album
Album Review: Infinity Broke swagger out on to the streets with ‘Your Dream My Jail’: a brilliant and visceral coating of indulgent excess and cathartic chaos – plus tour news.
Infinity Broke are a band that does not go gently into the night: their new album ‘Your Dream My Jail’ is an excoriating, driven, thunderous slice of post-punk cake that is angular, studded and visceral. Guitars wail and caterwaul, drums crash like waves on an exposed coast and singer Jamie Hutchings (formerly of nineties indie …
Album Review: Sydney’s Darren Cross (Gerling) creates a little ‘DISTORDER’: a splendid electronic fugue for our dystopian times
Darren Cross is a pillar of the inner city indie scene in Australia: one of those hyperactive artists who never stands still. In the nineties he was in Gerling – a genre-defying iconic indie band that transgressed the boundaries between guitar-based indie rock and electronica. Later as part of Jess and Dep, he delved into …
Album Review: Tunnel Traffic’s elegiac ‘Take my Power’ is a shimmering and immersive work of art
Adam Hachey is a brilliant and underappreciated song writer whose talent has been lauded by Backseat Mafia since almost our inception when he emerged with the band Meesh, creating a genre of what he termed anti-folk. His songwriting is in fact folkish, but with an indie pop sensibility and a more layered and rich approach. …
Album Review: An Early Bird’s beautiful album ‘Diviner’ is a sparkling, romantic journey into the imagination
Milano-based troubadour Stefano De Stefano has been keenly admired by Backseat Mafia since our very birth when we lauded his band Pipers back in 2013 and then his solo stuff under the name An Early Bird. Stefano has shown dedication and passion for his craft throughout the years we have known him: beautifully composed and …
Album Review: Maple Glider’s ‘To Enjoy is the Only Thing’ is a breathtaking debut filled with an exquisite sense of longing and beauty
Maple Glider – the moniker of Melbourne resident Tori Zietsch – has a voice and delivery that is like someone whispering softly in your ear: it’s close and warm and very personal. There is a delicious immediacy to her music – recalling that Danish concept of Hyyge – a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality …
Album Review: Quivers unveil the epic, jangling, melancholy indie pop masterpiece of ‘Golden Doubt’ and announce Australia-wide tour.
Starting in the tiny southern capital of Hobart at the edge of the world before moving, as bands often do, to Melbourne, Quivers have caught global attention with their unique brand of melancholy indie pop: a classic antipodean style of jangling guitars and yearning vocals, burnished a little more brightly than many peers with a …
Album Review: Restless Leg lay out an enticing ‘Dream Buffet’ and announce tour
I’m going to call it right now, and you heard it first here (maybe). I’ve been alluding to it in a number of reviews I’ve written over the past 18 months but there is an emerging movement – let’s call it the Marrickville Sound – that has dominated the indie scene in Australia. Emanating from …
Album Review: Steve Kilbey & the Winged Heels soar into another celestial sphere with double album ‘The Hall of Counterfeits’, plus tour news
It is difficult to comprehend that in the space of a little over twelve months, Steve Kilbey has released three monumental albums under various guises (read my reviews of ‘Chryse Planitia‘ with Gareth Koch, ‘Jupiter 13‘ with Martin Kennedy, ‘Eleven Women‘ as a solo effort). And now Kilbey gifts us the monumental double album ‘The …
Album review: Portico Quartet – ‘Terrain’: a truly reflective journey
PORTICO QUARTET have always been a vibe. Since their formation, in my opinion they’re one of the few instrumental jazz-psyechedelic-electronic bands to live up to that musical blend, and furthermore, they’ve always been able to tell a story. Their latest album, Terrain, actually exceeded all my expectations in that sense, delivering a much more emotionally …
Album Review: Allday’s ‘Drinking With My Smoking Friends’ is an atmospheric masterclass in dreamy, melancholic indie pop
Adelaide born but now Melbourne resident Allday (the moniker of Tom Gaynor) magnificent album ‘Drinking With My Smoking Friends’ has been anticipated by a series of stunning singles that have indicated the presence of a special artist. Known more for rap, this album is a new turn – melodic dream pop that is sparkling. Opening track ‘Void’ is …