Afro Dizzi Act seem to have been quite of late – what’s been going on?

Well a snapshot of the last six months goes something like this: We signed a distribution with Vitamin Records in July and completed a small tour to promote the new move. Since then we’ve been busy putting a tour of India together and getting ready to record a new album. Recording actually starts this week.  We play together in another band called The Band Of Frequencies – which is like an Afro off-shoot that can cater for a different style of songwriting – that consumes as much time as Afro. Both bands have had tracks licensed by Ubiquity records for the soundtrack Under The Sun. OJ and Mark just came off a tour of Brazil with View From Madeleine’s Couch that they loved.

You’re heading to India on an International Pathways Grant, can you tell us a little about the grant?

International Pathways is a grant created by the Arts Council of Australia to help musician’s tour internationally. They are looking for an application that has artistic merit, proven success and commercial viability. By commercial viability, I’m talking about having a plan together that will ensure distribution, publicity and industry networking. It really is an amazing grant; there are so many artists who have done wonderful things internationally thanks to Pathways.

This is your return trip to North East India – what are you hoping to achieve and learn this time around?

The tour is more extensive, so it’s a great opportunity to connect with more people. We have had some offers of distribution that we’ll be checking out and some recording opportunities in Mumbai that we’re looking into. It’s a touring festival with a number of International bands and traditional artists who I’m sure will make for great company on long bus rides through some amazingly beautiful scenery; they have some sacred forests in Megalaya.  The whole of N.E India is gorgeous.

AFRO DIZZI ACT support Israeli act Funk’n’Stein at The Zoo on Wednesday Dec 3. www.myspace.com/afrodizziact

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Congratulations to Little Vegas & The Fuzz Parade (pictured) who have taken home the Emerging Artist Prize, as provided by The Valley Chamber of Commerce and Queensland Rail. The group collect a $2000 cheque for their efforts and will celebrate with gigs at The Step Inn Thursday Dec 4 (with The Precursors) and The Zoo Friday Dec 19 (with Sunflower, 1989 and Little Vitto).

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Sweetly tinged lo-fi electronic pop types, Metronomy (pictured), are swapping the chilly UK winter for some summer sun next year as they fly out to Australia. Friday Jan 16 sees the Brit trio hitting Empire’s Lick It! evening, and you can grab tickets through OzTix now $17.50+bf. BMX support.

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Don’t forget the shift in venue for the Clockcleaner show (now upstairs at Rosie’s), Thursday Nov 27, from 8pm. The stellar Philadelphia punk band will be supported on the night by Adelaide’s Snake Run (pictured), and locals Slug Guts and Z-Rays. It’s $12 on the door.

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Photo: Justin Edwards

Krista Polvere quips that she writes her country and folk tunes about hypothetical boyfriends, so as to not embarrass her current tangible one. Apart from this, it’s your pretty standard heartbreakers gently strummed by a diminutive female, but propelled by sweet manners and a voice that barely needs amplification. Plus the beer-bellied rednecks behind me were just yelled at … a good night so far.

A stunning, leggy blonde with a powerful voice and a keen sense for storytelling; after six previous marriages, it looks like our headlining act has a keeper. Southern songstress Allison Moorer picks choice cuts from her recent album, a collection of her favourite singer/songwriters that includes a smoldering version of Patti Smith’s Dancing Barefoot. Finishing her set with the haunting A Change Is Gonna Come, she’s the first American I’ve heard post-election that realizes there’s still much to be done.

The man that was once considered a rival to Bruce Springsteen before running into numerous collisions with the law, Steve Earle appears as a man that has barely outlived his excessive lifestyle. But every mistake he has made along the way only adds to the mystique and persona, as his road-worn voice sings of trials, retribution and redemption. Armed with an acoustic guitar and armada of harmonicas he’s a hellbound traveler on Copperhead Road, duetting with Moorer he’s a sentimental softie stating The Days Aren’t Long Enough, and with the odd introduction of a DJ (at first I assumed the turntables were left there from some house gig the night before) he’s an adventurer that combines the blues with thumping beats and a Satellite Radio. Oh my god, he just played the theme song from The Wire. Tom Waits may have written Down In The Hole in 1987, but Earle has since lived it many times over.

MITCH ALEXANDER

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(Nuclear Blast/Stomp)

All hail the tech death

The three and a half minute title track album opener from Psycroptic’s latest full length offering puts the Tasmanian band at the forefront of the global technical death metal scene. In those three minutes, Psycroptic, in a way, summarise their career to date. The song is a static foundation of machine gun drums and jarring riffs that don’t hang around for very long. If the rest of the album kept to the course of the opener, then it would be a totally awesome follow-up to the band’s 2006 opus, Symbols Of Failure. But from song two to nine, Ob(servant) tweaks the winning Psycroptic tech death formula to create an album that exceeds expectations. Where previous offerings saw the Tasmanians shred through riff after riff after riff, discarding some very cool riffs, Ob(servant) has the band writing well-structured songs that afford jams some breathing space within tracks. As the songs on Ob(servant) are defined by riffs, guitarist Joe Haley’s input accordingly dominate the mix. On cuts like The Shifting Equilibrium and A Calculated Effort, Haley’s less condensed riffs afford the tunes a sinister groove and monster swagger. Rounding the album out with eight minute epic Initiate, Psycroptic have managed to achieve a sound that finds the perfect balance between technical chops and visceral brutality on Ob(servant). A collection of songs that a person could head bang to, Ob(servant) also manages to still retains all of the jaw-slackening complexity of the Psycroptic that won over our blackened hearts over the past seven years.

****

TOM HERSEY

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