CyCliC Defrost Magazine ISSUE 21 − CHANGE December 2008 CyCliC Defrost Magazine ISSUE 21 december 2008 www.cyclicdefrost.com O SOUNDTRACK MY HEART Part prog-warrior, part slacker-geek, combining the emotive EDITOR-IN-CHIEF STOCKISTS editorial contents Sebastian Chan The following stores stock Cyclic Defrost At the end of a long winter it can feel like it’ll and cerebral. although arrival times for each issue 04 THOMMY TRAN EDITOR may vary. be cold forever. But it’s funny how quickly Shaun Prescott Matthew Levinson NSW MOJO /5 3D WORLD 9/10 AOTW All Music Byron, Castle Recs, Electric everything can change. Things that looked locked “Magnificent” “Gorgeous” DEPUTY-EDITORS Monkeys, Explore Music, Fish Records in before, suddenly seem more flexible. 06 CHILDREN OF THE WAVE (inner city stores), Freestyle, Freestyle 2, Shaun Prescott Gong Records, Hum on King, Hum on There’s new life blossoming everywhere. Alexandra Savvides NME /5 TIME OFF 9/10 AOTW Alexandra Savvides Oxford, Leading Edge Penrith, Leading “Futuristic heaven …stunning” “An astonishing listen” Edge Warriewood, Mall Music, Market Not least here at Cyclic Defrost, where we’ve ART DIRECTOR 10 QUA AND MOUNTAINS IN THE SKY Music, Museum of Contemporary Art, welcomed three new members to the editorial Dan Rule Thommy Tran Metropolis, Music Bizarre Lismore, Plum ROLLING STONE /5 Music, The Record Store, Recycled, Red team. Thommy Tran - he designed the cover and “Light years ahead of most bands” DESIGNER Eye, Redback, Reefer, Salamander Sound, the magazine - is our new art director. Plus we’ve 14 SHOEB AHMAD Teresa Leung So Music, Spank Records, Spot Music, Matthew Levinson Voyager Ivanhoe invited two 24-year-old music writers, Shaun at all good record stores and online ... www.inertia-music.com ADVERTISING VIC Prescott and Alexandra Savvides, on board as our 18 AERIAE Sebastian Chan Central Station Melbourne, Greville, Heartland, JF Porters, Leading Edge new deputy editors. Chris Downton ADVERTISING RATES Bendigo, Leading Edge Geelong, Licorice Pie, Metropolis, Missing Link, Noise Alexandra’s covered music and art for Cyclic Download at cyclicdefrost.com Exchange/Synaesthesia, Northside, 22 PANOPTIQUE ELECTRICAL Defrost, Oyster magazine and The Program. She Dan Rule DISTRIBUTION Polyester, Readings Carlton, Record Collectors Corner, Sister Ray, Slap, Voyager also presents the three hour Saturday morning Inertia Distribution Port Melbourne, We Sell Music - Mildura 26 MOONMILK QLD program on Sydney’s FBI 94.5, which gives her (www.inertia-music.com) Shaun Prescott Music to nourish the mind, Butter Beats, Caneland, CC - Harbourtown, plenty of opportunities to indulge her love of stimulate the body & PRINTING Cosmic, Leading Edge Music Scene, IVE, Unik Graphics Revolver, Rockaway, Rockinghorse, Australian electronic music and dubstep. An ace 28 FUCK BUTTONS soothe the spirit. Skinny’s, Sunflower, Taste-y, Toombul Music new addition to our Cyclic backend. Dom Alessio INTROSPECT SA IGHTLESS WEBSITE N WE Scott Brown and Sebastian Chan BSharp, Big Star Shaun started writing about and playing music LUSH & SENSUALI ELECTRO-IRD WA 32 NOSTALGIA 77 THE TH at 14. He’s contributed to Mess+Noise magazine, FOLK STEEPED WEB HOSTING Chinatown Records, Dada’s, Mills, Kurt Iveson BEAUTY. Planet Video Drum Media and Cyclic Defrost, and maintains a Blueskyhost TAS MILOSHIII’ TAKES THEIONAL (www.blueskyhost.com) Chilli DJ, Mojo, Ruffcut, Wills Music couple of music blogs. With a particular obsession 36 MATTHEW HERBERT ACT Bob Baker Fish ALBUM ‘ COVER DESIGN for Australian independent music, especially IFUL Landspeed LISTENER ON AN EMOT Thommy Tran NT the more eclectic and hidden regions of the 40 SLEEVE REVIEWS JOURNEYTELY THROUGH BEAUT AN Casurina, Chatterbox ISI CAL Australian experimental scene, Shaun makes a Bec Paton EXQU I ISSUE 21 CONTRIBUTORS If your store doesn’t carry Cyclic Defrost MUS then get them to order it from Inertia Adam Bell, Adrian Elmer, Alexandra valuable contribution to the Cyclic team. Distribution. LANDSCAPE. Savvides, Andrew Tuttle, Bec Paton, Bob 42 SELECTS: ADAM D MILLS The views contained herein are not The contents this issue are complemented Baker Fish, Bryan Boyce, Chris Downtown, Edited by Matthew Levinson necessarily the views of the publisher Dan Rule, Dom Alessio, Ed Lang, Ewan by online stories, including interviews with nor the staff of Cyclic Defrost. Burke, Gordon Finlayson, Joel Hedrick, Jon Copyright remains with the authors Tjhia, Kate Carr, Kurt Iveson, Lyndon Pike, Melbourne dubstep producer Spherix, whimsical LATEST REVIEWS STYLUS MAGAZINE and/or Cyclic Defrost. Matthew Levinson, Max Schaefer, Shaun Sydney duo Vincent Over The Sink, a new Now all online at “A PANACEA FOR Prescott, Simon Hampson, Steve Phillips, www.cyclicdefrost.com/blog electronic three-piece from Sydney called Seekae, WHAT A Wayne Stronell ILS YOU.” THANK YOU and Dan Friel, a Brooklynite who doubles with IMAGEYENATION All our donors both large and small, Parts & Labor. That’s in addition to more than “ advertisers, writers, photographers and HIS MUS contributors. Thanks to our new art director 150 reviews of new Australian and international IC SOFT & HAUNTIS BEAUT Thommy for stepping in and taking on the music that you need to hear. MELOD IFULLY guest cover. Ed Lang for the Shoeb Ahmad IC & H INGLY photo shoot. Andre, Henry, Mark, Nevenka, Matt, Seb, Shaun and Lex ARE AS EQUALLYIS VOCALS Mike, Justin and all at Inertia - especially INCRED the warehouse staff; Hugh at Unik Graphics; Editors IBLE.” Chris Bell at Blueskyhost; and all our readers. Extra special thank you to our www.inertia-music.com This project has been assisted by the Australian families current and impending! www.myspace.com/ milosh Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. CYCLIC DEFROST MAGAZINE * PAGE 3 Milosh-HalfHori-Cyclic.indd 1 19/9/08 4:50:40 PM feature: Local thommy tran By shaun Prescott FABRICS OF CHANGE 01 02 verything is changing. Shortly the United States – and designing the label’s tour posters and some album sleeve designs he by extension the world – will be presided over by an has acted as tour manager and helmed that label’s short-lived music African-American president. At the same time an age of magazine Moss. e indomitable economic prosperity appears to have come “I met Chris Wu (owner and operator of Popfrenzy) back in 2002 when to an end. It comes as a surprise to many, but these changes are there were Popfrenzy nights at the Teachers Club on Mary St” Thommy affecting Australians. The world news section is threatening to enter says of his relationship with Popfrenzy, “It was great. super cheap drinks, our reality. great music and a good venue. A friend asked if we could DJ at a night and No less important is the change that has occurred here at Cyclic that was where the association began.” Defrost. Sydney designer Thommy Tran has taken the task of For followers of independent music in Australia Popfrenzy’s visual design designing Cyclic Defrost, and to celebrate he has also designed the has become an immediately recognisable fixture in the local music scene, THOMMY TRAN PORTFOLIO cover for this issue. You might have deduced already that the cover with that label’s jack-in-the-box logo gaining close to iconic status. Tran’s THOMMY TRAN PORTFOLIO theme for this issue is change. It’s a theme that resonates with Tran designs have always captured the youthful zeal and colourful dynamism at the moment, the man responsible for the increasingly iconic inherent in the Popfrenzy roster, a label that promotes anything from the 03 04 05 Popfrenzy logo, and most of that Sydney label’s graphic duties. empowered dance floor thrust of The Gossip through to the shy, Flying Despite being negatively affected by the dire economic times, Tran Nun pop of Songs. Tran has consistently captured the indie-pop visual is quick to point out that some very positive changes have recently zeitgeist through careful application of pastel colours, boldly defined and occurred, with recent changes in government in both Australia and spacious fonts, colour contrasts that convey a message and never stray THOMMY TRAN PORTFOLIO the United States. It’s apparent in his design for this issue’s cover, close to overt busyness, and an eye for crisp, unobtrusive textures. which - despite recent negative impacts in his personal life (we’ll get When I ask Tran what the key principles are in his work, his short response to it later) - reflects the widely felt optimism regarding the regime is simply “Fun.” 06 change in the US, in spite of everything. “This at least give a sense “Usually what intrigues me are quirky things I see and hear. I like to play that something is going right,” Thommy says. with design and make people interact with it. I like tactility. I try to design Thommy Tran was born into a Malaysian refugee camp, before things away from immediate influences such as the city.” moving to Sydney two months later where his family settled in “Good design makes you feel good.” He posits, “It makes you optimistic. the inner west, where he has spent most his life. He studied a I had always been interested in architecture and the arts, but more so as a music based arts degree at Macquarie University, which is prescient consumer and observer. I would look at crap which was badly designed and considering much of his design work has been with music labels thought I could do it better. Then when it came to me trying to make it LOGO/IDENTITY ~ and publications. better I realised how difficult it actually was. There lay the challenge I guess, Penny Drop Penny Drop is a Melbourne based promotions/ touring company. The acts toured are very It wasn’t until during his degree that Tran harboured the notion of I always wanted to make my own music, hence the degree.