Underlapper have curated the latest podcast in the Post-Rock Paper Scissors podcast series on US website The Silent Ballet. The podcast includes an interview with Greg Stone from the band as well as tracks/remixes chosen by him from artists including Skeletons, Extra Life, World’s End Girlfriend and Feral artists Gentleforce and Comatone.
Listen/download the podcast here
Gentleforce (aka Eli Murray) has recently collaborated with fellow Sydney artist Westernsynthetics on the latter’s latest EP No Holiday.
Eli provided the wonderful cover art for the EP and has documented the process on his website. There you will also find an interview between Eli and Rhyece O’Neill (Westernsynthetics) on the EP and the subsequent artwork.
In addition to this Eli has remixed a track from Westernsynthetics album May Day Radio released last year on the Sub Continental Dub label. Check out the result below….
Feral artist AFXJIM has recently written a soundtrack for a video installation entitled The Darkness by visual artist Marieka Walsh.
The Darkness is part one of a dual screen installtion. Check it out below….
Danny Jumpertz (Alpen) is Feral Media’s founder as well as a prolific producer (Underlapper, Minimum Chips, Barrage, The Emergency).
Lost Friends is Alpen‘s first release since 2008 and was the last project recorded at the original Sydney Feral Media warehouse prior to Danny’s move to New York City 12 months ago. Collaborators on the EP include Jon Tjhia (ii, Aleks and The Ramps), Matt Burgess (Wicked Miranda) & Greg Seiler (Comatone).
A long-awaited Alpen full length album, Inside The Sky is due in September 2011. Lost Friends is a free digital-only release & features 4 new tracks.
Download the EP now, and follow Feral Media on Facebook for more updates on the release of Inside The Sky. Listen to more music at Alpen’s Soundcloud page.
‘Softly Harboured’ is the third album from Sydney six-piece Underlapper, and is the follow-up to their acclaimed 2007 release ‘Red Spring’. A brilliant collision between the band‘s upfront, energetic live shows and the electronic experimentation of the studio, the album continues familiar themes established throughout their career, pushed into dramatic new territory.
‘Softly Harboured’ is – unsurprisingly – an eclectic affair, combining elements of post rock, experimental pop and downbeat electronica. Yet, despite these seemingly disparate elements, the album is a cohesive listen from start to finish and undoubtedly stands as their most accessible work to date.
The album also sees a renewed focus on vocal performance, with strong lead deliveries from band members Greg Stone and Morgan McKellar, artfully augmented with a diverse selection of guest vocalists – including Alexi Kaye and Sally Stevens (from the now defunct female a cappella group Kaya), and Dan Cunningham and Tim Jenkins, from Sydney group Parades. There is also a return performance from Morgan’s sister, Holly McKellar – who first appeared with the band on ‘Red Spring’ and who here provides the lush lead vocal on opening track ‘Kandos’.
In addition, the band have enlisted the talents of renowned Sydney cellist Peter Hollo (Fourplay/Raven) who appears on a number of tracks and further expands the band’s already extensive musical palette.
With ‘Softly Harboured’, the band have chosen to eschew traditional distribution mechanisms and have instead enlisted the joint support of Feral Media (home to all Underlapper releases to date) and Canberra’s well-known HellosQuare Recordings. The labels will be working together to collaboratively release the album online – with CD version available from hellosquarerecordings.com and Vinyl + Digital from here at the Feral Media Bandcamp store.
The limited edition vinyl version of the album features five alternate sleeve designs created and assembled by some of Sydney’s most exciting artists, printed as black and white offset with a silver scratch-off overprint.
In support of the album, Underlapper will make their long awaited return to the stage with a launch in Sydney on April 21st 2011 as part of a New Weird Australia showcase at FBi Radio’s new venue – The FBi Social @ King’s Cross Hotel, supported by Cleptoclectics vs Scissor Lock, Edwin Montgomery and DJs Stupid Canon & Kimb Galercan. More info at newweirdaustralia.com.
Underlapper will also look to launch the album in Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane, details of which will be available shortly.
Cyclic Defrost has reviewed our recent free collaborative compilation ‘The Strain Of Origin – Feral Media vs LoFly’, noting that the album “represents something genuinely new amongst the Australian electronic music community”.
Reviewer Chris Downton singles out some of his favourite cuts, commenting “If Vorad Fils’ reworking of Mr Maps’ ‘Til The Money Outruns Us’ leans towards the wonky LA hiphop styles of the Brainfeeder label with its gently glittering fusion of phased synth chords and spidery, off-centre beats, ii’s ‘Regular Giant Prawns Mix’ of Joel Edmondson’s ‘Giant’ sees things venturing out towards the dancefloor, anchoring itself around a throbbing minimal techno pulse and dry, rattling snare accents.”
Feral Media artist Gentleforce (aka Eli Murray) has recently submitted some new music to the US based site You Are Listening To Los Angeles.
The site uses a radio feed from the Los Angeles Police Department and fuses it with ambient drones, noise and synth based music from various artists via the soundcloud platform. The result is an ever-evolving film score to what has been described as “the pulse of the city”. The site has now been expanded to also include feeds from New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Montreal.
You can read an interview between Eli and site creator Eric Eberhardt on Eli’s blog
Drinking Dust is the first single from Underlapper’s forthcoming album Softly Harboured – their first since 2007’s acclaimed long player Red Spring.
Drinking Dust is now available as a free download from the Underlapper bandcamp page and features both a second cut from the album as well as remixes from fellow Feral artist Cleptoclectics and Brisbane indie-electro outfit Re:Enactment.
Download the free single now & follow Feral Media on Facebook for more updates on the release of Softly Harboured.
Seekae’s John Hassell released his debut solo album on Feral Media last year – ‘The Warmest Static’, released under the VORAD FILS name. This month sees the release of another solo album, dropped under an entirely different alias – PEON. Hassell has been recording and collaborating as PEON as part of Sydney’s ONEOFOUR COLLECTIVE – a group of local producers who come together regularly to share ideas, perform and release a series of exquisite mixtapes (download for free at oneofour.net).
PEON’s ‘Aston Dilla’ is a collection of 16 tracks that pushes Hassell’s sound in a clear trajectory towards a land inhabited by screwed hip hop vocals, crooked beats and sumptuous electronica. And both fans and haters of Beyonce and Christina Aguilera are sure to find common ground in PEON’s covers of ‘Say My Name’ and ‘Can’t Hold Us Down’.
And perhaps best of all, ‘Aston Dilla’ is available as a free download.
Underlapper and Gentleforce have gotten together to create a mixtape in the lead up to Underlapper’s new album Softly Harboured due for release early 2011. Here is what Greg Stone from Underlapper had to say about the mix:
This mix is somewhat of a taster for the forthcoming Underlapper album Softly Harboured which is set for release in the coming months. The idea of making an eclectic mix has always interested me and in fact the first two tracks were actually the starting point many years ago. A couple of months ago I finally decided to pursue the idea further and began to compile more tracks which not only fit together but also represented some of the artists and genres that have either directly or indirectly influenced me recently. In addition to this the mix also features a couple of tracks from the new Underlapper album as well as our contribution to the recent Strain of Origin release by Feral Media and loFly records. Once the tracks were compiled I approached a very close friend of the band Eli Murray (aka Gentleforce) who has a penchant for mixing a wide range of styles in his DJ sets and has always been a great source of inspiration over the years. I consider this mix to be the next instalment in what will hopefully be many more collaborations between Underlapper and Gentleforce.
Listen or download the mix below and stay tuned for more news on the release of Underlapper’s new album!
Tracklisting:
Feral Media 
