Track: Local Authority – Oil Rigs
Dripping with an early The Cure vibe but infused with a Ride-like wall of harmony and jangling guitars, the new single from Brisbane’s Local Authority, ‘Oil Rigs’, is an absolute delight. With a cold, clinical spine, the sound is leavened by the layered vocals that are haunting – distantly floating in a dream-like reverie. Apparently …
EP/Track: Fragile Animals – Only Shallow
South East Queensland’s Fragile Animals have recently released their new EP, ‘Only Shallow’ and it is an absolute shimmering delight. Infused with a dream-like melancholia and an antithetical summer sheen, this band has all the genetic makeup of classic shoegaze, but has evolved this into their own unique style. There is a developing sound from …
Live: Fontaines D.C. at Gorilla, Manchester on 13 April 2019
Fontaines D.C. have just finished their first major tour across Europe, a tour that essentially was off the back of a couple of outrageously good singles last year and at pessimistically smaller venues. It was sold out everywhere. The Gorilla in Manchester, sold out this night, has a capacity of up to 700 punters. In …
Album Review: Barrie – Happy to be Here
Barrie’s single “Tal Uno”, released last year, was for me one of the stand out singles of 2018 (along with Fontaines D.C.’s ‘Boys in the Better Land’). Their follow up singles, off the EP ‘Singles’ further enhanced my love of the band. Smooth clean jangly psych pop with the most elegant harmonies and the indelible. …
Track: Ride – Future Love plus Tour News
The legendary Ride have just released a new single – Future Love – off their forthcoming album ‘This Is Not A Safe Place’ due out on 16 August 2019. And as an added bonus, Ride have announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand after a 25 year absence thanks to SBM Presents. ‘Future Love’ …
New Track: The Raft – Xanadu plus album news
Xanadu, the new single from Liverpool’s highly talented The Raft is absolute shoegaze gold with a scouse glint that recalls all the pure pop glories of Ian Broudie’s The Lightning Seeds and an alumni of merseyside pop. The brainchild of Phil Wilson, The Raft has been an incredibly prolific source of shimmering glory – see …
New Tracks: Barrie – Clovers/Darjeeling plus album and tour news
Barrie produced, for me, one of the stand out singles of 2018, Tal Uno – a perfect slice of pop heaven from the EP ‘Singles’. They have now announced a much anticipated album – ‘Happy to be Here’ due for release on 3 May 2019 as well as a tour that will take them across …
New Track: The Double Happiness – There’s No Place Like Nundah
Cloaked with the faded robes of nostalgia, a peon to the glories of an old forgotten Brisbane, the new single from the quite frankly glorious The Double Happiness is a crystalline reverb-soaked wash of melancholia. It captures the remembrance of the past over a clickety-clack spine that echoes the trams so missed in the lyrics. …
New Track: Fontaines D.C. – Big, Plus Album and tour news
The stupendous Fontaines D.C. are back with a blistering new single, “Big”. It may clock in at a warp speed of 1 minute and forty-five seconds yet it is, no exaggeration, safeguarding the future of intelligent, dirty rock’n’roll. “Big” is swaggering punk poetry at its best, continuing a line of brilliant singles released by the …
New Track: Greta Stanley – Kick
Last year we reviewed a single from Queensland’s Greta Stanley off her marvelous debut album ‘Fully Grown” and now she’s back with a new gorgeous single, “Kick”. Stanley’s vocals are languorous, velvety and smooth as she croons over a surprisingly electronic thumping spine.”Kick” is an extremely seductive pop song about surviving dark times. Stanley says …