Gala Mill

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Gala Mill
Studio album by
The Drones
Released2 September 2006 (Australia)
8 October 2006 (UK)
RecordedMarch 13–19, 2005
VenueGala Farm (Cranbrook, Tasmania)
Genre
Length54:51
LabelATP Recordings
Shock Records
ProducerAaron Cupples
Gareth Liddiard
The Drones chronology
The Miller's Daughter
(2005) 		Gala Mill
(2006)
Live In Spaceland

(2006)

Gala Mill is the third studio album by Australian band

contemporary folk music to their usual punk blues style. Gareth Liddiard's lyrics for the album are centered more on Australia's colonial and recent history
, evident in tracks such as "Jezebel", "Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce" and "Sixteen Straws".

Much like its

predecessor, the album received critical acclaim from sources both within and outside Australia, with much of it centered on the album's raw musical style and Liddiard's dark lyricism. It was also their first album to enter the top 100 of the ARIA Charts & their second to be nominated for the Australian Music Prize.[6] In 2010, Gala Mill was listed as one of the 100 Best Australian Albums of all time, while a year later it would be voted by the band's contemporaries & "industry experts" as the 19th best Australian album of all time.[citation needed] The album would also go on to be included on Rolling Stone Australia's list of "The 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time".[7]

Recording

Gala Mill was recorded in a mill on an isolated 10,000-acre (40 km2) farm on Tasmania’s east coast. Barking dogs and birdsong are heard between tracks, and the island’s history is heavily referenced throughout the songs.[2] The place was secured through a friend of drummer (and Tasmanian native) Mike Noga's sister, and was built by convicts in 1842.[8]

The album was recorded by

reverb being used sparingly. The mixing, done a year after the sessions were recorded, was completed in "two days flat".[8]

Content

Drawings, by Thomas Bock, of the face of Alexander Pearce after his execution.

"Jezebel", "the slow, roiling eight-minute opener [...] coiled to bust loose at any moment", deals with topics such as "the death of journalist Daniel Pearl in the Middle East, nuclear testing in the Australian homeland, and a massacre that is infamous in Aussie history".[4] The track has been described as a "roller coaster"[1] and as "one part love song to nine parts apocalyptic nightmare" featuring allegorical lyrics.[3] According to Greil Marcus, the "delirious" song "seems to suck all the chaos and horror of the present moment into a single human being, who struggles to contain that world inside himself". He described the choruses as "unnerving" and found the band's performance on the song overall as a "shocker".[9]

The track "Dog-Eared", featuring slide guitar[3] has been described as "Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" crossed with Nick Cave's Boatman's Call album" in which "the kind of love revealed [...] is so vulnerable that it becomes abusive".[4] The "even slower" following track, "I'm Here Now" deals with "drug addiction -- observing it, not participating in it."[4] Bernard Zuel writes that the track "brings to mind the more intense moments of the Triffids."[10] The song "Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce", "the first of two epics that delve into the slaughterhouse that was Australia's early history"[3] references Alexander Pearce – a convict-bushranger who escaped Sarah Island's penal settlement on Tasmania's west coast with seven fellow convicts in 1822.[11] He was executed in July 1824 after a conviction of cannibalism during his escape attempts.[11] In the song, "Liddiard inhabits the executioner's mind for a discussion of guilt, empathy, experience, forgiveness, and jealousy."[1] "I Don't Ever Want To Change", the "fastest and jauntiest number" on the album featuring "mutant Chuck Berry leads and open-chorded riffs", features lyrics that "tells [the story] of a depressed shopkeeper who burns his business down for the insurance money"[3] in "trying to commune with nature."[1] "Work For Me" is the first ever Drones track to feature Fiona Kitschin on lead vocals.[12] "I Looked Down the Line and I Wondered" takes its title from a song by Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[12] "Are You Leaving For The Country" is a cover of a song by Richard Tucker, made popular by his wife Karen Dalton.[12]

The album closes with "Sixteen Straws", which is the band's second lengthiest studio recording till date (after "

draw straws, the long and the short decided the deceased and his killer." The song "carefully paints a scene in colonial Australia, backed by just the faint sound of guitars, a harmonica, and [Gareth's] own spittle".[1] It has been called "The Drones’ masterstroke [...] the standout track of Gala Mill [...] the story of men forced to kill each other to save themselves" with its story being compared to The Proposition.[13]

Release

The album was released in Australia on

digipak in the UK and the US (the former was solely released in the UK).[15][16] It was issued in the UK on 8 October 2006. A music video (the band's first) was made for the track "Jezebel" and released on YouTube. It was described by The Aquarian Weekly as "apocalyptic [...] rustling up mostly old black and white film marked by torture, punishment, and wartime oppression."[17]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Pitchfork Media
8.4/10[1]
The Skinny[21]
Spin[20]
Tiny Mix Tapes[2]

National

Gala Mill received positive reviews from the Australian press. Jeff Glorfeld of

Bad Seeds let loose the hounds of hell", though the "understated grandeur" of their music set them apart from other similarly influenced bands.[25]

International

The album received a

Contact Music called it "excellent stuff. [...] A swaggering Stones-y rock feel combined with raw and loose blues mess and moments of remarkable beauty, The Drones are capable of making great music whose rough edges aren't just left in, they are actively embraced and put front and centre." He also compared the band favorably to Beasts of Bourbon, concluding: "there is a great sense of meditative, brooding, elemental rock. Gala Mill is an excellent calling card for what may be Oz's best band."[22]

A mixed review came from Ali Maloney of

Wait Long."[27]

Awards

The album was nominated for the 2006

Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By winning the previous year - but lost out to Augie March's Moo, You Bloody Choir. They were also nominated for Most Outstanding New Independent Artist at the inaugural AIR (Australian Independent Record Labels Association) Chart Awards.[28]

Legacy

Accolades

"Gala Mill is pretty fucking depressing, [...] It's not like going on a summer holiday."

In October 2010 Gala Mill was listed at #21 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.[30] In a poll organized by Triple J in 2011 where "some of the country's top musicians and industry experts [were asked of] their favourite Australian albums of all time", Gala Mill was voted #19 out of 100 entries.[31] In 2014, the track "Sixteen Straws" was included by Flavorwire on their list of "The 50 Best Album Closing Tracks in History".[32] In 2021, Rolling Stone Australia included Gala Mill at #155 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time" (one of two Drones albums on the list), with James DiFabrizio writing that it saw the band "[expand] their vision to the feverish, eloquent rock’n’roll dirges that would go on to define their legacy in Australian music."[7]

Academia

Commandant Logan is featured in the lyrics to "Sixteen Straws".

Two songs from the album - "Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce" and "Sixteen Straws" (alongside "The Radicalisation of D" from Liddiard's solo album

penal system, the grim desperation of convicts attempting to escape lives of misery, and of frontier violence involving the surprise attack by local Aboriginal people on the infamous Commandant Logan. This reversal of the normal order of things equates life to the insignificant “straws” of the title of the song, exemplifying the way that space has been transformed by carceral and colonial systems of power." "In reinventing and extending “Moreton Bay” as “Sixteen Straws”" he writes, "The Drones have re-inscribed a nineteenth-century landscape of exile, opening an abject space of otherness within the convict story."[33]

Track listing

All tracks are written by The Drones

traditional
9:35Total length:54:51

Gala Mill UK release

All tracks written by The Drones unless mentioned otherwise:[16]

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Jezebel"7:51
2."Dog Eared"4:53
Total length:12:44
Side two
No.TitleLength
3."I'm Here Now"7:45
4."Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce"5:15
Total length:13:00
Side three
No.TitleLength
1."I Don't Ever Want To Change"3:59
2."Work For Me"5:38
3."I Looked Down The Line And I Wondered"5:29
Total length:14:56
Side four
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Are You Leaving For The Country"Richard Tucker4:26
2."Sixteen Straws"The Drones,
traditional
9:35
Total length:14:01

Personnel

Adapted from liner notes:

  • Fiona Kitschin – bass, xylophone, vocals, lead vocals (track 6), percussion
  • Michael Noga – drums, harmonica, vocals
  • Rui Pereira – guitar, vocals
  • Gareth Liddiard – lead vocals, guitar, melodeon, recording, string arrangements

Additional credits

  • Dan Luscombe – slide guitar
  • Michelle Lewit – violin
  • Spencer P. Jones - cover image
  • John Ruberto - mastering
  • Aaron Cupples - mixing, recording, bass (track 8)
  • Dan Campbell - photography
  • The Downie Breitkreuz Group - art direction, design

Charts

Chart (2006) Peak
position
ARIA Albums Chart[6] 66

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "The Drones: Gala Mill". Pitchfork.
  2. ^ a b c d "Music Review: The Drones - Gala Mill". Tiny Mix Tapes.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "The Drones – 'Gala Mill' (ATP/R) Released 09/10/06". www.gigwise.com.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Gala Mill - The Drones - Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
  5. ^ "Drones | Videos | Photos | Editorial". baeblemusic.com.
  6. ^ a b "Chartifacts - Week Commencing: 29 September 2008". ARIA. Archived from the original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
  7. ^ a b "Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone Australia. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  8. ^ a b "Local Produce: Aaron Cupples" (PDF). Audio Technology. Retrieved 10 August 2019. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ISBN 978-1-58648-831-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link
    )
  10. ^ reviewer, Bernard Zuel (4 September 2006). "Gala Mill". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-0-85853-031-7
  12. ^ a b c "THE DRONES : Gala Mill - CD - ATP RECORDINGS - Forced Exposure". www.forcedexposure.com.
  13. ^ a b "Album Review: The Drones - Gala Mill". DrownedInSound. Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  14. ^ "The Drones (2) - Gala Mill". Discogs.
  15. ^ "The Drones (2) - Gala Mill". Discogs. 2006.
  16. ^ a b c "The Drones (2) - Gala Mill". Discogs. 2006.
  17. ^ Fortunato, John. "Shooting From The Hip: The Drones - The Aquarian".
  18. ^ Andreas Hüther. "Gala Mill CD (issue #68, page 54-56)". Ox-Fanzine. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  19. ^ Mojo, November 2006 issue
  20. ^ LLC, SPIN Media (1 February 2007). SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. p. 83 – via Internet Archive. gala mill drones review.
  21. ^ a b "The Drones - Gala Mill - The Skinny". www.theskinny.co.uk.
  22. ^ a b "The Drones - Gala Mill". Contactmusic.com. 13 November 2006.
  23. ^ a b "Gala Mill by The Drones" – via www.metacritic.com.
  24. ^ Reviewer, Jeff Glorfeld (31 August 2006). "Gala Mill". The Age.
  25. ^ reviewer, Bernard Zuel (4 September 2006). "Gala Mill". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  26. ^ "Brainwashed - The Drones, "Gala Mill"". brainwashed.com.
  27. ^ "The Drones Gala Mill". exclaim.ca.
  28. ^ "The inaugural AIR indie music awards kick off this November". FasterLouder.
  29. ^ "The Drones". ATP Recordings. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  30. ISBN 978-1-74066-955-9
    .
  31. ^ "Industry Results | Hottest 100 Australian Albums Of All Time | triple j". www.abc.net.au. 25 January 2011.
  32. ^ "The 50 Best Album Closing Tracks in History". Flavorwire. 12 August 2014.
  33. ^ Cummins, Joseph. "An Archipelago of Convicts and Outsiders: The Songs of The Drones and Gareth Liddiard". Southerly – via www.academia.edu.
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