New Track: Greta Stanley – Kick
Last year we reviewed a single from Queensland’s Greta Stanley off her marvelous debut album ‘Fully Grown” and now she’s back with a new gorgeous single, “Kick”. Stanley’s vocals are languorous, velvety and smooth as she croons over a surprisingly electronic thumping spine.”Kick” is an extremely seductive pop song about surviving dark times. Stanley says …
New Music: Idle Kyle – Twisted Attention (EP)
The brittle, delicate arpeggiated piano of ‘Grounded’, the first track off Philadelphia’s Idle Kyle‘s EP “Twisted Attention”, serves notice that there is something quite unique ahead. It is a track that flirts with jazz tropes – time signature changes, delicate and subtle layers that change direction and shuffles and grooves. Yet somewhat antithetically, the song …
New Music: Edith Thomas Furey – Sleep Well, My Love (EP)
Dark, brooding, gothic and mysterious. Music to my ears and music indeed from the latest treasure uncovered by the prestigious and productive Valley Heat Records in the form of Edith Thomas Furey‘s new EP, “Sleep Well My Love” and the single “Wednesday”. That something so wintery could emanate from a place as bright and bouncy …
Live: Conversations with Nick Cave (Odeon Theatre, Hobart)
Many people have two phases in their lives, according to Nick Cave. The first phase represents self-centered assuredness and an even keel: the path they assume they will take that is the fruition of their own choices and desires. This phase can be ‘obliterated’ for some by external events beyond their control. This inevitably, leads …
Album Review: Manic Street Preachers – This Is My Truth: Tell Me Yours (20th Year Collectors Edition)
I remember moving to London during the peak of the Brit Pop years in the midst of the Blur versus Oasis hyperbole. But the albums from that era that really struck me were Pulp’s “Different Class”, The Verve’s “Urban Hymns” and most of all, “This is My Truth Tell Me Yours” from The Manic Street …
Track: Imperial Daze – Always Settling
Here’s a taste of something quite magnificent. Peckham’s Imperial Daze have all the swagger and attitude of seasoned indie veterans and in their new single ‘Always Settling’ they have created a brilliant instant classic. It’s an insistent, roller-coaster of a ride, throbbing synths, louche studied vocals and a pulse racing drive that thunders on. Ranging …
Album Review: An Early Bird – Of Ghosts and Marvels
Here at Backseat Mafia, we have been following the career of Stefano De Stefano since our very inception when he was the front man for Italian folk/rock band Pipers. He has now ventured out on his own under the moniker An Early Bird and released his first full length album ‘Of Ghosts and Marvels’. Of …
Track: San Mei – Heaven
Following up on her debut single “Wonder” earlier this year, Emily Hamilton, working under the name San Mei, has just released a fitting follow-up in “Heaven”. This is a somewhat more poppy and less abrasive San Mei, yet it still has a spine of fuzz and understated distortion below the surface of synths. “Heaven” is …
EP/Track: The Nature Strip – Past Pacific
Pure power pop harmonies leavened by a self deprecating sense of humour encapsulates the many layered charms of Sydney’s The Nature Strip. Their new EP, Past Pacific maintains an impeccable standard they have set since forming in 2013 and over four previous releases (Stars Turn Inside Out, 2013, EP Plainclothes, 2014, Presents, 2016, and Beetle …