album review
Album Review: Steve Kilbey & the Winged Heels take ‘The Road To Tibooburra’ – an exquisite dreamy journey through the Kilbey expansive universe.
Ass soon as the anthemic jangles begin in the opening rack ‘Adrift’, you know you are back in the heavenly spheres of Kilbey land: where endless melodies flourish like the greenery after a downpour in the outback desert, and epic instrumentation arcs across the night skies like meteorites. Steve Kilbey & The Winged Heels is …
Album Review: Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Nik Brinkman envelopes us in a shimmering veil of dreamy pop in his sophomore album ‘World Within’.
There is a dreamy heartbreakingly beautiful shimmer to the new album from Aotearoa/New Zealand artist Nik Brinkman that glows like the stars over the expansive southern hemisphere skies. Brinkman last blew us away here at Backseat Mafia back in 2021 with his debut album ‘Secret Stairs’ (see my review here) and in the intervening time has …
Album Review: Balinese gamelan orchestra Gamelan DanAnda collaborate with electro-jazz fusion group Firetail to release the enchanting album ‘Anglayang’
The collaboration between Naarm/Melbourne-based Balinese gamelan orchestra Gamelan DanAnda and electro-jazz fusion group Firetail has resulted in the fascinating album ‘Anglayang’ which has just been released through Komunitas Records. Creating an absolutely enchanting fusion of modern western jazz music with the traditional gentle sounds of Bali, the mix results in something greater than its constituent …
Album Review: The majestic Horsegirl unveil their stunning masterpiece ‘Phonetics On And On’, ahead of US. UK and European tour.
At the risk of using superlatives so early in a review, I haven’t got this excited about a band since I heard the first single from Fontaines D.C.. Originally from Chicago and now based in New York, Horsegirl stunned with their debut album ‘Versions of Modern Performance’ back in 2022 (read my review here), where …
Album Review: Scandinavian blues/roots heavyweights, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado release 9th studio album, House of Sticks
For the uninitiated, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado are an 8-piece blues/roots band hailing from Denmark. With a traditional set up of vocals, guitars, bass and drums, they are joined by piano/keyboards, woodwind, brass and strings, amongst others, and multiple backing vocalists. The band have spent the last two decades traversing Europe, covering almost …
News: The Lovetones surprise with a compilation album ‘The Song Is My Friend’, filled with luscious jingle jangle pop.
The glorious The Lovetones have take everyone by surprise by issuing a shimmering compilation album entitled ‘The Song Is My Friend’. Songwriter Matthew J. Tow describes the compilation as a very personal collection: You’ll find some familiar tracks, along with some rare and deep cuts in there too. Curated in a way that gives those …
Album Review: Indie rock royalty the Snarski brothers join forces in Snarski vs Snarski for the exquisite album ‘Waiting For The Bell’ and announce tour dates.
The Snarski brothers are indie rock royalty here in Australia. Forming the iconic Chad’s Tree in the eighties, both brothers have continued to make a major contribution to the music scene down under. Rob Snarski is possibly better known as the singer of The Blackeyed Susans and more recently SnarskiCircusLindyBand (with The Go-Betweens’ drummer Lindy …
Album Review: Re-release of nineties underground band Sex Industrie’s album ‘Sex’ll Sell Anything’ reveals a thrilling gem
In a year when one of Sydney’s more iconic underground eighties band, The Crystal Set, is reforming with a series of gigs with fellow jingle jangle exponents Ups & Downs (see news piece here) as well as a series of headlining gigs later in the year, it is fitting that a rather obscure related band …
Album Review: EWAH’s ‘Souvenir’ is a beautiful luminescent dreamscape.
Emma Waters, otherwise known as EWAH from EWAH & the Vision of Paradise, has just released the album ‘Souvenir’, her first solo album in fourteen years. After years of battling anxiety and bouts of depression, and ultimately procrastination, superstition and pedantry, EWAH says: …this is the album I kept trying to make for years. For a …
Album Review: Beth Hart bares her emotions with heart-on-her-sleeve latest, You Still Got Me
Beth Hart is one of those rare artists with a voice that stands out from the crowd and absolutely demands to be heard. When she sings, it comes from a place deep inside her soul, and is done in such a way as it becomes a visceral, and often, cerebral experience. She is a woman …