Track: Mallrat – Driving Music EP
Brisbane and Queensland in general is undeniably a hotbed of talent, and one of the most preeminent examples of this is the pure pop musings of Grace Shaw, under the guise of Mallrat. Mallrat’s new EP, ‘Drive’ is an evolution of the style and creativity of this phenomenal artist. Back in February 2018, we reviewed …
Live: Ride, Enmore Theatre, Sydney, 6 September 2019
It’s a spectacular thing to see a band pick up from where they were twenty seven years ago in the same venue with a seamless evolution and imbued with the same spine tingling passion and verve. Ride were in top form: age had not wearied them and new material fused magnificently with old. And they …
Interview: Mark Gardener (Ride)
The legendary Ride are back in Australia and New Zealand after more than a twenty-five year gap as well as a long hiatus in the intervening time. During this time, Andy Bell joined label mates Oasis on bass while other members pursued their own projects. Ride reformed in 2014, playing live across Europe and North …
Track: Studio Electrophonique – Buxton Palace Hotel, Plus Album News
Studio Electrophonique is the solo work of Sheffield’s James Leesley – hauntingly sparse and delicately beautiful, recorded in his home studio late at night. He first caught our attention when he supported Richard Hawley earlier this year and we advised to look out for him. Single ‘Buxton Palace Hotel’ perfectly captures the spirit of the …
Track: Mallrat – Charlie plus EP and tour news
Mallrat‘s development as an important and iconic Australian artist is never more apparent than in her exquisite new song, ‘Charlie’. With a formidable live show and a history of what may unfairly be called melodic bubble gum pop, ‘Charlie’ signals a maturity with its deep-felt sense of yearning and nostalgia way beyond Mallrat’s years. Charlie …
Track: Underground Lovers – Seven Day Weekend, plus Album and Tour News
Melbourne’s legendary Underground Lovers have released a new single, ‘Seven Day Weekend’ as well as announcing the release of their tenth album ‘A Left Turn’ on 11 October 2019 along with a tour of Australia. I’m unashamedly a massive fan of this criminally underrated band and it feels like Christmas. ‘Seven Day Weekend’ is a …
Album Review: The Murder Capital – When I Have Fears
The Murder Capital will be releasing their epic debut album ‘When I Have Fears’ on 16 August and it confirms Dublin’s place as a hotbed of blistering new talent. This album is a deeply emotional expression of hurt and pain: sometimes delivered through an anarchic punk blast such as opening track ‘For Everything’, and sometimes …
Obituary: David Berman from Purple Mountains/Silver Jews dies.
It was only last month that Backseat Mafia reviewed the great new album from David Berman’s Purple Mountains project, saying it was: a beautiful album from beginning to end – a bleak vignette of some mid-western USA existence leavened by a twisted sense of humour, a sweet acceptance of the bitterness of a worn out …
EP Review: Greta Stanley – Sun In My Eyes
It’s the spaces in between the ethereal beauty of Greta Stanley‘s vocals that make her music so mesmerising. Think later stage Radiohead – delicate, sometimes sparse, musical pattering serving and augmenting the song and the voice. Stanley has long impressed us here at Backseat Mafia and ‘Sun in My Eyes’ displays a stunning musical progression, …
Track: Jekyll – Marionette
Blackpool’s Jekyll are a band going places – something Backseat Mafia predicted back in 2014 when we reviewed one of their first singles ‘I Do What I Can’. Now, having signed with Fierce Panda Records and booked through International Talent Bookings (ITB) along with bands such as Editors and Kasabian, Jekyll have released a fantastic …