Australian singer-songwriter Maxine Gillon has just released the deviant, exuberant first single “Genuflect” from her upcoming third EP Stream of Callousness.
The dissonance and serenity tells a personal, yet abstracted story, inspired by the cultural intersection of poetry and rock music. The looming opening ebbs and flowers into an intricately constructed guitar orchestra hypnosis, recalling Lou Reed; with flourishes of The Cramps, Suicide, Daniel Ash, and Sonic Youth. Gillon says the song came to her out of the blue in the form of a vocal melody, inspired by 1950’s rockabilly such as Link Wray and Duane Eddy.
“It’s a perverse and venomous tragicomedy juxtaposing complete self-assurance and self-deprecation in equal measure,” she says. “I also wanted to reference modern text and internet slang in a way that is seldom done in rock music despite it being integral to all of our daily lexicons.”
Watch the video for track below, a siren song of repetition.
Known primarily in the Sydney music scene for her abrasive ear-splitting lead guitar work in post-punk outfit Second Idol, Maxine Gillon’s solo singer-songwriter output reflects a more muted, introspective, and literate side to her musical identity.
She released her debut EP Lips In Front Of Your Teeth in April 2020, soon followed by The Six Strings of Sappho in October of the same year.
Stream Of Callousness is due to arrive in mid-2022. As a body of work, it is inspired by the films and photography of Oliver Assayas, Richard Kern, and Catherine Breillat. It was mixed and mastered by Wade Keighran (Wolf & Cub, Polish Club).
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