What’s the difference between Australian space rock troop PIVOT and Prince?
“Apart from height-nothing!” jokes Richard, the boyish guitarist from the collective that are earning their stripes in the international electro circuit with lyric-less tunes that tickle one pink with computer geek squeaks and game boy loops.
CLASH meets Dave Miller and Richard and Laurenz Pike on the first scorching afternoon in July, three band buddies sipping larger in a Shepherd’s Bush pub. The trios pavement peddling glad rags consisting of denim, casual shirts and sneakers sends red lights flashing to their profession in the midst of the tawdry nine to five patrons slurping down pints in happy hour mayhem. See what you need to know about PIVOT (if you don’t already) is that they master in some wacky spatial prog-ish instrumental that’s equal parts techno nerd and electro edge.
…equal parts techno nerd and electro edge
And yet being the first Australian act to be recruited to the highly lusted over Warp Records, the PIVOT story seems more suited to the relationship column in a commuter read than a music journal. With Dave dwelling in London’s East End and the Pike brothers in sunny Australia, Dave would send his computer made ditties via digital file to Perth for Richard and Laurenz to listen and add too. Once they’d had their way with them, the new track would be sent back to Dave, with the file sharing eventually forming a song. Richard explains,
“Dave would send us loops and we would record over it. It would be from a quite improvised start, as we would send them back to Dave and we would just send files back and forth via FTP.”
It was this self-ruled, long distance, musical relationship, unhindered by time and band room ego that gave the group the creative space to develop their (very) free-wave groove. Speaking seriously, Dave clarifies,
“It was a more democratic process in that if anyone had an idea, they worked with the files and sent it off. It wasn’t like; ‘I have this idea, so let’s discuss it in a room for an hour weather to do it or not.’ You just did it and sent it off.”
And so, in December 2007, the Pike brothers relocated to London staying on friend’s couches so that PIVOT could exist in the one city and learn how to play their recordings live. Leaving jobs in IT and advertising, the well-known corporate playground for frustrated musicians, they now live in a “commune” in outer London, an abandoned primary school that functions doubly as a music space and are playing their hand at making a mark in the UK with their first international release ‘O Soundtrack My Heart’ due out this August.
The record itself is an instrumental journey tripping through artificially flung sounds, psyche-affected guitar and zenith soaring passages. Though there are moments that tinker away waywardly and uninterestingly for the most part ‘O Soundtrack My Heart’ is a glistening listen of progressive melodies and sweet choruses of electro loops, highlighted by title track ‘O Soundtrack My Heart’.
Debut single ‘In The Blood’ swishes like a star ship cruising through a galactic firestorm, and has an equally surreal film clip to accompany it. Shot by Alex Smith (check out the domestic sleaze infused tussle between PEACHES and Iggy Pop in ‘Kick It’- wild!) the video is a cross between Thunderbirds and Rex Hunt’s Fishing World, a shark feeding gore fest with Muppets, it’s the imagined slaughter show of this noted director of strange. Speaking of the visionary filmmaker, Dave recalls,
“Alex has a shark fetish, so for him to be given a track with the word ‘blood’ in the title, it lit a big light bulb on top of his head. Now everyone thinks we are into horror.”
There is a bit of a wall between what can be popular interims of being an instrumental band
Yet joining the jolly mob of electronic acts tripping out of Australia, which has seen the likes of Midnight Juggernauts, Cut Copy and The Presets stun UK audiences with dance friendly tunes, unlike the aforementioned, ‘O Soundtrack My Heart’ is an experience based record rather than a disc you might dance your pants off too, a fact the boys are quick to assert.
“It’s not going to sound like The Presets, which is going to disappoint a few people. But then again, they know not to expect that,” says Richard, giving rise to the question at just how popular and commercially known the instrumental purists can be?
“I would just like to make some money out of music,” the guitarist jokes in a slightly awkward half truth before continuing,
“There is a bit of a wall between what can be popular interims of being an instrumental band. We don’t have a lead singer so how big can a band like that be? But, we are big fans of Jean-Michel Jarre and he was massive, and it’s all instrumental,” he states hopefully. Though their ability to merge into mainstream listening is yet to be seen, their having no problems getting their galactic sonic strides out their, recently playing to nine thousand Chemical Brother’s fans at the Italia Wave festival and recently being hand picked by Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Rós to support them on their Australian pavilion tour, it might not be too long now before we see PIVOT nabbing the crown from their contemporaries. Alas, maybe they have more in common with Prince than first thought.
Pivot’s Top 5 Concept Albums
1. Autechre- LP5
2. NIN- Downward Spiral
3. Prince- Purple rain
4. Talking Heads- Fear of Music
And…
5. Anything that Brian Eno puts his hands too (except the new Coldplay record!)
