backseat downunder
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 …
Premiere: Infinity Broke unleash the powerful battering ram of a single, ‘Death of a Tourist’, and announce album and single launch dates
We are very pleased to premiere Sydney band Infinity Broke‘s exciting new single ‘Death of a Tourist’ – the first single off their forthcoming new album ‘Your Dream My Jail’. ‘Death of a Tourist’ has a full frontal brutal attack – an angular marching bass and urgent vocals with barely restrained full-throated clattering percussion. There …
Premiere: Swimsuit Issue sparkle in the sunshine with new track ‘Hit It With You’
Swimsuit Issue are proving themselves to be one of the most intriguing and adventurous indie groups around – refusing to stand in one place and refusing to be easily labelled. The first single we reviewed, ‘Addict’ was a cathartic and blistering punk onslaught, followed by the anthemic indie pure pop fizz of ‘The Feeling‘. We …
Track: Melbourne’s Oceans unveils the shimmering track ‘Break My Fall’ and announces the release of EP and launch
Melbournite Thomas Lee works under the name Oceans and his new single ‘Break My Fall’ is an immersive and delicious track with subtle switches between a shoegaze drone and a dreamy pop fugue. Lee’s voice haunts in the distance beneath a simmering razor-sharp guitar and synth wash, infused with a detached melancholia and indelible melodies. …
Album Review: Merk’s ‘Infinite Youth’ is an exquisite exploration of the end of childhood innocence and the transience of life
New Zealand artist Merk is the moniker of Auckland, New Zealand artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mark Perkins, who began his career as a touring member of Tom Lark and Fazerdaze. I reviewed his single ‘Laps Around The Sun’ earlier this year finding it to be yearning, raw and melodic, with a deep melancholia reflecting on …