Caught In The Headlight Serenade

(Photo by sergueibubka)

Posts have been a bit shy in coming forwards in recent days: I can only apologise on their behalf. They are indeed reticent folk, but more importantly, their valuable time has been invested in shouting at Audacity, an ordinarily convenient and straightforward podcast-producing kind of tool, for not letting me fade songs in and out on the forthcoming YCCMB podcast numero duo. So. I'm sorry.

But on to today's topic. Australia, eh? Home of tinnies, arvo's and many, many other comedic abbreviations. Where men are men and sheep are scared. Where folks are stereotypes of themselves almost to the point of parody. Where, believe it or not, some excellent music is being produced. In fact, there's something of a legacy: putting aside the Midnight Oil/INXS/ACDC connotations of hard rockin', hard livin' guitar heroes, consider the case: The Saints. The Birthday Party -> Nick Cave. Dirty Three. And now there's Clue To Kalo from Melbourne, one of my finds of the last year, and Triosk, of whom I talk here.

Although there can be comparisons to a number of other artists (who honestly can't say that?), Triosk have a fairly unique take, adding improvisational jazz tendencies to minimalist, experimental electronics. You'll no doubt be hearing more from me about pianist Adrian Klumpes soon, once I've fully digested his album, as he takes things in a more sparse, icy direction, but Triosk have a much fuller sound. Klumpes' piano adds an unusually full sound to an electronica sphere that usually prizes minimalism above all else, with it's big block chords, and Nyman-esque rippled arpeggios, but it's not the only thing that makes the band stand out. There's an emphasis on the percussion here that's not just forcing a beat to the fore, or making a point of having as much going on as possible in the drum department. There are times when the percussion is so detailed and fascinating I almost stopped in the street to have a better listen on my headphones. Which is fairly impressive.

So: I'm at work without the CD which means I can only post the one track I've been kindly provided with by Leaf. Fortunately, it's ace and will give you a good idea of what I'm talking about with the piano thing. You can check out a number of other tracks (from what I understand, they're rotated semi-regularly as well) on their MySpace.

Triosk - Intensives Leben

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Tags: Australia; Triosk; Adrian Klumpes