New Music: The Raft, A Lullaby/Coming Up For Air Double EP
I could make a droll comment about The Raft ferrying me happily across the Mersey with this bright, sparkling double EP release but that would be too easy and trite. I guess I’ve already let that one slip out, but in all seriousness, this release, from Liverpudlian singer/songwriter Phil Wilson collaborating with producer JPedro, contains …
Video and Album News: Baxter Dury, Miami
Any uncertainty about Baxter Dury’s parentage is quickly dispelled the minute he starts singing. If singing is the right term: he is a blistering, sardonic cockney raconteur just like his brilliant dad (Ian Dury, in case you are not up to speed). The video release of his new song, “Miami” reminds me of the panache …
Video and News: Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Over Everything
This must be the most perfect laconic, low-fi alt.country indie music match in history – Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile are releasing an album together entitled “Lotta Sea Lice”, due out on 13 October 2017. First release off the album is the song “Over Everything” and it is everything you would expect from these two …
New Music: Gold Class – Get Yours
In Australia, the term ‘Gold Class’ is synonymous with an upmarket cinema brand where you can recline in a smaller theatre and be fed morsels as you watch the movie. An apt name indeed for a band emanating out of Melbourne Australia that is offering something that is far above the mundane. The single, ‘Get …
Album Review: tunnel traffic – MEESH
Adam Hachey writes under the name tunnel traffic but we’ve met him before playing as part of a band called Meesh – enthusiastically reviewed by Backseat Mafia a few years back (sadly unavailable on the site at the moment). tunnel traffic have now released an album entitled MEESH just to confuse things, but one thing …
Track: Anna Of The North – Someone, plus news
Anna Of The North is Anna Lotterud from Norway with Brady Daniell-Smith from New Zealand. They first met in Australia where they began writing together and the diverse geographical influences somehow make their way into the new single “Someone” – the arctic, haunting and melancholic voice of Lotterud over the bright synth pop music. It …
Track: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – The Punishment of Luxury, plus album news
One of the best synth bands of the eighties, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), are back with a new single and video “The Punishment of Luxury” in anticipation of their album of the same name due out on 1 September 2017. As I have often written before, creativity does not have a use-by date, …
News: Fazerdaze announce more dates in Europe and Australia
In March, Backseat Mafia waxed lyrical about the astonishingly brilliant album ‘Morningside” from New Zealand’s Fazerdaze (still on high rotation on this writer’s turntable), and the band had a very sucessful tour across Europe in May. So successful in fact that Amelia Murray and her band are back on the road again: Thursday 21 September …
New Video: Saint Etienne – Magpie Eyes
There is a particular Danish word “hygge’ – pronounced as ‘hooga’ – that best translates into English as “cosiness” or creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people. I always get this feeling with Saint Etienne. There is something quintessentially and comfortingly British about them – more specific London …
New Track and Tour News: The Church – Another Century
One of Australia’s living legends and Backseat Mafia’s favourite antipodean exports, The Church, have just released their new single “Another Century”. This follows very closely (in relative terms) their much lauded 2014 release “Further Deeper” and is off their yet to be titled 26th studio album. “Another Century” is a slightly trippy, luscious drip feed …