title: Cog in the machine

URL: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/association/nusa/Opus/Opus3/cog.html

magazine: Opus (Newcastle Uni)

date: April 2004

writer: Simon Threadgate

It's a rainy evening in Newcastle as the road weary 'COG 101' number-plated Land Cruiser rolls in behind the Bar On The Hill. Among the occupants are Lucius Borich, Luke Gower and Flynn Gower, collectively known as Cog. Relentless touring, pigheaded determination and two undeniably breathtaking EP's have attracted an ever growing army of loyal followers, each taken in by the layered sound scape in which Cogs music exists.

Tonight, another facet of the bands persona is being pushed a little higher in the profile. Having played at anti-war rallies in Sydney and never being afraid of wearing their hearts on their sleeves, they are using the shows on this jaunt across the country to screen 'Breaking The Silence: Truth And Lies In The War On Terror'. Made by acclaimed Australian journalist John Pilger, it's a harrowingly bleak look at the mechanics of deceit used to justify the invasion, sorry... liberation, of Iraq and Afghanistan and the continuing injustices kept from the worlds collective view. "We went along to a John Pilger lecture where we saw the film." explains drummer Lucius, friendly and forthcoming, his calm nature flying in the face of the articulated frenzy of action he becomes later tonight behind the kit. "We thought 'what an eye opener it is', and it'd be fantastic to show it at our gigs, because the television stations, whether it be Nine, Ten, Seven or even the ABC, refuse to play it. They say it's too controversial, and to us, that's straight out censorship. John Pilger is a highly respected, highly intelligent journalist who's at the top of his field, and to not show something like this is to say that there is something to hide."

Even though Cog have never tried to hide their political leaning, having always been an integral part of the band's make-up, even the most intelligent music is available to the most unenlightened souls, attracted by the pretty lights and loud noises rather than any artistic or political merit. A point all too readily highlighted by the apparent elected spokesman of the Newcastle Knuckle-dragging Idiots Association who loudly voiced his protest during our screening of the documentary, presenting an insightful and considered argument of "Who put this shit on!? Turn this fuckin' shit off!" and standing in front of the projection screen. But Lucius insists it's not the band's intention to alienate anyone with their methods and politics, "If people don't want to get involved, that's fine, but ultimately I think they'll wake up to a rude shock one day when they ask themselves 'how the fuck did we get here'. But to have true democracy, you have to be educated. Showing this isn't us preaching, it's us learning too. We just feel that in our current environment, in our society, everyone's a part of politics whether you like it or not. People are making decisions on your behalf, you have to keep up with what's happening."

The last time Cog came through Newcastle they were touring on the back of their maxi-single of ‘Open Up’, a brilliant cover of the John Lydon penned song. Like ‘i Just Visiting Part 1‘ and ‘i Just Visiting Part 2’ (the two aforementioned "breathtaking EP's"), the single was released through Little Samurai records and was a sort of clearing of the shelves for Cog to begin new work on their next master work. Now, over a year since ‘Open Up’ came out, Cog are without record contract, without a producer and without a touring agent, hence tonight being billed as "Nobody presents... COG". What they do have is a collection of ten or so new songs, many of which get aired tonight, and a vision for the evolution of Cog. "We're pushing (our next release) out there to everyone, and we're not stopping at Australia. We're pushing to get overseas, seeing what the possibilities are before we make any decisions, which is going to take time. As far as writing, we feel like we've come a long way and have an album worth of songs, but ultimately what we want is an international release. That's important for us, because we feel like the music we have is good enough to be out there on the international stage with everything else, not just sitting on a shelf in Australia. If other artists from Europe and America can get releases here, then why can't we get releases over there? Hopefully by the end of the year we'll have something out and sitting on the shelves around the world."

It's hard not to get the feeling that Cog find themselves sitting on the edge of something grand. Not on the level of mass hysteria, record company bidding wars and arena tours but on the level of a band who can sell out venues the world over on the strength of their music alone, no image required, to a constantly growing fan base. Not necessarily on the radar, more like unaware of the radar. Something brought about through true musical artistry and a deep, honest passion that often gets lost in the increasingly contracting music industry. While major labels find themselves slipping in the quest to regain their stranglehold on the distribution and profiteering side of the business, it's almost impossible to have a true international release without dealing with the multinational conglomerates somewhere along the line. "That's a hard one." considers Lucius when approaching the subject of balancing your own political beliefs against your need to engage with the enemy. "You're always trying to weigh those things up, but you put petrol in your car and there's a country or a little island somewhere where people are suffering because they have no money because companies have raped the resources of the natural environment and not given anything to the people there and you're over here filling your car with petrol. Everything’s a contradiction in itself almost. The space you've got left is so tight and it's so hard to have those ethics that at times you just cant avoid it, but I think the most important thing is we're aware of that so you at least try to work for the better result."

In the past, bands have shown it is possible to have true artistic statements of intent and personal conviction released and accepted by the mainstream, witness bands like Faith No More, Helmet (who Flynn has noted as a big influence previously) and Tool. More recently though, with the rise of the internet, the lines between a local release and an international release have become more blurred and in many regards the power is shifting back towards artists "It's something like 30% of the world owns a computer," Lucius pauses momentarily to make sure I don't quote him as saying that exactly 30% of the world owns a computer, then continues on "which is still fuck all, but it's such a powerful tool, and it is bringing down these companies and bringing everything back to the artist. That’ s why you've got big corporations wanting to own part of your live environment, your merchandise and performance, because that's where bands are making money. Maybe it's coming around a little bit and that's good. As far as music being traded on the internet, you can't stop it first of all, but as long as people respect where the artists are coming from and how hard it is to produce the product and get it out there and how little money artists actually see. I don't see a problem with someone going to a mate "here's this bands’ CD, I think they're great, burn yourself a copy and see if you like it", because if you do that with five friends, three might like it and come and see you live and buy merch or go and buy the real thing. If you're a fan of a band you just go and buy the real thing. Like everything, there're pros and cons, but if people are educated about where musicians sit within the industry they might make a better choice.

A short hour later, Sleight Of Hand take the stage and the night is officially underway. Playing to a hesitant crowd who aren't yet liquored up enough the enjoy anything too much, Sleight take the indifference in their stride, front man Ben remaining animated and chatty with the audience throughout. Airing tracks from their demo disc from last year, and tracks presumably destined to appear on the “Breathe” EP due later this year, Sleight do their job with honour and style but you get the feeling much of the crowd who eventually fill the Bar On The Hill by Cog's stage time may have decided to come later in the hopes of missing the documentary. Which is a shame, because it was a fantastic piece of guerrilla journalism. Masterfully shot and compiled, it juxtaposes the ravages of war and America's rampant imperialistic blood-lust alongside audio of President Bush feeding the lie of the liberation of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. What works best though are the scenes where high ranking US government officials find themselves tripping over their own words when presented with Pilger's research and statistics. I'm not exactly sure how you can view this film, but if you try contacting Cog they may put you on the right track, because it's a brilliant piece of journalism that needs to be seen by more people. The only bad thing I'll say about the documentary is that it may have been better to screen it before any band had played, because it had a jarring effect on the flow of the night. Junto were next, playing a strange brand of rock, full of abrasive guitar squeals and pan-pipes (yes, pan-pipes). It sounded good for the most part, but no more than your standard rock band, even with the added edge of the awesome power of the pan-pipe.

And then Cog went on and completely kicked the shit out of their two support bands. If you still haven't seen Cog in the live environment then you're truly missing out on the best band Australia has to offer right now. Simultaneously bruising and gently caressing, Cog's music is a concoction of the best of the groove-oriented rock bands of the ‘90s like Helmet and Soundgarden, mixed with the effeminate grace of Jeff Buckley and the more psychedelic elements of Tool. And that doesn't even go half way to truly describing their sound!! There's something so raw and emotive about the power this trio exude from the moment they walk on stage, launching into one of the many new songs they play tonight which sounds like a great indication that the next Cog release could well be the opus everyone in the room knows the band have in them. Moving effortlessly through their own sonic landscape, the songs seem to meld into each other, Flynn's powerfully understated vocals floating across the rhythmic pulse of Lucius' devastatingly heavy hitting in an almost psychedelic experience. It all sounds a little wank-wank-rock-journo when you say it like that, but there really aren’t words to do justice to the transcendental brilliance of a band who are completely hooked up to each other musically and totally switched on to the basic premise of music as an artistic expression. Material from the EP’s (both recorded in the same sessions over 2 years ago) is met with rapturous applause, and despite the absence of Moshiach, Stretch and 101 it’ s hard to argue with the new songs the band pull out of the bag tonight. New ones like ‘Resonate’ and ‘Real Life’ (which was featured in demo form on the last Big Day Out compilation) not only meet the standards Cog set for themselves with their early releases, but prove that the band were only really warming up with the “Just Visiting” releases. Big things are coming for this band.