St. Russell Bombings - s/t LP

From the seemingly unending musical font of talent that is Australia comes Russell St. Bombings. Hailing from Melbourne, the band fea­tures Al Monfort and Zephyr Pavey from such outfits as Total Control, UV Race, East Link and Dick Diver. As one can guess, Russell Street Bombings sounds nothing like any of the aforementioned. How do they sound? With a name that’s been scraped from an otherwise hor­rible event in Melbourne, the pro­spective listener may have cause to expect a sonic assault characterized by aggression and cacophony. Not quite. The seven tracks here range from improv plucking recorded on an iPhone at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera to eight-minute bouts of unrelenting bliss with bits of melody here and there. Henry Rollins had this to say:“Australian music is at a high point pres­ently. It’s hard to keep up with all the great records coming out. The lineup of Russell St Bombings is too amazing to resist. I wonder if the members got together with as much curiosity as to what would be as I was listening to it--which I have. Over and over. Such a cool record.”Russell St. Bombings exist somewhere between a naïve and largely debased commercial art product and the most profound dilemmas of the contemporary situation.