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INTRODUCING: HOY

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HOY

 

My first exposure to HOY was the rose-tinged video clip for ‘Words’, an early cut from the band’s upcoming album, Aquaslum. Shot on 8mm film around a tumble-down chateau at St Erme, outside Paris, the film is striking for its unabashed romanticism. Both visually and sonically ‘Words’ summons up the naivety of 60s pop acts like Peter, Paul and Mary, Love and Francoise Hardy, as well as early 90s twee – bands like Belle and Sebastian, who still sound refreshing for their outright refusal of toughness or irony.

HOY (formerly Houlette) is Felicity Cripps, Cecilia Dowling and Liam Linley. There’s a distinctly francophile vibe to this group; it’s all turtlenecks, flares and white roses. All three of them are totally dreamy: Cripps is a Jane Birkin lookalike, and Linley’s a dead ringer for a young Keith Richards – before the heroin took its toll, I mean. A mix of chamber pop and classic folk, much of Aquaslum was conceived during HOY’s European tour. The tracks were laid down at St Andrew’s Church in Talbot, Victoria, the old stone building providing the ballads with just the right amount of warmth and echo.

‘Get Some Sleep’ is the first official release from the album. It’s a simple and elegant number, led by Linley (each member contributes songs to the band) embellished by a light touch of viola and the girls’ soft backing vocals. Being something of an #introvert myself (has this been trending in anyone else’s Facebook feed lately?), my inner child weeps a bit when I hear the lyric, ‘You’re so deep in yourself / that you don’t need anyone else’. The video, in which the very European looking threesome stand around in a distinctly Australian landscape, was shot in a faded paddock somewhere in the Victorian goldfields.

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Aquaslum will be out early next year. In the meantime, HOY will be joining The Basics on their east coast tour in September. Here are the dates:

Thu 19 Sept – Fresh on Charles, Launceston

Fri 20 & Sat 21 Sept – Republic Bar, Hobart

Thu 26 Sept – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine

Fri 27 & Sat 28 Sept – Northcote Social Club

Sun 29 Sept – Corner Hotel, Richmond

Thu 3 Oct – Transit Bar, Canberra

Fri 4 Oct – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

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LISTEN: Barbiturates – ‘Look What the Internet Did to Us’

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barbs

The name ‘Barbiturates‘ tells you quite a lot about how this track is going to sound. A side project of Roland Hlavka and Elliot D’Arcy from Brisbane’s Cobwebbs, Barbiturates characterise their music as ‘alienwave’, ‘UFO dub’ and ‘made from the bottom of the ocean’ – all of which are pretty accurate descriptors. With the guitar and analogue synths caked in delay, Barbiturates’ songs seem to bend unnaturally; a bit like light refracted in oily water. On previous releases they’ve used elements of shoegaze as well as a kind of zonked out hip hop that brings back memories of Dr Octagon (and also Salad Fingers).

‘Look What the Internet Did to Us’ is a comparatively upbeat number, driven by a propulsive lead guitar and synthetic beats. It’s about the bottomless internet sinkhole that opens up when there’s important work to do, with links generating links and email inboxes to refresh. ‘It’s always the same / it never changes’ Hlavka points out, ‘so why did I waste my time?’. (Don’t take that message as inspiration to navigate away from this page or go outside or something: there’s more new music coming up).

‘Look What the Internet Did to Us’ is taken from upcoming album Shades, due for release through Lost Race on 26 August. You can preorder the 10″ vinyl, which is limited to 50 pressings, or a digital copy of the album here.

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MAP August 2013

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It’s that time of the month where you can snack on Argentinian folk, Estonian doom-metal and the musical genius of 30+ countries (including ours) while holding a fag in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other. Music Alliance Pact is back for August with a heap of amazing new tracks from our blog friends around the world.

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 30-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

ps. If you haven’t peeked over at our new MAPCAST podcast segment or aren’t stalking our new Soundcloud account yet – get to it slackers.

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ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Pablo Malaurie – Pasto En La Espalda

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After psychedelic pop act Mataplantas broke up in 2009, their guitarist and singer Pablo Malaurie started a solo career by releasing a minimalist folk album called El Festival Del Beso. In 2011, he was chosen by Devendra Banhart as the opening act for his Buenos Aires concerts. Pasto En La Espalda is our favorite track from El Beat De La Cuestión, his second effort, where he shows the consolidation of a growing career, which includes extensive touring and collaborations.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
Esc – Atomic Shadow

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Esc are a Melbourne four-piece making music in the great Australian tradition of depraved pub-rock spliced with post-punk. The band’s latest single, Atomic Shadow is both menacing and danceable, with a tight rhythm section and harmonies that lighten Max Sheldrake’s terse vocal.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig
Maur Due & Lichter – Faces

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Much like Klangkarussell’s über-hit Sonnentanz, hugely successful in German-speaking countries and the Netherlands, fellow Austrians Maur Due & Lichter produce light, loungy and summery electronic music that works equally well in clubs, hotel pools and urban beach bars. This Night Was Meant To Stay, from which Faces is taken, is a concept album portraying a night out in Vienna.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts
EONS – Brothers & Sisters

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Arctic Radio, the debut album from Toronto-based musician Matt Cully aka EONS, is aptly named; the melodies are crisp like bitter north winds and his lyrics penetrate past even the warmest of winter gear. There is a warmth, though, a deep passion in the music that holds back the cold, as evidenced in Brothers & Sisters. Cully is joined on vocals by Misha Bower, and both are members of Bruce Peninsula, another Canadian treasure worth exploring.

CHILE: Super 45
Melié – Partir

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Melié, who take their name from the French filmmaker Georges Méliès, released their first EP, Compartir, this year. Here, they deliver atmospheric, calm post-rock, highlighting their vocal harmonies and dreamlike melodies, giving birth to a complex but focused sound. Neighbouring Grizzly Bear and Local Natives’ imagery, Melié is one of the most interesting new acts in Chile’s indie-rock scene.

COLOMBIA: El Parlante Amarillo
Schutmaat Trio – You Died In My Future

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Despite their name, Schutmaat Trio is actually a quartet, led by Alvin Schutmaat, who experiment with post-rock and refresh the local scene with well-produced and elaborate sounds. You Died In My Future is taken from their album 6:15, released this year as a pay-what-you-want download.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
PRE-Be-UN – X-ray Pop

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PRE-Be-UN aka Nicolai Kleinerman Koch (also of Oh No Ono, Choir Of Young Believers and Boom Clap Bachelors) releases his debut solo album Clean Spasms this month. I call it ‘bit-pop Beatles’, with first single Mysteriously In Love already grabbing online attention with its wonderful fusion of the 1960s and 1980s – not least visually. Here’s X-ray Pop, a MAP exclusive download.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: La Casetera
Chino Sing – Me Voy

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Dashed hopes, tropical imagery and fresh reggae beats combine on Chino Sing’s latest song, Me Voy. Chino has made music with a host of local musicians, friends and artists, but now he’s working on his first solo album which will feature a blend of reggae, roots and various Caribbean themes and sounds.

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INTRODUCING: Soda Eaves

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soda eaves

Soda Eaves is Melbourne-based, Hot Palms guitarist Jake Core. ‘Doll’ is the first single from his debut album Like Drapes Either Sides, which will be released on vinyl early August. This is one of those tracks we’d like to call warm and fuzzy but it has an eerie darkness that I find very attractive. Like how girls like bad boys, I like moody, bleak Australian accented vocals. Swoon.

Update: You can nab the full length record on bandcamp or purchase the sweet vinyl edition here or at these shows:

16 Aug – * Red Wheelbarrow Books, Melbourne 7pm
w/ Popolice, Rory Cooke & Garth Madsen

21 Aug – The Front Gallery, Canberra 7pm

24 Aug – Hibernian House, Sydney 6pm
w/ Shiver Like Timber, Joseph Liddy & more

25 Aug – Yours + Owls, Wollongong 7pm
w/ Catman

30 Aug – Terrace Bar, Newcastle 8pm
w/ Joseph Liddy & Charles Buddy Dabouul

31 Aug – * Roots Records, Bellingen 1pm
(instore)

7 Sep – * The Waiting Room, Brisbane 7pm
w/ McKisko, R.L. Jones & Hugh Middleton

13 Sep – * The Cot, Townsville 7pm
w/ guests

14 Sep, Cairns* (to be announced)

*The Finks not appearing

 

 

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PREMIERE: Gang of Youths – ‘Evangelists’

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Gang Of Youths

Gang of Youths describe themselves on their Facebook page as ‘HUNGRY BROS’ who ‘ACCEPT ALL PAYMENTS; CHEQUE, CASH OR CARD’. They also tell us they make music that sounds like ‘EMOTIONAL-ASS, 10-TRACK CONCEPT ROCK’. While the band seem to have a penchant for writing everything on the internet in caps, all that yelling makes sense when you listen to lyrics of their new track ‘Evangelists’. 

We first noticed this band in May after listening to their earlier demos, which were super impressive. So surprised the labels haven’t come scrambling yet. Yet.

‘Evangelists’ was co-produced with The Preatures’ Jack Moffitt and mastered by Chicago-based engineer Carl Saf. The track was “penned in a hospital waiting room after battling with an extended period of writer’s block”. It’s a cathartic track with straightforward lyrics (I have made more friends in Hell than I have in Jesus land..) all of which suggest the mater nerves very close to a plight of personal experience, rather than just some case of regular writer’s block.

So their lead singer sounds like an angry Brandon Flowers on this track – and their pop sound is radio presenter’s wet dream, but there is something really poignant about the lead vocal. I previously described Gang of Youths’ sound is as a ‘Win Butler at your birthday/Casablancas at your funeral’ band after spinning air-punching stadium number ‘A Sudden Light’. However, these guys shine most when they sing out from the place that defies whatever shit bands like The Jungle Giants harp on about. And with that ‘Evangelists’ picks up where incredible ‘Riverlands’ left off.

Gang of Youths will be supporting Cloud Control on their upcoming national tour. It’s probably the last time you’ll get to catch them, since the band will be relocating to the USA after the tour (a good place to purge to the Mormon population).

Give these guys 6 months (maybe less) to start filling venues and exhausting radio play. A band like this deserves good things. Preach.

‘Evangelists’ will be available to purchase online this Friday.

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INTRODUCING: Cypher

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cypher

 

I wish I was somewhat of a talented songwriter. Probably just to be a straight up show-off. I’d flog my material through every social channel I would find, making sure all my friends and their friends know I’m kind of a Big Deal. This is also probably why I hold reverence to Cypher (and why the world is a better place without me having a ‘talent’).

Cyper is 15 year old Brisbanite ‘Faith T’. When I last looked, her Unearthed profile was the only place on the internet I could find her material. She started a Facebook page only a few days ago and it’s already off the hook. Cypher’s track ‘Liar’ is hauntingly beautiful; all breathy vocals over sparse piano and a rich atmospheric soundscapes. It’s alarming that a 15 year old can produce such a mature sound. Then again, the world seems to be hyping anyone who’s still going through puberty now, so Cypher will probably have her moment in the sun soon.

One can surely make comparisons to early Sia but ‘Liar’ suggests that Cypher has heaps of potential. Although it’s surprising for such a talent to have such little material online, it only adds to this teenager’s humble, self-effacing charm.

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LISTEN: Kins – ‘Aimless’

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kins

 

Bittersweet how this band skipped off to the UK before their debut EP Dancing Back and Forth In Whipped Cream even got the chance to warm up around the press or get anywhere near close to the radio play that it deserved here.

The Australian masses are reasonably facilitating about local stuff. Doesn’t mean I didn’t feel like slitting my wrists at major festival I recently attended while everyone fapped off to vanilla flavoured Scandinavian bands, dudes with triangles in their artwork and imported teenage ‘wunderkinds‘ who need to focus on the stuff teenagers should be into; like haiku and growing pubes.

There are a number of extremely supportive outlets which support local music and upcoming artists (hi fellow Oz music blogs, hi community radio, hi hardworking label start-ups, hi fReeZA, you know who you are etc..). Too often though, we’re quick to claim support when it should have been given in the first place. For artists hoping to achieve some level of ‘success’, Europe and the US has always, and will always be the land of milk and honey (+ legal weed, +crowds who actually dance). I know a few artists from overseas who’ve moved here in their plight to develop in a tighter ‘scene’, but in general those of the sort are few and far between.

While that might be the eternal case, let it be known, Australian bands…that somewhere, out there in the abyss of suburban Sydney – on a stained mattress in the Valley – or in a decrepit hole of a band room; SOMEONE LOVES YOUR MUSIC. Think about our feelings when you leave.

I’ve been following Kins closely since coming across ‘Bold Frown’ back in 2010. Originally a solo project for frontman Thom Savage (ex-Oh Mercy guitarist), Kins made the move to Brighton in the UK two years ago. Spots at the The Great Escape Festival and regular airplay on BBC 1 is all real great – but their new LP is more so.

Kins never had twee intentions. I doubt they made the move to cement their status as a hype band. When you listen to these guys, there’s often no distinct hook or a blatant chorus that keeps you the whole way through. It’s Thom Savage’s vagueness.

Kin’s new track ‘Aimless’ is just that. It’s a dreamy saunter and an angular dance. The track sounds like the personification of that endearing person everyone knows; the socially awkward person with a closet desire to throw violently outlandish moves on the dancefloor. It’s probably not that’s what the song is about. I’m pointing the finger at that chiming main hook and the faux-mariachi floating around though. All I can see is a Lou Taylor-Pucci type, maybe Steve Buscemi, flailing lithe limbs around in an aquarium lobby or something.

Thom’s distinct voice is the subtle hero of this track. While this spares a close ear to the unconvention of Local Natives, bits Alt-J and early Dappled Cities, I reckon Kins are unique in their own league. If I met Severely Underrrated Band and could stomp all over it’s passport, I would.

Wish we could keep them, but a band like this deserves better ears.

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