Belles Will Ring – ‘Mad Love’ (Adam Baby! remix)

I like this remix even though it reminds me a lot of those INXS club remixes very common in the early 2000s (what are they calling this decade, noughties?). Adam Inglis’ been making music since 80s in various bands before switching to DJing and club remixes under the moniker adambaby, did plenty of bootleg type remixes of old artists one of which earned him a play with BBC Radio One’s Pete Tong. He seems to have a big catalog of music work on his website. For me these kind of remixes are real hit or miss, but if you find something you enjoy from his repertoire do link me up.

www.adambaby.com
http://www.myspace.com/pointysquared

Soft Tigers – ‘Mr. Ice Cream’

This song came out more than a year ago as a demo rotated on FBi Radio and managed to get some spot plays on national broadcaster Triple J. Even though they got the attention then, it took Soft Tigers a long time before coming out with a finished album. They’ve signed to Below Par Records/OK!Relax an unlikely label to be interested more known for their punkish leaning roster of Kisschasy, Something With Numbers, Die!Die!Die! and The Scare. This song has a classic ageless summer anthem to it, that if it were to gain the favour of mainstream radio it probably will be played for years to come in classic fm stations. Wait out for the hilarious line in the bridge that suggests the Soft Tigers guys weren’t really thinking about ice cream when they wrote this song.

www.myspace.com/softtigers

Since 1987 South by South West (SXSW) has been held as an annual Music and Media conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. Every year show casing hundreds of musical acts from all over the world, this year there are a number of Australian artists and bands taking the stage to represent this nook of the world from the 14-18^th March. I scraped together a list of the bands that are playing at one of the many venues across downtown Austin. Though I’m certain I might have missed a few, I’m predicting these performers would love to receive messages of support from friends and fans back home.

From Perth we have Andrew Winton Duo and The Panda Band, and from Brisbane The Zebras. From Sydney-town there is rocker’s Expatriate, Electro kids The Presets, SPOD, Josh Pyke, Macromantics, Brave Rader, and for all those O.C loving Americans, Youth Group. Plus representing the old school is Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I.

Then from Melbourne comes Children Collide, experimentalists Sunwrae, Ian Wedley, Architecture in Helsinki (who I have it on good account are also shooting a new film clip in Mexico at the moment) Airbourne, Dallas Crane, The Beasts of Bourbon, Borne, noisy pop artists Via Tania and The Gear.

Finally my favourites Wolf and Cub from Adelaide, who will be back in town with Wolfmother next month- yay! And finally a mention to the Kiwi kids, Die!Die!Die!  plus The Mint Chicks and heavy rockers Blindspott. Phew… It would be extremely cool to be there, though any stories which detail encounters with The Who’s Pete Townshend, one of the speakers at SXSW (about God knows what) would perhaps suffice, at least for this year.

FourPlay – ‘Reptilia’

FourPlay describes themselves as a “Sydney, Australia based indie rock band who happen to be an electric string quartet”.  And I couldn’t put it much better myself.

This is not your average string quartet.  In a similar vein to other string quartets such as Kronos (the troupe who composed the score to Requiem for a Dream), their style and compositions are quite non-traditional and left of centre.  Also, a typical string quartet is made up of two violins, one viola and one cello, whereas FourPlay use two violas, one violin and one cello “to produce a thicker, deeper sound”.

They’ve also been known to do some amazing cover versions of popular songs, such as The Strokes’ ‘Reptilia’ which I’ve posted with this blog.  They also do a stunning version of Radiohead’s ‘2+2=5’, which is one of my fave Radiohead songs.  Their most recent album Now To The Future came out last year and you can hear a few tracks from that on their MySpace page. 

http://www.fourplay.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/fourplaystringquartet

Photo by Melinda Comerford

Nina May – ‘The Feeling’ (mp3)

Wanna know what the kids are going crazy about at the moment? Then say hello to Brisbane four-piece Nina May and their new song ‘The Feeling’, which I think may be the demo version of a track that will make it onto their EP which is coming out at some stage during the Year of the Pig.

Aside from amassing around 1000 times more friends on MySpace than I, at the point of writing this blog, Nina May were the top-rated band on Australia’s premier music website Faster Louder.  Hell, they’ve even got a street team!  Talk about a lot of l-o-v-e.

Though it doesn’t look like the troupe have toured much outside their home state of Queensland, no doubt with their burgeoning success you’ll see their name around your state fairly soon.

http://www.myspace.com/ninamaymusic

Emergency! Emergency! – ‘gameb0yz’

My earliest memory of live music is, for the large part, of Sydney’s experimental underground scene. Basically, my friends and I were underage and not having the means of going to licensed venues, we discovered this band of parties and performances that would be held in abandoned spaces. Some might remember a collective called Systems Corrupt who housed (often illegal) parties at venues like 61 Regent Street and the now demolished Graffiti Hall of Fame (drop me a line if your curious to hear more). The music that came out of these parties was largely experimental dance, early electronic and often noisy – this was the days before BANG GANG! Though just recently, at the opening night of a new Sydney Indie night I heard Sydney two-piece Emergency Emergency and all this nostalgic liking to experimental music returned.

Katerina and Stephen used a number of instruments in the making of their music, and have a great balance between melody and noise which made the set challenging but enjoyable. I’m becoming increasingly fond of bands which sit outside the indie/electro mould, and these two have seemed to find something largely untouched. With just enough ‘song’ ingredients to here is the very cool GameBoyz to have a listen too. I would love to know what you think.

http://www.myspace.com/emergencyemergencymusic

Jamie Lloyd – ‘Michael’

Another Future Classic release; another fantastic, diverse record; another Sydney artist!  The profile of Jamie Lloyd has been growing steadily ever greater over the past 18 months since releasing his debut 12″ single ‘Adoris Kitchen’ which became somewhat of a favourite with DJs around the place.  Late 2006 then saw the release of Jamie’s first full length LP Trouble Within, which demonstrates Jamie’s wide musical influences. 

Jamie actually began his musical career singing (and later dabbling in guitar) in the more progressive rock band Element.  Australian TV junkies may remember a violin-weidling house member called Mirabai Peart in the second series of Big Brother Australia which aired in 2002.  Well she was a one-time member of Element. though once she departed from the group they became far more progressive and, in my opinion, a lot better. 

Like I mentioned before, Trouble Within really covers a lot of electronic musical ground, ranging from the more ambient/lounge sounds to trip hop, dance and even glitch.  It’s this earnestness to incorporate a wide variety of instruments and sounds that seems to be setting Jamie aside from the crowded pack of electronic artists.  His unique approach to composition also means that the end product is qutie different to what’s out there at the moment.

The track I’ve chosen from the album is ‘Michael’, which happens to be written about a friend of mine and Jerry’s, Michael Noel, who sadly passed away from cancer a few years ago.  Vocals on the track were contributed by Rachel Pike, singer of the now-defunct Sydney group Endusk, which Michael was a part of, and a band who often shared the stage with Jamie’s former group.  But to get a clearer overview of Trouble Within, I implore you to check out Jamie’s MySpace page to hear more tunes for this great record.

http://www.myspace.com/jamielloyd7