Chasm – ‘Rise of the new’ (feat. Damajah, Jeswon & Tuka)

My knowledge of hip hop, to be honest, is pretty limited. I know what I like, but I couldn’t elucidate the reasons. Questions like ‘Why are the Hilltop Hoods so massive when someone like, say, The Herd isn’t?’ go unanswered. If the beats make me nod, if the synths are melodic and if the rhymes are smooth, then I’m into it.

So it is that Elefant Trak’s omnipresent DJ, Chasm, has corralled all his friends together to release what I reckon is a pretty top-notch example of Aussie hip hop in the form of Beyond the Beat Tape. For a man who’s worked with Ozi Battla and Astronomy Class, it’s unsurprising that the beats on here are quality. There’s a tonne of excellent MCs featured within – Ozi Battla, The Tongue, Pegz, Dialectrix, Diafrix, Muph (sans Plutonic), Hau from Koolism and probably more whose names I don’t really know, though I’m sure there’s people picking up this CD yelling, “Holy shit, JESWON is on this fucking CD!”.

‘Rise of the new’ is a sweet track, and one of my faves from the disc. Now’s your time to get excited if you’re a Jeswon fan.

http://www.myspace.com/chasm1 

Read Post →

Dan Segal – ‘Revelation’

It feels good when somebody from your school is doing good things in the music world. My place of learning has produced a fair swag of highly successful commercial artists, including Valentino-cum-Juggernaut Dan Stricker, Macromantics, bass wunderkind Tal Wilkenfeld and, of course, Ben Lee. Next in line to the graduate crown is Dan Segal, a highly talented, multi-instrument-playing generally lovable kind of guy.

Dan used to front the funk band Camera Four, who were moderately well-known but eventually stagnated, prompting Segal to pull the cord and go it alone. In hindsight, that was a very good decision. In a solo context, Segal can fully spread his wings, taking on lyrics, vocals, guitars, bass and whatever else he can fit in a song, recording it all on his home computer in Maroubra (for international readers, yes, that is where The Bra Boys come from. Please note that Maroubra isn’t really such a scary suburb in reality!) Segal is a bass player at heart, and that comes through in all his writing, which are guitar-lead but really bass-heavy. Ever the wounded romantic, most of his tracks centre around unrequited love, or love gone sour. But sometimes, as in this case, Dan just feels like waxing lyrical about life itself.

‘Revelation’ is the kind of track you want to play at your next party. It’s got that killer, pogoing bass line, MSTRKRFT-esque handclaps and some seriously whack vocoder shit going on. It’s like a ballad in an electro song. If that sounds interesting to you, that’s probably because it is. And there’s a seriously Daft Punk moment about two and a half minutes in, where the effected guitars go mental and it feels like ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger’ all over again. God knows we all need more Daft Punk in our lives. Dan’s also a designer, so he creates all his own cover art, and even has a patented ‘Pixelman’ concept which I can’t reveal or I will be gunned down outside my house. He’s doing an album launch at Will and Toby’s in a few weeks, with his band, who are cutely labelled ‘The Pocket.’ If you dig this track, head to his myspace or hit up the show. Rock on.

http://www.myspace.com/segalsongs

Read Post →

Evidently, lately we haven’t stuck to the Who the Hell ethos of giving you a blog post every day of the week (excluding weekends when we inexplicably turn into trashbags and lose the ability to construct sentences). This boils down to two reasons: one, because I’m playing Editor at The Brag for the next couple of weeks so free time is at a miniumum and two, my home computer has been infected with the world’s most annoying adware virus – if someone can shed some light as to why someone would invent such a virus (seriously, who’s dumb enough to click on those ads??), that’d be awesome.

Here’s something new from one of my favourite Aussie acts, Pivot, currently in the UK no doubt blowing audiences away (maybe Tash will fill us in on that). ‘In the Blood’ is the first official single from the band’s forthcoming second (but Warp Records debut) album, which finds the three-piece venturing into new wave territory and, as Pivot like to do, fucking with it. The filmclip looks like what would happen if Adam Jones from Tool was given the duties of creating a Thunderbirds episode.

http://www.myspace.com/pivotpivot

Read Post →

Cog – ‘Bird of Feather (Daleese Remix)’

Got this one in the mail yesterday, just in time for my interview with Cog boys Luke and Lucius on my nocturnal radio show, on the eve of their largest headlining show in Sydney tomorrow night at the Enmore Theatre.

Remixes are fairly ubiquitous these days; their resurgence in popularity thanks to indie kids remixing indie kids, or (in the case of the solipsistic Van She) indie kids remixing themselves. But I’ve found in the past that the process doesn’t transpose to those genres that crank the guitars up to 11. They often become rock songs with an 808 beat.

I’ve only had a limited time to digest this new remix of Cog’s ‘Bird of Feather’, courtesy of Daleese Studios, home of Dan Sutherland (of Many Machines on Nine/Switchkicker fame), and my overriding thought is ‘why?’. If you’re familiar with any of Dan’s musical output, you’ll instantly recognise the Trent-Reznor-at-a-rave feel of this remix. And this isn’t a sleight at Dan or Cog – if anyone’s read whothehell.net enough, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of both these acts – but the remix itself seems superfluous and more an experimental exercise for the two.

Lucius said to me last night that Cog are always interested in pushing the perceived boundaries of their music, and particularly with this remix they were interested in seeing how other people interpret their tunes. In that respect, ‘Bird of Feather’ does its job, but it’s essentially an electro version of the same song, and doesn’t take it to new levels like when Kieran Hebden or Richard James get their hands on a track.

But my opinion is obviously clouded by personal judgement. Like Nick Hornby wrote, reviews are expected to exist outside of space and time. I prefer a remix that completely rethinks the song, but if ‘Bird of Feather’ turned into a Autechre-esque beatfest, would it sound shit to most people? I’m interested to know your thoughts on this remix.

Cog also let slip that they’ve been talking of collaborating with The Presets. Now that would be way out!

http://www.myspace.com/cogrockmusic

Read Post →

Here’s the film clip for The Seabellies’ new, digital-only single, ‘Heart Heart Heart Out’, combining tighter pop song structures than those found on their debut EP Wave Your Fingers to Make the Winters with their wistful indie ornamentation that echoes the textured instrumentation of Canadian indie acts like Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene.

One of the best bands going around at the moment, hands down. I could say more but it’s a busy day today. Enjoy some visual for today.

http://www.myspace.com/theseabellies

Read Post →

Karoshi – ‘Like Air From Your Lungs’ (mp3)

A dreamy new offering from Sydney based electronic artist Karoshi, full of glitchy beats, melancholic melodies and deft, sublime ornamentation. ‘Like Air From Your Lungs’ is the first offering since the release of his wonderful debut EP, and combines the left-field beats Fourtet with Boards of Canada’s inate sense of ambience and melody. Karoshi is a master of digital music, and ‘Like Air From Your Lungs’ is another example of his abundant talent.

http://www.myspace.com/karoshimusic

Read Post →

Dash and WIll – ‘Pick You Up’

When I got into the car to drive to work I had Tegan and Sara’s The Con in my head so I fired up the iPod, put that song on loud, and then put on a few more pop gems from the twin sisters before arrived at the office. As soon as sat down I opened up an email encouraging me to download Dash and Will‘s new free track called ‘Pick You Up’.

The email unfortunately described Dash and Will as Australia’s answer to Tegan and Sara, which forced me to compare the two acts and since T&S is still fresh in my head from this morning’s drive, D&W’s offering seemed underdeveloped and repetitive. This is an unfair comparison of course seeing that T&S has so much more life and songwriting experience than D&W, but I’m guessing that’s how most listeners would feel too. Nevertheless I’m also sure that like me most people can also see that D&W is bubblling with promising talent and that this choice of single is not indicative of their carreer path. You can hear the obvious distinction in their voices, as opposed to T&Ss hard-to-tell-apart similarity, is going to be a strong point in their songcrafting endeavours.

If you venture to their MySpace there’s a couple more tunes ready for listen and can stand their own ground even in the shadow of a certain popular songwriting sister duo. Looking forward to hearing more.

www.myspace.com/dashandwill

Read Post →