backseat downunder
See: Brisbane’s Fingerless release an all consuming video for the psychedelic and brilliant track ‘Leaf of Stone’
Featuring a coterie of their Brisbane friends, Fingerless have just released an all consuming video for the track ‘Leaf of Stone’, premiered by us last month. And consumption is certainly the theme as chips are devoured with an intense seriousness (as well as the odd beer). Irreverent, dry and with a tongue firmly planted in …
Track: New Zealand’s Isla Noon releases a piece of yearningly smooth pop with single ‘Talk About Us’.
New Zealander Isla Noon‘s single ‘Talk About Us’ is as perfect as a pop song can be – luscious layers of smooth music and a melody that enamps inside the brain, puts up its feet and sets up residence. All burnished by Noon’s gorgeous yearning vocals that have a greater range than the Southern Alps …
Track: Sydney’s Imperial Broads jangle their way in ‘Control’ with a studied assurance and swagger.
Sydney’s Imperial Broads, on the strength of their new single ‘Control’, are a perfect amalgam of day-glo bubble gum pop and cutting, excoriating gritty indie rock with shabby leather jackets. It’s a delightful mixture: a jangling , ringing, shimmering guitars, muscular wandering bass and celestial layered harmonies with a pop sensibility and euphoric afterglow. The …
Track: Melbourne electronic artist Dull Reality sparks ups the voltage with ‘Daffodil’, the title track to the newly announced debut EP.
With earphones on, ‘Daffodil’ from Melburnian Dull Reality – the solo work of Ben Shields – positively bubbles and snaps from one side of your head to the other – syncopated, arpeggiated popping sonics that massage, confuse and delight the ears. Over the top, Shields’s voice glides, swoops and circulates with melody: a contrapuntal force …
Track: Polymath Geoffrey O’Connor reveals another sumptuous dreamy feast with the enigmatic single ‘What A Scene (featuring Sui Zhen)
Singer/songwriter/producer Geoffrey O’Connor set my radar beeping with his release last month ‘For As Long As I Remember’, the reflective and delicate track featuring the dulcet vocals of Jonnine from the band HTRK as a duet. He has now returned with another blissful sunlit escapade, ‘What A Scene’, this time with Melbourne artist Sui Zhen stepping up to …
Track: Toby Martin (Youth Group) unveils new haunting anthem ‘Linthwaite Houdini’ with hints of Yorkshire brass, and announces new solo album ‘I Felt The Valley Lifting’
Toby Martin is the enigmatic frontman for Sydney’s iconic Youth Group (whose last album ‘Australian Halloween’ was considered by me to be a highlight release of 2019), and he has become ensconced in the village of Slaithwaite in West Yorkshire with his young family. Whereas ‘Australian Halloween’ still bled the inner west of Sydney despite …
Track: Melbourne’s Grazer unveil the dreamy atmospheric double ‘A’ side single ‘Without You’/’Visions’ and announce signing to US label Cascine
Melbourne duo Grazer have released the atmospheric double ‘A’ side single ‘Without You’ and ‘Visions’: both dreamy willowy pieces that positively float and shimmer like a distant mirage in a desert. Consisting of Mollie and Matt, with backgrounds in painting, photography and poetry, Grazer has a dream pop/shoegaze veneer over a pure pop core: dappling, bubbling …
Track: The new psychedelic and sparkling single ‘Floating In Air’ from Monet’s Pond indicates Brisbane’s musical hot spot continues to flourish.
Monet’s Pond – essentially the work of Brigette Lawrence – is adding to the flourishing and verdant music scene in Brisbane, and her new single ‘Floating in Air’ does just that: it’s an ethereal, psychedelic melange of whirling sounds and a sonic haze that seems free of gravitational pull. The swirling panoply of sound creates …
Track: New Zealand shoegaze dream pop queen T.G. Shand delivers another outstanding and sparkling track ‘Lemony’
New Zealand’s elusive T.G. Shand has delivered another gorgeous, muscular dream pop masterpiece with her new track ‘Lemony’. T.G. Shand is the work of Ōtautahi/Christchurch resident Annemarie Duff, formerly of the legendary Melbourne shoegaze band Miniatures (on the iconic Saint Marie Records label). Her single from earlier this year gave us a portent of what was to come (see …
EP Review: Jo Meares revisits the past with the luminescent ‘La Baie de Diamant’, a French language version of his earlier work, the evocative ‘Back to The World’
I’ve written before that Sydney artist Jo Meares has a voice that evokes a life lived to the fullest – tired, weary and battling the endless vicissitudes of life with a stoicism and resolve. And he expresses this in a milieu of impossible beauty and clarity of thought that sends shivers down your spine. Subtle …