Album Info Hide Show Artist: Big Scary Album: Not Art Released: Australia, 2014 Tracklist: A1 Hello, My Name Is A2 Luck Now A3 Harmony Sometimes A4 Belgian Blues A5 Phil Collins B1 Twin Rivers B2 Invest B3 Lay Me Down B4 Why Hip Hop Sucks In ’13 B5 Long Worry B6 Final Thoughts, With Tom And Jo Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. 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If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Big Scarys Not Art arrived in 2013 as the Melbourne duos second fulllength, and it still feels like a quiet revelation. Tom Iansek and Jo Syme had already shown their range on Vacation, but here they pared things back and let space do the heavy lifting. The songs breathe. Piano lines sit next to roomy drums and a low, unhurried vocal that never strains for effect. You get the sense of two musicians trusting each other, and trusting restraint, which is rarer than it should be. The opener tees up the palette nicely, with Ianseks keys setting a cool foundation while Symes drums and harmonies push and pull at the edges. Big Scary are nominally a rock duo, yet they resist filling every corner. On Not Art the negative space is part of the design, the small swells hitting harder because they arrive after quiet spells. Its a record that rewards latenight listening, lights down, needle running clean through both sides. Phil Collins is the wink everyone remembers, not just for the title but for the way it plays with rhythm and texture. The groove lands with that crisp, eraskewed punch, while the vocal hovers just above it, more conspiratorial than declarative. Its clever but it doesnt feel like a joke. That balance is the albums centre of gravity. Even when a hook grips, the band keeps its cool, letting tones and patience carry the emotion. Then theres Twin Rivers, a slowburner thats become a fan favourite for good reason. The arrangement is spare at first, a river of keys with a gentle undercurrent in the drums, then the chorus lifts without breaking the spell. Its a lesson in how to scale a song without blowing it wide open. By the end it feels widescreen, yet you can still hear the wood in the sticks and the air around the microphone. Big Scary albums often contain that kind of careful growth, but Not Art nails it front to back. A lot of the record hinges on Ianseks ear for detail. He produced the album himself, and you can hear his fascination with texture in the way the piano is recorded, in the ghostly layers that slide in and out of focus. Syme, for her part, plays with a songwriters intuition, holding back, nudging, dropping in harmonies that colour the lyric without crowding it. They move like a band that has rehearsed the silence as much as the parts. Its easy to forget there are only two of them. Not Art drew strong attention on release in Australia, with Big Scarys name suddenly popping up everywhere from indie blogs to triple js daily rotation. The album also earned a spot on the Australian Music Prize shortlist, not bad for a selfdriven project released through their own Pieater imprint. That nod made sense. This was a thoughtful, cohesive set that stood apart from the louder, more maximal records doing the rounds in 2013, and it has aged well. If youre the kind of listener who likes to buy Big Scary records online and stack them next to fellow Melbourne favourites, Not Art is a must. The Not Art vinyl pressing suits the musics dynamic range, with the quiet passages staying hushed and the crescendos arriving with real weight. Spin it in the evening and those delicate pianos bloom. Its the sort of record that makes you double check your speaker placement, then sit back and let side two roll. For fans building a shelf of Big Scary albums on vinyl, this one sits right between the raw curiosity of Vacation and the widescreen confidence that came later, a perfect middle chapter. Theres also a local pride that comes with it. Big Scary are very much a Melbourne band, and you can hear the citys indie scene of the time in their approach, the doityourself ethic polished by care rather than gloss. If youre browsing a Melbourne record store or trawling through vinyl records Australia wide, this is the copy you hope to find tucked in the B section, a little ringwear on the sleeve, the inner still crisp. Big Scary vinyl tends to vanish from crates once people clock whats inside. More than a decade on, Not Art still feels personal and grounded. It doesnt shove its ideas at you. It sits with them, asks you to sit too, and lets the details carry the day. Put it on, let Phil Collins and Twin Rivers guide you in, and youll hear two musicians thinking carefully about every choice, playing for the song, and landing something that lingers long after the last piano note fades. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review