New Music

LISTEN: Melt – ‘Neighbours’

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Melt

Here’s a word you don’t often associate with Canberra experimental, improvisational guitar artist Melt (Jordan Rodger from Wives, Primary Colours): concise. But here we are, with this concise, immediate guitar pop song as the first single off his upcoming record. He only allows himself a few bars of meandering guitar before it becomes rhythmic and driven, and drums come in and we’re pelting towards the end. ‘Neighbours’ is even more focussed than previous single ‘Sydney to Canberra’ off last year’s Theta Waves, though it shares the same tight, top-heavy drumming.

Roger has also kept up with the collaborative vibe of Theta Waves (which featured guests like Orlando Furious and California Girls), with Snowy (Liam Halliwell) of The Ocean Party, Cool Sounds, No Local etc on vocals. Here Halliwell does that thing where he follows up cute everyday observations with the perfect heaps-real line in ‘the neighbours watched me sleep, I didn’t mind/ Remember what we could stand about each other?’. There’s maybe four sentences of lyrics in total, repeated over and over. Then an abrupt stop. Then a little more pretty guitar to coax the track to a close. But that’s all they need to make sure you’re left with a strong feeling of nagging desperation.

There’s a little disclaimer on the Soundcloud for this song, letting you know that the rest of Melt’s new record probably won’t be this easy. It’ll probably just be beautiful, cool and surprising instead. Keep an eye out on Friday, 20 May for the cassette, out via Cinnamon Records.

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LISTEN: Tralala Blip – ‘Oceans of Love’

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tralala blip

With all the kind of dark-leaning, ‘go the fuck off’ electronic music we’ve all enjoyed listening/ getting trashed to lately, it’s sometimes a relief to just bloody relax. ‘Oceans of Love’, the title track from the new (…ish) EP by Tralala Blip is about as chill and pretty as it gets.

Tralala Blip are from Lismore in northern New South Wales, where cashed-up sea changers and real-deal hippies collide in beautiful mountainous bushland. This might be why they sound like not much else around at the moment – they’re isolated enough to do their own thing, but close enough to Brisbane to catch some ears (this latest LP is out on Bris label Tenth Court). They’ve been around since 2007, releasing albums of super intriguing experimental pop at a relaxed pace.

‘Oceans of Love’ is pure escapism – pools of water and light and all that nice stuff. The bass grooves along at the perfect head-bobbing pace, never deviating from its mission to make you feel real good. The video features a turtle swimming around looking at stuff, which is exactly what you feel like watching when you listen to this song.

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There’s a lot of hypnotic, out-there sounds on the record to love, with many of the songs mining more unsettling territory than this one, if that’s your vibe. You can hear and buy ‘Oceans of Love’ via Tenth Court.

Tralala Blip are playing the Opera House on 25 May as part of TEDxSydney.

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LISTEN: Carla Dal Forno – ‘Fast Moving Cars’ / ‘Better Yet’

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carla dal forno

Carla Dal Forno has previously released stuff as part of Melbourne/Berlin experimental acts Tarcar and F ingers, who’ve got those  ‘bleak’ ‘dark’ ‘cold’ ‘difficult’ tags stuck on so tight, mostly only weird dudes can really be bothered to get into them.

But I reckon you could get pretty into this track, weird dude or no. In ‘Fast Moving Cars’ Dal Forno is having one of those calm ‘this is how I feel, take it or leave it’ conversations that you have in your head but which never come out right in real life. But somehow Dal Forno’s made it come out perfect; you know exactly what she means when she’s telling whoever to ‘do something exciting’ and ‘yeah, come on, be reckless’. The song’s all subterranean bass and vocals, with an undercurrent of spacey buzz. Taunting vocal melodies delivering lines like ‘I get turned on by fast racing cars’ bring a bit of attitude – if not exactly ‘personality’ to her hypnotically monotone delivery.

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The video is simple and cool, too – for a song that’s about the desire for new experiences and the exotic and exciting, it has this typically Australian bush setting, recognisable from school trips and family trips and friend trips. It’s nostalgic but kind of spooky, following a girl as she walks down a path through the trees, into the river and swims away. Probably just to the other side but ~who knows~?

The B side, ‘Better Yet’, is maybe a little more typical of the cold electronic stuff we’ve been hearing a bit of lately, but it’s even more spookily beautiful – hooded robes/ candles/ ‘trying to find your way out of windowless rooms’ shit. It give me an intense feeling of unease.

 

Dal Forna lives in Berlin these days, ‘Fast Moving Cars’ is out on London label Blackest Ever Black and it has about 11,000 views on YouTube by now, so she’s already doing better than me or you. Still, have a listen.

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WATCH: Chelsea Bleach – ‘Public Safety’

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chelsea bleach

“What’s mine is mine” states lead vocalist Emily Gayfer on the long drawn wailing choruses of Chelsea Bleach’s latest single ‘Public Safety’. Chelsea Bleach have been working their feminist riot grrrl punk stylings in a ‘legit’ sense since late 2014 (unless of course you count the various impromptu gigs and house party performances), and they’ve carved out a beautiful little niche for themselves making punk music for anyone who isn’t a straight white male.

You can watch the brand spankin’ new video for ‘Public Safety’ below, produced by Sorcha Mackenzie; but if you really want to get a taste of beautiful 90s punk nostalgia, you ought to head along to the tune’s official launch at the Old Bar on May 20th (where you can also enjoy the wonderful talents of Wet Lips, Two Steps on the Water, and HABITS going off at the DJ booth).

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LISTEN: Tim Richmond – ‘Come to Papa’

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Tim Richmond Come to Papa cover 300

A chef and a publican (he co-owns the lovely Longplay in North Fitzroy), Tim Richmond has been composing songs, slowly and steadily, since 2008, using a guitar he first bought as a teenager. His last record, Dot, consisted of stark, skewed guitar pop, as idiosyncratic as you might expect from a businessman with the freedom to experiment, tinkering determinedly after hours.

Richmond’s first two solo records were made with local stalwarts like Declan Kelly, Nick Huggins, Kishore Ryan and James Cecil. For the latest Tim Richmond Group release, What’s in the Middle?, he’s convened another all-star team, with Mark Monnone of the Lucksmiths, Monnone Alone and Lost & Lonesome Recording Co. on bass and Joe Alexander of Terrible Truths and Bedroom Suck Records on drums.

Lead single ‘Come to Papa’ sounds slick and dense compared to Richmond’s earlier work. In place of Dot‘s spidery riffs, he’s opted for bright chords and effects pedals, and a characteristically agile bass line from Monnone is well paired with Alexander’s featherlight drumming. Cheerful, wry and just a little creepy, the track’s basically a football anthem for cool dads – with a sneaky change of time signature to underscore the strangeness of this chorus: ‘Come to papa / Bada bing bada boom … Booya!’

What’s in the Middle? is out on 1 July via Lost & Lonesome. You can catch Tim Richmond Group supporting Cool Sounds at Hugs & Kisses on Saturday night, and at Lost & Lonesome’s Gasometer residency on Tuesday, 17 May.

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LISTEN: Kane Ikin – Modern Pressure

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Kane Ikin

Melbourne-based producer Kane Ikin has been crafting his brand of brooding, slow burn electronica for a number of years. After a run of solid releases for the likes of 12K and This Thing, he finds a suitable home for his latest album on experimental UK label Type Recordings.

His new album, Modern Pressure, follows on from EPs Warehouses and Circular Tip, both of which saw Ikin’s sound emerge from the delightfully swampy murk of his earlier work, juxtaposing crisp sonic details with his hazy signature style.

As the title suggests, the album was created during a difficult period for Ikin. Pressures both financial and otherwise inspired a condensed period of creativity, with majority of the album written in quick succession. These struggles permeate the sound of the album, an unsettling twinge of anxiety underpinning each track.

Like Warehouses, Modern Pressure sounds like music for large concrete spaces, the cold sheen and ghostly echoes evoking stark industrial areas where programmed machinery replicates object after object with flawless precision. From the techno pulse of opener ‘Partial’ and ‘Tap Tap Collapse’ to the lumbering stumble of ‘Pulp’, the rhythmic elements play a more prominent role on the album, propelling the buried melodies along as if caught in their slipstream.

Modern Pressure is another impressive entry in Kane Ikin’s stellar catalogue, his sound growing and evolving in all the right ways.

Watch the stunning clip for ‘Tap Tap Collapse’ below and be sure to grab a copy of Modern Pressure pronto.

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LISTEN: Hollywood Models – ‘Fare Evade’

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hollywood models

It’s the kind of conversation you’ve seen played out hundreds of times over social media or during shit small-talk at parties where you don’t know anybody. Fuckin’ MYKI, mate.

Like the time when you got done for having your feet on the seat, and spent the rest of the day trying to fathom why anyone would make it their job to police that sort of thing. Or when they introduced on-the-spot fines but the bloke that got you before you could jump off at Vic Park to touch on neglected to mention the new system, positively bursting with righteous glee as he slapped your ignorant ass with a $233 fine.

Don’t worry though, Hollywood Models feel your pain; they get it. Melbourne natives all (with some members of punk outfit Chelsea Bleach), they’re a kind of novelty garage pop outfit that’ll remind you of something like the B-52s. On their debut track, ‘Fare Evade’, they extoll the pitfalls of being a poor uni bastard with a written-off car, using up 20 percent of their pay check to even get to work in the first place.

It’s pretty clear from the first mashed organ chords and fumbling bass that Hollywood Models aren’t necessarily trying to be ‘good’ in the same way most other bands working in Melbourne right now – and truth be told, that uniqueness stretches out to virtually every element of the Hollywood Models experience. Just take a look at their Facebook page: FILTH PITT on vocals? GLENN STEFANI on the mysterious ‘guitar twang’? Who the fuck are these people?

‘Fare evade on Christmas, fare evade on Easter, fare evade on New Years Eve,’ sings backing vocalist Svetlana Del Ray, as a sort of catch call holding the whole thing together.

Hollywood Models aren’t the kind of band you’re going to be linking your friends in your *~ V-SERIOUS AND COOL MELB SCENE MUSIC ~* Facebook group, though. They’re clearly more of an exercise in ridiculous aesthetic and stereotype than anything else – the tradie drummer, the beatnik bassist (?), the dorky scientist on keyboards and pads. Plus, they write songs about fare evading, so there’s that, too. Seeing the whole thing explode into life live is the right way to go – and you can, at their single launch on 29 May at the Workers Club.

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