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MAP July 2013

July 15, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

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 29-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
San Dimas – Generación Espontánea

San Dimas is an instrumental indie-rock band from Rosario, one of Argentina’s largest and most cultural cities. Generación Espontánea is one of the best tracks from their latest album, La Música y Las Cosas, and it was also part of a compilation released in 2012 by Planeta X, their label.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
Kins – Aimless

Originally a solo project for frontman Thom Savage, Kins made the move from Melbourne to Brighton in the UK two years ago and have been working hard at their craft since. Kin’s new track Aimless is just that – it’s both a dreamy saunter and an angular dance. Thom’s distinct voice remains the subtle hero of this track. While this shares the unconvention of Local Natives, Alt-J, perhaps even Dappled Cities at their synth-tuned best, comparisons don’t apply to Kins. One of Australia’s best exports and most underrated bands.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig
DAWA – Some Things Are Different

Singer John Dawa and the band that formed around him stand for honest and unpretentious folk music. Two voices, a cello, a cajón and an acoustic guitar are all the ingredients they need. Their frequent live performances with a hippie touch (flower garlands on mic stands, that sort of thing) have earned them a constantly growing fanbase. Some Things Are Different is the opener of their full-length debut This Should Work.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Banda Uó – O Gosto Amargo Do Perfume

Banda Uó are like a big kitsch joke, a sense of fun that is manifest through their fearless use of pop references with Brazilian technobrega (which can be translated as something like “cheesy techno”). In this song, they use Two Door Cinema Club’s Something Good Can Work as ‘inspiration’ for messing up.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts
Air Marshal Landing – Move With You

Air Marshal Landing are three friends who make music that sounds greater than the sum of its parts. Together since 2009, they’ve recently put the finishing touches on their first long-player, You Used To Be Me, which is ballsy enough to mix genres and is unapologetic in its catchiness.

CHILE: Super 45
Kinética – Halo

Emiliana Araya is Kinética and she’s returning this year with II, her second album, this time helped by Milton Mahan and Pablo Muñoz (De Janeiros) in the production side. In addition to her usual electronic beats, Kinética explores pop and soul from an experimental prism, adding new elements to her intimate songs. Halo is a MAP exclusive download and a preview of her new record, which features collaborations from Marcos Meza and Fakuta.

COLOMBIA: El Parlante Amarillo
El Ombligo – Trinidadla

El Ombligo has gone largely unnoticed in the Colombian music scene. So that’s why we want to emphasize this union of many musicians, local and abroad, from Germany to Mexico, under the command of Colombian bass player Santiago Botero. They are doing what they call a new folklore, starting from Andrés Landeros’ cumbia to 60s free jazz. The fascinating Trinidadla is taken from their 2012 album Canción Psicotropica y Jaleo.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
Bodebrixen – The Wave

Following up on 2012’s acclaimed third full-length, Out Of Options, Bodebrixen aka Andreas Brixen and Aske Bode have released a great first synthpop taste of an as-yet-untitled EP which will be released later this year. The Wave is a summery MAP exclusive download.

(More bands after the jump…)
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EXPAT: Splashh

July 12, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

It’s been ages since I’ve seen a scuzzy international band that haven’t severely bored me. That’s more out of bias more than anything, but it still holds some minor truth. Splashh are excluded though. I caught one of their shows at Ding Dong in Melbourne a few weeks ago and it was so great. It was the first time in months I’ve seen a Melbourne crowd look remotely enthusiastic about anything…(god forbid, jump around to shoegaze bands).

Splashh are based in London, but that doesn’t really count since half of the band are from these parts anyway. The band’s guitarist Toto Vivian is from Byron Bay, while frontman Sasha Coleman (Brain Slaves) and drummer Jacob Moore (The Checks) are from New Zealand. Partial patriotism and the nabbing them as ‘one-of-our-own’ thing is totally fine when you’re from Byron and named Toto anyway.

The band were recently picked to support The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park last week too. Splashh only formed last year, so things have travelled really fast. After constant gigging and a number of single releases in the UK, including a casette-only release on Jen Long’s excellent Kissability label, the guys released their debut record Comfort a few weeks ago. It’s a super rad record – essential for light listening, and more so if you’re predisposed to the whole league of Queensland bands who worship Wavves by default.

Splashh took liberty of sending us a photo set of their best ‘in-transit’ faces on their recent Aus tour which you can view below…

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Photos by SPLASHH

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Comfort is out now through Breakaway Recordings.

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WHO THE HELL PRESENTS: ‘130 Bullets’

July 4, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Any reason to hold a casual gathering down a dark enclave with a steel board as an excuse for stairs is anyone’s concept of a decent Friday night out in Melbs. We bandied together with the kids from Bonny & Clyde recently and somehow put together a warehouse party in around two weeks. If severely bruised feet, a string of free Sailor Jerry’s and a warehouse filled with our favourite people + favourite local garage/psych bands count, then we had a rad time.

Thanks to Bonny & Clyde, bands (The Living Eyes, Strangers From Now On, The Laughing Leaves, The Grand Rapids, Pronto), party folk and the general enthusiasm for the giant participatory art wall we had going. All those tattoos, misc. poetry and versions of genitalia were appreciated, but as for the guy who ripped the eyes out of the installation – we think you just need a hug.

Biggest props to The Living Eyes for playing their last show (for a while) and spurring on a communal jive pit. But mostly, for dedicating their set to “everyone on Centrelink”.

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Photos by Alan Weedon

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LISTEN: Back Back Forward Punch – ‘Don’t Stop Now’

June 28, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Not enough ‘disco’ happens on this blog. I’m not averse to the stuff. Don’t hate Fridays either. My penchant for disco/pop resurfaces once a year when a good track or remix comes around. For the rest, it’s subtle repression.

After being born to immigrants who conceived me over a syncopated bassline and a 4/4 beat, growing up listening to Disco made Melbourne’s Western suburbs a lot less shit. My earliest music memories involved the ass end of the Bee Gees era, Diana King and a lot of Gloria Estefan’s ‘Turn The Beat Around’. There was nothing ‘Australian’ about my childhood. There is nothing Australian about growing up watching your old man mow the lawn singing Donna Summer either. I’ve had a bittersweet affinity with the wider genre, but here’s trying not to hold it against anyone.

Depending on what your Friday vibe feels like, this is essential listening. ‘Don’t Stop Now’ is a smooth groove by Melbourne duo Back Back Forward Punch. There’s a faux-sax, laser synths and a general schmooze that could only really tag along with band name that sounds like a naff move on a Tracey Anderson workout DVD. Laura Boland’s voice reminds me of Giselle Roselli on Flight Facilities’ ‘Crave You’ (minus the twee). I’m slowly trying to be less deducive about anything electro-disco, so this one gets points for feel good tunes to tide over the week with. Excellent production and Groove Armada stamped all over this one. Still love Gloria, BTW.

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PREMIERE: Bad//Dreems – ‘Hoping For’

June 26, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Out from the gentrified sprawl of suburban Adelaide comes a new video from WTH favourites Bad//Dreems.

Defying age, occupation and Centrelink brackets, the new clip from Bad//Dreems takes a steep ascent to the peak of Cultural Cringe and sticks a shovel in at the summit. The current climate for jangly, interbreeding suburban garage bands looks like it’s probably sticking around. I’m cool with the late checkout, but I just prefer pepped-up, happy “chillmate” from bands like these guys, Laughing Leaves, The Stevens etc. rather than the rest of the vegetarians lamenting about their girlfriends through their nose. That shit just makes me sad.

On the other hand, ‘Hoping For’ is heaps of fun. Along with Client Liason’s infamous homage to our wide brown land, this video also needs to be reconsidered by Tourism Australia. It’s all bro-gan schmoozing, muscle cars and other miscellaneous behaviour that makes self-deprecating nationalism, revered. As for the loose dick on a trampoline, no one wants to take liability for that. The video was shot in Port Adelaide and in the north of South Australia near Orroroo. Kinda makes Airbourne look like they need to re-sit their citizenship.

Thriving boganvillea brought to you by rad director Al Kinsie (Who By Fire), brilliant subtitles and VHS effects courtesy of Ben Helweg.

Bad//Dreems are releasing their upcoming EP Badlands on July 19^th. The band are heading out through Adelaide and the East coast during July and August for a string of dates, stay tuned for details.

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WATCH: Fraser A. Gorman – ‘Dark Eyes’

June 23, 2013, Melissa Tan, 1 Comment

Running through a field singing a love song as starched up as a wool cravat; Fraser A Gorman certainly isn’t the first guy to put it on video. That being said, for the good-guy niceties of everybody’s favourite Dylan doppleganger, Fraser’s always been modest than he deserves to be.

Fraser’s better known around these parts for bringing his alt-country jams around town. If haircut, likeability and ability to cut a slick tune are the first factors of charisma to win over the masses, then the dude wins at all three.

‘Dark Eyes’ is a shift away from Fraser’s usual pastoral tones; the chords are looser, the country jaunts traded in for sunnier strums and a giant hug of a horn section past the bridge. His band Big Harvest usually takes a front seat in the live side of things, but here it sounds like they’re satisfied just to saunter along for the ride. It could be the way those strings fill out against Fraser’s honest tone, or perhaps the cross-point that stands some place between melancholia and optimism – but there’s something that is unequivocally very Lucksmiths about this track.

I should also mention the duo from Arthur & Angus have done a brilliant job on this video. The clip was filmed in one take, on a property of an 1820’s mansion near Ballarat in Victoria. Also during filming, four prized race horses managed to escape from the paddock. (The video should probably go viral, but is available for your viewing here.)

There’s a real endearing thing about getting a guy to run 3km in a suit, singing then have him plunging into a cold dam without breaking out the ventolin. Another great one from Fraser that’ll keep me grinning like an idiot for a while.

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Catch Fraser A. Gorman on Wednesdays in July at The Spotted Mallard in Brunswick.
3rd July – with Stu Mackenzie (King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard)
10th July – with Bob Harrow (Immigrant Union)
17th July – with Mike Skinner (Mallee Songs)
24th July – with Tim Neilson (The Death Rattles)
31st July – with Forever Son

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EXPAT: Rat & Co Europe Tour

June 18, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Since the swirling, electronic cacophany of One (壱) Uno (壹) hit our earwaves last year, Rat & Co have been on the up. Over the last two months, the Melbourne based band have been travelling across Europe supporting WTH poster boy, Chet Faker.

Between shows – Josh, John, Nick and Kaia took some time out to document some jams, beach hangs and sidewalk burgers through the UK, Italy, Madrid and Switzerland for us.

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Merman. Sexy Benny…

Lux Fragil, Lisbon, Portugal. One of the most amazing clubs any of us had ever been to. Owned by John Malkovich, sporting an impressive Funktion One setup.

Kaia got to play a song before they open up the club and Daniel Avery took over.

Synthesiser studio, Hamburg. The lovely guys offered us to borrow a midi keyboard as we had left ours in the hotel, they then brought us into their studio that was full of all our favourite synths. Josh cried…