stars don't shine to noise

Headfall released Stars Don't Shine to Noise in November 2004, just short of ten years ago. The record has just recently been made available to order online, along with a free digital download of the whole album. It was one of the first records I ever owned and it is still one of my favourite and most prized possessions by far. 

Seriously, you should buy this album. It is a genuine undiscovered classic. The only reason this thing is not completely sold out is that for a long time, the only place you could purchase it was at Headfall shows, which only tend to happen once, maybe twice a year in pretty small venues.

George McKenzie (drums, guitar, violin, piano, humming, tape loops, clarinet.) once told me that this album was the only thing he's ever made that he is still proud of. He then went on to tell me where all of the mistakes were. But they don't sound like mistakes to me. This whole shuffling, brooding thing sounds so on purpose, grey as mist on the sea, broken glass, to sand, to salt water. A bunch of punk kids trying to make jazz, awkwardness exploding out of them. Everything is poetry, sung and played, 'a truth too teenage'. 


I don't want to keep describing how it sounds. You can find out for yourself, and you should. I just think that what it does sound like, what it wants to sound like, is captured perfectly, stylistically, aesthetically, framed in smokey static electricity, perfectly honed and curated, artfully presented. a jagged frenzy beneath a swelling surface, barely restrained, three yearning hearts.