Suffering Jukebox

This morning's episode features an interview with Daniel Foggin from UK experimental outfit Smote. Clyppan, Smote's latest album was recently released by Rocket Recordings. Find out more about Smote (and purchase their music) here https://smote.bandcamp.com/

Nick's Pick of the Week is Michael Beach's Big Black Flume. You can hear the whole album in all the usual places, or purchase it here https://michaelbeach.bandcamp.com/album/big-black-plume and my review can be read below.

Michael Beach: Big Black Plume (Poison City)

Released July 25th 2025

Born in California but based in Naarm/Melbourne, Michael Beach has established himself as an in-demand producer, working with the likes of Tropical Fuck Storm, Mere Women, Thigh Master and many others. Alongside his production work, he is also a prolific singer/songwriter, having played in the groups Brain Drugs and Shovels, as well as releasing music under his own name. Big Black Plume is Beach’s fifth solo record and perhaps his most cohesive, yet diverse, record to date.

Big Black Plume features an impressive cast of contributors, reading like a who’s who of Australian experimental and underground music. Gareth Liddiard, Fiona Kitschin, Mick Turner, Lloyd Swanton and Joe Talia —among others— all perform on the album, resulting in a record that constantly shifts and changes, taking the listener on a journey and ensuring they never get bored. 

The press release for Big Black Plume hints at the album’s influences and inspirations. “Equally informed by the songwriting of Bill Fay and Peter Laughner, the minimalism of Tony Conrad and Terry Riley, and the rock and roll heart of the Goner Records roster.” These reference points only tell half the story, however, with elements of Neil Young, Pavement and The Dirty Three also creeping into the songs, adding further colour and shape to an already eclectic record.

Poison Dart —one of the album’s pre-release singles— is a four-minute slab of slacker rock that harkens back to the post-grunge period when bands began to embrace the lopsided weirdness of progressive rock. Sick Century, on the other hand, pays tribute to the heavier periods of Neil Young’s back-catalogue, or perhaps the work of Jason Molina, one of Young’s finest students and an unsung hero of the late 90s/early 00s Chicago underground.

As the album draws to a close, it ends on a trio of slower, more experimental tracks. I’m Gonna Need Ya is a tender ode to love, whilst Deep Blue Eden is an instrumental synth dirge that incorporates the plinky sounds of an old upright piano. Finally, Big Black Plume, the album’s mournful title track, builds slowly before ending in a final chorus that echoes Ben Folds Five’s greatest moments. 

A mixed bag in the best way possible, this is an album that keeps the listener guessing, not allowing them to get too comfortable before darting off in another direction. Big Black Plume is a perfect example of why records are still an essential format, something that Beach understands and capitalises on as he guides the listener down a musical rabbit hole of divergent sounds and styles. A master of interpretation, he incorporates his influences into a mélange of music that knows and celebrates its history, without merely aping it. 

 

Nick Stephan