Harbour Century is the second album by Sydney based Eunuchs who have created a deeply impressive sonic stew with the help of guest musicians and wild imaginations as Kristo Langker, Linus Hilton and Enzo Legge tell stories of happenings in and around Sydney Harbour aided and abetted by a 15 strong band, who recorded parts of the album underwater in Sydney harbour.
The album opens with Magic Death Sea Nemesis, downbeat dark jazz rock sound with borderline screamo vocals, odd twisted feel, it goes all bucolic folk in the middle, full band comes back in, it appears hunting horns are driving them on with urgency to create a jazz-prog hybrid, almost in the vein of Nervous Cabaret.
Pat A Dragon it will give you all the money you need, to make this sort of weird jazz rock album with harp runs, full on No Wave brass section, dolorous bass sound, Anthony style vocals work against the episodic brass and flute stabs. Screeds of noise howl through the Harbour as dragon chases them deep into the Sydney underground.
Estuary Of Dreams is hopefully not as muddy and sticky as the Thames estuary, flutes and trumpets exude calm with a classical jazz vibe, evoking the brass led parts on John Cale's Honi Soit album.
Siren has echoes of Roxy Music as well as lots of other odder influences, off some place you may not have expected it to go, including a mad cartoon chase sequence.
Magnificent Stallion describes that huge great beast, like they are the Auzzie equivalent of Soft Machine, great wall of brass leads you out to the cadaver of this huge horse.
Fortune Of Gnome a gnostic classical song for anyone whose been feasting with the gods, yet covered in shame by the experience, finding out the local police officer knows you by name, all sorts of scenarios unfurl.
Bird Angel Dynasty has an Eastern European dark jazz song influence, a deep tale, vocals go screamo punk, music becomes more insistent riff based jazz heaviness.
Hierophant has enough of a medieval tone poem tale for the one who reveals all, his prophecy increases, building the wall of brass impassioned shouted vocals dictate orders.
The album closes with the immense Heroin King a true story of drug smuggling madness in Sydney harbour, this is a eulogy for the victims, slow piano, dark leaden feelings of pain, never-ending cycle of trade, a Tindersticks operetta, tragedy of the many levelled tentacles reaching out from the piazza, soliloquy for the damned, among the tragic beauty of decay. One of the must hear songs of the year, re-imagining the Last King Of The Cross, caught up in the deceit of the man with the golden arms, within voids explained expounded over 17 minutes of madness of the King, the principles of the songs of Supply And Demand's Brechtian demeanour's, enchanting ways of filling the deep with corpses of rivals. The final movement snuffed the low tones, whispering scale of horrors, everything builds marching towards peaks of ultimate achievements of the Heroin King, this is a song that's easy to get stuck on repeat to really understand it's story.
Find out more at https://eunuchs.bandcamp.com/album/harbour-century
