WL//WH Video Premiere: CONG JOSIE & GARRY SACRED Deliver a Demonic Dystopian Update of 1971 OZ-Boogie Era Classic “I’ll Be There”

WL//WH Premiere CONG JOSIE & GARRY SACRED

Aussie synth-punk, rock’n’roll rebel Cong Josie, the hedonistic alter-ego, (and anagram) of Nic Oogjes, also known as the bandleader of the no-wave and post-punk-influenced ‘Heat Beat’ body-music ensemble NO ZU, teams up with Garry Sacred, aka Garry Gray, the lead singer-songwriter of the early ’80s seminal Melbourne Post-punk group Sacred Cowboys for a new 5-track EP “Sacred Money,” scheduled to be released on August 1, 2025, via Melbourne independent label It Records.

The first excerpt is a sleazy and sinister cover of the iconic 1971 Oz-boogie-era stone-cold classic, ‘I’ll Be Gone”, originally by the progressive rockers Spectrum, whose Music Video, directed by Clara Slewa, WL//WH is thrilled to premiere.

The imaginative pair’s re-invention sits somewhere in the zone where Darkwave Cabaret meets Punk Rock, bringing to the fore an allegory of our times, that still strives as a prophetic call to those on the margins and those that will never succumb to the meaningless consumerist push that society celebrates, speaking to the moment we are in as much as it ever has.

A wrong turn off the highway into a dimension beyond. Garry is playing ‘I’ll Be Gone’, and Cong is hypnotised by the “dream” of money and security. Knowing that an artist, a rebel rouser, an antagonist can never align the two. Fifty years on and the lyrics are even more desperately in vain, yet Cong and Garry recognise the same knowing that they will keep on and keep fighting for what is real.

Cloaked in muffled, shivering harmonica-lined wails, a sinister buzzy synthetic aesthetic takes over the vibrant moseying pace of the folksy original, as Cong and Sacred deliver heavy, sultry layers of eerie and haunting vibes that simmer and seethe with a sluggish, brooding energy, using lashing kicks rather than claps, menacing droning bass tones, and ominous rusty distorted textures, to slowly creep over equally as soulful but wildly lunacy driven dual vocals, interspersed with hoodlum jeers and gravelly baritones, digging deep into a dark, gritty, unhinged aura that ends with a psychotic rant of, “if I don’t get that money, do you know what I’m going to do?”

Single Artwork by Deon Slaverio

The video directed by Clara Slewa sees a Cabaret-inspired set-piece play out narrating the evil temptation of money over innocence, and living an artful life where human connection is truth. Like a lost underground resistance theatre performance that satirises the ruling class – but has been banned – the video is clearly very close to the bone for our present day. Garry and Cong’s no-holds-barred theatrical natures carry this captivating video and makes the work inseparable from the song itself.

Clara Slewa‘s visuals star Cong Josie, Garry Sacred, Mickey Dollar, and Bonnie Wood as a cast of characters, so strange you might find them in a David Lynch film. They perform “I’ll Be Gone” at the Sacred Money Club in wicked make-up and black leather attire until a mania of greed takes hold and turns the night deadly.

Cong Josie & Garry Sacred‘s first single, “I’ll Be Gone,” is out now on all the digital streaming platforms, while the forthcoming E.P. “Sacred Money” will be released through It Records on August 1st 2025

Keep up with Cong Josie & Garry Sacred:

GARRY SACRED: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram |

IT RECORDS: Facebook | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Instagram |