Sydney outfit The Great Conjunction are fairly new onto the scene with their cavernous alternative indie-rock sounds. They write music that’s deeply intricate on so many layers, think like Arcade Fire or The New Pornographers or The Dears, that it can take quite a few listens to really appreciate it. I’ll openly admit it took me some proper spins to get the hang of Wait For Apophis as it wasn’t immediately captivating (nor my usual fare), but trust me, stick with it and you’ll get to immerse yourself in something quite intriguing.
The first single off the EP is called ‘Have You Seen My Friends?’ it’s ballsy brash and in your face from the get-go with lots of loud grinding electric guitars and colossal drumbeats, that after 30 seconds or so suddenly subside to allow for frontman, singer and guitarist Andrew Bennett to sing to us. And the song continues to roll like waves with peaks in the chorus and troughs in the verses. Those same grinding electric guitars and big drums driving underneath all the way through until we reach our song’s inevitable end.
The other shining track is ‘One Of Us’ and has a similar feel to ‘Have You Seen My Friends?’ except it’s almost in reverse. Instead of starting out loud and intense, it opens a little more moderately and builds in the verses only to drop down in the chorus where Bennett is softly repeatedly singing “one of us, one of us, one of us” over and over a bed of softly strummed guitar and synth piano keys. As the song comes to a close it literally ends with Bennett all alone singing over a sole strummed electric guitar “These are my hands I’m waving, the salt laps at the shore that I’m seeking”.
The opening track on the EP is ‘Time To Step Down’ and is probably the one I had the most difficulty reconciling. It’s full of noise and contradictions. It almost sounds like a blues number with its swagging strummed guitar at the start but then the violin comes in and changes its mood altogether to something soothing and dreamlike. Then halfway into the song it snaps into this over the top mish-mash of as many instruments and sounds into a blended soupy mess that then subsides again to a quiet close. I’m just not entirely sure of the point of it? It’s probably a bit too complex and structurally obscure for my taste.
For those who have been around the Sydney scene for the last 10 years, some of the members of the band may look (and sound familiar). The Great Conjunction are an amalgamation of other bands such as The Dawn Collective, Midnight Swim,and Dead Letter Chorus. If you’re aware of the work of those bands then you’ll be able to see some of those traits carry through into The Great Conjunction. Bennett in particular is well known for his eloquent, sometimes abstract songwriting, drummer Lee Carey is fantastic, able to switch things up between soft and hard sounds that steer the song’s energy. Andrew Nichols on strings and Rob Fernandez on percussion both add even more aural texture to already lyrically dense material adding even more weight to the songs.
Wait For Apophis is what I consider a slow burning listen, something that for some people will take a little while to get into. It’s aurally dense, not only with so many instrumental layers but even from a songwriting perspective. Out of the four tracks on it, both ‘Have You Seen My Friends?’ and ‘One Of Us’ were the most structurally accessible and by far my favourites. If you’re into any of the aforementioned similar sounding artists above then you will surely get some enjoyment out of this EP though.
Review Score: 7.8 out of 10
The Great Conjunction will be launching their EP ‘Wait For Apophis’ at the Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt Sydney on Friday 23 May. The EP will be available for purchase at the show, and online after that. For more info check out their Facebook page.
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