Blog — Page 219 of 277

The infrequently-updated site blog, featuring a range of content including show reviews, musical musings and off-color ramblings on other varied topics.

New Philosopher & Womankind

Posted by T • September 23, 2017

New Philosopher

Womankind

Feel like there is a gaping hole for content that is intellectually stimulating among existing print media, underestimating their readers’ capacity to reason and their curiosity about the world around them?

Look no further.

Seneca, speaking on the shortness of life says: “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realise that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.”

“Life is long if you know how to use it.”

The aforementioned quotes convey the quintessence of New Philosopher’s DNA.

Approachable in nature and with a thoughtful and intelligent tone, New Philosopher caters to those who have not studied philosophy, as well as the inducted, mixing  the voices of established luminaries with its host of writers.

As the team behind New Philosopher practices what it preaches, there is no reliance on established media organisations or any other companies - it is ad-free and solely funded via subscriptions and sales at bookstores and news agencies.

Based on the success of New Philosopher, the team behind the project have also recently started a second ad-free magazine for women called Womankind, aimed at smart women in the market, which quickly eclipsed New Philosopher covering art, psychology and social matters.

newphilosopher.com
womankindmag.com

T • September 23, 2017

Motionless in White @ Metro Theatre

Posted by T • September 20, 2017

Motionless in White

Metro Theatre

Sydney, AU

September 19, 2017

Motionless in White embarked on their first national headline Australia tour this September in support of their new album Graveyard Shift.

With their unique djenty chuggs, intricate riffing, guttural breakdowns, haunting pop melodies, the occasional blast beat and over the top devious aesthetics, i.e. a penchant for necrophilia and stylized creepiness, Motionless In White having graced stages with the likes of Slipknot and Korn does not come as a surprise.

While I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical as to Motionless in White being a fashion core band in the wake of Eighteen Visions, who seemed to have had a lasting influence beyond inspiring the name of the band, the live incarnation of Chris Cerulli, who is wearing his Marilyn Manson influences on both his sleeve and face, and crue was quite an enjoyable treat.

With ample homage being paid to the shock rock and gothic genre, a highly energetic set and enough nuances to make their mélange of metalcore, gothic metal, pop punk and a tinge of industrial appealing.

The strength of Motionless in White is in their ability to seamlessly shift gears between traditional metalcore and industrial-esque excursions, at times entering Nine Inch Nails territory. both vocally ranging from high pitched screaming to singing and back and musically combining epic, macabre and explosive elements.

Yup, there are at times Hammer Horror and borderline kitschy gimmicks to be found in their oeuvre and it all feels oh so strangely familiar, and while less might be more in some case to not run danger of making the whole appear smaller than the sum of its parts, their engaging and charismatic live performance cements their status at the forefront of genre that has been muddled by epigones.

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Photos by KAVV

T • September 20, 2017

Exploded View by Sam McPheeters

Posted by T • September 18, 2017

Exploded View

Sam McPheeters

Talos Publishing

Born Against.

Vermiform Records.

Error Fanzine.

Men’s Recovery Project.

Wrangler Brutes.

Punk Planet.

On-air disputes with Sick of it All.

Touring Europe with Articles of Faith.

To accurately fathom the influence Sam McPheeters has had on your humble narrator during his formative years, one would need to employ the services of a couple of flowcharts.

Needless to say that I was intrigued when Sam started dabbling as a writer, with Loom of Ruin from 2012 being his novel debut, which, in essence, was a amalgamation of cliffhangers meandering to an apocalyptic end.

What makes Exploded View an engaging read is that McPheeters seems to have had an open concept during the writing process, with current and personal events finding their equivalent in this science fiction novel.

In the age of “fake news,” Exploded View with its short chapters evoking a cinematic feel tells the story of this decade, where falsifying news is de rigueur and where adjusting and modifying what is fed to the wider public as “reality” is a mere man-made changeable, nuanced constituent rather than an immutable constant.

With Sam McPheeters constantly reinventing himself, Exploded View whets the appetite for his next project.

T • September 18, 2017

Italian Film Festival 2017 - Sydney

Posted by T • September 14, 2017

Italian Film Festival 2017

Palace Cinemas

Sydney, AU

September 12, 2017

The Opening Night of the Italian Film Festival, which was a lavish affair with live entertainment, Italian themed food and drinks and was graced with a screening of Let Yourself Go! (“Lasciati andare”), the winner of the 2017 Italian Golden Globe for Best Comedy.

The screening was framed with a festa of Italian culinary delights, think samples of everything delicious that Italian cuisine has to offer, and a pre-part with live music with the band Soulganic and an afterparty with mozzarella testing’s, doici by Gigi and Italian tunes by DJ Sveta.

The Italian Film Festival will continue in different Australian locations until October 25.

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Photos by KAVV

Gallery: Italian Film Festival 2017 (6 photos)

T • September 14, 2017

MEW @ Manning Bar

Posted by T • September 12, 2017

MEW

Manning Bar

Sydney, AU

September 12, 2017

MEW are a Danish alternative, experimental outfit pivoting between styles with a career spanning more than twenty years, across seven acclaimed studio albums, that classifies itself as “indie stadium” and has been described by others as possessing the musical grandiosity that leads people to classify them as progressive rock while they themselves stoically resist any identification with sub genres.

After their successful maiden voyage to Australia in 2015, MEW returned to showcase their extensive back catalogue and their new album Visuals.

MEW in a live context is a mélange of classic pop melodies and bombastic synths, swooning keyboards and lush high-pitched vocals that create a solemn, unassuming yet beautiful immersive microcosm of its own.

Grand and epic yet concise and economical, growing small melancholic melodies into full blown eruptions eliciting heartfelt crowd singalongs and at times indulging in bloodcurdling yet comforting walls of noise arias.

Performing with a deliberately down tuned stage presence in front of intensely imaginative visual projections created but lead singer, Jonas Bjerre, the music blends with the displays and creates a third layer of artistic expression that is bigger than the sum of its individual parts and creates another, deeper dimension of sensations.

A performance not unlike a warm embrace, which the audience, i.e. “Frengers” as per the portmanteau that MEW created for a hybrid of “friends” and “strangers” and the name of one of their albums, lapped it up.

Witnessing MEW performing with the passion of a metal band yet emitting their ethereal Scandinavian sounds result in a unique experience.

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Photos by T

T • September 12, 2017

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