Arriving in Sydney from Byron Bay, I was to thank my lucky stars I found out about a trustworthy gig at Melt Bar in Kings Cross last Thursday night. Because this was where Mark Walton’s new band Fretless had rustled up to hold a label and CD launch, generally just causing a bit of a ruckus.
Being away for a year, I was happy to gawk at the new-to-my-eye garnishings of the Melt Bar, and admire the cultural hipness of its chosen style. Sydney’s venues rarely offer such ‘cool cat’ characteristics so it’s nice to finally attend a stumble across a venue that’s on to it! A bit of a house party affair, the crowd was rife with industry friends, doters and the musically learned, which is a refreshing environment as you know everyone there was passionate and/or somewhat involved.
The entourage consisted of Mark Walton sporting a mic for intermittent intros and banter, the consummate musician that is Jimi Polar on keys and FX, scratch master Noodles, trumpet player Alex Gooden Zonkt, rub-a-dub rhyming token Jamaican MCs Funk’n Irie and Agent 9 adorned in tight leather, and Good Buddha’s Indian female singer Ranji. Collaborating with some of sydney’s finest (think of Regal, Elroy and Tim Hayes), the all original tracks offered a mixed walloping of hip hop, breaks, reggae, soul, house, funk, disco, soul, jazz afro, sub and beats.
The Fretless album was earlier released in November last year on Sensodisc through MGM, and earned itself a fair few golf claps. Featured on the album are playground tustles with 16 members including the aforementioned musicians, Brendan St. Ledger, Simon Durrington from The Bird, along with Zen Fonmanu and Brook Aryton to name but a few. Mark has of late spent some time touring Australia’s nether regions, and over the past 5 years has traveled between Sydney and Brisbane producing and touring with the Resin Dogs and Good Buddha. Whilst he is now based back in Sydney, Mark continues to play on the Australian circuit with regular visits to London and Japan and his spiritual home Hawaii. Keep your ears to the ground for future play dates, as Mark Walton is getting around!
