[engl] Tim Evans is a singer songwriter from Tasmania Australia, currently living in Brooklyn New York. Melding traditional finger picking with often dark lyrical content, his carefully crafted songs have brought comparisons such as Townes Van Zandt, John Fahey and Syd Barrett. Realizing his debut solo album this year, Evans has quickly built a reputation as an enigmatic and powerful live performer. With a second album already recorded and scheduled for release in spring 2017, we can expect great things from this emerging solo artist Over the course of two decades, Tim Evans’ music has taken a long, winding path across the Earth. Stylistically, Evans has mastered fetid swamp-punk, full-tilt psychedelic boogie, no wave lurch and corrosive noise rock. Under the Degreaser moniker, Evans and cohorts throw these elements into a supercollider and what results is a muscular beast with unpredictable intentions. But here, on Wretched Wings, Evans steps out of his own shadow with the first release under his own name. A true solo album, Wretched Wings finds Tim Evans stretching his songwriting by scaling back sonically. Although Evans is an excellent drummer, his solo album features almost no percussion; relying instead on his expressive and singular guitar-playing. Evans practically caresses his acoustic as he coaxes spine-tingling webs of sound from its humble body. The gentle cascade of thrummed notes conjures a paradoxical feeling of intimacy within a vast space. Imagine being out amongst the deep brush, but with the hot breath of an old flame whispering in your ear. Songs like “Rotted Spring” and “You Was Mine” are perfect specimens of Evans’ peculiar brand of haunted outback blues. At times, they recall the understated drama of Leonard Cohen, or even of the God-fearing murder ballads sung by generations of American hill-folk for decades. Some songs are rendered lush by virtue of expertly-placed reverb and layered guitar overdubs. And while Evans is in fine voice here, singing at his most relaxed and gentle, there is the suggestion of a hollowed-out soul, as if Nico’s The Marble Index was a blueprint. The clouds do part, however; the sun pokes through the cracks in the wall. Despite its title, “Dark Fire” has an optimistic bent to it, although the lyrics hint at something terrible in the past. With its electric guitar shimmer, “Long Long Time” is both the densest and poppiest song on Wretched Wings, even as Evans pleads for you to “feed [him] to the wolves.” “Unwanted” follows and it is as down as a poor boy blues can get. Even God turns his back on this miserable bastard. After surviving “Piece Of Death” and “Spring’s Slaughter” (this is indeed a Fall/Winter record), you are rewarded with the uplifting strains of “Mornin’ Train.” That trace of melancholy is always there, but the future doesn’t seem quite so bleak from this vantage.

[engl] New York City’s Wilful Boys is hard rock the way it once was -- and should always be -- for now and forever, amen. You know Wilful Boys are old-school from the start, as mainman and singer Steven Fisher isn’t out front of the band, prancing and preening. The man is behind the drumkit, his heavy-as-a-sack-of-bricks pounding driving these songs forward with a bruising, methodical force. Fisher is an Aussie -- as is bassist Mikey Watkins -- and the hardscrabble nature of his native land sweats heaps of grit and power all over Wilful Boys’ debut release, a 7” single on NYC’s Ever/Never Records. Alongside Degreaser and Ballroom, Wilful Boys are another face-blasting ensemble in Ever/Never’s stellar stable of New York/Australian combo units.

[engl] New York City's The Wilful Boys is hard rock the way it once was -- and should always be -- now and forever, amen. You know The Wilful Boys are old-school from the get-go as you won’t find main man and singer Steven Fisher out in front of the band, prancing and preening. The man is behind the drumkit, driving these songs forward with a bruising, methodical force. Fisher is an Aussie -- as is bassist Mikey Watkins -- and the hardscrabble nature of his native land sweats heaps of grit and power all over Rough As Guts, The Wilful Boys' 12-song debut full-length on NYC's Ever/Never Records. If you thought their single was a fine example of brutal rock n' roll, you ain't heard nothin' yet. Rough As Guts lives up to its title -- it's a shit-kicking no-shit-giving hard-ass of a record. The album even lives up to its splatterpunk cover art courtesy of Musk's Rob Fletcher. The members of The Wilful Boys have spent years plying their trade in all manner of punk, hardcore and noise rock bands, so they waste no time getting down to business with "Poor Old Mate," a road-burner that spews riffs and attitude. This cut could turn oxygen back into carbon dioxide. On the title track, the band settles into a lowdown groove as Fisher talks out his blues. "The Pinch" seems like a warning, which is echoed by the guitars cleaving through it. Johnny Provenzano and Nicholas Isles are a fierce team, peeling off all kinds of naggingly catchy riffs and not afraid to throw down the pyrotechnics when necessary. "Flat Out" is reprised from their debut single and it’s even more of a bruiser than that first take. "Take It Easy" is three minutes of what The Wilful Boys do best -- completely pummeling rock n' roll that builds up momentum and then collapses on you like an avalanche. "Hatchet" buries the lede and then hits you like a ton of bricks. "Your Place" alternates disquieting, dissonant passages with a classic punk chorus. Closing out the album is one of Rough As Guts' standout tracks -- "Say It Again" sounds like an army marching towards their objective with single-minded intent as Fisher shouts to be heard over the melee -- "I'll tell ya somethin'/and it's better than nothin!" What I can tell you is that The Wilful Boys intend on punching 2016 in the face, so wear that black eye with pride. -e/n

[engl] All the way from Sydney, ever/never records presents you with a masterpiece for our current times. It has the aura of a great classic record, avant-garde meets melodic intensities and contemporary poetry while inviting the listener to the urgent need for collective reflection. A fantastic array of players with complex instrumentation offer us intricate narratives and multilayered soundscapes: Maeve Parker (flute, poetry, xylophone, and keys), Lyn Heazlewood (guitar, fan, vocals, and accordion) Sabina Rysnik (guitar, vocals, and keys), and Andrew McLellan (bass, vocals, electronics, and piano). Marcus Whale lends saxophone on 'Fantasy in Facsimile'. I was already incredibly excited about this record since Andrew McLellan's Cured Pink album Current Climate (also published on CD by ever/never) is for me, one of the best records of the last decade. Experimental no-wave dub as its best. The expectations have not only been met but astoundingly exceeded. Witness K is a different affair altogether from Current Climate. Sparse but thoughtful. Recitations punctuated by sparks of shoegaze interventions make the mood serene but with a constantly menacing undercurrent. The compositions, the playing, and the production are masterfully accomplished; clear, precise, and beautifully executed. Think if the Shadow Ring finally play with their idols ZNR and together they invite Florence Shaw and Roland S. Howard to do a non- commercial city pop record to be produced by Mica Levi. This album cuts through the confusing digital entropic reality, in order to give you the necessary space to reflect while wandering subtly through field recordings, poetry, and voices that take you to different situations at the edge of memory and consciousness. There is a certain atemporality to this record. Or rather it puts you exactly at that moment where history is breaking in two. As if you suddenly were in San Francisco in 1981, when Throbbing Gristle were disintegrating but a new beginning was also being constructed. Between the end of an era and the beginning of a new adventure. Captivating nostalgia for a past that you know you just have to let pass and move forward. No need to panic. ASMR melodies whisper to you that there is a future beyond our melting ground and that it is possible to crawl into the surface of a ragged society so you can keep going and able to build something different, something better and more honest. This is already marked in the name of the band which connects the dark undercurrent that goes through the record and refers to one of the most turbulent geopolitical Australian incidents in the last two decades. Witness K was a highly decorated ASIS officer (Australia's overseas secret intelligence agency) who revealed that in 2004 during the negotiations with East Timor for the extraction of oil and gas, the Australian secret service bugged East Timor's government and president's office so they could have the upper hand during the negations. This obviously resulted in an extremely bad deal with East Timor. Australia has done everything possible to hide this case. Witness K is not about seeking discounted redemption, but showing that the ground is unstable, that this disintegrating society also offers the possibility of constructing a better future. It gives you the necessary warmth to acknowledge that the world is fucked but there is something that we can do about it. The more you listen to it the more layers you discover and the more you get. Opaque in the most positive way, this record is necessary. — Mattin (author of Social Dissonance)