Tagged By melbourne

LISTEN: Oscar Key Sung – ‘It’s Coming’ / ‘Sure Thing’

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Oscar Key Sung 2

 

Oscar Key Sung (Oscar Vincent Slorach-Thorn), R’n’B revivalist and mega babe, has just dropped a couple of new tracks on his Bandcamp – the weighty ‘It’s Coming’ and a cover of Miguel‘s ‘Sure Thing’. He’s been performing them live for a little while now, causing outbreaks of krumping and general frisson all around town. The kid’s sure got a pair of lungs on him: stark and emotive, his version of ‘Sure Thing’ rivals the slick showmanship of the original.

The highlight, however, is definitely Slorach-Thorn’s own creation. Built out of loops from his voluminous collection of cassettes, ‘It’s Coming’ has the glitchy production, playful samples and great ear for melody that we know from his work with Oscar + Martin. This feels like a progression though – it’s darker and sexier than his earlier stuff. Like The Weeknd, Oscar has the uncanny ability to make a love song sound ominous.

 

Catch Oscar’s stellar live show during his residency at Shebeen in Melbourne every Thursday in June. He’s also playing a show tomorrow night at FBi Social, put on by our blog bros from Sound Doc and Circular Key w/ JONES Jnr and the always excellent Tim Fitz.

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LISTEN: Pikelet – ‘Pressure Cooker’

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Pikelet

(photo: Karl Scullin)

 

Ooooooweeeeeee. It’s time for some new Pikelet everybody.

‘Pressure Cooker’ is a groovin’ jam replete with the characteristically scattered vocals of lead, Evelyn Morris.

What this Melbourne based four piece does well, is provide ‘alt-pop’ that goes completely against the grain. As a band that’s a staple on community radio, Pikelet who makes you think about the construction of music than what’s presented through perceived national tastemakers. Tagged as ‘psych pop’ on their Soundcloud, it seems ‘Pressure Cooker’ does exactly that. From the get go, you’re immersed in those Pikelet synths, furthering that with woozy trip with reverb-laden guitar lines, and ever-subtle arpeggios.

While I think a band like Pikelet transcends labels, it’s tracks like ‘Pressure Cooker’ that really does make you think about Morris’ vocal style. Morris’ reminds me of Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman. They both possess a voice that fronts as hollow, almost ghost-like at points – but underpinning all that there’s some subterranean soul that’s waiting to be released, given the right context – just like Coffman on Major Lazer’s ‘Get Free‘.

And it’s only on this track which Morris hints at this, her voice working well within restraint particularly on the refrain “these are our darkest days”. The overall feel here makes you think this track could be a shoe-in for a video clip with projection art, dusty floorboards, and distant looks from the foursome (…maybe).

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Pikelet will launch ‘Pressure Cooker’ at the Tote Hotel, on Friday June 7.

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LISTEN: Baptism of Uzi – ‘Stray Current’

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Baptizm-of-Uzi

‘Stray Current’, the first single off Baptism of Uzi’s upcoming 10″ EP, is quite a departure from the band’s previous output. These guys have krautrock and hair metal running in their veins – they’ve supported Can’s Damo Suzuki and Neu!’s Michael Rother, and their compositional style is reportedly modelled on early Black Sabbath. The band’s previous tracks have names like ‘Crushed’, ‘The Drought’ and ‘Dead by Dawn’; essentially proggy jams bound together by the towering riffs of guitarists Bojan Stojanov and Tom Battersby.

An earlier incarnation of ‘Stray Current’ saw a release on a 2011 EP; I’ve got the cassette on my shelf with its $9 price-tag. This is a different animal altogether. There’s a ‘Brit-Invasion’ feel and long, noodle-y bits that draw the whole thing out by an extra minute or so. The new version retains the track’s (excellent) central hook, but it’s been stripped back, slowed down and distilled into a far purer pop single. The rough-edged guitars and warped keys have been cleaned up and supplemented with handclaps, a concise riff, and spare, reverb-heavy chords.

‘Stray Current’ was mastered ‘by some dude who did Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears’, according to the band’s Facebook, which perhaps explains a thing or two. They recently described themselves to Triple J Unearthed as ‘a Daft Punk/Thin Lizzy hybrid of sorts’, which pretty much sums it up. The band haven’t strayed too far, though – there’s still a spaced-out jam in there for the psych fans, but for everyone else this is just a flippin’ great pop song.

 

Baptism of Uzi are launching their Stray Currents EP on these dates:

Friday 28 June, at Brighton Up Bar, Sydney with guests TBA

Saturday 6 July, at Northcote Social Club, Melbourne + Turtlenecjk and Atolls

 

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INTRODUCING: Readable Graffiti

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Readable Graffiti

Melbourne three-piece, Readable Graffiti, have been quiet as of late in terms of new material, since dropping their 2012 EP Male Mood Swings – although news has it they’ve recently recorded a bunch of demos, so stay tuned.

The electro-rock outfit have now officially released a new single, ‘Tokyo Speed Thrills’, from the EP, accompanied by mind-bending surreal video featuring sliced up eyeballs and ants crawling out of a man’s palm. Sound familiar?

Well, they’ve taken snippets from the 1929 silent film, ‘Un Chien Andalou’ written by none other than the surrealist king himself, Mr Salvador Dali (alongside co-writer and director Luis Bruñel), the Melbourne trio have done them the honour of providing an equally obscure soundtrack (gritty-guitars, casio-tone disco beats and all). The idea of combining the two seems incongruous, but instead you get a big phat bizzaro-slap in the face. Marvelous.

Their driving riffs and furious disco beats makes for an adrenalin-rushing experience (along with the sweat-inducing cinema noir courtesy of Mr Dali). Hear more of their twitchy grunge-electronica on their Bandcamp page.

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LISTEN: Olympia

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Olympia_

In the bible of band must-do’s, making the obligatory video clip out of retro stock footage apparently sits somewhere high on the list. We’ve seen it all; grainy snippets of atomic bombs juxtaposed against old cars, against childhood vids, against old hollywood movies, against flower buds opening in slow-mo.

So whether you prefer visual euphemisms or super8 nostalgia, when well edited clips turn up in the eternal retro stock waste pile – you can’t help but pay some damn attention. This clip by Olympia tops it for the best use of footage I’ve seen so far. Build a giant pool at MGM studios, pay some synchro swimmers to dive into coloured flares, add in this singer’s ‘Jazz Buckley’ stylings – stuff just works.

Olympia is Melbourne based singer/songwriter Olivia Bartley. She’s just released her debut EP, which includes contributions from Pat Bourke (Tex Perkins, Dallas Crane) and Brous among others. She’s got a really sweet tone to her voice too. It sits on the borderline between pop/jazz, but for all the indecision; that languid guitar really adds something quite special. There’s something really comforting about Bartley’s tone; it has that honest, late 90s vibe that makes you need a hug. Olympia doesn’t really need that string section in ‘Atlantis’, it’s kind of a noise filler. After listening to other tracks ‘Through It’ and ‘Sleeping Wolves’, it’s really clear that this lady should just be content with a guitar with generous distortion, a room with fairly large ceilings and hey, Fiona Apple’s your pal quicker than you can mumble “Jai Guru Deva…Om”. Or something.

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LISTEN: Hollow Everdaze – ‘It’s Growing’

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Hollow-Everdaze

When a band describes their sound as ‘neo psychedelia’, there’s usually a throwback haircut, rough cut out of a 60’s babe sitting in a liberal position on their record sleve and a polka dot shirt that you can smell from a mile away involved. Hollow Everdaze were probably everything I expected. And then some.

I’ve waited way too long to post this band on the blog. But procrastinating apparently pays off, because the band’s latest release says more about these guys than the other great tracks they’ve put out.The Melbourne four piece have been doing the live thing for a while, but have only given two singles a proper release ‘Selfish’ and ‘Handsome Sums’. These are both excellent tracks; ‘Selfish’ steers it’s way through moody blues and ‘Handsome Sums’ pilfers at what I’m guessing is an good appreciation for Alex Turner and Brit-rock’s best tunes to come down to.

Hollow Everdaze have just put out It’s Growing – a 16 track album featuring unreleased tracks from 2009 to 2012. Any guess at those babyfaced smirks would have that 2009 to 2012 probably spanned most of their adolesence. Whether these tracks are leftovers or a nostalgic memo to their earliest teen jams, it’s definitely should have been the one that soundtracked mine.

And that’s the best way I can describe this record. It’s not a youth highlights reel. It’s a blur of lights, awe, paranoia and void filling noise. Reminds me of lot of my adolescence actually. Didn’t smoke weed, didn’t wear a snap back or feel compelled to document #teenlyf in low saturation like any half-exciting band is preaching these days. In truth, I spent most of my time being bored, flirting with acne cream and staring at a wall.

There’s a restlessness that hangs over this album. It’s boredom and melancholy. Maybe a whole rehash of the archives if you like; in low-fi technicolour with Girls’ Christopher Owens sitting at the end of the rainbow, burning a huge cigarette hole right through the middle.

Tracks like ‘It’s Growing’ and ‘Buying Milk’ have that familiar starry-eyed psychedelia running right through, but the whole sentiment becomes blurred by the end. Every track on here contains bits of every song you’ve probably ever heard. Each track wanders around seperately without any real intention, but that’s the best thing about this.

There’s Bauhaus with a string section on ‘Seediest Bar’ and at a completely different angle, muted electronica on tracks like ‘Tapdance’ and ‘Forrest’. My favourite is probably ‘Stardusted Mess’ – a glorious waltz with spaced out vocals and falling confetti for piano lines.

The EP of unreleased material sounds more like Neutral Milk Hotel drinking liquid nitro, rather than the bluesy psychedelia on the tracks they’ve given a proper release. Whoever’s providing vocals for ‘Tightrope’ sounds really like Chris Owens. The melancholia’s still there, but it’s a little more poignant and less paranoid instead.

I often wonder what happens to all the good tunes that end up in the scrap heap. The other tracks the band have released properly are equally as excellent, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg really. This release might be hanging out in offcut purgatory, but it definitely deserves your attention.

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