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Recently I went on the Big Day Out tour and was lucky enough to catch Muse. The dimunitive Matt Bellamy owned the stage, strutting through their entire repertoire. For the encore, they brought out Nic Cester of Jet to cover AC/DC’s Back in Black.

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Seja Vogel – ‘Sing Me The Song Like You Said’

Uber-label Rice Is Nice  recently signed Brisbane’s Seja Vogel of Sekiden and Regurgitator (c. 2006) to their already-impressive stable of artists (Seekae, Talons, Spod, Richard In Your Mind et al). In keeping with her synth-playing roles in those bands, Seja has produced an album of songs based almost exclusively around her vocals and synth playing that display not only a proficiency at playing the instrument but at also wringing effective sounds out of it.

I’ve seen Seja live and must admit that I’m still getting used the whole ‘play along to an iPod’ style of performance. But hey, it took me a while to warm to the idea of samplers as an instrument so I’ll probably come around. Regardless, the songs were rad, her vocals were near flawless and there was even synchronised dancing (with ex-Rational Academy’s Meredith McHughe).

Looking forward to checking out this album. In ‘Sing Me The Song Like You Said,’  Seja has not only captured a cool tune but totally nailed the production as well (assuming she did the production, which is unconfirmed). Check the eerie vocal breakdown a minute in – can’t go past that old ‘tear it down, build it up’ trick. Sweet stuff.

www.myspace.com/sejamusic

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No Through Road – ‘You Better Run’

‘Girls Are The Devil’ is the latest single off one of my fav albums of 2009, No Through Road’s Winner. Truth be told, it’s not my personal highlight on the record but I can see where they’re coming from in putting this one out. It’s a pretty smooth number that makes a decent case for radio coverage while retaining bits of their chugging slacker charm. Still a good tune, but it ain’t no ‘Party To Survive.’

I’m actually a big fan of b-side ‘You Better Run,’ a more restrained number that mixes the caution of the title with Matt Banham’s lackadaisical vocals.

www.myspace.com/nothroughroad

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Elrazor – ‘Second Coming’

I don’t often put metal up on the blog. It’s partially because I’m scared Matt and Jerry will kick me off if I do it too often, but mostly because a lot of Aussie hard rock and metal bands aren’t very good.

While Melbourne’s Elrazor aren’t breaking any new ground in the genre, they do the Pantera/Iron Maiden/Metallica vein of metal well and tightly. They have everything – harmonised riffs, pinch harmonics, tasteful double kicks and shredding over palm muted chugging.

They’re currently #2 on the Triple J Unearthed metal chart – make of that what you will.

www.myspace.com/elrazor

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Emma and Alec – ‘Civilisations’ (mp3)

Emma Russack has been seeing a bit of love on this site lately, with whothehell enthusiastically jumping on her post-Lola Flash solo EP. As if to further boost her swelling profile, she’s joined forces with fellow former Lola Flash member Alec Marshall to release a self-titles EP under the inventive moniker of Emma and Alec.

‘Civilisations’ is a slow, minimal track, focusing mainly on Russack’s beautiful floating vocals that aren’t unlike a lot of the chillwave stuff coming out of the US at the moment. This shit can only be purchases on CD-Rs available at Emma and Alec shows (possibly at Emma solo shows, not sure though). So get along to one of those if you like what you hear.

www.myspace.com/emmaandalec

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