- I’m starting to think that someone put the ghost of Abbie Hoffman in charge of fluoridating Perth’s water supply because there is some weird shit coming out of that town these days. That is to say - politely - that Perth has always had an aggressively vibrant music scene. DrAlienSmith is the nom de plume of Perthian producer and Bergerk! Studios engineer Al Smith, a man with more mix/mastering credits than your mum’s Kenwood. Phosphorus is his third EP and it is chockers with something the kids call sludge doom electronica. Basically it’s the music that accompanies the main dude in a movie right before and after he does something incredibly badass, but also it could be the music when you find out THAT WAS THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG. I’ll get to that later. The Phosphorus EP feels like a long listen, but double back and check out the track lengths. It is totally like GSY!BE for the average on-the-go post-civilisation dystopian. Of all five tracks, the shorter Something Sun and Kepala are arguably the most atmospheric, with very little more than synths and what sounds like the wind laying down some only mildly menacing post-rock. Something Sun in particular has a definite resemblance to some of the slower MBV stuff. Lynchpin and Clover up the game with down-tuned bass and buzz saw guitar fills for two languid doom tracks that run for roughly five minutes each. Phosphorus is the most lengthy track at a solid six minutes of reverb-heavy guitars and distant pounding percussion. Some lightly sprinkled piano features in almost every track on the Phosphorus EP, sounding both nostalgic and like the sound effect of a crawly spider in a shit horror film. To summarize the entire EP in a metaphor: imagine Mogwai slowly approaching you with death metal face paint and knives. Flashback to the aforementioned comparison to secret bad guys, it cannot be a coincidence that DrAlienSmith makes the music that probably was playing in the heads of [SPOILERS] secret bad guy Dr. Smith in the very bad movie remake of Lost In Space and also his more well-respected secret bad guy cousin Ash the psycho android from the first Alien movie. Wha-wha?

Remember kids. In Perth, no one can hear you scream.

- Matt Hall.