The self-produced Australian Dez Dare is a bit of an enigma, he has spent over three decades producing music, releasing, and touring bands, and doing live sound for z-grade metal bands. Growing up in the coastal town of Geelong (Djilang) in Australia, he was introduced to the DIY punk and rock scene at fifteen and this community and the ideas rooted in the underground music scene have guided his output and ethics throughout his career. His music has been described as “DIY psych punk, experimental art-punk, garage punk with lyrical barbs and musical hooks” and he releases his fourth album ‘A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin.’ this month.
The album opens with `Got a Fire In My Socket` which appears to be a rapid discourse about wires, their uses and the operative who is fitting them at a swift pace and seems totally obsessed about them.
A number that has that feel for me, of the new wave, art-punks Devo. There`s a similar sensibility to `Matter Vs Matter` which may be about the very substance of our existence but shared over a tribal drum beat and skewed synth and guitar riffs.
The wonderfully titled `10,000 Monkeys + An Argument With Time` is lyrically pretty surreal and its sentiment is shared over what could be the background noise to a video or computer game. I thought that `No One Wants To Hear It` was as rhythmic as any Dez Dare song could be. The words of wisdom shared seems to be about the narrator`s demise possibly. A number that at times had a nigh on heavy metal vibe.
`Gotta Cold Feeling` has a pounding drum beat and underlying fuzzy guitar riff as the storyteller shares his fear of somebody close when they look him in the eye to share what may well be distressing news. According to the world wide web `Entangled Entropy` is a measure of the degree of quantum entanglement between two subsystems constituting a two-part composite quantum system. So, with that cleared up, the song itself is a delightfully melodic, hypnotic enticing earworm.
`Call My City, Don’t Call My Telephone` has a grinding garage-punk texture allowing the singer to share a bizarre stream of consciousness. We enjoy a much more psychedelic outing with `Josephine Says Explode` which is wrapped up in Josephine and her combustible existence.
`Schrödinger’s Apocalypse` is a pretty stop start number that may be about the renowned physicist`s destruction or annihilation rather than his famous feline!! In `The Elasticity Of Knowing` we have the longest track on the album and it`s a fairy involved journey or voyage that becomes utterly mesmeric as it evolves and grows. It ends with what sounds like a distorted digeridoo and leads into the final number `A Billion Voices Screaming, Hello Void!`. This final composition seems like an extension or part two of the previous number with some shouted discourse on route before the track`s title is recited repeatedly along with other off kilter sentiments before fading out.
‘A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin.’ is a pretty interesting listen and really doesn`t fit into any genres apart from possibly experimental or art-rock. The lyrics at times were beyond my comprehension but the music kept me in tune when they became tooooooooo surreal. It`s a pretty eclectic offering but for me I found it delightfully compelling and rewarding and i`m sure you will as well, if you`re prepared to invest the forty minutes required to let it envelop you.
Rating 9/10
