Perte & Fracas review, translated into English (NOT via Google translate!)
Highlights:
"You all know that thing with the well-kept secret, the totally unknown band which is actually the best thing in the world and you?re a total dickhead if you haven?t heard of them. When really it?s just a wet fart and false promises. Well maybe for once, it?s possibly true. The Stickmen were a fucken great group and no one ever gave a shit about them."
"The populace will finally get to know the secret. And it?s bloody great."
"In fact this album is similar to a big part of Flying Nun?s catalogue, of germs of New Zealand music, The Gordons, Straightjackets Fits, the unbridled, repetitive, noisy cavalcades and the innate sense of exotic, crotchety and sad melody.""And, above all, despite remastering, this is music is timeless and could have been written today. The best album of 2013 came out in 1998."
"This second album takes a little longer to hit its target but which reveals itself to be just as catchy, heady and indispensible as the first, with songs which go further into the indescribable. Magically good."http://www.perteetfracas.org/zine/kros2014/kros_s/the_stickmen_self_titled_man_made_stars.htmYou all know that thing with the well-kept secret, the totally unknown band which is actually the best thing in the world and you?re a total dickhead if you haven?t heard of them. When really it?s just a wet fart and false promises. Well maybe for once, it?s possibly true. The Stickmen were a fucken great group and no one ever gave a shit about them. It?s kind of true that they did everything so it worked out like this. Like it says on the sticker on the vinyl: few photos, no interview, no egos. Two self-released albums only put out on CD in 1998 and 1999 which never left Tasmania, their homeland and did not go beyond the borders of its floating neighbour: Australia. The cult was about to be born. And, among the admirers, The Drones. In February 2013, those guys asked The Stickmen to play at the ATP festival and fourteen years after their disappearance complete obscurity, The Stickmen once more hit the stage. That was all that was needed to reignite the flame and Homeless Records, the rising label of the land of Kangaroos, is rereleasing these two celebrated albums, only on vinyl, in thick pouches which are hard to get the disks back into without forcing them in like crazy.
The populace will finally get to know the secret. And it?s bloody great. The Drones are sometimes mentioned in talking about The Stickmen but that?s all because The Drones resuscitated them, it?s laziness though I have to admit, in a pinch, it?s also because of some guitar moments. But The Stickmen?s music is much more angular, more post-punk, especially on the first album, whose cover is inspired by The Walking Man, a bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. In fact this album is similar to a big part of Flying Nun?s catalogue, of germs of New Zealand music, The Gordons, Straightjackets Fits, the unbridled, repetitive, noisy cavalcades and the innate sense of exotic, crotchety and sad melody. Songs like the amazing "Without A Clue", "Creep Inside", "Who Said It Should Be Good?" (the long version of which can be downloaded with the code inside each album) really makes me want to get the first plane for Wellington and bow down before Aldous Kelly, the heavy head of The Stickmen, who now lives in New Zealand.
But The Stickmen, even if they remind you of lots of other groups, are quite unique, just by looking at their structure which is made up of a dude on records, (Matt Geeves) and also the traditional guitar/singing, bass (Luke Osborne) drums (Ianto Kelly, Aldous? cousin). Vinyl played live in gigs and which on record brings their own level of interference, noise and sonic support which is not always easy to identify from Kelly?s unleashed guitar. And this guitar is the lynchpin of the Stickmen. In a section which is rhythmic to the point of mechanical, Aldous Kelly runs the show playing in turns dry, frantic, noisy or psychedelic. The songs can as much seem like sharp arrows as improvisations, or heavy rock?n?roll blues digressions, as Aldous Kelly himself describes them, as seen in the songs "Wired Wrong", "On the March" or the smoky ballads "Ashtray" and "Youthful". And, above all, despite remastering, this is music is timeless and could have been written today. The best album of 2013 came out in 1998.
With Man Made Stars, on a beautiful blue vinyl, The Stickmen keep up their haunting work, and accentuate their psychedelic side and the tormented fantasising that derives from it. The recording is even more ?live? than the first album, Matt keeps up his destabilising work, the rhythms are hypnotic, almost relegated to secondary, and Aldous Kelly?s guitar regurgitates devilish ideas and obsessive motifs. The tunes expand, alternating between poisonous slow, melancholic darkness, in the style of the band Lowercase, ghostly, noisy wanderings, sudden frenzy and magnetic sonic landscapes. More than once you get the impression that they?re freewheeling, taking off on lunar jams, yet keeping their intensity and focus. This second album takes a little longer to hit its target but which reveals itself to be just as catchy, heady and indispensible as the first, with songs which go further into the indescribable. Magically good.
Now that the band has reactivated, The Stickmen could do anything. Writing new songs, drawing on their supply which hasn?t given up all its secrets or going back into retirement. They could die or do whatever they want. These albums are here to stay. And they?re definitely not going to slip back into anonymity.
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