Blog — Page 17 of 275

Sharon Van Etten
Opera House
Sydney, Australia
01 December 2022

If I was forced to find a common denominator across Sharon van Etten’s oeuvre, I would condense it down to the DNA being a seemingly earnest effort to inch towards her idiosyncratic and melancholically tinged version of the truth. At the very core, especially her stripped down songs seem to be a confession of her character paired with the immortal movement of her circumstances.

Given the aforementioned and having missed out on her incarnation as part of Sydney’s Vivid Festival in 2019, I was intrigued to experience her channelling her alchemy within the confines of a live environment.

Backed by a full band, the opening songs proved to be a fulminant tour de force and served as a backdrop against which Sharon van Etten confidently prowled the stage, leaned into the audience and actively engaged with the constituents of her superb musical backbone, thereby exuding exactly the captivating and engaging stage presence one would have hoped for to be the extension of her recordings.

Sydney Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre has yet to disappoint in terms of adding a je-ne-sais-quoi quality to whoever is gracing its stage and it was no different tonight.  Even the tamer, sleek acoustic parts of her performance sans rhythmic posturing did not feel like plateauing, as they allowed to focus on her emotional delivery of her delicate and vulnerable subject matter.

While the performance was deliberate, precise and professional, Sharon’s balanced set and full-bodied vocal recital did not lack soul and spirit and therefore formed a foundation for a sense of intimacy to reverberate.

A personal, nuanced and jubilant evening in majestic environment, the equally sweet and mesmerising authenticity of which helped to amplify Sharon communing with her audience.

---

photo courtesy of Jordan Munns

The Formative Years – Rorschach

While it did not take long for me to take an interest in Rorschach after having been exposed to their debut album “Remain Sedate”, their split 7” with Neanderthal and their “Needlepack” 7”, it was the way they married Die Kreuzen-esque and Voivod-y dissonance, sinister sludge parts and metal slants with traditional hardcore elements on their “Protestant” LP that pushed the envelope significantly.

Charles Maggio’s high-pitched tortured borderline Black Metal vocals became an instrument in itself, sandwiched between sheer endless barrages of spastic rhythmic time changes, grinding passages, doomy elegies and razor sharp, mazey volatile riffing, resulting in one of the most aggressive, abrasive and explosive albums and thereby providing the foundation for a more angular minded kind of hardcore to blossom and bloom.

“Protestant” is dark matter pressed onto vinyl with the band furiously weaving an idiosyncratic multi-layered atonal tapestry of eccentric, schizoid anguish, which seems informed by the polyrhythms of jazz.

A cohesive, angry, unpredictable, wonderfully psychotic and brilliantly monolithic album that I will never tired of and one that has easily stood the test of time.

Mandatory listening for anyone remotely interested in what inspired bands like Converge.

Water of Life – Archie Rose’s Sticky Beak Festival

Despite the facts that distilleries are mushrooming on terra australis and Australian whiskey brands making quite a bit of a splash on international terrain and becoming household names, there are few local distilleries that are as accolade decorated as Archie Rose Distilling Co, no matter if it is their delicious gins or idiosyncratic whiskey expressions.

Needless to say, we were intrigued when we learned about Archie Rose teaming up with P&V wines and our favourite third-place Carriageworks to deliver the StickyBeak festival, i.e. a two-day extravaganza graced with curated drink and food offerings, tastings, masterclasses and cooking demonstrations galore, serenaded and set in scene against an audio backdrop courtesy of carefully selected DJs. 

While we have been fans of Archie Rose’s core releases for the longest time and have been fortunate enough to cover quite a few as part of this series, I was particularly looking forward to the opportunity to taste expressions from their Trials & Exceptions series, which based on local ingredients and innovative approaches to the creation of unique flavour profiles, pays homage to the unique environment Archie Rose operates in.

As part of the whiskey-centric masterclass, it was fantastic to be introduced to Archie Rose’s partner Voyager Malts to learn more about how they source grain from independent family farms in a sustainable manner and supporting growers that foster and promote regenerative agricultural practices. As a result, each of the unique malts from New South Wales add facets to colouring the character of the versatile flavour profiles.

One of the more remarkable outputs of this collaboration materialized in what could be perceived as Australian’s whiskey answer to natural wine, i.e. the Single Paddock Malt Whisky, based on the usage of rye sourced from a single paddock and fermentation spurned by wild yeast from the field, thereby capturing the DNA of the terroir and bringing to life the idiosyncratic provenance. 

Upon approach, tropical citrus peel nuances tickle the nostrils, with almond and almost peanut-butter-sweet highlights caressing the top of the mouth before an elegant, elongated finish round things out and leaves one lusting for another dram with a crescendo of moreish dark chocolatey notes.

However, it was the much fabled about native wood smoked malt trial expressions that stole the show. With the names being telling ones, Stringybark and Red Gum from New South Wales was used to smoke locally grown and malted barley provided by Voyager Craft Malt. 

Redefining traditional approaches to distilling and by paying time-intensive meticulous attention to detail is extended to each aspect of the production process – be it yeast selection, the selection of the cask type or the maturation conditions in a bid to make no compromises in the pursuit of quality and distinction, Archie Rose raised the bar of what was thought to be possible down under. 

The result is a selection of Pavlovian response evoking, benchmark-setting Australian equivalent to what I love about Islay whiskies with a twist, i.e. a pronounced level of smoke with notes of smoked meats and bacon dancing with strong eucalyptus and floral presence rounded out by a salty edge. 

Given the quality of Archie Rose’s recent emissions, I cannot wait to taste where their ever-evolving visionary grain focussed celebrations of malt will lead them next, especially when it involves native woods to generate unique smoky aromas.

---

photos courtesy of @k.a.vv

Water of Life – Westward Cascadia Series

There are quite a few things Portland, Oregon is known and loved for.

Natural beauty, serenity, the absence of sales tax and being one of the more environmental concerned cities in the US on one hand, a perplexingly amazing mecca for micro-brews and artisanal coffee roasting on the other, paired with the fact that it is the hometown that bred musical delights like Elliott Smith, Sleater Kinney and Poison Idea.

Based on Portland’s agrarian economy for ingredients that are just meant to be distilled, it should not be further wondrous that it also harbours a growing handcrafted, small-batch distillery scene as well. 

Enter Westward Whiskey and its head distiller Miles Munroe. 

What sounds like a nom de guerre, is the name of one of the more charismatic luminaries that the emergence of single malt whisky in the Northwest of the US has brought forth.

Having started out experimenting with homebrewing, Miles eventually transitioned to channelling his alchemy in a grain-to-glass approach to creating exciting new single malt barley expressions. 

Based on Munroe’s brewing expertise, Westward ferments its own beer for the wash, which is the genesis for the liquid sunshine the distillery has become known for. Devoid of distracting age statements, Westward’s ethos is firmly centred around the belief that it each expression is being released when it is perceived to be ready.

Given the aforementioned, I was intrigued when I learned about the man himself was going to hold court in Sydney to guide through a dedicated tasting of Westward’s Cascadia Creative Series.

After being eased into the proceedings with an introduction to Westward Distillery, we were off to the races and treated to an evening where the finely calibrated matching of both liquid offerings and sustenance reigned supreme.

Apart from Westward’s core expression and the Stout Cask Finish, which we have paid homage to in a dedicated article before, a first highlight of the evening was the Single Malt Rum Cask Batch: 

Having matured in Guatemalan Casa Magdalena rum casks, the bronze hued drop tickles the nostrils with sweet, fruity and citrussy aromas and subtle hints of neroli. On the top of the mouth, sugar cane is married with molasses, resulting in a rich hybrid of bananas and toffee. The reverberating finish leaves one lusting for another sip as raisiny vanilla beans and brown sugar meet an oaky piquancy, backed by the warming sensation of an ABV of 62.5%. Not bad, not bad at all.

Up next was Tempranillo Single Barrel expression, which is an incarnation of Westward unlike anything I have tasted before.

With the colour of love and affection, the nose is dominated by sweet, fruity, berry and musky aromas. On the palate a complex flavour profile is unveiled, comprised of juicy and pleasantly acidic cherry nuances, vanilla and caramel, rounded out by a lavish finish accentuated by slightly overripe melon, cinnamon and orangey, dark chocolatey facets.

Westward’s oak coloured Pinot Noir Single Barrel proved to be a tour de force in terms of big and bold flavours: What the nose promises in terms of honey, woody cherry and chocolate aromas, seamlessly transitions to the palate, where sweet, nutty almond flavours dance against a backdrop of the bitterness of coffee. 

The sheer endless finish evokes a Pavlovian reaction with a melange of a honey-like sweetness, subtle hints of berry and fresher shades of plums.

An evening that was testament to why Westward Distillery is held in such high esteem by whiskey aficionados and one that makes me look forward to future emissions. The Westward Cascadia series will be exclusively available through The Whiskey Club.

---

lead image from company website, second image by T

The Formative Years – Killed By Death

Named after a song by Motörhead, the immense eye opening influence the Killed By Death bootleg series of compilations had on me as a juvenile delinquent cannot be overstated. 

Specifically the first four volumes of the series were filled with obscure punk treasures from 1977-’82, with the common denominator being the arcane nature of the recordings and the impossibility to track down original copies of the releases.

Curated by the imaginary label "Redrum Records", the original four volumes fanned the flames of an emerging die-hard collector scene, resulting in a frenzy with not only in the acronym “KBD” eventually becoming omnipresent on Ebay as a search term, but also in a myriad of subsequent volumes by other bootleggers either continuing the concept by adding their own idiosyncratic twist or alternatively using the hype and a readymade market with no rhyme or reason as to curation and a dysfunctional, inconsistent numbering system, let alone other compilation series of similar ilk that have been inspired by it.

Needless to say, due to the limited nature of the KBD compilations, the first iterations became collector pieces themselves in the early 1990s.

Long before the advent of the internet, volumes of Killed By Death documented early punk rock and offered the opportunity to listen to music that would have otherwise never crossed one’s radar or that so far had only been fabled about by old scenesters.