projects.
♣ As a result, their records take on a quality of restlessness. Songs enter the room, stir around, and depart just as suddenly, leaving the listener with a sense of something lost. It is this impact that has kept Lower Plenty active in Melbourne, despite all odds. Listeners demand it; they are a crowd favourite, and if word of a rare Lower Plenty gig gets around, artists and musicians from all corners of the city will be there, waiting patiently.
♣ This album was recorded in a kitchen in Collingwood, I was there, I saw it happen. It was probably freezing cold and grey outside, the band were rugged up against the cold of another Melbourne winter. We exchanged a few brief words before I retreated out the front door, leaving them to their reverie. They looked at peace in that small house, seated in a circle, each exploring a musical idea of another. The results are here on paper, wrapped up with a bow. Sister, Sister.
♣ https://www.omnianmusicgroup.com/ // Copyright © 2016 Omnian Music Group.
Bandcamp: https://bedroomsuckrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sister-sister
Label: https://www.bedroomsuckrecords.com/