RIYM – My Volcano
Championing their second full-length album release the band enlisted the producing and mentoring powers of none other than SPOD. The union of SPOD and Richard In Your Mind for My Volcano has ensured a kaleidoscopic and at times euphoric listen. SPOD worked with the band intensely during the lead up and recording, breaking the new material out of it’s shell when needed, developing and enhancing tracks, but at times leaving them lo-fi and beautifully raw the way it was always intended. Out of this dream collaboration comes a fresh and exciting band establishing themselves as a creative song writing force with strong, imaginative themes and clever sonic arrangements.
My Volcano sees the band expanding their musical vision ever outwards, traversing through fields of lush psychedelia, Odelay-esque party jams, lo-fi antifolk and tribal freak-outs. Richard In Your Mind’s ability to write such an incredibly eclectic record is an obvious achievement. Songs are lyrically colourful, beautifully composed, yet can be dark, dreamy, powerful, emotional and explosive all at once.
They have successfully fulfilled their vision for album number 2.
The partnership between SPOD and Richard In Your Mind was recognized and appreciated when they teamed up on 2009’s popular Summertime EP. The EP, released the first day of summer 2009, spawned underground slacker hip-hop hit ‘Make it Chill’ and served as an enticing appetizer for their 2nd album.
Richard In Your Mind was originally conceived as a recording project by former roommates Richard Cartwright (guitar, vocals, harmonica, sitar and other assorted instruments) and Conrad Richters (bass, synth, guitar) in 2006.
The band quickly gained notoriety on the Sydney scene for their flamboyant live shows. In December 2007 the band released their debut album The Future Prehistoric to glowing reviews, and went on to spend much of 2008 touring in support of the release.
Through 2008 the band toured extensively, eventually adding new members Pat Torres (drums), Jordy Lane (guitar, vocals) and more recently their newest member Brent Griffin (synth, sampler).
RICHARD IN YOUR MIND – I Will – My Volcano
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The Cover looks like this, art by Katherine Brickman from Greedy Hen:
Tracklist:
Tiny Collosus Face
Losing Our Minds
Birds
I Will
Lightning Eyes
This Face
Mongrowlia
The Sun Broke Into Your Heart
Creation
Edge Off Dreaming
Flower of the Heart
Jamaica
Seja – We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares
This debut solo album, We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares, is an emotionally sophisticated recording, one which reveals the sort of mixed euphoria astronauts, or pilots, may feel when an affair begins mid-flight… or whenever joy is tempered with survival doubts.
If it doesn’t sound like a debut, it’s because Seja has spent years playing synthesizers in Sekiden and Regurgitator, two of Brisbane’s finest ever pop bands. Late last year Seja found herself wanting, curious to discover if she could make an album alone. So she stayed home a lot, writing songs, recording lots of old synthesizers, and using her beautifully clear voice more than she ever had before.
An artist constantly wanting to push her own creative boundaries, Seja has also lent her keyboarding and singing skills to touring buddies such as SPOD, David McCormack and The Polaroids, and The Mess Hall on an ad-hoc basis.
There are a few collaborators: Saul Jarvie sings, having turned an instrumental that was emailed to him into one of the album’s best pop songs, Regurgitator’s Quan Yeomans and Spod assist with some structural suggestions and beats, and Cameron Bruce lends a hand in providing some beautiful piano playing for the album’s final track.
Seja’s brother Mirko produced, mixed and mastered the album, allowing its wide spaces to be further opened, and amplified the instrumentation is virtually all vintage electronics (Seja is known for her loyalty to vintage synths), and it’s with a simple, neat song structure we hear the stuff of classic pop. But the context is modern, and lyrically a touch hard-nosed, too busy living the present to be looking over its shoulder, ala ‘80s fans and alumni M83, granted it’s always in a dream. Crumbly, hand-crafted synth tones evoke such dreaminess, but the thematic focus of We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares never loses its way. Despite what Seja may tell you in a song.
WE HAVE SECRETS BUT NOBODY CARES IS OUT MARCH 27th
www.myspace.com/sejamusic
TRACKLIST
01. I’ll get to you
02. Through the backstreets
03. Framed you in fiction
04. Fire this fuel
05. Delay
06. A million wheels
07. One year later
08. Sing me the song like you said
09. Silver in my eye
10. We can’t see past our hands
11. We begin
12. Wir haben geheimnisse
13. Between a slur
Future Of The Left – Tour 7″
We here at RICE IS NICE are very excited to be releasing a limited edition FUTURE OF THE LEFT Australian tour 7″!!!
We are over many moons.
The 7″ includes an awesome exclusive new B side, “Pre Occupation Therapy” which follows the killer A side, “Stand By Your Manatee” taken from their latest record Travels With Myself And Another.
The release will be available as soon as the band hit Australian soil at their not to be missed shows, your grand indie record stores and the RICE IS NICE shop! It really is limited too, incase you think we’re pulling the other one.
The brutal and irreverent Future of the Left will be playing sideshows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, in addition to their appearances at the Falls Festival and the Southbound Festival, thanks to Handsome Tours.
Forming from the ashes of Welsh powerhouses Jarcrew and Mclusky, Future of the Left have truly forged an identity of their own.
We couldn’t be happier to start the new year and end the old with a release as good as this.
Available now at the RICE IS NICE online shop, Missing Link Melbourne, Polyester Records Melbourne.
