Madison Major of Brooklyn, New York is Champ Major, an experimental folk artist who’s aesthetic is one of creating a sonic environment to match her songs and stories. In the case of ‘Enjoy’ from her EP Receipe For Baking Two Humans Together, it’s a thick and foggy sound, akin to a radio transmission from a distant time and place. Acoustic guitar and a yearning voice … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Champ Major – Enjoy
Anonymous Friends – straight outta Somerville, Massachusetts with their debut EP Anonymous Friends Start A Band. Great sound too – shades of Fugazi, Polvo , Girls Against Boys, Bailter Space and the like. ‘Amos’ does the loud quiet loud thing well with a tight rhythm section and some noisy Pixies six-string racket smeared across the top of it all. Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Anonymous Friends – Amos
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
Casual Male are a band out of Brooklyn, NY led by Tim Lappin. They’ve got a new EP out called EP and it finds them dialling into the kind of indie sound that embraces rhythm, clever lyrics and plenty of sharp turns and infectious melodies, not dissimilar to the route well trodden by Spoon and The Walkmen. ‘Takin’ It Easy’ is a moody slow stagger … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Casual Male – Takin’ It Easy
The minimal electronic punk duo Sleaford Mods have a new single/video out for the title track from their forthcoming EP TCR, due out on Oct 14th via Rough Trade Records. It finds them unleashing the same sarcastic, ranting critiques on modern culture over an 80s-indebted bleeping melody, robotic bass-line and incessant primitive drum machine. “Elvis has definitely left the fuckin’ building” Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Sleaford Mods – TCR
Show Me Where It Hurts are a Rhodes electric piano, drums and vocals duo from Auckland, New Zealand. Both musicians have been key players on the Auckland scene for the last two decades with Josh Hetherington fronting Thorazine Shuffle and Ronny Haynes drumming with bands such as Pash and Fagan And The People. The pair have just released their debut self-titled EP (stream/buy below) which follows … Continue reading SONIC KICKS: Show Me Where It Hurts
Sere hit the ground running on their debut self-titled release. It’s a three track EP but it could easily be considered a mini album with its 24 minute runtime and the varied terrain they cover. The doom quota is high from the Auckland quartet yet never in a super-serious, studied manner. These guys can hammer down but they also show a desire to expand the … Continue reading EP REVIEW: Sere – Sere
This is the first solo project for Step-Panther main man Steve Bourke and it finds him shelving the noise and sci-fi surf rock of that band for a gentler, pastoral approach. The nervous energy and frantic flailing has dissipated into six lazily strummed and finger-picked songs that bring to mind Kurt Vile and Christopher Owens. There is still a stoned vibe to Bourke as the … Continue reading REVIEW: S M Jenkins – Out There In The Zone EP
On their new EP Flyying Colours take their sound a step further, refining their songwriting into a near perfect collision of pop melodies and shoegaze textures. The expected touchstones of Ride, MBV and Chapterhouse are all there but they’re filtered through a gauze that is equal parts Smashing Pumpkins and dream pop. The songs are tight and the rhythm section drives the songs along with … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Flyying Colours – ROYGBIV
I’m listening to the new Love Migrate EP Shimmer Through The Night this evening and I’m damn impressed. It’s dramatic indie guitar pop music with swirling keyboards, urgent percussion and an overriding art-rock vibe. Think The Phoenix Foundation meets Blank Realm. The whole EP is recommended, here’s the first single from it – ‘Pippa’s In The Highlands’. The EP came out late last month and … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Love Migrate – Pippa’s In The Highlands
For a couple of years now there’s been talk of a 90s revival in music from the slacker tones of Yuck to the many vying for the title of the new Dinosaur Jr (J is still the king). Locally here in Australia there doesn’t seem to be quite the same desire to slavishly replicate the heroics of past compatriots from that era but those doing … Continue reading EP REVIEW: Hope Springs – Sooner Or Later
Anna Calvi and David Byrne get all mysterious and moody in this new duet covering Keren Ann’s song ‘Strange Weather’. The song appears on Calvi’s new cover EP of the the same name due out on Domino 14.07.14. David Byrne said the following on working with Anna: ‘I’m a big fan of Anna’s two records… and I caught her tour after her first record at Bowery Ballroom … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Anna Calvi & David Byrne | Strange Weather
Doubtful Sounds 