Meet: We chat with Jez Williams from Doves about Northern Soul, getting the band back together and the new album, plus we review ‘The Universal Want’
The new album from Doves, ‘The Universal Want’ is a blistering rebirth from the Mancunian band. It’s much more than a return to form – their previous albums were uniformly brilliant – but there is a sense of identifiable development and growth in the intervening eleven years since ‘Kingdom of Rust’ was released. Songs such …
See: Even As We Speak release poignant video for ‘Leaves’
‘Adelphi’, the new album from Sydney’s magnificent Even As We Speak has been further bolstered by an absolutely beautiful video for the track ‘Leaves’. A golden thread throughout the album is the theme of the transience of life and our own mortality. And yet this is a band that was born in the eighties and …
Track: Garsa releases the wistful track Ghosts
Garsa is essentially the solo work of Martin Garside who is the maestro of low-fi and beautifully expressed indie pop – veering between a delicate folk strum and a subtle electronic bedrock. The new single, ‘Ghosts’ emphatically continues this thread: it is a testament to strong and impassioned song-writing that floats on ethereal melodies. And, …
Track: Kitten Heel – Needs to Go
Hailing from the industrial port of Wollongong, south of Sydney, the new single from Kitten Heel is a far from that gritty imagery as you can get. ‘Needs to Go’ is a bright, bubbly slice of sunshine that has a dreamy pace and delicate fragility about it. This is very much a synth-centric track that …
News: The Bats announce new album and release single
Legendary and seminal New Zealand band The Bats have made an official announcement of the release of a new album entitled ‘Foothills’ to be released through Flying Nun Records on 13 November 2020. To mark this auspicious occasion, The Bats have released a single, ‘Warwick’, as a very delicious taste of what is to come. …
Premiere: Key Out releases video for haunting single ‘Buildings’ plus list top ten influences
Key Out are a phenomenal Sydney band – I recently rated their brilliant album ‘Anthropomorphia‘ a well deserved nine out of ten. Backseat Mafia is therefore utterly delighted to premiere Key Out’s new double sided single consisting of the opening track from the album, ‘Buildings’ as well as a remix of earlier single ‘Chorus’. ‘Buildings’ …
News: Elvis Costello reveals new album ‘Hey Clockface’ plus releases new single.
The legendary Elvis Costello has confirmed his welcome return to the music scene with the announcement of a new album ‘Hey Clockface’ on 30 October 2020 as he releases a new single ‘We are All Cowards Now’. Of the album itself, Costello says: I wanted the record to be vivid, whether the songs demanded playing …
Meet: We chat to Salarymen plus review their sparkling single ‘Runaway’
Out of the depths of a Sydney winter (a rather benign concept, I admit), Salarymen have released an absolutely delightful ray of sunshine in the form of the single ‘Runaway’. Infused with a dappled sunlight aura and recalling the kind of hedonistic joie de vivre epitomised by the swinging sixties in the form of Serge …
Album Review: Sons of Southern Ulster – Sinners and Lost Souls
It would be hard to talk about the new album from Sons of Southern Ulster and not to reference the currently exploding Fontaines D.C. – the same vein is gloriously plowed: Irish punk poetry wrapped in a visceral anger and melody. Given Sons of Southern Ulster’s debut album ‘Foundry Folk Songs) came out in 2016 …
EP: Johnny Hunter – Early Trauma plus tour news
‘Early Trauma’, the new EP from Sydney’s Johnny Hunter is quite simply brilliant. It is a sweeping, cinematic and statuesque release filled with five close to perfect pop songs that have theatricality and pomp and an elegance, leavened by a satisfying post-punk gothic darkness. Bowie-esque vocals swerve into a Joy Division sombreness and Bryan Ferry …