AST139: TROTH - LIVE AT A NATURAL LOW, ALCHEMIX STUDIOS C24
Somehow, in-between the various lockdowns of 2021, Troth were still able to sneak across patrolled lines and perform in clandestine gatherings of likeminded sound foragers. We visited our spiritual home of the Blue Mountains, our other favourite place to play live - Brisbane, the oddly hip Wombarra bowls club and also a quick jaunt to Australia’s live music capital, Melbourne. The different perspective we had on playing our songs, after so much time only sharing them between each other, was a mostly vital and heartening experience.
Our first night in Brisbane saw us play a more ‘synth-pop’ oriented set with an amazing and diverse lineup of local Brisburnouts. The second night was a more experimental and intimate affair, organised by the ever-reliable Ben of the Essential Minerals tape label, A Natural Low series of sound installations and also an elusive duo who played with us on the night, Reptile. Along with these two scaly critters, we were joined by the now-relocated, but longtime novocastrian nutbar, Cock Safari performing with his amazing tape robot and the debut duo performance of Phrose (Tralala Blip) and Fecal Palms (Michael Donnelly of 6majik9, Sky Needle, Unwar, and on…).
It was a really special show, at least to me. I sensed that the feeling was mutual from the general bliss’d sonic stone of the audience following the evening’s entertainments. The venue itself was a small, red-lit recording studio in Brisbane’s formerly BoHo, but now staunchly yuppified West End. The studio’s engineer was kind enough to perfectly capture the night’s emanations, the text notification going off during one of our tracks is a testament to this being a room recording, otherwise it would be fairly difficult to tell.
The set comprises a track from our 2020 LP, Flaws In The Glass, a longform piece from 2021’s Small Movements In Radiance and two new ones taken from our recently released album on Knekelhuis (the last of which had never been rehearsed before, let alone played live).
The tape comes in a small calico bag with a sun patch individually painted and sewn-on by Amelia. Numbered to 20 copies.
A portion of all sales will be donated to the local community garden where we help out, Smokva.
www.smokva.garden
released January 29, 2022