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Mind Full

Over Under Away – Volume I is the first compilation LP from Melbourne independent label ​Hopestreet Recordings and is released to celebrate their 10th anniversary.It features 10 tracks from Hopestreet’s first generation of artists: psych-Bollywood SciFi orchestra ​The Bombay Royale​, cinematica pioneers ​The Cactus Channel​, soul queen ​Emma Donovan and her mighty band ​The Putbacks ​and dusty country soul from ​The Meltdown, ​plus ​a couple of rarely heard gems, an afrobeat rap cut by One Sixth​ and a Marvin Gaye inspired environmental panic anthem by ​Zillanova feat. Cisco Tavares​.Over Under Away is the label’s creation story. The material in Volume I was created in Hopestreet’s infancy, when the same people played in all the bands, and everyone who worked in the office was also making the records. If a compilation put together out of nine different albums sounds unusually cohesive, it’s because the same people performed, wrote and produced all the songs. Putbacks guitarist Tom Martin leads the charge, appearing on 8 out of 10 cuts. All production and engineering duties were shared by label founders Bob Knob and Tristan Ludowyk. These days are past, but the aim of Over Under Away – Volume I is to represent the seed that grew into the label as it is today.The compilation takes its name from a song on ​Emma Donovan & The Putbacks’ 2014 album ​Dawn​. Over Under Away is a story of struggle, perseverance and, above all else, patience. About growing from small beginnings to “sing and shout and talk up loud.” Hopestreet began as a recording experiment, an afternoon goof between friends in a decrepit factory in Brunswick. The only ingredients were an Otari tape machine, some decent musicians and little bit of goodwill. When the label started, 7a Hope Street was surrounded by a desert of vacant industrial property. Now it’s surrounded by gleaming new apartment complexes. In that moment between decay and gentrification a little magic happened. Now the label, like it’s surroundings continues to evolve, but this compilation celebrates that fleeting point in time and everything that grew from there.

Hopestreet Recordings: ...The Cactus Channel’s third album Stay A While takes the orchestrated soul futurism that has become their signature sound and adds silvery vocal dimensions, as the band’s own Lewis Coleman steps up to the mic. The band has recently shared the video for their first single “Storefront” and announced a huge national tour (dates below).Three is the magic number for The Cactus Channel. The ever-evolving Melbourne collective’s new album represents a new consciousness and a decisive turning point. Unloosed from their earlier incarnation as an instrumental soul and funk band into something wilder, a little darker and heavier, the new album sees The Cactus Channel diving in deep to dreamlike soundtracks, electrifying wig-outs and woozy meditations.

Hopestreet Recordings: ...The best way to speed up a chemical reaction is to invite change and introduce an outside force: light, heat, movement. As The Cactus Channel know full well, the same goes with sound — introducing change compels a composition forward, as it rises, falls, peaks and boils. On their first release of 2017, vocalist Sam Cromack (Ball Park Music, My Own Pet Radio) is this catalyst for change, as the band collaborate with him on a full EP, introduced by lead single “Sorry Hills”.

Hopestreet Recordings: ...From the first few notes, it sounds like the real thing. Piano and bass riff hard. Percussion enters. ¡Oiga Papa! Listen up! The trombones come in thick and strong. Fantasía, the first song on Quarter Street’s self-titled LP is authentic ‘salsa dura’ from the old school. Hard salsa. It’s not shiny, it’s not clean and poppy or unduly jazzy. It’s tough, it’s gritty and ballsy, and in terms of musicianship, writing and production, it straight up cooks.

Efficient Space: ...Le Raccourci is a welcome introduction to the world of modern classical identity Sebastian Gandera. The impressionist landscapes of a sensitive soul self-reflecting, these miniature compositions alternate across a rudimentary set up of piano, field recorder, sampler and four track. Melancholic utterings hastily captured some 100km east of Paris.Classically trained by the same teacher as his parents, Gandera first began recording in the confines of his university dorm room, inspired by a C60 from friend and future collaborator Bernard Odot (A Gethsémani). Humbly existing without sparing a thought to music industry or career, Gandera’s personal effects surfaced via the European and US cassette networks from 1988 to 1994. Impressively accomplished for the DIY scene they orbited, these tapes were issued in scant quantities, rendering his pieces as private secrets shared and duplicated in small concentric circles. Aside from a sole, avowedly traumatic performance, the material was never shared in a live context.Selected by Sky Girl co-conspirer Julien Dechery, Le Raccourci culls 15 tracks from Gandera’s extensive cassette discography, discarded DAT recordings, and split CD with Lyon toy music project Klimperei. These sentiently charged compositions only hint at his larger catalogue, but act as a compelling cross section of the artist’s oeuvre. The identity is further detailed by archival images, Glen Goetze penned liner notes and original artwork from Perks and Mini’s Misha Hollenbach.While Gandera’s nostalgic melodies incidentally parallel with the piano key manoeuvres of Pascal Comelade, Robert Haigh and Dominique Lawalrée, Le Raccourci could only stem from the escapist desires of one Eric Morin.