Pockets – ‘Gun Shy’ (mp3)

Sydney’s Pockets are tight. Their songs are short, punchy and well-produced – there’s not an ounce of sonic fat left to be trimmed. There’s a lot about this track that reminds me of Silversun Pickups – the tightly edited drums, breathy singing alternated with muted screams – but the aforementioned tightness saves them from the wank and effects pedal abuse rife in post-rock.

They’re playing in Sydney on Saturday at Jira Books with Japanese band Nim, Brisbane’s In Sepia and Hira Hira.

www.myspace.com/pocketsinpockets

PVT – ‘Timeless’ (mp3)

PVT is the new name of Sydney’s Pivot, so forced into changing because a horrible prog-metal act from the US registered the name ‘Pivot’ as a trademark, despite the band formerly known as Pivot having previously released music under that name in that terrtiory. Yeah, makes sense. Rather than pursue legal hassles (despite a pretty strong case), PVT just decided to change their name. I think PVT suits them better anyway. It’s more experimental, leaving out vowels and subverting capital letter conventions and such as.

Anyway, PVT are still the only Australian band signed to Warp, the famous UK electronic label that was home to almost every IDM band in the 90s/00s (Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, LFO). PVT didn’t exactly mine similar territory, but there was definitely a sonic lineage between their post-rock/ambient/laptop styles and that label’s more famous signees.

Their new album Church With No Magic is out soon (distributed locally via Inertia) and it sees a slight change in direction for the band. Perhaps ‘change in direction’ isn’t the right description – it’s more a tightening of their previous sonic preoccupations into more of a pop framework. No doubt, tracks like ‘Window’ (video below) will see them get more radio play, higher festival billing etc, which I’m cool with. Even though I loved PVT back when they were Pivot, I still really like the pop cut ‘Window.’ Their approach to production is still quite out there, but they’re just applying that approach to more conventionally structured tunes. On a blogging scale from 1 – Animal Collective, ‘Window’ could very well be there ‘My Girls.’

But Church With No Magic isn’t an entirely under-3-mins affair. There’s some deeper album cuts that totally rule. Check out ‘Timeless’ above for proof that these guys can still wig out like almost no one else in this country. The whole album is pretty boss and I recommend you check it out when it’s released next month.

www.myspace.com/pvt

PS. I’m not a superstitious guy, but when I visited their Myspace to grab the above link I was visitor no. 555555. That has to mean something, right?

Gypsy & The Cat – ‘Time to Wander’ (mp3)

You may recall their track ‘Jona Vark’ on the airwaves last year, and it was this track that caught the attention of many including support from Mark Ronson on his East Village radio show. These guys have swapped a modest Melbourne home studio for the shores of foggy London town, and are in the process of mixing their debut with David Fridmann (MGMT, Flaming Lips, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) and Rich Costey (Mew, Muse, Franz Ferdinand, Glasvegas).

They constantly get compared to Empire of the Sun, but Gypsy and the Cats’ sound has somewhat more of an endearing quality than the former’s over-slicked production values.

It’s part electro-pop euphoria, part Avatar-porno. If those palpitating beats and phantasmagorical harmonies don’t fling you over to a vivd cosmic-utopia filled with babes, blissful sounds and other organic substances, not much else will. Watch out.

Seagull – ‘Grandmother’ (mp3)

Seagull made turned some heads with their first album, Goodbye Weather, winning a slot at Falls via Triple J Unearthed and garnering positive reviews. At the time of its recording, Seagull was the solo project of Christopher Bolton, which has expanded to a four piece including his brother Edward, Michael Zulick, and Kishore Ryan – yes, that same Kishore Ryan that already hits the skins for Kid Sam and Otouto (dude is fkn busy). Their new album, Council Tree, is it out on July 23rd via Two Bright Lakes and features all four members doing their proverbial “thang” over Bolton’s minimalist folk.

Above is ‘Grandmother,’ the first track released from the album. It sounds exactly how I imagined it – in a good way. It retains the same directness and sense of atmosphere that tracks like ‘Dust Storm’ from the first album had, but with a few embellishments poking in at the edges. Very cool.

www.myspace.com/seagullmusic

Golden Fangs – ‘Jaques Brel’ (mp3)

This song has been sitting in my drafts folder since forever. From memory, it’s popped up on a couple of other blogs since it first appeared in our SoundCloud account (which we totes check so send us your shit), but I had another listen and decided it’s definitely still worth posting.

It’s called ‘Jaques Brel’ by Sydney band Golden Fangs; it’s like surf music that’s been wrapped in cast offs from a Morricone soundtrack.; it’s pop music, but in that ‘no-vocals-for-over-a-minute’ kinda way. I don’t really know how to describe it. If it doesn’t sound like “yr thing” then give it a listen anyway, as it’s way more indie friendly than that description might suggest. Seriously cool tune. As are most of the others on their Myspace. These guys are worth keeping an eye on.

www.myspace.com/goldenfangsband