Text by Sean Hockings

Dub Chieftain Skill Stamina & Luck. Alt J and Django Django the grandchildren of the Beta Band  .. Pah humbug… if The Beta Band appeared now this is what they would sound like except not as good. Here at Metal Postcard we can’t wait for you to hear this album. See Erraweetrack (off the forthcoming album) on You Tube  and from last year his 7″  Fitness Fanatic.

Dub Addiction (Working Title) Dub Addiction Meet Khmer Rockers Uptown. Yes more weird and wonderful dub. This time from Phnom Penh based Professor Kinski and his Khmer sidekick MC Curly + a supporting cast of thousands. Digital dub with english and khmer lyrics takes Kingston’s sounds to a new place. See Catch A Fire, Zunguzeng Inna Di Penh and some live action downtown Phnom Penh.

Stalin Gardens Shanghai Void . Probably the best band name in music at the moment. This Shanghai based band comprising of young French expat JA and local musicians bring back the Junkyard days of the Birthday Party albeit with a heavier tropical sickness vibe.   The voice of postmodern Shanghai is Stalin Gardens, and it’s fuckin weird. Helmed by precocious high-school harsh noise enthusiast Achmed (birth name: Julien), they take the China-brand no-wave/post-punk thing started by bands like P.K.14 and 8 Eye Spy and shove it down a deep k-hole into the grimiest parts of the Shanghai metropolitan subconscious, and all in time to get home before curfew Tiny Mix Tapes.com.

We’ve also got some serious negotiations going on for an exciting collaboration for the Cambodian Space Project with a US guitar legend for their Khmer Soul Revue 3rd album due in 2013.

Also A 12″ from Shanghai production team Horses which brings back the glory days of Acid with blinding mini set of 4 tunes.

We’re also talking with San Francisco’s Matthew Edwards & The Unfortunates about a 7″ as well as Shanghai Based Reykjavictim, Portland’s Grapefruit about an album and an exciting compilation project to document the Sydney based RAT parties of the 1980’s. A wonderful series of parties that operated in splendid isolation in Sydney throughout the 1980’s. Under the stewardship of Jac Vidgen and his memories of visits to the Paradise Garage and Studio 54 these parties combined all every type of person, music, fashion. One moment you’d be watching SPK, the next hearing Patrick Cowley’s remix of I feel Love followed by a live set from local Sydney band the Rockmelons. The famous Grace Jones 3am set at the 88/89 NYE party is still one of those great music moments for anybody lucky enough to have been there.

Last but not least we are licensing for worldwide release on vinyl the amazing NoZu from Melbourne their debut album Life. Mess & Noise say  … The vocal delays and steel drums on Fa Foma Fi bring to mind a Trenchtown version of Holy Fuck… the album is weirdly hypnotic and a strange beast of multitasking dance music.  Here at metal postcard we’re reminded of the glory days of the Pop Group, Rip Pig & Panic but with that Melbourne Avalanches feel to it. It’ll sound great on a Notting Hill Carnival soundsystem.