Broken Signals this Saturday night

First show in a long long time! Thanks to Dreamland Recordings for inviting The Ghost of 29 Megacycles to play!


Dreamland Recordings in conjunction with Conduit Arts Present: BROKEN SIGNALS

Featuring

THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES works with guitar, organ, and vocals, all deeply treated with reverb and other effects. The music is essentially minimal in many regards, though the sustained organ and guitar overtones interact in ways that create a very dense sound. Building tension with repetition, the songs unfold very slowly, immersing the listener in the interactions of the pulsing sine waves fusing the tones of all three elements together.

VORD dense cinematic electronics and guitar drones from member of local instrumentalists Maya.

BARNABY OLIVER is a musician and multimedia artist most notable for his work in the experimental improvisational band Infinite Decimals. He has developed a unique practice drawing on a diverse range of sources, from 60's experimentalists Alvin Lucier and LaMonte Young through to dub pioneers King Tubby and Lee Perry. A common theme is the use of sound as conveyor of hidden worlds, exploring physiological and environmental processes through the creation of sensitised fields.

DARK PASSENGER has been active since 2009, with appearances on releases for local labels Vacant Valley and Iceage Productions. His sound is in a constant flux, yet the sole aim lays within creating a stream of sound with a degraded metallic tinge. Sometimes cacophonous, often desolate though always foreboding; inspired by the many lost souls walking the forgotten back roads of the world.

Saturday July 28th at Conduit Arts, 83 Brunswick St. Fitzroy.
Starts 8pm. $5.00

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/361496980590922/

The Hummingbird Dream review on The Sound Projector

The Ghost of 29 Megacycles is an Australian trio based in Perth and Melbourne bringing us their personal brand of sweet ambient electronic droning on The Hummingbird Dream (HELLO SQUARE RECORDINGS CUBE043); most of this release showcases Greg Taw who overdubs his suffused guitar and organ murmurings with some field recordings to produce the 24-minute epic opening track. Wisely, he refuses to vary the pace, timbre, tonal range or anything else for the duration, thus allowing the listener to enjoy the soul-stirring sensations of a sunset in slow motion, or a dream of flying over benign alien landscapes on wings of purple feathers. On the second part, Taw is joined by vocalist Jessyca Hutchins and organ player Rupert Thomas, to produce a slightly more dramatic combination of mixed chords, throbbing drones, airy angelic singing, and mesmerising effects. A lot of people working in this area strive hard for that elusive feeling of “epic timelessness”, but The Ghost of 29 Megacycles seem to achieve it without even trying. Despite layers of studio craft, what emerges is very natural and instinctive music, warm and human. A nice one. Be sure to look out for their 2009 release, Love Via Paper Planes. Also note the cover art, which I thought was a blurry photo of the Australian landscape, but turns out to be an unmade bed. This may say something about their music, finding all of nature’s grandeur contained inside a simple domestic scene. Also it clues you in that the music is somnolent and dreamy, in a good way.

http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2011/01/23/voile-et-vapeur/

The Hummingbird Dream review on EtherReal Webzine

The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles
The Hummingbird Dream EP
(hellosQuare Recordings / Import)

Bien qu’ils aient déjà publié un album l’an passé, ce n’est qu’avec cet EP que l’on découvre The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles. La formation australienne, principalement œuvre du seul Greg Taw, nous livre ici deux morceaux, le premier long de vingt-quatre minutes et opérant dans une ambient cotonneuse toute classique, et le second d’un peu moins de sept minutes au format plus post-pop.

Sur la première partie, Greg Taw assure avec guitare, orgue et field recordings, l’intégralité des instrumentations, disposant accords profonds et nappes enveloppantes tout au long du titre. Comme souvent avec ce style musical, la durée permet aux différentes composantes de s’installer sans heurts et à l’auditeur de se plonger progressivement dans cet amas soyeux, marqué dans ses dernières minutes par une inflexion bucolique résultant de quelques samples de gazouillis d’oiseaux.

Alors qu’on imaginait la seconde partie de The Hummingbird Dream opérer dans la même mouvance, c’est avec une certaine surprise qu’on se trouve face à un morceau entre shoegazing alangui et pop embuée. Rejoint au chant par Jessyca Hutchins et Rebecca Orchard, Greg Taw bénéficie également de l’apport de Rupert Thomas à l’orgue pour un ensemble tout aussi convaincant que la première partie, baigné par cet enchevêtrement enjôleur de voix.

François Bousquet
le 13/01/2011
http://www.etherreal.com/spip.php?article3871

Mixed Seasons

"MIXED SEASONS" 4 WAY SPLIT TAPE W/ERASERS, GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES, BABY BIRDS DON'T DRINK MILK & THE TOWNHOUSES is out now on the OWLS Label.

This release is very limited and available for only $5 from DADA Records in Perth.

If you are Interstate or Overseas please contact OWLS at erasersonpencils@hotmail.com to purchase.

Textura review of The Hummingbird Dream

The Ghost of 29 Megacycles: The Hummingbird Dream
hellosQuare Recordings

For whatever reason, I'd thought before hearing it that The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles' The Hummingbird Dream might be a blistering, guitar-fueled meltdown of some kind, but the thirty-two-minute release, the Australian outfit's follow-up to its debut CD Love Via Paper Planes, turns out to be the complete opposite. Born from “sleepless nights, morning silence, and sadness,” the new release pairs a twenty-four-minute first part played entirely by Greg Taw using guitar, organ, and field recordings as sound sources with a shorter second part where Taw is joined by Jessyca Hutchins (vocals), Rupert Thomas (organ), and Rebecca Orchard (vocals).

The elegiac drone that is Part one generates a beautiful drifting character when its crystalline guitar figures stretch out interminably and its slivers and shadings flicker overtop the thick drone that the organ establishes underneath. The mood is becalmed yet blissed-out too, especially when the smoldering slow-burn of the electric guitar moves to the forefront. The late-inning appearance of bird sounds gives the track an early morning feel, which in turn suggests that what has come before could be read as an aural simulation of a somewhat restless sleep state. “The Hummingbird Dream (Part 2)” comes a bit closer to the shoegaze spirit I'd expected before hearing the recording but even here the music is pitched way down, and consequently the dream-like quality of the opening piece persists into the second albeit in different form. Electric guitar strums and hushed vocals lend it a haunting, song-like quality, while a brief vocal interlude courtesy of Rebecca Orchard points the music heavenward again. Call it dreamscaping for the lost and lonely.

January 2011

http://www.textura.org/reviews/ghost29megacycles_hummingbirddream.htm

Love via Paper Planes review from Derives Webzine

There can be just a small difference between authentic and generic and "Love Via Paper Planes", the debut LP from The Ghost of 29 Megacycles - an Australian three-piece, with Greg Taw (vocals/guitars), Karen de San Miguel (vocals/drums) and Matt Aitken (organ), balancing between Perth and Melbourne - could be too quickly assimilated to the later.

I discover this album backward, having enjoyed their more recent EP "The Hummingbird Dream" I decided to give another try to this work I discarded previously.

"Love via paper planes" is indeed very typical of their style of music but also disarmingly honest with heavily reverberated guitars, ethereal vocals and organ. It would be a shortcut to resume their work, as succedaneum of Kranky aesthetics. More precisely, i consider them as long lost cousins of artists like Windy & Carl, Roy Montgomery, Insides or Landing, who finally emerge to the light of the day.

This is a coherent and strong, haunted debut album and what they lack of originality is replaced by a focus on details through the monotony of a very delimited style magnified by a precise sense of minimalism. This six songs, forty-four minutes long album sounds almost like a long single shoegazing track which puts you in an hypnotic and vaporous melancholic state of mind.

If you give them a chance and the time to convince you, they will, and even if it may sound slightly outdated you feel the are engaged on a very promising path.

The opening track, "The Cold Light of Silence" lasts almost sixteen minutes and is a slow progression around pulsating organ waves, crystalline guitar drones and a few ethereal female transparent vocal lines, like a slow solitary walk on an ice field during snowstorm.

"Passing, Daydreams" seems even colder, surprising from an Australian band, reminiscent of the early discography of the The Stars of the Lid. Like on their EP, they become more interesting when their music is more personal and melancholic, when you feel that Greg Taw is taking the lid, like with the guitar theme of the first part of "We Are the New Romantics. “Love Via Paper Planes” is almost a mantra trying to make you rise through the slow evolution of repeated patterns.

"Dusted" reminds me of a more intense echo of the opening track. A cover of the Daniel Johnston song "True Love Will Find You in the End" closes the album with the hesitant but haunted vocals of Greg Taw reminiscent of the early Smog discography.

"Love via paper planes" is the promising debut of a promising band.

http://derives-webzine.blogspot.com/2010/12/ghost-of-29-megacycles-love-via-paper.html

The Hummingbird Dream review on Derives Webzine

Almost 31 minutes. 2 tracks. "Part 1" is a long slowly evolving drone of 24 minutes, while "Part 2" and a dreampop postshoegazing contemplative song with reverberated low vocals, close to 7 minutes.

The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles is an Australian three-piece, with Greg Taw (vocals/guitars), Karen de San Miguel (vocals/drums) and Matt Aitken (organ), balancing between Perth and Melbourne and this is their second release after a debut album called "Love via paper planes'.

This is nothing you haven't already heard before, between Windy and Carl, Roy Montgomery and early Stars of the Lid records, or through more recent records by Belong or Grouper.

"Part 1" has been conceived and realized mostly by Greg Taw alone, while on "Part 2" he has been helped by Jessyca Hutchins, Rupert Thomas and Rebecca Orchard, and the whole EP reflects a difficult period he has been through with persistent sleeping problems.

You get the idea on a sleepless night on "Part 1", feelings of loneliness and despair, in a silenced environment, with artificial lights and nocturnal sounds, and it ends with birds waking up and chirping as the dawn opens the new day. It is more a report than a trial at something cathartic, with a sense both overwhelming and diluting, and you're left sighing about insomnia when everything you would be hoping for would be yawning.

"Part 2" would be the sublimation of a so long expected recovering night, translating it into a dream, walking in a state of quasi weightlessness through luxuriant vegetation, while glowing sunlight streams sunlight on our bodies like purifying rainfall. While the first track is relatively average for their style of music, here on this second track, Greg Taw captured something highly precious.

http://derives-webzine.blogspot.com/2010/12/ghost-of-29-megacycles-hummingbird.html

The Hummingbird Dream review on Ambientblog.net

The Ghost of 29 Megacycles (Australia) recently released a beautiful new EP-album called "The Hummingbird Dream".

Though this is the second release under this name (following up "Love Via Paper Planes" from 2009), the main part of this new album is a long drone solo recording by Greg Thaw on guitar, organ and field recording.

Part 1 of this "delicate two song cycle born from sleepless nights, morning silence and sadness" starts with a guitar based drone, slowly deconstructing - until the morning breaks.

Hidden begind the guitar overtones in the first half of part 1, I hear a subtle reference to Brian Eno's classic masterpiece "An Ending".

I doubt this is intentionally, because it may also be a resemblance based on the chosen chords and the overall atmosphere, but it is as if this piece is echoing a memory of the original En/Lanois track, though more abstract and almost faded.

Celer is another reference that comes to mind when trying to describe what this music sounds like.

In spite of the references to 'sleepless nights' and 'sadness', there is a strong sense of hope embedded in the music, and especially in the sound of the hummingbird singing in the 'morning silence'.

Part 2, also featuring Jessyca Hutchins and Rebecca Orchard (vocals) and Rupert Thomas (organ), is a much shorter piece concluding the album in a different - shoegaze-like - style.

http://www.vancooten.com/blog/?e=343

Live photos and video from Refraction, Sydney 27 October 2010

The Ghost of 29 Megacycles @ October REFRACTION from refraction sound on Vimeo.

http://refractionsound.wordpress.com/

These Streets. - Short Documentary by Tom Neal

These Streets. - Short Documentary from Tom Neal on Vimeo.

These Streets is a short story that explores the thoughts and experiences of three Ambulance Paramedics that have numerous years in the job individually. From the beginnings of a career to what hasbeen seen and encountered in such a high discipline job, a short insight is given into the demanding job of Ambulance Paramedics in Melbourne. - Tom Neal.

The Hummingbird Dream is featured in These Streets.

analogue monologues vol. 1.5

From analogue monologues vol. 1.5:

ever since my discovery of 80s bands with names like SPK or Scattered Order and the likes years ago i was aware of the fact that this remote land commonly known as australia must have deeper secrets than the ones we are made aware of growing up elsewhere on planet earth. of course, in this day and age setting your feet on foreign soils wouldn’t make it all too difficult bumping into every stereotype and cliché you expected given you’re carrying expectations at all. but, generally speaking, how many people do you know not getting informed about the latest tourist highlights prior departure just to make sure seeing what different places are all about in times of mass tourism and short attention spans? seriously, did you ever wonder then on how much we would be missing out approaching life merely this way relying on filtered information and lack of interest or curiosity? it might be the easiest way checking ourselves into some high-rise clusters being drawn on the very canvas which makes up for the horizon right next to a beach resort wrapping our bodies in thinly sliced ham waiting packed like sardines until the sun frizzles our skin covered in grease. but might this be the most rewarding approach? well, looking around any corner exposes some shades of grey and even these hues differ as much as all our perceptions do but only illuminating these shades with bright colours gives me a glimpse of the very satisfaction i’m striving for. far from perfection, yet getting a few steps closer when the soundtrack makes my feelings run high leaving the impression i just need to stretch my arms a little further to be able to eventually hold onto the stars compressing the vast landscapes surrounding me.

this compilation features 11 songs of people creating an outstandingly vivid music scene far from mainstream activities and i’m glad i could witness at least glimpses of it while living in sydney. there are many more projects out there at least as moving as the featured artists here which made it quite difficult choosing and compiling the tracks for this volume but isn’t the best and most intense way listening to music, and above all feeling it, when it is performed live? so, give a look around the corners into the dark alleyways and you’ll find spots being illuminated in brighter colours than you could have ever imagined. many of the dozens of shows i’ve seen were blistering and full of energy and i’m sure that’s still the case. thanks everyone involved, you know who you are – i’ll be around again sometime!

this compilation is made on this planet from local and imported ingredients. thanks for tuning in and please enjoy!

Download here:
http://analoguemonologues.wordpress.com/

SOUNDINGS II

SOUNDINGS II
(Brave No Wave)

Sunday 28th November
LOOP Bar / Gallery
23 Meyers Pl, City.
Doors 5pm / $12

Second installment of the SOUNDINGS music series presents Melbourne town's BRAVE NO WAVE and a few kindred spirits from North, South & West O' the border!

Experimental, Jetset, Trash and No Star sounds from the blessed depths of the musical underground, this installment of SOUNDINGS is all about experimentation
and the bands actively driven by an exploratory musical impulse be it sonic, rhythmic, structural or compositional.

If you missed the UFO club circa '66, THE EXPLOADING PLASTIC INEVITABLE circa '67, or THEE MIGHTY HOTEL2TANGO circa '98 - be sure not to miss this installment of SOUNDINGS!!

Featuring PAINT YOUR GOLDEN FACE from Van Dieman's Land, Sydney town's dark melodic moodists NO ART and the textured ambience of Perth's GHOST of 29 MEGACYCLES playing alongside the
crème de la crème of Melbourne's experimental musical community, SOUNDINGS II is assured to be some kinda wonderful!!

Doors 5pm / $12

The Spheres
Great Earthquake
Paint Your Golden Face (Hobart)
Amplifier Machine
Battlesnake
No Art (Sydney)
Light Lions
The Carolinas
Ghost of 29 Megacycles (Perth)
Radiant City

The Hummingbird Dream review on Life is Noise

Melbourne-via-Perth droneniks Ghost of 29 Megacycles have followed up the moaning gauze of last year’s Love Via Paper Planes (which approximated Loveless by way of Kranky, sans rhythm section) with a dusky, Janus-like two-track release. While texturally unified, the two pieces seem wildly divergent in terms of ambition and purpose. The twenty-four minute Pt.1 is reminiscent of the group’s other drone explorations, on a more epic scale; however, the tones are a deal more sonorous and hi-res, shifting in delicate, shimmering swells. Ultimately, while being pleasant, luxuriant stuff, it struggles to justify its epic length.

The much briefer Pt.2 plays out like a more ambitious extension of the drone-based songcraft only previously skirted by the band. Featuring Erasers and Jane Harris, it’s an elliptical, sunken duet which demonstrates how fecund the pairing of Greg Taw’s sonics and female vocals can be, as well as reaffirming how adept he is at choosing his collaborators. Faintly resembling Low under a layer of static, Pt.2 aches towards a glacial breakdown which reaches a level of emotional depth and and clarity hitherto only hinted at by the project, somewhat reducing Pt.1 to an overlong prelude. Taken together, The Hummingbird Dream is a consolidation of what Taw has already proven he can achieve with traditional drone forms, as well as a taste of what he can achieve by transcending it.

By Alex Griffin

http://lifeisnoise.com/2010/11/02/review-ghost-of-29-megacycles-the-hummingbird-dream/

Sonic Array Festival

Dreamland Recordings Presents: SONIC ARRAY
Saturday Nov 20th @ Irene’s Warehouse. 5 Pitt St. Brunswick East.
$10.00. From 3pm – 10:30pm. First act performs 3:15pm SHARP.

Sonic Array is the epic warehouse show we have always wanted to host, with a truly diverse mix of local music and experimental sound that has something for everyone.

featuring:

DEAD ANTS RAINBOW
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES
ZAC KEILLER BAND
INFINITE DECIMALS
MYSTIC EYES
BUDD
LITTLE KILLING
ROTTEUR
CONSTANT LIGHT
PIONEERS OF GOOD SCIENCE

Refraction

Refraction is dedicated to the support, mentorship and development of student projects as they take their practice from the classroom to the community.

Wednesday, October 27 · 7:30pm
Serial Space - 33 Wellington St, Chippendale
Featuring:
THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES (MELB)
JOEL STERN (BRIS)
...ATHROCYCLE
REUBEN HOLT

GHOSTS OF 29 MEGACYCLES (MELB)
The Ghost of 29 Megacycles is a minimalist shoegaze project currently based in Melbourne. The band released their debut album, Love via Paper Planes on Sydney label Sound and Fury Records to critical acclaim. Their follow up mini album The Hummingbird Dream continues to explore their unique ambient sounds and abstract songwriting.
http://www.myspace.com/theghostof29megacycles

JOEL STERN (BRIS)
Joel Stern is a performer and producer of experimental music & sound, performing regularly both solo and in collaboration with a wide variety of artists around the world. Joel's performance collaboration with filmmaker Sally Golding, as Abject Leader, has seen the duo widely recognised as Australia's premier exponents of contemporary expanded cinema.
http://www.abjectleader.org/
http://www.myspace.com/joelstern

ATHROCYCLE
Athrocycle is a new collaborative project of Andrew Voet and Nick Beeby. Both have produced an expanse of eclectic electronic music and visual art both together and seperately for over 10 years. As Athrocycle they explore the potentials of chaos and the unexpected using circuit bent hardware and digital sound design, with a gameboy thrown in for good measure.
http://www.myspace.com/microstrobus
http://www.myspace.com/circuitsatanic

REUBEN HOLT
Reuben Holt is a Sydney based sound artist, musician and composer. His live performances combine pastiche and found sounds with sonic accompaniment. He is currently completing a Bachelor of Sound and Music Design and International Studies at UTS.

Refraction is proudly supported by Sound Travelers and assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Graphics by Jade Cantwell

http://refractionsound.wordpress.com/

Vital Weekly review of The Hummingbird Dream

THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYLCES – THE HUMMINGBIRD DREAM (CD by Hellosquare Recordings)

Greg Taw is The Ghost Of 29 Megacycles, and as such he has a previous work on Hellosquare Recordings, a CD for Sound & Fury and various CDRs. ‘The Hummingbird Dream’, his second CD, has two pieces, a part one and a part two. Taw plays guitar, organ and field recordings on both and for the second part (which last just under seven minutes, whereas part one is twenty-four minutes), he receives help from two female vocalists and someone who plays organ. If you would have told me its just an organ and some effects, I would have probably believed that also. The twenty-four minutes of part one is a beautiful drone piece of organ sounds that wash about. Seemingly, endlessly sustaining, this meanders about, light weighted, and spacious, with a somewhat sad undercurrent. Maybe it has guitars too, but I find them hard to hear, but no doubt they mingle together somewhere captured in effect land. The bird calls towards the end mark the end and moves forward to the second part, in which voices can be heard. This is more a song-like piece, from the world of dream-pop and shoegazing, of old Ochre Records. Maybe the two pieces don’t go very well together, but the second complements the first and could have been perhaps a bit longer, to balance a bit better with the first part, but throughout this is a very fine release. Nothing new, but definitely something great. Relaxing drone music. (FdW)

Dronestock Saturday 23 October

I am honoured to be invited to play this show with such amazing Melbourne ambient/drone artists. Many thanks to Zac Keiller for organising this show. Please check out his music
http://www.myspace.com/zackeiller
http://zackeiller.polydistortion.net/
Hopefully we will be collaborating on a project soon.

Dreamland Recordings is proud to present: DRONESTOCK
5 hours of guitar, drones, noise & visuals.

DRONESTOCK is an audiovisual gathering featuring some of Melbourne's best atmospheric sound practitioners & a mixture of established, as well as up & coming musicians; all stylistically varied but sharing a common interest in the creation of guitar based drone music.

Featuring: THE GHOST OF 29 MEGACYCLES - ZAC KEILLER - SETH REES - THE LONELY DRONE - CONSTANT LIGHT - TIM CATLIN - SAM FILMER.

Taking place within the cozy confines of Loop Projects Space on Saturday October 23rd with an extra early show from 3pm to 8pm, Dronestock is the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon, aiming to be a highly immersive audiovisual experience.

LOOP / 23 Meyers Place, Melbourne.
Sat Oct 23rd
$8.00.
Starts 3pm sharp.
For full details and to hear a track by each performer, head on over to the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150664718291707

Empress Hotel Thursday 14 October

Supporting the lovely Ah! Pandita from Canberra.

This is my last show in Melbourne with Leigh and Alex of The Townhouses as my backing band. Thanks heaps to these wonderful guys.
Please check out their music at
http://www.myspace.com/thetownhouses
http://thetownhouses.tumblr.com/

Fluid Radio UK Interview and Review of The Hummingbird Dream

“The Ghost of 29 Megacycles come from Australia where it’s sunny and people have corks hanging from their hats and Alf Stewart lives there shaking his fist at children and people say “I can see the pub from here” sometimes. However, they seem happy to ignore most of these things in favor of sculpting sheer, blissful surfaces of drone from organs and guitars before topping them off with occasional shoe gaze-style breathy female vocalizing.”

Thus spoke Brett of Norman Records, reviewing ‘Love Via Paper Planes’ – the debut album from the aforementioned Ghost. Which, apart from being very funny, is also true. The part about the corks especially.

Brett will no doubt be very happy to hear that their new release, ‘The Hummingbird Dream’, is an epic and tender two track EP that is a rival to any drone release for the year – dense, moving and cavernous. Protagonist Greg Taw constructs the two tracks, with assistance from Jessyca Hutchins, Rupert Thomas and Rebecca Orchard on the second. The tracks are described as having been “born from sleepless nights, morning silence and sadness”, and the vast 24-minute opener ‘Part 1’ certainly reminds of the both the panic and calm of insomnia. It also hints the possibility of a positive outcome, with the bird-sound that ends the track, and fades into the second.

Read the entire Interview here:
http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2010/10/some-time-with-the-ghost/