Monthly Archives For October 2008

Bag Raiders: ‘Shooting Stars’

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Bag Raiders – ‘Shooting Stars’

It seems like our upcoming festive season is shaping up to be one of sublime summer jams; the kind of tunes that sound just as good on your car stereo as you cram in on your way to the beach or a festival as they do in a dark dirty nightspot after 3am.  A slew of these gems are emerging from some of our favourite home-grown beatmakers i.e Empire Of The Sun, Miami Horror, and Damn Arms – but I think my favourite so far is the new Bag Raiders production Shooting Stars. The Sydney duo have been kicking parties into high gear for a while now – see last year’s ubiquitous stomper Fun Punch – but this release transcends the club and manages to be that rare thing – a truly brilliant pop song.  The electrified power cheese of their earlier work is abandoned in favour of a more mellow approach, with swirling melodies slowly building to one of the most joyously bouncy choruses you’ll hear all year.  Rhys of Like Whoah/Ted & Francis lends his vocal talents to this track and wouldn’t sound out of place on a Backstreet Boys record, but underpinned by that kickin’ disco bass it’s a deliciously pop combination that you can’t help but grin and nod your head to.  Get this now or miss out!

Turbo Love is the other single that’s been thrown onto the web, and it’s more typical munter fuel.  All thick, juicy synths, robot voices and a whole lot of Bang, it sounds a bit too much like a disposable Van She Tech remix from last year to get too excited about, but the ‘Raiders typically slick production talents make it well worth a listen.

The Turbo Love single with both of these tracks is out now on Bang Gang 12 inches and the boys are heading to Japan in December, so make sure to catch them before the year is out.

http://www.myspace.com/bagraiders

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Adrian Whitehead

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Adrian Whitehead -‘ Caitlin’s 60s Pop Song’

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Melbourne’s Adrian Whitehead has a voice and song-writing ability reminiscent of Elliott Smith circa XO.

His debut album, One Small Stepping Man, shows off a pop sensibility that makes a vintage sunshine aesthetic sound fresh and exciting. Fittingly, the opening track is called ‘Caitlin’s 60’s Pop Song’ – both an apt name and a solid example of Whitehead’s sound and ability.

The right stuff to get you in the mood for Summer.

www.myspace.com/adrianwhitehead

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Beni

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Beni – ‘My Love Sees You’

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Sydney producer Beni is best known as one half of Riot In Belgium, the club destroying duo who gave us 2007’s lip – contorting party jam La Musique. You know the one – with the excitable french girl moaning over lots of ridiculous buildups and bleepy fuzz?  It was just about inescapable if you spent any time in the clubs or even turned on your radio last year.  Anyway, it’s been many blog decades since then and with the Belgium bangers on the wane, he has turned his talents to this self-titled solo project.  My love sees you is Beni’s first official cut, and it combines the charged peaktime vibes of his earlier work with punchy bass guitars, highly strung synths and plenty of euphoric vocal samples.  The funked-up bass and disco influences sit nicely with Beni’s intense production – and will ensure a whole lot of slamming silliness on the floor.

Beni has just been picked up by international tastemakers Kitsune and appears on their new compilation (along with fellow Sydneysiders Ted & Francis), so this looks like another Aussie track to dominate overseas.  Hear this one now so you can throw your hands up and dance when you hear it out this weekend!
www.myspace.com/listentobeni

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Lenka: ‘Gravity Rides Everything’

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Lenka – ‘Gravity Rides Everything’

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Last week I had the pleasure of chatting to former Decoder Ring frontwoman, and now solo artist in her own right, Lenka, about her debut record. There’s a chance that if you were a fan of her former band that you won’t like her new solo material. It’s sprightly pop, bordering on bubblegum in some points, although the intelligent lyrical content helps save it from being more than just disposable sound.

Preceding her album a the release (digital-only… I think) called The Woodstock Sessions EP, named after the studio she recorded part of her debut in. It’s a completely acoustic affair, and includes this – a cover of Modest Mouse’s ‘Gravity Rides Everything’.

http://www.myspace.com/lenkamusic

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The Dawn Collective

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The Dawn Collective – ‘Ghosts Shod in Steel Shoes’

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Too many years in the making, Sydney’s The Dawn Collective have finally released their debut album, Save A Place For Us. Their music is hard to describe: it’s dramatic in the way that Sigur Ros is dramatic, but it’s heavily grounded in the folk traditions of someone like The Frames. But then at times (not in this song, but others) that these incendiary guitar lines kick in seemingly out of nowhere. It all makes for a rather idiosyncratic sound.

If you’re in Sydney this Friday, the band is launching their debut album at Spectrum on Oxford St in Darlinghurst. Definitely one to check out.

http://www.myspace.com/thedawncollective

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Kate Miller-Heidke: ‘Can’t Shake It’ video

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Quirky popstress Kate Miller-Heidke has a new disc out called Curioser that’s been garnering plaudits as of late, and ‘Can’t Shake It’ is the first single lifted from the album. Once again she’s throwing some varied influences into the mix – New Wave, Kate Bush, pop rock, ’90s dance – but it feels more focussed than the material off her debut, which at times had the tendency to run away with itself. This one feels a little undercooked at times, and that guitar riff reminds me a bit of the Rogue Traders (but it’s actually used intelligently, so I can deal with it) but it’s pop music with some edge. It’ll be a hit, and hopefully remind the Austereo audience that pop music doesn’t have to be bland or a facade like Katy Perry.

Actually… I pick Kate over Katy any day. Yep, in both senses of the word.

http://www.myspace.com/katemillerheidke

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