Karoshi – ‘Like Air From Your Lungs’ (mp3)

A dreamy new offering from Sydney based electronic artist Karoshi, full of glitchy beats, melancholic melodies and deft, sublime ornamentation. ‘Like Air From Your Lungs’ is the first offering since the release of his wonderful debut EP, and combines the left-field beats Fourtet with Boards of Canada’s inate sense of ambience and melody. Karoshi is a master of digital music, and ‘Like Air From Your Lungs’ is another example of his abundant talent.

http://www.myspace.com/karoshimusic

Dash and WIll – ‘Pick You Up’

When I got into the car to drive to work I had Tegan and Sara’s The Con in my head so I fired up the iPod, put that song on loud, and then put on a few more pop gems from the twin sisters before arrived at the office. As soon as sat down I opened up an email encouraging me to download Dash and Will‘s new free track called ‘Pick You Up’.

The email unfortunately described Dash and Will as Australia’s answer to Tegan and Sara, which forced me to compare the two acts and since T&S is still fresh in my head from this morning’s drive, D&W’s offering seemed underdeveloped and repetitive. This is an unfair comparison of course seeing that T&S has so much more life and songwriting experience than D&W, but I’m guessing that’s how most listeners would feel too. Nevertheless I’m also sure that like me most people can also see that D&W is bubblling with promising talent and that this choice of single is not indicative of their carreer path. You can hear the obvious distinction in their voices, as opposed to T&Ss hard-to-tell-apart similarity, is going to be a strong point in their songcrafting endeavours.

If you venture to their MySpace there’s a couple more tunes ready for listen and can stand their own ground even in the shadow of a certain popular songwriting sister duo. Looking forward to hearing more.

www.myspace.com/dashandwill

Dead Letter Circus – ‘Reaction’

Dead Letter Circus are one of those lucky bands who have already worked out what their signature sound is going to be, even before they’ve released a full-length album. However, they are in danger of recycling the same tones and sounds, particularly if they don’t soon switch off the delay pedal. People like familiarity, but not when it becomes repetitiveness.

Having said that, ‘Reaction’ is DLC’s most solid song to date, particularly for vocalist Kim Benzie who’s stripped back the stratospheric high notes that were abundant on the group’s debut EP but which he consistently struggled to hit live. (I hate to say it, but that’s what you get when you use Auto-Tune.) It’s a more natural range for Kim, allowing him not only to add some well-placed harmonies but make his vocals far more rhythmic and laconic, creating an infectious counterpoint to the frenetic instrumentation that’s sitting underneath.

It’s not a deviation from the EP, but more of a solidification of their musical style. ‘Reaction’ is a promising sign of things to come for these Brisbane boys.

http://www.myspace.com/deadlettercircus

Little Red – ‘Coca Cola’

I sincerely doubt that there’s any real music lovers left in this country who haven’t heard of this band yet. However, there is still a disturbingly large amount of Australians who get their music knowledge from Video Hits and So Fresh compilations, so for their benefit, here is Little Red. Comprising of five school aged boys from Melbourne, Little Red embodies everything that made pop music great in the ’60s; multi-layered vocal harmonies, tight-ass clean guitars and more hooks than you can throw a stick at. And in an age when ‘It’s too late to apolo-giiiiiiiiise’ has become a mainstream phenomenon, it’s nice to know that there’s still a band around that are happy to sing pretty little ditties about girls and love and soda and stuff.

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Cut Off Your Hands  – ‘Shark Attack’

All the way from the UK where they’re working with producer extraordinaire Bernard Butler (he’s worked with Duffy, Manic Street Preachers, Roy Orbison, the Libertines, Aimee Mann… this guy knows his shit), Kiwi lads Cut Off Your Hands have given us a very hot exclusive – it’s something new from their eagerly-awaited debut album. This one’s called ‘Shark Attack’ and if it sounds slightly familiar, that’s because it’s a Split Enz cover. No word on when the album will be out, so enjoy this one for now.

http://www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands

They’ve got a great knack for pop melodies, but Sparkadia almost seem too nice for their own good. Oh well, I guess it worked for Something for Kate, and as long as Sparkadia keep writing catchy tunes like this, they should be fine.

While you’re in a video-watching mood, head over to Ocker Zeal to watch a video interview I did with Monica Tan. It’s always fun being on the other end of interviews.

http://www.myspace.com/sparkadia

Yves Klein Blue – ‘Polka’

I had never heard of this band in my life until I got stuck with them for a double bill at Candy’s Apartment one quiet Thursday night last year. These boys (I think they might have hit the 18 mark by the time of writing) played to a practically empty house and, god bless their cotton socks, they rocked out with the conviction of stage veterans. A couple of months later Brisbane act YKB are signed to the awesome Dew Process, home to two of my fave artists, The Grates and Sarah Blasko.

They’ve re-recorded their debut EP Yves Klein Blue Draw Attention To Themselves, and from what I can hear, invited every session player they know into the sessions to have a blast. There’s pianos, trumpet fanfares, Latin percussion and a whole lot of other crazy shit that definitely wasn’t there on the hand-scrawled disc they hurriedly gave me last November.

Word is they’re getting a lot of FBi love, which is understandable, as they’re kind of our answer to Belle and Sebastian-meets-Franz Ferdinand, with light pop tunes and edgy rockers all comandeered by that powerfully unique voice in the front. There’s no pretension here, just four kids from Brisvegas playing the kind of music that everyone else wants to hear. Trust me, you want to hear this.

http://www.myspace.com/yveskleinbluemusic