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Track: Sydney’s power pop maestros The Nature Strip return to the fray with a bit of essential ‘Surgery’ and a launch gig.
It’s been a while since The Nature Strip brightened our world with their brand of quirky, intelligent power pop (last seen back in 2018 with the EP ‘Past Pacific’, reviewed by me here). In the intervening time, however, they haven’t really left us at all – John Encarnacao’s Warmer project and Pete Marley’s Marveline project …
Track: Sydney’s Steve Smith unleashes a vibrant slice of Americana power pop in ‘Runnin’ Red Lights’
Steve Smith has a lot of very impressive form in Sydney’s indie scene, stretching right back to his early solo career (as Steven Smith) with the famous Green Fez/Citadel Records in the eighties and membership of Catherine Wheel. More recently, Smith has released a series of lauded albums that has seen him move towards a …
Backseat Downunder: Favourite Releases from Australia/New Zealand in 2020
Last week Backseat Mafia released its Top Fifty Albums of 2020 – a incredibly rich and diverse list of albums from across a wide range of writers with different tastes and a huge spread of genres; a magnificent task delivered well. At the end of a particularly challenging year, I wanted to highlight the outstanding …
Feature: The 50 best albums of 2020
Well, it’s been a bit of a year, hasn’t it? Global pandemics, George Floyd, environmental issues, terrorism, dissatisfaction with those in charge, not least in the ongoing (it seems) fallout from the American Presidential election. None of that has stopped artists from all persuasions and genres making some fantastic music over the last 12 months. …
Album Review: The Finalists release their warm and enveloping debut album First
Sydney supergroup The Finalists have just released their debut album ‘First’ and it is a delight. Nine tracks that feature the most jangling and sparkling of guitars – six strings, twelve strings, acoustic and electric – that form a superb bedrock for a collection of deeply personal songs that are heartfelt and passionate, raw and …
Premiere: The Finalists – ‘Ignore All The Hate (On Your Telephone)’
We are proud to premiere the debut single ‘Ignore All The Hate (On Your Telephone’ from yet another talented bunch of Sydney musicians, The Finalists. Sydney is fertile ground indeed at the moment for a particular style of extraordinarily talented inner city bands of, shall we say, a more mature vintage. Whether it be bands …
Album Review: Warmer – Wooden Box with Strings
Warmer is the project of Nature Strip’s John Encarnacao – Backseat reviewed their last EP, Past Pacific, back in 2018. More recently the other main songwriter in The Nature Strip, Pete Marley, released ‘Savoury-toothed Tiger’ under the name Marveline which I reviewed last last month. With the release of Warmer’s new album ‘Wooden Box with …