backseat downunder
Track: Camp 8 unveils the absorbing and immersive single ‘Honey’
Camp 8 is New Zealand born, Melbourne resident Reuben Apirana whose voice should be preserved and used for the future good of humanity in some way. It’s medicine for the mind and soul. Its rich deep mellifluous tones are applied with delicacy and precision to his new track ‘Honey’; a transfixing piece of music that …
See: Restless Leg unveils evocative video for ‘The World’s A Room’ and announces tour dates
Last month we premiered the glorious jingle jangle pop of Restless Leg‘s ‘The World’s A Room’: an archetypal antipodean indie rock classic with its lilting melodies and indelible refrain. Now the band has put some vision to the sound and released a charming video featuring the band performing in the interior of a crumbling mansion …
Premiere: Anatomy Class gives us a shimmering lesson in jangling indie pop with their brilliant single ‘Welcome to the Ages’
‘Welcome to the Ages, by Australian band Anatomy Class is pure and unsullied indie pop that jingles and jangles with harmonious intent. It is a privilege to premiere this little slice of heaven on Backseat Mafia where we are sure you will agree, it is absolutely cooks. All the essential ingredients are there for this …
Track: Sydney’s Heather Maine unveils effervescent indie pop with a dark heart in track ‘Dumb’
Heather Maine is the nom de plume of Olivia Regueira Garcia, a singer-songwriter and producer based in Sydney, Australia, and her new single ‘Dumb’ is an effervescent indie pop treat. While a current of melancholia haunts the delivery, there is a sunshine veneer filled with gorgeous layers of instrumentation – with some unexpected intrusions – …
Album Review: Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard and Jules Maxwell’s new album ‘Burn’ is an enthralling cinematic vision that mesmerises
Australian duo Dead Can Dance (consisting of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry) were an extraordinarily innovative band signed to the legendary 4AD label (becoming their highest selling artists), fusing medieval music with gothic undertones and ambient textures. The band has disbanded and reformed over the years since it began in 1981 – the most recent being the release of the album …
Track: Brisbane’s Lucy Francesca Dron’s ‘Liquid Numbing Pain’ is a haunting, visceral thing of beauty.
There is a raw visceral edge to the new single ‘Liquid Numbing Pain’ by Brisbane’s Lucy Francesca Dron that is really quite exquisite. Dron’s voice is infused with a late night insouciance, dripping with emotion and pain, soaring magnificently over a sparse rumbling soundtrack – insistent and driving, relentless. You cannot help but think of …
Album: Wilding introduces his impressive catalogue with ‘Hello…My Name is Wilding’ – a glorious compilation of his past, present and future music.
Melbournian troubadour Wilding blew us away last year with his concept album ‘The Death Of Foley’s Mall’ – one of the best Antipodean releases of 2020 in my humble opinion – and for many, well, let’s be honest, for me – it was the first taste of Justin Wilding Stokes’s incomparable songwriting skills. The thing …
See: Eves Karydas shares a raw, emotive video for the gorgeous track ‘Freckles’ – a poignant look at the transience of life – and announces tour
Queenslander Eves Karydas‘s new single ‘Freckles’ is a song soaked with emotion and a certain personal vulnerability. Pure melancholic pop that glitters with melody dealing with the transience of life and the small things that can affect you. Karydas’s vocals are glorious: expressive and enchanting. She says of the track: Freckles has been years in the …
See: Huck Hastings releases rich and evocative video for track ‘The Clincher’
Huck Hastings‘s album ‘Cheers To Progress’ was released earlier this year to great acclaim – in my review I summed it up as being ‘a collection of beautiful personal observations on relationships and love, floating across shimmering instrumentation: intelligent and arch’. And as time passes, this view remains steadfast: it is truly a gracious and …
Track: Hayley Mary releases the slow burning ballad ‘Young And Stupid’ and announces news of EP ‘The Drip’ and tour
Chanteuse from the acclaimed The Jezabels, Hayley Mary, has just announced her sophomore EP ‘The Drip’ for release on 18 June 2021 and added some icing to the cake with the release of a new track off the EP, ‘Young And Stupid’. As with many releases this year, the haunting presence of COVID continues to …