Track: Squid Fishing – Elevator
Melbourne-based band with origins in Hobart, Squid Fishing, have released a new single ‘Elevator’ that perfectly captures a laconic antipodean attitude in a fresh and evocative tone. It’s part punk, part folk and infused with a sense of delicate longing and regret with its unabashed Australian accent and changes in pace. Singer Ethan Groombridge says …
Track: Melenas – Primer Tiempo
‘Primer Tiempo’, the new single from Pamplona, Spain’s power pop garage band Melenas, is a panacea for our weird pandemic world. It is a synth-driven piece of pop perfection that bounces and gambols along seemingly without an earthly concern, and yet antithetically, the vocals are infused with the sort of melancholia I love and appreciate. …
Track: Rex – Palaces
Amsterdam-based trio Rex have released an epic single ‘Palaces’ which has about it an exciting studied pose and swagger, and a video that captures this band’s cool presence. Singer Jonathan Rex has that razor sharp feel and profound delivery that cannot help recall the likes of Leonard Cohen or Nick Cave – ultra cool yet …
Album Review: Unruly Girls – Epidemic
Two and a half years ago, Italy’s Unruly Girls unleashed their debut album ‘Cruel Tales’, reviewed by me in September 2017. This was a stunning debut: anarchic, arrogant and infused with a refreshing punk sensibility. The noise merchants are back with the album ‘Epidemic’ (named, it must be noted, perceptively before the current COVID-19 situation) …
Track: DMA’s – The Glow
Australia’s DMA’s continue to forge a bright and exhilarating path of their own with the release of the third single – ‘The Glow’ – off their forthcoming album ‘The Glow’, now due out on 10 July 2020. ‘The Glow’ is classic up-tempo indie rock with the hallmark euphoric stadium-perfected choruses, anthemic and pulsating yet underpinned …
Interview: Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten)
The legendary Einstürzende Neubauten (Collapsing New Buildings) will be releasing their first album in 12 years (if you don’t count the commissioned work Lament) entitled ‘Alles in Allem’ (All in All) in May 2020. ‘Alles in Allem’ is a magnificent collection of songs ranging from the percussive rumble of the single ‘Ten Grand Goldie’ to …
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 …