Cleareye Shining by Bitumen
Heavy Machinery Records is delighted to announce Cleareye Shining, the savage sophomore LP from Melbourne post-punk outfit Bitumen.
The driving, metallic barrage of Bitumen’s signature sound is present within this track, aggrandized by dramatic synths, acoustic guitar and layered vocals. Out Of Athens is a song about “the indignity of unreciprocated love, being on holiday, and the comedy inherent in experiencing a personal romantic tragedy against a backdrop of sweetness, light and maybe even disco”.
Most of the songs on Cleareye Shining were in the embryonic stages when the pandemic hit, forcing the band to move away from attempting to capture a live sound and lean into making a cleaner studio album. Crafting nine individual songs each with its own character and internal logic, Bitumen took a precise and restrained approach, allowing the album room to explore breakbeats, piano, acoustic guitars and more intimate vocal work. Lyrically, Cleareye Shining sees shadowy figures in the throes of loving, lusting, plotting and fantasising. The result is 80s maximalism meets 90s industrial-electro. Robocop meets Basic Instinct. Always intense, always dramatic, and always demanding of your attention.
Tracklist
| 1. | Paint and Draw | 4:26 |
| 2. | Moving Now Now Now | 4:11 |
| 3. | Colosseum | 5:04 |
| 4. | Out of Athens | 4:15 |
| 5. | Put Down My Name | 4:37 |
| 6. | With Intention | 4:38 |
| 7. | Spun Gold Heaving | 4:19 |
| 8. | Envelopes Full | 4:09 |
| 9. | Luxury Auto | 6:18 |
Credits
all songs written + performed by bitumen:
kate binning
bryce maher
simon maisch
sam varney
recorded by simon maisch at a private studio brunswick + the aviary abbotsford
mixed by mike deslandes
additional vocal production by charlie saint-alan
additional drum production by alex akers
mastered by david walker at stepford audio melbourne
series curated + produced by miles brown
project coordination by naretha williams
cover concept by kate binning
front + back photography by emily herbert + sam varney
inner photography by nicole reed
bitumen logo by peter bramley
design layout + typography by maximillian e s-strewe
design production by luke fraser at grin creative
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