EXEK - Biased Advice

Exek present their debut LP Biased Advice, following a self-titled cassette EP (2014) and a single contribution to a split cassette (2015). Biased Advice collects rerecorded and past material, which together stands as the fullest realization of an Exek identity, honed during two years of haunting Melbournes live gig circuit. Before forming as a four-piece band in 2014, Exek remained an abstract concept in the mind of front man-to-be, Albert Wolski. With songs written but no musicians to perform them, he enlisted Andrew Brocchi (synthesizer), Henry Wilson (bass) and Sam Dixon (drums) and they began recording material according to Wolskis vision. The addition of Nell Grant on saxophone made previously murky reference points plainly obvious: Exek are the progeny of a Melbourne scene that established itself around Dave Chesworth and Philip Brophys Innocent record label of the 1980s and its greatest offering, Essendon Airports 1981 album, Palimpsest (CH 087CD). But Exek dared to abandon the pop and funk tropes of the early Australian new wave scene reaching out to German post-punk of the same era. Wolskis songwriting is akin to records put out by Hannovers No Fun Records and Hamburgs Zickzack, channeling the droll lyricism of 39 Clocks, saturated with self-deprecating attitude. Their vision mirrors Tuxedomoons Holiday for Plywood" but crucially, Biased Advice is a sermon that Exek preach to themselves. The band pit themselves as both victims and saviors living in a world thats trying to extinguish them. The conceptual weight carried in Wolskis lyrics follows on from process. Dub and other studio techniques are used throughout Biased Advice and are no better evidenced in the 16-minute modern (and instant) classic, "Baby Giant Squid". This song remains unchanged from its cassette release on Melbournes Resistance/Restraint label, but here it lays bare its perfection over a whole side of the record. Basslines that stand out one moment give way to dubbed out percussion, hissing tape delay and reverb drenched vocals. Simply, this post-kraut-dub-psyche-punk excursion looks back over its shoulder as it leaves "Bella Lugosis Dead" for dead. Its a sublime balance of improvisation and cold calculation. Its the tension between this teetering psychotic nihilism and arrangement with studio-like precision that gives Biased Advice the tone of a forewarning. But of what?" - Another Dark Day.