Hungry Kids of Hungary – ‘Scattered Diamonds’ (No Devices remix) (mp3)
Sydney’s Erase.Release have broken up. Two of the members have formed a remix duo called No Devices and their first output is Hungry Kids of Hungary’s Scattered Diamonds.
Toy Balloon – ‘Balloon Force’ (mp3)
Toy Balloon – ‘You’re Feeling Trapped’
Toy Balloon are a Brisbane four-piece who explore the gaps between electronic music, pop and shoegaze. Much like the latter genre, single chords and notes are held for long periods, bleeding into the next and creating droning pads that combine with drum machines to form textured beds for the rest of the arrangement. It’s not all atmospherics – far from it. These guys are far more Daft Punk than Aphex Twin when it comes to the electronic side of things and, seemingly untainted by avante-rock ambitions, TB allow the cheesey beats to build to house-like climaxes and the vocodered vocals to cut through the mix and become and extra rhythmic element. There’s hooks, too – guitars aren’t used just for floating reverbed chords but play riffs as well. It’s fun but also dense, not something that you’ll slave over to enjoy but also not something that you’ll completely absorb after one listen.
Also, their album is called ‘Toy Division’ – what’s not to love?
Heirs -‘Cabal’
I missed Heirs’ first single. Apparently I’m not as ‘hip’ to the post-rock/metal scene as I like to think. Truth be told I personally have little-to-no interest in metal (local or otherwise) and so I think intially the cover art (which, in hindsight, actually kinda resembles something from the latest Department of Eagles film clip) and scary thrash bands these guys share a German distributor with sent me running away.
They’ve just released ‘Cabal,’ the second single off their debut album and despite all the signifiers, Heirs aren’t nearly as ‘metal’ as they’d have you think – or, at least, ‘Cabal’ isn’t (I haven’t extensively scoured their back-catalogue yet). It sounds much more like Mogwai circa ‘Young Team’ (such a typical point of reference, I know) in that it’s a much more down-tempo, haptic and considered composition; more brood than fury. Hell, there’s even some acoustic guitar on there. The song meanders but isn’t aimless, and if you’re a sucker for crescendos like I am then the aural journey will be worth the payoff.
This June FBi radio is doing a bunch of gigs to raise funds to keep the station on air. I used to volunteer at the station myself and I think Sydney’s music scene has benefited a lot from having a locally focused community radio. Dan Zilber, the station’s music director, have done a great job compiling the playlists each week for a few years now. The station is currently experiencing funding troubles and are doing very smart askrichard.com.au campaign to raise awareness of the its situation. Venues in Sydney have also risen to the occassion and doing a bunch of benefit gigs. Two of these are below:
Hunz – ‘Soon, Soon’
Hunz is an electronic musician from Brisbane who recently recorded his second album in unusual circumstances – he took part in the RPM Challenge that asked over 2200 international artists to write, record, perform and produce an entire album during the month of February 2009. The fruits of that challenge have recently been made available to download for free and there’s some killer tracks on there. My favourite is ‘Soon, Soon,’ which combines industrial-inspired beats with a soaring falsetto reminiscent of Radiohead’s ‘Nude’ and harmonies that recall parts of Gotye’s last effort. Like Gotye, Hunz releases music under a one-word psuedonym (crazy, huh?) and combines elements of schizophrenic production with earnest singer-songwriter tendancies. I prefer the songs where the former wins over and enjoy the way his sweet, high voice rubs against the harsher elements of the arrangement but for those who prefer their music less glitchy and full of ‘beeps’ there’s some fairly straight-up compositions.
‘Soon, Soon’ is rad – especially impressive given the contracted gestation period. Kudos to Hunz.
Latest Comments
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Still trying to purchase!!!ANTHONY J LANGFORD
Cool track. Congrats Joshua. Hope the release is a success.Tristan
Man I love these guys. I can't believe they are not releasing any new music. I've been to so many…sophie
^^ I love Grimes! Banoffee is one of my new favorite music artists! :) I love With Her, Reign Down,…Ace
Read your review then listened to the EP. Fantastic ! Different to most hardcore punk I listen to. Somewhat more…