Various Artists: Collapse Theories | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Is society on the brink of collapse? Environmental change, the depletion of resources, war and invasion, disease and class inequality certainly make one vulnerable; and if not, how would you describe the current state of affairs, your experience of it and the future ...using vibrations? Over the course of twenty-eight previously unreleased tracks, underground experimental musicians from across Australia present their Collapse Theories on the latest release from New Weird Australia.

New Weird Australia is “mutant music from the upside down…. designed to challenge our collective understanding of what music can and should be”, so says its curator Stuart Buchanan. What started as a passion project to promote local experimental music in 2009 and initially as a radio program, is now a multidimensional platform. With an output of twenty-six compilation albums, one-hundred-and-twenty-five episodes of a podcast, a film and a newsletter for subscribers, it’s arguably the most definitive source.

Collapse Theories opens with Yolnju/Arnhem Land based artist Kris Keogh and Nintendo Kick Drum Avalanche, an electronic firecracker of '80’s shoot ‘em up arcade sound effects and glitches. The next few tracks feature Ngunnawal/Canberra, Naarm/Melbourne and Warrang/Sydney based artists and altogether they are an eclectic mix of electronica of varying colours and textures highlighted by Grievous Assaku from Bacchus Harsh. Scraps, now based in Nipaluna/Hobart softens the mood with an ethereal piece before Aphir and Lack the Low from artist run collective Provenance lift the tempo and the intensity. The next several tracks tend toward the unsettling, riven with mania and paranoia which is broken by the hypnotic lo-fi rapping of Ali Wan Hill. The brilliant Querio Volar by neo-psychedelic duo The Omega Point, the sorrowful instrumental of Bantam by Haunts and the catharsis of Melanie Eden on End of Known are just some of the highlights on the back end.

The album is expansive and heterogenous and a celebration of the diversity, quality and depth of innovation within the Australian underground music scene. It’s also unpredictable, and the outcome of the listening experience will depend on your willingness to take a trip and have your consciousness altered. Whatever your Collapse Theory, trust your psychedelic guide, Buchanan, embrace the pleasurable and surrender to the frightening.

- Tristan Birrell.