"I still get shit about that," says Aleks Bryant of an infamous 2006 interview with Mess + Noise in which he derided the Melbourne music scene and the venues therein. "I did say all those things against Melbourne, yeah – but then I also said being a booking agent would be a really hard job and I could never do it, but of course they don’t print that!"

Fortunately for our protagonist, a pair of acclaimed albums have cultivated a heightened profile within the Australian music community and somewhat eased the struggle to find and book gigs that inspired the aforementioned rant. Art-pop is probably the best tag to pin to the now five-piece’s latest album, Midnight Believer, which takes in more afro-pop-inspired moments through to laptop exercises and instrumental rock.

Though it’s been two years since their debut, Pieces vs Aquarius, Bryant reports that the band has been a full-time concern and the long wait was the result of external circumstances rather than artistic languor.

"If I was going to travel back in time and say, ‘your next record will be released in May 2009,’ I’d go, ‘fuck off, that’s ages away!’ It’s frustrating when you’re ready to go but then you just have to sit around waiting for planets align to get things done." Other musical projects, monetary issues and the odd international jaunt all contributed to the album’s delay, though there was definitely some silver lining to this long gestation period that Bryant acknowledges, such as the increased tightness of the performances on record. With the band continuing to gig consistently in the downtime, all of the tracks on Midnight Believer had seen extensive practice and live performance before even hitting record. "We did five full days in the rehearsal studio, making sure we could properly play the album from start to finish," says Bryant, echoing the professional and workmanlike attitude he earlier espoused.

"I’m a lot happier with this record than the last one, we had a proper engineer and went into a proper studio. Some of it sounds pretty hi-fi, which is weird because we didn’t spend too much money on it, we just spent it in the right places."

Although this process yielded an impressive album, Bryant is nonetheless keen to do things differently – definitely faster – next time around. "I’m already anxious to work on the next one. I think the next one will be just written and recorded in one block of time – like, we’ll just book in four weeks of ‘Ramp time’ at some point in the near future – and we’ll figure out how to play it live later on."

Luckily, it seems fans won’t have to wait two years to hear more from these guys. In the meantime though, be sure to check out their upcoming album launch tour, which will reportedly feature some "epic noise jams" that, understandably, didn’t translate to the pop-drawn landscape of the album. Interesting.

ALEKS & THE RAMPS launch MIDNIGHT BELIEVER (Stomp) at Top Floor (above Govinda’s in the CBD) on Saturday 27 June, supported by Mixolydian (CAN), BigStrongBrute, Lion Island, Mt Augustus and Pure Being. www.myspace.com/aleksandtheramps

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*