“Flatter Than Your Earth” by Shrapnel

You can thank UK music blog Did Not Chart for this post. The music was not discovered via Did Not Chart, but located as a result of that blog’s 2021 round up, and the comments: “First year ever without a new Australian band. I must have missed something.” That set PopLib off on a search of all the reliable sources of new Australian DIY pop, leading soon to Tenth Court on Bandcamp, and the discovery of the Shrapnel album “Alasitas”, released June 2021 and slipping under PopLib’s radar at the time. Here’s “Flatter Than Your Earth” to re-programme your synapses:

“Flatter Than Your Earth” is from a remarkable DIY garage/psych/prog/ folk album by an expanded Shrapnel, presenting an ear-popping further expansion of the kind of angular melodic fuzzy guitar pop brought to us over the past decade by Sydney bands Day Ravies, Sachet, and Baker’s Pace. The common denominator of all those bands is hyper-active over-achieving melodic guitar pop maverick Sam Wilkinson, and the line-up of Shrapnel an “Alasitas” includes all Wilkinson’s former Day Ravies colleagues – Lani Crooks (also in Sachet, and who likely shares the vocals on this track), Caroline de Dear, and Matt Neville.

The music on “Alasitas” is hard to describe. There’s a 60s garage rock thing, with a heavy psychedelic influence, and a mix of prog-rock and psychedelic folk tangents. The inclusion of flute (Crooks), clarinet (de Dear) and synth takes this psychedelic garage rock to some very strange and beautifully wonky places.

Shrapnel may not be the new Australian band Did Not Chart was hoping for, but this album is one I’m happy to buy from Bandcamp. Something to consider adding to your wishlist for Bandcamp Friday, resuming this Friday 4 February 2022.

“Supplication” by Wurld Series

Here’s the second single shared ahead of the March release of the Wurld Series album “What’s Growing”… something from the other side of the Wurld Series universe. “Supplication” reveals a surprise pastoral psychedelic folk side of the Christchurch band:

Wurld Series has been creating little gems of EPs for a few years now. Previous releases were generally on the lo-to-medium-fidelity end of the spectrum; perfect for the DIY melodic pop with fuzzy wandering lead guitar lines.

This time their “Pavement-y” influence is less of the slacker pop style and more the wonky melodic psych-folk element of that band (and a bit of Brit-Psych-Folk too). The loopy off-kilter lead guitar is replaced by various mellotron and flute sounds. It’s charming and different and sounds like there’s more of this once the full album is released next month:

“The songs contained in What’s Growing are submerged within reeling guitar, hypnotic mellotron and meditative drones. Lyrical themes include post apocalyptic living, extraterrestrial visitation, TV game show monsters and the workplace as a dreamlike medieval dystopia. At times traces of Tall Dwarfs or The 3Ds can be heard. More obvious American 90’s indie rock influences are also evident, alongside a clear strain of unsettling, pastoral British psych folk that runs throughout the album. What’s Growing is a compact statement of intent; a collage of full-noise indie rock recordings and minimal, psychedelic, and homespun artefacts.”

There are still some LPs available to pre-order but it may be best to pre-order soon if you want to make sure you get a copy of the LP in March.

“Feeling Like Helium” by Womb

There’s been a steady stream of new songs on the Bandcamp page for Wellington minimal psych-folk artist Womb. Some, like “Feeling Like Helium” here are annotated as (demo).

It’s more pop-oriented than the songs on last year’s self-titled album but the languid minimalism of this song continues to occupy an almost weightless slow-motion liminal zone between reality and dreams which was a feature of previous recordings.

Of the four new tracks “Fucking Close to Water” and “Kissing in the Dark” are the most intriguing, each being wordless atmospheric ambient pieces combining voices, instruments and sounds.

No idea if these are an indication another album is on the way, but if it is, it promises to add some fine new experimental textures and ideas to the mix.