Posts By Annie

LISTEN: Zone Out – ‘This Place’

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‘This Place’ is the new single from Zone Out, Melbourne’s latest incarnation of the twee spirit, led by Ashley Bundang. Zone Out’s music is an affable blend of gentle strumming and fey vocals, replete with the lulling effect of xylophones, oohs and aahs, and woollen scarves and mittens. The band’s core line up of Bundang and Zahra Khamissa has been expanded to include ScotDrakula‘s Dove Bailey and Totally Mild‘s Elizabeth Mitchell. With the fuller sound that the new members provide and the song’s spacious, warm production, ‘This Place’ may be Zone Out’s loveliest release yet.

Bundang is part of the unfeasibly productive Osborne Street group, based in the suburb of Brunswick. She plays in Velcro, Pencil and Hot Palms, all of whom make some form of loose, meandering indie pop (I’m trying so hard not to use the word ‘jangly’). She’s also got a couple of solo ventures up her sleeve, under the working titles White Australians and Obviously. Written on casio and guitar, these songs are more insular than anything Zone Out has done – largely because Bundang buries the vocals beneath synth tones and effects that sound like a UFO landing rendered through computer speakers.

Zone Out is the most accessible of Bundang’s projects. A comparatively obscured version of ‘This Place’ appeared on Obviously’s Mondayitis EP. The promise of the song’s progression was already clear, but Bundang’s melodies fare much better under the warm, full-band treatment that Zone Out provides. It sounds as though she swallowed the complete Twee as Fuck compilation and assimilated it bodily, to churn out gorgeous, tea-cosied pop songs forever more. ‘This Place’ reminds me of the Shop Assistants, the Softies and Blueboy in particular, but Bundang pulls off this style so convincingly that the fact it’s been done before seems kind of irrelevant.

‘This Place’ is the teaser for Zone Out’s Something Less EP, which is due out on 23 August. The EP will also feature previous release ‘What’s Missing?’. It will be available digitally, as a limited run of 50 cassettes through Osborne Again and on CD through Why Don’t You Believe Me?
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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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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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INTRODUCING: Tropical Strength

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Tropical Strength is the work of brothers Alastair and Russell Webster, who are also members of Austinmer outfit Shining Bird. What I love about both these bands is the way they manage to convey a sense of Australiana without subscribing to the usual conceits of ‘Australian’ music – i.e. the ‘jangly’ pop put out by the many lost children of the Go Betweens or the style of industrial goth that was born in dingy Melbourne pubs during the 1970s.

Shining Bird’s take on Australian music is closer to that of Men at Work or the Warumpi Band. They pulled it off wonderfully in their last single, ‘Distant Dreaming’ – a subtle, engrossing jam which sounds a bit like David Byrne in a tender moment and revolves around the line ‘I’m caught in a distant dreamtime’. The video clip even features cameos from Uluru, the Opera House and a giant kangaroo.

Tropical Strength are slightly less indebted to the 80s than Shining Bird, but the Aussie references are everywhere here, too. The band’s Soundcloud profile credits the music to a gentleman called Harold Holt living in Seychelles (so that’s where he got to!), and their first single is named after Australian cinema classic Wake in Fright: a nightmare of alcoholism and sodomy in the outback.

‘Wake in Fright’ is broadly divided into two parts. Opening with the sounds of rainfall and bird song (not to mention a lyrical reference to ‘Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree’), the first half is a mix of melancholic synth drone and a found-sound evocation of the brothers’ south coast home. The vocal is processed so that when it hits the lower registers it sounds something like the rumble of a didgeridoo. In its second half the song opens out into lush choral harmonies and Beatles-esque piano chords, travelling from the unsettling to the euphoric in about five minutes. ‘Wake in Fright’ is the kind of song I’ve been hoping to hear for a long time: a unique expression of Australian identity that goes beyond games of knifey-spoony and grandma’s hills hoist.

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Tropical Strength are putting out an EP later this year on Inertia subsidiary Antelope Recordings. In the meantime, get your ears around a gorgeous Beatles cover the band have put up on Soundcloud as well as this video. And keep your eye out for a new Shining Bird single coming out next week!

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LISTEN: Straight Arrows – ‘Never Enough’

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The line up of Sydney’s Straight Arrows reads like a local who’s who. Fronted by Owen Penglis, a somewhat hands-off recording engineer (he records to tape in his kitchen) who’s worked with bands like Royal Headache and The Frowning Clouds, the band features Al Grigg of Red Riders and Palms fame, and Angie Bermuda from Circle Pit. Straight Arrows’ first full-length release, 2010’s It’s Happening, was a high-energy, low-fidelity offering, packed with jams inspired by 60’s UK garage. It was recorded at their mate Tim Done’s house on his collection of 50’s-era American gear.

The latest Straight Arrows release, ‘Never Enough’, is louder and brasher than anything the band’s done before. It’s also quite sludgy – in a bad-ass, high-octane kind of way, à la the Sonics. The song moves along giddily, the tempo lifting to deliver a call-and-response chorus before the drunk and wailing guitar lick pulls it back into the fray.

Chicago-based label Hozac Records has released the Never Enough EP as part of its exclusive 7″ club. The band have been selling any remaining copies on tour, but thankfully the EP is also available for a measly two bucks on Bandcamp.

Straight Arrows will be playing two Victorian single launch shows, supported by the charming Bits of Shit, on Friday, 16 August at the Barwon Club in South Geelong and Saturday, 17 August at Melbourne’s Grace Darling Hotel. They’re also on the bill for FBi’s 10th birthday party, which will be held at Carriage Works on Sunday, 8 September.

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LISTEN: Rainbow Chan – ‘Haircut’

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Sydney artist Rainbow Chan‘s debut EP, Long Vacation, has arrived. It’s named after a 1996 Japanese soap that the Chan family watched together after moving from Hong Kong to Australia. Unable to understand the Japanese dialogue, and too young at six to read the Chinese subtitles, it was the the show’s soundtrack that resonated with Chan. In fact, she’s got a thing for all kinds of oriental populism; J Pop, old anime theme songs, Chinese folk music – these influences crop up in one way or another in her music.

Chan recorded Long Vacation in her bedroom closet. Whether that was for acoustics or out of necessity I wouldn’t have a clue, but a girl called Rainbow (yes, that’s her real name) playing harp and sequencing beats in her wardrobe is a fitting image to accompany the skewed pop that she’s created. Made using tape loops, vintage toys (a circuit-bent toy cow is a recent acquisition Chan’s cited), keyboards, music boxes and glockenspiels, Long Vacation matches Chan’s experimental streak with playful organic sounds and a great sense of melody.

‘Haircut’ is the second single from the EP. According to Chan, it’s “a tongue-in-cheek song about that old cliche, the post break-up haircut”. The point is pretty much summed up with the line ‘I don’t need you anymore, honey – I got a haircut today’. Featuring a detuned harp, programmed beats, what sounds like a kid’s keyboard and a bunch of sample-based sequences along the way, the song is basically a showcase of everything that’s good about Rainbow Chan. She can sing, too, and her voice is on full display in the gorgeous, multi-tracked chorus.

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Chan is already working on a follow-up album, and she’s got plans to start a noise pop band with her sister. A tour taking in capital cities around Australia and New Zealand has been scheduled for August.

Be sure to catch her on these dates:

Thursday 8th August – Lambda, Brisbane QLD

Saturday 10th August – Ghost Ships, Adelaide VIC

Friday 16th August – Civic Underground, Sydney NSW with Moon Holiday & Black Vanilla

Thursday 22nd August – Boney, Melbourne VIC with Sui Zhen

Saturday 24th August – The Front, Canberra ACT

Friday 30th August – Cassette Nine, Auckland NZ

Saturday 31st August – Mighty Mighty, Wellington NZ

 

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LISTEN: Jeremy Neale – ‘In Stranger Times (feat. Go Violets)’

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This song has been around for a little while now but it makes me so flipping happy that I’ve decided to bring it back. A collaboration between Jeremy Neale and Go Violets, ‘In Stranger Times’ is a terrific, 60’s-indebted tune that conjures up daydreams of milkshakes, roller-skates and TV dance parties.

If you haven’t already heard of him, Brisbane playboy Jeremy Neale fronts the 12-piece band Velociraptor (so named because ‘Dinosaurs rule’, obviously), as well as his solo work. He’s basically the Australian Jonathan Richman, with his effusive charm and knack for writing naive and catchy pop songs.

Fellow northerners Go Violets love 60’s soul and garage too. They’re one of a wave of new Aussie bands referencing the riot grrrl movement. We posted their single ‘Teenager’ last year (it also featured on NME and an American Kellogg’s commercial) and we’re still vibing the girls’ latest release, ‘Josie’.

Check out the video for ‘In Stranger Times’ co-directed by Neale and Jesse Hawkins. It’s a technicolor mod gem.

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Both Jeremy Neale and Go Violets are scheduled to play Brisbane’s Four Walls Festival on 3 August. Keep your eyes peeled for Go Violet’s debut EP, which is due out some time this Spring.

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