australian emo (aussiemo) really does delve into the obscure depths of the genre, as there are relatively few examples of the beast. spirit was one of those.
spirit released little material (a pre-requisite for this shit, naturally), but the 'in memory of...' 7" on penfold / spiral objective should find a niche in the record box of any self-respecting emo hoarder. in addition they have a split 7" with canadian mathmo band, blake, which isn't as essential, but still worth a listen or two. the single 'in memory of...' was recorded in april of 1998, and spirit pounds out four sobbers that immediately bring to mind native nod and bob tilton. 'i am the locus' starts the single off impressively, yet there is room for improvement. the guitars clang around and the screamier vocals are all particularly reminiscent of native nod. entirely forgiveable though, as it's a style that has been tackled all too infrequently down the years. 'the philosopher' jazzes into earshot next, hinting at mohinder initially before they really ease off the accelerator and glide into the spot on spoken vocals and more native noddery. but just wait for the bit where they lay on the twinkles and get all pretty. totally great shit.
over on the flip we up speeds to 45rpm and, coincidentally enough, get dealt the faster side of the band. 'singing in your ears' piles on the desperate vocals over the native nod riffage, and really kills when they drag the pace down and drive up the guitars towards the end, and if you're anything like me you'll be rocking back and forth violently in your chair to this one. 'tin can virus' winds things down with a top notch twinkly intro and more of those spoken vocals. by now you know what you're in for and it all is hitting the right spot, over and over.
the packaging scores highly on the emo points scale too, with a screen printed cover, lyrics printed in an unreadable font, a little envelope containing a picture of a tree and some words from penfold records, and some mclard-esque ramblings from spiral objective on nature and spirituality.
you may be able to buy both spirit records here:
missing link records
i hope you can.
but for now, until the link expires, you can download the whole 7" here:
http://www.collective-zine.co.uk/emo/obscuremo/22/
enjoy.
Thanks for this. Appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteSpirit were a great band. Muchly improved when I left the band. Heh. Original vocalist etc. To up the emo cred of 'in memory of...' was the fact it wad in memory of maree gibson. Mother of spoken worder/guitarist jay. And sort of a foster mum to me. The kind of person you meet once, ever. She really was the most incredible person and passed quickly, suddenly way too young. A 2mth battle with cancer and then gone. The Philosopher was Peter. Jay's dad and another massive influence on my life. A genuinely great man. Thanks for posting this. And for your words on the band. I'd left by the time of these releases but the band did and still does mean a lot to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tomek, always nice to hear from someone involved in these bands.
ReplyDelete