Track: Coalfalls – Coalfalls/Stephenson Street
The challenge that instrumental bands have is being able to evoke images and ideas without words – and bands like Mogwai and (for the older readers) The Durutti Column are prime examples of such bands that have been able to deliver. Coalfalls (from Ipswich near Brisbane, Australia) would appear to be well on track, so …
Track: Jack Bratt – Spades
Jack Bratt is a Brisbane performer who has recently received the prestigious Grant McLennan Fellowship jointly funded by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Australian Performing Rights Association. Founded in 2007 in honour of the late Queensland singer-songwriter and co-frontman of The Go-Betweens, Grant McLennan, the Fellowship offers the recipient an opportunity to …
Track: Dip Road Dogs – Lazy
Country Victoria has produced the geographically dispersed but very much together Dip Road Dogs with their new single ‘Lazy’. ‘Lazy’ has a slow burning tone with sweeping strings and crisp jangly guitars that immediately recalls The National or Tindersticks with an inherent Australian laconic delivery. A reflective, self-deprecating sense of humour in the lyrics augments …
Album Review: Pilotcan – No More Shan Goodbyes
Edinburgh’s Pilotcan has just released their fifth album ‘No More Shan Goodbyes’ and it is an absolute delight. Bringing together elements of nineties low-fi simplicity with a touch of eighties pop grunge, the common thread is a bunch of haunting, wistful intelligent songs. Of the album, front man Keiron Mellotte notes that he was writing …
Video: The Lovetones – Modern Life is Killing Me
We are huge fans of Sydney band The Lovetones and recently published a glowing review of their new album as well as an interview with the enigmatic singer/songwriter Matthew J Tow. In the midst of universal lockdown, The Lovetones have released a trippy psych-infused video for the song ‘Modern Life Is Killing Me’ with its …
Track: An Early Bird – One Kiss Broke The Promise
Backseat Mafia have been ardent supporters of Stefano De Stefano ever since reviewing his first band Pipers back in our early days in 2014, through to his debut album ‘Of Ghosts and Marvels’ under the name An Early Bird reviewed by us in 2018. De Stefano has developed quite a presence in Italy where he …
Track: Einstürzende Neubauten – Ten Grand Goldie
The legendary Einstürzende Neubauten have just released a new track ‘Ten Grand Goldie’ in anticipation of a new album ‘Alles in Allem’ due out on 15 May 2020. And what a song. It is a typically sonic adventure filled with singer Blixa Bargeld’s indie cabaret insouciance style vocals, squeaking, growling, thundering along over the band’s …
Album Review: Cloud Tangle – Kinds of Sadness
There is an imperial, glacial beauty to Cloud Tangle’s new album ‘Kinds of Sadness’ that is breathtaking and euphoric. Cloud Tangle is the work of Brisbane’s Amber Ramsay and it is hard to comprehend that this album was done almost exclusively in Ramsay’s bedroom, bringing to mind another favourite musical genius, Fazerdaze, from New Zealand. …
Album Review: Impulsive Hearts – Cry All The Time
‘Cry All The Time’, the new album from Chicago band romantically named Impulsive Hearts is an instantly adorable release that captures an indie low fi dynamic adorned by brilliantly exotic instrumental flourishes. The album is exemplified by singer Danielle Sines’s gorgeous expressive voice – loaded with yearning and melancholia, melodic and evocative that pours over …
Track – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – She’s There plus album news
Currently one of the most exciting contemporary acts coming out of Australia, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (RBCF) have just released a video for their new single ‘She’s There’ in anticipation of a newly announced sophomore album, ‘Sideways to New Italy’ due on 5 June 2020. RBCF preserves a long line of important and influential Australian …