Backseat Downunder
Track: Musical prodigy flowerkid’s single ‘Miss Andry’ is an epically beautiful and deeply personal reflection on childhood pain
At only nineteen, Sydney musician flowerkid‘s single ‘Miss Andry’ shows a power and stature way beyond his age. Imbued with a sense of deep pain, there is a sweeping dream pop element that is underpinned by deeply personal struggles evinced in the lyrics and emotive vocals. Flowerkid is the nome de plume of Flynn Sant …
Album Review: Huck Hastings unveils a sparkling and gorgeous album ‘Cheers to Progress’, draped in love, loss, longing and optimism.
Huck Hastings is a Sydney based singer/songwriter whose new album ‘Cheers to Progress’ is a cinematic sweep full of longing, love and loss – a vivid and beautifully expressed series of personal vignettes that are endearing, optimistic and heart-breaking at the same time. This a collection of beautiful personal observations on relationships and love, floating …
Track: Swimsuit Issue unleash dynamic single ‘Addict’ – a brutal and cathartic portraiture of dependence
‘Addict’, the new single by Australian band Swimsuit Issue has a dynamic quiet/loud ethic popularised by the Pixies, mixing a reverb-soaked dreamy reflective verse with an angry blast of thundering guitars in the chorus. The unashamedly and very welcomed Australian diction shines through before the gut-wrenching chorus kicks in. A song about, as the title …
Track: Liam Turner’s ‘Face the Music’ is a laid back cool breeze.
‘Face the Music, from Queensland native and Melbourne resident Liam Turner, is a laid back cool breeze that manages to meld a jazzy, louche air with an indie sensibility. Turner’s musical proficiency is clear with the intricate guitar chords and pacing, but above all he has a voice that delightfully croons and swoops – soft …
Album Review: Underground Lovers surprise again with career collection of B for brilliant B sides in ‘Others’
Not that long after releasing a superb collection of remixes spanning their career (reviewed by me here), Melbournes Underground Lovers have sprung another surprise album on the public entitled ‘Others’. This album has collected seventeen tracks of what are labelled B sides from singles, EPs and giveaways. Given the standard of output by this band, …
Track: Offshore Projects’ new single ‘The Way I Fear’ is a mesmerising indie pop delight.
Sydney singer-songwriter Jonas Nicholls, formerly of indie pop outfit SURES, has continued down this path with the release of the shimmering track ‘The Way I Fear’, under the name Offshore Projects. The chiming, bubbling guitars form a lovely circular and chunky base up on which Nicholl’s voice soars – melancholic and heavenly harmonies form a …
Album Review: DMA’s bottle their indie pop magic into the spectacular ‘Live At Brixton’ Album
DMA’s‘ concert at Brixton this time last year marked the launch into the precipice that was the COVID lockdown. As such, it has achieved a certain iconic status as one of the last big gigs of 2020, and it is now hard to remember the feeling of bouncing cheek by jowl in a heaving hall …
EP: RINSE’s ‘Wherever I Am’ is a glorious and immersive dream pop masterpiece
RINSE‘s new EP ‘Wherever I am Am’ has a magical immersive quality redolent of a warm cotton wool blanket that envelopes and tightly wraps itself around you. Every track is a melodic masterpiece, every track shimmers and every track glitters with a deep dream pop sensibility. RINSE is the solo work of Joe Agius, a …
See: On the day of the release of the brilliant album Jupiter 13, Kilbey and Kennedy issues a video for ‘Rendezvous’
Already for me a strong contender for one of the albums of the year, today sees the release of ‘Jupiter 13’, a spectacular album recently reviewed by me for Backseat Mafia last month. And to mark the occasion, Kilbey/Kennedy have released a video for the track ‘Rendezvous’. The track itself is lush and shimmering – …
Track: A pop punk blast from Sydney’s SoSo delivers the ultimate laconic message: ‘Yeah, Nah’
SoSo aren’t very happy and you can’t really blame them. The News South Wales Government shut down an entire night time subculture in Sydney’s erstwhile good time suburb Kings Cross by banning clubs and pubs from opening late following some random acts of drunken violence. This ultimately lead to a number of iconic music venues …