Who The Hell Features Archives

MAP – January 2013

January 15, 2014, Melissa Tan, No Comment

MAP – the giant worldly music compilation behemoth we’ve helped chip at for 5 years has arrived again for January. Cool tunes from where your ears wouldn’t usually take you. Argentina and India’s picks are particularly impressive this month. Also, if you haven’t heard our recent MAPCAST wrap-up podcast from Robbie, scoot over to our Soundcloud.

We choose our MAP submissions by the 25th of each month. If you’re an Australian artist and think that the folks from Brazil to Iceland should hear your stuff, submissions are welcome – editors@whothehell.net.

Right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 27-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

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ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Queridas – Drama Bomb

Andrés Yeah is the lead guitarist of Mi Nave, an up-and-coming band from Rosario’s independent music scene. Queridas is his solo project, full of songs with melancholy, reverb and shoegaze guitars. Drama Bombo is one of our favorites.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
Head Clouds – Mirror’s Image

Head Clouds are a Gold Coast band who have been busy working on their debut LP for more than a year. Mirror’s Image may be the first track we’ve heard from them but it’s definitely no wallflower. Jaykke Maddison is a less erratic version of Wild Beasts’ Hayden Thorpe; there’s hardly room for shirking away with that falsetto. A glorious trumpet crescendo and thoughtful lyricism lights up this track. A band to watch.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Boogarins – Lucifernandis

Os Mutantes, the psychedelic tropical band from the 60s, is one of the main influences of Boogarins, besides affinities with contemporary artists such as Tame Impala and Of Montreal. Lucifernandis is the opening song of their debut album, As Plantas Que Curam, released in 2013.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts
Teledrome – Boyfriend

Calgary, Alberta, best known as the home of an annual Stampede and being firmly rooted in cowboy culture, may be the last place you’d expect a synth-based power-pop-punk outfit to emerge from. But Teledrome is the latest cultural contradiction to come from Cowtown, and perhaps one of its finest. Boyfriend is a sample of the synth-laced solemnity offered up on their soon-to-be-released album.

CHILE: Super 45
Kinetica & Motivado – Hoy Quiero

Kinetica & Motivado brings together Chilean producers Emiliana Araya and Mario Martinez. Although we have previously highlighted both projects separately, their joint work deserves its own limelight. Mixing Kinetica’s mysterious, nocturnal vocals with Motivado’s tropical beats, their collaboration gives rise to sensual, intelligent electronic music. Their first single, Hoy Quiero, was released on Chilean label Discos Pegaos.

Click below to hear the full playlist.

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LISTEN: Seagull – ‘Written Word’

January 14, 2014, Michael Kruger, No Comment

It was raining on the beach yet our Austrian visitors still decided to swim naked. On the drive home, we listened to Seagull’s new album Ocean From Above. Through the car’s air conditioner, I could smell that someone was burning off in the distance. As we crossed over the West Gate, I tried to place Seagull’s sound. There’s a little bit of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy in there, a little bit of Sleep Decade, of Elliot Smith. As the album progressed I often felt as if I was listening to a darker version of Low; a haunting melody slowly (always slowly!), shifting with that typical Kishore Ryan (Kid Sam, Otouto) minimalist-style drumming.

Yet, Written Word – and the album as a whole – strays into ambience much more than it ever does into darkness, or dissonance. Take the vocal track on WW, about two minutes in that cuts and loops over itself after Christopher Bolton mutters: “Soon enough, I’ll be on medication”. And to say that WW is dark is to discredit the odd bits of humour that surface in Seagull’s lyrics. Bolton pauses as he sings “The end of our connection / came with The Age…. of civilisation”, as if to play on the image of society’s severed connections arriving with the morning paper.

As we reached home, unpacked the esky and the blankets, it struck me that Seagull doesn’t necessarily remind me of a particular band, but a mood. There’s a certain sadness inherent in their sound, in those delicate guitars and sparse melody lines. Yet Seagull don’t offer colossal, cathartic finishes. Rather, their form of sadness hangs around in an anti-climactic, repressed manner. And, as the opening seconds of WW started up, as Bolton’s voice began to waver, the only thing I can think of were naked Austrians running into the water, a long drive home and the smell of burning wood.

Listen to Ocean From Above in full here.

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SEQUENCE: Free Time in NYC

January 9, 2014, Bec Capp, No Comment

See below for more photos.

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LOOK: Meredith Music Festival 2013

December 30, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Photos by Ed Gorwell.

Click ‘more’ to view the full set…

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MAP December 2013

December 16, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

Joining the MAP pack this month from Aus are House of Laurence with their track ‘Just Don’t Move Me’. Plenty of new music action from our blog friends around the globe below, keep scrolling. Our latest MAPCAST podcast is now streaming over at FBi Radio online too.This month’s podcast is coming soon. If your patience is waning already – stream and download last month’s compilation over at our Soundcloud.

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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 27-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie

Cam Beszkin – Cucharita De Manual

We came across Cam Beszkin’s music when she was a member of Las Bailarinas Anarquistas, Mariana Bianchini’s solo band. This song is from Cam’s sophomore album Este Amor Ya No Es Para Tanto, in which her potent vocals adds up to a solid guitar and drum rock duet.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?

House Of Laurence – Just Don’t Move Me

Let’s be real – if the industry was a caste system, psychedelic/prog music would sit on the lower rung. Thankfully, we don’t fear throwback in this country. We embrace it with open arms and wild, flailing John the Baptist hair. Just Don’t Move Me is the brand new track from Melbourne band House Of Laurence. If the image of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in a white pressed suit, struttin’ (barefoot) down the Fremantle boardwalk makes your insides feel like goo then this is dedicated to you.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig

Hella Comet – Tinker Boat

The post-punk sound of four-piece Hella Comet calls for Sonic Youth comparisons, although their freshly-released second album Wild Honey, from which Tinker Boat is taken, is not afraid of pop either. Hella Comet were selected as one of 18 bands to represent this year’s focus country Austria at Europe’s most important music festival/conference Eurosonic.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado

Castello Branco – Necessidade

Necessidade is taken from Castello Branco’s first album Serviço. It’s typical of the easygoing feeling he generates to make songs that speak directly to our souls.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts

Rebekah Higgs – Loneliness

Rebekah Higgs’ new release Sha La La is shot through with the spirit of 60s girl groups minus the innocence and politeness of those times. Higgs gets down and dirty climbing Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. She throws classic doo-wop pop down an echo chamber and what comes out the other end is a gauzy, hazy doo-wop/drone-rock hybrid that’s utterly compelling. Loneliness has never sounded better.

(click after the jump for the full list of tracks…)

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LOOK: Paradise Music Festival 2013

December 12, 2013, Melissa Tan, No Comment

conversation__Paradise Music Festival 2013

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LOOK: 2013 in Pictures

December 2, 2013, David Payne, No Comment

Total Control were pretty much my fav band to shoot over the years.

Total Control were my fave band to shoot over the years.

As 2013 winds up and my time as Photo Editor at Who The Hell comes to an end, I thought I’d give y’all a quick review of pictures that moved us this year as my farewell.

We have been lucky to share in the development of Rebecca Capp and Alan Weedon as they’ve honed their skills over the last couple of years. I feel quite proud of the work we have shared this year, as well as and the expansion of the ‘Sequence’ into the blog has worked because these guys are so dedicated to making great images.

I’d also like to mention our new Sydney guy Jack Toohey who created an exceptional Sequence late in the year with Bligh Twyford-Moore.

Keep in touch here and thanks for reading xo.