Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Mad Nanna on Soft Abuse Records


Soft Abuse put out this single a couple of weeks back from Mad Nanna, another prong of the Australian invasion that snuck up on me. I was just listening to Almost Ready's 12" split between UV Race and Eddy Current...a great live show from 2008 previously on cassette. Is it about time to declare a Flying Nun type era for Australia? Is this the second wave anyway? Where does Mad Nanna's ramshackle rock fit into those punk garage sounds?
I also remember not long ago Quemada Records introducing me to Mad Nanna and this sound feels like it's carrying on those underground, stick a tape in the cassette player and hit record sessions. "My Two Kids" has the warm hum of ungrounded cables, a loose jangle electric guitar chord seems to be slightly played a little different everytime. Those same three chords can sound like an entire range of tempos, meanwhile this pounding percussion beat is vainly attempting to speed things up. A harmonium or possibly sax bleats away?... It's hard to tell, the delivery of this thing is slightly out of sync with the concrete melody that everyone else is sort of adhering to while they get all avant jazz over this Velvets heroin haze rhythm. It's a kind of beautiful mess that reminds me of that Pumice 10" from Soft Abuse also, laying it all on the line. There's no tricks here, it's like a giant baby with a sledgehammer, get out of the way.
B-Side, "I'm not Coming Here" Find things in a different space entirely, the jangle not even bothering to move up or down the scale but in a tighter space maybe. Still blasting vocals through a PA system, way out of range of decipherability, and the electric/sax coming together in a weird similar place. When it finally reaches into a new chord for a measure, it sounds weird. Let this droning jam go on forever. JI wouldn't mind sitting back on the beer stained couch of the practice room and close my eyes and zone out to this for a while. It's easy to reenact in my own apartment actually. If they could stick this little gem into a locked groove, well who knows how long it would play. live audience claps, if I'm drunk enough I will too.

Turns out there's ANOTHER single with this exact track lineup of different versions from Unwucht Records.

This sleeve reminds me of one of my favorite photographers Richard Billingham. Disposable camera flash photography. Just like the music, nothing polished or fake, thank you very much. Liquid white out writing over the photo, send it to the printers. Watch the water go down the drain's counterclockwise mate.

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