Posts By Dom Alessio

Ohana: ‘When Things Come Alive’

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Ohana

Ohana – ‘When Things Come Alive’

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Australia’s most combustible band, Ohana, return with a brand new track off their forthcoming record. Once again sounding like a band on the edge of completely losing the plot, the Wollongong four piece play their noise-pop with aplomb, echoing alienation with music that pushes and pulls you with visceral energy and infectious rhythms. I can’t wait to hear their new album, and ‘When Things Comes Alive’ is a fantastic teaser track. It’s a wandering progressive number that bookends a My Disco-esque shoegaze mid-section with a frenetic beginning and end, tearing their guitars apart. I think I can hear the blood on the strings.

http://www.myspace.com/ohanamusic

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Nucleus

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Nucleus – ‘Dissolved Girl’

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Sound familiar? Sydney’s proponents of prog-rock goodness, with a penchant for Tool and Dream Theater, Nucleus have lent their hand to a reinterpretation of Massive Attack’s ‘Dissolved Girl’ on the band’s second EP, Circumvolution. The whole EP was an in-house affair: the band’s guitarist Dylan Mitrovich produced, engineered, mixed and mastered the six tracks, and for a home studio the quality of the Circumvolution EP is top notch. And this isn’t a bad cover, either!

Sydney-siders, Nucleus are launching Circumvolution at the Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills on Saturday August 9 if you feel like some heavy guitars for your post-Splendour weekend.

http://www.myspace.com/nucleusband

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Birds of Tokyo: ‘Broken Bones’

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Birds of Tokyo – ‘Broken Bones’

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Although I haven’t really settled down and got cosy with Birds of Tokyo‘s new disc Universes just yet, my initial reaction to the album is that it’s a fairly hit-and-miss affair. Having said that, ‘Broken Bones’, which is essentially the opening track on the disc (there’s an ambient intro song), is a wicked tune, and the best track on Universes.

http://www.myspace.com/birdsoftokyo

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Snowman: ‘Daniel was a Timebomb’

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Snowman – ‘Daniel was a Timebomb’

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While the proprietors of Who the Hell argue over the merits of Snowman‘s brutal new beast The Horse, The Rat and the Swan, I’m unequivocally on the “Pro” side for this album. It’s fucking menacing, like a Birthday Party record, completely visceral and incendiary; it feels like the four piece won’t just bring down Perth, but the whole of Australia with the force behind these songs. The music darts from raucuous punk rock like that found on ‘Our Mother (She Remembers)’ – what an opener! – to the weighty darkness of ‘The Blood of the Swan’ and ‘She Is Turning into You’, two songs that’d fit almost too well in the soundtrack to Wolf Creek or a similarly evil Aussie outback film.

‘Daniel was a Timebomb’ is the closest thing Snowman have to a pop song on this album – that is, if you like your pop songs to explode your eardrums.

http://www.myspace.com/thesnowmanempire

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Deep Sea Arcade

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Deep Sea Arcade – ‘Crouch End’ (mp3)

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Sydney youngsters with a penchant for The Beatles and Elliott Smith. Deep Sea Arcade could have done a lot worse with their debut offering to the world. An underwater adventure in the yellow submarine with Lennon at the helm, ‘Crouch End’ is a dreamy psych-folk tune that floats along and takes you in its current. I reckon it won’t be long before you see Deep Sea Arcade and fellow Sydneysiders Richard In Your Mind sharing bills together; they’d compilment each other perfectly.

http://www.myspace.com/deepseaarcade

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The Chaperones: ‘Trigger Man’

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The Chaperons – ‘Trigger Man’ (mp3)

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Raucous and bluesy… it’s what we’ve come to expect from Sydney duo The Chaperones. ‘Trigger Man’ is looser and more raw than what I’ve heard from these guys in the past, imbuing some of that live energy into their recorded material – which is the eternal struggle for the live vs studio personas of any muso.

An EP of the same name is due out August 23. Already sounds like a step up from their self-titled EP. Good work kids.

http://www.myspace.com/chaperones

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