Conation
The Clouds Are Gathering
4 Track, EP (2009, Poison City)
Related: Conation.
Conation were one of Australia’s finest and most influential punk bands. Full stop. Led by the ferocious vocal assault of Jamie Hay, the Newcastle outfit managed to mix the right amount of sociopolitical commentary, melody and gruff hardcore into powerful bursts of rage before disbanding in 2006. A force to be reckoned with both on record and on stage, they came across as part Born Against, part Pete Seeger with elements of early Midnight Oil and Envy mixed in. The band had targets and they hit them hard. Their 2003 EP Troubled Waters and Fortresses is dedicated to ending the plight of illegal immigrants locked up in Australian detention centres.
Sparked by their reunion show with Propagandhi earlier this year, Conation have been in and out of the studio putting the finishing touches on The Clouds Are Gathering, their posthumous EP. Comprising three new tracks plus a cover of the Redgum classic ‘I Was Only Nineteen’ (a much better and more passionate version than The Herd’s) the band have lost none of their intensity in the time they’ve been away.
‘Send the Liars (to Abu-Ghraib)’ is classic Conation. Starting with frantic drums and strong guitars it quiets down to moody strings before Hay staggers in with a raspy scream. Hay, who was originally in legendary hardcore band Arms Reach and now plays solo and in A Death In the Family, has the kind of voice that sends chills down your spine and scares you in equal measure; it’s the mark of a songwriter with conviction.
“What will we do with the liars who are responsible for the innocent deaths?”, he screams on ‘Send The Liars’, before sighing, “Words. They don’t mean anything.” Whether it’s meant to represent the contradictory nature of politics in music or just the sound of a man’s frustration, it does nothing to lessen the intensity of the song and this powerful band.
by Tim Scott
Enduring Newcastle punk act Conation may have weathered the Howard yea…
What a band. Another great release, more in the vein of Troubled Waters than Dichotomy. Cannot wait to see them play once again!
cool review. except for this sentence, which frustrates the english lover in me, because having a voice that sends chills down your spine has nothing to do with whether someone is a great songwriter. two separate things.
other than that, this is really interesting. growing up in newcastle, i always saw conation's name around, but because i was never into punk they meant nothing to me. i am intrigued to find out that they were influential outside newcastle, because not too many local bands are. so cheers.
noone told me about this, but i'm stoked. i still listen to the early records and cds every now and again
I think this was the band who did an instore in a Wollongong record store i worked in years ago - the store put it on on a Sunday afternoon, without consulting the church four doors down first. So the happy married-couple-to-be having their wedding that day were serenaded by some brutal hardcore. It was nice.
Hehehe, that gig was funny. Wedding patrons were unimpressed!
I was driving Conation around on that mini-tour. Good times were had. Didn't that shitty Something With Numbers band play too?
Yep... I remember it being an odd lineup and one of the few instores that place did (possibly because of the outcome!)
I wasn't actually there tho...i had earlier warned them of the fact that being a Sunday down the road from a church they should possibly check first...that fell on deaf ears obviously :)