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 Everett True

Spotlight – 2: Beaches

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Occasionally, I wonder if I stopped off in the wrong city.

It’d be nice to travel down to Northcote or Collingwood of an evening and be able to catch a sprawling set of often instrumental music from Beaches: music that touches on much of what I enjoy (Krautrock, 60s garage, beach parties, Sonic Youth, 1980 London post-punk, 1982 Dunedin). It’d be nice to rub shoulders on the inside, begin to feel the heady warmth of the sixth or seventh pint obscuring vision and memory, do away with the past decade of misdirection and fake DIY (any band that cites Animal Collective as an influence, any band that relishes the description ‘twee’ – unless they happen to be the Bobby McGee’s, any band that once enjoyed Britpop). This is Australian music as I understand it – Drones, Cannanes, Scientists. This is garage rock as I’ve encountered it in Detroit, in Peckham, in Seattle, in Melbourne. This is music that cleanses and scours and invigorates.

I know next to nothing about Beaches. I have the memory of one sighting – at January’s ATP, where the five ladies absolutely rocked the smaller stage, despite being offset by cavernous peaks and fluctuating sound, where they made me slip momentarily back in time (stage front, Victoria, London’s Venue, 1985, Spacemen 3 tuning up… but far scratchier). And I have one album – last year’s Beaches, released on Mistletone, which I dare not get to close to, in case my yearning for physical contact becomes like a physical ache. ‘Horizon’, in particular… yeah, ‘Horizon‘ in particular.

Oh, and ‘Free Way’ may well be a Sonic Youth (circa Sister) rip… but it’s a fucking great Sonic Youth rip!

Whatever. I just wanted to tell someone.

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