On his fifth LP, Big Black Plume, Melbourne-based and Californian-born musician Michael Beach reveals the vitalizing power of connection in an often hostile world. Equally informed by the songwriting of Bill Fay and Peter Laughner, the minimalism of Tony Conrad and Terry Riley, and the rock and roll heart of the Goner Records roster, Big Black Plume provides deliberate compositions adorned with genuine madness. The songs on this album range from spare, textural ballads, to spiraling psychedelic overtures connected to a propulsive cosmic pulse. "I was wrestling with the beauty and intensity of the natural world and coming to grips with the human destruction of it," says Beach. "I have an overwhelming sense that humans will come and go, and the world we depend on will outlast us."
Building on Beach's network from over 20 years of touring, engineering, and production work (in Melbourne, SF, and LA), and employment in independent touring venues, Big Black Plume features contributions from a murderers' row of talent. Produced by Beach and Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm), the record includes Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner, The Necks bassist Lloyd Swanton, Tropical Fuck Storm members Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, folk artist Leah Senior, Oren Ambarchi collaborator Joe Talia, and Comets on Fire's Utrillo Kushner, among others.
Big Black Plume was recorded over four different sessions. Phil Manley (Trans Am) engineered the album's two hardest-rocking songs, "Poison Dart" and "Sick Century", at El Studio in San Francisco, with Kushner on drums. A second session at Sydney's Golden Retriever (engineered by Tim Whitten) captured the album's improv and avant-inflected ballads, "No One Knows Any Better" and "I'm Gonna Need Ya," creating a special resonance through the interplay of Swanton's subtly winding acoustic bass and Talia's abstract but propulsive drums.
'The Sea' (featuring Turner and Talia), 'Next To You,' and the album's electronic pieces and overdubs were recorded at Beach's Melbourne studio, EAP West. The album was completed in Nagambie with Liddiard adding finishing touches and guitar overdubs, and Kitschin singing backing vocals.
Beach is a masterful songwriter--he writes songs as seen from 10,000 feet, from 6 feet under--from every angle. The songs here aren't stick-and-poke songs that will dry and fade on the skin, aimless prayers for jams; Beach has been making deliberate things for decades. Big Black Plume is a record about connections, mercurially curated, transforming individual contributions into something strikingly communal.
For the last decade, Beach has called Melbourne home, a city that knows the power of community--in myriad small venues like The Tote and The Old Bar, in community radio stations like RRR and PBS, in countless independent bands playing all genres every night, untouched by heavy industry. For a living, Beach teaches music (often to folks in those same small bands). He produces, engineers, or performs as a guest musician for friends' bands (most recently for Tropical Fuck Storm on their forthcoming record Fairyland Codex). He worked for years at San Francisco's Hemlock Tavern, a hub in the American musical underground. For years, Beach has been carefully fostering musical connections - for the making of Big Black Plume, it was time to bring the community together.
Big Black Plume is out July 25th, 2025, on vital independent labels Poison City (Australia) and Goner Records (US / Rest of World). Beach will support Big Black Plume with headlining tour dates and festival appearances in Australia, the United States, and Europe, including Gonerfest in Memphis, TN, Rising in Melbourne, Dark Mofo in Tasmania, and Binic Folks Blues Fest in France.
Event Venue
3/2A Raymond Road, Thirroul, NSW, Australia, New South Wales 2515, 2 Raymond Rd, Thirroul NSW 2515, Australia, Wollongong
Tickets
