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 …
Track: Chakra Efendi – Morphine/Body by the Water
Chakra Efendi is a rare and unique talent: a product of the talent factory that is Queensland and with a low-fi resonance that is haunting and melancholic. Efendi (uses they/them/their pronouns) has released a double ‘A’ single. ‘Body in the Water’ comes the closest to carrying the flag of the legendary The Triffids that I’ve …
Track: Maff – Swamp
Chilean superstars of goth, Maff, are back at last with another fantastic single, ‘Swamp’. This follows on from the release of their EP ‘Melanina’ last year described by us as a sparkling, euphoric EP that has moments of pure beauty. And this euphoric beauty continues in ‘Swamp’: a scuzzy, sharp slice of pounding drums and …
Track: Bland – Steel Park (The Path)
I’ve been meaning to write about Sydney band Bland for ages and time keeps slipping by. Their new release ‘Steel Park’ is so good that I’m not going to let this one pass by without a mention. Think of the archetypal Australian indie band of yore – The Go-Betweens, Died Pretty and The Triffids and …
Album Review: Underground Lovers – A Left Turn
The sheer brilliance of Melbourne’s Underground Lovers is only matched by the incomprehensible way they have remained under the global musical radar for so long in their career. Underground Lovers were pioneers of dream pop/shoegaze along with contemporaries My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Ride in the late eighties/early nineties, creating a magnificent body of work …
News: The Jesus and Mary Chain announce Darklands Tour
Legendary noise pop exponents, The Jesus and Mary Chain, have just announced a swathe of gigs across Europe in March and April 2020 to play their seminal second album, ‘Darklands’, in its entirety. ‘Darklands’ essentially stripped way the wall of feedback that was at the fore in debut classic ‘Psycho Candy’ to leave exposed the …
Album Review: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ debut album, ‘The First Born is Dead’, opened with the formidable track ‘Tupelo’, a roaring, thundering peon to the birth of Elvis Presley, born to be King during an apocalyptic storm: mythologizing the King of rock’n’roll, born in chaos, born to rule. And now, decades later, ‘Ghosteen’ apocryphally begins …