Radio Birdman
Radios Appear

Radio Birdman formed in Sydney in 1974 around the figures of guitarist Deniz Tek (an American from Michigan) and singer Rob Younger. Their aim is to breathe new life into the stale and self-congratulatory rock scene, inspired by the experiences Tek had firsthand in Detroit at the end of the sixties… an explicit tribute being “We saw the Stooges and the MC5 – drove themselves insane alive” in the song “Do The Pop”.

After the 1976 EP “Burn My Eye”, the six-member Radio Birdman released their masterpiece (the only full-length album) “Radios Appear” the following year. The tracks of this work are true anthems, perfect connecting links between the roots of rock ‘n’ roll, hard rock, and punk. Tek and Chris Masuak's clattering guitars weave magnificent duels to the last breath, while Younger's voice describes the urgency of a generation witnessing the disintegration of the surrounding world, never succumbing to the noisy anger of the Anglo-Saxon punks but becoming even more lucid and uncompromising for this reason. Warwick Gilbert's bass and Ron Keely's drums travel like runaway trains without a driver at the controls, and Pip Hoyle's keyboards weave patterns and embellishments that lend drama and color to each track. It is practically impossible to single out any particular songs that make a difference, as every song is a small rock artwork, shining on its own and contributing to the dazzling brilliance of the entire work as a whole. I allow myself to highlight only “Descent Into The Maelstrom” as a slightly superior episode to the (incredibly high) average of the album. Built on a very nervous structure, the track perfectly underscores the drama of the lyrics, a modern “reinterpretation” of the homonymous story by Edgar Allan Poe transposed into the surf iconographic imagination… where Tek's guitar magically evokes the roar of the frenzied vortex that swallows the surfer, dragging him down in its swirl, to the bottom (of the Maelstrom). Younger's voice is sublime in conveying the ongoing drama as well as the violent rebirth of the man who finds himself stunned on the shore, having survived “I'm going down - Into the maelstrom - Going down - Gonna drown - Gonna drown yeah - Alive alive alive - I'm alive”.

One of the most incredible formations in the young history of rock music, culpably forgotten by all the artists they have heavily influenced, and to conclude this review, I allow myself to appropriate the words of music journalist Massimo Padalino, who more than anyone else has managed to paint the perfect picture of the Australian combo… “too often confused with the brigade of ugly-dirty-bad Anglo-Saxons, Radio Birdman constitutes a true “small orchestra” hard capable of bestowing some of the most astonishing sound dynamics on a handful of songs, most admirable for their writing qualities”.

P.S.: the cover inserted in this page is not the original from 1977 but the one from the 1978 Trafalgar Records reissue.