album review
Album Review: Lutruwita’s Meres unveil the excoriating and blistering sonic tornado of debut ‘WORRIED SICK’
Meres, fronted by the enigmatic and creative force of Mary Shannon (also in the magnificent Dvrkworld) have just released their debut album ‘WORRIED SICK’ and it has the sonic effect of a tornado with its scything guitars and explosive delivery. It is a far stretch from the more languid shoegaze approach of Dvrkworld, filled with …
Album Review: ‘I Love What We Do’ – It’s Geoffrey O’Connor’s world and we are delighted to be immersed in his luscious sonic romanticism.
Geoffrey O’Connor creates a world of breathlessly beautiful chamber pop, rich and luscious with an infectious sensibility that takes its genesis from the sixties – a sort of Burt Bacharach/Max Bygraves/Frank Sinatra world, mixed with a contemporary Pulp/Lightning Seeds theatricality via ABC. ‘I Love What We Do’ is like a theme park filled with love …
Album Review: Mess Esque’s ‘Jay Marie, Comfort Me’ is an epically beautiful and assured album, released ahead of Australian and European dates.
Mess Esque, the collaboration between Helen Franzmann (McKisko) and Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Tren Brothers), follow up on their self-titled debut 2021 album (reviewed by me here) with the astronomically beautiful ‘Jay Marie, Comfort Me’. Released through Drag City Records and Remote Control Records, it’s a stunning collection of dreamy shimmering tracks that glow in the firmament. From …
Premiere: Naarm electronic shoegazers Double Happiness gives us an exclusive listen to their thrilling debut album ‘Derealisation’ – a deliciously dark gothic delight.
Not to be confused with Brisbane surfgaze band The Double Happiness, Double Happiness is the work of Naarm/Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist Sam Jemsek and we are ever so pleased to be able to premiere the debut album ‘Derealisation’. ‘Derealisation’ is a dark gothic delight that hums over a throbbing electronica that courses through its sonic veins. …
Album Review: Release the bats – Infinity Broke are rampaging through the cities with their excoriating, thrilling new album ‘This Masthead’.
It’s hard coming up with enough new superlatives to accurately describe an Infinity Broke album. Inevitably epithets and phrases such as contained chaos come to mind, along with freight trains careering out of control, sonic explosions, disturbances in the cosmos, mind shattering shards of metal. It’s enough to suggest that you should ensure any sound …
Album Review: End Scene declare ‘I Will Not Live Safe, I Will Live True’ in an album filled with beauty, self reflection and passion.
End Scene highly impressed us with their debut album ‘All My Ghosts‘ way back in 2021 and they are back with the expansive journey that is ‘I Will Not Live Safe, I Will Live True’: a true declaration of intent that permeates every note. The album comes from the fevered imagination of James Jennings whose literary …
Album Review: ‘After The Flood’ is a magnificent collaboration between legends Ed Kuepper and Jim White that glows with a passion.
Following a thrilling tour last year between the two icons of Australian indie music, Ed Kuepper and Jim White have released ‘After The Flood’ on 21 March through Remote Control Records. Kuepper has also announced an extensive solo tour across Australia – his first solo gigs in five years following a series of gigs with a full band and with …
Album Review: Haters debut with ‘Non-Violent’ – a raw and abrasive delight that soars with passion and melody.
In the words of a poetic messiah, haters are going to hate, but here at Backseat Mafia’s antipodean outpost we love the new album ‘Non-Violent’ from Queensland’s indie punk band Haters. Recorded in Ontario, Canada with Cancer Bats founding member Scott Middleton, ‘Non-Violent’ is the culmination of a month-long recording blitz that challenged the band …
Album Review: Steve Kilbey & the Winged Heels take ‘The Road To Tibooburra’ – an exquisite dreamy journey through the Kilbey expansive universe.
Ass soon as the anthemic jangles begin in the opening rack ‘Adrift’, you know you are back in the heavenly spheres of Kilbey land: where endless melodies flourish like the greenery after a downpour in the outback desert, and epic instrumentation arcs across the night skies like meteorites. Steve Kilbey & The Winged Heels is …
Album Review: Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Nik Brinkman envelopes us in a shimmering veil of dreamy pop in his sophomore album ‘World Within’.
There is a dreamy heartbreakingly beautiful shimmer to the new album from Aotearoa/New Zealand artist Nik Brinkman that glows like the stars over the expansive southern hemisphere skies. Brinkman last blew us away here at Backseat Mafia back in 2021 with his debut album ‘Secret Stairs’ (see my review here) and in the intervening time has …