EP: Dull Reality’s EP ‘Daffodil’ is a thrillingly and imaginative sonic adventure.
Ben Shields records under the name Dull Reality and, although it’s an easy observation to make, his music is anything but. Shields works almost purely in the realms of electronic sounds – shape shifting electronica that is complex and multi-layered and given impetus and wings by his extraordinary vocal range and vivid imagination. Opening track …
Track: New Zealand’s Mild Orange release the gorgeous, ethereal single ‘This Kinda Day’
Floating over dappling guitars that pluck and ripple underneath, the soft reflective vocals in ‘This Kinda Day’, the new single from Aotearoa/New Zealand dream pop maestros, Mild Orange, are immersive and melancholy, filled with a deep yearning. ‘This Kinda Day’ shimmers like a mirage: ethereal, enigmatic, immersive and full of hope. Psychedelia and dream pop …
Track: Sydney’s Imperial Broads look for ‘Another Planet’ and announce news of album ‘Counterpart’
The new single from Sydney band Imperial Broads, ‘Another Planet’ sees a slight divergence from their earlier single ‘Control’ (reviewed by me here) into a more reflective two-speed sixties-infused dream pop serving: something more restrained, swapping leather jackets for prom dresses and beehive hairdos while maintaining the swagger and pose. A swooning hypnotic start is …
Track: Brisbane-based musician Ash Lune’s shimmering ‘Panic at the Party’ is a mesmerising delight.
With dappling guitars and sweeping, weeping strings, the new track from Mumbai-born, Brisbane-based artist Ash Lune is a dreamy, euphoric delight. Lune’s voice has an immersive, ethereal timbre that literally floats above the music, filled with longing, melancholy and melody. Lune has a wry observant style that captures the awkwardness of social interactions and the …
Track: nipaluna/Hobart based Ben Salter releases a magnificent, evocative single ‘bereavement’ in advance of new album announced for September.
Book-ended with the rolling ocean waves on a beach, and recorded in nipaluna/Hobart’s magnificent Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), the single ‘bereavement’ by musical polymath Ben Salter encapsulates something of the natural beauty and rough-hewn chill of the southern isle. A brief but evocative piano piece, Salter’s voice is soft and almost broken, …
Premiere: Sydney’s Ona Mota get down and boogie with an effervescent style in their new single ‘Dance With U’.
We are very pleased to provide an exclusive listen to the funky new dance single from Sydney’s Ona Mota. This is a song so packed full of an irresistible funky vibe that even a hardened miserablist like myself is won over. And that’s a major achievement. Infectious, louche and utterly cool: this is such a …
See: Darren Cross creates a panoply of images for the track ‘Are USS Are?’, from his album ‘DISTORDER’
Last month we reviewed the superb album ‘DISTORDER’ from Sydney’s multi-talented songwriter, producer and videographer Darren Cross, calling it a brilliant expression of our times: discordant, unsettling and at times bleak, but delivered with a swagger and a panache. Cross has assembled an engrossing video for one of the tracks – ‘Are USS Are?’ – …
Track: The Presets’ Julian Hamilton releases sublime first solo single, the icy and elegant ‘City of Love’
Julian Hamilton, half of Sydney juggernaut duo The Presets, has just released his first ever solo single ‘City of Love’, and it is brilliant. With a syncopated bubbling, liquid undercurrent, ‘City of Love’ is a deliciously hyperactive track with Hamilton’s voice having a chilling, distant, almost disassociated vibe. There is a grand meeting of Kraftwerk …
Track: Melbourne’s Jacob Fitzgerald opens a bottle of spirited, sparkling pop with ‘Pretty Good For My Mind’.
Jacob Fitzgerald‘s new single ‘Pretty Good For My Mind’ fizzes like a shaken bottle of carbonated pop opened while trampolining, with a quite sprightly bounce and a style of its own. The vocoded backing singing and the slinky sinuous saxophone add a certain frisson to the mix, but it is Fitzgerald’s innate ear for melody …
Premiere: Melbourne indie popsters Telescreen return with another widescreen, shimmering delight ‘Onward (To You)’.
‘Onward (To You)’ has a bittersweet melancholic thread that runs through the celestial synth sounds, evidence that Melbourne’s Telescreen is a massive shining star in the indie pop firmament. There is without doubt an eighties sparkle with the washes of synths that bubble and sweep across the wide horizons of this band’s scope. Backseat Mafia …