Tag: "Human voice"

Major Tom And The Atoms : The House That Love Built
0 Comments. 613 Views. Posted 4 Apr 2012 @ 11:11am.
  Fronted by ex-Little Red singer ‘Major’ Tom Hartney, Major Tom And The Atoms peddle a dense, energetic kind of soul rock that features a very unapologetic saxophone and some lusty female backing singers. It isn’t bad – Tom has a gritty, whomping vocal style and the song has some neat dynamic shifts – but they are more like a hip wedding band than an exciting new music project. Unlike, for... Read More
Venus Fire : The Sound
0 Comments. 824 Views. Posted 4 Apr 2012 @ 10:40am.
  A lackluster debut from local singer Hayley Clare, who attempts to model herself after Kimbra and Florence Henderson with neither their vocal power nor musical creativity. The instrumental parts on this single have that thin, pre-fab Garage Band quality and while Hayley can probably sing, what she does with her voice here is plodding and dull, in a dead pocket between the atmospheric... Read More
36th Port Fairy Music Festival @ Port Fairy
0 Comments. 2,250 Views. Posted 27 Mar 2012 @ 12:53pm.
  As always the fantastic Port Fairy Folk Festival was jam-packed with so many interesting acts that it was hard work trying to see everything. Our weekend began with the Cat Empire’s Harry James Angus who proved to be an engaging solo performer and Tinpan Orange who nailed some truly amazing vocal harmonies on Bottle of Whiskey. The shuddering life-affirming funk of The Bamboos provided a... Read More
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
0 Comments. 1,143 Views. Posted 2 Mar 2012 @ 9:08am.
  While the abundance of collaborations and side-projects he's been involved with over the last twenty years may suggest otherwise, there's a peculiar consistency to the work of Will Oldham.  Usually filed under alt-country (though Southern Gothic would be nearer the mark), Oldham's music – whether recorded as Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Will Oldham or his most enduring moniker,... Read More
Cat & Spoon : In My Pocket
0 Comments. 792 Views. Posted 25 Jan 2012 @ 3:36pm.
  That isn’t the voice I expected. The gentle ripples of acoustic guitar that launch In My Pocket are overly familiar - the light, lilting gestures that usually precede a kittenish female folk singer. Not in this case though. The voice that breathes over these romantic guitar notes is rough and masculine, closer to Tom Waits than Julia Stone. It’s a pleasing kind of dissonance, softened in... Read More
Van Halen : Tattoo
0 Comments. 795 Views. Posted 18 Jan 2012 @ 2:09pm.
          Next month, Van Halen will release their first album with singer David Lee Roth since their 1984 album,1984. I’m going to say no. No to the humourless Eddie Van Halen guitar solo, and especially no to Dave’s disturbing old man efforts to sing in that shitty, dilapidated head voice, which is the first thing former '80s hair metal singers lose, right before... Read More
Twin Sister : In Heaven
0 Comments. 1,533 Views. Posted 21 Dec 2011 @ 9:14am.
In Heaven is the debut LP from Long Island's Twin Sister and it's quite a poppy affair. Following on from their 2010 Color Your Life EP - the album has a soft airiness to it which makes the songs seem to drift in and out of one another. There's a similar mood throughout the album, this congruency is effective in part, but the lack of diversity tends to bore me a little. The production is very... Read More
Kate Bush : 50 Words For Snow
0 Comments. 2,489 Views. Posted 14 Dec 2011 @ 8:31am.
Kate Bush is the only female artist to have had an album in the top five UK album charts during each of the last five decades. This impressive feat is testimony to the success of her eclectic musical style; however her tenth studio album 50 Words For Snow limits perhaps her greatest asset - her idiosyncratic voice.   The album consists of seven tracks, all of which range from seven to 15... Read More
Heaven The Axe : Sex Chugs & Rock 'n' Roll
0 Comments. 5,236 Views. Posted 6 Dec 2011 @ 10:39am.
This band is an intoxicating mix. Take a hot blonde lead singer, surround her with big ugly blokes who just happen to be some of the best heavy music instrumentalists in the country, throw in a bunch of supercharged hard rock to metal tunes and you have the beast that is Heaven the Axe. The band features former members of legendary Aussie acts The Amenta, Damaged, The Berzerker and more, so... Read More
Single Of The Week - Josh Pyke Ft. Katy Steele : Punch In The Heart
0 Comments. 1,530 Views. Posted 30 Nov 2011 @ 9:15am.
How's this for a genius opening line: "I feel you love like a punch in the heart." Josh and Katy's voices sit beautifully together, too - his milky and high, in a masculine way, hers higher and breathier, girlish but seductive. They don't need much more than that and they don't use much more than that, just two singers, subtle harmony and sharp, aching lyrics. Beautiful. Read More
Saskwatch : Don’t Wanna Try
0 Comments. 958 Views. Posted 23 Nov 2011 @ 10:35am.
A breezy bit of soul from Melbourne’s Saskwatch, with cool horn parts and an understated vocal by Nkechi Anele. She has a round, natural R ‘n’ B voice and the song feels effortless and authentic. Read More
Geoffrey O'Connor - Friday November 4, Northcote Social Club
0 Comments. 1,114 Views. Posted 15 Nov 2011 @ 2:09pm.
The Northcote Social Club band room is hard to fill at the best of times, but the kids are out in full force tonight to support Crayon Fields frontman turned electro lothario - Geoffrey O'Connor. Launching his debut full length Vanity is Forever, O' Connor has built up quite a reputation over the years, his popularity evident by the substantial crowd that has gathered this Friday evening to see... Read More
Jens Lekman : An Argument with Myself
0 Comments. 1,156 Views. Posted 11 Nov 2011 @ 11:08am.
Lekman seems to take his vocal cues from Limahl's Neverending Story. Many of the songs on this EP could accompany the classic film, if only instead of travelling to Fantasia to defeat the nothing with the power of imagination, Bastion had moved to Melbourne to dick around with his friends and figure out if he liked boys or girls. The lyrics cover a symbology that will be familiar to fans... Read More
Snowy Belfast : Stones
0 Comments. 1,213 Views. Posted 9 Nov 2011 @ 3:24pm.
On Stones, Melbourne's Snowy Belfast play a kind of beardless bushranger folk. The recording is a bit flat, but the drums are clearly meant to thunder, the banjo meant to roll ominously. The biggest problem is singer Esther Holt, whose voice is tuneful but dull, a clean and bloodless chorister's voice that is just no good for the dark ambitions of their music. Read More
Kele Feat. Lucy Taylor : What Did I Do?
0 Comments. 1,349 Views. Posted 2 Nov 2011 @ 11:24am.
Kele is due to release a new EP shortly, The Hunter, and this dubious little club track is the lead single. What Did I Do? features Lucy Taylor on lead vocal - she was runner up in a BBC2 competition to find the UK's best chorister, apparently. Kele, meanwhile, is barely audible, providing back-up vocals in the chorus and producing dull beats to match Taylor's super vanilla voice. Bring on the... Read More
Grouplove : Never Trust A Happy Song
0 Comments. 1,554 Views. Posted 20 Oct 2011 @ 9:29am.
September saw the release of Los Angeles quintet Grouplove's debut album Never Trust A Happy Song. With odd up's of cringe-worthy lyrics and cute summer melodies, to the heart-wrenching and despairing downs, Grouplove's debut is not a great piece of work, but an endearing and engaging listen that captures your imagination. Beginning with one of those aforementioned downs is Itchin' On A... Read More
Tom Tom Crew
0 Comments. 1,865 Views. Posted 13 Oct 2011 @ 1:09pm.
A fusion of hip-hop, acrobatics, contortion and incredible drumming skill, Tom Tom Crew is a standout at this year’s Melbourne Festival. A fusion of hip-hop, acrobatics, contortion and incredible drumming skill, Tom Tom Crew is a standout at this year’s Melbourne Festival.   For the most part, this show is a continuous stream of energy that shatters audience’s expectations from the get-go,... Read More
Royal Headache : Royal Headache
0 Comments. 5,701 Views. Posted 5 Oct 2011 @ 8:47am.
Why has the whole Pitchfork thing become such a sticking point for Sydney's Royal Headache? Australian acts such as Beaches, Geoffrey O'Connor, Miami Horror, Muscles, Twerps, and even The Veronicas have experienced far greater levels of exposure through the infamous indie kingmaker (and that's disregarding the 'Monkey pee' 0.0 review of Jet's Shine On). Thing is, nobody actually gave a shit -... Read More
Tiny Ruins
0 Comments. 2,918 Views. Posted 21 Jul 2011 @ 9:44am.
Hollie Fullbrook - aka Tiny Ruins - is most intrigued by individuals who are fearlessly peculiar. Such intrigue exudes charm and diversity into Tiny Ruins' enchanting debut album, Some Were Meant For Sea . A song about balloon-flying priest, Adelir de Carli, and ballet-trained traffic controllers, though, finds an avenue for existential examination amidst its otherworldly realm. "I'm always... Read More
Drop Macumba : Elsewhere
0 Comments. 1,320 Views. Posted 15 Jul 2011 @ 11:27am.
Another Perth act with a flair for the dramatic, Drop Macumba features ex-members of The Silents, Pond and Scotch of Saint James – people who know people in far flung WA. The curiously stark lead vocal warbles through the middle-upper registers favoured by eighties hair rock singers; a sort of cheesy but impassioned power plea. The music is grinding and dark, but in a pedestrian way – the singer... Read More
Wynter Gordon : With The Music I Die
0 Comments. 1,948 Views. Posted 13 Jul 2011 @ 4:16pm.
She smashed through the charts with her gutsy debut single Dirty Talk and then followed it up with another hot number in the sexy Til Death. Her name is Wynter Gordon and she is a force to be reckoned with. Dance one moment, R&B the next, the sexy singing songstress will blow you away with her ethereal voice and playful personality. Her debut album With the Music I Die is an extension of... Read More
Cults : Cults
0 Comments. 1,801 Views. Posted 13 Jul 2011 @ 3:03pm.
Just a hint of the xylophone opening Go Outside by Brooklyn band Cults is trigger enough for it to be stuck in your head for the entire day. It's catchy like the whistle-led Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn & John was; an insistent ear-worm that just won't budge. Hopefully it doesn't outstay its welcome in the same way. For now, it's a tempting lure to the Cults' debut album, which has dropped... Read More
Owl Eyes Raids The Nation
0 Comments. 2,528 Views. Posted 8 Jul 2011 @ 1:41pm.
Rising indie-pop star, and outright stunner, Owl Eyes has announced a nation-wide tour in support of her rad new EP, Raiders. Owl Eyes' stock has been increasingly on the rise since breaking through with a stellar guest-spot on Illy's radio smash It Can Wait, with her heavenly singing voice now a staple of the country's airwaves.   This tour will be her biggest to date, and who knows, it... Read More
Jeff Martain 777 : The Ground Cries Out
0 Comments. 2,292 Views. Posted 27 Jun 2011 @ 10:23am.
Don’t get me wrong, Jeff Martin is a prodigiously talented and credible musician, vocalist and songwriter. A superb producer and performer too (is there anything he can’t do?). But when I listen to his output I can’t shake the feeling that a very large shadow of Led Zeppelin hangs heavily over just about everything he does. Specifically, in the drum sound and groove (for example, the drum beat... Read More
Jeff Martin 777: The Ground Cries Out
0 Comments. 2,536 Views. Posted 14 Jun 2011 @ 2:40pm.
Don’t get me wrong, Jeff Martin is a prodigiously talented and credible musician, vocalist and songwriter. A superb producer and performer too (is there anything he can’t do?). But when I listen to his output I can’t shake the feeling that a very large shadow of Led Zeppelin hangs heavily over just about everything he does. Specifically, in the drum sound and groove (for example, the drum beat... Read More
Tiny Ruins : Little Notes
0 Comments. 1,978 Views. Posted 25 May 2011 @ 12:10pm.
Hollie Fullbrook is a Bristol-born Kiwi from the Waitakere Ranges of west Auckland and a new artist on Spunk. A quiet folk singer with an acoustic guitar and a gummy, Joanna Newsom/Julia Stone kind of voice, she sings about intimate things in an abstract way, blowing dust and leaves around the empty hallways and wintry hilltops of her mind, leaving cryptic notes behind for you to unravel. The... Read More
Karoshi : Sleepwalker
0 Comments. 2,588 Views. Posted 12 May 2011 @ 11:13am.
The debut album from brothers Beres and Dave Jackson - aka Karoshi, which is Japanese for 'death by overwork' - joins a sturdy staple of work by recent Sydney electronica artists. Sleepwalker's melancholic title track features PJ Wolf on vocals and, similar to Ivan Vizintin's appearance on Seekae's Wool, it provides an accessible hook to pull listeners in; the following track, Like Air, is its... Read More
Julia Stone : Catastrophe
0 Comments. 2,374 Views. Posted 15 Feb 2011 @ 1:36pm.
Julia’s got a breezy bit of bap-bah-da going on with this single from her solo album, The Memory Machine. She such a gorgeous girl, and it’s a testament to her crafty lyrics that her baby-ish voice is never cloying. Here, she sings, “Seems like every time we touch, catastrophe awaits us.” Simple idea, delivered with a sweet, light touch. Out Now Via EMI Read More
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