Tagged By melbourne

MAP – November 2014

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Our feature act for November’s instalment of our monthly MAP series are pop stalwarts Open Swimmer. The band features members of The Harpoons, Seagull and Melbourne via Glasgow singer Ben TD. You can listen to all the other good stuff our pals from blogs around the world are featuring this month in the list below.

Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 22-track compilation through Dropbox here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Tomás Ferrero – Cuando Te Hablo

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In March 2013, a mixed group of musicians gathered together in Cordoba and Buenos Aires to play some songs and sound pieces composed with lyrics taken from the work of a federal collective of artists called Esta Vida No Otra. Some of them recorded the results several months later, and those tracks were then released as a compilation titled 15 Artistas Cantan Esta Vida No Otra. The song we have selected from this album, also available for free at Bandcamp, is Cuando Te Hablo by Tomás Ferrero from the band Rayos Láser.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
Open Swimmer – Sugar Bowl

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Open Swimmer’s version of pop is jarring, even discordant at first, but it’s this blatantly simple approach that has us hooked. (Dirty Projectors fans, pay attention now.) Sugar Bowl is a brilliant introduction to the band; playful yodelling is cut and pasted along a steady 4/4 drum beat, while witty banter takes the fore. Songwriter Ben TD was based in Glasgow for seven years, touring extensively and landing multiple sessions on BBC Radio One and a stint at T in the Park before settling in Melbourne. The band comprises some of Melbourne’s most admired independent music alumni (The Harpoons, Seagull). Expect to hear a lot more from this group.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Alessandra Leão – Mofo

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Alessandra Leão shows off her experimental side with Mofo, taken from her new EP, Pedra De Sal. Avoiding the world music sound from other works, this song has dark music and some weird programming that fits the angst of the lyrics.

CANADA: Ride The Tempo
Beach Season – Midnights

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There’s not actually much out there on Beach Season besides the fact the project is from Calgary. The smooth vocals of Midnights complements the hip-hop influenced rhythms. This is a duo that won’t be much of a mystery for long.

Listen to more below:

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PARADISE MIXTAPE: Planète

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Planete

In the lead up to boutique Aus music festival Paradise, which takes place on the final weekend of November, we’re running a series of mixes from artists featured on the bill. Kicking things off is Melbourne producer Dion Tartaglione, aka Planète, who’s sent us a pristine and expertly mixed selection of minimal techno jams.

Planète’s gorgeous two-track EP, Snow Sketch/Visions, is out now through Brisbane/NYC label Silo Arts. You can also download his blissful, Jon Hopkins referencing remix of Tincture‘s ‘Similar Circles’ via XLR8R.

 

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WATCH: Charging Stallion – ‘Eddie McGuire’

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Everybody loves a good local hero. Austria’s got Arnie Schwarznegger, Canada have Nickelback, and even bloody Belgium can hold up Gotye as their own. However, that’s not to say that Australia is lacking in the talent department. We’ve got a plethora of folks on the Legends Board on the RSL, from Damo who skulled 12 beers before passing out, and Jimmy, who ran into Oprah and managed to cop a sneaky snap for the pool room. But Melbourne comic pub-rockers Charging Stallion, they know exactly who their idols are, and even breathing the name can cause shivers down the spine of even Buddy Franklin. The one, the only: Eddie. Fucking. McGuire.

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Charging Stallion, they need the world to know about the bloody legend, nay myth, of Eddie McGuire. With a sound that slots alongside mates like Drunk Mums, The Living Eyes and WOD very nicely, Charging Stallion pay their dues via a Collingwood ‘n’ mullet adorned clip. And why not? This is a bloke who is “more Melbourne than a scarf out of a window” and “drinks tomato sauce right out of the bottle”. Although Charging Stallion probably won’t meet their idol any time soon, the least they’ve done is create one hell of an anthem around it. This is an anthemic riot worth even Mr McGuire’s ears.

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INTRODUCING: Total Giovanni

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Newly signed to Two Bright Lakes and Remote Control, Total Giovanni last week released their debut single, ‘Human Animal’. The band’s reputation for outrageous live shows preceded them, and before the public got a taste of Total Giovanni’s recorded efforts they were booked to play Dark Mofo, Melbourne Music Week, Golden Plains and Paradise Music Festival. But even the on-stage spectacle of five grown men in berets and leopard-print hot pants, performing synchronised dance moves to the strains of crotch-sniffing Italo-disco, could not have prepared us for how accomplished Total Giovanni sound in the studio.

A part of this year’s sweeping boogie revival, ‘Human Animal’ is also heavily indebted to the Talking Heads and LCD Soundsystem (its opening lines – ‘I’m having so little impact/I’m having so little impact’ – immediately recall the melancholic jibes of James Murphy’s ‘Losing My Edge’). Total Giovanni jammed together for months before embarking on their many live dates, and they sound great as a result – as ‘Human Animal’ demonstrates. This is smooth, tight and extremely danceable stuff.

Catch Total Giovanni this Friday at Melbourne Music Week’s opening night, and on the final weekend of November, at Paradise Music Festival.

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INTRODUCING: Motel Love

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Motel Love, now that’s a name. Instantly, seedy images of late-night rendezvous and the seeds of impending divorce spring to mind. Reality bites though – Motel Love are just a new band that like to thrash around (and who probably really, really like The Replacements.)

Besides the obvious indicator as to where these guys grab their sound, they also slot in quite easily with a whole bunch of other Melbourne bands doing heartfelt rock ‘n’ roll really well, such as The Pink Tiles and Scotdrakula.

Unlike their namesake, which is tapered with shitty wallpaper and basic cable, Motel Love are as jolty and alive as an electric chair thrown in a pool. They’re semi-sloppy, but instantly loveable and adorable. Kind of like Eeyore. Or Steve Urkel. They seem like a band ready-made to pump out the singles, with their track ‘Dance On My Grave’ making for a fun entrance to their upcoming debut album, due in 2015.

If anything, Motel Love, besides The Replacements, recall a throwback to an easy, no-pressure summer fling, where everything’s bright and sparkly, and the hedonistic tendencies are layered on thick. I’ve never had one myself, but who ever said Grease wasn’t educational?

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LISTEN: ScotDrakula – ‘Shazon’

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ScotDrakula

After last month’s single ‘O’Clock’ took the foot off the gas slightly, ScotDrakula are straight back on blistering form with this track ‘Shazon’, also off their forthcoming self-titled LP. Though still not quite as seethingly explosive as ‘Break Me Up’ or ‘Burner’ (ages) before it, ‘Shazon’ makes up for it in almost dangerous levels of head-nodding catchiness (though I was momentarily disappointed that they hadn’t named the song after everyone’s favourite aunt ‘Shazza’, as I thought on first glance).

The immediate, exciting bass riff that we’ve come to expect from these guys is back – as is Matt Neumann’s yowling, drawling vocal which always hits a perfect balance between deranged and relatable. There’s no superfluous parts or fat to be trimmed – the biggest appeal of a three-piece. Where a lot of psych-y garage-y bands are choosing to manufacture excitement by packing the stage full of members and the recordings full of superfluous jams, Scotdrakula keep everything tight and in constant motion. This is get up and shake it as confidently as your social anxiety will allow kinda music, and this band is one of the first I’ve seen live in ages where their set left me wanting more, rather than more than ready for a break and a beer.

Have a listen to the digital version of the ‘O’Clock’ / ‘Shazon’ cassingle here, where you can also go on a waitlist for hardcopies, since they sold out real quick. You can also check out the nostalgic (presumably, otherwise someone went to A LOT of trouble) found-footage video below.

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LISTEN: Ara Koufax – ‘Brenda’

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The second single from Oceans Apart, a 19-track compilation showcasing Melbourne’s diverse club scene, mixed and curated by Cut Copy, dropped last week. If the other tracks are anything like as good as this one (and NO ZU’s contribution, the no-wave pilfering ‘Raw Vis Vision’ – replete with sax, disco whistle and cowbell – is a pretty fair attempt), then Oceans Apart could do great things for the local underground.

Ara Koufax is a new project from old hands Sam Gill and Luke Neher of Naysayer & Gilsun. It’s largely the result of a working beach holiday the pair took a little over a year ago to thrash out some new ideas. While Ara Koufax isn’t unrecognisable as the work of Gill and Neher, the sounds here are more expansive, less clean and monochrome, than the pair’s earlier material.

Their first single, ‘Converge’, is a warm, textured house track, with scuffed loops and a vocal that could have been plucked straight from a sweaty dancefloor in 1980s New York. ‘Brenda’, which unfolds in twice the time, is a much lighter affair. It sails along, with euphoric vocals taken from the late, great Brenda Fassie riding atop bubbling percussion and ascending keys.

Ara Koufax’s debut EP will be out soon on Downtime. Meanwhile, Oceans Apart is due for digital release on 11 November, via Cut Copy’s own Cutters Records, with vinyl samplers to come on 18 November. Preorders are available now from iTunes.

Don’t miss the Oceans Apart launch party at Melbourne Music Week on Saturday, 15 November, featuring Cut Copy DJs, Andras & Oscar, NO ZU, World’s End Press and heaps more.

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