Thus Let Us Drink Beer

Beerfarm, Wayward and Akasha new releases

With “Beerfarm” being a telling name in every sense of the word, the Western Australian brewery is not only committed to the creation of great beers but in doing so, has their commitment to sustainability, the minimisation of their carbon footprint, reduction of water and energy consumption at the very core of their operations, which they achieve by recycling, upcycling and composting all of the side products of their brewing activities.

Needless to say, a brewery with such an explicit “established for the future” mission statement approaches the creation of beers holistically and aims to make it an wholesome and enjoyable experience that extends beyond the confines of merely channelling their alchemy in the creation of frothy brews – instead they put their own idiosyncratic spin on it, which is centred around the welcoming third-place they created in the Margaret River region.

Beerfarm’s line-up features a wide range of brews and so far, I have only had the chance to check out their Big Hazy DIPA expression. 
Not unlike the name suggests, this hop forward juicy little number unfolds its magic in an orangey haziness that is dominated by the characteristics of Yakima Chief Hops and Cryer Malt, i.e. distinctive citrussy, mango and stone fruity nuances which dance against a backbone of malted Canadian oats.

Medium-bodied, with a moderate bitterness and with a creamy mouthfeel, Beerfarm’s seasonal Big Hazy is an approachable, vibrant fruit basket of flavours without ever running danger of being cloying and with an ABV of 7.8% it packs a punch as well.
Looking forward to checking out Beerfarm’s upcoming expressions.

Wayward Brewing - Sunshine Juice

There is never a time when I do not get exciting about Wayward Brewing dropping a new expression, especially in the IPA department. If you follow this series attentively, you would by now be familiar with both Wayward’s accolade decorated core range as well as their dedication to creating limited edition experimental beers and a barrel program, which is pushing the boundaries of what is thought possible without ever entering novelty territory.

Once you pour Wayward’s latest addition to their Hazy IPA range, i.e. Sunshine Juice, it becomes obvious that it is a telling name as it looks like a hoppy ray of light and  it tastes, well, like the extraction of the natural liquid contained in citrus fruits. 

Based on marrying Motueka and Rakau hops from New Zealand and the tried and tested Citra variant from the new world, the former adds an exciting lemon aroma with refreshing notes of tropical as well as stone fruit and citrus,  along with floral and spicy / herbal notes subtly hinting at rosemary and basil. The Rakau hops add a bittering quality, which thereby contrasts and sets the fruit aromas in scene.

The Citra hops add a smooth floral component to complement to dominant citrus aromas and round out the flavour profile by infusing the affair with passion fruit and lychee and a smooth bitterness.

Clocking in at 6.5% ABV, I find that Sunshine Juice is one to savour for special occasions – I paired it with a dram of Laphroaig’s Lore, which brought out some delicate nuances hidden below the avalanche of fruity, juicy flavours, i.e. malty and grainy notes, which yet again highlight Wayward’s expertise when it comes to adding finer brush strokes to their creations.

Akasha – Third Eye and Belgian Dubbel

If you are following this series, Akasha should ring a bell as we have celebrated their when hoppy awesomeness quite a few times. Not long after their fantastic Wooden Leg release, another Triple IPA has been unleashed onto the willing masses and not unlike the name suggests, Third Eye opens the chakra of so much more than mere over the top hoppiness.

Despite a respectable 9.8% ABV, this heavy hitter is a refined exercise in well calibrated complexity that pays homage in equal parts to both ends of the spectrum, i.e. fruitiness and resinous sappiness without ever running danger of entering overly dominant bitter territory, which is where a lot of IIIPAs fail and become too overwhelming. 

Akasha’s continuous experimental endeavours have this time resulted in the refinement of the best parts of what malty, weedlike West Coast IPAs have to offer, married with the dry hopped, full bodied borderline haziness that is the trademark of New England brews.

The pineapple-y, stone fruity and slightly spicy characteristics of Bru-1 hops are juxtaposed by distinct lemon-limyness courtesy of Cashmere hops, which round out the experience with a pronounced herbal bouquet, sitting comfortably against a crisp malty, slightly sweet-piny backbone.

Needless to say, given the aforementioned flavour profile, this little number is dangerously moreish due to a restrained bitterness meeting the most delicate sweetness and thereby far too pleasant on the palate for the alc content of close to 10% ABV. 

Another example par excellence for Akasha’s ability to meticulously create nuances and complex flavour profiles in territory where it would be easy for big flavours to take over and overshadow any subtleties.

Continuing on the experimental trail, Akasha’s Signature Series is one of the brewery’s many initiatives to provide a platform for their brew luminaries to channel their alchemy in the creation of something entirely new or reimagined. 

Having spent quite a bit of time in Belgium and harbouring a weak spot for their local brews, I was intrigued when I learned about Akasha’s Sticky Date Belgian Dubbel.

As the name suggests, we got quite a decadent affair in front of us: With Belgian yeast setting the tone, this babyh comes as close to a “desert beer” as can be, delighting your tastebuds with a rollercoaster ride through caramelly, sweet chocolatey and rosy, slightly fermented banana notes.

Summa summarum, Akasha delivered another two solid limited releases that you’d want to get your mitts one before they are going to be discontinued.

The Formative Years

Chaos Z

Inspired by the recent acquisition of the enhance version of Joy Division’s Juvenes book, I revisited the oeuvre of one of my favourite German punk bands of all time, i.e. Chaos Z. 

During their short-lived existence from 1980 to 1983, they channeled both the raw, rudimentary and explosive force of early hardcore punk a la Discharge with New Wave inspired and Joy Division tinged sentiments of despair and an underlying, unique sense of melancholia, which created an idiosyncratic melange that remains unrivalled to this day. 

The fact that all constituents of the band were in their early teens, which I only became aware of decades after being first exposed to them due to the fact that no information was provided on their actual releases and the difficulty to find any footage of them, only adds to the appeal. Nothing like finding out that what you perceived to be the wise and informed emissions of seasoned adult punks to have originated from a source of the same prepubescent age as yours. It reminds me of a time when I was roughing up my voice with cigarettes before talking to older scenesters on the phone to pretend that I was as old as them, along with the classic stunt that when my mum picked up the phone when they called, I pretended that it was my ole missus.

Now, for the trained ear in 2021, the appeal of Chaos Z might not become instantly apparent due to a distinct lack of musical virtuosity and the monotonous staccato rhythms, but there was never a time when I did not enjoy every single song from Chaos Z’s first 7” ”Abmarsch” and especially their fantastic full-length “Ohne Gnade”, which was released on the controversial Rock-O-Rama label.

The core of Chaos Z went on to form the band Fliehende-Stürme, another fantastic band that continued in a dedicated manner to further explore personal experiences via gloomy, dark wavey compositions in the vein of Killing Joke and Bauhaus, which are at times still reminiscent of Chaos Z, despite being enriched with electronical additions and synths.
 

Neighbourhood Earth

ICC

Sydney, Australia

November 21, 2021

A veritable nightmare for flat earthers and after an award decorated run in the US, the interactive and multi-sensory space extravaganza that is Neighbourhood Earth finally found its way down under to incarnate and to prove an immersive experience for anyone fascinated with space and with the infinite realm of “where few man have gone before.” 

Cue William Shatner who recently was able to back up the intro of Star Trek by scoring a lift with Jeff Bezos on New Shepard and thereby on the back of Virgin Blue’s missions created the ideal backdrop for Neighbourhood Watch to eventuate.

Cinematic and majestic in scale, the space environment that is Neighbourhood Earth has been created in collaboration with NASA and its Space & Rocket Center to ideate the evolution of an exhibition that strikes the right balance to create a family-friendly experience, being both educational and entertaining.

Based on a digital and holographic reconstruction of our solar system, visitors are enabled to not only visually travel through the galaxy to visit recreations of life-like interplanetary missions  but also closely examine astronaut suits and replica of spacecraft as well as other interactive installations aimed at gaining a hands-on understanding of the environment in space.

Employing the merits of high-impact multimedia projection technology combined with data, stories and artefacts from subject matter experts, Neighbourhood Watch is a fun experience. 

The Formative Years

Slime 

When it comes to quintessential German punk bands, no list would be complete without Slime from Hamburg.

Founded in 1979, they evolved from playing rudimentarily structured and simplistic songs modelled after late-seventies British punk rock a la Clash and The Damned to a band that carved their own lane centred around dedicated more complex song structures with layered, less one-dimensional and politically relevant lyrical content with a deeply embedded anti-fascist message at its core. 

Slime’s oeuvre not only left a massive imprint on the Deutschpunk scene at large for generations to come but also created an idiosyncratic range of emblematic “call to action” anti-authoritarian  sloganeering that not only has become integral part of the vocabulary of the German leftist autonomist scene. but also resulted in tangible actions at protests and rallies.

As a teenager, the fact that quite a few of Slime's early and controversial songs were censored and the band subject to being prosecuted by the official censoring body in Germany, i.e. Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors, exerted a magnetic pull and set me on a mission to secure the original releases, learn the lyrics by heart and let them infuse the shaping of my worldview.

During the early days of the punk movement where messaging and positioning was still very diffuse and vague, Slime was one of the pivotal politically radical bands that grew from simple riffing, punk anthems and stereotypical clichéd content to rising above the sea of their epigones by evolving to writing more musically demanding and complex songs and the inclusion of more sophisticated metaphorical  lyrics courtesy of Slime’s drummer, i.e. Stephan Maler, dealing with governmental repression, xenophobia and anti-war sentiments. 

The first three albums remain timeless classics and cement Slime’s legacy:

Arthur Jafa - MAGNUMB

Louisiana Publications

Arthur Jafa has made a name for himself as an American video artist with themes like Black American culture, slavery and the opposition Black Americans face to this very day being at centre of his artistic explorations.

The release of the book MAGNUMB followed an Arthur Jafa exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which is not only known in terms of modern Danish architecture for its synthesisizing landscape, architecture and art but also for harbouring an extensive permanent collection of modern art spanning the last hundred years along with its comprehensive programme of special exhibitions. 

Given the aforementioned, it is not for nothing included in Patricia Schultz’s book “One thousand Places to See Before You Die”, ranking within the first one hundred in the realm of art museums.

Louisisana’s book on Jafa accompanied and contextualised his exhibition with an overview of his often confronting video depictions of Black American life, which are informed by his lifelong fascination with imagery, photographs and cinematography and which have been catapulted to the forefront once Black Lives Matter became a global movement that found its way into prime-time media, thereby entering every facet of mainstream culture.

It is interesting to see Jafa’s cinematography within an art context, as it conveys both the beauty and power as well as the alienation the broad scope of Black culture has been experiencing. What I like about Jafa’s approach is that tackles American realities from different angles and thereby conveys a comprehensive multi-dimensional prism, through which the recipient is enabled to actively participate with his own interpretations.

The narrative of Jafa’s work is guided by stark contrasts, juxtapositions and an ubiquitous ambivalent openness, which invites to think beyond simple dichotomies of good and evil.

Apart from the political component, Jafa’s virtuosic technical skills enable him to masterfully compose new realities by creating a patchwork of nuances, the sum of which create a significant and visually coherent powerful whole that is much more than the mere sum of its components would have one think, with pain and suffering being a recurring motif and common denominator.

It is interesting to see Arthur Jafa incarnate at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art as the aestheticization of the traumas of white violence against Black people would have most likely been viewed by an exclusively privileged audience, thereby subversively raising deeper going questions about Denmark’s widely suppressed colonial history.

In essence, an ode in book form to an essential artist whose oeuvre engages the recipient in questioning the status quo and the role one plays in the maintenance of it.

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image from publisher website