album review
Premiere: Naarm electronic shoegazers Double Happiness gives us an exclusive listen to their thrilling debut album ‘Derealisation’ – a deliciously dark gothic delight.
Not to be confused with Brisbane surfgaze band The Double Happiness, Double Happiness is the work of Naarm/Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist Sam Jemsek and we are ever so pleased to be able to premiere the debut album ‘Derealisation’. ‘Derealisation’ is a dark gothic delight that hums over a throbbing electronica that courses through its sonic veins. …
Album Review: Release the bats – Infinity Broke are rampaging through the cities with their excoriating, thrilling new album ‘This Masthead’.
It’s hard coming up with enough new superlatives to accurately describe an Infinity Broke album. Inevitably epithets and phrases such as contained chaos come to mind, along with freight trains careering out of control, sonic explosions, disturbances in the cosmos, mind shattering shards of metal. It’s enough to suggest that you should ensure any sound …
Album Review: End Scene declare ‘I Will Not Live Safe, I Will Live True’ in an album filled with beauty, self reflection and passion.
End Scene highly impressed us with their debut album ‘All My Ghosts‘ way back in 2021 and they are back with the expansive journey that is ‘I Will Not Live Safe, I Will Live True’: a true declaration of intent that permeates every note. The album comes from the fevered imagination of James Jennings whose literary …
Album Review: ‘After The Flood’ is a magnificent collaboration between legends Ed Kuepper and Jim White that glows with a passion.
Following a thrilling tour last year between the two icons of Australian indie music, Ed Kuepper and Jim White have released ‘After The Flood’ on 21 March through Remote Control Records. Kuepper has also announced an extensive solo tour across Australia – his first solo gigs in five years following a series of gigs with a full band and with …
Album Review: Haters debut with ‘Non-Violent’ – a raw and abrasive delight that soars with passion and melody.
In the words of a poetic messiah, haters are going to hate, but here at Backseat Mafia’s antipodean outpost we love the new album ‘Non-Violent’ from Queensland’s indie punk band Haters. Recorded in Ontario, Canada with Cancer Bats founding member Scott Middleton, ‘Non-Violent’ is the culmination of a month-long recording blitz that challenged the band …
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 …