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White Woods with Angel Eyes, Super Star and Actual Holes
Thursday 31st March at the Tote Hotel, Collingwood, Melbourne
White Woods are the harshest prism of pop sounds going round. The white light being their pop smarts, while their sturdy, tumbling rhythm section, mixed with dual rust knifed guitar playing, droning keys, leave a trail of sounds bursting out in that spectrum that is just damned right. Comparisons kicking around of White Woods to some of the jingle jangle examples of flying nun are vaguely valid, but there is something a little more unnerving here in that dilapidated, back street, alley way, night walking, by yourself kinda way.
Synth and guitar duo, Superstar profess their music stylings as ‘floating’. Beneath, a synthetic drum machine eerily keeps this thing creeping along while drawn out synth chord progressions turn back into themselves, while stealthily uncovering variations as seconds turn into minutes and a single minute into ten. A constant drizzle of elegant and affected guitar ‘licks’ echo out, and softly hit the mark every time. And if you listen carefully, languid vocal melodies will blow bubbles up your spine. Floating City!
Another lone creator of the Melbourne sort is Angel Eyes. His heavily refracted guitar lines twang and echo in the foreground while tranced keyboard tones shimmer like the northern lights above a plodding, rusted minimalist drum machine march. Eventually stepping to the mic, the vocals boom out, low and somber and smeared across a shadowy reverb chamber dome.
The trio, Actual Holes is made up of duel saxophones and drums. These are hell for leather improv faux jazz workouts – at their extremes the sonic equivalent of a well-dressed barfly or some high speed street violence. They can seduce and they can scare. Don’t be surprised however, if you find yourself humming some jagged melodic motif as you head home – not knowing quite where it came from. That would be Actual Holes, in your memory, actual holes.
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