Country : Australia Label : The Roundtable Genres and styles : Electronic / Krautrock / Psych-Rock Year : 2020

Sunday Night at the Total Theatre

· by Rupert Bottenberg

While pugnacious pub rock certainly ruled the place and time, it’s not entirely surprising that Australia in the 1970s would lend a few welcoming ears to German krautrock. Consider the island-continent’s enormous, daunting red-desert interior as a psychic setting, concomitant with a stuntman approach to illicit drugs and a knack for repurposing styles from offshore in a way that’s rough, raw and right on the money.

Melbourne’s Cybotron are a known quantity to those with a penchant for psychedelic synth sounds of ’70s, releasing three albums between 1976 and 1980. Cheers to Australian outfit The Roundtable for re-releasing their eponymous debut LP and 1980’s Implosion digitally, and cheers again for this additional find – a beyond-rare pair of live jams from 1976, when the band was just the duo of Steve Maxwell Von Braund and Geoff Green, tangling with an imposing bank of modular gear.

Two sprawling, quarter-hour chronicles of interplanetary excursions here, diligently observant of Berlin-school protocols. You want oscillations? Ring modulations? Ritualistic formulations in the manner of Popol Vuh, with perhaps a little ecstatic astro-sax à la Hawkwind? Cybotron got you covered. And there’s a bonus: the inclusion of the super-rare single 1980 “Ride to Infinity”, a bit more polished, with a definite Italian flavour to it – il sapore del giallo.

Latest 360 Content

Rebecca Foon & Aliayta Foon-Dancoes – Reverie

Rebecca Foon & Aliayta Foon-Dancoes – Reverie

Misc – Beat Bouquet

Misc – Beat Bouquet

Heaven FM – A Surreal Broadcast from the Beyond

Heaven FM – A Surreal Broadcast from the Beyond

Guillaume Lefebvre – Au loin

Guillaume Lefebvre – Au loin

Angel Wang; Phoenix Orchestra – Phoenix Rising

Angel Wang; Phoenix Orchestra – Phoenix Rising

The Centre des Musiciens du Monde’s music Tree that brings people together

The Centre des Musiciens du Monde’s music Tree that brings people together

Festival des Saveurs | Carminda Mac Lorin, The Woman of Many Hats

Festival des Saveurs | Carminda Mac Lorin, The Woman of Many Hats

SAT X EAF | Amselysen and The Ideal Perfume of A Serial Killer

SAT X EAF | Amselysen and The Ideal Perfume of A Serial Killer

Festival Classica 2025 | Women’s Cellos

Festival Classica 2025 | Women’s Cellos

Nuits d’Afrique 2025: ALL About The Program

Nuits d’Afrique 2025: ALL About The Program

Festival Classica: An Ode to Hope with Elvira Misbakhova

Festival Classica: An Ode to Hope with Elvira Misbakhova

Festival des Saveurs | Aldo Guizmo Goes “Str8 Forward”

Festival des Saveurs | Aldo Guizmo Goes “Str8 Forward”

Deafhaven – Lonely People with Power

Deafhaven – Lonely People with Power

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story

Sparks – MAD!

Sparks – MAD!

“Hiroshima, mon amour”: An Evening to Remember

“Hiroshima, mon amour”: An Evening to Remember

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Peter Murphy – Silver Shade

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Ken Pomeroy – Cruel World

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT

Festival des Saveurs | Closing With Reggae

Festival des Saveurs | Closing With Reggae

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

Tamir Barzilay – Phosphene Journal

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

The best ‘’Candlelight concert‘’ ever.

Subscribe to our newsletter