Michael Beach 'Big Black Plume' Album Launch with Lost Animal, Leah Senior

On his fifth LP, Big Black Plume, Melbourne-based and Californian-born musician Michael Beach reveals the vitalizing power of connection in an often hostile world. Equally informed by the songwriting of Bill Fay and Peter Laughner, the minimalism of Tony Conrad and Terry Riley, and the rock and roll heart of the Goner Records roster, Big Black Plume provides deliberate compositions adorned with genuine madness. The songs on this album range from spare, textural ballads, to spiraling psychedelic overtures connected to a propulsive cosmic pulse. 

"I was wrestling with the beauty and intensity of the natural world and coming to grips with the human destruction of it," says Beach.  "I have an overwhelming sense that humans will come and go, and the world we depend on will outlast us."

Building on Beach's network from over 20 years of touring, engineering, and production work (in Melbourne, SF, and LA), and employment in independent touring venues, Big Black Plume features contributions from a murderers' row of talent. Produced by Beach and Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm), the record includes Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner, The Necks bassist Lloyd Swanton, Tropical Fuck Storm members Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, folk artist Leah Senior, Oren Ambarchi collaborator Joe Talia, and Comets on Fire's Utrillo Kushner, among others.

Beach's band will launch the new record at the Tote with two other Melbourne songwriting luminaries and their bands - Lost Animal, and Leah Senior.