With the Mercy Arms moving from 'hiatus' to 'official break up'  to 'management denial' and back to 'official breakup' (if their R.I.P myspace headline is to be believed)... it's relieving to know that the creative juices of lead man Thom Moore haven't been stifled by the turbulence. His subsequent musical project Canvas Kites is a little more uptempo and joyful than the Arms, but that's not to say that there's any loss in musical impact. They're just about to make the pilgrimage to London (as many have before them), but thankfully threw down some last-minute local shows before packing up their Rickenbackers.

Try as scientists might, there have been three phenomena that have consistently evaded their explanation and understanding throughout the history of time: Gravity, Curling and Audio Mastering. With the plethora of mastered and unmastered demos we receive here at the Bridge (send us yours??), I figured it might be high-time to do some investigation into the third of these three mysteries. Asking musicians was no help. Responses genereally centred around vague comments like "it adds an extra sheen". So I thought i'd get the word straight from the horse's mouth. The horse here is William Bowden a.k.a King Willy a.k.a Willy The Masterer. Aside from his numerous nicknames, he's a man with a lengthy history in the music industry and is hugely respected by musicians and audio boffins alike. I managed to sneak into his self-designed mastering suite (fashioned into the back shed of his residence in Stanmore) and threw a few questions at him in his lunch break.

Yup, it's the arse-end of the decade meaning that music-peddlers are going Top-Ten crazy. Every man and his blog feels it his/her responsibility to set down for all to see, the absolute and unequivocal list of musical moments that defined the decade. Pitchfork got a cheeky head-start by announcing back in July their Top 500 Songs of the Noughties - though it's disappointing they didn't drill down further to the top 1000 choruses or top 5000 chords. Other blogs have since started following suit, all happily spruiking their own tastes (though perhaps none so much as this one). Those silly enough to allow comments get blasted for not including some lo-fi band that was a phenomenon in some exclusive suburb of New York, while others get rubbished for daring to put a non-Radiohead album at number one.

6/11/09 @ The Excelsior - supported by Pirate

With a global music scene drowning in indie, it's pretty easy to forget what real musicians sound like. As much as I can listen to Kings of Convenience records all day (and I can), jangly 4/4 and single-note guitar solos can only be so satisfying. Slotting Falsimilies From The Factsmachine into the CD player some weeks ago was the punch in the skinny jeans I'd been yearning for. It's the third EP from Sydney progfreaks Captain Kickarse and the Awesomes and it's choc full of chops, time signature changeups and drumming intensity. Last night saw them throw down an official release of the EP at the Excelsior (the spiritual home of the distortion pedal) to a crammed house.