Club music stretched to the edge of collapse, then rebuilt from distortion and tenderness.
From the digital haze of Sydney’s underground, California Girls; the electronic project of Angus McGrath, returns with Wheel of Ashes. A gothic, genre-warping reflection on dread, persistence, and the uneasy beauty of existing in an age of overload.
Five years on from his previous album, a hyper-charged celebration of queer desire (Beat Boy), McGrath zooms out for something grander and darker: an operatic fever dream that confronts modern anxiety through the lens of spiritual exhaustion.
Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’ and named after Pierre Clémenti’s 68’ cult film, Wheel of Ashes turns existential panic into catharsis. Across its eleven tracks, industrial noise, hardcore techno, punk, black metal, and internet rap combust into a single, sprawling vision. This is club music stretched to the edge of collapse, then rebuilt from distortion and tenderness.
Yet beneath the chaos lies surprising warmth. “Intimacy” drifts like a digital prayer, “City Living” pounds with hypnotic repetition, while “Bless for Us” pairs Melbourne rapper Teether’s deadpan delivery with McGrath’s search for light in the static. West Syd’s Nerdie (of 1300) brings glacial brilliance to “Angel Necklace”, and fellow producer Grasps amplifies the panoramic drama, weaving spectral fragments through the mix.
What materialises is a work of apocalyptic romance; a sonic reckoning with fear that still insists on connection. Wheel of Ashes isn’t about surrender, but survival. A testament to finding intimacy, even in collapse.
California Girls stand at the burning edge of electronic music, making noise as both retaliation and redemption.
Words by Ify Obiegbu