Album Reviews

Album Review : New Age Doom & Lee Scratch Perry – Remix The Universe : a daring excavation of The Upsetter’s parting gift.
This is exactly how Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry would have liked it now that he’s left us. Not just commemoration with a stream of inevitable reissues or out-take raids from his archive but something more vibrant, new music with him providing its soul. Dial back to November 2021 when the legendary Upsetter performed as the inspirational …

Album Review: Gena Rose Bruce’s ‘Deep Is The Way’ is an ethereal, majestic triumph. Australian and UK tour dates also announced.
We here at Backseat Mafia have been long time fans of Melbourne-based chanteuse Gena Rose Bruce with her smoky, sultry voice and reverb-inflected laconic style that comes across as a melange of Mazzy Star and P.J. Harvey: a femme fatale with a steely spine cloaked in luscious velvet and a smoldering style. We first noticed her soon …

EP Review: Television Supervision – Mavericks
Orlando punk rockers Television Supervision have just released their brand new E.P ‘Mavericks’.The E.P encapsulates high energy, raw and punk-rock attitudes and an ever growing ambition from theOrlando 4-piece. From the empowering and adrenaline driven ‘Racing to You’ to the atmospheric andheartfelt ‘Cloud’. ‘Mavericks’ displays a band who are fully capable of reigniting the pop-punk …

Album Review: Tuvaband – New Orders
Tuvaband, brainchild of Norwegian songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser has already had her fair share of accolades, including a Norwegian Grammy nomination and a back catalog which has already learnt her other 40 million cumulative streams on Spotify alone. Now back with the etherial, dreamy and at times stunningly beautiful new album …

Dealing With Damage – Use The Daylight
So when this arrived in my inbox just before Xmas, I filed it under “Interesting, check out later”, not really knowing what to expect. Dealing With Damage are a post-punk band from London, formed in 2015, who have spent more of their collective lives than is advisable playing in bands like Sink, Done Lying Down, …

Album Review: trillion unveil a sonic thunderstorm in debut album ‘So Soon Now’.
Sydney five-piece trillion have just released their debut album ‘So Soon Now’ and it’s a thunderstorm of sonic missiles that echoe and reverberate with intent. The genetic code is clear: trillion have a My Bloody Valentine approach to sonic dissonance and aural assault. Deeply satisfying walls of guitars bend and distort, shimmer and catapult, while …

PREMIERE: Strawberry Fuzz kick off 2023 with ‘Dropout’, releasing new album Strongs Dr. tomorrow
Well, that’s one way to start the year. If you’ve been keeping an eye on Los Angeles band Strawberry Fuzz, you’re about to have a very good week. In November, they released the Wasting My Time EP, a sampler from their forthcoming second album. Or rather, imminent second album, because it’s done – and it’s …

Album Review : Lucas Santtana – O Paraiso : Sophisticated samba pop that goes deeper
It seems a long while since Lucas Santtana first pushed to the front of listening lists beyond the Bahia with his first Mais Um releases. The natural flow of his songs, his giddy experimentation and ability to dig the finest grooves may have come as a surprise at the time but with a back story …

Album Review: Difficult Art And Music – bivouac of the avant-garde: an engrossing record of today’s experimental and electronic scene.
In advance of another year of boundary pushing projects, specialist label Difficult Art And Music (DAMM) have just released ‘bivouac of the avant-garde’, their expansive survey of the contemporary experimental fringe. Previously available in digital instalments, the entire collection has now been assembled in a quintessential triple cassette box-set and, as usual with DAMM, the …

EP Review: Jeff Mills – Extension
The quality keeps coming from the one and only ‘Jeff Mills‘, an artist whose work, still to this day, never ceases to enthrall and captivate. AX109 delivers three shades of sublime minimal Techno starting with side A: ‘Rise’, Percussive layers build as ambient sounds simmer underneath, taking us slowly to the surface before calmly ascending …