Melbourne psych-pop supergroup The Ronson Hangup – featuring members of The Anyones, Dallas Crane, The Church, Even, Paul Kelly’s band and Courtney Barnett’s band – are back with their second single ‘Centaurus’, the title track off their forthcoming second album. And this time, the gloves are off.
Their previous single ‘Waxes & Wanes’ (reviewed by me here) was a floating jingle jangly slice of indie pop, ephemeral and breezy. ‘Centaurus’ whips off the gloves and introduces a bit of thundering chain mail into the cloth, with a nod to the sixties/seventies style of Cream or The Hollies – a barbed wire spine of riffs leavened by glorious harmonies that shine and sparkle above the dark and ominous guitars. There is a space rock psychedelic tone complete with a wild and glorious guitar solo.
Founding members Steve Pinkerton (The Anyones, Dallas Crane) and Ashley Naylor (Even, The Church, Paul Kelly’s band) and rest of the band which includes Courtney Barnett’s drummer Dave Mudie, Luke Thomas on Bass (The Saints, The Pictures) and Erica Menting (The Golden Rail) exhibit a wild afro-haired velvet bell-bottomed clad abandon in this track. It’s like it’s 1967 and the Summer of Love all over again:
The two singles and pre-orders for the album, due out on 3 November, are available through the link below:
‘Centaurus’ will be launched on Saturday December 2 at the group’s favourite haunting ground, The Workers Club in Fitzroy, with tickets on sale now.
The tracks on Centaurus were written either collaboratively by Pimkerton and Naylor, or by Pinkerton solo – and they were brought to life by the musicianship of each of the band members. Co-founder and former member Mal Pinkerton trades guitar riffs with Naylor on six of the tracks.
Guests on the album include award-winning classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan, acclaimed jazz pianist Tony Gould AM, Jane Pinkerton (sister of Steve & Mal) who has spent many years with The Australian Opera, and pedal steel guitarist Shane Reilly (Lost Ragas, Tex Perkins, Beck).
The Ronson Hangup’s self-titled debut album was released in 2010.
The new album was partly recorded with the legendary Wayne Connolly at Head Gap Studios and mixed at Albert Studios while the remainder was recorded and mixed by Steve at his home studio.
