The Belligerents

Brisbane‘s thriving music scene continues to pump out quality acts, and The Belligerents are the latest act on getting tails wagging.


The explosive indie dance five piece take their influences from the likes of The Rapture and Talking Heads, morphing them into a crazy disco-pop live show that has seen them play local house parties as well as support some of the biggest acts in both the national and international music scene, including Metronomy, Neon India, Shout Out Louds, Little Red, Miami Horror and Dappled Cities.


Towards the end of last year the boy’s headed to the studio and recorded their debut EP with Brisbane producer Timeshare at Temple Street Studio. Entitled Less Arty More Party, The Belligerents have tried to capture the energetic live sound of their onstage performances on the four track EP.


Bass player Konstantin Kersting creating the album: “We wanted to concentrate on making a record which mirrors our live show, without the full blown production process of adding in heaps of things which we then couldn’t recreate live. What you get is definitely what you see.”


With first single These Hands and recently released second single Such A Crime already getting radio play throughout Australia, The Belligerents are making the most of this exposure and heading out on a national tour. Check out the dates below.


Saturday March 26 – Woodland, Brisbane, QLD
Friday April 1 – Lake Kawana Community Centre, Sunshine Coast, QLD
Friday April 8 – Elsewhere, Gold Coast, QLD
Saturday April 9 – Oxford Arts Factory, Gallery Bar, Sydney, NSW
Thursday April 21 – Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday April 23 – Fowlers Live, Adelaide, SA

Friday April 29 – The Buddha Bar, Byron Bay, NSW

Saturday April 30 – Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle, NSW



Less Arty More Party is available to purchase from The Belligerents website or iTunes. For more information check out their MySpace.


- Shout Out Music

The Valley was bustling this particular Saturday night with lines reaching around the corner at every venue. Woodland was no exception thanks to a sold out show for Metronomy. Woodland is a versatile space boasting seats and booth’s all around the tucked away venue. Although the event is sold out, there is still ample room to move and plenty of seating for those just keen to have a chat and watch the bands.

Tonight The Belligerents are pumping out song after song for the energetic crowd who are all at the very front of the stage. The indie pop rock band’s stage presence and energy surely have something to do with the full dance floor as people dance along to their fast paced tunes. The Belligerents are a good choice in supporting Metronomy as they warm up the crowd.

The guys from Mitzi follow and each member of the 4-piece plays a few songs consisting of disco, nu-wave and even Fame by David Bowie. People dance but most are waiting for the UK indie/dance headliners. The awaiting crowd cheer the members of Metronomy as they come on stage to set up their equipment but as people begin to tire and become inpatient, they start pushing the amps on the stage. The band finally take to the stage, all members with lights strapped to their chests, the lack of security not helping the increasingly rough crowd. Metronomy’s first song is_Love Underlined_ and bass player Gbenga Adelekan jumps up and down prompting the already crazy crowd to do the same. Finally security arrive and settle things down.

Metronomy’s electronic sound is keyboard and bass heavy as lead guitarist Joseph Mount doubles up on keyboard as well. As the band launch into crowd favourite My Heart Rate Rapid, their lights flash to the beat and the crowd responds with cheers. At this point, it seems most people at the front are too busy defending themselves to enjoy the show and they are jammed against the stage. All members sing with high pitched urgency as they pump through On The Motorway. Mount finally talks to the crowd after this and the crowd scream and shout in response. Single Heartbreaker causes everyone to go crazy as the bass lines travel through the venue. Everyone sings and claps to the drums as the highlight song draws to an end. Metronomy pull off instrumental tracks including The End of You Too with ease, then launch into another crowd favourite, A Thing For Me.

Adelekan loses sound in the middle of the song, but the band pummel through like nothing has happened. Soon enough the sound is recovered and they finish their set with two songs in their encore. Despite some of the most iconic venues in Brisbane closing down, Woodland has a promising future for the live music scene as sweaty punters leave the sold out Metronomy show.

- Faster Louder

ANDY BALZAT and KONSTANTIN KERSTING, two-thirds of Brisbane excitement machines THE BELLIGERENTS, speak to LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON about their debut EP.

The Belligerents have proven to be one of Brisbane’s brightest prospects in a very short amount of time. That’s not to say these five young men are rushing into anything; in fact, The Belligerents may be one of the most patient bands you’ll ever meet.

Their debut release, the self funded EP Less Arty More Party, was recorded almost a year ago. Rather than rush it out, The Belligerents were content to wait until the release felt like a complete package.

“The direction (of the EP) was pretty clear. We knew where we wanted to go with this record. We didn’t want the crazy production process where you add all this stuff that you can’t emulate live. With us, we can play every single part on that EP. How we sound on the record is how we sound live,” bass player Konstantin Kersting says.

Watch them live and you’ll soon realise that The Belligerents’ reserved approach to their career is left well behind from the moment they jump on stage. Their first show was only a month after they began jamming, and they’ve been building a fan base (and a swathe of positive live reviews) ever since.

“We all personally enjoy the live show more than anything else, more than recording, more than photo shoots, more than interviews; we just want to get on the stage and play,” says keyboardist Andy Balzat.

The members of The Belligerents all live together in two separate houses, and the close bond shared between all five of them has seen the band develop a sound and style that recalls disco pop groups like Foals, whilst still sounding identifiably themselves. Kersting and Balzat acknowledge their formative days as a band to this development of style. In many ways, they say, their sound was built from the ground up.

“Our set-up at the start was so ghetto. I didn’t have a bass amp … Andy had one keyboard that ran through a little laptop that kept breaking down. It took us a while to figure it all out,” Kersting says.

Balzat agrees. “When we started, only one of us had been in a gigging band, but since then our sound has totally grown. Our control over each of our instruments is just a thousand times better,” he says.

This control has led to a lush, full sound that is deceiving to the ear. Less Arty More Party doesn’t sound like it was written and recorded by a band only in its first year of creation. It is an accomplished release that will only increase the buzz surrounding the band.

“There always needs to be that mix of silence and music,” Kersting says, in relation to the swirling melodies and jagged rhythms that make up the EP. “I changed the bassline to two of the songs because I felt like I was playing stuff to just stand out. But that’s not what counts. You need to make the whole band sound awesome together.”

THE BELLIGERENTS play Woodland on Saturday Mar 26, Lake Kawana Community Centre on Friday April 1 and the Gold Coast’s Elsewhere on Friday Apr 8. LESS ARTY MORE PARTY is available now from www.thebelligerents.com.



- Rave Magazine

Full page feature on The Belligerents debut EP release - Less Arty More Party and their Australian tour.

Page 29 (national edition)

- 3D Magazine Australia

INDIE RELEASE OF THE WEEK

'Addictive, house party dance tunes'

What is it about the fresh, upbeat sounds of good discopop/nu wave bands beside the fact they can rock and be groovy? Ah, that’s it! They’re super addictive. This quality is manifested in Less Arty More Party with instrumental segments that are so alluring and catchy that it almost seems rude not to dance. Lead vocalist Lewis Stephenson has a distinct tinge of Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys) in his voice that tends to lull verses down before entering the scruffy sing-along choruses. Throw in some tight percussion and crucial rhythmic keys and the joyous instrumental bridge springs to life. The Brissy five-piece have strung together facets of Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club and produced an honest, likable EP that is a house party necessity.

TRENT CLULOW


- Rave Magazine

Less Arty, More Party is the debut EP from Brisbane outfit The Belligerents, and it’s exactly what it's name purports. Instead of being a pretentious foray into poorly formulated math-rock, it’s an exciting and dance-filled jump into the future of Australian indie-rock.

The EP opens with the drum-driven These Hands. The track has received a bit of love from Triple J, and for good reason. While it’s somewhat eerie start could be offputting to some, past that lies a high-energy piece of synth infused indie rock. A great track and a great opener.

The second track, Such A Crime, is upbeat and catchy. Imagine a dance track with lyrical integrity and musical quality, as well as a lavish dash of delay and an unexpected breakdown and you have Such A Crime. I’ve also got to note that I love the line “There’s girls being good to me/It’s such a crime”. Self deprecation is endearing, of course.

Next up is Bye Bye Bye, (now *NSYNC free). Seriously though, this track builds upon the first two, consolidating The Belligerents sound on this EP while still adding sometime refreshing. The guitar harmonies of Bye Bye Bye are gorgeous and flow like lightly delayed feathers throughout the track.

Fourth on the EP is Take Me Back which is my least favorite song on the EP. It seems disjointed and out of place amongst the high pace, tightly constructed tracks of the rest of the album. That said, it’s still a good song with deliciously catchy synth riffs – just not what I expected. I don't like being surprised, that's all.

The final track is a remix of These Hands by the album's producer Timeshare. It shows what heavy production would do The Belligerents music. It decreases the foot-tapping nature of the original and a bit more grit and noise. An interesting remix of a great song.

Over the course of the EP, The Belligerents succeed in delivering tightly constructed climaxes and catchy riffs without relying on heavy production and multi-layering. They could be just another autotuned Foals clone but instead they’re a ballsy, foot tapping dance wunderkind who've delivered a fantastic first EP that I can’t wait to catch live.

8.5/10
- AU Review