SLOW HOSTAGE RELEASE-TYPE SITUATION #1

A contemporary fanzine! A contemporary local fanzine, at that. This was given to me last week by its owner/operator, Adrian White. Adrian has been an occasional visitor TO the shop the past 3 - 4 years, in between extended stays on the west coast of the US, and earlier on we found ourselves immediately talking about Australian post-punk, which was fitting, because Adrian has been working on a film project documenting Oz "post-punk, DIY and the garage-band continuum" (his words, and fine words at that) for the past few years and has interviewed most of the major players.

Unbeknownst to me, he'd also been working on this fanzine, Slow Hostage Release-Type Situation, a title, I'm afraid, I will never remember, and I even had to consult the index page here to get it right. Adrian dropped in last week and gave me a copy of the debut issue, and the first thing I said was, "Hey, this looks quite a bit like Michael Kucyk's mag, Enthusiasms!", to which he replied that it was an obvious inspiration. Which it is, in both look - same font and similar use of artsy layouts and photography - and in content. That is by no means a bad thing, as both issues of Enthusiasms currently in existence remain excellent reads, and perhaps some time in the future I will discuss them.

SHRTS (let's call it that) features several long-form interviews conducted w/ various players in the Australian underground music scene, some making their splash in the past decade, some first dipping their toes in back in the '70s. These interviews were done over the course of the last several years (and not all by Adrian), and make up contributions to what will eventually be the documentary feature he's working on. Props to the interviewers for digging deep into what makes these folks tick. I would consider a bunch of these folks friends of mine whom I could chat to at any time, and yet I've never sat them down and grilled them about what makes them do what they do the way they are here, because that would be... perhaps a little odd? But one day I will pick Bruce Milne's brain for an entire day and he'll probably hate me for it.

An indepth interview with Bruce [a man for all occasions - look him up] and Phil Brophy [veteran local artist, broadcaster, writer, musician, filmmaker, academic and very active participant in the Clifton Hill "little bands" scene of the late '70s] is the highlight here for me, though all of them are well worth a read: Billy Gardner - gent of a thousand bands and owner/operator of the unbeatable Anti Fade label; Albert Wolski of globetrotting locals, Exek [whom I've been a very big fan of since their debut tape]; Xanthe Waite and Violetta Del Conte-Race of multiple fine acts such as Primo!, Terry, Modal Melodies, etc.

To state the obvious, and the intention of the very publication I speak of, these interviews lay out the continuum of adventurous, independent Australian music over a 45-year period. There's only 150 of these made, and they also come with a copy of R.M.F.C.'s Access 7" on Anti Fade (mine didn't coz it was a freebie), so get on it quick by going to that address on the last page. 54 perfectly-bound pages of goodness happening right now.