The Future Ranch

Jess Franco Filming Locations, Calp, Spain November 2018

She Killed in Ecstasy (1971)

The first benign meeting between Nic Dalton and Adem K in 1995 did not suggest the rich, creative friendship that would eventuate 22 years later. Social media reunited the two in late 2016 and they spent four days laying down the foundations of songs that make up their Perth Mint EP as The Hotpoints. Taking in Eno–inspired pop, Turkish psych and primitive electronica, Perth Mint displays a variety of styles that most full length albums fail to conjure.

https://halfacow.bandcamp.com/album/the-hotpoints-modern-bombers-7

Collaboration between Australian musicians Nic Dalton (The Lemonheads, Godstar, Sneeze) and Adem K (Turnstyle, The Community Chest).

I’d rather be doing the things in these photos than writing about them but I will update this blog a little more often than I have been (6 months ago?!)

1. Actually writing songs with Nic Dalton. Nic Fucking Dalton! Put it this way, no Nic Dalton, no Turnstyle, no Igloo Records, my guitar solos would sound different. Technically better but probably shit. So there’s two bands in one. The Modern Bombers - indie motown soul and The Hotpoints - Eno-esque skewed pop tunes. Vinyl and digital releases coming this year!!

2. Playing Keyboards and guitar behind a singing ape! King Cornelius and The Silverbacks - garage rock, skuzzy 60′s pop, bossa nova and exotica with distortion! This is a fun band with almost an entirely set of original songs that in some cases are better than the others. If there’s any band that i’m in that’s gonna tour Europe, this is the one!

3. Turnstyle - currently recording the follow up to our album of 2015. This one is full of group chants, reverb, distortion, twisted sound treatments and big solid drums. Dare I say a bit more modern - in fact there is no dare as I think the last one cut a little too close to the 90s bone so we are definitely looking at more contemporary influences this time around.

4. The Community Chest - now a four piece, we are regrouping and reinventing. Minimalism, electronics, MIDI (invented in 1982 but only recently embraced by me), whatever works. There is no plan here, just regular get togethers with this cool, talented bunch.

I have a nervous energy that I have to control when it comes to Turnstyle. I have to keep a close watch on that boiling pot of spaghetti so it doesn’t spill over. It’s going to be a great meal.

We released and launched our “comeback” Time Equals Function late last year and played a couple great shows back in April. i was quite happy with the album but I can also see in retrospect where improvements could be made.

And improving we are. We are well and truly into the next record. here’s the stats:

- Over 30 demos sitting in the Turnstyle Dropbox. They are mostly individual band members demos and a few collaborations. If we don’t do a double album then we’re pretty sorted for songs for the next 6 years. Most of them are fucking great.

- 7 songs have been recorded in various states of completion. We are taking a break from tracking to flesh out the demos until we can get Dean over from Brisbane to record some more drums.

- There is no deadline yet because these initial stages of working without deadlines are the most fun.

Forward The following is a short piece i've always wanted to write about Kraftwerk's Autobahn album from 1974. It's not a critical appraisal but rather my interpretation of it's contents. I used to only listen to the 22 minute title track and practically ignore the other 4 tunes. It was only after I saw the group perform the album in it's entirety that I 'got it'. It also gave me an understanding of their earlier work (particularly their first two albums). I was in a mentally fragile state when I took my five year old son to Sydney's Opera House in 2013 to see two Kraftwerk concerts and I would do anything to change the way I was feeling but though not even a year has passed, I  thought it would be cathartic to write about the positives I took away from that time..

Autobahn A lot has been written and said about this track and it has been parodied and mocked (the song itself parodies The Beach Boys - I saw them eight months before Kraftwerk). A pet peeve of mine is when people sing it back to me, devaluing it by singing the chorus line in mock German. Try singing the 8:30 - 13:14 minute section motherfucker! I see the song as a young man's homage to his car and the road. Obviously it is great driving music and it's form is shaped by the limitations of it's medium at the time - a vinyl LP. It is a beautifully realised piece of music, I never get sick of. It's retro, but timeless and it's mock 22 minute car journey for me makes perfect sense when personnel, time and place are considered. It was a theme that interested young German men in the 1970s.

Kometenmelodie 1 and 2 I always imagined Ralf and Florian lying on their backs in a German field, staring at the night sky, blitzed and baked composing this blindly on a toy keyboard. It reflects wonder and bewilderment of the night sky as would be seen through the eyes of young men (I am not that young anymore and I still find the night sky mesmerising). 

Mitternacht One of the most effective and impressionistic tracks from the LP. It sounds like night. Sounds you hear but can't identify - Kraftwerk in a nutshell. It sounds a bit evil and foreboding but it's only the melody that's dark, reflecting the night, obviously. The flutters and waws are reminiscent of birds and other animals. To me this track is rural and when you think of where they made this record (at a remote village studio) then the sounds make perfect sense, just like the final track.

Morgenspaziergang I remember being touched by this tune in concert. The album version is even more emotive, possible due to it's acoustic as opposed to electronic sound - that's not to say that electronics are devoid of emotion. It's the melody that counts and that discussion is a thesis in itself. The instruments reflect bird calls, waterfalls and an imaginary sunrise. I see it as the 'morning' version of Mitternacht and i'm sure it was the optimism in it's flute line - the dawning of a new day, that struck and resonated with me upon first listening but more so after the live performance. What Kraftwerk didn't anticipate (or maybe they did!) was that when listening to this album on a car CD player, after this track ends, it goes back to the beginning. A new day and we're back on the Autobahn.