Mammoth Logic

Electronic category winner - Mammoth Logic - Billboard Song Contest

David Andrew Crowe is a composer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and performer based in Adelaide. He has written over 130 works in a broad range of styles. His compositions range from popular contemporary through to classical pieces for string orchestras, piano and violin. David Crowe’s works have received national airplay with triple j radio and airplay on Nova fm and 4MBS classical fm. His recent contemporary works were performed at the Parklife festival in 2010 by electro/pop act Mammoth Logic, for which he is songwriter, vocalist and keyboardist. He won the triple j unearthed Parklife competition and was a triple j unearthed feature artist in 2010 with Mammoth Logic. He was a finalist in the Jaxter Songwriting Awards and has co-written with composer/producer Scoff Horscroft. David Crowe is originally from Brisbane, where he taught Piano and Violin, worked as a jazz pianist, a musical director for musical theatre, and wrote and performed with several rock bands. His ambition is to raise his profile in the music industry through further networking and development of his skills as a composer/songwriter. - APRA

What we said then: "Dave is one of my favourite vocalists at the moment. From the deep baritone on In The Fire to the high falsetto of... well, In The Fire again, his range is quite impressive."

What we're saying now: This guy is something else. Watching his facials at a show is as hilarious as his voice is impressive.



David was also a finalist in the Popular Contemporary category of APRA's 2011 Professional Development Awards for his compositions for Mammoth Logic and other endeavours.

Come back on Monday when we post the award for Best Promotional One-Liners. - Play / Pause / Play

Adelaide Bands That Should Be On triple j: Mammoth Logic
I met Richard Kingsmill at One Movement For Music Perth recently, and he mentioned that Adelaide is "the one town [triple j] really have a problem with". That is: no-one is making enough noise about the greatness in this city.

Since this was the main reason for starting this blog, I'm now starting a weekly column about bands that are worthy of triple j airplay. This means the bands that have the songs and the right recordings suitable for radio. No atmospheric post-rock here no matter how much I love your sounds, and no dancy Indie if your recordings sound like ass, no matter how much I enjoy you live.

I really dig these guys, but I really hate that name. "The Presets" is a perfect name for an electro band, automatically giving you an idea of what the band might sound like. "Mammoth Logic" could be cool, in that it brings up ideas of old thinking and slow movement... but it'd be perfect for a growly metal band. Since comparisons to the aforementioned Australian electro duo are to easy to make with this Adelaidian electro duo, it feels a shame they haven't also picked a catchy and more appropriately expressive name.

Still, like I said: I really, really dig their sound.

Dave is one of my favourite vocalists at the moment from the deep baritone on In The Fire to the high falsetto of... well, In The Fire again, his range is quite impressive.


Mammoth Logic - "In The Fire"

It's In The Fire that keeps sticking in my head. I really love that hook. With its big epic drum sounds and bass line, it almost sounds INXS-ish. Then the synths over the top really flesh out the track and bring it into 2010.

Met On Mars is an interesting one. With its space theme, and apparent tones of robo-human bonding, not to mention an odd vocoder breakdown, you wouldn't expect it to be the first on the radio. But, triple J and Nova have quite dug on it. Which is good, because we need more space themes, vocoder breakdowns and robo-human bonding awareness campaigns on the radio, I feel.


Mammoth Logic - "Met On Mars"

The last song on their EP sounds like one of those slow tracks on Daft Punk's 'Discovery' and shows these guys definitely have the ability to produce an engaging album-length release.


Mammoth Logic - "Speck Of Dust"

Mammoth Logic just played Parklife and the Jim Beam Bootleg show with The Killgirls. Unfortunately they haven't announced their next show yet. Hopefully it's soon.

Official Site
Unearthed
Other posts on Mammoth Logic

We'll be taking a break from this column for the next few weeks, and will return in 2011 with more amazing local talent. - Play / Pause / Play

For those who missed out or were unaware, we were fortunate to have Adelaide band Mammoth Logic come and deliver an amazing set for us all to enjoy at our first Arcade Lane party. Recently we caught up with front man David Crowe for an interview of all things Mammoth Logic. Suss it below!

4W: Where does the name Mammoth Logic come from? Is it something that is supposed to be translated literally (which would then roughly translate to something like a ‘large thinking process’) or is it something else?

DC: The name came before the band, or even the songs had formed. “Mammoth”was something ancient, old. For ‘Logic’ , we were thinking of theterm used in computers/electronics. So its an “old vs. new” theme.Mammoth Logic. People usually interpret the name in other ways, and thats cool as well.

4W: For someone who hasn’t heard your stuff before, describe your sound. What do you think it is about your sound that has caught attention of radio stations such as Triple J?

DC: Its always hard for an artist to describe their own sound…other people have said we are “synth-y” and “garage electro-pop”. We try to blend old school and modern sounds in equal parts- we love a lot of daggy 70's and 80's early synth-pop, but also we love this modern electro stuff i.e. Yeasayer, Crystal Castles, Daft Punk etc. etc. Both the old and new influence our sound and its nice when listeners pick up on
this! I think the radio stations have picked up on this too, maybe it makes us stand out from something that is 100% retro or 100% modern. Triple J, Nova and Austereo network have all picked up our tracks…its really unexpected, but nice to hit such a range of audiences.

4W: What was the reason behind the creation of Mammoth Logic? Was it planned or some how just happened after jamming one night?

DC: I guess I started the project by writing a whole bunch of songs, including the track “Met on Mars” at the end of 2009. I bumped into Reid, who runs a recording studio in Adelaide. I took some of my tracks in there to record and mix, and he helped take them to the next level. We got a live show happening together and the rest is history. We played our first shows with a few different drummers, before crossing paths with Henry Moncrieff at the studio. He slotted in so well…we can’t think of anyone else we’d rather have. Since Henry joined our live show has had about 400% more energy. Its great!

4W: Where was your first show in Adelaide? How did you go about hooking up the gig (for all those new bands out there looking to get a break)?

DC: Our first show was Reid and myself, performing as a duo, early last year. It was at the Gov (Governor Hindmarsh Hotel) in Adelaide…what a place to play your first show! My advice is simply do it. It doesn’t matter how small the show, one thing ALWAYS leads to another thing in the music business. If you are working hard on something, whether its writing, rehearsing, recording or gigging – and you take the
opportunities out there you can’t go wrong.

4W: Keeping it local, how do you think an Adelaide band survives on a national scale? We see a lot of bands moving over to Melbourne or Sydney. Do you believe that’s the “next step” in branching out and getting heard nationally? Or do you think it’s possible from Adelaide to compete with the interstate bands?

DC: There are advantages to being a band based in Adelaide. There are a lot of great venues to play here and some amazing musicians and passionate people who are interested in the arts…all of this helps. Adelaide bands can still be based here and make it nationally.. Hilltop Hoods and The Swiss are a couple that come to mind. From the business side of things however, Melbourne and Sydney are traditionally the hubs when it comes to things like booking, publishing, labels. This is all changing though, the world is a small place now and Australia is even smaller. These interstate resources are only an email away. Reid has just taken over a large recording studio here in Adelaide which is a fantastic facility. There are so many young people who are stepping up to put Adelaide on the map. Hopefully they don’t all move to Melbourne or Sydney…

4W: We know you guys have a new single out now. If people reading this want to listen to it, where can they find it?

DC: We do – its called ‘Just For a Moment’ and you can find it on iTunes at http://tinyurl.com/6xyg7ag. Or head to triple J unearthed: http://www.triplejunearthed.com/mammothlogic Also listen out for it on triple J and Austereo…both broadcast nationally.

4W: What about if people want to see you live. Any upcoming shows?

DC: If they like road trips they can head to Birchip, VIC! Our next show is in regional VIC with some triple J favourites – custom kings,
nicholas roy, and some local acts. Can’t wait! We have more shows and a tour around our album launch mid year-ish, so keep an eye out in the coming months for the announcement.

4W: And finally, what does the future hold for Mammoth Logic? Tours? New music?

DC: Two things – an album and a tour. Then more things after that. We are finishing the album at the moment…its sounding better than expected already….its really, really exciting…but there’s still some work to do to get it all done in time. The tour will happen just after the album comes out…thats all we can reveal right now!

Big thanks to David for giving us some of his time to answer the questions! Check them out if you haven’t already, amazing stuff! - fourwords DJs

Dom and Steph from triple j radio (Australia) talk about feature artist Mammoth Logic.
Hint:
Skip to the end of the podcast for the feature...
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/triplej/unearthedcast/unearthed_2010_07_27.mp3 - triple j radio

Mammoth Logic, Tell us about your music – how did you develop your songs?
Often our songs start as sounds swimming around in Dave's head, while others we write together during live show rehearsals. We both produce the recordings - throwing ideas and instruments back and forth - then Reid does the mixdown at a studio he runs in Adelaide. We love having the studio here as a base to be completely free musically. There are no boundaries - we do what we want, what sounds good, what we feel like. Last week we made a song with a garbage bin. We have tons of influences from different eras, but what counts to us is making the music we want to make.

What can the audience expect at a live show?
From the outset we wanted Mammoth Logic to be a completely live act. Our arrangements on the recordings are multilayered, so this means being flexible on stage. We're classical/jazz trained and we play a lot of instruments between us, so it becomes like musical chairs on stage! Its great! For example, there are moments when Reid plays drums, then jumps onto the sax in the breakdown, while Dave plays two synths, sings and hits sampler pads ... it's intense but we have a ball! Judging from the response at our recent shows, the crowds do too!

Tell us more about the electronic music scene in Adelaide…
Adelaide's music scene is notoriously incestuous, which is a good thing. There's a real camaraderie here, no matter what style you're into. There are some electronic acts here really pushing the genre boundaries. It seems everyone has the chance to collaborate, develop and go on to do big things - like The Swiss, who are friends of ours and now touring the world. It's great to see bands making their mark on a bigger stage after 'incubating' in Adelaide for a while.

What’s coming up in the future?
An album and bigger shows! For our next shows, we have a rhythm section and new songs. At the same time, we've been working on an album over the past two months. Some tracks are our take on eclectic rock and others are of the soaring electronic pop variety. There's some really nice chilled songs on there too. It's going to be out later this year.

Australian music is?
Growing and changing every day. The songs coming out of this country are turning heads and setting trends globally - especially in electronic music. It's a great place to be!
- triple j

I caught these guys at Rocket Bar the other week, and they more than lived up to expectations. By the time the second song was done, I'd already got in touch with Mario Spate to say "Radio Spectacular!!! + Mammoth Logic + Neon Electric = Yes please. I don't care where and I don't care when, as long as it's soon."

Admittedly they do need a little more stage experience to get a bit tighter, but what's there now shows huge potential. And when that happens, they'll be ready to take on the world - and likely on the first ship outta Adelaide.

The singer [Dave] played a keyboard and synth while swapping between two mics. And hitting a percussion pad every now and then, too.

The other guy [Reid] would sometimes play drums, sometimes bass, sometimes sax, sometimes the other sax, and once or twice tried to play a flute, though it was a little hard to hear at the time.

The overall sound sometimes hit the 'arena' epicness of The Presets, and sometimes hung more around 1980's-era New Order, with some Daft Punk-esque choruses thrown in for good measure. It was really, really cool. And something different, which is always great to see.

The band is already planning to launch their debut album at The Gov on June 13, which is a particularly confident move for a band so young but if they manage to pack it out, they deserve the hype. Mammoth Logic could well be one of those bands that comes out of nowhere and surprises everyone. Though they might need a catchier name for that... - Play / Pause / Play

This track is pure awesome!

It’s by Mammoth Logic, and ElectroPop creating duo from Adelaide who mix up SynthPop, French Electro and Post-Punk to form their analog retro sound. Multi instrumentalists Dave Crowe and Reid Jones make something that could be described as Garage Disco-Pop, the music has a distinctly live feel to it, like it’s being played rather than programmed, and the combination of analog synths, impressive vocals, a touch of vocoding and some infectious 80’s sounding chords is hard to beat.

The band are working on their début album, keep an eye on them on their MySpace and check out some more music on their Unearthed page - Electronic Rumors