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New album from Ed Kuepper (The Saints) & Jim White (Dirty Three)

Deep into their careers, at the top of their game, ever curious, changing and searching, Ed and Jim reach another high-water mark

ED KUEPPER & JIM WHITE
After The Flood



RELEASE DATE: 4TH APRIL 2025

12XU

Format: LP Cat No: 12XU166-1 Barcode: 5061041820939 Price: £16.95

Tracklist: 1. The Ruins 2. The Crying Dance 3. The Year Of The Bloated Goat 4. The 16 Days 5. Demolition 6. Swing For The Crime 7. Collapse Board 8. Miracles

STREAM SINGLE 'THE CRYING DANCE'



In the final days of February 2022, Brisbane received approximately 80 per cent of the city’s average annual rainfall in a mere 72 hours. Upstream, Wivenhoe Dam, the city’s main flood mitigation strategy, received close to three Sydney Harbour’s worth of water in less than three days. Nearly 3000 Brisbane streets were flooded and highways were closed for days, isolating some communities. Thirteen people lost their lives and over 23,000 properties were flood-affected.

Let’s go back in time. Back in the mid-90s the Dirty Three opened for Ed Kuepper in Melbourne. That’s when Ed and Jim first crossed paths. Jim of course was well-aware of Ed; who wasn’t? This was an artist who had redefined Australian music not just once with The Saints, not just twice with Laughing Clowns, but was at it again for a third time. under his own name. For his part Ed was watching Jim play and making a mental note.

Time passed… a lot of time passed. Jim left the country with the Dirty Three and built a formidable reputation as a collaborator and sideman. Ed was in his pomp, touring and releasing albums, building a remarkable body of work that now stands at over 50 albums.

Roll forward to 2020. Time became malleable, even these most industrious of artists found themselves with time to kill. Jim was unexpectedly back in Australia, in fact stranded in Australia. Despite all the complexities of the pandemic Ed recognised an opportunity to capture the collaboration he’d long had in mind.

The original idea was for the two of them to do a few shows together. It would be ‘casual’. But it proved to be anything but. Amidst the on-off restrictions and the threat of the virus the tour was a turbulent ride. They performed two sold out nights at the Sydney Opera House and fluked the only gig at Rising before the Melbourne Festival was cancelled. Other gigs were blown out and plans would be changed at the last minute. Touring was precarious with Ed and Jim unsure when restrictions would be announced, leaving them high and dry or forcing them to drive cross county late at night to cross state lines before the borders were closed. Ed refers to them at one point “operating like a guerrilla outfit on the NSW/Queensland border.”

In amidst this turmoil a musical bond was forged. Ed appreciated Jim’s “rhythmic intent. It’s intuition based” he explains. “With Jim there’s an overlap of influences but Jim has his own character. “

The duo grasped an opportunity to enter Melbourne’s Sound Park Studio. Working quickly over four days they captured the music they had been performing. “We took what we’d been doing live and brought it into the studio” Ed recalls. “It was important that we captured the immediacy of what we’d been doing, that it wasn’t laboured over. Everything was laid down live”.

The resulting album features eight tracks that provide, as Ed puts it “The broadest representation of what we did, with the most variety.” The widescreen selection of songs gives a tracking shot of Ed’s career to date. The earliest song reimagined here is The Saints' "Swing For The Crime", which originally appeared in 1978 on the 'Prehistoric Sounds' album. Ed’s early 80s band Laughing Clowns is generously represented and rewired with the songs "Crying Dance", "The Year Of The Bloated Goat" and "Collapse Board". His solo career is deeply mined for reworked hidden gems; "Demolition" and "Miracles" (both from 2007’s 'Jean Lee & the Yellow Dog') and "The Ruins’"(from 2015’s 'Lost Cities'). "The 16 Days" originally appeared on Ed’s second album under his own name, 'Rooms of the Magnificent' in 1986.

More time has passed. Many of Ed’s long out of print albums have been reissued, his work with The Saints has been released globally as a deluxe boxed set. There has been associated touring with original Saints drummer Ivor Hay, Mick Harvey (Birthday Party/Bad Seeds), Mark Arm (Mudhoney) and Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys) joining Ed on the road. (“The towering impression left by the nights proceeding? That Kuepper is a motherfucker of a guitar player, his sound just as molten and unrelenting as back in the day - Uncut UK). Jim White remains as prodigious as ever, releasing his debut solo album, rekindling the Dirty Three for their biggest Australian tour and highest charting album. Creatively restless as ever he has recently worked with The Hard Quartet, Marisa Anderson, Bill Callahan, Myriam Gendron and Xylouris White.

Deep into their careers, at the top of their game, ever curious, changing and searching, Ed and Jim reach another high-water mark.

Winner of the Aria Award - Best Independent Album First time on vinyl since 1992 and out of print for decades. "Kuepper's purple patch of the first half of the 1990s is something extraordinary, and Black Ticket Day (1992) is a jewel in his crown. It's as expansive as it's predecessor Honey Steel's Gold yet more electric; features pop gems "It's Lunacy" and "Real Wild Life" but also wig-outs like "Blind Girl Stripper" and "All My Ideas Run to Crime". Law of Nature (1984) is a heat-haze of an album, drawing as Kuepper has said on memories of growing up in the semi-rural suburbs of Brisbane. It manages to find a perfect fit for the experimental colours of earlier Laughing Clowns releases within a set of disciplined song-forms. A classic of Australian post-punk featuring the original recording of 'Eternally Yours.'" - John Encarnacao, author, Ed Kuepper's Honey Steel's Gold for 33 1/3. Opaque Purple LP

First time on vinyl since it's original release in 1984. Features the classic tune Eternally Yours. Incedible band line up of : Guitar, Vocals - Edmund Kuepper Piano - Chris Abrahams (now of The Necks) Saxophone - Louise Elliot Bass - Peter Walsh (of The Apartments) Drums - Jeffrey Wegener "Amongst the band's very finest works. There were moments of great beauty on Law of Nature such as 'Law of Nature', 'Written in Exile' and 'Eternally Yours', where Elliot's soulful and epic sax riff danced majestically in the air". Ian McFarlane Royal Blue LP

First time on vinyl since it's original release in 1984. Features the classic tune Eternally Yours. Incedible band line up of : Guitar, Vocals - Edmund Kuepper Piano - Chris Abrahams (now of The Necks) Saxophone - Louise Elliot Bass - Peter Walsh (of The Apartments) Drums - Jeffrey Wegener "Amongst the band's very finest works. There were moments of great beauty on Law of Nature such as 'Law of Nature', 'Written in Exile' and 'Eternally Yours', where Elliot's soulful and epic sax riff danced majestically in the air". Ian McFarlane Standard Black LP