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Water of Life - Aberlour A'Bunadh

Speyside’s Aberlour is a much fabled about distillery – one that releases its emissions in idiosyncratic batches, which might vary a tad in terms of quality, yet have the common denominator of having the same copper-ruby appearance derived from its exclusive maturation in Spanish Oloroso sherry butts without any artificial additions and no chill-filtration. Given the aforementioned characteristics, it should not come as a surprise that their flagship expression “A’Bunadh” roughly translates to “of the origin”.

When Aberlour came up in conversation with follow aficionados, the term “sherry monster” was thrown around quite frequently, with some claiming that it coined the blueprint for the genre given its early emergence.

Needless to say that I was quite excited to finally experience the drop. After cutting off the massive trademark wax seal and upon uncorking, what tickled the nostrils was a complex conglomerate of vanilla, apples, nuts, cinnamon, spearmint, barley and oak which rest on a foundation of dominant sherry notes that pervade the aroma on all fronts.

A’Bunadh at cask strength clocks in at over 60% ABV, however, what materializes on the palate with the mouthfeel reminiscent of a good chewy cognac is not at all the spirity burning alcohol heavy assault one might expect. While the alcohol is certainly conducive to the warming effects it unveils, nuances of chocolate, vanilla, oaky malt, honey, white pepper, the sherry cask trademark “furniture polish” flavours, and raisins take turns and make each sip a lip smacking exercise in deliciousness.

What the palate promised, seamlessly transitions to the elongated finish as the drop warms the through, which riffs on the main flavours notes but adds dried fruits, berries, almonds and again heavy sherry highlights to the mix.

Aberlour A’bunadh is an expression that is rustic, earthy and an excellent whisky with sherry notes rather than what in other cases tasted like a high alcohol version of sherry and one that no serious whisky cabinet is complete without.

The Formative Years – Rocket from the Crypt

Given that it was released on Nemesis Records, I ordered the first Pitchfork album blindly and while it did not exactly blow my mind – mainly due to the rhythm section -  I liked the way the songs were written, the interesting guitar lines and vocals enough to not be deterred from checking out the debut LP that the songwriter released with his new outfit Rocket from the Crypt in the early 1990s.

 The album “Paint as a fragrance” won me over straight away with its charmingly noisy ditties, which were full of heart and soul yet still packed a punch. Learning shortly after about the fact that Rocket from the Crypt had a release on one of my favourite record labels, i.e. Pusmort records, sealed the deal for me and I started collecting whatever bore the RFTC logo.

An array of 7” releases followed (which were later on compiled and released as the “All systems go” compilation album) and eventually their second album “Circa: Now” was released, which saw RFTC refine its ballsy melange of hardcore, punk, garage and grunge with the addition of what should later on be expanded and became their trademark, i.e. the usage of a  saxophone and  mini horn section, which they used diligently to add punchiness to their already riveting riffs.

So far, so good.

With not only the underground but also a mainstream audience having caught on and given my purist juvenile delinquent absolutism, I was convinced that I was going to lose one of “my” bands with their first major label release in 1995.

However, things could have not turned out more differently. Having collected and loved almost all of their previous releases, “Scream, Dracula, Scream!” topped it all.

A near flawless juggernaut of an album that has made me smile literally every time I have listened to it. Again, RFTC skims the cream of the crop of rock, punk, soul, grunge, alternative, garage rock and pop sensibility, throws it into a blender and infuses it with their very own delicious flavour. The result is a nuanced tour de force of catchiness that grooves yet does not lack aggression. A great mix of aggression, horns, showmanship and a whole bag of fun. It is a shame that the label did not allow the album to be released as the band had intended, i.e. as a cohesive monolith of music, however, “Scream, Dracula, Scream!” progressed what had become pretty stale and standardized punk formulae to something refreshingly new and exciting by drawing on the essence and finer parts of the very styles that initially spawned the genre.

I managed to get to see them on their supporting tour a couple of times in 1996 and each incarnation was a fantastic experience as the natural charisma fuelled by the unbridled enthusiastic of front man par excellence and raconteur John Reis and his worthy constituents was only amplified by their stage antics, which included a male cheerleader, variété and designated segments for audience interaction.

What might sound cheesy on paper and an oxymoron to what was standard practice within punk and hardcore circles, totally worked as RFTC channelled their alchemy in a manner that disarmed even the most snobbish hardcore purist and their unrivalled tight delivery got everyone in attendance moving.

The Fundamentals of Graphic Design

Bloomsbury Publishing

What do you associate with “Graphic Design”?

Aestheticism?

Form vs function in the two-dimensional space?

A realm of individuality?

Eccentricity?

Ornamental crinkum-crankum?

Whatever your personal interpretation is, here is finally an introductory book to the world of Graphic Design that will make sense to both the merely curious as well as the ones dedicated to the discipline looking to get an overview on the lay of the land.

In the most approachable and accessible manner, the recipient is guided and inducted into not only what the profession entails, but also educated on the history of design to more elaborated and intricate chapters zeroing in on the process of designing, a detailed glossary of the vernacular, the historical context and the way production is and has been handled.

While this might be pretty elementary to luminaries, the number of times I went “ah!” after learning e.g. about the exact nature of a font and why it is effective in exactly the place it is used in and having epiphanies, cannot be counted.

Accompanied by hundreds of explanatory and descriptive illustrations, the content is engaging to the point where one feels prompted to go down the rabbit hole and find out more granular details on how to apply some of the graphic design techniques, which is partly due to the hands-on way Gavin Ambrose, Paul Harris and Nigel Ball, two of which are accomplished graphic designer themselves, structure their approach in a relatable manner.

Luminous World

Light.

Nuances.

Shadows.

Endless variations and spectra.

The perception and (dis-)appearance of contours.

Wavelengths.

The intersection of the spiritual and the mundane.

Enlightenment.

Seeing the light as the ultimate spiritual experience.

Light can be many things and exists in manifold incarnations, no matter if it is absorbed, reflected, transitioning or else to shape and bend our perception.

Luminous World is a beautiful tome that accompanied the exhibition of the same name and presents a compendium of different media ranging from sculpture via paintings to photographs with the common denominator being that they are based on how contemporary artists either use or revel in the phenomenon that is light.

Curated through the Wesfarmers Collection over three decades, it is interesting to see how perception and interpretation has changed throughout the years, despite chronological order not being the red thread as far as the arrangement of the book is concerned as  the sequence follows more the ‘dusk to dawn’ principle.

It gets specifically interesting when our mundane spheres are left behind, and the respective artists takes a couple of steps back to look at culture at large and our cycle of life. The accompanying essays help to frame and embed the artworks as they add a philosophic angle and a depth that often inspired me to revisit some of the works.

Given that over fifty indigenous and non-indigenous artists and their works are represented, quite a bit of diverse territory is covered and there is a lot to discover – intellectually as well as in an experiential manner.

Light

Let’s stay on topic, shan’t we?

Compared to Luminous World, Light is more of a visual monograph to the photographer Christian Fletcher, whose focus is firmly set on capturing images that highlight the different facets the Australian landscape has to offer.

If you have ever had the privilege of experience the more remote parts of Australia and the awe they inspire, you would need no convincing to grasp that channelled through the lens of a professional with more close to three decades of experience, there is eye candy galore.

What Fletcher manages to portray is not merely the depiction of great motives, but his photography highlights the connection each and every one of us has with our natural surroundings.

Having honed his photographic skills in an analogue age, Fletcher has experienced the rise and evolution of digital media and perfectioned the interplay composition, colouring and post processing.

There is a lucidity to the photographs and Fletcher’s discernment elicits nuances that invite to reinterpret what we perceive to be set in stone.

Homemade

Anna Gare

Yup, Fremantle Press covers quite a range that goes beyond the realms of art, with accessible cook books being a dedicated category. Homemade is one of those ones that will make you hungry instantly as it is not only illustrated in an appealing manner but offers simple, easy-to-follow recipes that even the most luddite can use and modify to whip something palatable up in no time.

Anna Gare’s family friendly recipes are organised in a loose manner, giving attention to both sweet and savoury dishes with affordable ingredients that can be easily sourced and the way it is presented makes you want to get cooking straight away.

Water of Life – Bladnoch x Boilermaker House collaboration

If you follow this series, you would notice that the term “boilermaker” makes frequent appearances. Pretty simple in nature as far as the concept is concerned, in essence and in this context, it usually refers to the pairing of a brew with a dram of whisk(e)y.

Word around the campfire has that etymologically “boilermaker” has its origins in blue collar workers looking for a liquid bookend to a long, hard day of work, however, there are other amusing anecdotes that people see as the reason for the name, one of which includes the negligence of a locomotive operator whose indulgence was blamed for the steam powered vehicle to catch fire.

Whatever it may be and however you enjoy it, the beer and whisk(e)y pairing is a damn fine combo in my book – as long as you refrain from the abomination that is to drop the dram into the beer.

Given my preference, I was quite delighted to see the opening of watering hole in Melbourne whose telling name “Boilermaker House” indicated that their focus was firmly set on refining the art of pairing brews with the water of life. I got even more excited when I learned about Boilermaker House’s endeavours to collaborate directly with distilleries to bottle their own expressions.

In Boilermaker House’s case, a collaboration with Bladnoch was natural, as the southernmost Scottish distillery, which is named after its water source the Bladnoch river, is Australian owned.

The expression that was agreed on became the limited Bladnoch x Boilermaker House Select Cask 18-Year-Old, which had Bladnoch’s Master Distiller Dr Nick Savage hand select the what was proffered to the Boilermaker House team in a private tasting.

Clocking in at 48.3%ABV, the aromas already hint at the impact the maturation in Muscatel casks had in the maturation process, as what stings the nostrils is pervaded by fruity sweetness with syrupy highlights.

What materializes on the palate is a seamless continuation of what the nose promised, however, things get interesting as the nuances of stewed fruit rest on a foundation of oaky caramel, which adds depth and character.

The elongated finish is an exercise par excellence in well-calibrated sweetness reminiscent of dried fruits, cinnamon and more caramel.

In a bid to compliment Boilermaker House’s exclusive bottling, they developed their own limited brew with the name being a pun on the collaboration, i.e. “Noch Out”. While the name might suggest a heavy hitter, the reality could not be more different as the beer is a finely refined melange of citrus, stouty chocolatey notes and a freshness imbued by Amarillo hops. The kicker and what makes Noch Out the predestined companion to Bladnoch’s 18 Year Old Select Cask is the addition of interesting spices like cardamom, wormwood and liquorice root, which aid in not only complementing the flavours of the whisky but create an interactive crescendo of cross-pollinating flavours with every sip yielding a differently coloured result.

With Bladnoch Distillery having over two hundred years under its belt, it is not further wondrous that they have a well-distinguished portfolio of core expressions, which should offer something for any aficionado.

In a bid to appeal to a younger crowd, Bladnoch reinvented itself and now complements their core range with two new blended Scotch whiskies.

Based on a foundation of aged grain whiskies, the newly incepted Pure Scot Blended Scotch Whisky range is taking the DNA of what has firmly been established as Bladnoch and blends it with drops from the Speyside, Highland and Islay regions, the latter of which makes it particularly interesting for me.

The relatively low ABV of 40%ABV already indicated that this is an everyday sipper, an impression reinforced by the charming vanilla and butterscotch aromas that much to my delight are topped off with the most subtle hint of smoke.

Malt is prominent on the roof of the mouth, with welcome nuance of peat that trail off via detours into stone fruit and spicy, gingery territory.

I would not call the finish elongated; however, it has its moments as it continues what was first promised on the palate with nuances of hazelnut.

An edition to the portfolio that makes sense and cements that Bladnoch knows what they are doing when it comes to channelling their alchemy of distilling.