Backseat Downunder
Album Review: Kilbey/Kennedy release the spectacular album Jupiter 13 – a sci-fi journey cloaked in a psychedelic indie shimmer.
If there was any doubt about the ability of The Church’s Steve Kilbey to eat, sleep and dream brilliant music without limit, this new album with long time collaborator Martin Kennedy is proof. Kilbey is without doubt the hardest working musician in the business – but extraordinarily there is absolutely no dilution of quality. One …
Meet: We put dream pop maestros Heligoland under the microscope and review their shimmering new album This Quiet Fire
Heligoland began life in Melbourne before adventurously packing up and moving to Paris, where they have produced a series of stunning albums and EPs with the production skills of Cocteau Twins luminary Robyn Guthrie adding a certain lustre. Their new album, ‘This Quiet Fire’, has all the hallmarks of classic dream pop music that bears …
Album review: MOAT’s new album Poison Stream is a glorious collection of hybrid indie/folk vignettes that shimmer and shine.
MOAT is a fascinating collaboration between Marty Willson-Piper, founding and former member of iconic Australian band The Church and member of goth band All About Eve, and composer and multi-instrumentalist Niko Röhlcke (Weeping Willows). The former comes from an English/Australian jangling guitar pop background, the latter a composer and Swedish indie band member, and they meet somewhere …
Track: T. G. Shand’s new single ‘The Ease’ is a glorious, woozy, shoegaze delight
‘The Ease’, the new single from T.G. Shand, is an immersive and dreamy soundscape with a shoegaze sheen and a dream pop glimmer. It is absolutely fantastic. T.G. Shand is actually the solo work of Ōtautahi/Christchurch resident Annemarie Duff, formerly of the legendary Melbourne shoegaze band Miniatures (on the iconic Saint Marie Records label). This …
Track: Pete Murray releases anthemic burner ‘If We Never Dance Again’ and announces new EP.
Pete Murray has built an admirable reputation in Australia for his powerful balladry and anthemic pop songs. His new single ‘If We never Dance Again’ maintains the strength of his songwriting and production: a cinematic sweep with drama and emotion and an entire desert’s worth of yearning. Murray says of the song, written in collaboration …
Track: Aussie indie stalwarts Children Collide return with the psychedelic track Trampoline and announce tour and album
Melbourne’s Children Collide are a solid piece of the furniture in the house of indie rock in Australia, producing some of the most enjoyable indie rock/pop over the last ten or so years. They have just announced the welcome news of a new album, the return to the live circuit and the release of a …
Premiere: Blackbirds FC release the gorgeously shimmering single ‘Island of the Dogs’ and announce new album
With a sparkling jangle and a deeply satisfying crunchy rhythm, the new single ‘Island of the Dogs’ by Melbourne band Blackbirds FC is immense and cinematic, and we are proud to premiere this on Backseat Mafia. There is an unmistakable antipodean blood flowing through the veins of this song – drawing in the wide sweeping …
Track: KAI CULT lights a fuse with ‘Cigarette Burns’
With a frenetic pace tilting along at full speed, Melbourne artist KAI CULT‘s new single ‘Cigarette Burns’ is energetic, unhinged and absolutely satisfying. Like a masked antagonist careering through the night with a chainsaw, the music slashes and burns under the band’s disturbed, yelping, laconic vocals. It’s controlled chaos, utterly cathartic with a genetic connection …
Track: MOAT – a collaboration between Marty Willson-Piper (ex The Church) and Niko Röhlcke – releases the brilliant single ‘Helpless You’.
Marty Willson-Piper was a founding member of the legendary Australian band The Church – an iconic and much loved figure with his rock star image, hooped earrings, paisley shirts and Rickenbackers. His was an integral part of the sixties jingle jangle guitar sound that heavily influenced an international movement with bands such as REM. While …
EP Review: New Zealand’s Bitter Defeat launch a veritable rocket with their brilliant EP ‘Minor Victory’
Blasting out with ‘Light That Shines’ is a an appropriate taster of what’s to come from Bitter Defeat‘s new EP ‘Minor Victory’. Lauded by me last year, this is a hyperactive and anarchic track of joy: a new wave pogo-inducing rocket-fueled delight. And what I love about this band is its lack of pretension, a …