#pleasure maps

A bracing trip through Sand Pebbles album art extravaganza!

#10: Pleasure Maps, released on Kasumuen, 2017

Pleasure Maps. The title came from a malapropism my son shouted as we were playing a pirate game.

It was the first Sand Pebbles album in six years with a new line-up including Malcolm McDowell on guitar, Gareth Skinner on cello and Leroy Cope on drums.

It's last minute! It's madness! But it feels right, too. The Toff in Town have asked the Sand Pebbles to play a Christmas show. And what better way of celebrating the new LP/CD, Pleasure Maps [and the welcome return of the band]. Thankfully those fabulous Pink Tiles and Black Cab in DJ mode are along for the ride. Also, ex-drummer Wes Holland returns from OS for a flying visit. 

Yes, it's all happening this Saturday night, December 2. The massive celebration of the new Sand Pebbles Pleasure Maps album. Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick, With the Ocean Party. Hope you can make it! Thanks to ex-Carlton champ, Adam White, for this vid!

From i-94, Craig Barman says:  “ LIsten up cos you gotta hear the new Sand Pebbles album, Here's a second review.”

http://www.i94bar.com/albums/pleasure-maps-sand-pebbles-kasumen-records

Have The Sand Pebbles made a bad album? I’ve heard or own half of them and they’re full of some of the most surreally fascinating, textured and immersive psychedelic music to come from an Australian band in the last 20 years. “Pleasure Maps” continues what’s more a body-of-work than a discernible progression.

A rant by Bruce Milne on Facebook initially piqued my interest. The ex-Au Go Go label/shop head posted his instant, first listen take-out that “Pleasure Maps” was killer. Patrick Emery’s review below takes it from there. I’ll just try to add something else.

The Sand Pebbles are a six-piece with a relatively stable core membership that’s become a long-running if not regularly visible fixture on the Melbourne music scene.

“Pleasure Maps” runs from lush psych (“I Heard The Owl Call My Name”) to folky pop (“Lovers’ Love”) all the way back to shimmering rock pop (most of the others.) Occasional augmentation (lots of cello, keys, Amaya Laucircia’s wonderful backing vocals) adds to the layers of sound.

There’s a sense that The Sand Pebbles are a band that plays and/or records only when they are in the mood and have something to say. Rotating the vocals between guitarists Tor Larsen, Andrew Tanner and Malcolm McDowell adds tonal variety. Obvious mastery of the studio - and myriad guitar effects - do the rest.

These are great songs, most of them co-written by various band members with TV scriptwriter and bassist Christopher Hollow. They sprawl, twist and turn and resist categorisation.

Lush sound abounds but you can always see (hear) shafts of light piercing their way through. These are long songs - “Friendlier Advice” tops 10 minutes - but you won’t notice. Case in point is the cover of “Oh! Sweet Nuthin!” that closes the CD version of “Pleasure Maps”. A Velvets cover? Really? Fortune favours the brave. It actually is a match for the original and a sublime duet, simultaneously dark and shiny.

“Pleasure Maps is a strong contender for local album of the year...”

The Sand Pebbles Pleasure Maps LP (Kasumuen) & The Woodland Hunters Let’s Fall Apart LP (Bandcamp)

The shared element for both of these bands is guitarist/singer Andrew Tanner, ex-Seven Stories, who you might remember from their 1990 album, Judges and Bagmen. The Sand Pebbles LP, their sixth, came out a few weeks back and is a strong contender for local album of the year, melding electronics and psych-rock with aplomb, revealing more nuances with every play. The vinyl LP is a thing of beauty, but damn it the CD features a stellar cover of ‘Oh Sweet Nuthin’ – decisions, decisions. The Woodland Hunters’ just-released Let’s Fall Apart has a ragged, country rock sound that has more in common with Crazy Horse or the Stones, rather than the Neu or Velvets’ records that inform their sister band. What both have in spades though are memorable songs with a delightful tendency to stretch out over time, with twisting guitar solos and extended instrumental passages that swagger into the stratosphere.

- Aaron Curran

i-94 Bar Pleasure Maps review by Patrick Emery - http://www.i94bar.com/albums/pleasure-maps-sand-pebbles-kasumen-records

Pleasure Maps - Sand Pebbles (Kasumen Records)

Written by Patrick Emery on 22 September 2017.

Conceived somewhere between Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Neighbours writing room and the half-back flank at VFL Park, Sand Pebbles have always been something of an enigma.

Befitting a band made up of record nerds who could discern seven separate strands of freak in every lost '60s beat, Sand Pebbles bestowed upon themselves the descriptor "flower punk"; the flower was the inspiring melody, punk the defiant attitude.

Sand Pebbles didn’t embark on a proper tour until over 10 years into their life. And when they did, the band imploded. In the midst of a wave of internal tranquility, the band got together to record an album. Again, consistent with cult artists of yore, old tensions spilled to the surface, but thankfully not enough to hinder the release of the album a couple of years later.

“Pleasure Maps” is a Sand Pebbles record through and through. It’s replete with blooming melodies of the ‘60s generation, infused with Andrew Tanner and Tor Larsen’s crisp melodies. "Desire Lines" is a collage of psychedelic groove and synthesiser atmospherics, the Summer of Love in a Manchester basement.