Label: Innocent – NON 13 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album Country: Australia Released: 1982 Genre: Electronic Style: New Wave, Experimental, Minimal
Awkward, playful upright-funk and stripped-back art school song-craft from Australian underground music mastermind David Chesworth and his Essendon Airport band of pranksters.
For anyone digging into Aussie experimental underground scene of the 1980s, one of the names that’ll consistently jump out is David Chesworth. Based in Melbourne, Essendon Airport initially began as an instrumental spin-off to the incredible → ↑ → (tsk tsk tsk) project, later swelling to a full 5 piece and yielding this solo LP Palimpsest on their own Innocent private label. The group strike a weird balance of sounding both messy / tangled and also quite tight, layering minimalistic grooves and patterns that gradually build and lock into their own little polyrhythmic microcosms before ending. None of the tracks outstay their welcome, but when they allow the songs to sweat out a little things are best, like with ‘I See A Song Coming On’ and ‘What Is This Thing Called Funk’ which both dilate over rigid, almost mechanical percussion before settling into a place you could happily stay all afternoon. A true standout, eccentric and most importantly FUN record from an interesting and fertile scene, replete with hand-made sleeve and screen printed plastic cover albeit RARE. The sorta record you might see once in a lifetime. (NM / VG+ - with Xerox insert - plastic outer in good condition, see pics).
Tracklist A1 Correct Pitch? A2 No Quarter A3 Re-funkt A4 I Feel A Song Coming On A5 Jig A6 Like Young A7 Trad Jazz B1 Science Of Sound B2 Beguine B3 What Is This Thing Called Funk? B4 Rhythm Method B5 Entrance Of The Gladiators B6 Happy Ending
