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PREMIERE: Gordi – ‘Taken Blame’

February 6, 2015, Melissa Tan, 2 Comments

Gordi’s new track ‘Taken Blame’ does its best ‘keep calm’ impression (without the bad spin-offs and aggressive font). Her debut track ‘Nothing’s As It Seems’ made its first appearance here late last year, and her latest single ‘Taken Blame’ is just as gossamer as the first.

It could be nonchalance or just restraint, but Gordi’s delivery treads along in a way that lets in light to an otherwise insular space. Lyrically, the subject matter is a little grim, but she maintains a transformative outlook. ‘Taken Blame’ adopts a beautiful arrangement, with Gordi’s nuances interrupted by the occasional off-beat or elevated vocal harmonies that bookmark the verse.

Whirling production/echo FX in the mixing department are all nice aesthetic flourishes. It sounds like listening to a live performance in a small room with massive ceilings. You get the feeling that without all of it, Gordi’s pastoral vocal would still lend this track the same weight. In this way, she tends to the same patch as Felicity Groom and even Sharon Van Etten, who’ve groomed their alto to the tune of honest post-love songs. There’s many years to go before Gordi could pass with the chutzpah that SVE reveals when she sings about errands and bathroom habits, but she might get there.

I’ve never seen Gordi perform, but I feel like I have many times.

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Gordi is playing Mordialloc Festival on the 28th and touring with Winterbourne throughout March. See below for details.

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INTRODUCING: Fonz Whaler

February 1, 2015, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Snubbing out lyrics ain’t such a bad thing when you have bands penning medleys about religious icons and shrines to fruit. Tom Kakanis is Fonz Whaler, a Brisbane guy making instrumental music out of his “brain oven” – which I’m sure is how all this fiddly ambient loitering incubates in the first place.

Fonz Whaler’s debut EP is a smoggy recount of solitude – fuelled by playful melodies, bow-legged instrumentals and every weird conversation you’ve probably had with yourself after 2am. This EP reminds me of some of Lalic‘s more downtempo tunes. And like Lalic’s work, there’s something special about lo-fi recordings like this which still cut clean sounds without suffocating in distortion or crying about the suburbs ’cause it can.

Kakanis does attempt vocals on a few tracks, but it’s his instrumental-only version of events that do best. ‘Milestones’ kicks off with a succession of peppy guitar pluckings, the sort Andrew Bird would mount in his trophy cabinet, maybe on a Christmas album. That glorious treble guitar continues to bubble away in ‘Projections’. ‘Life on the Mandoline’ could be the motion picture soundtrack for a ridiculous coming of age biopic set in Crete, but it’s most definitely a song about a glorified fruit slicer.

You know, whether this is a baked dribble for soundscapes or vita C for the imagination, it’s been a nice way to kick off my leisure time. It’s all yours for $3, right here.

<a href="http://fonzwhaler.bandcamp.com/album/fonz-whaler" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http://fonzwhaler.bandcamp.com/album/fonz-whaler', 'Fonz Whaler by Fonz Whaler']);" >Fonz Whaler by Fonz Whaler</a>

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PREMIERE: Sagamore – Longer EP

November 26, 2014, Melissa Tan, No Comment

I have good feelings towards this band – and generally anyone who thinks employing a horn section is worthwhile, so I’m going to call this one out as a decent dad-jam record worth your ears (Fraser A Gorman not trailing far behind). Melbourne’s Sagamore are putting out their new EP, Longer – recorded over the span of a year between Christmas Hills, Thornbury and North Melbourne before being mastered by Lawrence Greenwood (Whitley) at his Hiss and Hum studio.

Sagamore aren’t changing any frontiers of sound – although but they seem a little more interested than the rest of jangle-gate. They’ve set themselves in a comfortable counterpoint between middle America and a Thornbury backyard. The interchangeable harmonies between Sam and Sophia are warm (‘You Can Take Me My Love’) and rhythms are replete with community hall dance moves from yesteryear (‘Iodine’, ‘Feelings’). Longer is sets off at a slower pace compared to the hook driven self-titled release. The band do edge on running bar chord devotionals and lyrical repetition into the ground, but lead Sam Cooper manages to deliver any leftover passiveness into a warmth only Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy could run off with.

Sagamore are launching Longer at the Gasometer Hotel in Melbourne tomorrow, followed by a stint at the Queenscliff Music Festival on the weekend.

Longer is out on the 28th of Nov via Flightless.

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MAP – November 2014

November 17, 2014, Melissa Tan, No Comment

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

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

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

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

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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PREMIERE: Born Joy Dead – ‘Hey Blood’

November 10, 2014, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Is that an extended Kanye sample at the start of your track, Born Joy Dead? (Mix it backwards for reference by association, guarantee #1 hit tune). Even sans sample, this new one by Brisbane four piece Born Joy Dead is a bit of a belter, we think. The band’s new track, ‘Hey Blood’ kicks off with a generous lot of pop verve and stadium-rawk merit. There’s no wasting hum-a-long guitar licks and flail-ya-hands in the air choruses when a former Hungry Kids of Hungary member (Ben Dalton) is at the helm here. Happy days!

‘Hey Blood’ will be available on iTunes as of tomorrow.

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PREMIERE: Super Magic Hats – ‘BRB’ (Kitty cover)

November 5, 2014, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Savvy to the task of remixing, err….‘emo-bounce’? Super Magic Hats aka. local electronic producer Rob Masterton has done it. He’s covered Kitty’s ‘BrB’ (with vocals courtesy of Bonnie Morrison), minus the bad underwear and ‘bae’ refs.

Masterton grew up on the Isle of Man in the UK, but now resides in Melbourne. Kumori is a criss cross between electronica and all variations of it. This kinda stuff usually slants towards more a introspective body of sound, but the general vibe on Kumori is all glitchy positivity – almost as what you’d imagine Tim Shiel giving a motivational talk to be like. Once you get past the intro in ‘Slopes’, listen closely. You can kind of hear ‘Time of My Life’ over the instrumentals….‘cause that’s how all good electronica is meant to make you feel, amirite?

Kumori was released recently via Washington based Hush Hush Records. The EP is available for download or on cassette to add to your stack. The tape version features and extra track and the cover below.

If you like what you hear, you can revisit SMH’s older releases over at his Bandcamp.

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SEQUENCE: Boats

November 3, 2014, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Photos by Henry Johnson

Boats is a music project by Melbourne’s Blake Paterson. ‘Spider’s Soul’ – a supine slice of acoustic electronica emerged earlier this year, but Paterson had been making music for a long time prior. After a few years of travel, some “bad stuff”, and a creative slump, an old friend spurred him on to pick up his musical schtick. Since then, Paterson’s been busy recording his EP with production champs Josh Delaney (Rat & Co) and Andrei Eremin. Folksters lock themselves in log cabins, derp-wave starts in crack dens in Redfern, so for this leisurely output it was easy to see why Boats kicked off in a bright blue poolside shack.

Photographer Henry Johnson went out to visit. Lamingtons, cliff scaling and roof bombs followed. Keep posted on Boat’s new stuff over here. Henry Johnson’s bloody handy with a film cam, you can check out more of his photography over at his Tumblr.