Meet ‘Stone’. The trailer says it all. A deep Australian drawl narrates the scene over a psychedelic swamp-funk rhythm section doused in electronic percussion and treated keyboards. The screen fills with images of slo-mo bike accidents, hallucinogenic trips and a death defying cliff stunt which could easily be mistaken for a scene in ‘Psychomania’. The scene swathes to a satanic ritualistic burial at the hands of a denim-clad crew of outlaw bikers with strangely familiar faces.<br /><br />• To many global record collectors, DJs, music producers and general retrophiles living outside of Australia, ‘Stone’ was primarily known for its electronic sound effects, psychedelic guitars, cosmic soundscapes and funky basslines. In the 80s and 90s, before the global DVD boom, ‘Stone’ was to many people first and foremost a soundtrack. The kind of soundtrack that makes you wish you could see the film but it’ll probably never happen. The album artwork alone was beyond enigmatic with its contradicting embroidered logo (designed by Sandy) alongside its striking futuristic airbrushed chrome insignia (designed by comic artist Peter Ledger and realised by airbrush whizz Errol Black). The huge parade of brand new Kawasaki bikes inside the gatefold looked like something from the future compared to the classic full-dresser Harleys from the American Hells Angels movies. And when the needle drops into the groove and the freakish mix of didgeridoo and Moog (played by Johnny ‘Didge’ Matthews and synth expert Andy Cohan) blended with unidentified clicks belches and pops fly out the speakers it is literally impossible to put a date, never mind a storyline, to this acid fuelled soundscape. The use of confusing and contradicting musical influences alongside bizarre noises is actually the secret sauce in this concoction, and when the swampy psychedelic funk-rock rhythm section kicks in you’re left with a 45 minute programme of skewed, forward-thinking avant-pop that would stylistically fill a very lonely section in the record shop racks. There aren’t many records quite like ‘Stone’. “Oh my God! What a movie!” - Quentin Tarantino.
