Live Review: Barn Owl, Dead China Doll, Broadcasting Transmitter

For want a better term, a Sydney supergroup of alternative noise, Broadcasting Transmitter, wasted no time in setting the night's mood. Two parts Dead China Doll, one part Laurels, the trio thrashed out an improvised, ear-piercing noise set. Free jazz-reminiscent drumming held together droning guitar and harsh, exciting electronic fuzz. Like most 'noise' music, certain passages lulled and weren't too essential to the sound, but the overall effect was wonderful and frankly inspiring to hear out of the local scene.

Less surprising is the continued brilliance of Dead China Doll, who remain one of Sydney's most exciting and vital acts. With a set seemingly primarily pulled from their second LP, due later this year, Sydney's finest in experimental rock continued to wow. Were they entirely a vocally-driven band, they'd still be wonderful, but it's the fact that the vocal moments are used as accent points amongst the noise that makes the group amazing. Gaps between shows and albums have only made their sound more focused, honed and brilliant; noise rock-cum-psychedelic jamming into crashing waves of sound - Dead China Doll mean business and Sydney should be proud.

Behind two draped black desks, overflowing with wires and antennae, Barn Owl made their inauspicious Australian live debut. Lush keyboard tones foreshadowed the coming of much darker noise. Deep throbbing bass, felt as much as heard, shimmered behind the surprisingly particularly layered sounds being placed atop one another.

Interruptive static pulses and the occasional presence of soft whirring and clicking from machinery loops kept the sound from ever sounding monotonous. Impressively, the layers of sounds - from the brutal to the verging on danceable - were all so effortlessly controlled by the band it would almost have been excusable to call the compositions easy; of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

The duo's attention to subtlety behind harshness, and the juxtaposed moments of the two extremes, is what separates Barn Owl from the countless legion of lesser drone acts. From electronic post rock to drone to pulsing experimental dark wave and everything in between, the set could not have been a better presentation of group's sound - here's hoping they're back soon.