Suffering Jukebox

This morning's episode features an interview with Mathieu Ball, who plays guitar in Big|Brave and releases solo music under his own name. Big|Brave recently released OST, their most experimental release yet, via Thrill Jockey. OST was primarily composed during improvised sessions utilising a long stringed instrument built by Ball himself using piano wires found outside (Big|Brave vocalist and guitarist) Robin Wattie's tattoo studio. Find out more about Mathieu and Big|Brave (and purchase their music) here https://mathieuball.bandcamp.com/ and https://bigbrave.bandcamp.com/music

Nick's Pick of the Week is I'm Being Good's Shapeshitter. You can hear the whole album in all the usual places, or purchase it here https://imbeinggood.bandcamp.com/album/shapeshitter and my review can be read below.

I’m Being Good: Shapeshitter (Infinite Chug)

Released 2nd May 2025

Sometimes a band, an album (or both) catches you completely by surprise. I’m Being Good have been around since the early 1990s, but until reading an online review of their most recent album, Shapeshitter, I was completely unaware of their existence. Intrigued by the gloriously awful title —so bad, it has to be good— and a body of text that alluded to complex arrangements, detuned guitars and an overall sense of unease, I had an inkling that the sounds on Shapeshitter would be well within my zone of musical interest.

Originally conceived as a solo project by Andrew Clare, I’m Being Good’s early outings were self-released solo tapes featuring scatterings of original material mixed with Sonic Youth covers performed on a cheap keyboard or synthesiser. The influence of Sonic Youth would remain a rare constant as the group’s sound and style evolved and they cycled through various lineups and record labels. Like Sonic Youth, I’m Being Good utilise alternate tunings, idiosyncratic equipment and unconventional playing styles to formulate their own unique (and at times, baffling) sound.

Shapeshitter is bookended by two long songs, both in excess of six minutes, album opener Parasol and its closer Tiny Cancer. Parasol’s sense of melody is so askew that it sounds like Jandek attempting to write a country-pop tune, whereas Tiny Cancer feels like a transmission from a parallel universe wherein Shellac write the soundtracks to Hollywood blockbusters. 

Red Boy and Have I Got Noose For You are perhaps the album’s weirdest moments, which sets a pretty high bar for how “out there” they sound. Red Boy’s atonal strings and irregular bursts of noise will do little to endear it to anyone not inclined toward the avant-garde, whilst Have I Got Noose For You with its unsteady, drunken rhythm is reminiscent of a sea shanty from hell. 

There are moments that teeter on the verge of conventionality, Overton Window and Appropriate Infinite Universe being two such examples. Each of these songs would not feel out of place in the repertoire of some of the most leftward leaning math-rock groups of the late 1990s or early 2000s, imagine the bastard child of Don Caballero and Tera Melos and you’d be pretty damn close to the mark.

One of the rewards of listening to so much music is the joy of a new discovery. At times “the chase” can be an overwhelming and downright daunting task, especially given the sheer volume of music that is currently being released. Albums like Shapeshitter are the reason why listeners like myself never tire of “the chase”, for they offer something that comes from so far out of left field that it forces you to recalibrate your compass. Initially, Shapeshitter may seem weird and unfamiliar, but I urge you to give it a chance. Who knows, you just might enjoy it.

Nick Stephan