New Music

LISTEN: ScotDrakula – ‘Shazon’

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ScotDrakula

After last month’s single ‘O’Clock’ took the foot off the gas slightly, ScotDrakula are straight back on blistering form with this track ‘Shazon’, also off their forthcoming self-titled LP. Though still not quite as seethingly explosive as ‘Break Me Up’ or ‘Burner’ (ages) before it, ‘Shazon’ makes up for it in almost dangerous levels of head-nodding catchiness (though I was momentarily disappointed that they hadn’t named the song after everyone’s favourite aunt ‘Shazza’, as I thought on first glance).

The immediate, exciting bass riff that we’ve come to expect from these guys is back – as is Matt Neumann’s yowling, drawling vocal which always hits a perfect balance between deranged and relatable. There’s no superfluous parts or fat to be trimmed – the biggest appeal of a three-piece. Where a lot of psych-y garage-y bands are choosing to manufacture excitement by packing the stage full of members and the recordings full of superfluous jams, Scotdrakula keep everything tight and in constant motion. This is get up and shake it as confidently as your social anxiety will allow kinda music, and this band is one of the first I’ve seen live in ages where their set left me wanting more, rather than more than ready for a break and a beer.

Have a listen to the digital version of the ‘O’Clock’ / ‘Shazon’ cassingle here, where you can also go on a waitlist for hardcopies, since they sold out real quick. You can also check out the nostalgic (presumably, otherwise someone went to A LOT of trouble) found-footage video below.

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LISTEN: Ara Koufax – ‘Brenda’

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The second single from Oceans Apart, a 19-track compilation showcasing Melbourne’s diverse club scene, mixed and curated by Cut Copy, dropped last week. If the other tracks are anything like as good as this one (and NO ZU’s contribution, the no-wave pilfering ‘Raw Vis Vision’ – replete with sax, disco whistle and cowbell – is a pretty fair attempt), then Oceans Apart could do great things for the local underground.

Ara Koufax is a new project from old hands Sam Gill and Luke Neher of Naysayer & Gilsun. It’s largely the result of a working beach holiday the pair took a little over a year ago to thrash out some new ideas. While Ara Koufax isn’t unrecognisable as the work of Gill and Neher, the sounds here are more expansive, less clean and monochrome, than the pair’s earlier material.

Their first single, ‘Converge’, is a warm, textured house track, with scuffed loops and a vocal that could have been plucked straight from a sweaty dancefloor in 1980s New York. ‘Brenda’, which unfolds in twice the time, is a much lighter affair. It sails along, with euphoric vocals taken from the late, great Brenda Fassie riding atop bubbling percussion and ascending keys.

Ara Koufax’s debut EP will be out soon on Downtime. Meanwhile, Oceans Apart is due for digital release on 11 November, via Cut Copy’s own Cutters Records, with vinyl samplers to come on 18 November. Preorders are available now from iTunes.

Don’t miss the Oceans Apart launch party at Melbourne Music Week on Saturday, 15 November, featuring Cut Copy DJs, Andras & Oscar, NO ZU, World’s End Press and heaps more.

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

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Super Magic Hats

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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INTRODUCING: Amateur Dance

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Amateur Dance is Joseph Cookson, a 20-year-old from Melbourne who makes deep house jams, betraying a nostalgia for the unremembered 90s. His formula is simple but effective – juxtaposing spare melodies and light-handed production with the intimate words of total strangers. One woman admits, “I can’t produce… I just – I can’t”, and entreats you directly: “I don’t get it, but I’m grateful, and I want you to know how grateful”. Another demurs with a self-conscious giggle, “My life’s not that interesting”. Cookson executes these songs with a youthful earnestness and unabashed referentiality that’s pretty hard not to like.

The first Amateur Dance single, ‘what i had 2 do’ was a stunner, pairing Death Cab for Cutie with the ranting of bodybuilder CT Fletcher. With follow up EP keep it up receiving some positive attention overseas, Cookson has signed to October Records, where he’s kind of an odd fit on a roster of more ‘saleable’ acts – from the maximalist Afrobeat of Ribongia to the insipid white girl RnB of Elizabeth Rose and Vanessa Elisha.

Cookson’s first release with October Records, the Talking About Yourself EP, is another solid work – though, in keeping with the theme of self-effacement, the tracks have names like ‘Beginner’s Luck’ and ‘Room for Improvement’. Taking a populist route on the title track, Cookson samples an interview with that archetype of humility, Aubrey Drake Graham. The EP keeps on hitting the pleasure centres, moving to a young woman murmuring breathless endearments on ‘Room for Improvement’ and finishing up with the touching and strident prescriptions of ‘Advocate for Love’.

The chief risk for Amateur Dance is that if he keeps on flogging this recipe, his music could start to feel formulaic – calculated, even. Cookson’s obviously got a good ear; I just hope he broadens the range a bit in time for the release of a debut full-length.

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INTRODUCING: Weak Boys

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weakboys

There’s nothing quite as manly and striking as a bunch of blokes in a band called Weak Boys. I mean, that’s a name that instantly assumes a Bon Scott-like confidence, a title worthy of a king. ‘Hello, we are Weak Boys’, is all one has to bellow in order to send all the other blokes running in terror, and for every girl in the vicinity to swoon.

Weak Boys are a Sydney trio made up of Matt Banham, Craig Lyons, and Chris Yates. Some of the other bands these guys have played in include Dollar Bar, Disgusting People, Little Lovers and Summer Flake‘s Sydney band. (You’re not a success until you have a band ready to go in every state, so congrats Summer Flake). So it comes as no surprise that their own lil’ supergroup is something you’ll want to spend all your hard-earned cash on.

After making every drongo on a Sunday do a collective ‘Oath!’ with the release of their single ‘Hangovers’ earlier this year, they’ve gone and released their first LP, Weekdays/Weekends. It’s a soulful ode to living in modern day Sydney and being, in the eternal words of Lethal Weapons’ Murtaugh, ‘too old for this shit’.

Besides ‘Hangovers’, Weekdays/Weekends is crammed with beautiful slices of mope-pop, and every track abounds with happily depressed Yo La Tengo-isms. ‘Dog Farm’ is a track that should get all the Cool Dog Group participants excited, and ‘Deal With It’ is like if Bart Simpson discovered The Ocean Party. Weak Boys – they’re probably one of the most underrated bands in Australia right now.

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LISTEN: Broadway Sounds – ‘Something Sensual’

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‘Something Sensual’ is the synth boogie track off Broadway Sounds’ most recent EP, The Last Detail, and sits amongst the band’s signature Afro-pop and calypso influenced jams.

Most tracks from the Melbourne 4-piece would be best enjoyed sipping a rainbow cocktail stacked with exotic fruits by the pool of your favourite low-cost roadside motel – all of which you can see in the clip to their track ‘Something Sensual’.  It looks like an over-40s dating infomercial one minute and astrological matchmaking the next.

Frankly, if you produce an analogue synth boogie track that doesn’t have 90s fluoro-wash VHS production and breakdancing Adidas clad youth in its film clip, you’re doing it wrong.

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WATCH: Day Ravies – This Side of the Fence

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Day Ravies

As a solemn patron of Sydney’s best bands, I was noticeably more bright and cheerful in the following days of the release of Day Ravies’ latest single, ‘This Side of the Fence’. The dreamy shoegaze foursome had been out for while due to some injury, while side-projects such as Shrapnel and Disgusting People were getting a little bit more love time.

But Day Ravies have bounced back from the sideline, and have adopted, maybe even ‘modernised’ their lax sound. The new single features bouncy synth lines strutting next to wobbly guitar belches. Tie all those sounds together with some pixie-like vocals ala. Bilinda Butcher, and the result is goodness to your ears.

They’ve also just put out a great new video, which is a bit like Lewis Carol and an episode of Art Attack on smack. The video is as fun and bright as ‘This Side of the Fence’ itself.

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