Voigt/465
Voigt/465 were an Australian post-punk band based in Sydney, Australia. They were a feature of the Sydney inner-city music-scene during the late 1970s and their music was critically acclaimed. Their sound was influenced by Krautrock and has been described by a band-member as an "unsettling mixture of song-driven rock elements and free-noise experimentation". Voigt/465 recorded an album, Slights Unspoken, before they disbanded in late 1979. With their self-funded recordings and determinedly uncompromising music Voigt/465 epitomised the do-it-yourself ethic of the alternative music scene of the late 1970s.
History
Voigt/465 was formed in 1976 from a group of school-friends. The band was composed of Rod Pobestek, Lindsay O’Meara, Phil Turnbull, Rae Macron Cru and Bruce Stalder. They rehearsed and played sporadically during 1977. In 1978 Voigt/465 recorded four songs at Axent Studios at Kogarah, in Sydney's southern suburbs.During 1978 the band performed more regularly and began to attract a following. In mid-1978 the drummer left the group and was replaced by Mark Boswell. Later that year Voigt/645 released a self-funded single made up of two of the songs they had recorded earlier that year – "State" and "A Secret West". The band had a mid-week residency at the Sussex Hotel and regularly performed at other inner-city venues in Sydney. Voigt/465 also travelled to Melbourne to perform a series of gigs.
Voigt/465 were highlighted as the "band of 1979" in Clinton Walker's influential book Inner City Sound, a document of punk and post-punk music in Australia.
In 1979 the bass-player Lindsay O’Meara decided to leave the band to join Crime and the City Solution in Melbourne. With Voigt/465 on the verge of breaking up the band-members decided to record an album as a lasting document of their songs. The recordings were made at Axent studios and the album Slights Unspoken was released in a limited edition in September 1979.
O’Meara later returned from Melbourne and eventually joined Pel Mel. Keyboardist Phil Turnbull co-founded the band Wild West, which Rae Macron Cru also later joined.
Discography
Singles
- "State" / "A Secret West"