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The Offtopics: new single & album

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One of the joys of working in radio is being able to promote great music that a lot of people otherwise may not hear.

Whether that be a new young artist, like singer Matilda Poole, or niche US band The Cybertronic Spree, being able to spruik music you love is just a joy unto itself.

Matilda Poole live on The Big DJ Trev 3rd anniversary show!

Therefore I am very happy to give a shout out to The Offtopics.  Having gone to University with frontman Polash Larsen, I have fond memories of him strumming his guitar at parties or in the beer garden at The Eagle Bar, and it’s fantastic that decades later he is still making music.  Several years ago I was able to promote on The Big DJ Trev Show on KRRfm the Polash from the Garden album (Melbourne Rain still makes me think wistfully of the city I lived in for so long), so am very happy I get to do so again for the The Offtopics new single and upcoming album.

Check out their press release below:

 MELBOURNE’S PURVEYORS OF PUNCH-DRUNK FUNK AND UNSTEADY ROCKSTEADY RELEASE FIRST NEW SINGLE SINCE THE BEFORETIMES

Send Me To The Doctor is the first single to be released from Naarm-based quirky soul band The Offtopics’ forthcoming album Tomorrow is a Month Away. Inspired by the band’s typically absurdist worldview the song presents a protagonist who wakes up after a big night alone and feeling rough. Are they merely hungover? Are they emotionally bereft? Are they in a state of acute hypochondria? Or are they, as they insist, in need of urgent medical attention? Whatever the situation is, Send Me To Doctor with it’s pulsing bass, ticking timebomb drums and a wallowing, univibe-laden guitar that makes you instinctively reach for the Travacalm is eminently danceable from the opening few bars. The song itself grew out of a rehearsal room jam at the Merri-Bek City Band Hall with frontman and lyricist Polash Larsen penning the feverish scenario. The band pedals in a semi-improvised fashion over simple chords for the verses and choruses before dropping into a lazy rocksteady feel for the saxophone solo. The rhythm tracks for the single were recorded at The Garden Studio in Brunswick West with horns, percussion and vocals recorded by the band in various backyard sheds between Merlynston, Northcote and Brunswick. Producer Darius Kedros takes the rocksteady instrumental break in the middle of the song through an accelerated tour through the history of reggae and dub dragging the listener into the singer’s fever before the release of a dreamlike refrain. Send Me To The Doctor teases some of what’s to follow on the Tomorrow Is a Month Away album as The Offtopics treat genre the way a carnival balloon artist treats his animals.

Send me to the Doctor is available for download & purchase on the bands Bandcamp Page, can be listened to on AMRAP as well as of course on The Big DJ Trev Show! Thursday nights on KRRfm.

 

Australian Radio First – Ravage by Cybertronic Spree

 

Transformatorium, Videos

Australian Radio First – Ravage by Cybertronic Spree

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In an exclusive to The Big DJ Trev Show on KRR.fm, for the first time on Australian Radio, we are proud to present Ravage – the newest album from Cybertronic Spree.

For anyone unfamiliar with the band, Cybertronic Spree released their first album in 2019; Transformers 1986, containing covers from soundtrack of that cult-classic The Transformers: The Movie.  Known to perform live in excellently crafted costumes of beloved Transformers characters such as Hot Rod, Unicron, Shockwave and Soundwave, the band had found a successful niche within the pop-culture world.

Album Review – Cybertronic Spree: Transformers 1986

Ravage is a collection of new original music by the band, with heavy 80’s influences.  However don’t let me spoil it for you – why not take the opportunity to listen for yourself!

Tune in to The Big DJ Trev Show from 6 to 9pm AEST on Thursday October 5th to hear the album played for the first time on Australian Radio!

For those in Central West NSW, tune into to 98.7fm.  For everyone else around the world go online to KRRfm.org.au.  To celebrate the new album Ravage, not only we will be playing tracks from this new album, but having a Transformers themed night, complete with music from Cybertronic Spree’s first album, as well as music from the live-action movie soundtracks and other Transformer musical releases!

So tune in, rock on and roll out!

 

Album Review – ‘Transformers: Roll Out’

Album Review – Respect The Prime 1986 Revisited

Random Reviews, Transformatorium

Album Review – Cybertronic Spree: Transformers 1986

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Ok, c’mon Trev, be objective here…

Do not come across like a teenage girl at a ‘One Direction’ reunion concert screaming ‘Oh they are so dreamy!  I want to have their babies!’ 

Be harsh mate, be scathing, pull apart song by song to find any fault so that you can give a frank assessment of this CD….

 

… fuck it, I can’t! Its just too good!

 

Ahem.  I got my Cybertronic Spree CD this week.  I kinda like it.

 

About the Band

For those that don’t know, Cybertronic Spree is a true fan success story.  A bunch of singers and musicians came together about six or so years ago, dressed in awesome looking self-made Transformers costumes and sang songs from the Transformers 1986 movie.

It proved popular.  Amongst us TF fans it proved really popular.  So much so that they started getting gigs, appearing at various conventions and even earlier this year got their own IDW Comic Cover variant.

 

 

And so a Crowdfund Project is born!

So riding on the wave of that popularity they decided to Crowdfund a CD where they played 10 of the songs from the 86 movie. CD title appropriately ‘Transformers 1986‘.

The reaction was better than they could have hoped.  It all sold out fast.  I mean, really fast!  So then they reopened the Crowdfund and then that all sold out.  

So they now had the money and went to work recording their album.  Digital copies to those who contributed to their Crowdfunding went out about a month ago.

As much as I would have loved getting a signed poster, my funds at the time meant I was only able to order the CD.  And when it came to writing a review I wanted to review the CD, as I knew the digital copy I received would not do the music justice played over the shitty little speakers on my computer.  

So having received the CD this week, I set up my sound system in the disused outdoor carport on the farm, where the acoustics are puzzingly good and I could crank the volume to max, pulled out a deck chair, cracked a beer and sit back to listen to the music.

 

It did not disappoint.

 

The Music

This is a fucking awesome CD!  Damn they did a good job.  Whilst this CD is primarily a Crowdfunded fan project, you can tell that these are all singers and musicians who know what they are doing and have a genuine love for the material.

As someone who has the soundtrack to the 86 movie and knows every song by heart, it was so cool to hear these songs faithfully redone but with the twist of having new musicians and, most importantly to differentiate them from the originals, new vocalists.

Damn Arcee has a set of pipes on her!  Don’t get me wrong, Spike is a good backup vocalist and Hot Rod can sing his arse off, but Arcee has a voice that can pick you up and pound you flat with its power!  I’ve always loved female vocalists who sound like they could kick my arse.  I shudder to think of the poor singer inside the costume – how many TF Fanboys must there be out there she is currently starring in the fantasies of (my own efforts to get my good wife to dress as a Transformer have always met failure, as public record will testify).  As all the original songs were sung by men, to have Arcee singing half the songs and providing backup vocals on many others gives the songs a new and unique twist, breathing new life to tunes you’ve been listening to for the past 33 years.

Full credit to the musicians too, The guitarists (Unicron & Hot Rod) provide those tasty big 80’s riffs big time and Rumble the Drummer pounds those skins like a true professional.  

 

This CD hits all the right notes for me.  The Touch gave me goosebumps, Dare gave me a nostalgic lump in my throat.  I didn’t understand why they chose to have Hunger as the last track on the album until I heard the end.  That massive instrumental finale right at the end of the song kicks so much arse you wanna put your fist through a wall, headbutt a tank and yell to the world that every other sci-fi genre sucks Quintesson Balls compared to ours!

 

So yes, I liked this CD.

 

 

Cybertronic Spree, all I can say to you is (cue eye-rolling song lyric references):

 

You’ve indeed got both the touch and the power

You’ve got the passion and the pride.  It can’t be denied.

When it came to getting this CD made you let nothing stand in your way and us fans count ourselves among the fortunate ones.

 

And if you ever decide to tour internationally, I can guarantee you a sold out show in Sydney.  The tendrils of Big Angry Trev will twist throughout the Aussie Fandom to hound TF geeks out of parents basements, comic stores and online chatrooms across the land to fill a venue in your honour (with extra security to keep the fanboys off Arcee).

All I ask in return is that you let me get on stage and do the ‘AAAAAAAA-AAAAA’ at the end of Instruments of Destruction 😉 

 

 

 

Extra Merchandise

As I mentioned, I was only able to afford at the time the CD.  However fellow Transformer Enthusiast and Skydiving Superstar Brendan was able to get some more of the merch. 

 

 

Got something to add to this review?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

*Album Review: Transformers Roll Out

*Album Review: Metal Resistance by Baby Metal

 

 

 

Random Reviews, Transformatorium

Album Review – ‘Transformers: Roll Out’

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Many things can inspire someone to song, be it the rise of the sun over the plains, the look of affection in their lovers eye, the heartache of loss and regret.  However apparently giant alien robots can stir the muse within as well, and so we have ‘Transformers: Roll Out’

270px-Roll-Out-Album-Cover

This CD was touted as the Transformers inspired soundtrack.  This means it’s not from a Transformers cartoon or movie, but is meant to be a collection of songs by artists that have felt inspired by huge transforming mechanoids from beyond the stars.  The CD is made up of 10 tracks, all from relatively obscure bands and artists:

  1. “Roll Out” – Mount Holly
  2. “This House is on Fire” – Bush
  3. “Gigantik” – Crash Kings
  4. “Count to Ten” – MEW
  5. “Into the Fire” – Elle Rae
  6. “Exiled” – SPURS
  7. “Just a Spark” – Jameson Burt
  8. “Stronger” – Ours
  9. “Modern Man” – Darby™
  10. “Our Revolution” – Born Cages

 

Now some of these songs actually do have Transformer themed lyrics embedded within their songs. Examples are:

Roll Out – Mount Holly

“Let’s Roll Out, Rise Up…”

References to Optimus catch phrase before battle, and Megatrons battle cry from the Animated series

Exiled – Spurs

“We are the exiled ones – the lost daughters and sons of Cybertron.”

Reference to the myriad of Transformers genres where they had to abandon their home planet.

Just a Spark – Jameson Burt

“One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall”

Optimus catch phrase before he and Megatron have a big battle in the Animated and live action Movie.

 

So yes, there is some Transformer stuff in there for the robot aficionado.  However it doesn’t really save this CD from mediocrity.  A couple of songs aren’t bad, the first one on the CD by Mount Holly certainly being the best of the bunch.  But this is really a CD of filler songs, as in they are not the songs you hate, but ones you’d expect to be jammed between the big hits on other CD’s.  The ones you would listen to because you can’t be bothered pressing the ‘Next Track’ button on your cars sound system.

This CD cost me eighteen bucks from JB Hi-Fi.  So about $1.80 a song which isn’t bad but you could probably download them cheaper off iTunes or something.  There is nothing to hate about this CD, but very little to get excited about either.  Only recommended as a purchase if, like me, you are a Transformers fan that does a LOT of driving out of radio range and need all the tunes you can get to fill in those lonely country miles.