The weather’s turning cold here in Canberra and the autumn leaves have descended from the trees en masse to form a gigantic orange-brown cushion on the ground. The first frost of the year hit on Saturday, followed by showers and winds on Sunday that brought an entire bluegum down in a nearby suburb. Not a conducive environment to have to leave the house in search of coffee, but addiction is a powerful thing.

Gearing up for a polar expedition, I decided that Antarctica’s 81:03 would form the ideal soundtrack for the walk to the nearest café. There are few band names as apt as Antarctica, whose sole album, released in 2001, was a slab of icy synthesizer pop, conjuring visions of clear blue skies over white mountains. There were no ice floes in my suburb, but otherwise the Antarctic theme seemed appropriate.

I stepped out of my driveway with the opening synthesizer blast of “Absence” pounding in my ears. It’s like a New Order song, one that you used to sing along to whenever it came on the radio, except that it’s even better than anything New Order wrote except for possibly “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Blue Monday.” The synthesizers sound crisp and the vocals straddle the angsty line between mid-90s emo (vocalist Eric Richter is formerly of Denver legends Christie Front Drive) and early-90s shoegazers like Ride.

The walk took me through an easement made up of a large drainage channel (flowing rapidly from all the rain) with trees and parkland on either side. The leaves crunched under my feet, compacting as I trod along and the air was chilly and slightly wet from the humidity. Entranced, I actually took a long route, delaying my coffee by a good half hour to enjoy the beauty that miserable weather wreaks on my neighbourhood.

By this time, I’d passed through the monumental “Tower of Silence” and the psychedelic “Velvet Flood” and was immersed in the Underworldly “Return to Omma Dawn.” The anthemic analogue synths reminded me of teenage techno favourites like “Juanita” and “Rowla” and I found myself in a nostalgic reverie.

Like a lot of people my mood follows a seasonal cycle, but with wintry music like this to soundtrack my life, I suspect that the cold will not dampen my exuberance.

To the weather gods, I say “bring it on.”

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