Beck’s much anticipated 13th album follows the lush and melancholic Morning Phase and though Colors is equally lush, it’s an album built on widescreen technicolor, bold sonic brushstrokes and a saturated pop aesthetic. On first listen it feels like the quirks and eccentricities that made Beck so iconic are absent on this album but dig below the pop-laminated surface and you’ll find an equally audacious … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Beck – Colors
Out Of Silence is unique for the fact that it was rehearsed and then recorded live at Finn’s Auckland studio, whilst being streamed live to the world via Facebook and You Tube. It was a fascinating insight into a logistical and creatively adventurous undertaking. Even for those who didn’t see or know about the process, the spirit and communality of the session is imbued in … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Neil Finn – Out Of Silence
Artistically speaking, pop art is an apt description of the style and approach that Hollow Everdaze have near-perfected on Cartoons. A decade into their career they’re still uncovering lush, sun-kissed pop nuggets that swoon, sway and deftly swagger through 60s eccentricity, 80s/90s British indie and right up to the modernism of a band such as Spoon. There’s a wistful quality to the songs yet they … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Hollow Everdaze – Cartoons
Alex Cameron has a new album called Forced Witness coming out on September 8th via Secretly Canadian and here’s the first single from it – ‘Candy May’. Cameron and sidekick Roy have been traveling the US-of-A for a while now, spreading their electro-croon lounge music from coast to coast on the back of the successful debut LP Jumping The Shark. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Alex Cameron – Candy May
Kirin J Callinan, Spike Fuck, Hviske @ Oxford Art Factory, June 10th 2017 Sydney has produced a number of forward thinking songwriter/musicians in recent years who blend differing levels of theatricality into their performances. From Jack Ladder to Alex Cameron and Mossy, they all cultivate a persona and carefully consider an image as part of their creativity. Kirin J Callinan though, is out on his limb of … Continue reading LIVE REVIEW: Kirin J Callinan @ Oxford Art Factory
RICKIE’S STILL IN LOVE WITH MUSIC Rickie Lee Jones, she of the long and diverse career that began back in the late 70s with that single Chuck E’s In Love, is still passionate about music and her achievements, as she explains to Chris Familton. Beginning at the start of her career in Hollywood, odd jobs, a chance encounter with Tom Waits and her demo tape … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Rickie Lee Jones
Hot on the heels of her collaborative album with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, Jesca Hoop backs it up with a new solo album that dives deeper into her experimental songwriting, drawing on folk, indie and art pop. The songs here are minimal, skeletal even. Simple percussive elements, at one point just the keys of a typewriter, form the basis for hypnotic melodies and lyrical … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Jesca Hoop – Memories Are Now
Mac DeMarco recently upped and relocated to LA from Queens, NY and the transition to a new city had a slowing effect on his writing and recording process this time around. He sat with the songs a while and then stripped them back to acoustic guitar, drum machine and synth, giving the new album much more of a laidback (is that possible) and skeletal sound. … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Mac DeMarco Announces New LP ‘This Old Dog’
Originally hailing from Hobart Tasmania, Quivers are now based in Melbourne and have a new cassette/download album out called We’ll Go Riding on the Hearses. Their bio name-checks Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young, The Triffids, The Chills, Twerps and Courtney Barnett which is a mighty fine barrel of sounds from which to draw from in our opinion. On the first single Pigeons they nail a swaying melancholic jangle, … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Quivers – Pigeons
The Lemon Twigs are the brothers Brian (19) and Michael (17) D’Addario from Long Island who I came across online a month or two ago. They caught my attention with this song These Words and another single As Long As We’re Together. Madcap technicolour pop sounds by the pair who write and play everything on their recordings. I’ve been digging the glam, baroque-pop sound of others like Kyle Craft of late and these guys … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: The Lemon Twigs – These Words
The Tambourine Girls feature 3 ex-members of Sydney band Deep Sea Arcade who are now forging their own winding path through the outer reaches of garage-pop and psychedelia. They’ve just released the catchy and near-eponymous new single ‘The Tambourine Girl’, with the clip below. Recorded with producer Tim Whitten (Powderfinger, The Go-Betweens, Hoodoo Gurus), the song itself is captivating, evocative in its execution encompassing the mythology … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: The Tambourine Girls – The Tambourine Girl
Bryan Estepa returns with album number five and it continues the rich vein of effortless 70s singer/songwriter vibes, a dose of soulful yacht rock and the sweet and lonesome side of country music. Every Little Thing finds Estepa reconfiguring his band (The Tempe Two) to a trio of bass, drums and guitars and it was a good call, it suits his songs perfectly. It allows … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Bryan Estepa & The Tempe Two – Every Little Thing
Doubtful Sounds 