New Music

Shady Lane – ‘Starfish’ Split 7″

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SHADY LANE

Next month, on May 27, four independent international labels are joining forces to release a split 7” of two of their favourite artists. The split 7” will feature this track ‘Starfish’ by Shady Lane and ‘Jollica’ by the UK’s Among Brothers. The labels are all run by smart women so we thought it was worth mentioning these internationals as well as our awesome local gal, Julia Wilson at Rice is Nice.

“Kissability in the UK is run by Jen Long aiming to ‘make the music a little more awesome’, Cardinal White in the US run by Jess Abbott of projects Now, Now and Tancred, Japanese label HOU project, run by Haruna Taira, who is also a key promoter for artists such as Toe”.

Shady Lane hasn’t been featured on who the hell before, I think. I’d have to search to be sure so don’t do that incase I’m wrong but they have been talked about across the blogs and with good reason. The have a great sound. It’s Australian, warm, fuzzy and very sweet. Shady Lane is Jordy Lane, who writes the tunes and plays guitar/ sings those soft but often dark lullabies, together with Pete Avard on drums, Sarah Jullienne on synth and Conrad Richters (Richard In Your Mind) on bass.

After signing with Rice Is Nice Records, the debut album Here We Go, Down The Black Hole was released and a live band was formed to translate the sound to the stage. They released their second long player in 2012, Built Guilt, which featured the JJJ fav, ‘Dumb Hope‘.

The split 7″ is out May 27 and you can check out both tracks here or stream Shady Lane below.

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LISTEN: Johnny and The Fembots

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johnny and the fembots

(photo by Thomas Oliver)

Johnny And The Fembots are an annoyingly talented group of youths from Brisbane, featuring members of Go Violets and Jeremy Neal’s live band. I knew I was gonna like them when they released their first single (a Christmas song) – the delightful  ‘(I Wish It Could Be) Christmas Forever’. Their second single ‘Hey, Don’t!’ Has the same breathy, effortless harmonies and naive 60’s pop aesthetics. Coming in at just over a minute, it’s a short and shiny gem of a song. The video to this track also features some swooning over 50c soap in a laundromat. It’s charming…check it out.

Keep up with Johnny and The Fembots while they do great things here.

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MAP April 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 37-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Fotos Del Otoño – Diario De Hoy

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For those of you living in the southern hemisphere like us, autumn is already here. So we figured it’s the perfect season for playing Superposición, the third album by Fotos Del Otoño, a band with a pop acoustic vibe and introspective lyrics. Diario de Hoy is our selected track from this record, but you can download the whole thing from Bandcamp.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
Willow Beats – Alchemy

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Electronic music in Australia has never burned brighter. Melbourne’s Willow Beats are Narayana Johnson and Kalyani Ellis, an uncle-niece duo who are leading the fort of this country’s best electronic producers right now. Fans of Mount Kimbie and Flume will gravitate to Alchemy fast. Willow Beats definitely have something beyond a magic touch. This is complex, spectral electronica at its best.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig
Francis International Airport – The Right Ones

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It is no overstatement to say that Francis International Airport are Austria’s most relevant band with an international appeal. With their 2010 album In The Woods, they took the local indie community by storm and made quite an impression at festivals such as Eurosonic and Primavera. Three years later, additional e-drums and synths contribute to the more electronic sound of its equally great successor Cache.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Bambas Dois – World Cry

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Bambas Dois, the project created by musical producer BiD (who has worked with artists such as Nação Zumbi and Seu Jorge), reunites a great ensemble to experiment with a mix of Brazilian and Jamaican sounds.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts
Lake Names – The Ostrich

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If their first EP, 2011’s Echo, was “music to make breakfast to” then Lake Names’ latest release is the soundtrack to a picnic lunch on the beach. The Nova Scotia band’s Folly EP tastes like salt water spray and sunshine, and makes me long for a fix of vitamin D. My favourite so far is The Ostrich, but you can’t go wrong with any of these four songs of sparkling reverby pop, available as a free download from Bandcamp.

CHILE: Super 45
Cadenasso – La Puerta

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Filipe Cadenasso, frontman of established independent band Matorral, started his parallel solo career a few years ago. He moves away from Matorral’s rock sound to show a quieter and intimate side. Un Ejercicio is Cadenasso’s second studio album, and it sounds like we were with him in the same studio. First single La Puetra, with vocals from Bernadita Martinez, manages to give a sense of closure at times.

COLOMBIA: El Parlante Amarillo
Globos De Aire – El Mar Es Nuestro

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Juan Carlos Torres is the driving force behind Bogotá’s Globos De Aire, whose music has elements of shoegaze, post-rock and electronica. This year they released their second album El Día y La Noche (“Day And Night”), a concept record based on duality. El Mar Es Nuestro is taken from the disc’s Day side.

CUBA: suenacubano.com
Qva Libre – 2012

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An exquisite fusion to which no one can resist dancing. Witty lyrics that speak of the enjoyment of life and the intensity with which we live every second because we never know when it will end. Qva Libre focus on mixing genres such as funk, reggae, rock and hip hop to the rhythm of Cuban music. They have a very distinctive visual style and energetic stage projection.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
The New Spring – Final Day

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The New Spring, aka singer-songwriter Bastian Kallesøe, will release his second album Secret Armor in Europe and Japan on April 29. First single Who Do You Love? has been out for a while and here’s the MAP exclusive Final Day, three minutes of the Dane’s beautiful songwriting that is sure to move.

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LISTEN: Cosmo’s Midnight

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cosmo's-midnight

Do you like Instagram? I like Instagram. My friend’s a Lo-fi kinda girl but I’m more of a Walden. So too is this stunning new video from Cosmo’s Midnight, filmed entirely underwater and under what looks like an Instagram filter.

The Sydney-based duo (with the help of friends) shot the aquatic video themselves, which features an illusive underwater dancer, swirling around in sync to the music, who slowly and elegantly starts to peel off each item of clothing. It’s an absolutely mesmerising watch.

Cosmo’s Midnight first piqued peoples’ interest last year with their remix of Flume’s ‘Sleepless’, later released on a Future Classic compilation. But ‘Phantasm’ is Cosmo & Patrick Liney’s brand new single, which the twin brothers dropped this week. There’s something a little Purity Ring-esque to their sound- perhaps it’s the dreamy vocals of guest vocalist Nicole Millar, albeit more mellow and ambient. The single caters to all your electro-pop needs; its lush synths are tantalisingly sweet, its jolty beat will get you body-rolling, and the tranquility in Millar’s voice with soothe those stress-induced wrinkles on your forehead.

The brothers have now joined the Yes Please family, and will be releasing a new EP on May 8. But for now, treat yo’self to a free download of ‘Phantasm’ here.

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LISTEN: Great Earthquake – ‘Mind Maps’ LP

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Great-Earthquake

Sitting somewhere on the spectrum of ‘Australiana’ is Mind Maps by Great Earthquake.

This is probably my irrelevant organisation of a release that’s familiar in parts, but wholly unquantifiable in others. Think vocals with a distinctive ‘Australian’ voice, and tracks that don’t readily fall into some archetypal ‘indie’ feel. You could say that this is almost world music, but maybe that’s just being lazy.

What’s an interesting thing to note about the feel of this release, is its ability to project a sense of immersion. Despite the fact that it’s technically an acoustic album, this still has qualities akin to Caribou and The Townhouses, in the sense that it establishes a sprawling sense of place. Caribou’s wrote his 2010 release Swim about his literal love of swimming, while Leigh Hannah dreamed about the Orient and shifting environments in Diaspora. Noah Symons, the man behind Great Earthquake set out on this release with Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges in mind.

The record weaves these ideas through with the sounds of ambient hinterland recordings, presumably from that same region. This is especially true on ‘Human Activity’, which is one of the most beautiful points on Mind Maps, in my eyes. It instills a sense of intimacy that makes the tag of a ‘bedroom producer’ actually ring true.

The ethereal ‘Coping Mechanisms’ hints at that too. There’s very little that separates you from Symons as you listen to this. And by no means does ‘bedroom producer’ present something of a detraction of Symons’ musical ability, because really – this creation of intimacy is vulnerability when you flip things over. The lack of lyrics provide a veil, but it’s Symons effectively coming at you unfiltered for the entirety of this release. And that’s something definitely worthy of praise.

So, this release is something that strikes the right balance between rolling with an overt theme, but at the same time, doesn’t discount the importance of structure, instrumentation, and all that other ‘grown-up’ stuff that makes any release stand on its own two feet.

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EVENT: Bermuda Float #2

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Pearl-Oyster-960x642

I’d eat what he’s serving. In fact, I have. Would you like to? Join Pearl Oyster serving deliciousness with the sounds of merry bands of colourful musical pleasure, onboard the BERMUDA FLOAT with King Tuff and other gangs of awesome including UV Race, Mighty Duke and the Lords, Made For Chickens By Robots, and Peace Pipe DJ’s. Yep, those are all real band names. Bermuda Float is back for another wet stroll down the yarra… or maybe out on the ocean – I don’t know but it’s not stopping so take your floaties and get tropical. Presser time:

King Tuff is the brainchild of garage-rocker Kyle Thomas. Known chiefly as King Tuff to the rock-nerd underworld, he has moonlighted in a multitude of bands, such as psych-folk band Feathers, garage punk and Sub Pop affiliated outfit Happy Birthday as well as J Mascis’ doom band Witch. Gracing our shores with his lo-fi garage pop for the first time ever!

+ Catch UV Race before they head off on their 2nd US of A tour this May.

BERMUDA FLOAT #2 THURSDAY 25TH APRIL – That’s ANZAC Day – (not Australia day)

Tickets on sale here. Get ’em while you can. You can check out Wing and Gill for more shenanigans and a very trippy background image.

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LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR: The Eversons

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Love_Thy_Neighbour

 

Four graphic designers hanging off a wire fence. Who knows, this could be the start to a successful sitcom. Here’s our third in the ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ tune swap series with our pals over at Under the Radar. This week, Courtney Sanders introduces you to The Eversons. 

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The Eversons

Did you know we’re totally proud of our New Zealand accents? We’re also a self-depracating lot so you may not have heard us talk about it much, but there are a growing number of New Zealand alt-rock bands embracing their Kiwi-dom by singing about it like they mean it.

Enter Welington group The Eversons, who released their first material a mere couple of years ago and were booked for Laneway Festival 2013. That’s a testament to their rambunctious live show and catchy-as-hell hooks. If Weezer and Pavement had an Antipodean baby, this is what it would sound like. ‘Could It Ever Get Better’ is one of their earlier tracks, but so definitive of their college-rock sound and slacker ‘tude it had to be the single to introduce you to these loveable tykes.

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