Music Vs Physics
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Music Vs Physics

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Bedroom Believers"

“Music Vs Physics” epitomise a new wave of music-making, reports Khalil Hegarty.

The garage band is a thing of the past. Its not that garage rock is dead-it’s more that aspiring producers and musicians are unlikely to have a garage.
Head through the share-houses of North Fitzroy and Richmond and you won’t find studio set-ups where the station wagon used to be, you’ll often find them in bedrooms-drum kits hooked up to samplers, mixing desks plugged into PCs. And the new output isn’t just rock, it’s a swirling melee of hip hop, beats, guitar-rock abstraction and everything in-between.
North Fitzroy trio Music Vs Physics fits the bedroom model perfectly. Their home-grown brand of beats epitomise a new wave of producers who do things differently, not because the2re fighting anything but because no one has shown them otherwise. And while they are occasionally referred to as a hip-hop band, the classification doesn’t sit easily.
“I wouldn’t call us hip-hop” the bands drummer Morgan Fayle says “But I reckon for want of a better pigeonhole…” responds Joe Brady, who along with Bec Charlesworth puts together the beats scratchers and vocals.
“We just do what we want to do” Charlesworth says, “That’s why we don’t fit into a specific category.”
It’s a busy time for the band: their second album, Underscore has just hit the shelves and third release Oblong Data, is well into production.
In the end, Music Vs Physics may be hip hop but its not “hands in the air” style anthems or angry diatribes. Their beats have a subtle and emotional approach to music that’s often hard to find in a world of over hyped acts.
The attention has been a long time coming. Debut album Northside Perspective was recorded nearly five years ago. At the time the band was just Brady and Charlesworth making electronica. The last things on their minds were playing live.
“From the interest in the album we started getting gigs”, Charlesworth says, “We hadn’t even worked out what we’d do live because we’d just done computer-based music. So we dragged our PC onto the stage and looked really awkward. “We’d just be sitting in front of it on stage looking awkward and I’d do a bit of singing and Joe would scratch”.
But it was those unconventional and awkward performances that attracted Fayle to the duo.” I could smell a wee window of opportunity. But I’d never played electronica in my life”
The combination of Fayle’s trans-Tasman heritage, Brady’s migration from Adelaide and Charlesworth’s upbringing on the Mornington Peninsula are indicative of the attraction Melbourne has for musicians around the country and the world.
“I came here for a holiday and realised it would be a good place to get things happening” Brady says “I didn’t really know anyone, but seeing the culture over here made me realise that it was much more worthwhile than staying in Adelaide. Just people doing stuff and putting it out there-not being locked away in their rooms.”
The local music culture has worked well for the trio. They have formed strong partnerships with TZU and Curse Ov Dialect, groups they consider as musical family members. But what makes the binding within Music Vs Physics even tighter is the fact that Charlesworth and Brady are partners and have been for nearly six years. According to them, it rarely interferes with their musical output.
“We live together, we share a bedroom, out studio’s in that bedroom and we spend pretty much every waking hour together@, Brady says “six years later we’re pretty down with how to make it work”
Charlesworth says “We don’t make music together as such. We make it separately. It starts off with one of us and it goes back and forth. So it’s not that claustrophobic”
Even for Fayle, collaborating with a couple has been less than intimidating.
“When I first joined up I was wary on working with a partnership-you know, crockery-throwing and that kind of thing-but in my whole time with them it’s been so easy”.
Somehow the band merges this easygoing attitude with a broad notion of music culture.
According to Brady, their next album is about the interchange between humans and computers. Their current release is a soundtrack to a fictional film. And even the band’s name was chosen from a book by physicist Stephen Hawking.
But it is not some pretensions ploy of incorporating high-minded concepts into their music just for the sake of it.
In fact, it happened completely by chance when Brady and Charlesworth were looking for a name. “We pulled our random numbers to choose a book, then a page, then a word,” Charlesworth says.
Says Brady “It’s started to make sense.”
- The Age 20/2/04


"Album of the Week"

Where Erick Satie meets a Lars Von Trier remake of Trilogy of Terror, with Peter Cushing as Picasso, there lies Music Vs Physics’ Underscore, and tracks like Retribution Realisation prove it.

If anything deserves to be called evocative it’s got to be this fake film score album by the totally mercilessly perfect Music Vs Physics. Codec’s Theme is like The Emergency sharing a Devonshire tea with 2 Unlimited. Post Op Alley Drop is Natalie Cole and this robotic drum I once saw in a Dutch art theatre presentation and Epic soundtracks playing the piano. Sold her sound to science is more like a silver piston and a woman in a flame, like a gas advertisement.

An overall assessment, the album Underscore has the wriest beats and some very sad moments. It is a late period John Brack painting. Try to catch it.
- Beat Magazine 11/2/04


"Underscore Review"

There are these two kids from North Fitzroy who hang out in their bedroom/home studio a lot and make music with records and a computer. There’s this other kid who comes around sometimes and plays drums with them. Back in 2000 they got together and recorded an album. It was called “Northside Perspective”, and it pretty much blew anything from this country which traced the downbeat/instrumental hip hop lineage out of the water. Lush instrumental layers, dissolved amongst programming intricacies, decks and vocal drifts. These kids are Bec Charlesworth (aka Beatrix) and Joseph Brady (aka 3rd Dek). The other kid is Morgan Fayle. Together they are Music Vs Physics, and they have just released their second brilliant album, “Underscore”.

The idea behind the release is pretty much in the title. In theory, Underscore represents the soundtrack-or score-of an imaginary film, to which the in-house cover illustrations refer. And like this imaginary film, the album has a title sequence, multiple named scenes and closing credits. Some might call these songs or a track listing, but where’s the fun in that? From the opening track (or the Main Title Sequence) Underscore works by traversing mood and tension. It does so through building rich layers of operatic vocals, harp, piano and strings- reminiscent of Aidan Moffat’s Lucky Pierre project-only to release into comical, upbeat ditties. Check the soaring Flights of Theoretics, angular In A city Life or the yearning Origin’s Revenge.

Minimal, understated, but resonantly cinematic, skilled and lush- Underscore radiates originality, while making clear historical reference to early Mo Wax. Music Vs Physics are a bunch of kids from North Fitzroy who make music in their bedroom/home studio. They are a bunch of kids who possess an incredible knack for composition and instrumentation-a knack which extends far beyond their years.

DAN RULE - Inpress 28/01/04


"Underscore Review"

Quirkey, local, sample infused, atmospheric hip hop with a sense of humour. This is like the soundtrack to the best film you have ever seen. Recently teaming up with Curse Ov Dialect, Carbon and Echo on the refreshing Ants Farm Aphids, it seems as though anything this crew touches is definantly worth checking out.
BANANNA
- Vice Magazine Vol 1 No.7


Discography

Northside Perspective LP
Underscore LP
Oblong Data 12 inch

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

((Music Vs Physics)Type A) VS ((Music Vs Physics)Type B)

[Type A]-----Y
/
X-----------
\
[Type B]-----Z

where as X= the original Music vs Physics concept
Y= Production
Z= Performance
X

Music Vs Physics is originally a North Fitzroy based Down-Beat Production Crew. Combining influences from past and present genres, they merge beats, scratches, vocals, and samples into an instrumentally unique sound.

[Type A]

Music Vs Physics Type A is a lone computer terminal situated 6 km's north of the City of Melbourne. Every sound MVP uses gets processed and stored here. Every song or Track MVP has ever recorded came from here. It is also the HQ of all MVP's Online activities. All the composition, styling and production of MVP's work is done by the MVP production crew 3rd Dek and Beatrix.

Y

Music Vs Physics's production is predominantly sound based but their work also stems into animation, film, design, multi-media construction and mathematics.
Their music is available through a wide variety of sources including:
The MVP website- www.symbioticsystem.com\mvp
An anthology of their beats entitled "Northside Perspective" is available through Inertia. Their new album “_Underscore” was released late 2003 by Love & Mercy Records and their new album “Oblong Data” will be released mid 2004. They are constantly working with Symbiotic and have just released a new compilation Ants Farm Aphids.

[Type B]

Music Vs Physics Type B is the performance side of MVP. It consists of 3rd Dek on turntable and microphone, Beatrix on sampler and microphone, Morgan on live drumkit and Dean on the desk. Although it is a similar style to the MVP production it is worked from a dynamic live angle. Type B resembles more of a freestyle jazz performance than the traditional electronic set.

Z

Music Vs Physics have performed at a number of Melbourne venues including: The Empress, Revolver, Pony Bar, Punters Club, The Evelyn, Alia, The Hi-Fi Bar, Public Offices and the St Kilda Festival, Prince Of Wales, The Rob Roy, etc.
They have performed with bands such as:Tortoise,Buck 65, RJD2, Dose-1 & Sole (Anticon),James Lavelle, Dexter, Highpass Filter, Pitch Black, Salmonella Dub, Curse Ov Dialect, Tzu, etc...
They have also run various events such as: Flippin Composition, Hibernation, Freshly Cut and The Music Vs Physics Variety Show (Which showcases the best of Northsides beat producers, scratchers and rhymers).
They have also performed at Club Zouk in Singapore.