For Whom the Rhythm Tolls
Rhythm Bell were spotted by Melbs recently when they supported Something for Kate at the Peninsula Lounge in Moorooduc. This Mornington Peninsula band’s mathy, post-emo rock was an affront to certain sectors of the SFK audience, unprepared for the onslaught of shifting rhythms, angular guitar lines and screamed-word vocals.
Both the venue and the band, though, say something of the Melbourne scene’s strength. Although situated on the very outskirts of the Melbourne metro region—where sprawl meets foggy paddocks—the Peninsula Lounge has recently been taken over by the Eastnorthcornerbrunswickspanishcoteclub empire. This acquisition suggests that the pulse of Melbourne’s beating musical heart can be felt a good sixty kilometres out from the dance-floor of Click Click. (Of course, the standard fare on offer at the Moorooduc venue will be Ian Moss and Black Sorrows tours. But if the quickly delivered “sold out” status of the SFK show is any indication, mid-to-large size [and indie-ish?] Australian bands will include it on their tour dates, just as some now do with the similarly situated Ruby’s in Belgrave.)
Just down an unlit road from this satellite Moorooduc venue, Rhythm Bell has been burrowed down in brick veneer, sorting their 5/8 time signatures, getting a suitably angry bass sound and trying out distortion pedals. Hearing their lovingly-crafted mixture of dissonant, spidery guitar lines and restless rhythms in an outer-suburban setting—car headlights streaking past out the corner of stageward eyes, the journeys to Dromana and beyond momentarily soundtrack’d by noisy young men—recalled the Nation Blue’s lyrics to the title track from their Damnation album. On that Nation Blue track, the voice of alienation describes a desolate landscape of urban and suburban angst (“moving north as the we head out of the suburbs, no right turns in overtaking lanes / sharing blocks are the high schools and the prisons” etc). Moments after that thought struck, Rhythm Bell announced they’d be playing with Nation Blue at Ding Dong on the 9th of June.
It makes sense; there’s a lot in common here. But there’s something in common, too, with another Melbourne band they cite in their Myspace “influences”—My Disco. Well, it’s a similarity with that band’s earlier material at least. (Because if recent shows and recordings of My Disco suggest anything, their album will mark a shift to a kind of metal machine music—angular, rigid and logical in a steely and unsettling way.)
- Rhythm Bell
- Masquerade
- from Rhythm Bell EP
Not all of the ideas on the Rhythm Bell’s debut EP really come off, but enough of them do to make it a worthwhile exercise. Their recent set too trotted out some newer material which sounded much more convincing and coherent. And, besides, this is music best experienced live—with full sight of veins dilating as the singer screams, a quadbox blasting eardrums and a drummer deftly dancing time signatures all over the song’s steady core.