EMBERS Slag-Welter (2008) Digipak CD

There's a particular breed of Australian musician who refuses to let genre get in the way of a good noise. Embers were that breed, and Slag-Welter is the proof.

Released in 2008, this Melbourne outfit operated somewhere in the difficult-to-map territory between jazz improvisation and post-rock abrasion, the kind of record that rewards patience and punishes background listening. It's got the loose-limbed unpredictability of free jazz colliding with the density of heavy rock, sitting comfortably alongside the experimental end of the Australian underground scene that was quietly doing interesting things while everyone else looked overseas. Comes housed in a digipak, which it absolutely deserves.

CD in digipak format. Australian release, 2008.

Fans of: Cyprus, Dillinger Escape Plan, Bucketrider.