Infinity Broke return with their fourth album, This Masthead. Fronted by Jamie Hutchings (guitar/vocals) alongside Scott Hutchings (drums/guitar), Reuben Wills (bass) and new member aux-drummer-percussionist Tyrone Stevens, This Masthead explored a collaborative approach to songwriting with half the album’s tracks finding their origins in group improvisation.
The beginnings of the album saw the quartet recording rhythm heavy jam sessions, with Jamie taking them home and composing fully realised songs out of them. As a result, many of the songs started out with cataclysmic beats and mantric bass lines as their initial spark, rather than guitar and vocal skeletons. Album highlights such as the single Abject Object as well as Snowdome of Dreams are examples, they barely stray beyond one chord, creating a pressure cooker styled environment for the band to grind and weave through against this claustrophobic push and pull. The addition of Tim Fagan’s free-jazz influenced saxophone blasts against the sweetness of guest vocalists Liz Payne and Amanda Stevens, creates a bunch of sonic contradictions that tug the listener under, with enough air to surface.
This Masthead was recorded over five days at Stranded Studios in the suburb of Bellambi, NSW by Cody Moore. For the first time, in addition to producing, Jamie Hutchings took over mixing duties for the album (with additional assistance from Ben DeHoedt and Chris Colquhuon). Hutchings’ mixes of the album added ethereal nuances that give the songs a certain otherness. Field recordings, varispeeded and reversed vocals and musique concrete flavours have all transported This Masthead towards being what it is: Its own beast.
