Monthly Archives For March 2015

INTRODUCING: Yaws

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yaws

One thing Australia certainly isn’t suffering from right now is a lack of left-field electronica. From Lower Spectrum to LUCIANBLOMKAMP, there has been a noticeable rise in both the quantity and quality of local electronic music, with those on the fringe yielding some weird and wonderful sounds. However, you are unlikely to come across anything as immediately strange and ultimately compelling as Yaws. The London-based, Adelaide-bred producer crafts dense sonic soundscapes as alien as the obscure tropical disease that forms his namesake.

His first release, ‘Seventh Continent’, was recently debuted by up-and-coming net label Etched Traumas. Emerging from an oblique flanged rhythm that wouldn’t sound out of place on the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, the track evolves into a bold minimal-techno jam, adding intricate layer upon layer over the course of its 11 minutes. There are shades of HTRK‘s hazy electro-surrealism, alongside overtones of Factory Floor’s ruthless proto-punk industrialism. The track’s ascent is so subtle that you barely notice it, until the glorious static-soaked climax hits.

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INTRODUCING: Gaiamusic

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Gaiamusic

Seekae’s Alex Cameron once said that an instrumental electronic record “isn’t really what people need to hear right now.” So then where does that leave more downtempo players like Gaiamusic?

The producer/DJ (also known as Julian Welgus-Dillon) has released his first solo single, ‘Neptune’ via Melbourne collective REAL Music. Sonically, this sounds like something out of trendy East London. You know, you can imagine some guy in a spray jacket, most likely toting a five-panel cap on with the frame of Archie Marshall. This is music you’d hear in a room lit with the soft glow of a laptop.

And it’s nice, there’s a subtlety to this shared with other producers like Planète. It’s electronica with a gentle rise—it’s not out to promise too much but doesn’t give too little. That is, it seems to avoid being self-consciously ‘ambient’.

There’s an almost cinematic quality to it, ‘Neptune’ seems to be a track that understand its place—where to bring sections in, where to mix the electronic with a guitar line. So it’s neatly packaged, but you leave it you can’t help but shake off the feeling that its still searching for some kind of narrative.

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And maybe that’s what the likes of Cameron are getting at. Instrumental electronic records aren’t as readily consumable as those mixed in with vocals. So it’s interesting that Gaia cites Flying Lotus as an influence, considering that his last record uses Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and even Herbie Hancock to flesh out its narrative of death. It seems like spoken-word samples are used to flesh out some wider dialogue that would’ve otherwise left a pretty barren instrumental track begging for some context.

So what kind of dialogue does Gaia engage in? “Knowledge is preferable to ignorance”. And then it ends. For something just over three-minutes, that’s not a lot of time to digest something like this. But maybe that’s the point, because when isolated, instrumental tracks don’t really make sense. So consider ‘Neptune’ then, a little nod to story that’s going to play out on Gaiamusic’s forthcoming EP.

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LISTEN: Ella Thompson – ‘Arcade’

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Ella Thompson has been seriously busy. You might recognise her sweet-as-custard pipes from Melbourne electro-funk duo GL, or Dorsal Fins, or you know, the days when she kicked it with the Bamboos. Thompson has just released ‘Arcade’ off the back of supporting Angel Olsen last month.

The single is a melancholy synth pop introduction to her debut album, Janus, slated for release later this year. Despite her impressive resume, ‘Arcade’ sees Thompson come into her own distinct sound, with gravelly synths, moaning melodies and vocals layered with harmonies and subtle distortion. The clip is generally what I want out of a synth pop track – blue-washed silhouettes pressed through a VHS time machine.

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LISTEN: Sarah Mary Chadwick – ‘Am I Worth It’

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The cover of Sarah Mary Chadwick’s forthcoming album, 9 Classic Tracks, is a blotchy, lurid watercolour painted by Chadwick herself. It depicts three clothed men performing sex acts on a woman in high heels, her yellowing skin covered only by a bodice that’s been dragged beneath her drooping breasts and a shock of smeared red lipstick.

Chadwick’s Tumblr is covered in images like this one – tableaus from online porn (with a particular predilection for golden showers), blood-spattered animals wearing sinister expressions and washed-up models with nostrils blistered from cocaine abuse.

Sarah Mary Chadwick’s element, in music and in art, is one of self-abasement. Since moving on from Batrider, the Kiwi downer rock band she fronted for 10 years, her songs have been stripped of their fuzz and left sounding vulnerable and melancholy. Her new single, driven by chilly synths and a riveting, understated hook, seems to come from a place of creeping self-doubt – the kind that causes you to ask, over and over again, despite all reassurances, ‘Am I worth it?’.

9 Classic Tracks will be out on 27 March through Rice is Nice.

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