Megaflower - Full Flower Moon Band (Silver Arrow)
Full Flower Moon band as a concept has been ongoing for almost a decade. It was a project created by songwriter, filmmaker and musician Kate Dillion. Early gigs in Brisbane were more of an experimental affair, playing at fringe music venues around Brisbane as a duo but sometimes supplemented by other musicians.
Dillion’s masterwork of a few years ago was her ambitious sci-fi film, “Chinatown”. She wrote the script, played the lead and wrote the soundtrack that became her debut album. A critically-acclaimed, intellectually-layered short film, it was an incredible achievement.
The second album, “Diesel Forever”, clocked in at 33 minutes It’s an album that hooks you right away, and it’s easy to listen to both as an awesome rock ‘n’ roll record and one with a few deeper cuts Over time, its supreme craftsmanship leaps out. Every note played, every drum hit and every lyric sung is perfectly placed.
The high-class, blues swagger of its song “New Rocket” should have been on high rotation on every rock station across the planet and knocked off Taylor Swift at the top the charts. It challenges the listener with its psychological darkness, while the album itself is a theatre populated by complex characters, rock cliches and intensity…and some of the best guitar lines this side of Jupiter.
It’s an album I have not stopped playing for at least a year. I knew “Megaflower” had a hard act to follow.
“Megaflower” was produced by Kate Dillion and Tony Buchen (Smashing Pumpkins). Opener “Super Like Me” kicks off with a wonderful psychedelic guitar line ,and we are instantly in the groove. Kate seductively whispers:
Your papa super likes me
Yea, your superpappa
Lay down beside me
The guitars ingeniously build tension and the song evolves into a bona fide rock anthem. The sounds swirl and I fell in love with it in the first 16 bars.
Any fears this record was going to fall short of “Diesel Forever” are put at ease. I am already turning the volume louder as the sound of Full Moon Flower band fills my unit. I can see Kate rolling her eyes with lyrics evoking sleazy boganism and satirising online desperados , Tinder and speed dating. Songs like this are biting social commentary. It needed to be written.
The smoky vocal and harmonies of “Illegal Things” tackle redemption and not getting too high. It turns into a vision of Haight Asbury’s ghosts, referencing 1967 San Francisco via Brisbane’s Westend with the superb guitars of Lismore’s own Christian Driscoll. The Aquarius Festival nightmare reincarnated into a rock beast with teeth.
The album now turns sinister with the song “Devil”. The bass-lines of Marli Smales plod along like a King Brown snake uncoiling along a cliff’s ledge This is where The Flower Moon Band have conquered the mountain
What I love about The Full Flower Moon Band is how Dillion nods to artists like Bowie and Alice Cooper through characters that she creates. The mood simply builds and builds and she takes on the personality of her own character, “Baby Shakes”. At times, her vocal recalls Linda Blair in “The Exorcist”. It’s that dangerous.
“Baby“ closes side one with a dysfunctional love song of sorts. Kate’s amazing vocal melody stands out, almost channelling some mid-1960s folk diva.
“Enemy” is a swampy opener to side two:
You can’t make green tea from green tea leaves
You can’t make spices from other ingredients
But I can make an enemy out of anything
Kate’s stern warning is accompanied by guitar sounds that ooze with soaked reverb and twang. The lead playing by Christan Driscoll is again sublime and he knows his way around a fretboard like Tom Verlaine or Richard Lloyd.
Then we have the rhythm section with a drummer in Luke Hanson who smashes his kit to pieces like John Bonham. yet skilfully interlocks with Marli’s fluid bass.
With the track “West Side”, we return to the massive rock machine sound for which Full Flower Band are becoming legendary with tireless global touring. It have could fitted on “Diesel Forever” but sits equally well amongst the musicality and broader sonic landscape of “Megaflower”. The song recalls the darker and edgier side of Australian underground music of the ‘80s, with a hint of Lubricated Goat in its furious guitars that could slice you in half. When the band plays it live, this song shakes the foundations.
“Man Hands” changes the mood to sensual with its pure jangle and lashings of melody.
Second-last song “Alpha” is a psychotic mindfuck, a swirling ball of psychedelic intensity in a wall of sound. Props to the sharp clear production of producer Tony Buchen.
“Kiss Him Goodbye” is a beautiful and gentler closer and a departure in its vocal performance. It’s romantic tone contrasts with the album’s dark theatre which at times frames the LP as a psychological thriller.
“Megaflower” is an album I have owned for three weeks and I play daily. At times, it’s had me jumping around the loungeroom or drawing me deep into its intense emotional mood shifts. It’s high drama.
Kate Dillion is a visionary who works with the vehicle of a rock n roll band There are cliches and twists on the album, and it can be dangerous. It expands some of character-driven concepts explored by Alice Cooper and David Bowie in the early 70s. At its core is the fact that a filmmaker can write a damn great tune.
A friend of mind worked with Kate Bush in the studio in the late 1970s. He explains that Kate would describe her sound as being like a landscape. I imagine Kate Dillion creates her music to be much more layered - and visual. Even though there’s no relation between the pair musically, there seems a similarity in the two Kates’ creative approach.
Full Flower Moon band is not just Kate Dillion. Sure, it’s been her vision and creative drive for a decade, but it’s also a collection of the most creative and talented musicians in Australia. The guitars especially are so inventive, with clever use of scales and textures by Caleb Widener and Christian Driscoll. Marli Swales is a powerhouse on bass. Luke Hanson is commanding on drums.
“Megaflower” is a worthy follow-up to “Diesel Forever”. It is fresh, original and intelligent. And it rocks!!!
THIS IS MY ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR.
