November 2005

Hey there,

 The year rolls on...

 Well, we had a ball in Vanuatu at Fest Napuan, a very well organised Pacific festival held on the grasslands opposite the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. Congratulations to Ralph Reganvanu and all the organisers for putting on what most observers said was the best Fest Napuan ever. We in NDW certainly enjoyed it, staying out at Mele village in village style accommodation with all the other international performers that included Fedyz, a reggae band from Caledonia and The ImmigrantZ, a hip hop band from Samoa via Auckland. I thought our lads snoring was bad, but 4 sumo size Samoan guys break the richter scale with their efforts. Being very volcanic, earth tremors are a regular occurrence in Vanuatu, but these guys snoring “shook me all night long”! The hospitality shown to us by the people of Mele was sensational... food and music and duty free gin, lots of storytelling and conversation, hospitality Pacific style. The concerts were fantastic, a cracking PA, huge crowds assembled at the festival site, and I think we played pretty well... a mixture of Tabaran material, some Telek tunes in lieu of the fact that Telek was prevented from being there due to a major visa stuff up. (This was quite a shame as their were Telek posters everywhere in Via and a fair bit of expectation on behalf of the locals for our George.) Pius Wasi and Ben Hakalitz however were in attendance and their mambu piece was quite special, haunting and atmospheric under the Melanesian moonlight. A highlight for us was the crowds reaction to Blackwater and Telek’s “West Papua,” The Ni Vanuatu, the grassroots people of Vanuatu, are atune to the plight of the West Papuans, the two countries having fought for independence at the same time in the 60s, Vanuatu having been successful where the West Papuans obviously weren’t. This has made the Vanuatuan’s feel responsible for alerting the rest of the world to the West Papuan situation. It is the Vanuatuan Government who push this issue at South Pacific forums with regularity. Another musical highlight was the duelling guitars of John Phillips and Phil Wales. Phil and Greg, having nothing better to do since the Telek gigs were cancelled due to George’s non attendance, joined NDW on stage leading to “super band” of 4 percussionist/drummers and the two guitarists giving Tim Cole a wall of sound to mix. Seeing John and Phil both working the feedback out of their respective guitars during Sing Sing was a sight to behold. For Sing Sing, William Ayamseba, from the Black Brothers joined us making 5 the number of drummers.

 Greg Patten, Phil Wales, Russel Bradley and myself ventured down to the island of Tanna for a few days once the gigs were over and sat on the rim of the worlds most accessible active volcano, Mt. Yasur, and sat amazed as deafening roars from the bowels of the earth rocketed forth molten lava into the skies. Port Resolution, where we stayed was a priceless location, a beautiful bay and typical grassroots village full of beautiful gardens and children running havoc. Memories we’ll take with us to the grave.

 NDW play Queenscliff at the end of this week Nov 26-27. Paul Cartwright will be filling in ably for Rowan McKinnon (‘tis a fine bassplayer Paul, who played some nice parts on the soundtrack to The Glenmore Job), Stu McPhee will be doing the mix with Tim being overseas with Circus OZ, but Phil will be joining us again for these gigs, so for those of you in attandance, you can again witness the double bilas guitar effect. Am looking forward to seeing The Saints, which although not the real McCoy sans Ed Kuepper, should still be pretty special. Were doing two gigs, one at the end on the Saturday night where we will pelt it, and another more spacious sounding gig a lunchtime on Sunday where we’ll probably play some more back material.

 We’re up to the stage of compiling the NDW remix album... There’s enough material for it to be a double album. The last stuff to come in including Josh Abraham’s version of “Palau” and Jim Moginie’s “Willow Tree,” and Follow the Geography’s own Rik Nicholson, who along with David Hostetler, have done a great version of “Thomastown.” Russ and I will be compiling tomorrow... Am looking forward to spacing these CDs out, and getting the order and flow just right... Some are very lateral soundscapesque remixes, others are more like another attempt at mixing the same song, if that makes sense... There’s a few songs that have been remixed by a few different people... Storm and The Same Heat have had multiple efforts... Will probably see if we can fit them all on... Don’t think it’d matter given the nature of the record. Will probably come out Feb/March next year.

 Cake gigs last week were fun, twas good having David Abiuso, our old double bass player join us on piano accordian (he asked to be billed as “Australia’s worst piano accordian player!)... He adds much to the presence on stage... The Spiegeltent was as always special for us, but the Northcote Social Club was a bit like the old Rose Shamrock and Thistle gigs in Balmain from a few years back... a packed vibey sweaty stand up pub crowd, a little raucous, twas good to play a few new tunes, plus The Pogues “Fiesta” in the encore. I reckon we’re half way towards a new cake record, a little bit ahead of where the solo record is...

 Went on the anti-IR bill rally last Tuesday. Was chockers, and as is often the case, it had a great feel about it... all sorts there, from grandmothers, to punks, trade unionists... all races, all creeds... tis a nasty, mean spirited piece of legislation... can’t see it getting knocked back with them having control of both houses. sad state of affairs when we’re waiting for Barnaby Joyce to cross the floor.

 Spent a week in Winton, outback Queensland recording sounds for this British film Im doing the soundtrack for, a Working Title Production, called “Middle of Nowhere”. The director is a young Irish fella named Ringan Ledwich. I think he’ll be smooth to work with, he has a good ear for music and he’s shot it with plenty of space in the landscape and a certain level of texture. It’s a road movie of sorts. Winton is the birthplace of QANTAS and Waltzing Matilda and the sight of a massacre at Skull Hole. Bit of an evil underbelly in Winton. The Parish Pump off Circus could have been written about Winton. Twas very hot, 47 degrees on one day and heaps of flies. A glorious landscape, though kinda unforgiving. They also shot John Hillcoat’s “The Proposition” there. Tis good to see that  movie doing well for John. He’s a nice guy. John Phillips and I helped him out on the soundtrack of “To Have and To Hold” which was set in the Sepik and partly based on the life of Mark Worth.

 

Dates to remember...
## NDW doing an in store at Readings this Thursday 24th November at 6pm for the Tabaran DVD 

 ## First week of January 2006... RAN, the 6 part Torres Strait Islands drama goes to air on SBS and the RAN soundtrack album will be releases.

 ## May 28th — The Sing Sing 2 Concert at Hamer Hall featuring at this stage The Moab Stringband, Not Drowning Waving, Telek, Pius Wasi, Albert David, Djakapurra, William Takaku, Ben Hakalitz, Frank Yamma and more. Hopefully this concert will also make it to Brisbane, maybe Sydney depending on theatres buying in the concert.

 ## Cake to play the Spiegeltent in Adelaide (maybe NDW too) Feb 2006

 

Lots of stuff going on in the Enormodome over the next few moths... Writing for the solo and cake albums, compiling the NDW remix album and writing for Middle of Nowhere

 Been listening to the new Boards of Canada CD “The Campfire Headphase” and the new Music vs Physics “Oblong Data” and the mini Tokelau Stringband Vol 1 CD from Vanuatu which contains the classic tune Taxi 272 and Kaneka; The Kanak music compilation from mangrove studios in Caledonia, and the inimitable Ivor Cutler’s “Velvet Donkey”

 Til then,

DB