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CD
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CF 141CD
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"Gliding in on the twin engine discordant tones we've come to love from EXEK comes their new transmission Advertise Here. Beats bumping up thru a flapping spring reverb, gilded production choices, striped bass bubbling in the cauldron. With each pass of the witch's ladle, words float in the steam over the cacophonous concoction. The coven that croons together slays together, with every layer peeling back on our ear's tongue we will exclaim 'wicked' -- perhaps their strongest effort yet. The twin engines reappear now, tardy, guitar and synthesis, rounded edges, worn and ever so slightly fuzzed out -- perfection. This LP strives for new lyrical highs in my opinion. Pop at an arm's length, thru a greasy lens: A conversation. A conversation on drugs. A passing comment that sticks an utterance from the death bed. Reminiscent of Brian Eno, White Fence, PiL, Full Circle, ESG, all things Geoff Barrows, Eroc, Lard Free, and music of free weirdos everywhere. This one is the mossy titled deck of a half submerged shipwreck, a green light in a red room, a lump of clay, the end of the night when you think 'perhaps I should have left ages ago,' but it's too late now... you're in too deep... might as well have one more dance." "This LP is leaping even further out into the unknown for EXEK. A trip indeed, full of hits with zero diss and lots of hiss on no near miss." --John Dwyer
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CF 141LP
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LP version. "Gliding in on the twin engine discordant tones we've come to love from EXEK comes their new transmission Advertise Here. Beats bumping up thru a flapping spring reverb, gilded production choices, striped bass bubbling in the cauldron. With each pass of the witch's ladle, words float in the steam over the cacophonous concoction. The coven that croons together slays together, with every layer peeling back on our ear's tongue we will exclaim 'wicked' -- perhaps their strongest effort yet. The twin engines reappear now, tardy, guitar and synthesis, rounded edges, worn and ever so slightly fuzzed out -- perfection. This LP strives for new lyrical highs in my opinion. Pop at an arm's length, thru a greasy lens: A conversation. A conversation on drugs. A passing comment that sticks an utterance from the death bed. Reminiscent of Brian Eno, White Fence, PiL, Full Circle, ESG, all things Geoff Barrows, Eroc, Lard Free, and music of free weirdos everywhere. This one is the mossy titled deck of a half submerged shipwreck, a green light in a red room, a lump of clay, the end of the night when you think 'perhaps I should have left ages ago,' but it's too late now... you're in too deep... might as well have one more dance." "This LP is leaping even further out into the unknown for EXEK. A trip indeed, full of hits with zero diss and lots of hiss on no near miss." --John Dwyer
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CF 128CD
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"A weird trip of a band... the second this was playing I was immediately hooked. I initially dove in because their name was attached to Mikey Young for mastering (I have a rule with Mikey... if he had his hands on it, it's probably worth a listen). This band exceeds in all my trials. Esoteric nature, but oddly poppy and ready to prick up any ears out there. Deconstructed, but full of hooks. If I were a lazy man, and I am, I would say its for fans of PiL, but they transcend that pigeon-hole. Wonderful production lends its self to this unique LP. It seems as if the room expands and contracts throughout songs. Pulling away, then blocking your field of vision entirely. Wasteland funk. Dub from the depths. Punk from the pit. Even the instrumentation is worth mentioning: saxophone, drums (and cut-up drums), guitar, synthesizer, vocals (poetry) and general fuckery all combine to make this a very interesting and worthwhile escape from the average. And thank the Gods for that right now. Inspired and desired by the active mind. A job well done by EXEK, and there's new stuff brewing too... For fans of BEAK>, Phantom Band, PIL and general Jah Wobbleness, Magazine, short-wave radio, ESG and underground Kraut." --John Dwyer
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CF 128LP
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LP version. "A weird trip of a band... the second this was playing I was immediately hooked. I initially dove in because their name was attached to Mikey Young for mastering (I have a rule with Mikey... if he had his hands on it, it's probably worth a listen). This band exceeds in all my trials. Esoteric nature, but oddly poppy and ready to prick up any ears out there. Deconstructed, but full of hooks. If I were a lazy man, and I am, I would say its for fans of PiL, but they transcend that pigeon-hole. Wonderful production lends its self to this unique LP. It seems as if the room expands and contracts throughout songs. Pulling away, then blocking your field of vision entirely. Wasteland funk. Dub from the depths. Punk from the pit. Even the instrumentation is worth mentioning: saxophone, drums (and cut-up drums), guitar, synthesizer, vocals (poetry) and general fuckery all combine to make this a very interesting and worthwhile escape from the average. And thank the Gods for that right now. Inspired and desired by the active mind. A job well done by EXEK, and there's new stuff brewing too... For fans of BEAK>, Phantom Band, PIL and general Jah Wobbleness, Magazine, short-wave radio, ESG and underground Kraut." --John Dwyer
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DR 038LP
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"From Melbourne Australia, EXEK are proud to unveil their third album, Some Beautiful Species Left. Like their previous releases, Some Beautiful Species Left is the cultivation of numerous edits and overdubs, where once again EXEK subscribe to Brian Eno's philosophy of the studio as an instrument. This MO allows the songwriting process to develop simultaneously alongside the recording process whilst privileging greater sonic control. The result is a record difficult to pigeonhole but post punk is perhaps the easiest way to categories EXEK's music -- post-modern and containing the defiance inherent within punk whilst incorporating elements of dub production, classical arrangements, hip hop and krautrock rhythms and the use of kitchen appliances as instruments."
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W25 005LP
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"Melbourne's EXEK began as a studio project with frontman Albert Wolski before the 2014 formation of the four-piece line up with Andrew Brocchi (synthesizer), Henry Wilson (bass) and Sam Dixon (drums). With the addition of Nell Grant on saxophone, the group's sound entered another dimension that reveals EXEK to be conjuring the ghosts of PiL, This Heat and Swell Maps. Ahead Of Two Thoughts, EXEK's sophomore release, pushes headlong into haunted, post-punk territories. Opening track 'U Mop' pairs sneering vocals with elastic bass and spectral guitars, while the elliptical discourse of 'Weight Loss (Henry's Dream)' is accentuated by reverbed drums that would make Martin Hannett proud. Superior Viaduct's W.25TH imprint presents Ahead Of Two Thoughts, a never-ending loop of dub-infected textures and anxious lyrics. Mastered by Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Total Control), this tightly coiled album recorded in 2015-2016 could easily be mistaken for a classic 4AD title from the '80s."
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ADA 007LP
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Exek present their debut LP Biased Advice, following a self-titled cassette EP (2014) and a single contribution to a split cassette (2015). Biased Advice collects rerecorded and past material, which together stands as the fullest realization of an Exek identity, honed during two years of haunting Melbourne's live gig circuit. Before forming as a four-piece band in 2014, Exek remained an abstract concept in the mind of front man-to-be, Albert Wolski. With songs written but no musicians to perform them, he enlisted Andrew Brocchi (synthesizer), Henry Wilson (bass) and Sam Dixon (drums) and they began recording material according to Wolski's vision. The addition of Nell Grant on saxophone made previously murky reference points plainly obvious: Exek are the progeny of a Melbourne scene that established itself around Dave Chesworth and Philip Brophy's Innocent record label of the 1980s and its greatest offering, Essendon Airport's 1981 album, Palimpsest (CH 087CD). But Exek dared to abandon the pop and funk tropes of the early Australian new wave scene reaching out to German post-punk of the same era. Wolski's songwriting is akin to records put out by Hannover's No Fun Records and Hamburg's Zickzack, channeling the droll lyricism of 39 Clocks, saturated with self-deprecating attitude. Their vision mirrors Tuxedomoon's "Holiday for Plywood" but crucially, Biased Advice is a sermon that Exek preach to themselves. The band pit themselves as both victims and saviors living in a world that's trying to extinguish them. The conceptual weight carried in Wolski's lyrics follows on from process. Dub and other studio techniques are used throughout Biased Advice and are no better evidenced in the 16-minute modern (and instant) classic, "Baby Giant Squid". This song remains unchanged from its cassette release on Melbourne's Resistance/Restraint label, but here it lays bare its perfection over a whole side of the record. Basslines that stand out one moment give way to dubbed out percussion, hissing tape delay and reverb drenched vocals. Simply, this post-kraut-dub-psyche-punk excursion looks back over it's shoulder as it leaves "Bella Lugosi's Dead" for dead. It's a sublime balance of improvisation and cold calculation. It's the tension between this teetering psychotic nihilism and arrangement with studio-like precision that gives Biased Advice the tone of a forewarning. But of what?
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