Cobra Club, Parramatta, 18th May, 1995

VENUE: Cobra Club, Parramatta

DATE: 18th May, 1995

BANDS: 

• Infected
• Aftermath
• Cruciform
• Eezee

Geoff Towner

Geoff Towner

• The Dead Tree (1990-1992) - Guitar, Vocals
• Sal Paradise (1996) - Bass, Vocals
• El Mopa (1996-2003) - Bass, Backing Vocals
• Decoder Ring (1999-2003) - Bass, Casio
• A Gold Star Secret (1997-2005) - Guitar, Bass, Vocals

REGION: Parramatta, NSW

Cobra Club, Parramatta, 6th April, 1995

VENUE: Cobra Club, Parramatta
DATE: 6th April, 1995

BANDS: 

• Epitaph

 

Cobra Club, Parramatta, 9th March, 1995

VENUE: Cobra Club, Parramatta

DATE: 9th March, 1995

BANDS: 

• Eezee
• Mortality
• Neophobia
• Cryogenic

 

Collector Tavern, Parramatta, 21st October, 1994

VENUE: Collector Tavern, Parramatta

DATE: 21st October, 1994

BANDS: 

• The Meanies
• Kiss My Poodles Donkey
• Toe to Toe

 

Collector Tavern, Parramatta, 3rd September, 1993

 

VENUE: Collector Tavern, Parramatta

DATE: 3rd September, 1993

BANDS:

• Nitocris
• Front End Loader
• Lunch Box

Adam Alexander

Adam Alexander

BANDS

• Limited Access (1989-1993) - Guitar
• Flugelbinder (1996-1997) - Guitar
• The Dark Element (2008-Current) - Guitar

REGION: Parramatta, NSW

Flugelbinder

 

ORIGINS: Parramatta, NSW

GENRE: Punk

YEARS ACTIVE: 1996-1997

 

MEMBERS:

• Kerry Foulke - Guitar
• Adam Alexander - Guitar
• Vanessa Smith - Bass
• Stuart Poe - Drums

RELEASES:

• Fish Don't People (1996) - Download Here.
• 1. Melancholy Lullaby
• 2. Door to Your Salvation
• 3. Rejection
• 4. Hale and a Half
• 5. Vote of Discontent
• 6. Be the Machine
• 7. Hatred is Innocence
• 8. Hippycrites
• 9. Pressgang
• 10. Redneck Lovesong
• 11. Last Call

• Self-Titled (1997)
• 1. Game Plan
• 2. Warm Beer
• 3. The Rot
• 4. Rock Star
• 5. So What?
• 6. Shit List
• 7. Die Frucht

SUMMARY: A punk band in the Parramatta/Blacktown scene, Flugelbinder played with bands like Spilt Milk, Speckled Foam, Stalin's Organ, etc. The band released two CDs and eventually broke up a couple of years after forming.

 

SHOWS: 

• No shows documented yet. Let me know if you have records of any!

ORAL HISTORY:

KERRY: I was good mates with Adam in high school - we studied HSC music together and were constantly jamming. He introduced me to bands like NOFX, Bad Religion, Pennywise, Propaghandi, etc., and I got obsessed with them. After we left school, Adam wanted to start an originals band and we started writing together. He was mates with Stuart and had played with him before in another band in high school, Limited Access. Stu was an awesome drummer so he was an obvious choice. Adam met Vanessa at uni - I think she was a visual arts student and photographer. She was more of a metal chick but still got into the punk stuff. She didn't play an instrument at the time but we all hit it off and Adam's always been an exceptional music teacher so rather than search for a bassist who might end up being a fuckwit, Adam took it upon himself to teach her to play. She was the creative type so she picked it up quickly, haha. 

Kerry Foulke (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: Everyone in my family is a musician so it's always been around me and part of my daily life so I always played music but I think I found my passion when I first listened to Bad Religion. I started playing in bands pretty early... my first band was Limited Access, I played with them from Year 6 to Year 10. I left school after Year 10 to go work but I hated it and decided to go back and do Year 11 and 12 at a new school. That's when I met Kerry and we started playing together immediately. Stuart was the drummer from my first band and Vanessa was a friend that I went to university with but we were all friends first and had similar taste and it was all pretty organic how it started. 

Adam Alexander (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

VANESSA: I've always loved live music - been a gig pig from a young age. I was about 19, sitting down at the lunch/bar uni area. I was an Art student, and my friend Adam was a Music student at the same uni. One day he says, "Hey, we're putting a band together and need a bass player... wanna play bass?" I don't remember it taking me long at all to reply - "Sure!" And it went from there.

Vanessa Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KERRY: First gig we did was a 21st party. We threw about thirty covers at Vanessa and gave her, like, a month to learn how to play the bass from scratch and get the songs down. In retrospect, a dick move.

Kerry Foulke (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

VANESSA: We played a 21st party in Pittown Hills shire. It was amazing! I was so nervous. I swear my feet didn't move, I swayed from side to side and was concentrating so hard on all my parts. Another band, Rinkle, played as well. The party went off! The guitarist/singer from Rinkle is now my husband. We were all part of a broader big crew of Hills District/Parramatta friends. Me and a group of friends used to go to the Cowshed in Wenty to see bands play - bands like Spilt Milk, and a lot of metal bands.

Vanessa Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 20256

ADAM: We played a bunch of parties before we we started playing pubs. 

Adam Alexander (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KERRY: We spent weeks trying to come up with a name. All the ideas sucked. I remember sitting at the Bull and Bush in Baulkham Hills once night and I think it was Vanessa who put Flugelbinder forward. It's from the movie Cocktail when Tom Cruise and Elizabeth Shue are talking about seemingly inconsequential inventions that ended up making their creator's millions. I believe flugelbinder was the name they jokingly gave to the little bit of plastic that wraps around the end of your shoelace to stop it from fraying and slipping through the eyelet. From what I remember, none of us really like the name, but it was the only one that none of us hated either, so it just stuck. 

Kerry Foulke (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KERRY: I think we wrote and recorded a full length album before we even played any proper shows, haha. We did it with Ian Pritchett at Noisegate Studios in Castle Hill. Stylistically, it was all over the place. It ranged from 90-second pop-punk tracks to eight-and-a-half minute stoner jams. We even threw in a tongue-in-cheek country song. That was a Jimmy Buffet song... to this day, I've neve heard the original, but I saw the lyrics and chord chart in one of my teachers' notebooks once and thought it was hilarious. All in all we had no idea what we were doing but it was my first studio experience and it was so goddamn fun.  

Kerry Foulke (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: There were lots of laughs recording but it was mostly the things that go along with recording that I remember - taking pictures, running around the streets causing a ruckus. There's a picture of us in a bathtub with the drummer passed out on the toilet with his underwear around his ankles. Fun times. 

Adam Alexander (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KERRY: We were just a young punk trying to figure out what the hell we were doing. We did a lot of gigs with Spilt Milk and always had a blast with them. We were all from Western Sydney and got on great with those guys. We also played with bands like The Last Hemeroids and Stalin's Organ, and at at places like the Iron Duke - Vanessa and I ended up working there - and the Annandale, Feedback in Newtown, and a lot more. We also did a lot of shows at the Wentworthville Hotel, which was a real dive, but we could always pull a crowd there because there wasn't much else to see or do in Western Sydney. We used to do theme nights where everyone would dress up. They were the best! We did a '70s night, Cowboys and Indians, Animals, a Halloween party. So many good memories. I remember Marty from Spilt Milk doing a set in a full gorilla suit once at the Wenty Hotel. It was 40+ degrees under those lights. He nearly passed out. 

Kerry Foulke (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

VANESSA: We did lots of themed gigs at Wenty Hotel - cowboys and cowgirls was awesome! I was stoked to play an Annandale set, albeit on a Wednesday, it was the best shared-stage where I'd seen so many faves back in the day. 

Vanessa Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 20256

ADAM: There were heaps of good times and I can't really point to a specific show as standing out - I just remember moments. I remember one time playing at Wentworthville and the band before us - their bassplayer liked to get naked and he was running up and down the bar butt-naked. That was pretty funny.

Adam Alexander (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KERRY: We did a shorter EP after we'd been gigging for a while. It was a lot better than the album but apparently I forgot how to write a chorus after that first CD so it's kind of... niche, haha. There's a song on it called 'Hippiecrites', which I'm pretty conflicted about. It's reasonably well-written but it hasn't aged well. I was aggressively apolitical (even anti-political) at the time. I was at uni, and the song was a reaction against what I saw as a lot of performative political expression from the people around me. I wasn't necessarily opposed to their views. To me though, that crowd at the uni bar just seemed like they were coming from a place of privilege and their opinions lacked any real substance. So the song was my attempt at taking that specific group of people to task for their hypocrisy. In my mind at the time, there were true progressives out there, and while I didn't count myself as one of them either, I passed judgement on these other kids for falling short of the standard set by 'true activists'. I actually think some of the lyrics were pretty clever but when you remove them from their original context and listen through the lens of today's political climate, they sound like the impotent ramblings of a right-wing troll. For the record, that's not what I was going for. So it's an okay song written by a ninteen-year-old kid with more time on his hands than brains, and I'm glad hardly anyone ever heard it!

Kerry Foulke (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: By the time we recorded the EP the material was growing and getting better. My main memory of the band though is the solid friendships that I will always have with the others and a lot of crazy times. Road trips with bands like Spilt Milk. Lots of beer. 

Adam Alexander (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

KERRY: We were young, dumb, and loved a party. After about two years, I think we were all realised we were going in different directions - both musically and personally. 

Kerry Foulke (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: The band finishing was mostly my fault. I was originally all about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll but after a while I was mostly just into the drugs part and things fell apart from there.  

Adam Alexander (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

VANESSA: Looking back the thing I love most about Flugelbinder was the time we all spent together - hanging out, jamming, gigging. It was awesome being part of something like our own little family. It brought friends together to come and see us play.

Vanessa Smith (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 20256

RELATED BANDS: Limited Access, The Dark Element, Hippycrits, MM9, Mz Ann Thropik, Switchkicker, Blackbreaks

PCYC, Parramatta, 16th January, 1999

VENUE: PCYC, Parramatta

DATE: Saturday, 16th January, 1999

TIME: 1pm

OTHER: $10 entry. All Ages.

BANDS:

• Toe to Toe
• Mindsnare
• FMD
• Ceasefire
• AguageFor
  

Collector Tavern, Parramatta, 20th December, 1996

 

VENUE: Collector Tavern, Parramatta

DATE: Friday, 20th December, 1996

TIME: 8pm

• Sugar Kane
  
• TUBbH
• Skulker
  

 

Cobra Club, Parramatta, 13th September, 1995

VENUE: Cobra Club, Parramatta

DATE: Wednesday, 13th September, 1995

OTHER: 'Unsafe '95' Tour. All Ages.

BANDS:

• Channel Zero (BELGIUM)
• Downtime

 

Future Sunds of Sydney, The Collector, Parramatta, 23rd March, 1996

VENUE: The Collector, Parramatta

DATE: Saturday, 23rd March, 1996

OTHER: 'The Future Sounds of Sydney'. Fundraiser of independent radio station

BANDS:

• Downtime
• Drop City
• Nunchukka Superfly
• Glide
• Scarlet
• Hardware
  

The Black Arts Movement

ORIGINS: Parramatta, NSW

GENRE: Metal, Death Metal, Metalcore, Thrash Metal

YEARS ACTIVE: 1997-2007

 

MEMBERS:

• Trev Raiss - Bass
• Nathan McMahon - Drums
  
• Pat Orriss - Vocals (2004-2006)
• Chris Maloney - Vocals, Bass (1997-2003)
• CJ McMahon - Vocals (2007)
  
• Dane Brett - Guitar (1999-2007)
• James Zulich - Guitar (1997-1998)
• Jonathan Talan - Guitar (1997-2003)
• Tommy Jarvis - Guitar (2007)
  

RELEASES: 

 

• The Remnants of Self Destruction (1999) [as Baraka]
• 1. The Remnants of Self Destruction
• 2. Outbreak
• 3. Beneath These Scars
• 4. Aftermath 
  

• Self-Titled (2001) [as Baraka]
• 1. Welcome to the New World
• 2. The Remnants of Self Destruction
• 3. Recto-Cranial Inversion
• 4. Tunguska
• 5. B.R.S.
• 6. Aftermath  

• Demo (2003) [as Baraka]
• 1. Disturbance
• 2. Oxygen
• 3. Reborn
• 4. Seizure Apprenticeship
• 5. Inside My Head
• 6. Tydes
• 7. Innocence Lost
• 8. Your Sympathy
• 9. Defiance on the West Bank
  

• Demo (2004) - Download Here.
  
• 1. The Conversation's Passed (no vocals)
  
• 2. Embalming
• 3. Momentarily
• 4. S.I.N.
• 5. The Conversation's Passed

• A Wall and a Tomb (2006) - Download Here.
  
• 1. Disturbance
• 2. Seizure Apprenticeship
• 3. My Sympathy
• 4. Reborn
• 5. Oxygen
• 6. The Method to Ruin
• 7. Anagram

• Live (2006) - Download Here.
  
• 1. Intro / Momentarily
• 2. The Conversation's Passed
• 3. Libran / Cancerian
• 4. My Sympathy
• 5. Reborn
• 6. Seizure Apprenticeship
• 7. The Method to Ruin
• 8. When Two Negatives Collide
• 9. S.I.N.

SUMMARY: Beginning at Northmead High School as 'Baraka', the band developed into a hard-edged metal act who played a variety of All Ages and pub shows throughout the early '00s. Their first EP, The Remnants of Self-Destruction, was distributed by the South Australian record label Necrodecay. Baraka made some additional recordings before undergoing some lineup shuffles around 2003/2004. At this point the band decided to change their name to The Black Arts Manifesto after learning of a touring Japanese band of the same name, and around this time Pat Orriss joined the band as vocalist. The band continued for a couple of years and recorded a final studio EP before Pat left the band. CJ McMahon (later of Thy Art is Murder) joined The Black Arts Movement briefly as the new vocalist before the band called it a day.

 

SHOWS: 

• PCYC, Hornsby - unknown date, 1999 (as Baraka)
  
• Forest Inn, Bexley - 3rd February, 2001 (as Baraka)
• Bloodlust Festival, PCYC, Penrith - 12th July, 2001 (as Baraka)
• Pig Day Out, Party Pig Studios, Girraween - 22nd March, 2003 (as Baraka)
  
• Backdoor, Panthers Leagues Club, Penrith - 5th November, 2004
• Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills - 26th August, 2005
• Backdoor, Panthers Leagues Club, Penrith - 21st January, 2006
• Metal in the Veins, Excelsior, Surry Hills - 26th May, 2006
  

ORAL HISTORY:

CHRIS MALONEY: Baraka was my first band and was started with a few friends from Northmead High school who were all into heavy metal. We were in Year 9 or 10 and we used to practice in the lounge room of his family home. After about six months we started playing local schools and all ages metal festivals. When we turned 18 (around 2000) we started playing the local bars. One of our first gigs was at the Forest Inn in Bexley. This was one of the venues we played most regularly at in the early days. It was great just being on stage with my mates playing songs we wrote together.  

Chris Maloney (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

The start of the band - founding members.

 

NATHAN: We loved the movie Baraka and we were young and pretentious, haha. At the time we just liked how worldly the film was, and both the cinematography and music was amazing. 

Nathan McMahon (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

CHRIS MALONEY: The scene for metal was still relatively small with only a handful of venues across Sydney, so all the bands knew each other quite well. The small festivals were always fun, with Cryogenic a crowd favourite. We used a play a lot with the band Headmess and were friends with the pop-punk guys Secondbest as well.  

Chris Maloney (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

 

DANE: The Black Arts Movement started in 2003 from a lineup change in a previous band, Baraka, which started in 1997. The original Baraka lineup was a four piece - one guitarist left and then I joined. This lineup continued for about four years until The Black Arts Movement happened. My first show with the band was at Hornsby PCYC in the basement there in 1999.

Dane Brett (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

NATHAN: The Black Arts Movement emerged from the band Baraka. We changed the name to The Black Arts Movement as there was a band overseas called Baraka. The Black Arts Movement sounded cool and also was a representation of counter-culture and minority expression (metal being the minority). Kind of pompous stuff. 

Nathan McMahon (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

At the Bexley Inn, c. 1998

DANE: We played a smallish festival, Bloodlust, at Penrith PCYC in 2001 and it was the biggest show we played up until that date. Forest Inn shows at Bexley were also fun and it was a cool place to play. We used to play a lot of shows with bands like Headmess, Flesh Mechanic, Tocata, and a lot of bands from Penrith. It was fun to play shows back then - social media like MySpace was only just starting out so it was all about putting up flyers and drum media ads to promote shows. It was Nathan mostly who did that side of things. 

Dane Brett (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

PAT: The band was originally called 'Baraka'. I think we changed the name just after I joined actually. I came to the band through mutual friends. I'd see Baraka and The Black Arts Movement as two separate bands but the other guys might see things differently. All I know is that I never performed under the name Baraka. There were a few songs that rolled over - 'Seizure Apprenticeship' wasn't my lyrics. I still have no fucking idea what's going on there. The newer stuff I found more to my taste but that's biased.

Pat Orriss (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

NATHAN: I knew Patrick Orriss through friends and his work in Dyasphere. When he joined the band that's when we became The Black Arts Movement. We reworked some songs that had been done under Baraka, and then recorded the EP A Wall and a Tomb.  

Nathan McMahon (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

DANE: There was a bit of a different sound with the newer songs and we kept a bunch of Baraka songs but some lyrics changed.

Dane Brett (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Pat on vocals.

PAT: Metal in the Veins at Blacktown RSL was a pretty fucken tight show. The Daysend guys swung some compliments our way that day and I thought that was the duck's nuts 'cause I held them in pretty high esteem. We got to show off a few new songs at another show, our EP launch, which I was excited for too. Awesome crowd. I ended up losing my voice that night. I often listen back to the recording we had done of that - I'm proud of the work we put in but disappointed for the guys because of my form on the night. It is what it is. Live and learn. 

Pat Orriss (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DANE: We went in as The Black Arts Movement to just do a demo, maybe three songs, but we did those pretty quick and then recorded a few more. It took two years in total to complete it as we weren't happy with the mixing of it and it took a while to find someone to do it to our satisfaction.

Dane Brett (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

PAT: Compared to other bands I'd been in, I found The Black Arts Movement to be much more involved in the less-musical part of being in a band - the visual art and monetary side of things - probably because I never got that far with a band in that sort of business sense before. The sum of my ambition was the music, I didn't take the rest seriously. I enjoyed composing with those guys, as much as I could act like a clown and fuck around and do some stupid stuff. Every now and again I'd get a smile or a laugh and I thought 'fuck it, worth it'. 

Pat Orriss (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

 

 

PRESS RELEASE: Bursting out of Western Sydney, Australia, The Black Arts Movement are here to change your perception of modern metal. With genres and stereotypes being the new black, The Black Arts Movement throws this on its head, baring a title and profile that polarises its audience; the willing and the complacent. Black Arts? Think a little further. The Black Arts Movement is about the progression of metal from socially outcast stereotype to a credible form of music that is both accessible yet abrasive and confronting. It's about aggressive music being a tangible medium that can churn a crowd into a frenzy yet on another face provide contemplative thought and emotion. The Black Arts Movement formed in early 2004 after the demise of previous incarnation Baraka, which had been playing with local and interstate bands since 1998. The Black Arts Movement grew out of an idea to push people's perceptions of what extreme metal is by combining influences ranging from folk music to brutal death metal.

Press Release, Triple J Unearthed Website, 2006

DANE: Our rehearsal space was in the middle of an industrial area - it was a big space that we could leave our gear set up in and we had a PlayStation and an almost-360 degree porn wall.

Dane Brett (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

PAT: I tuned out when things got serious. Couldn't help it. Now I think about it, it's probably because I was doing it for me, and not anyone else.

Pat Orriss (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

With third vocalist, CJ McMahon, in 2007

DANE: Pat left in 2006 and then two guys from another Penrith band, Evolvar, joined us for about 6 months on vocals and bass. We had enough new songs for another EP - we talked of going and recording them but it didn't happen. We had a few members leave for other projects. So it was Nathan and me continuing on for a few months but we couldn't find anyone else at the time and just decided that was it.

Dane Brett (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Cherub Mafia, Dyasphere, Evolvar, Many Ions Apart, Tocata, Remember That You Will Die, Ignite the Ibex, Hemina, Avarin, Transcending Mortality, Violator, Vegas in Ruins, Thy Art is Murder, Namorrodor, No Home For Heroes

 

As Baraka, 1997-2003

Original guitarists Jonathan and Jimmy

 

 As The Black Arts Movement, 2004-2006

 

 

As The Black Arts Movement, 2007
 

PCYC, Parramatta, 18th April, 1999

VENUE: PCYC, Parramatta

DATE: Sunday, 18th April, 1999

TIME: 3 pm

OTHER: All Ages.

BANDS:

• Frenzal Rhomb
• Toe to Toe
• The Shirkers
  

Commercial Hotel, Parramatta, 3rd August, 2000

VENUE: Commercial Hotel, Parramatta

DATE: Thursday, 3rd August, 2000

TIME: 9pm

OTHER: $5.50 entry.

BANDS:

• Heifer
• Dropweight
• Chique
  

Beginnings, PCYC, Parramatta, 8th December, 2000

VENUE: PCYC, Parramatta

DATE: Friday, 8th December, 2000

TIME: 4pm

OTHER: All Ages. Organised by Kittysmak Promotions and PX Promo. Sponsored by Revolver Street Press, Beatdisc, and Mosh Clothing.

BANDS:

• Six Star Target
• Mourning George
• On the Other Hand
• Fifth Place
• Secondbest
• Little Lunch
• Unpaid Debt
• Crank
• The Mad Dash