“Molly Ringwald was my saviour…” Gothic guitar pop with a post-punk twist is the order of the day on this new track from Vanessa Van Ness, a Melbourne-based guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer from Venice Beach, Los Angeles. There’s a roll call of influential women in the song, over a minimal backing of guitar and percussion. ‘True True Shot’ has a really nice mantra-like quality … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Vanessa Van Ness – True True Shot
There’s a sweet rambling tinge of Blur in the sound of this track from Ex Okays. It’s mainly in the vocal before the song gets all warbly and comforting like a woozy walk home from a late night bar on a warm summer night. The band have an EP out now called Good/Old Days. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Ex Okays – OGIES
We’re very pleased to be able to premiere a stream of the brand new album from Fleeting Persuasion, the latest nom de plume of Melbourne songwriter James Spencer Harrison. He’s previously released music under the name J M S Harrison but now, with a richer and denser full band sound on Forever Caught he’s launched it under Fleeting Persuasion. Sonically persuading it is too, … Continue reading EXCLUSIVE ALBUM STREAM: Fleeting Persuasion – Forever Caught
Here’s a great slice of authentic garage psych rock from Los Angeles band Velvet Starlings, fronted by Christian Gisborne. ‘Kids In Droves’ cuts a fine balance between 60s UK mods sounds, a tough Britpop angle and US garage rock circa Nuggets. The single follows their self-titled EP of last year which has seen them generate some major radio attention and a US and UK tour dates. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Velvet Starlings – Kids In Droves
Christopher Willits is an acclaimed ambient composer and musician who has opened for the late Jóhann Jóhannsson and released two albums with Ryuichi Sakamoto and productions with Tycho as part of his impressive back catalogue. The five compositions on his new album Sunset move from warm to cool designed as a soundtrack to embrace the day’s end. ‘Coast’ rises and falls like the ocean currents, a tidal blend of synth … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Christopher Willits – Sunset
The wonderfully named Hail!Maggiedacat is a London producer and visual artist and this track, ‘Gemini Moon’, comes from her new EP Impossible Woman. It’s got a great, woozy 80s vibe about it like a lost video game or a soundtrack to a melancholic sci-fi TV series. The rest of the EP has a similarly dream-psych analog synth vibe to it too. Highly recommended. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Hail!Maggiedacat – Gemini Moon
It’s the tension and mood of this piece that caught our ear when we came across it online. The way that John Beltran sonically suspends the mood before introducing the tentative snippets of piano that flutter and suggest, like a butterfly unfurling wet wings. The back half emerges with greater weight on the back of swells of synthetic drift that rise and fall with heavy … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: John Beltran – Childhood Memories
Sydney artist Prudence releases his debut EP Major Tom tomorrow on Bandcamp and streaming platforms. Prudence is songwriter (and bassist for DMAs) Tom Crandles who also releases music as Au.Ra with Tom Jenkins. Major Tom’s six tracks were recorded in Margate, Kent UK, completed in Sydney and finally mixed in Auckland earlier this year. The results are a kaleidoscopic blend of post punk, new wave melancholia … Continue reading FIRST LISTEN: Prudence – Major Tom
Two of the guys from S U R V I V E, Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, who are best known for the soundtrack work on Stranger Things, have composed the music for Rashid Johnson’s dramatic directorial debut Native Son, which was Sundance’s opening night film. Based on Richard Wright’s seminal novel of the same name, the modern reimagining of Wright’s 1930’s coming-of-age drama chronicles Bigger … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein – Affluenza
Glistening, glitchy bleeps and pulsing waveforms abound on this track from Tiger Mountain, the work of duo Boris Skalsky and Paul Wood. It comes from their five track EP of the same name and the title piece dives into a sci-fi, semi-industrial filmic world where insistent rhythms anchor the music in driving synthetic motion. For fans of Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Zombi Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Tiger Mountain – Structures
Fresh sounds out of Norway this morning with this sleepy psych trip from Toy Savoy. We’re keen to hear more from the quintet as the song fades out after three minutes, just as full immersion in their dreamy soundscapes takes hold. Listening to some of their earlier material it seems they can take things up a notch into noisier shoegaze territory but ‘Something New’ excels … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Toy Savoy – Something New
‘Tuesday’ comes from Tristan Welch‘s 2019 album 40 Hours (via Verses Records (a label collective out of Washington D.C.) and it’s quite a mesmerising, slowly unfurling piece of droning ambient music. There’s a gentle swell, ebb and flow to the track, almost akin to an entity slowly breathing. Guitars, effects and a saxophone shape an immersive listening experience. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Tristan Welch – Tuesday
Doubtful Sounds 