Efficient Space Australia Vinyl & CDs

Review: An intriguing confection put together by two Antipodean crate-diggers with an ear for the eccentricities and heroic creative travails of a generation of yore, 'Midnight Spares' chronicles a predominantly '80s era in which bedroom musicians took a post-punk DIY sensibility to create work that still rings out with originality and ingenuity decades on. Collected from manifold unusual sources, this compendium takes in early synth-pop, menacing lo-fi soundtrack work, a stray emigre member of The Flying Pickets, and even an early foray into recording from the members of legendary Ozpunk scamps God. Lurking somewhere between the spirit of John Peel and the world of outsider art, the resulting assemblage is a must-have for chroniclers of the weird and wonderful.

Review: Gong bath, anyone? Soft & Fragile is a three track outing built on a framework of custom made bells and chimes, at least one of which was created by the artist - namely Bandt's 'flagong', a three-story glass marimba the musician crafted in the late-1970s, apparently inspired by the so-called 'cloud chamber bowls' of Harry Patch, a chap known for developing weird and wonderful sound-making devices.

She uses the instrument to stunning effect solo on the opening effort, 'Ocean Bells', creating a gently flowing arrangement that sucks you in quickly. From there, she's joined by Julie Doyle, Gavan McCarthy, and Carolyn Robb to complete the full LIME (Live Improvised Music Events) lineup, and the work becomes more complex still, without ever being overbearing or overly theoretical.

Review: Having previously reissued cult Spanish combo Belver Yin's 1991 debut album Luz Bel - an ethereal affair variously informed by shoegaze, ambient, Cocteau Twins and the Duratti Column - Efficient Space were in pole position to sign this surprise comeback set. Now a solo project of founder (and lead singer) Pedro L Ortega, the set was inspired by a promise he made to his dying mother to record more music. It's a gloriously summery and sun-soaked affair all told which subtly expands Ortega's musical horizons to include more jangly guitars, multi-coloured, Gigi Masin style keyboard textures, glistening, guitar-led ambient bliss reminiscent of Jonny Nash, and sunrise-ready soundscapes that recall the beauty and brilliance of modern Balearic heroes Seahawks.

Review: Sky Girl is the work of two noted (but arguably under-appreciated) crate diggers, DJ Sundae and Julien Dechery, and gathers together a veritable treasure trove of obscure material loosely connected by (in the label's own words) "the same longing sentiment". Its' fifteen tracks touch on a variety of hazy, down-tempo styles, and were recorded at various points between 1961 and '91. There's much to admire throughout, from the folksy psychedelic pop of The Rising Storm's "Frozen Laughter", and spoken word eccentricity of Scott Seskind's "I Remember", to the dreamy, eyes-closed ambience of Nini Raviolette & Hugo Weris' "Slow" and string-laden samba-folk of Nora Guthrie's "Home Before Dark".

Review: Efficient Space's latest essential release draws together tracks from the personal cassette and DAT archives of pianist and experimental composer Sebastian Gandera (real name Eric Morin), who released a handful of albums on obscure, tape-only labels in the late 1980s and early '90s. The vast majority of the beautiful, poignant and surprisingly immediate music was recorded during the musician's university days, with Morin recording straight to tape in his dorm room. There are a few synthesizer and organ works with more complex arrangements - think moody ambient chords, synth double bass and occasional percussive elements - but for the most part what you get is one man, a piano keyboard and oodles of emotion. Given the quality of his compositions, you really don't need anything else.

Review: Some albums deserve to stay buried, but Hydroplane's 1997 debut album is not one of those. An alternative project from shoegaze-influenced indie band The Cat's Miaow, the self-titled album offered a uniquely hazy, spaced-out blend of lo-fi dream pop vocals, atmospheric guitar textures, DJ Shadow style sample collage, stoned beats, Radoiphonic Workshop style electronic experiments and '90s ambient tropes. It's an unusual but hugely alluring musical melting pot that went largely overlooked at the time - hence this first ever vinyl pressing of the previously CD-only set. We'd recommend giving it a listen because it really is in a genre sub-category all of its own.

Review: Pierre Bujeau is the man behind the Megabasse alias and he crafts temporary escape zones through music that offer a break from the everyday. Whether performing with French groups Omerta and Tanz Mein Herz or solo, Megabasse creates a unique, rough-edged psychedelia armed with a double-neck guitar, cheap lager and Fender amps. He produces chiming patterns that blur the room's sound, transporting you to another world but his music isn't about wellness or self-improvement, but a communal, DIY dreamspace. This new release, previously available only on limited editions, features two intricate tracks and one shorter piece that show his shift towards burnt-out, beautiful guitar solos.

Review: Surreal, scratchy, corkboard dub dance beats for the in-betweeners and misfits of the world, laid down by Merseyside producer Ali Omar for Efficient Space AUS. Suitably named after that potently compressed and chunked form of cannabis known as hashish, the music here sounds about as sedatively stoned as is often the affective result of the drug. Omar brings a psychedelic, sample-based approach to the fold, with strobe-lit, basement smoke-clouds of kalimba, gong, vocal and async-bass all colliding on 'The Last Straw' and 'On Release', veering into floaty dub and red-eyed downbeat by the time of 'Poor Man Beggar Thief'.

Review: Simple Reality cements the brief yet impactful legacy of Coventry DIY group Skeet, emerging from a scene of first-generation punks and 2 Tone kids. Formed in 1981 by Gary and Nigel Meffen, Skeet fused tightrope instrumentals with a Roland CR-8000 under projected visuals. After a cassette of their debut performance reached Kay Booth at Inferno Records, she added her own vocals, becoming the frontwoman with her shy delivery and open-diary expressions of social alienation and romantic rejection. With as few as ten shows, Skeet's unnerving minimalism was recorded in a suburban home studio, borrowing equipment from Toby Lyons (The Colourfield) and Jerry Dammers (The Specials). Despite record label interest, the band silently disbanded, leaving their music unheard for nearly four decades. Brief Call resurfaced in the Coventry Music Museum's compendium Alternative Sounds Volume 1, followed by a limited pressing on Chris Long's Almost Unknown imprint in 2023. Simple Reality offers a definitive snapshot of these neurotic post-punks, with newly discovered instrumental multitracks and a live recording of their final performance atop a trailer in a pub beer garden. Mastered by Skeet fanatic Mikey Young, this release adds three new tracks and a more energised take on 'Left On the Shelf's' apathetic electronic-pop.

Review: Wilson Tanner steps on solid ground with Legends, a pastoral odyssey steeped in the rhythms of South Australia's Manon Farm. Swapping coastal breezes for the dusty toil of the vineyard, the duo channel the grit of farm life: dirt-crusted boots, crackling radios, and the far-off hum of summer crickets. Their previous works basked in suburban lethargy and nautical drift, but here, the focus is on the raw textures of agricultural labor, where ducks and dogs roam, tractors rumble past, and stainless steel tanks glint in the sun. Made entirely off-grid, the Manon sessions repurpose wind, brass, balalaika, and synth, rigged together with wire and tape. Legends distills the essence of natural winemaking into sound: feral, unfiltered, and alive with imperfections. Overflowing with rustic charm and irreverent humour, it's a heady swirl of folklore and fermentation, bottled straight from the land.

Review: Recorded remotely across Australia, Elixa shows a newfound clarity of vision and intentionality here. Comprising of members with diverse musical backgrounds, including experience in ambient-pop duo Troth and Sydney punk bands, Th Blisks blend melodica dub, hip-hop breaks and post-punk into a strong sonic concoction. Each track is meticulously crafted, drawing on the artists' deep roots in their local DIY scenes. The album brims with a sense of wonder, capturing both urban and rural landscapes with nods to UK sound history. With Elixa, Th Blisks deliver a beautiful Australian record that bridges the old and the new, inviting listeners on a journey through their rich musical landscape.

Review: Efficient Space's latest essential release sees Andras and Instant Peterson take a trawl through the darker, lesser-visited corners of Australian electronic music. According to the label, the pair lifted material from "local 12" singles, CD-Rs and the archives of community radio station 3RRR FM". Highlights come thick and fast throughout, from the acid-flecked, "Nude Photo" style Detroit fun of FSOM's "Resist The Beat" and chiming, trumpet-laden bliss of Ian Eccles-Smith's "The Slaughtering Eye", to the jaunty, mid-90s New York style bounce of Blimp's "Yellowgold" and the ultra-deep ambient techno pulse of Tetrphnm's "Track 11". Check, too, the enveloping dreaminess of Screensaver's drifting ambient closer, and the jazzy dancefloor depth of Inner Harmomy's "Da Lub Club".

Review: The legacy of homegrown Australian rock in the '80s may be dominated by somewhat boisterous and boorish forces in the mainstream, wiith the like of Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, INXS and John Farnham comprising the national heroes, yet cultural stereotyping would ignore a whole plethora of underground artists that went almost completely unnoticed yet continue to delight some thirty plus years on. 'Oz Waves', compiled by maverick DJ Steele Bonus, includes the unlikely likes of MX Ultra & The Assassins, Zerox Dreamflesh and The Horse He's Sick, yet their minimal electronics, dub-tinged strangeness and post-punk dreamscapes sound like another weird world - one on a thrilling knife-edge between past, present and future.

Review: Searchlight Moonbeam is the new narrative compilation from Time Is Away (Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney), whose eponymous monthly NTS Radio shows - tinctured fusions of fugitive sounds and reverie-inducing archival speech - have won them an ardent following. It follows from the London-based duo's Ballads, a remarkable driftwerk released on A Colourful Storm in 2022. Searchlight Moonbeam is an autumnal dreamscape, intimate and vespertine, pensive and irresolute. An imagined community where differences drop off and resonances emerge.

Review: Efficient Space continue their esteemed compilations of varying focus and theme. Their latest, Someone Like Me, is less interested in nostalgia for a certain time, propinquity, or contemporaneity (all pitfalls into which most other compilation curators fall prey) and instead finds enjoyment in the juxtaposing of all manner of musicians and songs reflecting a certain style, from the Pacific Northwestern USA to the UK, and whose main approach to music-making was hobbyism. "Folk" is the operative word here, though whether it's one we should utter confidently isn't so certain, as the twists and turns this compilation takes - through the lonesome falsettos of Lynne Ann Kingan, the detuned, drum-machinic drones of Charlie Webster, and the intermittent, reverberative outbursts of Jim Kennedy - capture something far more than just a transmissible, oral ceremonial form.

Review: Ghost Riders has been dubbed Efficient Space's latest narrative compilation, putting together 17 folk, Americana and psych-blues rarities to tell a Jarmuschian tale of heartache and loss. Releasing select songs from near-forgotten names like The Tempters, Dennis Harte and The Newports, the songs on this compilation seem to tell a tale of teary-eyed, shattered rock n' roll dreams - exclusively recalling the work of artists who, in the label's own words, were buoyed by grandiose dreams shortly before life got in the way. Recalling desolate filmic scenes like those found in Mystery Train or The Afterlight, we've got a distinct portrait of a depressed American midwest here.

Review: Efficient Space's latest release is certainly an intriguing one. It was sparked by the discovery of a CD copy of an obscure, mid-'90s album made by the late Victorian musician Peter Mumme and three Aboriginal songmen from the Yolngu people of the Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern territory. Uniquely, the album - here reissued under a new title with an additional unreleased piece - mixed the singers' traditional vocals with impeccable ambient soundscapes, gently pulsating electronic rhythms and the kind of fluid and wide-eyed synthesizer melodies more often found on '80s new age recordings. The results still sound remarkable and, thanks to the Yolngu singing style, surprisingly haunting.

Review: There is something instantly settling about this record. Wilson Tanner are intent on making sure our worries and concerns vanish into the ether, or more accurately float away on a gentle tide under a war evening sun. You might feel the record invokes different imagery, but given the duo - Andrew Wilson and John Tanner - put their acclaimed debut together "over" a shared love of seafood and wine, we think the coastal iconography goes well.

Not least as 69 was recorded in Perth, a city renowned for its spectacular coastline and a resurgent cultural scene. Digressions aside, the producers describe their sound as 'provincial ambient' and you can understand why relatively easily. It's an incredibly organic, understated, and in many ways highly familiar set of tones, not necessarily intent on rewriting any rule books, but certainly assured that everything it offers is of the highest quality, and with the most heart possible.

Review: There's much to admire about Andrew Wilson and John Tanner's second collaborative full-length, which sees them build on the fluid and atmospheric ambient of 2016 debut "69". Utilizing a relatively small array of instruments - mainly piano, acoustic guitar and a few choice synthesizers - the pair serves up ear-catching soundscapes wrapped in atmospheric field recordings and just the right amount of processed effects. For the most part their compositions are summery and seductive, emphasizing unfussy combinations of melodic refrains and positive chord progressions. There are, though, one or two more experimental cuts, with the tipsy, slow-motion shuffle of "Idle" and spaced-out "Safe Bird" standing out.

Review: YL Hooi's untitled collection of textural tracks was first conceived as a short run cassette. Thankfully, they now make it on to wax and cannot fail to subsume your mind in their icy synth apparitions. Whispered vocals drift in and out like a cloud, Hooi's voice anchors the abstract sounds int he real world and the most deft of melodic motifs add extra atmosphere and ambiance throughout. Recorded intermittently over a two year period, the album stretches out like am experimental masterpiece that s accessible yet otherworldly.