Carla Lippis and the sonic alt rock evisceration of "You Will Be Happy" from "Mondo Psycho"

 

"There is a number in the ether / And what you would do for that imaginary number / On a board game of Snakes and Ladders..."

Do some fast sprints around the blog, shadow box, get pumped up before you listen to the unfathomable rock retribution of "You Will Be Happy" by the explosive Carla Lippis, and from her "Mondo Psycho" album. The bent, twisted power of this track, probably the most incendiary art piece on the album is too heady to describe and so full of surprises that I don't even wish to, lest I spoil the fun. I did after the 8 listen in a row think of an amalgam of Black Sabbath (on acid), Diamanda Galas, Concrete Blonde, Tropical Fuck Storm, Tomahawk and that fiery bodacious waitress at that one truck stop diner (you know the one ) outside of Bakersfield. The waitress that doesn't take any shit from anyone. I can just imagine that if I were in the front row of a Carla Lippis show that I might feel uncomfortably taken aback, ha. 

Liner notes tell us that "You Will Be Happy" is about the creeping dread of big tech and the end of the world. This particular passage sticks with me:

"Now there’s a taste
Of this new devil’s liquor
And you can see how it’s extracted from the soul
But for the soul to die
You need a machine
A machine so small it can fit in the palm of your hand
You will barely notice the death
It will come silently in the middle of the day
As you walk down the street
And as you see the sign
And as your hand start to tremble
And the soul slips out of your fingertips
You will know

You will have nothing
But you will be happy
You will have nothing
But you will be happy"

The song gives us the sense that the opiate of the masses is our smart phone and that the addicts are all of us including small children AND there is nothing we can fucking do about it because it is too late. But we don't care do we (?), we are content to watch Zuckerberg and Musk duke it out in a chain link cage. 

Other songs on "Mondo Psycho" burn slower. Tracks like "Matches" or "Kiss The Stain" or "Die on Time" cut bound hands with Lippis showing an utterly different vocal persona. Her voice trades in rabid for darkly romantic, for vague torch songs in a Berlin cabaret. I love this side, a mixture of baroque pop and industrial rock in repose. The last track "Witching Hour", might feel like a cross pollination of both personas as the song stirs like a 70's Italian horror movie until all hell breaks loose. The Australian powerhouse sings in Italian during the outro for what feels like a feral exorcism. 

I have left out many textures, many other tracks out. Just listen to "Mondo Psycho" from start to finish and, clearly, you will not be the same. (wink)

Kudos to:

Carla Lippis - vocals
Geoff Crowther - guitar, electronics, engineering, production, mixing
Duncan Campbell - piano, keyboards, electronics
Django Rowe - guitar
Ross McHenry - bass, bass synthesiser
Angus Mason - drums
Mick Wordley - engineering
Tom Henry - engineering
Jaime Gomez Arellano - mastering

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://carlalippis.bandcamp.com/track/you-will-be-happy

https://www.carlalippis.com/

https://www.facebook.com/carlalippismusic/


Carla Lippis is a live grenade with lungs, and she’s back in Australia to unleash her new sound with MONDO PSYCHO: an avant garde descent into rock 'n' roll purgatory helmed by ‘the Satanic Liza Minelli’, whose relentless vocal power grinds audiences everywhere into a state of submission.

With nods to Iggy’s Raw Power days, the riot girl howl of the 90’s, the chaotic post-punk of The Birthday Party and the insolence of X-Ray Spex’s Poly Styrene, Carla's dominating presence is both feared and revered. She is the dark side of the Almodovar heroine: vulnerable and yet untameable. This musical brutalism contrasts with a hypnotic approach, awash with lush synths straight from the worlds of Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks or the creeping dread of 1970’s Italian horror scores.

In a career ranging from singing in sequins to nightclub crowds in London’s West End to touring Europe fronting the cinematic sounds of Italian post-folk group Sacri Cuori, Carla has performed, collaborated and shared the stage with the likes of Calexico, Marc Ribot (right hand guitarist for Mr Tom Waits), She & Him’s M. Ward and ex-Bad Seed Hugo Race. She has released music in a range of guises from the alt-country ballads of ‘The Martial Hearts’ to the minimalist punk riffs of ‘The Rules’, or the 60s Italian pop of ‘Baby Carla.’

The MONDO PSYCHO stage show evokes a live phantasmagoria, with pulsing melodic synths and grinding guitars washing over a wave of visceral vocal rage; and yet, there are moments of surprising intimacy and vulnerability. Her performances “channel her own personal demons, like Linda Blair in The Exorcist” (The Advertiser). Like a witch or shaman, Carla’s scream into the void is an act of catharsis, drawing those in who are ready for collective release.

The current Carla Lippis band lineup consists of some of Adelaide's most dextrous musicians: ‘Shaolin Afronauts’ afro-futurist band leader Ross McHenry on bass and Matriach Moog; celebrated film sound designer Duncan Campbell on synths; sound effects and piano; Glaswegian-born avant noise specialist, Geoffrey Crowther on guitar; NYC-based Angus Mason on drums; and the aptly named Django Rowe on second guitar.

For her forthcoming album Carla set outs to evolve beyond the horizon of hardcore, to a place where she could unleash her furious manifesto. Filled with the rage of betrayal, it was her choice to either psychically implode, or to explode on stage. She has chosen the latter.

Carla also works as a composer and performer with various Australian dance and theatre companies, notably Windmill Theatre, Restless Dance Theatre and Opera South Australia.