Agnes Kain – ‘All Time High’

Sometimes all it takes is one listen to fall in love with a song, which is all it took for me to become smitten with ‘All Time High’.  I discovered Agnes Kain on my very first radio shift and it was such a sumptuous sound, like a happy folk version of Arcade Fire jammed into a duo…. yep, you’d think it was a Seabellies-size band on here.

They’ve had a couple of recordings floating around, and it’s finally been compiled into one album entitled Keep Walking Or I’ll Kill You which is a highly recommended listen.  If you’re in Sydney, they’re going to be launching the album this Saturday August 25 at the Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills.

http://www.agneskain.com
http://www.myspace.com/agneskain

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Kisschasy – ‘Opinions Won’t Keep You Warm At Night’

First off, I have to say… that is a terrible promo photo.

Now I’ve got that off my chest, let’s talk about Melbourne boys Kisschasy.  I’ve never been a big fan of their music, but it certainly doesn’t offend me.  But when I was a budding little music jounro, getting paid nothing to write (thanks to the music mag which shall not be named), I got a chance to interview Darren and Joel from the band who really couldn’t be any nicer. 

Kisschasy write very solid pop rock tunes – the kind that you just can’t get out of your head for days and days.  They’ve just released a brand new album called Hymns for the Nonbeliever (cool title) and their first cut from the record, ‘Opinions Won’t Keep You Warm At Night’ is a pretty good summation of the sound of the album.  If you like this song, you’ll like the album.  If you don’t, then you won’t.

http://www.myspace.com/kisschasy

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Something for Kate – ‘The Futurist’

It’s the oldest trick in the record label book: release a Best Of album by one of your top selling artists – in this case, Something for Kate – and tack on a new song so all the die-hard fans rush out to buy it.

The problem is, in the day of iTunes, this method doesn’t work, nor do people actually buy Best Ofs anymore.  Firstly, they can just purchase the new song for $1.69 (that’s how much a song costs off iTunes in Australia), and secondly, they can buy their favourite songs and create their own Best of anyway.

So the legendary Victorian three-piece have bandied together some of their best songs (which, to be honest, is a hard task, but I guess that’s why there’s 2 discs) as well as a new song, ‘The Futurist’, and thus we have The Murmur Years.

Sydney’s sultry singer-songwriter Bertie Blackman… whoa, alliteration ahoy… contributes some barely-audible vocals to a track that really isn’t one of Something for Kate’s best, but my guess is that it was just a song they had lying around that they recorded just for the hell of the Best Of.  It kinda sounds like Bruce Springsteen after a severe bout of laryngitis.  The song lacks any spark, and Paul Dempsey has sounded a lot better than this.  Gone is the dynamic ebb and flow of prior SFK tunes, as is the rich melodies. 

If this is your first listen to Something For Kate, make sure you check out their older material – anything off Beautiful Sharks and Echolalia is highly recommended – before you make a decision.

http://www.somethingforkate.com/
http://www.myspace.com/somethingforkate

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Ahhh Tim, a.k.a Faux Pas… always entertaining! From the album Entropy Begins At Home.

http://www.iamfauxpas.com/
http://myspace.com/iamfauxpas

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Joe Hardy vs Gotye – ‘Hearts A Mess (3AM Mix)’

It’s a bit hard to improve on perfection, but if there’s a remix that comes close, it’d be Joe Hardy’s recombobulation of the as-close-to-perfect-as-possible Gotye song ‘Hearts A Mess’ which was originally found on the album Like Drawing Blood.

Last week I blogged about the new Gotye remix / covers album Mixed Blood and in particular, Karnivool’s heavy re-working of the song ‘The Only Way’.  This week I thought I’d showcase one remix in particular, and the song that I think is the best remix on the record.  For some reason, there’s three different versions of ‘Hearts A Mess’ on Mixed Blood but none seem to come near Joe’s remix.  It retains the beauty of the original, but adds a sublime melancholie that’s truly captivating.  Joe adds his own subtle flavours whilst still showing reverence for the original track.  The song really comes into its own around the 4 minute mark when the off-kilter drums enter the picture.

Like Faux Pas before him, Joe also maintains his own blog at http://joe.hardy.id.au/blog/. It’s a great read, very diverse and in-depth. He’s also posted some early versions of his ‘Hearts A Mess’ remix so it’s interesting to see how he got to the final product.

http://joe.hardy.id.au/blog/

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The incomparable Mr. Percival dropped into Mornings with Kerri-Anne (which is a morning show on Channel 9 here in Australia) to show how he creates his spellbinding music and perform ‘Down in Africa’ from his amazing, AMAZING album Out of the Loop.

You get a sense of what he does live from this clip, but it doesn’t compare to actually being there.  If you only see one artist this year, make sure it’s Mr. Percival.  You won’t be disappointed!

http://www.myspace.com/mrpercival

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These rad New Zealanders return with another song.

http://www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands

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