Stream Russell Street Bombings' Debut Album

This article originally appeared on Noisey Australia.

Zephyr Pavey and Al Montfort’s various musical incarnations—including Eastlink, Total Control and Dick Diverhave been some of the best coming out of Australia in recent years.

So when the Melbourne duo’s latest project, Russell Street Bombings, was announced to play Constant Mongrel’s single launch a few weeks ago, it made an already rad show, radder.

Named after an 1986 attack on Melbourne police headquarters, the new project may sound punk but the Constant Mongrel show was an all together different affair. Joined by Mikey Young on flute and keyboards, the performance involved longer droney instrumental forays that included guitar, saxophone, sarangi and Montfort’s mumbling and muttered vocals. It was weird and it was great.

The seven tracks on their debut album, released by US label Smart Guy, range from improv noodling recorded on an iPhone at Mexico’s Museo Mural Diego Rivera to eight-minute bouts of unrelenting free form sound explorations.

Stream both side A and Z below.

Before the album release. we sent Al and Zeph some questions.

Noisey: You are called Russell Street Bombings, not Russell St Bombers. The bombings refer to the whole incident; the bombs, the bombers, the cops, the media, the informants, corruption and general fear. Have you studied the case and circumstances?
Al Montfort: I haven’t studied the case so much but I was very interested in the repercussions. I’m interested in Australia's fascination with this undercurrent of crime in Australia. From Underbelly to Chopper to The Boys to Animal Kingdom to Blue Murder. Australian people love crims if they are charasmatic enough.

From I what I understand the bombers motivation was to get back at cops because they hated prison life.
Zephyr Pavey: Yeah surely they hated prison but probably more so just hating cops for being cops, perhaps quite personally in the case of these guys. Unless you're rich as shit it's pretty obvious cops aren't around to protect and serve us or whatever their motto is. I sell fruit and vegetables, that's a public service. Who protects me from evil? Satan and the mob. Do you think the cops may have over stepped the mark in their investigation to find and charge the perpetrators?
Al: Yeah I think if they hated the repression of the law so much they definitely over stepped the mark with the consequent government and police response. This event and a few others in the late 1980s led to a real crackdown by police. I think the Victorian public were scared and it gave a mandate to the government to give the Victorian Police force more power. What a bummer!

Have you seen the television series Phoenix that is loosely based around the bombings?
Al: I’ve never seen it but I’m very keen to check it out.

One of the alleged bombers Craig Minogue entered prison illiterate but studied in prison and even became a PhD student.
Zephyr: I thought the screws prevented him getting his PhD? Sick if not, Tim McManus' dreams of prison reform live deep in our hearts,

Have you read any of his papers?
Zephyr: Nah, Angela Davis said some good stuff about prison reform in an interview a while back, get it into ya. I'm not yet qualified to speak on the matter outside of an obscured "creative" haze. How did the band start? Was it just the two of you or has Mikey always played a part?
Al: Nah Mikey never really had anything to do with it until mastering. Also Jerry from Smart Guy records cc's him in most emails to us for some reason -haha. I guess they are old friends. It’s the same with James Vinci [Total Control drummer James Vinciguerra]. I don’t think Jerry had a clue about us until James passed on some recordings.

Zephyr: I think I said it with a more rehearsed humour in an eastyboys interview but me and Al jam all the time. Total Control has loads of off season and Eastlink works best with all five people so, whenever those bands (or our other sick new band TERRY) aren't happening we jam Russly Boys. Mikey has played a couple of shows with us and may keep doing so if he ever happens to be up in the big smoke with his enchanted flute/axe at the exact same time as a live performance, and yeah he mastered/kinda mixed the record but that's it for his involvement. His flute and synth the other night were a particularly marvellous addition,correct?

The instrumentation is interesting with Al's sarangi, sax and flute. Has it always been like that?
Al: We just chuck everything on it. What ever might sound good thatwe have lying around.

"Russell Street Bombings" is available digitally and on vinyl on Smart Guy on February 24.