Music / Premieres
Premiere:
The Great Divides - Face The World, Again
The Great Divides - Face The World, Again
Ahead of its official release tomorrow through Spoilsport Records, we’ve got the pleasure of premiering the delightfully warbly debut EP from regional Victorian jangle masters The Great Divides.
When an Australian band who sing about the alienation of countryside life in their songs calls themselves The Great Divides, it would be easy to conclude that the band’s name derives from the stark difference - and their understanding of it - between rural Australia and cities like Melbourne. It’s also interesting to note that their name bears a similarity to the name of an exquisite piano ballad from one of Melbourne’s most iconic jangle-pop bands The Ocean Party, from their 2017 Beauty Point release. Led by songwriters Tino D’Onghia and Gussie Bandelli, The Great Divides are clearly full of intent and have their own things on their mind, but their music and their style is respective of the Australian like-minded bands that have influenced them.
Most of the songs on Face The World, Again were recorded in just a few takes by Dag’s Dusty Anastassiou and it’s undeniably a raw listen - but its this lo-fi production and scrawling instrumentation that allows each song’s intrinsic strength to shine through. A suitably chaotic instrumental introduction curiously leads us in, and a voice incoherently mumbles in the background but the words ‘good vibes’ can be made out - no signs of pressure from a band in its startling infancy.
The following song, the EP’s almost title track, is definitively the strongest of the release, as if to prove the previous point. As featured on our website previously, ‘Face The World’ is jangle-pop at its purest, as melodic guitars interweave with droll observations, in this instance about catching a local bus. It may take this minor moment as its focal point, but all the comical ennui of the turgid sameness of daily existence is heard in the lyrics and delivery.
Themes of existentialism are continued on ‘Life Isn’t Here’, its title betraying its small town subject. It’s a constant theme in art: the country outsiders not fitting into the humdrumness of their limiting setting, yearning for the city with interesting people where things happen. (Do make sure to catch the band when they play a mini-residency at The Retreat Hotel next month on the 3rd and 10th to support them in their act of escape).
The EP is being released on Spoilsport Records itself and the label itself deserves mention, for it’s one of those small city record labels that music would be poorer for doing without. Excellent releases from House Deposit, Dragnet, and Eggy have preceded The Great Divides’ inclusion; with such a track record of quality, expect more of the same from the label in 2020.
And it’s a wonderful thing that Spoilsport are releasing this in cassette form too, given the platform’s historical relationship with jangle-pop, The Great Divides’ beloved form. In 1986 the NME released a cassette compilation titled C86, featuring bands on British independent record labels - Primal Scream, The Pastels, and The Shop Assistants to name a few notables - but in later years C86 came to define the style of the bands more than the compilation itself. Jangling guitars and melodic structures, DIY aesthetics and raw lo-fi energy emanated from the songs on the cassette and jangle-pop and the term C86 ultimately became forever inextricably linked.
That period was one of the greatest in music history for independent music, certainly one of the most overt examples of what ‘indie’ could ever mean, and it feels only right that The Great Divides are upholding such tradition in their small way with a cassette release over 30 years later.
Most of the songs on Face The World, Again were recorded in just a few takes by Dag’s Dusty Anastassiou and it’s undeniably a raw listen - but its this lo-fi production and scrawling instrumentation that allows each song’s intrinsic strength to shine through. A suitably chaotic instrumental introduction curiously leads us in, and a voice incoherently mumbles in the background but the words ‘good vibes’ can be made out - no signs of pressure from a band in its startling infancy.
The following song, the EP’s almost title track, is definitively the strongest of the release, as if to prove the previous point. As featured on our website previously, ‘Face The World’ is jangle-pop at its purest, as melodic guitars interweave with droll observations, in this instance about catching a local bus. It may take this minor moment as its focal point, but all the comical ennui of the turgid sameness of daily existence is heard in the lyrics and delivery.
Themes of existentialism are continued on ‘Life Isn’t Here’, its title betraying its small town subject. It’s a constant theme in art: the country outsiders not fitting into the humdrumness of their limiting setting, yearning for the city with interesting people where things happen. (Do make sure to catch the band when they play a mini-residency at The Retreat Hotel next month on the 3rd and 10th to support them in their act of escape).
The EP is being released on Spoilsport Records itself and the label itself deserves mention, for it’s one of those small city record labels that music would be poorer for doing without. Excellent releases from House Deposit, Dragnet, and Eggy have preceded The Great Divides’ inclusion; with such a track record of quality, expect more of the same from the label in 2020.
And it’s a wonderful thing that Spoilsport are releasing this in cassette form too, given the platform’s historical relationship with jangle-pop, The Great Divides’ beloved form. In 1986 the NME released a cassette compilation titled C86, featuring bands on British independent record labels - Primal Scream, The Pastels, and The Shop Assistants to name a few notables - but in later years C86 came to define the style of the bands more than the compilation itself. Jangling guitars and melodic structures, DIY aesthetics and raw lo-fi energy emanated from the songs on the cassette and jangle-pop and the term C86 ultimately became forever inextricably linked.
That period was one of the greatest in music history for independent music, certainly one of the most overt examples of what ‘indie’ could ever mean, and it feels only right that The Great Divides are upholding such tradition in their small way with a cassette release over 30 years later.
Head to spoilsportrecords.bandcamp.com to pick up Face The World, Again on limited cassette. Early next month, The Great Divides are playing a mini-residency at The Retreat Hotel, catch them on March 3rd or March 10th for their tape launch.
