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LISTEN: Cull – Nasty Drought

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It’s here – the first taste from Sydney shoegazing wunderlords Cull’s debut album. They’ve been floating into our earholes with streamlined Deeerhunter-via-interdimension-travel-through-the-cosmos since early 2013, when their track ‘Good People Disappear’ first surfaced on the WTH waves.  Since then, they’ve dropped their gorgeous Ba Noi EP, and a fantastically ethereal cover of Pavement’s ‘Shady Lane’.

But not simply content with ruling our hearts with mere singles, Cull have decided upon an album release for early 2015, simply titled Aloft. The name rings surely with their sound, simple pop music that’s held mightily high upon swirling masses of pedal effects and distortion.

‘Nasty Drought’ is the first taste of the album, and it indicates the record will be a colourful and engaging one indeed. Sticky vocals ensue, before unfurling into the kind of unfurling shimmer that we all <3 Cull for.

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INTRODUCING: New Gum Sarn

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New Gum Sarn

If you slapped awake an early 2000s ‘indie’ band at 3am and forced them to play under duress, you may end up with something sounding like New Gum Sarn. Beautifully untidy but never sloppy, their track ‘Bad Soy’ is like a pop-song turned hazy comedown.

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Split in two right down the middle, the catchy low key vocals of the first half are countered by a second half where the band’s guitarists are set free to jam to their heart’s content. The accompanying video features disembodied hands caressing faces, half-hearted acrobatics and a healthy dose of general weird.

‘Bad Soy’ is one of two tracks released from the band’s album, which so far remains detailed only as forthcoming. Hear more at New Gum Sarn’s Bandcamp.

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INTRODUCING: Dictaphone Blues

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dictatophone blues

Dictaphone Blues is the bedroom project turned full band project of Edward Castellow, Auckland’s favourite southern adoptee. A new release is a reason to get excited, as Ed has managed to put out some of the most consistently righteous fuzzed-out guitar pop you’d be likely to find this side of your cool uncle’s record collection. Two albums on, Dictaphone Blues’ next album Mufti Day looks like it’ll go bigger and more ambitious than its predecessors.

Following on from lead single ‘Her Heart Breaks Like a Wave‘, heralding the release of Mufti Day is ‘365’, a catchy duet featuring guest vocals from Emily Edrosa (who also recently released an excellent EP). Under the guise of an upbeat summer jam the track escalates rapidly from themes of obsession to imaginary intrusion before a final meltdown.

Mufti Day is out on the 5th of December. The band will embark on national tour of New Zealand next month.

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MAP – November 2014

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Our feature act for November’s instalment of our monthly MAP series are pop stalwarts Open Swimmer. The band features members of The Harpoons, Seagull and Melbourne via Glasgow singer Ben TD. You can listen to all the other good stuff our pals from blogs around the world are featuring this month in the list below.

Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 22-track compilation through Dropbox here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Tomás Ferrero – Cuando Te Hablo

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In March 2013, a mixed group of musicians gathered together in Cordoba and Buenos Aires to play some songs and sound pieces composed with lyrics taken from the work of a federal collective of artists called Esta Vida No Otra. Some of them recorded the results several months later, and those tracks were then released as a compilation titled 15 Artistas Cantan Esta Vida No Otra. The song we have selected from this album, also available for free at Bandcamp, is Cuando Te Hablo by Tomás Ferrero from the band Rayos Láser.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
Open Swimmer – Sugar Bowl

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Open Swimmer’s version of pop is jarring, even discordant at first, but it’s this blatantly simple approach that has us hooked. (Dirty Projectors fans, pay attention now.) Sugar Bowl is a brilliant introduction to the band; playful yodelling is cut and pasted along a steady 4/4 drum beat, while witty banter takes the fore. Songwriter Ben TD was based in Glasgow for seven years, touring extensively and landing multiple sessions on BBC Radio One and a stint at T in the Park before settling in Melbourne. The band comprises some of Melbourne’s most admired independent music alumni (The Harpoons, Seagull). Expect to hear a lot more from this group.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Alessandra Leão – Mofo

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Alessandra Leão shows off her experimental side with Mofo, taken from her new EP, Pedra De Sal. Avoiding the world music sound from other works, this song has dark music and some weird programming that fits the angst of the lyrics.

CANADA: Ride The Tempo
Beach Season – Midnights

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There’s not actually much out there on Beach Season besides the fact the project is from Calgary. The smooth vocals of Midnights complements the hip-hop influenced rhythms. This is a duo that won’t be much of a mystery for long.

Listen to more below:

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PARADISE MIXTAPE: Planète

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Planete

In the lead up to boutique Aus music festival Paradise, which takes place on the final weekend of November, we’re running a series of mixes from artists featured on the bill. Kicking things off is Melbourne producer Dion Tartaglione, aka Planète, who’s sent us a pristine and expertly mixed selection of minimal techno jams.

Planète’s gorgeous two-track EP, Snow Sketch/Visions, is out now through Brisbane/NYC label Silo Arts. You can also download his blissful, Jon Hopkins referencing remix of Tincture‘s ‘Similar Circles’ via XLR8R.

 

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WATCH: Charging Stallion – ‘Eddie McGuire’

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Everybody loves a good local hero. Austria’s got Arnie Schwarznegger, Canada have Nickelback, and even bloody Belgium can hold up Gotye as their own. However, that’s not to say that Australia is lacking in the talent department. We’ve got a plethora of folks on the Legends Board on the RSL, from Damo who skulled 12 beers before passing out, and Jimmy, who ran into Oprah and managed to cop a sneaky snap for the pool room. But Melbourne comic pub-rockers Charging Stallion, they know exactly who their idols are, and even breathing the name can cause shivers down the spine of even Buddy Franklin. The one, the only: Eddie. Fucking. McGuire.

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Charging Stallion, they need the world to know about the bloody legend, nay myth, of Eddie McGuire. With a sound that slots alongside mates like Drunk Mums, The Living Eyes and WOD very nicely, Charging Stallion pay their dues via a Collingwood ‘n’ mullet adorned clip. And why not? This is a bloke who is “more Melbourne than a scarf out of a window” and “drinks tomato sauce right out of the bottle”. Although Charging Stallion probably won’t meet their idol any time soon, the least they’ve done is create one hell of an anthem around it. This is an anthemic riot worth even Mr McGuire’s ears.

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INTRODUCING: Total Giovanni

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Newly signed to Two Bright Lakes and Remote Control, Total Giovanni last week released their debut single, ‘Human Animal’. The band’s reputation for outrageous live shows preceded them, and before the public got a taste of Total Giovanni’s recorded efforts they were booked to play Dark Mofo, Melbourne Music Week, Golden Plains and Paradise Music Festival. But even the on-stage spectacle of five grown men in berets and leopard-print hot pants, performing synchronised dance moves to the strains of crotch-sniffing Italo-disco, could not have prepared us for how accomplished Total Giovanni sound in the studio.

A part of this year’s sweeping boogie revival, ‘Human Animal’ is also heavily indebted to the Talking Heads and LCD Soundsystem (its opening lines – ‘I’m having so little impact/I’m having so little impact’ – immediately recall the melancholic jibes of James Murphy’s ‘Losing My Edge’). Total Giovanni jammed together for months before embarking on their many live dates, and they sound great as a result – as ‘Human Animal’ demonstrates. This is smooth, tight and extremely danceable stuff.

Catch Total Giovanni this Friday at Melbourne Music Week’s opening night, and on the final weekend of November, at Paradise Music Festival.

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