Small World Experience - Shelf Life

Here we are in 2023 digging around in Silbreeze's 2016 back when they were digging around in 1994, and all for a record called Shelf-Life of all things. Time is well and truly fucking away and it certainly aint linear. So be it. Formed in Brisbane in the late 80s, Small World Experience were a sporadically active four piece with notable connections to the Australian underground, featuring on a split 7" with the legendary Cannanes and releasing more than a handful of records, at least one of which was issued by notable indie outpost, Chapter. Shelf-Life was their second record, originally only released on CD by local imprint Either Way, and then brought a little closer to the surface with this Siltbreeze vinyl pressing in 2016. While it's reissue didn't really move the earth, it is still a classic Siltbreeze style project, obscure and off-centre, but undeniably melodic in that kind of laconic manner that's as old as Lou Reed's first breath - that same air is still here on Earth, you know. You might be tempted to call back to Brisbane's other famous sons, the Go-Betweens or the Apartments, but this was 1994 and i'm hearing a lot more US in there - Liam Hayes and Mark Kozelek in the vocals, but also sardonic like Malkmus, world-weary like Barlow. Of course, the latter two were making nods to Small World Experience's Antipodean antecedents over at Flying Nun, which completes the circle nicely and makes perfect sense of Siltbreeze's involvement 22 years later. Just a handful of copies sitting here, improbably, another seven years on, and whatever that means it's clear what deserved attention then still deserves it now. I'd not wait around to miss out again.