Tagged By melbourne

INTRODUCING: Amateur Dance

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Amateur Dance is Joseph Cookson, a 20-year-old from Melbourne who makes deep house jams, betraying a nostalgia for the unremembered 90s. His formula is simple but effective – juxtaposing spare melodies and light-handed production with the intimate words of total strangers. One woman admits, “I can’t produce… I just – I can’t”, and entreats you directly: “I don’t get it, but I’m grateful, and I want you to know how grateful”. Another demurs with a self-conscious giggle, “My life’s not that interesting”. Cookson executes these songs with a youthful earnestness and unabashed referentiality that’s pretty hard not to like.

The first Amateur Dance single, ‘what i had 2 do’ was a stunner, pairing Death Cab for Cutie with the ranting of bodybuilder CT Fletcher. With follow up EP keep it up receiving some positive attention overseas, Cookson has signed to October Records, where he’s kind of an odd fit on a roster of more ‘saleable’ acts – from the maximalist Afrobeat of Ribongia to the insipid white girl RnB of Elizabeth Rose and Vanessa Elisha.

Cookson’s first release with October Records, the Talking About Yourself EP, is another solid work – though, in keeping with the theme of self-effacement, the tracks have names like ‘Beginner’s Luck’ and ‘Room for Improvement’. Taking a populist route on the title track, Cookson samples an interview with that archetype of humility, Aubrey Drake Graham. The EP keeps on hitting the pleasure centres, moving to a young woman murmuring breathless endearments on ‘Room for Improvement’ and finishing up with the touching and strident prescriptions of ‘Advocate for Love’.

The chief risk for Amateur Dance is that if he keeps on flogging this recipe, his music could start to feel formulaic – calculated, even. Cookson’s obviously got a good ear; I just hope he broadens the range a bit in time for the release of a debut full-length.

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SEQUENCE: Boats

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Photos by Henry Johnson

Boats is a music project by Melbourne’s Blake Paterson. ‘Spider’s Soul’ – a supine slice of acoustic electronica emerged earlier this year, but Paterson had been making music for a long time prior. After a few years of travel, some “bad stuff”, and a creative slump, an old friend spurred him on to pick up his musical schtick. Since then, Paterson’s been busy recording his EP with production champs Josh Delaney (Rat & Co) and Andrei Eremin. Folksters lock themselves in log cabins, derp-wave starts in crack dens in Redfern, so for this leisurely output it was easy to see why Boats kicked off in a bright blue poolside shack.

Photographer Henry Johnson went out to visit. Lamingtons, cliff scaling and roof bombs followed. Keep posted on Boat’s new stuff over here. Henry Johnson’s bloody handy with a film cam, you can check out more of his photography over at his Tumblr.

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LISTEN: Broadway Sounds – ‘Something Sensual’

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‘Something Sensual’ is the synth boogie track off Broadway Sounds’ most recent EP, The Last Detail, and sits amongst the band’s signature Afro-pop and calypso influenced jams.

Most tracks from the Melbourne 4-piece would be best enjoyed sipping a rainbow cocktail stacked with exotic fruits by the pool of your favourite low-cost roadside motel – all of which you can see in the clip to their track ‘Something Sensual’.  It looks like an over-40s dating infomercial one minute and astrological matchmaking the next.

Frankly, if you produce an analogue synth boogie track that doesn’t have 90s fluoro-wash VHS production and breakdancing Adidas clad youth in its film clip, you’re doing it wrong.

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MAP October 2014

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Our submission for MAP this month features minor spandex indulgence from The Twoks. Don’t forget to check out our Soundcloud for our monthly MAPcast podcasts.

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 21-track compilation through Dropbox here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Ubika – Fahrenheit

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Hard rock guitars, solid bass and drums plus strong female vocals are the formula behind Ubika. Fahrenheit is the first single from their latest album, Amigos Del Bosque, and it’s inspired by Ray Bradbury’s novel. The song has a video directed by Diego Stickar, which you can watch here.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
The Twoks – First Light

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The Twoks are a Melbourne two-piece comprising Xani Kolac on violin and vocals, and Mark Leahy on drums. Initially the solo instrumental project of Kolac, who studied jazz and improvisation at Victorian College of the Arts, the duo is now renowned on the local live circuit for their unpredictable sets which feature Kolac on loop station and a smorgasbord of effects. On The Twoks’ latest release, First Light EP – which boasts crisp production from Tony Buchen (The Preatures) – Kolac’s improvisations have been whittled down to concise retro-pop tunes in the vein of Pat Benatar or Kate Bush.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Baleia – Breu

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Breu is one of the strongest songs from Baleia’s debut album, released last year. They first caught the attention of the indie press in Brazil with a jazzy cover of Justin Timberlake but in their album they show a handful of influences, resulting in experimental indie-rock that dabbles in baroque pop and folk.

Hear the full compilation below.

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WATCH: Contrast – ‘Drum Machine’

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Contrast

We really dig Contrast. It’s not hard to tell: we really dig them. They put out an EP a little while back that got us all in a buzz and now they’ve followed up by releasing a dreamy clip that suits their music perfectly.

‘Drum Machine’ was one of the five tracks on Contrast’s Less Than Zero EP, and it’s also one of the best. Sound wise, it sits at a cross point between Real Estate, Major Leagues, Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing – what a sweet spot! The clip is simple but nice; VHS fuzz, retro aesthetic and simple execution. This is the perfect clip for the song at hand because it never threatens to overshadow the music – the way a clip should be.

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You can pick up a copy of Contrast’s EP Less Than Zero here.

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INTRODUCING: Pronto

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Pronto Press Photo

Hold your bloody horses, garage fans. Forget about that sick new band you saw on the weekend, cos I’ve found your new favourite act: Pronto. Of course these guys are out of Melbourne, and obviously they’ve been living on a steady diet of Eddy Current Suppression Ring. They’re fast, furious and insanely addictive.

Pronto, like many of Australia’s best garage punk bands, have helped an old genre grow up a little bit. They take early 70’s proto-punk, like The Troggs, and brutalise it into something that Hozac Records would eat slugs to put out. On their debut album, When You’re Gone, Pronto speed through their 11 tracks with frightening ferocity. They do bands like Dead Farmers, Royal Headache and Straight Arrows proud.

Between the gale force guitar solos, the crunchy, hollow vocals and stampeding drums, there are a few particular standouts. If you’re any sort of fan of loud, fun guitar music, you’ll love songs like ‘Soldier’, ‘Red Flag’ and ‘Cry’. These tracks will blow down your house like it’s a greedy wolf and you are soon-to-be bacon. Best played loud.

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PREMIERE: Hollow Everdaze – ‘Ominous’ video

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Hollow Everdaze

Adding a string section to your lineup might make you Warren Ellis – or a damp Celtic jam band. Hollow Everdaze recently added violinist Myles Anderson to the bill. Spiccato never hurt nobody, but I went along to a gig last week with doubt cloud looming. Watching a garage band with a string section is like running IRL with 3D glasses – many dimensions, cinematic feelings, general anxiety. As it goes, the violin did end up being a decent match for the the band’s starry-eyed psych laments, and even the slight jazzy breaks they’ve been spotting lately.

Below is Hollow Everdaze’s new clip for ‘Ominous’, a new track off their upcoming EP. There’s a church jam session and minor participation in other brooding activities the track title commands, like patting farm animals and wheelbarrowing down slopes.

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Hollow Everdaze are launching ‘Ominous’ on Saturday, 4th of October at Boney with supports from Contrast and Peter Bibby and His Bottles of Confidence.

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