There
Are No Accidents…Just Fuckwits, the second full length slab
from Sydney’s Nunchukka Superfly is from the sort of sonic place
The Stooges were heading towards on the Funhouse album before
bathroom floors and clinical psych assessments got in the way.
It's where Can and Ash Ra Tempel meet at some sort of cosmic
equivalent of the crossroads where Robert Johnson allegedly
sold his soul. It's where Sun Ra would be if the Arkestra's
noise was routed in strings, sweat and electricity as opposed
to reeds and windpipes. It’s where former Black Flag guitarist,
Greg Ginn pulled out his most out of left field fret moves.
All with the really twisted pop - and yeah, it might be a stretch
to use that term as a reference point here - of Syd Barrett
era Pink Floyd with all relevant Interstellar Overdriveisms
in full frontal view. Oh yeah, it’s as evil as hell too. The
opening track, Hat is proof of that quality beyond any reasonable
doubt.
“We
wanted it to be a ‘part one’ kind of representation of the band.”
Says singer and guitarist, Blackie. “We sort of crammed a lot
of influences on the one disk while hoping to achieve a kind
of universal Nunchukka sound.”
A
mighty accomplishment given that the recording and mixing of
the album was knocked over in a mere ten days. Overdubs were
kept to an absolute minimum so as not to screw up the organic
flow of the music as it was frozen in the moment and caught
on tape. “I hear a lot of different things from different people
but I would say that it’s a mixture of quite a lot of stuff
like psychedelia, experimental, funk, dub, jazz and more. Basically
all the good things out there played with a punk rock bend.
With Nunchukka I like to feel when I’m playing that we’re standing
in the eye of a hurricane waiting to be crushed. It’s very kinetic
if that makes any sense.”
And
that’s a very different energy to the norm although it’s undeniably
high energy in the traditional John Sinclair and MC5 sense of
the term. In essence Nunchukka are out to fuck with your musical
head. They’re about the possibilities that exist between the
usual three chords, tones and timings.
There’s
plenty of space there and a band can - as Seinfeld’s Newman
once said - really get some thinking done. Which of course is
the whole idea right?
“We’re
not a band that can be absorbed in one go. Most people’s immediate
reaction is to scratch their head.”
-
Murray Engleheart
<<BACK
TO ARTISTS PAGE
|
