Tag: "Vocal music"

Spiritualized : Hey Jane
0 Comments. 509 Views. Posted 11 Apr 2012 @ 2:28pm.
  Hey Jane is a chugging eight-minute track from the seventh album by UK space pop collective Spiritualized. After the first very radio-friendly three minutes – a peppy garage rock ramble – the song becomes more spacious, lighter and somehow more joyful. Layers of guitar and vocal build confidently until singer Jason Spaceman returns like a distorted, warbling choirmaster, leading the song... Read More
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. 823 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
Singing Stories
0 Comments. 392 Views. Posted 26 Mar 2012 @ 12:23pm.
What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than listening to a hand-picked selection of our land’s finest singer-songwriters? Singing Stories is a unique showcase of singer-songwriters featuring musicians from Australia, East Timor, the Pacific and beyond.  Experience the time-old art of storytelling through song, and be moved by the stunning line-up of home-grown talent as they sing... Read More
The Maccabees : Given To The Wild
0 Comments. 970 Views. Posted 8 Feb 2012 @ 10:06am.
  Given To The Wild is the third album by inventive English five-piece band The Maccabees, who are enjoying the heady delights of receiving that rarest of treats: popular success mingled with critical caresses. This atmospheric thirteen-track opus stormed into the Number Four spot on the Official UK Album Chart upon its first week of release and has been praised heartedly by English music... Read More
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy : Wolfroy Goes To Town
0 Comments. 1,048 Views. Posted 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:00pm.
Alt country's other other darling, Will Oldham, returns with new album Wolfroy Goes To Town - his eleventh under the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker. Perhaps because of the familiarity of the players, the production has a laid back and easy played-on-the-porch feel, with Oldham's wavering croak front and centre. Sometimes, like on There Will Be Spring, he is accompanied by nothing... Read More
The Trouble With Templeton : Bleeders
0 Comments. 2,090 Views. Posted 7 Dec 2011 @ 8:07am.
How many kids can you name who, at the ripe age of 21, are delivering troubadour ruminations worthy of the UK's folk heritage? Thomas Calder, the lad behind The Trouble With Templeton, and his chilling folk does just that. Despite hailing from sunny Brisbane, his sincere grain and earnest guitar-plucking is closer to an English singer-songwriter sensibility. If The Trouble With Templeton is the... Read More
Lester The Fierce : The Summer Deluge
0 Comments. 1,789 Views. Posted 25 Nov 2011 @ 12:00pm.
Though still largely unknown, local artist Anita Lester has already done more in her four year career to push the envelope in music and performance than many do in their lifetime. Lester's first exposure was as the singer songwriter of unorthodox acoustic trio Me And The Grownups, a group whose rich fusion of folk melodic sensibility, classical composition and poetic lyrics, was all the richer... Read More
Saskwatch : Don’t Wanna Try
0 Comments. 957 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. 1,113 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
Snowy Belfast : Stones
0 Comments. 1,212 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
The Songs of Nick Drake Announces Third Show
0 Comments. 1,709 Views. Posted 26 Oct 2011 @ 9:27am.
Attention all Nick Drake fans out there: this is one unforgettable evening not to be missed. Curated by Drake’s original producer, Joe Boyd, this remarkable concert brings together renowned contemporary singers that have been touched by Drake’s music, in the least perverted of ways. Amongst the plethora of special guests will be psychedelic pop maverick Robyn Hitchcock, stunning Irish singer... Read More
Grouplove : Never Trust A Happy Song
0 Comments. 1,550 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
Single Of The Week [No.1] - Texture Like Sun : Bottle
0 Comments. 2,256 Views. Posted 12 Oct 2011 @ 2:04pm.
A brooding, snapping roots rock tune from local singer-songwriter Texture Like Sun (real name Mark Pearl). The track features a silky male vocal melody and superb production by Countbounce of TZU, with clever layers of acoustic guitar and banjo, whistling and a punchy rhythm section. Surprisingly good. There's a slick video that goes with this track and Pearl is a total crumpet, in case that's... Read More
The Medics : Beggars
0 Comments. 1,129 Views. Posted 6 Oct 2011 @ 11:36am.
This breathy little track from Cairns-born band The Medics recalls Angus & Julia Stone and maybe a little Josh Pyke. Singer Kahl Wallace gives the song a dreamy, idyllic tone while the boys in the band deliver a bit of tremulous, ticking energy. Not radically interesting but very sweet. Read More
Tydi: Shooting Stars
0 Comments. 1,001 Views. Posted 20 Sep 2011 @ 11:36am.
So here comes the much anticipated debut album from Queensland Trance sensation Tydi. He’s been slowing making his climb up the ranks and this album comes at just the right time. Now this album tends to start off well, with some great pop tracks and the intro track itself is something to behold. But then things are broken up with breaks and score-inspired tracks. If you’re expecting an all-out... Read More
Laura Jean: A Fool Who’ll
0 Comments. 2,125 Views. Posted 15 Sep 2011 @ 11:33am.
Laura Jean’s third album, A fool who’ll, is a little like a Melbourne weather report; ‘dark clouds forming, sunny at times with rain easing’. Just like a day in our wonderful city, this experience is rich and enjoyable. Most notable to the sound of A fool who’ll is Laura Jean’s newly-utilised electric guitar which leads a variety of stringed instruments, horns, well-placed keys and accordion.... Read More
Melodie Nelson: Meditations On The Sun
0 Comments. 1,403 Views. Posted 14 Sep 2011 @ 11:22am.
The stage name Melodie Nelson may be a reference to Serge Gainsbourg but the debut solo effort from Sydney’s Lia Tsamoglou is more the vein of Phil Spector. Waiting is the kind of bleary-eyed introductory song that gently pulls you into the album proper, but there are several other songs on this album that would work as a salute to the sun just as aptly - as the album title suggests, the sun... Read More
The Nighwatchman : World Wide Rebel Songs
0 Comments. 1,116 Views. Posted 7 Sep 2011 @ 4:44am.
It's kind of a shame that the man most responsible for the monumental Rage Against The Machine would tarnish his musical reputation with this. The Nightwatchman just appears to be purely a vehicle for Tom Morello to spruik his personal political and world views, set against the backdrop of some a bit of insipid acoustic guitar-work. Maybe he should take a leaf out of Henry Rollins' book and go on... Read More
Little Dragon : Ritual Union
0 Comments. 2,076 Views. Posted 2 Sep 2011 @ 8:34am.
Ritual Union is the third full-length album from Swedish electronic-happy quartet Little Dragon. 'Less is more' is used in play with Ritual Union. Little Dragon have created an album that despite its scarcity, still maintains a graceful pop sensibly, unforced and weirdly natural.  What is instantly engaging about Ritual Union is the songs are almost naked; every track delicately... Read More
Drop Macumba : Elsewhere
0 Comments. 1,318 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
Oscar + Martin : For You
0 Comments. 1,918 Views. Posted 5 Jul 2011 @ 12:44pm.
Honesty without sensitivity veers dangerously close to being undermining rather than constructive: Oscar + Martin masterfully unite the two. Singing about attempting to win a girl with song could be predictable but Oscar Slorach-Thorn infuses his unique perspective into a habitual topic, divulging insight in humility and open-mindedness, as he does in My Blood. Composed on mostly Casio... Read More
The Potbelleez : Destination Now
0 Comments. 2,672 Views. Posted 1 Jul 2011 @ 10:41am.
So it's been awhile since the last album by The Potbelleez, their first one in fact. Yes, this is the sophomore release for the Bondi Beach based group. And I'll say it was worth the wait. This album delivers in spades, it's all electro pop, but the song writing seems to provide solid ground for the beats to rest upon. Songs like Shake It and Twitch provide some proper dance floor stomping... Read More
The Demon Parade : To The Mountain
0 Comments. 2,256 Views. Posted 20 May 2011 @ 12:11pm.
Another dreamy track from another local four-piece, but leaning here towards country-tinged West Coast psychedelia. It's a worn sound, but they do it well; the lush guitar layers and vocal harmonies on To The Mountain create a warm, drawling, cinematic air. Lyrically, it's all abstract images of distant peaks and amnesiac strangers - a surreal, prog-influenced tapestry. 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
Jimmy Hawk and The Endless Party : Meet Me At The Party
0 Comments. 2,685 Views. Posted 11 May 2011 @ 2:06pm.
Jimmy Hawk reminds of Jens Lekman – his music has a warm, homespun flavour, but his songs are deceptively clever. On the surface, Meet Me At The Party is a slip of an indie pop tune with a very light heart, but the swinging rhythm and the bluesy vocal croon are carefully crafted. Another great song from one of Melbourne’s best. Read More
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