the SPILL label

t h e H i G o d P e o p l e

HGP at Big Day Out 2009

A performance that spontaneously assembles in Melbourne, Australia .. members have included Julian, Sophie, Craig, Jason, Greg, Dylan, Dion, Marcus, Nathan, Julie, Marney, Justin, Pat, Alison, Jim, Karla, Paul, Pete, Mark, Pia, Sean, Ian, Ruth, Lou, Emily, Claire, Mia, Gill, Oliver, Jarrod, Ali, Craig, Odette, Tim, Ellen ...

coming up:

on Sunday 22nd August from 330pm .. Hi God People play as part of Dylan's exhibition at Melbourne's Heide Museum of Modern Art

recent shows:

2010 Melbourne International Jazz Festival

video:

HGP taping an episode of SET for ABC TV

releases:

cover of HGP-Zond split

photos:

What Is Music

words:

contact:

downloads:

split 12" with the Dead C (Nervous Jerk label, 2006)

Large-format vinyl with hand-screened covers by Dylan Martorell, and songs by the Dead C on one side. These have sold out, so the HGP tracks are here for you to download. (See reviews at bottom of page.)

cover of Hi God People + Dead C split 12 inch Drak (boulder from green mountain)
Tiger tooth bangles of Nomo
Thunder on the way to Funan (featuring Ellen on spoken word)

play to the temple of depth (Spill, 2001)

Utilizing a collage-like multitrack and editing aesthetic the band condense several years of live and studio recordings onto a 30-minute sound montage.

sample track

nega the eight headed serpent (Varispeed, 1999)

the Hi God People's first cd is presented as two albums on one disc: Hi God People, a collection of home and live recordings made during 1998, and Nega the Eight Headed Serpent, the sound track to an imaginary movie. This cd is sold out so the songs are offered here in mp3 format:

front cover of HGP 'Nega the Eight Headed Serpent'
hi god people nega the eight headed serpent
celestial causeway wa-kin-yan
longshore drift xiaxl
tale of the journey round the wooden men quetzalcoatl
ancient caves of kaloohawe narayana
effindi is inside the sohbet patambo
krita yuga (the four footed one) mukura-calpo
archons peetha
villanora


















Solids The Possible Human album

HGP emerged from the remains of this 90s improv group. Their several records and cassettes were collected onto a 2002 best-of The Possible Human, which is offered here in mp3 format:

front cover of Solids 'The Possible Human'
rotation of the earth parameters for meister ekhardt
gling-pa sepik flying machine
amiga, east germany, 1975 luminessence
directions for movement in space divinity to the eternally good being
wider river clay owl
sontech megaton nebula
aqua marine
















reviews of the Hi God People / Dead C split 12":

ARTHUR MAGAZINE Bull Tongue: The Top 80 of 2006 .. #10 .. Debut release by the great Australian label formally known as Art School Dropout. Dead C's side was live at the 2002 ATP Festival and is a brilliant evocation of elemental, abstract forces, culminating in a destroyed exorcism of "LA Blues". The flip, by Melbourne's finest, is their own, very special sorta rumble through a variety of style-dodges. Wonderful destruction of pre-dawn tongues.

PITCHFORK - 2 Feb 2007 It starts with a cryptic announcement: "We follow through the woods at a safe distance distance distance..." and then you're pulled into the labyrinth. Telescoping through detuned twangs, scary whispers, Mason-ic tom tom pulses, unexpectedly deadpan spoken word recitations (from children!), and acidic, amps-breathing guitar reverie, Hi-God People's "Thunder on the Way to Funan" comes off like a sticky, sun-drenched response to the moonlit pageant of Sonic Youth's "Halloween". It's got the same stateliness, and the same freaky, forthright confidence in chiming texture. Not many bands could hold their own on a split with The Dead C, but this tribal Australian four-piece makes it look easy. I hope I never make it out of these woods.

VOLCANIC TONGUE - TIP OF THE TONGUE 18 JANUARY 2007 Excellent split LP from these two Antipodean freedom units. Dead C provide two tracks recorded live at ATP LA in 2002 that are just mindblowing and rank way the fuck up there with their most wasted early jams like "Power", "Mighty" et al, with that same explosive approach to rock form, single notes of monolithic feedback, power drums and Morley's prodigiously-stoned vocals. Totally fantastic. Hi-God People work almost NNCK-style abstruse improvised snatches into long investigations into the sustained brain-massage potential of barely fluxing sound via subtle Ra-inflected keys, electronics and percussion. Comes with silkscreened artwork and in a run of only 500 copies. Highly recommended.

THE FADER Much like how Dylan from Making The Band spit hot fiya for Diddy and 'em, Melbourne artist Dylan Martorell flipped images of indigenous Australian plants, animals and intergalactic shapes for some insane posters and record sleeves for Sonic Youth and his own band, Hi God People. OK, it's not really like that at all. But they're both named Dylan, and we needed to get an intro out there (and an excuse to link the "five best rappers" YouTube. It's still funny!) Anyhoo, what you should take away from all this is that Martorell is that dude, and you should check for him and his creations. Start off by reading his profile after the jump, ripped from the brand-spanking new issue of The FADER, and then maybe drop some loot on the Aussie-only Hi God People/Dead C split 12", a silkscreened, vinyl-only release from Melbourne label Nervous Jerk, available here. It's limited! Get moving! Get reading!

PITCHFORK - FORKCAST On Repeat: Hi-God People: "Thunder on the Way to Funan" .. It starts with a cryptic announcement: "We follow through the woods at a safe distance distance distance..." and then you're pulled into the labyrinth. Telescoping through detuned twangs, scary whispers, Mason-ic tom tom pulses, unexpectedly deadpan spoken word recitations (from children!), and acidic, amps-breathing guitar reverie, Hi-God People's "Thunder on the Way to Funan" comes off like a sticky, sun-drenched response to the moonlit pageant of Sonic Youth's "Halloween". It's got the same stateliness, and the same freaky, forthright confidence in chiming texture. Not many bands could hold their own on a split with The Dead C, but this tribal Australian four-piece makes it look easy. I hope I never make it out of these woods.

SYNAESTHESIA "Amazing split lp by New Zealand free noise legends Dead C and local heroes of surreal theatre, world damage and spaced rock The Hi God People. Dead C provide 2 tracks taken from their ATP show in LA 2002. Starts of with a surprisingly gentle and repetitive rock mantra, ends in punk noise, feedback wall of squall - killer! Hi God supply 3 tracks - a mind blinding mix of sermonic atmosphere, space chug, tribal clunk and glorious plunk. All up a genius paring of 2 of the southern hemispheres finest: Noise, trance, rock, feedback, fun, love and weirdness all wrapped in a stunning silk-screened sleeve by Dylan Martorell (snawklor, hi god). Local record of the year.... ?"

MESS+NOISE 20 Best Australian Release Artwork of 2006 - #10

DUSTED MAGAZINE After 20 years, we're actually hearing another side of the Dead C. Actually make that 15 years, as these live recordings from the Los Angeles All Tomorrow's Parties in '02, finds one of the greatest bands in the history of the Southern Hemisphere playing with melodies as round and buoyant as anything you'd find on a Tortoise record. It's a confusing start that turns out it's just the tune-up phase for their "L.A. Confidential," one of their most outwardly rock offerings since the Vs. Sebadoh EP. What's great is that the recording is compressed in such a way that any escaping undertones fight for the width of the audible spectrum, as a feedback phantom rhythm coats the backbeat and bass frequencies with the presence of some sort of dance music. It's the damnedest thing, and must have happened purely by luck, but it gives the track a character that none of their other recordings has. Their "L.A. Blues" follows it up, somewhat to its namesake, a lengthy, free drone/rock meditation that sounds like sentient factories crooning themselves to sleep with the sounds of howling, seared scrap metal, industrial grinders operating at full speed, and bricks rubbing against one another. Robbie Yeats' kick foot will be bronzed someday. Australia's Hi God People play ascendant, temple-of-priests style psychedelia, allowing analog synths to swoop through sine waves, possessed Jonestown-style chanting, and shambling electric instruments and percussion rolling beneath. Their sound references both This Heat and Royal Trux at the same time (via Confusion is Sex-era SY) and have that thousand-yard focus that separates psych-folk crossdressers with those who can improvise. As good as everybody's been telling you it is, maybe a bit better. Edition of 500 in a silkscreened sleeve; well worth the high price tag.

AQUARIUS RECORDS Super limited lp only split, featuring noise rock deities the Dead C and Australian surreal space rockers Hi God People. The Dead C offer up two tracks, recorded live in 2002 at All Tomorrows Parties and on first listen is the Dead C at their most blissful and laid back. The first track opens with a sort of minimal Velvet Underground style groove, simple drums, muted melodies, but the whole thing is swathed in squealing, shrieking, creaking, stuttering shards of feedback. Eventually that feedback takes over, creating a new rhythm of its own, the drums spazz and sputter out, and suddenly we're in classic dark and dangerous Dead C territory again. Fuzzed out, blown out, overdriven, psychedelic NOISE rock, somehow free and abstract, but totally propulsive and groovy, with strangely super melodic vocals buried WAY down in the mix. The second track is another blissy drone out, that by the end of the side breaks down into some seriously noisy freakout action, sounding almost like some bootleg Stooges jam, pulled apart, jacked up and blown wide open! Fuzzy and murky but still strangely (noise) rocking! The three tracks on the flipside from Australia's Hi God People, are still noise rock, but much less abrasive and more melodic. The opener is super abstract, with bits of sample conversation, warbly organs, shimmering feedback, a lazy glimmering drift. The second track kicks in with some almost Sonic Youth like grooves, simple drumming and tangled up atonal guitars, and some awesome, out of the blue snarling tigers (!). They finish things off with a super moody laid back blown out psych jam, with weird Patty Waters like vocals. Cool. Packaged in a hand silkscreened sleeve, with a two sided printed insert, all adorned with some super cool, very Devendra Banhart looking geometric artwork. And need we say, EXTREMELY LIMITED!!!

M e l b o u r n e . . A u s t r a l i a