The UK has begun to fall in love with Venus II, the dream-team
pairing of Jarrad Brown (frontman of freewheeling eight-piece collective
Eagle & The Worm / Dorsal Fins) and Sydney-based producer Ryan
Grieve (Canyons). Their debut single Inside Your Sun has been racking up
airplay on BBC Radio 6, with Early host Chris Hawkins tweeting ‘this is
proper epic style ravey dance’ and ‘we’re loving this, hope you do
too!”. Today the duo have announced their debut record of the same name,
produced by Grieve and set to be released August 19th.
The rush of single Inside Your Sun vividly marries Brown’s innate
talent for song craft with Grieve’s deft production flourishes. Best
described as an acid-soaked rave-up that takes cues from baggy-era
Manchester and weaves it through string-tinged psychedelic-techno, the
track was accompanied by a psychedelic music video on release. A giddy
concoction of thumping techno, guitar heroics, horns, and video game
bloops, Inside Your Sun fizzes from the outset, building into a flat-out
psychedelic-confetti rave-up.
“I had this idea about suns and how each of us have our own life
energy like a sun,” says Brown. “The song kept building and building and
building.”
After the rush of the mid-journey peak, Inside You Sun devolves into a
spacey acid house freakout laced with Brown’s cut-up vocals, showcasing
Grieve’s knack for atmospheric dynamics and release.
“An anthemic Madchester pop-raver, [Inside Your Sun] meets at the
intersection between the charts and the dungeons, sparring frenetic
synths against an endless procession of euphoric hooks, with more than a
few side-line spins towards the acid-holes of that hedonistic U.K.
dance era.” – Rolling Stone
A chance meeting led Brown to Sydney-based producer Ryan Grieve, who
runs Hole in the Sky records, a label known for discovering Tame Impala.
With over ten years’ experience in the Australian dance scene, working
at the intersection of dance music, indie-pop and immersive
audio-visuals as one half of band Canyons and with recent project Heart
People, Grieve saw Brown as a kindred spirit.
“We went with my aspirations to collaborate, try something new, and
made a body of work that is tender, immersive and, I think, cool,” says
Brown of the collaboration. “Ryan was able to break down what I was
about and present these new ideas in a way that made them great.”
That evolution is crystallised on Venus II’s debut album, Inside Your
Sun. Mixed by Chris Colonna (Bumblebeez), Inside Your Sun is a bold
exploration of acid-soaked dance music, unbound by convention, and
driven by raw, percussive-powered psychedelic-pop. From baggy-era indie
rave to lashings of beach-dreaming Brit-pop - Inside Your Sun vividly
marries Brown’s innate skill for songcraft with Grieve’s atmospheric
electronic production and Colonna’s eclectic bass sounds.
Working collaboratively, the unlikely pair chanced upon the eclectic
sound Brown had been searching for - a widescreen exploration of cosmic
dance music, from fresh a pop perspective. So pleased with the results
were Brown and Grieve, they anointed the partnership with a new name -
Venus II. It’s also a document of Brown’s artistic transformation, and a
document that Brown allows the listener into. “I wanted to keep the
original mixes – done with Steve Schram in Melbourne – as part of the
story. I agreed with Eagle And The Worm that these sessions would become
available too, and also be part of the cd set. So we’ve got EATW in the
room, Ryan’s twists and production, Venus II and my writing, all part
of the release”.
Venus II allows Brown to approach his craft from a new, often
challenging, perspective. “Some of the ideas and conversations within
this album were out of my reach when we started,” says Brown. “We
distilled our ideas- we made demos, we made new demos, we made beats, we
made new beats.... Ryan rarely used the idea I thought would be the
idea. Working in a new environment with a new person - you’re presented a
set of choices and unknowns. You can’t be the old and familiar version
of yourself - you become a new you. A product of your collaboration…”
For Brown his excitement about the project is twofold: the album’s
themes of love and loss, cosmic relationships, rebirth and contemplative
respite, mirror the path of discovery he took to make it. “I suppose
Inside Your Sun is about getting to the heart of things, getting to the
middle of a moment,” he says. “Or at least - the journey of getting as
close you can get to it.”
“It’s fair to say this unlikely collaboration is really opening up an
in-depth exploration of cosmic dance music. We can’t wait to hear what
else they come up with.” – Tone Deaf