Blog — Page 133 of 277

There are few bands that are as hard to categorize as The Locust, so I won’t even try. About the closest approximation I can give, is it’s like taking Ritalin before an important calculus exam and getting beaten with a sock full of quarters on the way to class. But in a good way.

At first, you might only hear dissonant noise. But like anything in this life, to truly understand it, you have to experience it, like Saturday Night at Denver’s Moonroom. 

Seeing them live is a revelation. The noise becomes harmonic and the deftness and precision in which the music is played is almost overwhelming. Surgical Hardcore at its finest.

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Yes, The Locust are back with a vengeance after a 5 year hiatus and they haven’t missed a beat. Be sure to catch them when they come to your town, village or unincorporated county.

Archie Rose x Sydney Opera House: Outside and Inside Gins

We have recently covered Archie Roses’ foray into whisky territory and as I mentioned as part of the article, their bread and butter is the clear spirit distilled from grain or malt that derives its DNA from  juniper berry infusions – a realm they have established themselves firmly in not just on terra australis but internationally as well.

Never one to shy away from a great collaboration, a recent project saw Archie Rose team up with the Sydney Opera house to celebrate and pay homage to the arty and creatively diverse offerings of one of Australia’s leading cultural icons.

With the creation of a two-act gin release, i.e. Outside Gin and Inside Gin, it pays homage to the immense cultural heritage that is usually housed underneath those white concrete shells, set against the iconic backdrop of Sydney Harbour.

To claim that the Outside Gin is “juniper forward”, would be an understatement par excellence yet it is nuancefully embedded in a melange Australian locally sourced ingredients, which are something to savour specifically if your palate is not familiar with what grows in this part of world.

The Inside Gin complements the emission with its fruitier character that is enhanced by botanical highlights and a cast of botanical that aim at portraying the equivalent to the aesthetic appeal the Opera House signifies to the world. 

The merits of both gins are manifold and manifest themselves in that they do not only make a great foundation for curated cocktails, e.g. one incorporating seaweed and an invigourating little number with  sparkling pear juice, which were proffered at the launch night, but with their flavourful distinctions they can be sipped neat without eliciting what I refer to as my “juniper face”, which delights a whisk(e)y aficionado like your humble narrator.

Going forward, the collaboration between Sydney’s Opera House and Archie Rose Distillery will see the incarnation of curated art, food and beverage pairings apart from their gins becoming a mainstay at the SOH’s fantastic bars, which warrant a visit just for having a drink in their idiosyncratic ambience.

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photo from company website

Mike Parr: The Eternal Opening

Carriageworks

Sydney, Australia

October 25, 2019

Attentive readers would recall Mike Parr’s various and often spectacular incarnations we have covered as part of MONA’s annual Dark Mofo festivals and having established himself on the forefront of boundary pushing artists on international terrain, you would have come across his oeuvre in some form if you are remotely interested in art.

The Eternal Opening, which opened on the twenty fifth of October at Sydney’s cavernous and never underwhelming cavernous realm of Carriageworks, is in essence a re-enactment and physical replication of an exercise in minimalism, which was first performed in 2017 in the Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne, along  with new performance that will be added to enhance the experience, e.g. video installations and the accompaniment by sound performances.

Multi-layered in nature, as Mike moved through the space with eyes closed painting black squares on the opening night, Parr aficionados can easily detect subtle and more obvious references to his varied body of work with the sacrifice or involvement of his own corpse almost always front- and centre, which makes it a nice retrospective of sorts and provides a canvas very suited for interpretations – be it of pressing political issues or deeper going, underlying concerns and musings on the need to be..

Mike Parr’s The Eternal Opening, is meant to involve over the run of its course, with more components, e.g. the documentation of Parr’s BDH [Burning Down The House] to be incorporated in November and the culmination of the project with a nightly performance of Jericho.

Having had the fortune of witnessing Parr channel his alchemy in a range of contexts, locations and environments, it did not go unnoticed that him performing on his home turf carried additional weight and added another dimension to the mix.

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photo courtesy of Carriageworks

Water of Life – An Ode to Octomore

Victor Hugo quipped something along the lines of the ode living upon the ideal, the epic upon the grandiose, the drama upon the real.

If the aforementioned holds true, Octomore resides in the sublime.

We have covered the emissions of the progressive Hebridean distillers Bruichladdich before and shed light on both their peated and non-peated drops, all of which proved to be immensely enjoyable.

However, Bruichladdich’s Octomore is a category in itself. Yes, it might be touted as the “smokiest” drop on this earthround, but it does certainly not have to hide behind the phenolic novelty factor.

I fondly remember the first dram of Octomore I had, i.e. the 8.1 expression, which not only left me smacking my lips but changing the way I experienced peat and smoke.

See, a whiskey from Islay has yet to disappoint me. Sure, there might be ones that are overshadowed by others, but if a random pub has Islay whiskies on its shelves, I instantly feel like the respective etablissement has something to it.

Octomore plays in another league and it goes without saying that I was mildly excited when I received an invitation to sample its recently launched, exclusive 10 series.

I would not go as far that I was as excited as Jordan Belford when his companion surprised him with the last Lemmon 714 Quaaludes, but I guess the release of a new Octomore expression comes close to a wine aficionado getting to sample a vintage Chateau Margaux.

Giddy as kid on Christmas, Bruichladdich’s ambassadors framed the new and youngest release in their exquisite portfolio in an informative and engaging presentation on the merits of Octomore 10.1, Octomore 10.3 Islay Barley, and Octomore 10.4 Virgin Oak.

Eventually the time came to experience the 10.1: Aged at five years in first-fill American casks and peated to 107 parts per million, bottled at 59.8% ABV, and limited to 42,000 bottles, the experience was different to Octomore expressions I had previously sampled.

Different as in more subtle, more nuanced and with a mesmerizing fruitiness tickling the nostrils.

The briny smokiness is omnipresent; however, it is not overwhelming.

What hit the top of the roof was a wonderfully calibrated mélange of sugary nuances resting on a bed of spicy peatiness that leaves enough room for peachy and honey-esque highlights to shine through.

Just when I thought it had peaked, the elongated finished upped the ante with a fulminant salted caramel exit.

An experience.

Octomore 10.3 has been aged for one more year, peated to 114ppm, bottled at 61.3% ABV, and limited to 24,000 bottles.

Being introduced as a “single field, single vintage, single malt” release, expectations were high and not disappointed, however, overshadowed by the immense impression the 10.1 left.

The baby in the lineup was the Octomore 10.4.

The complexity of this drop is hard to fathom given that it has only been aged for three years.

The 10.4 took me on a flavor journey as despite its high alcohol content and Octomore’s trademark phenolic, sulfurous peat and iodine punch, it was by far the most refined dram that benefits from having been matured virgin Limousine French oak casks, with a high toast designed to lessen the wood’s naturally high tannin impact and its dry, fruity and at times floral character.

Summa summarum, the Octomore 10 series is another masterstroke of a distillery that not only banks on the tried and proven, but skillfully explores sophisticated nuances and consistently pushed the envelope with subtleties in an area where usually the only feature that counts is one dimensional charry, intense smoke.

A uniquely complex, intricate and harmonious release that soothes the peat gods and lingers sheer endlessly.

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photo from company website

In Vino Veritas – Moorilla and Domaine A

Claiming that I harbour a weak spot in my left chest for anything related to Tasmania would be an understatement par excellence.

At least twice a year I carve my way to Hobart for their annual winter festival Dark Mofo, which we have covered extensively throughout the years, as well as new exhibitions and the indulge in what the island has to offer.

MONA comes with many things outside the confines of art and Moorilla Estate complements their offerings on the vino front.  Being the second winery to be established in Tasmania in the twentieth century, the estate is not only iconic because of its affiliation with MONA but also because of the fact that it is situated next to the actual site of MONA in a manner that leads into the Derwent River.

The vineyard has established its name as one that consistently produces quality textural drops with its head honcho Conor van der Reest having set the ship on course for a route that is paved with (inter-)national accolades.

Needless to say that MONA’s aesthetic DNA is tangibly present in every fact of the label designs, the bottles, down to corkage, which are not merely superficial features but ones that significantly accentuate and enhance the indulgence.

One of the favourites from Moorilla is their shiraz, or “Syrah” with a complexity that covers the spectrum from peppery smokiness via meaty berry-heavy fruitiness to tannins that are calibrated at just the right level of textured chalkiness. If you like reds and breadth of flavour, chances are that you will fall in love after a dance with Miss Syrah.

The other stalwart drop is their sparkling rose?. Now, the fact that rose? is normally not exactly my chalice of wine should give an indication of how good this one must be if it materializes amongst my faves. I love the acidity, which embeds its Pino Noir-esque fruitiness and recommend it as an aperitif to transition proceedings eventually to richer drops.

Should you have the privilege of visiting MONA, you should try the wines alongside a meal at MONA’s hatted flagship restaurant The Source, a place that has become infamous for many a debaucherous party and that is fronted by the Moorilla Wine Bar, which offers seasonal treats, share plates, and house-made breads and pastries with Moorilla and Domaine A wines.

Established in 1973, Domaine A is the winery MONA recently acquired and a perfect match for Moorilla as its wines grow on ancient soil and revel in a temperate cool climate, which is then embedded by the best practises and best features of old and new world styles and approaches to wine making.

Case in point:

Lady A 2016, a grande old dame whose golden hues are complemented with a bouquet of citrussy and vanilla aromas, which tickle the nostrils with an array of woody and oaky nuances. What materializes on the palate is creamy and continues down the lemony route before culminating with a lingering finish that adds nutty and chocolatey flavours to the mix.

A drop that is subtle yet leaves one smacking one’s lips – be it an accompaniment to fish or on its own.

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photo from company website