|
|
|
9:30pm, $8 |
|
|
 Holy Balm (Australia)
There’s no murk anymore. The lights are on, smoking has been banned, and Sydney’s Holy Balm have finally recorded a proper dance record. Here the group’s lo-fi grime has been scrubbed away, leaving sharp-focus textures and 4/4s that never wobble out of step. All evidence is gone of the drone-y jam band that debuted on a split CD-R with Vincent Over The Sink back in 2006.
Holy Balm are a dance group that have rarely (if ever) played in a club, appearing instead mostly on punk line-ups. It’s You is released locally on R.I.P. Society but also on Californian label Not Not Fun, and the association with the latter makes a lot sense: some will write Holy Balm off as amateur dance music for people who don’t like dance music, an accusation sometimes leveled at Not Not Fun’s dance offshoot 100% Silk. But this only holds true if keeping things tidy and in their right place is really important to you.
It’s true that precision is not a concern for Holy Balm. Bass lines fall slightly out of step with the beat sometimes (especially on ‘Holy Balm Theme’) and their panicked improvised lead lines always sound like they’re rushing for a bum note. Holy Balm sounds defective, but only just: the clean right angles and white textures of techno are bent crooked here, the shades all mixed up and the components bolted incorrectly. Brief lead lines pop up in ‘Phone Song’ that sound like cameos from other songs, but their intrusion is a pleasing sensorial jolt, like sonic detritus from another transmission.
|
|
|
|
9:00pm, FREE |
|
DJ TBA
|
|
9:30pm, FREE |
|
|
|
8:30pm, $7 |
|
|
 Low Hums (Seattle)
"Low Hums’ minimalist Mexicali blues sounds like a Cormac McCarthy novel, sprawled out beneath the stars and a poncho, smoking a joint and watching the embers die before drifting off to sleep." – The Stranger
|
|
|
|
8:30pm, $5 |
|
Nu Sensae canceled due to van -- sorry!
|
|
8:30pm, $8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9:30pm, $7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9:30pm, $7 |
|
|
|
|
|
James Finch
|
|
| |
  
|
