Album Review: White Lies – Five (Reissue)
Emerging in a crowded field with fellow indie nouveau goth bands like Interpol and Editors, White Lies have been, in my view very underrated over the years. Their 2019 album ‘Five’ has been just re-released with the addition of two new songs, ‘Falling Out Without Me’ and ‘Hurt My Heart’, recorded with US producer Andrew …
Track: Fragile Animals – Waiting
One of the best exponents of the new wave of Australian shoegaze/dream pop, Queensland’s Fragile Animals have followed up their much lauded EP ‘Only Shallow’ earlier this year with a blistering new single ‘Waiting’. Inserting a vibrant sheen of jangling guitars, discordance and harmonies, ‘Waiting’ is a gorgeous shimmering wall of sound, with its dream-like …
Track: Tunnel Traffic – Another Story
The low-fi musings of Adam Hachey have been sorely missed and it’s fantastic to see another creative flourish from him under the moniker Tunnel Traffic. Single ‘Another Story’ heralds a bout of three single releases from Tunnel Traffic in anticipation of a new album due later this year, and, if this single is indicative, we …
Album Review: Youth Group – Australian Halloween
Originating from the inner west of Sydney, Youth Group achieved a modicum of global attention for their exquisite cover of Alphaville’s ‘Forever Young’, a song so steeped in rosy-tinted nostalgia and yearning it made even to most hardened cynic tear up. Yes, I did. But as is often the case, Youth Group are much more …
News: Mallrat embarks on European tour
Brisbane’s fabulous Mallrat has just finished her US tour with an incandescent performance of her song ‘Charlie‘ off her EP ‘Driving Music’ on the Late, Late Show with James Corden. This is on the eve of a European tour throughout November: Such an incredibly beautiful rendition with a live band – it sends chills down …
Track: Flogging a Dead One Horse Town – Flogging a Dead One Horse Town (EP)
I’ll be upfront: Flogging a Dead One Horse Town (FADOHT) are not the dreamy melodic popsters that often typify the kind of band I review. This eponymous EP is muscular, brutal, industrial noise, but filled with highly satisfying aural chemistry. The track titles alone endear me to the band – indicating a duo who don’t …
Track: Tan Cologne – Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico
Probably influenced by a recent revisit to the world of TV series ‘Breaking Bad’, my image of New Mexico is a bright, cloudless, surreal landscape of magic, bleached bones and dust. Tan Cologne’s gorgeous new debut single ‘Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico’ has somehow magically captures this vision in sound. Tan Cologne …
Album Review: Corridor – Junior
Corridor have the unique distinction of being legendary label Subpop‘s first francophone signing. Hailing from Montreal, their newly released album ‘Junior’ is utterly endearing and highly distinct. Guitar driven and quirky – the oftentimes raw and unadorned guitars provide defining counter melodies underneath the choral vocal layers full of complex harmonies. I could possibly compare …
Track: rincs – Locked In
rincs are LA duo Rebecca Ramirez and Bjorn Winberg and their new single ‘Locked In’ is a gorgeously unassuming delight. Ramirez’s voice is hauntingly melancholic and expressive, the instrumentation unadorned and brittle and the combination of the two delivers a beautifully evocative song: And it’s not just about the sound and rhythm – the duo, …
Track: Didirri – Blue Mood Rising
Didirri is at the forefront of a whole bunch of preciously talented youngsters producing some incredible guitar-based music across Australia (see also Hatchie and Chakra Efendi, recently reviewed by Backseat Mafia). We have visited Didirri before, and his talent appears to be exponentially maturing and developing on the strength of his new single ‘Blue Mood …