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Saturday 9 November 2013

Sunday Sessions: Ammonia

Following the recent screening of "The Sunnyboy" on the ABC, a Yorkshire-born mate of mine who has been living in Australia for over a decade now has stated that the 1980s were clearly a golden age for Australian Music, in his view.

True that, I say.

The Mid-1990s were another great golden age for music in my view. However, so many bands have been swept under the carpet of history in the intervening years. Unfortunately, today's artist is one of them.

Ammonia were originally a Perth-based 3-piece who burst out of the same vibrant scene as Jebediah (featuring Kevin Mitchell, aka Bob Evans), Adam Said Galore, Lash, Little Birdy, Sleepy Jackson and Karnivool. They played a kind of melodic grunge, but even then that's underselling the music. Ammonia's releases were on Murmur, home to Something for Kate, Silverchair and the aforementioned Jebediah.

They formed in 1992, released two albums "Mint 400" (1995) and "Eleventh Avenue" (1998) before calling it a day in 1999. "Mint 400" was a great, straight ahead rock album, while "Eleventh Avenue" expanded on this with experiments with synths and mild psychedelia. Both albums are worth more than a few listens, but to get you started, here's a couple of tunes by way of introduction:

"Keep on My Side" (from "Eleventh Avenue")



"Suzy Q" (from "Mint 400")

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