Kidzen – ‘Um, Ah!’

I think the best description of the music of Kidzen I’ve read is “future jazz”, because it encapsulates the musical sensibility of the project so succinctly.  It’s steeped in jazz sounds and themes, but structurally it’s re-imagined, re-invented and re-thought to form a new jazz mold; one that is unafraid of embracing electronica, progressive and freeform ideas.

Kidzen’s self-titled debut album was one of the most diverse records I heard in 2006, running the gamut of musical genres: from the more jazz-based like the wickedly awesome ‘Um, Ah!’ to the more electronic/dub sounds of ‘Supersticious’.  World music rears its head on ‘Superpeople’ and tracks like ‘Burn’ (which features the unique husky voice of Inga Liljestrom) and ‘Calm’ demonstrate the band’s more electronic elements.

Kidzen is the brainchild of Sydney bass player extraordinaire Cameron Undy, who has leant his talents to bands such as Inga Liljestrom, Bugz In The Atttic, Jamie Lloyd and Numerology, as well as being a founding member of Jazzgroove, an organisation set up to benefit the Australian jazz scene.  The album also comes with a cool remix disc, with tracks from the album being given a once-over by a bunch of artists including Jamie Lloyd, Deepchild, Rephrase and Jimi Polar.  Kidzen was released by the record label Future Classic, known more for its electronica/dance releases, so kudos to the label for releasing such a challenging and leftfield record. 

It was basically impossible to pick a track that adequetly summarises the album, so I went with my favourite track off the record: opening song ‘Um, Ah!’

http://www.kidzen.com.au/
http://www.futureclassic.com.au

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Josh Pyke – ‘Lines On Palms’

Sydney troubadour Josh Pyke launches his excellent debut record Memories & Dust this week.  I’ve been lucky enough to have had a copy of the album for about a month now, and I can definitely say it’s a great album, built around Josh’s wonderfully engaging lyrics and sweet acoustic guitar melodies.  And who can forget his fantastic voice.

This is the second single off Memories & Dust, and there’s also a filmclip for ‘Lines On Palms’ on YouTube, and you can watch it here. 

I recently sat down with Josh to have a chat about all things Pyke-related for Fasterlouder, and you can read my interview with him here.

More Josh Pyke

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Rand and Holland – ‘Night is Only Young’

Last week Rand and Holland’s manager Eliza emailed me about their new stuff and warned me that this was more folk oriented than the kind of music I usually blog about. She’s kinda right, but I was a big fan of acoustic music and can still appreciate good songwriting over the now dominant beat in modern songs that’s oh-so-now. I’ve heard of these guys before and I have their previous recording. I wasn’t so impressed and I guess it’s very easy to be ageists when it comes to evaluating music – listening to hundreds of demos a week gets the ear tired pretty quick.

But Night is Only Young is a true gem of a find. Although the subject matter is about late night hanging out, somehow I get the feel that if I were to listen to this song on Sunday afternoon nursing a hangover, I would just feel better. It’s soothing. It makes things slightly easier. It would remind me why I drank so much the night before.

I don’t know much else about the duo, except that their record will be coming out on the prestigious Spunk label who is also home to locals Clue to Kalo and Holly Throsby. I’ve yet to hear this track on the radio, so hopefully someone will pick it up soon.

www.myspace.com/randandholland

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Mr Wednesday – ‘On The Tail Of Day One’

Hailing from Adelaide, Mr Wednesday play music that sounds like it’s eminating from a distant radio, from a time or place not of this world or universe, perhaps residing in another universe or another brane (depending if you’re a believer of String Theory).  It’s the music of old ghosts, of hazy memories; emotive, moving and haunting.

Call it what you will – post rock, perhaps, though it’s probably the least-favoured genre tag in all of music – but Mr Wednesday create ethereal pieces of music that gracefully wander along.  There’s no definitive structure, with the music lacking any remnants of verses or choruses.  The tunes are densely layered affairs, making use of soft piano melodies, reverb-soaked guitars, lush strings and what their bio aptly describes as “corroded electronics”.  You could point your finger at acts like Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mum, Radiohead and Boards of Canada as influences on their ambient movements.

Their debut album The Garden Where Parties Grow resurrects the long-lost art of the concept album.  The album is described as: “a thirteen-track album that follows a three day sequence in the life of Mr Wednesday as he comes to terms with the world according to Mr Industry. To put it simply, the title is the city. An almost uninhabitable place where social functions form the breadth of existence, work is a means to success and the art of being seen is an enviable talent”.  Self-indulgent, perhaps, but beautiful nonetheless.

http://www.mrwednesday.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/mrwednesday

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Love Of Diagrams – ‘The Pyramid’

After four months living in Melbourne I’ve identified a few qualities that to me define a subset of the Melbourne sound: the Fitzroy bands. Big bottom end, statement-type lyrics and a clear disregard for pop songwriting structures. Fitzroy is a self declared chic suburb of Melbourne akin to Sydney’s King St side of Newtown, but which still has a fertile music scene thanks to the multiple small venues that are allowed to operate under Melbourne’s more sensible entertainment laws. Going for an excursion into this scene every second person I meet is in a band and they all more or less follow the same values when it comes to songwriting, or even performance. It’s not big on punk, and has idealised notions of cool, inner city independence and don’t give a fuck attitude.

Numerous bands play in the scene, some of which has been covered here (have a guess at which ones). But the most famous and successful export has got to be Love of Diagrams. Signed to Matador and getting critical live reviews overseas LOD looks the most equiped and is in the best position to take this sound out to the world. I have to admit after seeing so many bands in this scene, if I didn’t know LOD beforehand I probably will not be able to pick them out from the rest. But they got lucky, their song or the first few bars of the catchy ‘No Way Out’ was played in the OC, and good breaks came after that. This song is the first single out taken from their upcoming album ‘Mosaic’, recorded by Bob Weston (Shellac) in Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studios.

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Miami Horror – ‘Don’t Be On With Her’ (mp3)

Miami Horror is 20 year old Ben Plant from Melbourne have garnered some blog loving overseas recently with his production work for Gameboy/Gamegirl. This is track is a preview from an upcoming debut full length Bravado. There’s not much detail as he doesn’t really play live except for DJing gigs, but his obvious influences from 80s clubbing favourites Prince and early Madonna gives a fresh take on the jagged electro beats dominant of dance floors today. This would fit perfectly in the next installment of Grand Theft Auto Vice City soundtrack. Thanks to Discodust for the file.

www.myspace.com/miamihorror

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Lenka – ‘Chance’

The beautiful Lenka has updated us with an exclusive track from her worldwide travels. Currently in Los Angeles for shows and songwriting, she will be flying over to Paris to live for a month. Lucky!

www.myspace.com/lenkamusic 

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