Author Archives: Danny

Clairaudience Releases ‘The Clueless Hitchhiker’ on Vinyl and CD

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We’re thrilled to announce that The Clueless Hitchhiker, the new album from Clairaudience, is now available on vinyl and CD — and will be streaming everywhere from Monday 27 April. It’s been a long road to this record. Clairaudience was formed in Sydney’s inner west in 2006 by Daniel and Caroline Jumpertz, who ran it as the house band of their Feral Media label, a partnership that’s always been as much about life as music. After winning Green Card residency in the lottery, Daniel and Caroline relocated to New York City in 2010, building a new chapter of the band that played the Northside Festival, Make Music New York, and iconic venues like The Bitter End in Greenwich Village and Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. Their 2015 mini-album/cassette Sun Damage (described by Atwood Magazine as “a psychedelic dream full of jangling guitars and a Phil Spector-like Wall of Sound”) and the 2016 self-titled full-length (featuring the Spotify favourite Being Bad) were both recorded with producer Abe Seiferth at Transmitter Park Studios in Greenpoint.

Exclusively pressed in Australia to Heavyweight Red and Yellow handpour, with Impressed’s signature Obi strip – individually numbered 1/50. $59.99 Link to shop

After returning to Australia and settling in Melbourne, Daniel and Caroline recruited a new lineup between the 2020–21 lockdowns: Daniel’s brother Mick Jumpertz on bass, and Daniel’s lifelong musical partner Chris Smales on guitar, a friendship spanning over 50 years. Rehearsals began in a North Melbourne basement, and what emerged is the most personal and fully realised Clairaudience record yet. The album was tracked at the iconic Melbourne studio Head Gap with Rohan Sforcina, mastered by William Bowden, and the vinyls pressed at Program Records.

The Clueless Hitchhiker is a meditation on modern dislocation — the atomisation of society into tribes, the paradox of connection and loneliness, and the quiet struggle to stay present in a world that keeps moving without you. The album’s title and cover image, the hitchhiker drifting through life without agency or destination, runs through all ten songs, from We Move Amongst The Tribes to the album’s closer What We’ve Become. The band’s sound weaves together influences from The Velvet Underground, Television, Sunnyboys and The Go-Betweens into something distinctly and defiantly their own: resolute, visceral, melodic, and shot through with unexpected light.

Exclusively pressed in Australia at Program records. Heavyweight black vinyl. Includes lyric sheet / poster insert + digital download code. $35. Feral Media Bandcamp

Lovely gatefold card case, artwork by Daniel Jumpertz. 24-page booklet with full liner notes, lyrics and single artworks. Includes bonus Pavement cover “Give It A Day” + digital download code. Feral Media Bandcamp

New music from Clairaudience

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Melbourne-based Clairaudience returns with “We Move Amongst The Tribes”, the second single from their upcoming album The Clueless Hitchhiker.

“We Move Amongst The Tribes” explores contemporary alienation and identity politics with fuzz-drenched solos that recall Mick Ronson-era David Bowie, while incorporating the taut energy that has become the band’s signature.

The song examines how modern society has fractured into distinct social categories, with individuals moving between tribes yet remaining fundamentally disconnected. “We Move Amongst The Tribes” creates a sonic landscape as complex as the societal divisions it portrays.

Clairaudience’s current lineup represents both stability and evolution. At its core are married couple Daniel (vocals/rhythm guitar) and Caroline Jumpertz (drums), who formed the band in Sydney in 2006 before relocating to New York City in 2010, where they played venues from The Bitter End to Brooklyn’s Northside Festival. Their 2016 self-titled album yielded Spotify hit “Being Bad” (108,000+ streams).

After returning to Melbourne, they recruited Daniel’s brother Mick (bass) in his first band experience, and lead guitarist Chris Smales, Daniel’s friend for more than 50 years. This family-and-friendship dynamic adds emotional authenticity to their exploration of connection amid fragmentation.

Like their journey across continents, “We Move Amongst The Tribes” demonstrates Clairaudience’s ability to transform diverse influences – from indie, glam and new wave – into something distinctly their own while addressing the universal search for meaning in an increasingly disconnected world.

Listen here on your favourite platform.

For media and radio peeps: Download the single here.

Here’s what you need to know.

There’s been plenty happening behind the scenes here at Feral Media. Here’s a quick summary!

Late 2016, I moved with family from NYC to Sydney, finally landing in Melbourne just prior to the pandemic. The Feral Media HQ is now located in North Carlton in a studio / gallery space I’m calling X Ray City. Later this year and into 2024, we’ll be using the space to launch some exciting new projects. Here’s some updates.

We’re working on a beautiful 20th Anniversary vinyl edition of the Plankton album The Undertone. I’ve just listened to the test pressings and they sound amazing. It’ll be a double album on white vinyl.

Comatone is preparing a major retrospective of unreleased material (around 40 tracks). Greg Seiler (aka Comatone) has been also working on new material also.

An epic new release from Marc Eiden’s project The Artificial Limb is being prepared. Titled Run God Run, we’ll be sharing some music real soon. Sean Hogan has once again been involved with the art and design.

We’re also preparing some beautiful vinyl editions of the two Because Of Ghosts albums; The Tomorrow We Were Promised Yesterday (2006) and This Culture Of Background Noise (2008) featuring newly remastered audio. These are in production and will be released in 2024.

Sign up to receive our newsletter to hear first about pre-orders and to stay on top of our activities.

Influencer vinyl in stock

After some COVID-related manufacturing delays, we’ve finally received the vinyl copies of Funeral Tango’s debut album Influencer. It sounds great in every format, but extra special in the gatefold vinyl edition. Cover artwork was created by band drummer Brad Stafford. Grab a copy now from the Feral Media shop on Bandcamp. Just $30 plus postage. Also available in store at Repressed Records on King Street, Newtown and Radio Free Alice in Darlinghurst (both Sydney) and at Funeral Tango gigs. Follow the band on Facebook or Instagram for news on upcoming gigs.

New video and single from Funeral Tango ahead of the Influencer album on February 12

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Now available on Spotify, Apple, Youtube, Bandcamp and others.
Funeral Tango are releasing a final single — the darkly mesmerising Pierina — ahead of the Influencer album release on February 12.

Pierina evokes Three Imaginary Boys-era The Cure and Joy Division. Pre-order the limited vinyl edition of Influencer here. Pierina’s video was made by Brad Stafford, the band’s drummer and album artwork designer and artist. Watch it here.

Funeral Tango lyricist Tim Rollston explains.
“Pierina is a story about birth, growth and relationships. It is one of our most epic and emotional songs.
The lyrics describe two characters, in different times but somehow connected. The first is a person wandering through life and making decisions about which paths to go down. The second is a young mother to be, with no idea where her life is to take her.
While partly autobiographical, (descriptions of the scenery from Waterford, Ireland) the song also takes on the forms of dreams, hazy memories and stories that have been passed down through generations.
The final sequence of the song (with the tree’s when they sleep…) came about when I read an article about how trees sleep at night and communicate underground. It signifies the mothers decision to leave her offspring to grow in the natural world, where unexpected things may happen, but can ultimately be trusted.”

Funeral Tango release new single ‘Jeebus’

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New single released today on Spotify, Apple and other digital platforms. We love it. But then, we would wouldn’t we? Here’s the single artwork, created by Funeral Tango drummer Brad Stafford. 

And if you’re in Sydney, head to the Vic on the Park to hear the whole sweet racket live tomorrow night! See the flyer below. Funeral Tango hit the stage at 10 p.m. And they’ll have CDs of the forthcoming album Influencer for sale! Remember CDs??? They go in your glove box and then stay there and you forget about them and then put them on when you get bored of the radio and then remember why you never play that CD and then put it back in the glove box and so the whole cosmic dance continues…

And here’s another date for the diary: Thursday 25 February. Funeral Tango play Petersham Bowling Club. Mayhem ensues.