- The ever illustrious Naarm/Melbourne based label Efficient Space have done us another collective favour by reissuing the works of yet another unsung Aussie artist - this time the solo works of Patrick Gibson. If you’re an Aussie music freak you may know some of the bands he played in, having been a key figure in the Sydney post-punk/electronic arena: groups such as Scattered Order, Systematics, The Loop Orchestra, Ya Ya Choral (the list goes on and on and on). Not only that, over time he became a pillar of the legendary M Squared records, engineering and facilitating numerous recordings, and putting out some of the wildest music in Australia at the time (and till this day for that matter). This compilation focuses on his vast and varied solo works, touching on a variety of genres and recording techniques that he and those at M Squared employed.

I Needle the Oven! Is one of the tracks that approaches traditional pop music - complete with verse and bridges (though shot through that M Squared lense). It’s straight up drunken synth-pop about wanting to drink more.Church of England TV is another weirdo synth-pop track composed of vocal harmonies and an effected organ. Sort of like a less jaded, late-era Bruce Haack. I also adore the dubbed outro. God's Buzzsaw (Original Backing Track) has a shuffling drum beat, feeling like another jammy synth-pop track with vox, synth, organ (aka the works). Bland A feels like an even looser jam: flanged drum machine for extra funk while electric piano and organ are layered over the top. 5-4 Fisted Tales of the Holy Trinity closes out the comp out, an intriguing track underpinned by a shuffling 5/4 drum and synth sequence beat while the structures remain in 4/4 time. This use of polymeter (apologies for the technical terms) makes for an interesting push/pull dynamic (similarly Swimming is in 3 / 4 time which makes groove like Sky Needle did, minus the honks).

Then there are more ambient tracks, like Untitled (2) that are some straight-up ambient synth works which would work on a film soundtrack (evocative of the recent reissue of Brisbane’s own Picture Music). I love the beautiful electric piano of Yeah OK with deceptive drops of disonance thrown in for good measure. Hydrobes is also quite pretty, building upon a simple arpeggio that mutates and flitters around. Music for Turtles brings a dark tone to the proceedings, deep booming tones rhythmically droning out..The knowingly titled Eno Thing kicks things off beautifully with reversed guitar, tape loops, delay and pitch shifts that are delightfully wobbly, in a harmonic way (like the pure guitar explorations of Manuel Göttsching). I also love the pretty simplicity of Air - like a Durutti Column instrumental (and by that I mean jangly guitars). The guitar paired with white noise bring percolative percussive hits panned hard left. Also love the end of the track where a voice gruffly asks “Let’s tryit again?”.

Then there’s some really far out recordings. My Best Friend is a sort of eerie spoken word piece, a la Joan La Barbara or John Giorno, with the voice being processed and delayed. That goes for Catatonic too, made from eerie loops and manipulations; the musique-concrete influence really coming through. An electronic piano underpins a vocal loop that repeats the word catatonic until it induces that state in you. Children, on the other hand, sounds like some free jazz. Electronic instrumentation is dropped for acoustic drums, guitar and bass, though the dubby experimentation remains. It should be noted that it has a simply dank, jazzy as hell keyboard outro also.

In1982 with M Squared colleague Michael Tee it's stated that Gibson was initially being pretty loose with what the label would accept and record, but became more selective overtime as “5 million Kraftwerk clones and Cabaret Voltaire clones” popped up (OHH!). And they really achieved it with their label in my opinion, exemplified by this compilation of his solo works. There’s some ambience, drum-machine goodness, jangly sunlit pop that's nice'n'melodic plus some jazz. A little taste of everything, but a well balanced mix of experimental works and more traditionally fleshed out tracks.

There’s always something so inspiring to me about DIY creatives who genuinely pushed the envelope in the early days of home recording, using anything and everything at their disposal to record, like the aforementioned Haack or completely different composers like Joe Meek or François de Roubaix. It also reminds me of the poppy practicality of Martin Newell and Cleaners From Venus (whose upcoming doco profile The Jangling Man looks great, by the way). Having passed due to cancer in 2019 it is an honour to hear Gibson’s inspired body of work. It’s been presented with the care and respect that a key innovator of Australia’s experimental landscape requires and deserves.

- Hillfolk.