The Swamplords - Peace, Love, Hibiscus Flowers!

Rave review

2009-12-17T18:29:00.001-08:00

SWAMPLORD – Mermaids Of Tahiti

TUESDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2009

(Bedroom Suck)

Madness? This is … oh STFU Jakeb

Swamplord is Jeremy Hindmarsh, the creative force behind local psych outfit The Swamplords. Mermaids Of Tahiti is a document of his madness. It’s a gorgeously lo-fi mess of swampy, surf-y psych guitar jams and abstract, heavily-effected noise – recorded to cassette on a four-track in a steamy suburban bedroom somewhere in Brisbane. It’s experimentally self-produced, utilising delay and panning effects to smear stuttering vocals or introduce heady, dub-like instrumentation. Each new production technique is aesthetically curious, but there are no songs here to apply them to. The sporadic guitar riffs and raving vocal lines are great, but they’re so disjointed, like dot points arrayed on a page. Bored With Pain repeats a motif and manages to sound vaguely self-contained, which gives some context to the song’s central tempo change (Hindmarsh creatively messes with the tape speed). The rest of the tracks never feel as complete. You could have made two amazing psych records out of the ideas on Mermaids Of Tahiti, unfortunately all we got is one impressive list of cool sounds Jeremy Hindmarsh can make in a bedroom.

JAKEB SMITH

2009-12-16T16:59:00.001-08:00

Swamplord - Bored With Pain from Jeremy Hindmarsh on Vimeo.

Classic surf photography by Dan Merkel

2009-12-13T23:21:00.000-08:00

Mess and Noise Review: Swamplord - Mermaids of Tahiti

2009-12-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

13 Track, LP (2009, Bedroom Suck)

Related: Swamplord.

Swamplord is the solo incarnation of Jeremy Hindmarsh, whose Brisbane-based outfit the Swamplords have been known to don face paint and loudly coloured robes. Mermaids Of Tahiti is the work of Hindmarsh alone, from the instrumentation and production to the mastering and artwork. It’s a labour of love, but also a dreamlike journey into his head. Tucked away with a four-track last summer, Hindmarsh conjured a muggy tribute to such season-appropriate influences as surf rock and South American psych. Like so much bedroom-recorded solo work, it’s intimate, mysterious, indulgent and uneven.

Settling into a leisurely 42-minute sprawl, the album begins and ends well but ventures too far into the wilderness – and for too long – in the middle. The first quartet of songs fares best, starting with the garage fuzz of ‘She Was A Surf Queen’. Hindmarsh’s voice is snide and squeaky, while his rambunctious guitar flits up and down and from left to right in the mix. True to its title, the wobbly ‘Dub Drains’ dwells on a lazy, repetitious lick while unfurling an acid-tinged lead and improvised noises. All of 24 seconds, ‘Surf Chant’ approaches the single line, “I saw butterflies in your eyes”, via Beach Boys harmonies, albeit rougher and more droning. Tinny with piecemeal percussion, ‘Step Into My Room Baby’ commands, “Let’s get it on”, through distancing vocal effects.

The next cluster of songs, by contrast, resembles channel-surfing. ‘Plovers Lament’ is a brief shuffling of fragments, the bluesy ‘Bored With Pain’ plods along, and ‘The Ghenghis Kid’ [sic] sets piercing noise and echoed shouts to a blown-out undercurrent. The erratic ‘Take It Off Sea Horse’ drags needlessly, and two instrumentals also overstay their welcome. Thankfully, ‘Surf Hungry’ breaks out a killer hook to end the tedium, though it lasts less than a minute. More folk-ish, ‘Goodbye My Bird’ is then built on acoustic guitar and clearer vocals, elements that could have been used to refresh the album in other places. The title track is also the last one, a muddy instrumental with exciting shades of T. Rex and Creedence. It finishes things on a high note.

There’s no use harping too much over the details of such a low-key, exploratory project – the album is limited to 100 copies in its initial run – but there’s potential here that goes unrealised in the pursuit of Hindmarsh’s slippery muse. For better or worse, Mermaids Of Tahiti is a stream-of-conscious caper, free of restrictive guidelines but also lacking any profound editing.

by Doug Wallen

2009-12-09T07:24:00.001-08:00

2009-11-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

Photos by Alex Naghavi

NEW RELEASE!!!! Swamplord - Mermaids Of Tahiti

2009-11-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Recorded/produced/performed/mastered/and artwork by Jeremy Hindmarsh of The Swamplords on 4 Track Cassette later transferred to CD. The album explores the instrumental and noise elements of Surf/Noise/Dub/Thai Beat/and Afro Beat through the use of Guitar, Bass, Likembe, Bongo, steel drums, maraccas, African Xylophone, Drum Kit, Vocals, Fuzz, Music Concrete, and the use of 50's era style delay. The album is Jeremy's first release to hit the media and stores and pays homage to the great psychedelic music during the late 50's - 70's...finding his main influences from the Cumbias of Peru, The bossa nova grooves of Brazil, the instrumentation of Africa, the textures of Pierre Schaeffer and the guitar tones of early pioneering surf music from Australia and California, it's set to be a hot release... and only 100 copies available.

Full Length Jewel Case CD cost: $10
Released on Bedroom Suck records...myspace.com/bedroomsuckrecords

sloppppp

2009-10-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

Magnat from Nicholas Rowan on Vimeo.

Albums to blow your mind

2009-09-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

YAGE

2009-09-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Pablo Amaringo was born in 1943 in Puerto Libertad, in the Peruvian Amazon region. He was ten years old when he first took ayahuasca--a visionary brew used in shamanism, made from the plants Banisteriopsis caapi(yagé) and Psychotria viridis (chacruna). A severe heart illness--and the magical treatment of this viaayahuasca--led Pablo toward the life of a shaman, and he eventually became a powerful curandero--learning theicaros, or healing songs that the ayahuasca brew taught him.

In 1977, Pablo abandoned his vocation as a shaman, and he is now a painter and art instructor at his Usko-Ayar school, where there is no charge for the students to learn painting from Pablo. The school is dependant on donations, which can be made directly to Pablo via the address below. Paints, brushes, and other art supplies, as well as money, can be sent via mail. Please clearly mark such donations as "gifts" so that no tax will have to be paid.

Pablo has painted and described numerous ayahuascavisions, some of which have appeared in his bookAyahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman. He is currently working on paintings of angels for a forthcoming book, as well as paintings that document the flora and fauna of Peru.

for more information: http://www.pabloamaringo.com

Review from labrynth city

2009-09-20T01:26:00.001-07:00

Wiping the tears away from my face as I walk toward Stage 3 to see Swamplords, I see that they're in Polyphonic Spree-esque garments with face paint to boot. Oh my, what exactly is happening? I guess this is the obligatory "shit" section to break up the awesome. I knew I should have taken that break to get some more food. I just sit down to the side and stare at them as they start their performance. With all my preconceptions about this band being quickly swept away, and ignoring the stupid costumes, Swamplords deliver an astounding performance with a sound that borders on totally psychedelic (... man). The standout being the extraodionary guitar solos that hook me in and I can't help but be infected by their overall sound which makes me stand up and move unfro to the beat. Aside from having one too many members (the macarenas), the Swamplords win me over as I most subtly dance by myself.

yo yo

2009-09-14T07:52:00.001-07:00

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