Small Black : Limits Of Desire

It almost feels ridiculous to be talking about chillwave in 2013, but it’s hard to describe Small Black without dropping the c-bomb. Having arrived in 2009 with their self-titled, bedroom-recorded...
music review
Savages : Silence Yourself Posted 23 May 2013 @ 2:08pm 123 views 0 comments The period where punk crossed over into post-punk yielded some intense, exciting music and London’s Savages mine that particular vein with gusto. While their sound is a powerful, stark lurch for the jugular, their love of director John Cassavetes helps to place them firmly into the more art-house camp of post-punk. (The fiery single Husbands is named after Cassavetes’ 1970 film and the lines of...
Iggy And The Stooges : Ready To Die Posted 23 May 2013 @ 1:44pm 102 views 0 comments “It’s not great, but it’s not as bad as The Weirdness,” remarked a friend the other week, when the subject of Iggy And The Stooges’ new album, Ready To Die came up. This was damning with faint praise to Dante’s seventh level of hell. The Weirdness was, at best, a conceded pass, a frustratingly flawed record stripped clean of any lingering artistic merit by Iggy’s ambivalent performance (though,...
Standish/Carlyon : Deleted Scenes Posted 22 May 2013 @ 11:08am 196 views 0 comments Tom Carlyon and Conrad Standish deviate from their past work in The Devastations and venture into lush, Lynchian territory for their debut album as Standish/Carlyon. It’s more on the level of HTRK, but with a wink and nudge to lighter, retro sounds. HTRK’s Jonnine Standish jumps in for lead vocals on Deleted Scene’s third track and they are notably less bone-crushing than the intonations on her...
Buried Feather : Buried Feather Posted 21 May 2013 @ 2:52pm 317 views 0 comments The restorative beauty of psychedelic music resides in its sonic elasticity and spiritual qualities. With life increasingly constructed by artificial deadlines, vacuous social media conversations and false political consciousness, psychedelia provides a window into a world where stuff comes in colours, where riffs bend around corners, where the sonic world comes to life in all its textural glory...
The Dillinger Escape Plan : One Of Us Is The Killer Posted 21 May 2013 @ 2:40pm 140 views 0 comments Woe betide the genre named after the worst kind of homework. "Mathcore" elicits as many cringes as it does exaltations from those in the know. An outer layer of maths let alone a core would send most scurrying away fast as legs can carry them. The Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP) is the band for which the title is "derived" and on this, their fifth record sees DEP's evolution best served by a step...
The Cat Empire : Steal The Light Posted 17 May 2013 @ 1:00pm 398 views 0 comments This is the sixth studio album from Melbourne's-own Cat Empire, and the first as an independent release.  Almost ten years on from the debut which featured the massive hits Hello and Days Like These, the band have had a huge amount of success at home, in Europe and across the globe.   Steal The Light is a pretty enjoyable record, led by excellent opening track and lead single Brighter...
Wire : Change Becomes Us Posted 17 May 2013 @ 12:56pm 165 views 0 comments Since 1976, English band Wire have confounded expectations by doing everything they can to avoid easy categorisation. Their expertly executed albums have embraced everything from spiky punk to deliciously strange experimental music. On the intelligent Change Becomes Us, Wire demonstrates that they have lost none of their wilful eclecticism and fierce artistry. Opening salvo Doubles & Trebles...
Underground Lovers : Weekend Posted 17 May 2013 @ 12:50pm 143 views 0 comments Underground Lovers achieved a degree of fame in Melbourne with their electronic groove music before it all slowly dried up and they disappeared. Save for a 'best off' compilation last year the band members have worked on separate projects and eked out their own carreers since. Seemingly, the Underground Lovers were laid to rest. No so! "Weekend" sees the reincarnation of the cherished Leaves Me...
Prudence Rees-Lee : Court Music From The Planet Of Love Posted 17 May 2013 @ 10:02am 202 views 0 comments An album called Court Music From The Planet Of Love featuring a song with the title Come All Ye Fair And Tender Maidens should give you a clue as to the type of sounds you’ll hear in Prudence Rees-Lees’ alternative reality. Despite its melody echoing The Bangles’ Eternal Flame, otherworldly opening song The Way leads the listener into a mysterious far-off land, after which you’ll either shrug...
MS MR : Secondhand Rapture Posted 14 May 2013 @ 3:13pm 208 views 0 comments So there are a few pretty mammoth albums coming out at the moment and, rightfully so, people are excited. But really, this week, the debut album from  MS MR, Secondhand Rapture, deserves a bucket load of attention. After causing a stir with the release of their EP Candy Bar Creep Show, as well as a pile of TV and film syncs (Pretty Little Liars, Foxtel’s ad for their 2013 programming...
Daft Punk : Random Access Memories Posted 14 May 2013 @ 1:35pm 694 views 1 comment You can hear it faintly in the cosmic wash of Contact, the closing statement of Daft Punk’s impossibly hyped return to the studio LP. After 70-odd minutes of anachronistic disco excavation and vintage tonal worship, the first instance of something resembling a solid house beat rises from the primordial supernova. It’s an affront, a bold challenge, to the kingdom of EDM which so reigns globally...
Gay Paris : The Last Good Party Posted 14 May 2013 @ 1:29pm 193 views 0 comments Sydney's Gay Paris are probably one of the few rock acts who are thrown out of cramped dive bars before punters do. Like their Motörhead-ed ancestors, heavy guitar fans will be at odds trying to claim them as their own. Gay Paris was born with the black heart of hardcore punks, the soul of muddy bluesmen and brandish the muscle-bound arms of metal. It's dirty, filthy, sleazy rock n' roll kick-...
Wintercoats : Heartful Posted 13 May 2013 @ 4:41am 147 views 0 comments While listening to this six-track collection you wouldn’t be shunned for assuming it’s made up of several exceptionally talented musicians. In fact, it’s the work of only one man – multi-instrumentalist and composer James Wallace.   For his third EP release, Melbourne’s ambient orchestral pop producer returns with more signature delicate melodies and spacious arrangements.  ...
Paramore : Paramore Posted 13 May 2013 @ 4:37am 140 views 0 comments On this, their fourth album, American three-piece rock act Paramore seem to be making an attempt to make themselves ‘indefinable’, or ‘uncategorisable’. For the most part, they're making a pretty good fist of it.   There is, indeed, no easy convenient box to put this band into. They remain an enigma. Across the course of a very epic 17 tracks, they cover powerful rock, No Doubt style ska,...
James Blake : Overgrown Posted 9 May 2013 @ 11:46am 244 views 0 comments James Blake has been renowned for his simple, yet heart-wrenching music. The development of his second studio album Overgrown sees Blake creating stronger narratives and structure throughout all ten tracks. He places more importance on a linear progression with his vocals on the album, than with his previous work on his self-titled debut. The dewy, electronic gospel-folk laden songs are...
Depeche Mode : Delta Machine Posted 9 May 2013 @ 11:40am 215 views 0 comments Delta Machine, Depeche Mode’s 13th album, marks the end of an era, Depeche Mode’s trilogy of LPs alongside producer Ben Hillier complete. Their working relationship has culminated in a potent finale, Delta Machine an engrossing release.   Typically, Delta Machine is a long, winding record of gothic electronica, mutating from track to track in captivating fashion. Opener Welcome To My World...
Primal Scream : More Light Posted 8 May 2013 @ 10:57am 383 views 0 comments If you’d suggested to Bobby Gillespie 20 years ago that Primal Scream would be releasing a new record in 2013, you’d probably have been greeted with a slurred collage of abstract metaphorical images that ranged from Lewis Carroll to Julian Cope to Keith Richards. Then with an impish giggle and a flash of his beady eyes, Gillespie would disappear into a distant cognitive light known only to those...
Deerhunter : Monomania Posted 7 May 2013 @ 2:59pm 253 views 0 comments “Finding the fluorescence in the junk” is the first line sneered by Bradford Cox on the new Deerhunter album and it sums up the qualities of this body of work well. Monomania is a well-timed change of tack for Deerhunter, sitting somewhere between the raw intensity of their near-forgotten debut Turn It Up Faggot and the lo-fi solo melodies of Cox’s Atlas Sound recordings. It’s a seamless run of...
Beaches : She Beats Posted 7 May 2013 @ 2:50pm 368 views 0 comments People that didn’t get into Beaches the first time around tended to write them off as less than the sum of their constituent parts. Formed from members of Panel Of Judges, Love Of Diagrams and Spider Vomit, their Mistletone debut lacked the lilting playfulness of the first band, the frenetic urgency of the second and the unpolished rawness of the third.   The band's second album has been...
The Stevens : The Stevens Posted 2 May 2013 @ 11:51pm 237 views 0 comments At this point, a Chapter release is pretty close to a sure thing: it’s gonna be endearingly sloppy, it’s gonna jangle (hard), and it’s probably gonna be pretty damn good. On their self-titled EP, Melbourne four-piece The Stevens do nothing to upset the trend.   Whether this is a good thing or not is another matter entirely. Given the limitations of dole-wave, Melbourne jangle or whatever...
Shortfall : Falling Awake Posted 2 May 2013 @ 11:44pm 237 views 0 comments Melbourne five-piece Shortfall are a quality rock band. When I say ‘rock’ band I mean in line with the kind of rock bands that people who don’t go to Soundwave would call punk. There are elements of the late great proto-punk band Thursday in Shortfall’s sound.   What really draws your attention to the band’s debut EP is their execution – it is so tight. Reminiscent of punk crossover legends...
Frank Turner : Tape Deck Heart Posted 2 May 2013 @ 8:25am 266 views 0 comments This reviewer’s had a myriad of reasons to steer clear of Frank Turner. All of those involve various songs/records/gigs of his being ruined by the memory of some terrible person or another. In the interest of adulthood, I am now choosing to black out those blotches on memory in order to recover a love that was once lost.   Recovery being the key word, and – incidentally –  the opening...
Caveman : Caveman Posted 2 May 2013 @ 8:21am 216 views 0 comments One of last year’s most underrated albums, for me, was Caveman’s debut, CoCo Beware. It didn’t get a lot of press and when it did, the reviews were middling. I could understand the criticisms of the Brooklyn band’s debut, which played it a little safe and might easily be written off as a nice but mild listen. The lack of dynamics in their music can make for an underwhelming experience at first,...
The Living Eyes : The Living Eyes Posted 1 May 2013 @ 7:12am 816 views 3 comments Radio Birdman guitarist and principal songwriter Deniz Tek’s fascination with the imagery of eyes derived in part from a book he read, in which a pair of eyes watched over the evolving world; the body had left this mortal earth, but the eyes continued to see and observe.    To extrapolate the idea to The Living Eyes might not be as far as conceptual leap as you might think: the proto-r...
Bring Me The Horizon : Sempiternal Posted 30 Apr 2013 @ 12:23pm 219 views 0 comments On their Wiki, this British band is described as a ‘metalcore’ band. This doesn’t really do them justice. For better or worse, these guys are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, and they take that even further on this, their fourth album.   This album lurches from one style of heavy music to another, often in the one song. From straight out metal, thrash and the aforementioned...
Akron/Family : Sub Verses Posted 30 Apr 2013 @ 12:08pm 205 views 0 comments Here’s a fun game: listen to Akron/Family’s sixth album Sub Verses and then come up with a genre description. Country digi-psych? Heartland electro-prog? Sludge-gospel? At a pinch, you might describe it as The Band-style Americana and bad-trippin’ psych, fused with the sensibilities of Williamsburg indie. Believe it or not, the album that results from this seemingly terrible idea is actually...
Yeah Yeah Yeahs : Mosquito Posted 26 Apr 2013 @ 7:56am 422 views 0 comments If we are going to be honest with ourselves here, Yeah Yeah Yeahs were always a singles band. How many of you can honestly say that you still listen to Fever To Tell start to finish? How many of you usually just skip to Maps before going to Show Your Bones to play Gold Lion? Thought so.   With this in mind, the band recruited demigod James Murphy to help produce their forth LP,...
The Growl : What Would Christ Do?? Posted 26 Apr 2013 @ 7:52am 298 views 0 comments Fremantle six-piece, The Growl, have undertaken a subterranean exploration of all that is dingy and dark. The result? An incredible and diverse debut album in What Would Christ Do??.   They’ve been cited as one of the Australian acts to watch in 2013 by NME, and have only recently come to the end of their USA/Canadian tour supporting the fuzzy goodness of Tame Impala. Cam Avery, the voice...
The Flaming Lips : The Terror Posted 26 Apr 2013 @ 7:48am 290 views 0 comments The best way to understand The Terror is to completely disassociate yourself from the band you know responsible for She Don’t Use Jelly or even Do You Realize? This is a band that for years after the commercial success of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is continuing to find reasons to exist, both musically and existentially.   It helps that Wayne Coyne pretty much has creative carte...
Cold War Kids : Dear Miss Lonelyhearts Posted 24 Apr 2013 @ 6:13pm 376 views 0 comments Dear Miss Lonelyhearts opens with a punch. Miracle Mile is an outstanding track, pounding drums and thumping piano pulse away under lead singer Nathan Willett’s soaring vocals, the whole effect is very Florence And The Machine. It sounds, right up the front, like they are looking for their big radio hit. This album, the band’s fourth, contains that idea as an undercurrent for most of its playing...