Features

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 MalauriePasto 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?
EscAtomic 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 & LichterFaces

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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
EONSBrothers & 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
MeliéPartir

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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 TrioYou 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-UNX-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 SingMe 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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WTH Mapcast // Podcast

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Podcasts are neat little things.

If you’ve been following the last 50 something editions of our global new music round up, Music Alliance Pact (MAP), you’ll understand that trying to digest Puerto Rican hip hop and Icelandic metal-core in one hit is the audio equivalent of drinking a whole gravy boat.

We’ve recruited new guy Robbie Ingrisano to host the WTH Mapcast, a 30min takeaway show of our favourite Music Alliance Pact tracks for the month.

For those 5 years late to the party – the Music Alliance Pact is a global round up of new music from 40 music blogs around the world each month. It’s been running since dear old 2008, when our pals at Scottish blog The Pop Cop invited us in to join. The idea was that each blogger would hand pick a song from the country he/she represented, and the complete collection of free mp3s would then be posted on all the blogs in the pact on the same day. The first ever MAP post took off in October 15th 2008 and five years later, the ‘pact’ has grown to span 40 countries and across blogs such as We Listen For You, The Guardian, Drowned In Sound and more.

There are a huge handful of MAP representatives in the past, posted while most were barely known inside of their own country. Notable MAP alumni include The xxÓlafur ArnaldsSleigh BellsToro Y Moi and our own Chet Faker, who we sent to glory via MAP back in 2011.

Back to the new guy – Robbie has a background in community radio & network television, did his thesis on Italian TV in the 60’s, jettisons to Europe every summer to eat good stuff and speaks Spanish or something. He’s a worldly kinda guy, so trust his taste in tunes. Mapcast will drops monthly to coincide with the MAP post of the month. The podcast will available as a free download from our new Soundcloud account.

Salud.
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MAPCAST // JULY

MAPCAST // JUNE

 

View previous Music Alliance Pact posts here.

 

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WHOTHE HELL PRESENTS: Fifth Floor Warehouse Party ft. The Murlocs

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Anyone who has a decent appreciation for local music understands the importance of a shoddy venue. If the walls aren’t peeling, the toilet seat isn’t unhinged and the floor doesn’t sound like velcro when you trod on it, it’s probably not worth your time. This might be though. Along with the folk from Mess & Noise and Inpress, we’re proud to present the first installment of a warehouse party series by Fifth Floor.

Not many of us live on Lena Dunham’s party budget so don’t expect a mechanical bull or…this. Fifth Floor however, have put together a solid line up of bands, Baby Janis and the country’s finest projection artists to make your eyes pop.

The party will be held at a “secret” location on Saturday August 3rd with a venue announcement closer to the date. Headlining the bill are our favourites The Murlocs and joining them are Flyying Colours, Strangers From Now On (who played our last party), The Octopus Ride, Dan Trolley and Premium Fantasy. There will be plenty of visual art and projections happening too (because, Brunswick) – courtesy of Thomas Russell aka. Astral Projection & ZonkvisionIf that’s not enough of a social lubricant for you, then you ought to stay home. 

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First batch of tickets have sold out but another round have recently been released.

Buy tickets via Oztix here. Full details on the Facebook event page.

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STORYBOARD: I’lls – A Warm Reception

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The last six months have been amongst the best of my time. A home base in Toronto and extensive travels about North America gave me the time and space to work on different projects while consuming Australian music through a more long-form process.

Each flight, cross city train ride, or 7 hour bus ride across great snowy landscapes lent itself to a more reflective consumption of music. In particular, new records from Beaches and Standish/Carlyon demanded my attention. But it was A Warm Reception, the new EP by I’lls that kept swallowing my thoughts.

What follows is a series of camera phone pictures accompanied by direct quotes from the stranger folks I met along the way.

It’s an essay explaining a visual and very personal story of a 6 week road trip circling the East Coast of the USA; driving from the fishing villages in Maine, stopping by haunted mansions in Savannah – to hanging out in dingy New Orleans jazz clubs and tourist-ing the maze of museums in DC. The colour, smell, sound and atmosphere of 5000 miles of the pure American dream…

 

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Track 1: ‘Speak Low’

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“I don’t drink coffee. Or drink that much. I’m not really addicted to anything…except, well, I’m a sex addict. Anyway, so you want to hear a haunted story?”.

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Track 2: ‘Plans Only Drawn’

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“I hear you like the Man From Snowy River? I’m a big fan. I’ve got an 8’ kangaroo whip. I’ll crack it for y’all if you like?”

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Track 3: ‘Outright’

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“I play a Benjamin Franklin glass harmonica for tourists on the freedom trail. I’ve pretty much learnt every national anthem so that if someone asks for the… Mongolian national anthem (she gestures with her fingers) I can play it.”

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Track 4: ‘Sharing’

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“Aren’t you two just a gorgeous couple? And on this lovely sunny day, that’ll be a pretty picture.”

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Track 5: ‘To All The Blurred’

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“Oh, hey… I laid some carpet in Elvis’ house. 6 weeks after he died. Man, that was a long time ago. Hey could you spare some change for a veteran with colon cancer?”

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Track 6: ‘Mine’s Here or My End’s Here or Nineteen’

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“My biggest fear is losing my special lady friend cause that’s what gets me through the night.”

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I’lls Warm Reception EP available through Yes Please here.

Catch them launching the EP tonight at Yes Please’s 2nd Birthday:

July 18 – Melbourne
The Worker’s Club
$12 pre-sale
$15 door

with Fishing
Wintercoats
Guerre
The Townhouses

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SEQUENCE: Naysayer & Gilsun

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                                                                IMG_0051 IMG_0096 IMG_0117                                                                        N&G                                                                                                                                                naysayer & gilsun _ whothehell 2

 

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 Photos by Alan Weedon

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MAP July 2013

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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 DimasGeneración Espontánea

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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?
KinsAimless

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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
DAWASome Things Are Different

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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 UóO Gosto Amargo Do Perfume

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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 LandingMove With You

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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
KinéticaHalo

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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 OmbligoTrinidadla

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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
BodebrixenThe Wave

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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…)
(more…)

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EXPAT: Splashh

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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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