smRts
Have Friends And Visit Them At Night
11 Track, LP (2012, Heartless Robot)
Related: Pex, Bamodi, Smrts, Predrag Delibasic.
One of the first lessons you learn in primary school art is that mixing too many colours just doesn’t work. Red plus blue equals purple; add white and you’ve got pink. Add yellow and it starts to take on a strange brown colour, various shades of which can still be found on many a 1970s television serial.
The lesson can be transposed into music. Bob Dylan and The Byrds blended folk and rock and pushed pop music into rich new territory; a subsequent dose of psychedelia took matters onto a higher plane. But had there been an injection of dance beats, or even lavish amounts of synthesiser, the results were not likely to be pleasant.
Perth’s smRts understands the delicate balance between blending and suffocation. Led by former Bamodi and Soviet Valves protagonist Predrag Delibasic – Pex to his friends in the music world – smRt’s new album is a collage of European gypsy styling, sun-drenched surf licks, psychedelic wig-outs and basic rock’n’roll attitude.
The European influence can be found sporadically throughout Have Friends and Influence Them At Night. Opening track ‘Treachery on the Black Sea’ is a traditional waltz cloaked in gothic darkness, as foreboding as it is tantalising; ‘The Signs Left Behind’ is the soundtrack to a vodka-soaked evening in a dangerously charming rural bar; and ‘Palanka Calling’ takes lick built from the same chord progress as Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’ and creates an atmosphere rife with yearning and hope.
The surf elements are for the world to hear in ‘Balga Promenade’, with its high-hat happy take on Dick Dale’s definitive style; the sharp-edged oceanic attack of ‘Traumeinsatz’; the cinematic Californian style of ‘A Very Human Landscape’; and the Radio Birdman-meets bubblegum pop sparkle of ‘Dr Jekyll’s Dilemma’. On ‘Born With Torments’, smRts lace The Ventures with dirty rock sensibility; ‘King Wave Rising’ commands the power of a deep ocean swell; and ‘Defeat’ is resigned surrender, but only after a tumultuous gypsy dance in the deep sea.
Have Friends And Visit Them At Night is an eclectic ride across land and sea, where every turn brings with it deeper meaning and greater pleasure. This is musical collage as it should be.
by Patrick Emery
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Nice! hitting the east coast in March, too.
p.s. is the album title correct? the cover image differs.
Seriously?
The album is awesome. Was stealing it from their bandcamp all weekend!...I prob ought to buy the LP aye.
love SMRTS!
yes, the tile is incorrect, but I actually prefer this one ;)
album artwork is correct, though.
dates:
Sydney:
Fri 9 March @ Lansdowne Hotel, with Grun, Hawkmoth, Althia - free
Sat 10 March @ The Townie, with Shanghai, Althia - free
Sun 11 March @ Black Wire Records, with Mere Women, Faspeedelay and more (rawr, please fill it in), 3pm, all ages $8
Melbourne:
Wed 14 March @ Bar Open, with High Tea and Duck Duck Chop - free
Fri 16 March @ Worker's Club, with TBA
Sat 17 March @ Noise Bar, with Vodnik, plus 2 more, $10
argh! noooo not the weekend of the 16th! that's Grand Prix in Melbong mangs which means accoms are double the price and too expensive for moi :(
whinge whinge
Sun 11 March @ Black Wire Records, with Mere Women, Faspeedelay, Crouching 80s Hidden Acronym and Brain Drain.
will be ace!
I'm gonna have a mega sook nao
stay with us. in the par. or under the bridge.
I slept at Southern Cross station last trip down to Melb on account of a cancelled train. Stranded for 6 hours on no sleep.
Therefore I highly recommend the indoor lounge - lots of crying babies and screaming children, a V/Line inspector who will yell at you for sleeping on the seats and at least one ranting meth head chattering incessantly on his mobile phone.
oh yeah. good times.
surely there are some cheap backpackers.
we got a funding for the tour, staying at the Ritz. or was it Pitz?
yeah there are but I had no money
ooh funding. good work smrts! Have a great tour amigos!
Sick Disc. Seal of approval.
it's not a disc, don't confuse people, it's a vinyl LP only and comes with a free mp3 thingy.
probably the first review that didn't backflip to point out that ITS NOT A CD!!!
High Tea with them, Wed March 14 at Bar Open. Gonna Kill it.
hell yeah.. with Duck Duck Chop too!
i really like the songs & the vibe & ideas & riffs but the guitar playing is always so stiff, as if he can't play what he can come up with... stillllll enjoy though
who is he?
bandcamp
Sat 17 March @ Noise Bar, with Vodnik, plus 2 more, $10
Pioneers of Good Science and Semuta are the +2
Check out PoGS at http://pioneersofgoodscience.bandcamp.com/
Semuta: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Semuta/154039854655205
The tour starts this Friday!
video
video
video
black wire this eve!
nice show tonight. do yourselves a favour, melbourne...
was a very pleasant sunday afternoon filled with joy, happiness and some ace tunes!
hey melbourne - music from other cities!
Wednesday y'all!
Bar Open... tonight.. free... get on down
2 drummers!
what times? i wanna go!
bar open website says doors at 8
so maybe frst band at 9? Ben?
first band 8:30.. then 9:30.. then 10:30
great stuff from smRts last night.. go and see them play kids!
thanks everyone in Sydney and Melbourne, got back to Perth in one piece...
hope to make another trip before end of the year.
the tour, or what I remember of it
nice one pex! great to see you guys.