Sydney
Track: Huck Hastings collaborates with Charlie Gradon for some harmonic and shimmering ‘Turbulence’, with a launch date cleared for take off.
We here at Backseat Mafia (downunder branch) have been massive fans of Huck Hastings – his 2021 album ‘Cheers To Progress’ (reviewed here) was described as being a cinematic sweep full of love, loss and longing. Having crossed paths on many occasions with fellow Sydney singer/songwriter Charlie Gradon, Hastings has just released a new collaboration …
Premiere: Thunder Fox sets the world alight with ‘Hard Times’: a funky paean to strength and resilience delivered in a red hot sonic missile. Catch them live in Sydney.
While Backseat Mafia’s northern hemisphere headquarters in the UK swelters in the extreme heat wave (a relative term given 40 Degrees Celsius is now a normal Sydney summer), down here at the Backseat Mafia’s far flung southern outpost there’s snow in Hobart (renamed with much excitement as Snowbart) and much need for some warmth. And …
Track: Sydney’s Laura Jean unveils the delicious shimmer of ‘Teenager Again’ with backing vocals from Aldous Harding and Marlon Williams, and announces new album ‘Amateurs’.
Infused with a sense of poignancy and melancholy, the new single ‘Teenager Again’ from Sydney’s Laura Jean is a glowing, sparkling track that shimmers with a delicious bittersweet glow. Singing when I was seventeen my mama could not handle me, Jean reflects on the personal memories of growing up and the vulnerability this can cause …
Premiere: FLOWERTRUCK exclusively unveil their video for single ‘Pretending’ with announcement of new album ‘Partly Cloudy’.
We’ve long been fans of Sydney/Illawarra band FLOWERTRUCK who have perfected an antipodean-flavoured brand of indie pop that has a genetic link to an amalgam of The Go-Betweens and The Apartments on one side of the ditch, and the Dunedin sound epitomised by Flying Nun roster of The Bats and The Chills on the other …
Track: Carla Wehbe’s extraordinary vocals give an ethereal cast to the yearning single ‘is forever off the table?’
New single ‘is forever off the table?’ has an immeasurable buoyancy and lilt that weaves its way under the extraordinary agile vocals of Sydney artist Carla Wehbe. Infused with a deep sense of regret and despair that can only come from experience of frustration and loss, this is a beguiling track that tempers tragedy with …
Premiere: The magnificent Key Out return with the ethereal single ‘Face’ and news of signing to the iconic False Peaks Records label. A match made in musical heaven.
We are absolutely catatonic with joy to be able to bring you the first listen to the new single ‘Face’ from Sydney band Key Out – one of the most exciting and underrated antipodean bands in recent times. And if that wasn’t enough to gladden a heavy heart, Key Out have announced they have signed …
Album Review: Johnny Hunter’s debut album ‘Want’ is a vibrant masterpiece of new wave post punk indie – dramatic, theatrical and full of joy.
Without doubt, to me, Johnny Hunter is one of the most exciting bands coming out of Australia at the moment and their debut album ‘Want’ is a masterpiece of new wave post punk indie imbued with a punk sensibility. The inherent muscularity of music and imagery is leavened by an erudite sensitivity and an indelible …
Track: The statuesque Caligula make a welcome end of the month return with the gothic balladry of ‘The Ghost of Yesterday’
In their second life, the magnificent Caligula are maintaining the creative rage with the release of a new single every month, and the quality never waivers. This month, it’s the semi-ballad ‘The Ghost of Yesterday’ – a poignant autobiographical track with writer/singer Ash Rothschild’s voice as close to tender as you can get. There is …
News: Sydney duo Micra announce EP ‘5th Room’ and unveil new single ‘Doesn’t Mean A Thing’ – a luscious dreamy dream pop reverie.
Ivana Kafedjiyska and Robbie Cain together are the Sydney-based duo Micra and they have just released a luscious and shimmering single ‘Doesn’t Mean A Thing’, awash with a shimmering dream pop coating and a languid, sensual air. Centred around Kafedjiyska’s ethereal vocals and a soft and billowing synth bed, ‘Doesn’t Mean A Thing’ has a classic pop …
Live Review: TOWNS, Waywards, Sydney, 21.05.22
King Street in Newtown was flourishing with mixed levels of excitement and edginess. At the heart of it, next to the station and that nightmare of a junction, a newly label signed Adelaidean duo called TOWNS were coordinating their night in a flurry of meet and greets well overdue. My night started off in rather …