www.scottspark.com

Our Husband – ‘Villages’ (mp3)

Our Husband is a new side limb for Nathaniel Morse of Adelaide band Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! and Freya Adele formerly of now defunct act Bing Goes to Monaco.

Woodland hymnals for melody lines, tangles of glistening guitar, Villages carves another elegant figure into the realm of narcoticised folk-pop.

Freya’s spectral vocals add to the thoughtful construction of this track, leaving you feeling as if you’ve had your head immersed in a jar of liquid hydrogen for a week.

Villages works as a solid opening track, but seems incomplete in it’s wider narrative scheme.  Our Husband’s debut will be released later on in the year, so for now, this has to suffice on repeat. If you’re into Beach House, you’ll like this.

Definitely giving Big Scary a run for their money on my list of top local acts this year so far.

www.myspace.com/weareourhusband

OTOUTO – W.HILLIER (Dir. Alice Glenn) from two bright lakes on Vimeo.

Guerre – ‘Night Out’ (mp3)

It was only yesterday, as I navigated my way to Guerre’s Soundcloud account, that I realised I forgot to include him in my fav new artists of 2k10 list from earlier this month. That was a huge oversight, since Guerre is definitely one of the most talented artists I’ve been introduced to all year. His music is incredibly diverse and there’s a new gem online almost every time I visit one of his sites.

From his porn-music-sampling ‘Somewhere Craving the Night‘ to his self-described hip hop jam ‘Tomorrow, Sundogs,’ the guy has put up several LP’s worth of material over the past few months and almost all of it for free download. I really hope Guerre collects the best cuts onto some sort of digital compilation/CD-R, just so the songs have more of a home and can get some more exposure.

Above is ‘Night Out,’ a song reportedly done in his brothers bedroom one night earlier this month. It’s not his most immediate tune, but it kinda says everything I love about Guerre, from the circumstances of its production to its sound.

www.myspace.com/ripityripity

soundcloud.com/guerre

Sarah McLeod – ‘Double R’ (John Roman Remix) (mp3)

Sarah McLeod – ‘Dancing In The Dark’ (Bruce Springsteen cover)

In 2003, The Superjesus played at the Great Western Hotel in Rockhampton. I was fifteen years old, and my friends and I clung to the barrier, totally in love with frontwoman Sarah McLeod. This video is very close to how I remember it. I spent the next few months learning their entire back catalogue on guitar, the majority of which was in drop-D tuning. Riff yer heart out, etc.

That was then, this is now, I get it. I’m no longer fat with bleach blonde hair and acne and Sarah McLeod is no longer the Gen X answer to Suzi Quatro. Here’s the thing though – McLeod is a world class rock chick, with one of the best female voices in rock music. I just feel like it’s wasted on dance music that is heavy on repetition and low on hooks. She’s written with the same writers as Roisin Murphy and Justin Timberlake, but it is missing that special spark which propelled those songs up the chart.

Bruce Springsteen was right,  you can’t start a fire without a spark. A good chorus wouldn’t hurt either.

EDIT: Sarah’s publicist has just informed me:

The track that’s posted there is a remix– its not the actual radio mix of the track, so the repetitiveness / no chorus thing is because its a remix from a set of remixes currently bouncing around blogs and clubs. The radio edit is currently being tweaked and will be coming out in a week or two.

Whoops! Pardon my ignorance. I am but a simple country girl with nu-metal running through her veins. (cue lead poisoning joke)

CRUMBS – ‘Smiling In Surgery’ (mp3)

I posted about CRUMBS earlier this year after the release of his first mini-LP, Pieces and Portions Vol. 1. It was a fun collection of songs, full of interesting samples and passages of impressive production – but, as it’s name suggested, it felt more like you were flicking through a sketchbook than looking at a finished artwork. CRUMBS has returned with a new mini-LP and has labeled it Pieces and Portions Vol. 2. Whilst there’s still some “sketchiness” to the songs, Vol 2 is far more cohesive than it’s earlier counterpart. The production is a bit tighter and the songs more interesting. It’s definitely a step up and a worthwhile listen, but occasionally you’re still left thinking that the songs themselves need either some vocals (/an MC) over the top or some more strucutral progression.

To condemn it for sounding incomplete is pretty superfluous since CRUMBS (aka Max Kohane) already references that in the album’s title. Pieces and Portions Vol. 2 is a fun listen and signals that Kohane has the potential to release something really cool as he continues to graduate from ‘pieces and portions’ to fully realised songs. I look forward to hearing that album (assuming it’s coming). For now, Vol. 2 is more than enough to see me through.

You can get it for free HERE at his bandcamp.

www.myspace.com/crumbsproduction

Cut Copy – ‘Where I’m Going’

So that kinda ugly thing above seems to be Cut Copy’s new logo. Seems a bit ‘Play School’ to me. I saw it and was like, “that doesn’t look very ‘Modular’ to me.” And then I listened to the song and realised that it also didn’t sound much like their old stuff. I don’t want to second guess Cut Copy because everything they’ve put out has been pretty different and all of it is fkn amazing, but this seems like a pretty big move away from the one thing that united their previous music – phat house beats. Opening with what sounds like a sample of Velvet Underground ‘Waiting For My Man,’ it soon moves into a bit of a glam stomp number. The drums all sound live and avoid any ‘four on the floor’ moments, and it has a bit of a mid-tempo strut to it.

It’s actually a pretty cool song, but it’s definitely caught me off guard. It’s like these guys aren’t even an electro band any more. It’s like the whole Mo-gan movement didn’t even happen (not such a bad thing). I wonder what the rest of the album will sound like. Colour me ‘intrigued’ but not ‘convinced.’

You can get it via their website below for the cost of an email address.

www.cutcopy.net