November 2002

Greetings! Been a bit of a while since I wrote in here, sorry, but there's a few new developments to pass on. The new album is called Hotel Radio. It's all finished and I am in the process of designing the artwork and shooting videos The release date is middle of March, the first single, the song Hotel Radio, is out at the beginning of February. I'm very happy with the sound of the album. Has a bit more tempo than AOFC but a similar attention to detail textural sound quality to it. It took over a year on and off to make; a bit of a travelling audio circus from the Enormodome in Northcote to Mary's house in Woodend back to the Enormodome then up to Mangrove mountain in the hills behind Gosford and back to Sing Sing studios to mix in sunny Richmond then over to London to master.

Hopefully broke the mould a little bit and ventured into some new territories with assistance from Nick Littlemore, especially in the approach to rhythm loops and instrumentation-never had vibrophones before, some brass, orchestra, a range of guest vocalists Amanda Brown (Go-Betweens), Dave Mason (Reels), Katie Noonan (George), Rebecca Coseboom (Halou), and a theremin.

Pleased to say Ian Caple, who mixed Act of Free Choice came over from London to mix again. His sound craft is impeccable, his layering approach and stereo positioning is considered and he has quote-perfect knowledge of Spinal Tap. (Ian was actually a member of Shriekback for a while, playing tapes and sounds from stage, kind of a bit like Tim Cole did with NDW). It's very comforting mixing with someone you totally trust, no panic attacks

It was fun working with Nick Littlemore who co-produced the album. Nick has amazing energy, quick with eclectic ideas, and creatively zaps off on lateral tangents. It was, some said, an odd choice of producer but I'm so glad I did and the whole recording process was a very creative time for me (and this is not often the case while actually making a record). I give him the credit for letting that happen; he's currently finishing a new Pnau record and he's doing some great production work for The Sleepy Jackson.

Chris Scallan is the most creative Pro Tools operator and programmer and the best recording engineer in the country. As with Act of Free Choice there was a lot of collaborating on this record. Of note: Dave Mason of the Reels (vocals), of course Phil Wales (guitar), Frank Titaz from Snog, Michael Barker (drums), Sam Dixon (bass), Floyd Vincent (guitar) and Ben Frost (bilas) all played their part, helped make the solo venture not a lonely place, and helped snap me out of inertia when the black dog was hanging around.

After the mix took Ian down to Cape Liptrap where we hired a house, drank some fine reds and stared across the shimmering ocean out to Wilson&Mac185;s Promontory for a few days .We then flew up to Sydney for a listening party with EMI before Ian returned to London to finish the Tindersticks album Hotel Radio is the first single, 100 Flowers, On a Day Like This and Come Around being the options for following singles.

Spent four days shooting the Hotel Radio clip with James Littlemore, Nickss brother, in decaying motels and grain silos and buildings and freshly burnt forests in rural NSW. Walcha and Coonabarabran. Had the amusing (!) situation of watching The Village People; where are they now doco in the front bar of the Royal Hotel in Dunedoo; love it. James is doing the film clips, cd booklet design and press photos as well, and we also shot abstract footage for the live show visuals. It's early days but have plans for making films using the album's songs as their soundtracks like I did with Act of Free Choice. Speaking of which, Rik Nicholson has authored the DVD for AOFC. It looks great , lots of photos, audio grabs, all the films, surround 5:1 mixes, a couple of demo mixes. It will be released in the new year.

On that note, Tabaran by Not Drowning, Waving will be released in time for the Morning Star Concert 2003.

The film Tempted, the Bill Bennett has finally finally been released. I travelled to New Orleans and Louisiana for in December 2001 for this film. I reckon it works pretty well. The dialogue is improvised giving it a wonderful sense of human uncertainty. Wayne Pashleigh's sound design is right up close and very breathy and Tony Clark's cinematography is filtered and beautiful. I am really happy with the way the soundtrack came up, Wayne and I collaborated a fair bit and the swamp noises are as much part of the score as part of the set. The soundtrack is being released on November 27 and, apart from a few selected stores, the only way to buy the cd is from the Mana website.

The score has contributions from Ed Kuepper, John Phillips and Phil Wales all on guitar (a fair trio in my book). Geoff Lierse plays some hauntingly sad French horn melodies, Kerri Simpson does some breathy Voudoun vocals, Michael Barker is on the drums and Jon Hassellesque contributes conga parts, Hope Csutoros of the Cake played grinding electric violin. It rocks away in parts and gets into the swamp in others.

Meanwhile the My Friend the Chocolate Cake are doing an Enmore show in Sydney, November 29, a couple of Athenaeum theatre shows November 26 and 27 with Archie Roach.a set each on our own and then getting together at the end. It will be a bit like the Universal Theatre shows we did a. We are also doing the Maleny Festival amongst those limestone Glasshouse mountains north of Brisbane for a couple of gigs on December 29 and 30. Haven't been there for about 7 years. More Heart than Me has had a mix done by Ian Caple, which goes to radio and will appear on a release somehow, somewhere in the future. Meanwhile we&Mac185;re still Curious. I think the I Like it Like This mix is a corker and More Heart, Weep, Better Than This and the title track are faves.

Doing very little musically at present…which has been good…need a rest. The last twelve months were a bit full on; 'too much perspective' to quote David St Hubbins, though maybe ready soon to create some more music.slowly and something different.

The Imax movie Australia: Land Beyond Time has been released in many parts of the USA, and will come to Australia in February.

Have just completed a soundtrack for Northern Territory director Steve McGregor on his film Wild Turkey, about two brothers on a road trip from the Alice to Coober Pedy. It has some twists in it and the soundtrack is centred around solitary edgy guitar noise and loops of Arrente women feet noises made whilst dancing. I used excerpts from the Yeperenye soundtrack from last year.

I will be curating an afternoon of music on the lawns out the front of the arts centre on Backsounds and Beats Biftek, myselfe, High Pass Filter and Frost, Sunday January 12. An afternoon of chilled out back grooves and sample based music, featuring some of Australia's most innovative exponents of this approach. Mainly instrumental, a perfect Sunday afternoon on the lawns. Blend of sounds and textures laid over cool back tempo rhythms. Each of the bands will pass on some tracks to the other bands that will play live over the top of this bed bringing their own interpretation to the track. As well as this, each band will play some of their own material mixing live performance with layers of prepared sounds and noises. A Cafe del Mar kind of afternoon with maybe a little more grit.

George Telek MBE is coming out to Australia next year to perform at the ten Days on the Island festival in Tasmania at the end of March. He will also be playing a show of his own at The Melbourne Concert Hall on April 2 as well as the Port Fairy festival. He will be promoting again his Real World album Serious Tam which fell a bit between the cracks last time around. I'm going to produce another album for George at The Enormodome while he is here in Melbourne which, as always, will be a heap of fun.

I am spending heaps of my time presently organising The Morning Star Campaign for West Papua. Below is an outline:

THE MORNING STAR CAMPAIGN
www.morningstarconcert.com

The Concert
The Morning Star Concert for West Papua is to be held at the Melbourne Concert hall on Friday February 28. The bill will include artists such as Alex Lloyd, Lisa Gerrard, Paulmac, Pnau, comedians John Clarke and Bruce Dawe, a performance by Bangarra Dance Company, comedians Flacco and Sandman, Andrew Denton, A special one-off reformation of Not Drowning, Waving will also feature the talents of PNG artist, Telek. In addition a number of West Papuan musicians, including members of the famous Black Brothers who reside in Australia in exile as well as Black Paradise a stringband and traditional group based in Jayapura will be performing. Visit the Morning Star concert website to find out about additional performers as the concert date approaches.

The Book
West Papua: Follow the Morning Star
In the weeks leading up to the concert a book is to be released. West Papua: Follow the Morning Star will be a photographic book, with some text, highlighting the issues surrounding the country and its people. It is hoped that the book will also be released overseas, particularly in Holland. The book features photographs and stories collected by renowned photojournalists Ben Bohane and Liz Thompson, with an historical and political overview by historian and Pacific art's specialist Jim Elmslie. All three have spent many years travelling throughout West Papua, and present a unique perspective on this beautiful but troubled country. Using archival images collected in Holland, the book opens with an essay on the history of West Papua, documenting the various stages of colonisation and industrialisation that have led to the present situation. Moving into Ben and Liz's photographs, aspects of traditional life are illustrated; the art, music, housing, gardens and rituals of various West Papuan cultures; the Dani, the Asmat, Coastal people etc. The economic and social impact of Indonesian takeover is explored; the transmigration camps, urban expansion, the logging and mining industry, all conducted at great cost to the indigenous people. The logical outcome of such a clash—armed conflict— is documented in a series of black and white images of the OPM. The book will leave the reader in no doubt that one of this planet&Mac185;s last great treasure troves of human and environmental diversity is under severe threat, and that without external pressure its destruction is imminent.

The CD
West Papua: Music of the Morning Star
A CD will also be released on the BLUNT label through EMI in the lead up to the concert. The CD will comprise (1) traditional recordings from West Papua, (2) songs written about West Papua by artists such as Warumpi Band (Secret War), Not Drowning, Waving (Blackwater), and Ireland's Andy White, and (3) remix soundscapes using West Papuan source material by artists such as Paulmac, Biftek, Pnau, fROST, Snog, David Bridie and Darren Steffan .A clip will be made out of material shot in West Papua by Mark Worth and will be used to both promote the issue and the CD. The traditional West Papuan material comprises amazing rare recordings of the Mapnduma and Wunin people, and some material recorded by Arnold Ap, a hero to the West Papuan people. Ap spent a lot of time during the 60s, 70s and 80s recording and documenting traditional songs and stories. He believed these songs and stories were under threat from a regime that banned the songs from being sung and languages from being spoken in schools. Ap, curator of the ethnology museum at Cendrawasih University and director of the Mambesak cultural troupe was shot dead by the Indonesian military in late April 1984.
(Note: The CD can be ordered here.)

The West Papuan story is the feature in the most recent issue of the Quarterly Essay; highly recommended. Titled Paradise Betrayed: West Papua&Mac185;s Struggle for Independence and written by John Martinkus, it nails why this is such an important issue for this region.
Email: quarterlyessay@blackincbooks.com
Web: www.blackincbooks.com

To quote from Peter Craven&Mac185;s introduction 'John Martinkus, who has written with such authority on East Timor, provides a path breaking piece of extended reportage in which he shows that West Papua is another East Timor waiting to happen, that in fact it is happening with the collusion of Australian and American indifference and that the repression of the independence movement in West Papua is being effected by the very same Indonesian architects who produced the rape of East Timor'.

I know I crap on about West Papua a lot but it really is a vital issue in our regio, and it won't go away. We ignore it at their and our peril and I guess my passion comes from having spent so much time with George Telek and Ben Hakalitz and the PNG musicians over the years. Their Melanesian way of life is intricate, complex and beautiful and one we could learn from in the west. It's ridiculous that one mob live in freedom in PNG and the other (West Papuans), due to an arbitrary border, live under a brutal military rule.

Been listening to the Peter Gabriel record, which has a great video directed by Sean Penn spoofing the Jerry Springers of TV. The record is wonderful. Also a whole bunch of Buzzcocks reissues (very loudly) and the new Coldplay record is good too, and Halou's Wiser which I'm hoping to release on Blunt and maybe tour with if we can get it together. The Rob Snarski/Dan Luscombe record which was recorded here at The Enormodome (There is nothing here that belongs to you). Out now and sounds wonderful. Rob has such a voice, he could sing the telephone book and I'd be enthralled.

I am heading to see The Tindersticks at the Corner Hotel this weekend.

I am doing my Christmas Day radio program on 3RRR again this year.

thanks

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