Bitumen: Cleareye Shining | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Bitumen is the coalescence of four absolute music obsessives, based in Naarm/Melbourne by way of Nipaluna/Hobart, whose singular style of industrial post-punk (to put it loosely) first cut like a jagged knife though the landscape of the antipodean punk scene back in 2016. With an EP, split & one phenomenal LP behind them, Cleareye Shining is their highly anticipated savage sophomore album, out today via Heavy Machinery Records & Flash Forward.

My audience will already be familiar with my Bitumen adoration, so what follows is more of a blow-by-blow of the tracks, each with their own peculiar personality, which give form to this beguiling body of work.

The album commences with Paint & Draw, full of swerving guitars, downtempo synths and lyrics thrown at you both directly & intimately. It’s an incredibly smooth opening track which aptly sets the mood & piques the senses for what’s to follow. The accompanying music video is a hyper-slick work of unsettling visual storytelling. Filmed at night, under the strict statewide curfews of the Victorian lock-down, it’s a semi-unconscious nod to stylised detective dramas & free-form art-house flicks. To me, it recalled Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 brilliant & unnerving film, Under the Skin. While vocalist Kate Binning, who directed & shot the video, claims she ‘didn’t really know what she was doing’, it proves her talents as an exceptional storyteller extend far beyond that of a simple lyricist.

Track two, Moving Now Now Now, throws us off course with breakbeats & a squeaky clean guitar tone, so unexpectedly '90’s paisley pop that it genuinely caught me off guard on first listen. As the track careens, I catch glimpses of Cranes, Gala era Lush & more recently, Daisies from the PNW. How refreshing! The track fades gently into the distance and we find ourselves on a slightly slower, slightly off-kilter stroll around Colosseum; a delightfully pared back offering that showcases the intricate guitar work of Bryce Maher & Sam Varney alongside Simon Maisch’s expert programming.

Out of Athens, the first single taken off the album, is a plucky, poetic tale of unrequited love set to a moody bassline, drums set to ‘darkwave’, layers of synth & angular, almost jangly guitar that shouldn't work so well together in theory, yet in practice, comes together seamlessly as one of the albums more instantly catchy cuts.

Track five, Put Down My Name, recalls Bitumen's earlier work. The influence of blackened speed metal, early industrial drum machines and deathrock tinged rhythm sections quicken the album's pace while Binning's snippy lyrics and screeches spike though like thorns on this delightfully driven track, where the band's informed influences are on full creative display.

With Intention delivers us to the industrial goth club of my dreams (which, if you’re wondering, is a mix between the one I run, and the underground cave rave from the third Matrix film.) Bouncing basslines, danceable drum programming, obnoxious guitar tones & sultry vocals. It’s the gearnerd lovechild of Sisters of Mercy, Boy Harsher, and Aurat. A deft display of OST style industrial pop - which if not already an official genre, really should be.

It’s around this point in the album I notice my anxiety has been slowly building. I catch myself wondering if Cleareye Shining is a cleaner, shinier offering from Bitumen, which eschews the enormous, unrelenting wall of noise industrial style tracks that 2018’s Disciple Reaction had in spades. It’s clear that almost two years of lockdown afforded the band time to distill & further develop their already impressive songwriting & signature sound; nothing & no one could go through the intense alchemical process of isolation, uncertainty and frustration and remain unchanged. And yet, I found myself selfishly coveting something a little darker, heavier, messier even, the familiar brooding of Bitumen I knew and loved.

Then, in an almost spiritual response to my silent prayers, Track seven: Spun Gold Heaving rains down upon us and we are not worthy. Hand on the bible, it’s one of the best songs I've heard all year; gothic industrial metal of unholy proportions. I dare you to try and stop yourself smiling, horns high in the air, head-a-thrashing at the 3:15 mark when all hell breaks loose with a Godflesh-y/ Emperor-y, blackbreakdown.

Track eight: Envelopes Full pushes us deeper into the heavy, hazy depths of the album. A groaning, grimey slowburn that lures us into the back of Luxury Auto, the sparse, specuatular six minute closing track of the album.

Look, I have to leave it there, I’ve absolutely gone over the word limit & the editor's going to hate me, but this album is just so good. With Cleareye Shining Bitumen have created a true work of art that is entirely their own. It furthers the canons of industrial, post-punk & electronica into bold new territory both beautifully refined and exhilaratingly unnerving.

- Dominique Furphy.
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