<p><span><span>- 2021 marks forty-five years since Australian music legend Ed Kuepper recorded his first music with a then unknown band called <strong>The Saints</strong>, and to mark the occasion Kuepper is releasing not one, not two, but three albums of past material covering three very different periods.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>When Kuepper was recording The Saints' first single, he was a twenty-year-old from what was then a tough working class suburb on the far outskirts of Brisbane. That single - <em>(I’m) Stranded</em> - proved to be so groundbreaking that its influence is still felt today.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Over the following four-and-a-half-decades, possibly no other Australian musician has been as prolific as Ed Kuepper. His next band The Laughing Clowns produced a series of albums and EPs before Kuepper started releasing solo material in 1986 - a catalogue which currently stands at well over twenty albums, as well as other assorted EPS, soundtracks and b-sides. He’s also been in a range of other projects and bands, including two completely different that are both called The Aints!.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>If Australian music was a compulsory subject in Australian schools, as I think it should be, then it would be essential to include Ed Kuepper’s music in that. These three releases, each quite unique, would be a good place to start.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The first is a ten song starter pack of Laughing Clowns material. The band are possibly less well known than The Saints but definitely more creative, innovative and musically influential than them, or almost any other Australian band for that matter.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The album is called <em>Golden Days: When Giants Walked the Earth</em>. It includes some of the best known or accessible songs like <em>Eternally Yours</em> and <em>Every Dog has its Day</em>, more obscure tracks like the throbbing racket of <em>Flypaper</em> or the chaotic atonal avant-jazz of <em>Mr Uddich-Schmuddich Goes to Town</em> and plenty else in between. Even ten songs aren’t sufficient to fully represent how eclectic and diverse the overall catalogue of this band is. Given they were selected by Ed Kuepper himself, however, it’s hard to argue too much with his choices.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The second release is a collection of all the solo singles Kuepper released between 1986 & 1996. Twenty songs in all - plus nineteen extra b-sides, EP tracks and others if you get the CD version. A listen across all these will expose you to songs with so many great hooks, rhythms and feels that it really makes it hard to believe that none of them achieved significant commercial success. Although the innate beauty and magic of some are so apparent that they’ve seeped into the Australian consciousness anyway, not least the classic much-covered tune <em>The Way I Made You Feel</em>.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>One problem with Kuepper having produced such an enormous amount of material is that it can be hard to keep across it. Singles by definition tend to be among the most readily appealing releases. And while an artist like Kuepper doesn’t always bother much with convention, this collection of singles is none the less the perfect way to immerse yourself in many of Kuepper’s most classic songs.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The final release is by Kuepper’s latest band, The Aints! It’s a live recording of all the songs from their first album, <em>The Church of the Simultaneous Existence</em>, recorded at the Marrickville Bowlo just two days before the band started the studio recordings of the album. Given they were recorded just days apart, it isn’t surprising that there’s not an enormous difference in structure and sound between the studio and live versions. But the extra energy and rawness of the live performance certainly makes this worth a listen. As an introduction to The Aints! or a special treat for those who are already big fans, this album’s definitely worth a listen.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Altogether, three very different albums that collectively, still, barely dips a toe into the vast and ever expanding ocean of work by one of Australia’s greatest musical artists.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Andrew Bartlett.</span></span></p>
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