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Easy People.

It’s spring time in London and the post Christmas release lull is OVER! I can’t think of a more exciting time for music in the UK than the months leading up to the Summer Festival season. The rumor mill has been rife with line-up announcements, ticket news and headliner buzz. Adding to all this is the ripple of excitement shuddering in from last weeks SXSW festival in Austin Texas. One of the most talked about acts at the whole event was The Temper Trap. I’m fortunate enough to have scored a gig working at their UK label, so I guess expect to hear a lot about them this year, but more and more people are becoming intoxicated with The Temper Traps tunes. You heard it here first, the album ‘Conditions’ is nothing short of PHENOMENAL and their live shows are going from strength to strength. John Davis (U2, The Enemy, The Ting Tings) was asked to master the record and funnily enough when I met him briefly he handed me a copy of the new Howling Bells album and remarked how one truly has to dig out new music. It had me thinking particularly about Australian music. In many ways, the increasing interest in The Temper Trap and their now solid bill of tunes derives from the fact that they’ve develop largely away from intense hype and industry expectation.

Another new Australian band that similarly came to mind, though it’s not specifically UK related was Sad Waters. This is the new project of former Starky members Beau, Jonny and Chris Reeves. It couldn’t be further away from the pop-rock jangles of Starky, with the ambiance and softness of these few tunes on myspace having a real effect of making one want to listen harder. Mogwai, Beach Boys and Suede all come to mind, but what I find incredibly intriguing is the genuine ease of the writing. Currently based in LA due to the success of Violent Soho who signed to Thurston Moore’s label Ecstatic Peace, Jonny has taken production duties and the results are pleasingly sound. Seems like they have really been able to reinvent themselves musically away from the spot light ‘slash’ post-Starky Australian gaze, and I think you can hear that in the music.

www.myspace.com/sadwaters

In other news I was soured that I couldn’t see Tame Impala play at a head line London gig. With a line out the door I can only account the great atmosphere in the bar downstairs to the venue. They had a pretty sensible write up in NME this week- album soon maybe? And which Australian pop-treacle has been jet setting around the world working and writing with the BIGGEST cool-as-(enter swear word here) pop group from the 90’s….??? Next time.

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Steve Grady – ‘Not Yet, Not Now’ (mp3)

Sensitive acoustic singer-songwriters are a bit like cockroaches – if you kick over a rock, dozens of them will scurry out from underneath it. Whilst Steve Grady‘s music does fall into the above category, it has an intimacy and sensibility which sets him apart from many of the other 70’s-styled troubadours out there.

“Not Yet, Not Now” sees Grady in Ryan Adams mode, with alt-country flamenco guitar playing and a vocal reminiscent of early David Gates.

Steve launches his debut album Hotel Chelsea with a string of east-coast shows in early April.

www.myspace.com/stevegradymusic

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Pikelet – ‘A Bunch’

For several years now, Pikelet has been releasing music that transposes elements of experimental music into a pop framework . Far from dissolving the intellectual ambition in the process, the accessibility this introduces only increases the potency of her production trickery and hypnotic song structures.

‘A Bunch’ is actually a couple of years old but is posted here in celebration of Pikelet’s recently released EP Not So Still. It’s also the only Pikelet song I had access to but is nonetheless a great slice of Australian pop music that strives to be more than the sum of its parts. Built upon sparse but near-tribal rhythm, the song consists of little more than a chorus of backing vocals, a harpsichord/zither-like instrument and the multi-tracked vocal line. I’m not necessarily one for less-is-more but ‘A Bunch’ provides a pretty strong argument for it.

If you like it, check out her eponymous debut from which this track is pulled as well as the afforementioned latest EP.

http://www.myspace.com/ovalyn

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Skye Harbour – ‘Paying Debts’ (mp3)

Not one for pop rock generally, with the genre tending to be riddled with teen angst, side parts, and liberally applied eye make up, Skye Harbour have cunningly snuck onto my musical radar and may just be my exception to the rule.

Just like Melbourne stole the Grand Prix from Adelaide back in ’96, so too has it enticed these four childhood friends seeking bigger and better things.

‘Paying Debts’ is one of a tidy offering of songs from their debut EP Houses (free to download right here). Lead singer Josh Hardy’s thick vocals are tempered with heartrending violins and heavily layered guitars. There’s just the right amount of broody with not an ounce of Pete Wentz.

And if you think that’s half decent, then multiply it by a million and spy them onstage. If you’re in Melbourne you’re in luck, just keep your eyes on their myspace and there’s sure to be a gig coming up.

www.myspace.com/skyeharbour

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The Pet Rocks – ‘Easy Tiger’

Wayward Ways is the brilliant second album from The Pet Rocks. Apparently recorded as far back as 2006 and released a decade after their debut, it thankfully saw the light of day toward the end of last year.

Sounding like something of Beck’s last album with added slacker-rock nonchalance, Easy Tiger is one of the best Australian songs I’ve heard all year. The verse kicks along with a funky strut before the glorious chorus, which contrasts the rush of the eight-note instrumentation with singer Nick Kriesler’s warm croon begging the title character to “take it easy.”

The album as a whole stands up incredibly well and often enters less immediate, funky musical spaces than the pop offering above. Through varying passages of bassline grooves, walls of distortion, jaunty piano, and falsett, the album is bound together through an unwavering quality of compositions and the tight performances. I just hope it’s not another decade until we hear more from these guys.

www.myspace.com/thepetrocksband

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