Like dust settling on the floor, disrupted by unruly primitive machines, the latest release from Jamie Hutchings takes shape and begins to gel and morph amid the clatter and klang of all manner of percussion. It’s never clear whether elements of a real drum kit have been sacrificed in the process of making this mostly instrumental album. A floor tom could be an empty container … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Jamie Hutchings – Making Water
Over the last few months, Melbourne composer, songwriter and documentary film maker Ben deHoedt has been tantalising listeners with a selection of tracks from his forthcoming album City Lights Shimmer. ‘Divided Souls’ and ‘This Call May Be Recorded’ showed that deHoedt has created an exotic and evocative world of moody synths and melancholic guitars set in hi-res atmospheric soundscapes. A kind of neon noir with … Continue reading VIDEO PREMIERE: Ben deHoedt – Dianne’s Leaving
Photo credit: Emily Rieman Mudhoney’s new LP Plastic Eternity is out this Friday, April 7th worldwide on Sub Pop. Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion, Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner’s new book chronicling the birth and evolution of Mudhoney and the Seattle grunge scene, is available for pre-order now and will be out June 13, 2023. Australia Tour 2023 Sun. Apr. 16 – Brisbane, AU – … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Mudhoney like little dogs!
The Gin Palace, who include members of Crow, Glide, The Aerial Maps, Charlie Horse, Copperline, Joeys Coop, Caligula and The Finalists in their ranks, have just released the second single from their forthcoming album The Year Of The Dog. ‘Unsettled‘, written by Peter Fenton (Crow) and Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil), is a dialogue with this country’s troubled past, an unflinching, poetic and honest look at a nation’s failings. An essential process required before all … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: The Gin Palace – Unsettled
Wonderful news to wake up to today, Califone have a new album called villagers in the can and set for release on May 19th via Jealous Butcher Records. On the first single ‘Habsburg Jaw‘, Tim Rutili is sounding in fine form, still weaving that fascinating mix of melodic immediacy and skewed experimental pop – a sonic junk shop of the accessible and the avant garde. … Continue reading CALIFONE ANNOUNCE NEW 2023 LP AND RELEASE FIRST SINGLE
I’m a big fan of RVG, their last album Feral was one of my favourites in 2020, so having a new single in the inbox this morning was a real treat. They deliver 100% too. ‘Nothing Really Changes‘ is a glorious slow-building rock track that glistens with retro synths over a muscular rhythm section. Frontperson Romy Vager is in exultant, brooding and defiant form, nailing … Continue reading RVG RETURN WITH A STELLAR AND STRIKING NEW 2023 SINGLE
NSW songwriter and filmmaker (WAITING: The Van Duren Story) Wade Jackson has released his new single ‘Limelight’ (Broken Stone Records), his first new music since his 2020 album Sensationalized. ‘Limelight‘ emerges twitching, writhing, pulsing and electronically convulsing. Like Bowie and Suicide in hi-fidelity 4K, ‘Limelight’ is hypnotic, with waning vintage synths and tribal-esque drums, the latter evolving from the coal freight trains passing through regional NSW. The middle … Continue reading WADE JACKSON STEPS INTO THE LIMELIGHT WITH NEW SINGLE
Definitive edition of their 1985 studio album Low-Life that includes the original album on 180g vinyl LP and CD – remastered. A second CD of unreleased audio, x2DVDs of live performances from 1984 & 1985, plus a hardback book. The vinyl album and CD are both wrapped in the original tracing-paper sleeve – not available since the very first pressing, and the first time ever for the … Continue reading DEFINITIVE EDITION OF NEW ORDER’S LOW LIFE OUT NEXT FRIDAY
Returning after a ten-year sojourn, freshly stewed from the mind of legendary rock outlier J Mascis, instrumental psych sideshow Heavy Blanket are back with the release of new album Moon Is on Outer Battery Records. Forever the creator and custodian of noise in all its inimitable forms, Mascis’ recent raid on a stash of unused riffs has yielded an exceptionally heavy trove of new tracks. Over six … Continue reading NEW HEAVY BLANKET (J. MASCIS) LP OUT END OF JANUARY
ARTIST PHOTO: Rachael Cassells The new single ‘Ashes, Ashes’, by Meg Baird, taken from the forthcoming new LP Furling, out on LP/CD/Digital on January 27, 2023 on Drag City. Furling moves through the breadth of Meg’s musical fascinations and the environments around them—edges of memory, daydreams spanning years, loose ends, divergent paths, secret conversations under stars—all led by a stirring, singular voice calling experience and enlightenment, elation, … Continue reading LISTEN TO THE DREAMY DRIFT AND SMOKEY SWAY OF MEG BAIRD’S NEW SINGLE
2022, another year of new music and further blurring of the distinction between genres new and old. This fragmentation and amalgamation of form continues to thrill and rejuvenate my depth of listening and inspire a renewed sense of vigour in digging deeper to find new artists. Like all of you I trawl the web, listen to favourite radio stations and shows, draw on the recommendations … Continue reading Favourite Albums of 2022
Our final video premiere for 2022 and it’s a damn fine one to go out on. The glistening, synth slow-burn of Ben deHoedt‘s new single ‘Divided Souls‘. Seemingly with one foot in the 80s and one in the future, De Hoedt pays tribute to the iconic TV series Miami Vice, transforming it into a gritty, stylised noir that, as deHoedt explains, is “a re-imagining of … Continue reading VIDEO PREMIERE: Ben deHoedt – Divided Souls
Doubtful Sounds 