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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Young Lovers – ‘Talking in French’

You couldn’t ask for a more appropriate or fitting title to the debut single of Melbourne five piece Young Lovers than ‘Talking in French’ which is due for radio release in the coming months, with a debut E.P to follow shortly after. Though French maybe the language of lovers, this single will surly speak to the suitors of pop driven indie; romantic vocals, yet enough rhythm to shake up the dance floor. Though I found it quite similar, and might I dare add, not as immediately catchy as Starky, before you shrug of these romantics as yet another indie band, have a listen to the demo version of ‘Talking in French’ or catch them in live music haunts in and around Melbourne and let me know what you think.

www.myspace.com/wearetheyounglovers 

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Tiptronik vs M.I.A. – ‘Uraqt’

Everyone loves a thumping bootleg mashup, and they don’t get much better, or illegal, than Tiptronik’s reworking of the M.I.A track ‘Uraqt’.  Rumour is M.I.A’s camp may be suing the Sydney duo because of this track.  So, in protest, we’re going to spread the love, exclusively on this blog!

So who are Tiptronik?  Well aside from being one of the most-hyped new acts on the Sydney electronic scene, they actually have a fairly well-known past.  Seshan Moodley makes up one half of the duo: he was a one-time member of rap/metal outfit Parkside Killers who supported Ice-T and The Beastie Boys.  The other 50% of Tiptronik is Ramesh Sathiah, who aside from being creative director at Song Zu also has a history in composition and production, having produced Grinspoon’s first EP. 

They’ve got a tonne of experience behind them, and they’re set to be the next big thing in the Sydney electro scene.  Check out their MySpace site for some more original material: you can get theirs track ‘Crash and Burn (nodoze)’ and ‘Away’ on iTunes but no doubt they’ll be an album sometime soon.  They’re also working on a track with Grinspoon vocalist Phil Jamieson too.  They’re making their liive debut in March so make sure you keep an eye and ear out for them.

http://www.myspace.com/tiptronikmusic

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My Disco – ‘Calling Cure’

My Disco are an odd band.  Amazing, but nonetheless odd.  I never thought I’d wholeheartedly enjoy a band which such monotone vocals.  But it probably helps that they’re one of the most rhythmically-addictive bands I’ve seen or heard in qutie a while.

There’s no genre you could tag this Melbourne three-piece with that would encompass their sound.  “Progressive” captures their lack of song structure, but it conjures up images of 12 minute songs a la Tool.  And even then real prog rock is bands like King Crimson and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis.  “Minimalist” is true in the sense that their simple lineup and lack of effects is minimal, but it’s by no means minimalist in the sense of ambient beat-less electronic.  “Indie” may be closer to the mark because of My Disco’s infectious groove, but then bands like Dappled Cities Fly are indie.  Maybe we’ll still to rock.  Or maybe My Disco are impossible to describe using words.

Benjamin and Liam Andrews used to play in one of my favourite Australian bands, Clann Zu.  My Disco was a side project during the time of Clann Zu, and a number of rough 7″ and CD-R recordings used to be available.  Once Clann Zu kicked the bucket, My Disco became a full time project.  They’ve toured fairly extensively around the world so there’s a lot of My Disco fans around the world.  The band released their first CD album last year, entitled Cancer, and I managed to see them support Mogwai at The Metro Theatre in Sydney last July.  There was so much bass the roof was rattling.  Amazing.

P.S. Someone called these guys “math rock”.  Way off!

http://www.mydisco.com.au
http://www.myspace.com/mdband

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Mercy Arms – ‘Kept Low’

Cast your live music memories back to last year and you might remember the band that was hand picked by American dreams The Strokes to support them on a sold out Australia tour. A band I’m already very fond of, Sydney’s Mercy Arms [not The Mercy Arms] will be releasing! After a road trip south to Adelaide to record with producers from Sound Works Studios, Thom, Kiren, Julian and Ashley are back in town with a yet to be titled E.P for release just in time for their festival debut at V-Festival, with dates in Sydney and Brisbane. I have been lucky enough to hear a preview of this release and can report it is a five track musical journey along a path of dance floor favourites, large stadium chorus, catchy guitar leads with a delicately ambient ending.

I am particularly bias towards the quality song writing, but thank god there is finally a small taste of Mercy Arms you can take home, and from what I gather, it’s just going to leave you anxious for more. It’s without a doubt going to be a big year for this quartet, so here is the demo version of ‘Kept Low’, the first single from Sydney’s own Major label lads.

www.myspace.com/mercyarms

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