Oliver Tank in Slow Motion

This dreamy sky-scape track is the work of new young Sydney producer Oliver Tank. Take note Cher, this is how to use auto-tune effectively! I just love how this track pulses along... really sparse layering of sound. He really uses that space; what sounds like the space between breath and a heartbeat. Definitely one to watch.  

Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion by Oliver Tank

Hurry Up M83! We're Dreaming...

It's safe to say the arrival of M83's new album double Hurry Up, We're Dreaming will be like a long lost lover coming home (after 3 years) and I can't wait to feel it wrap its arms around me and make love to my every sense. (I know I talk about music like that a lot, it's no wonder I'm single...)

M83, headed up by French artist Anthony Gonzalez, is a genius at creating the ultimate melancholy party mixtape with his music: your head might bounce, you hands might swim so your friends can see... but your heart's lost somewhere in the galaxy of hazy minor keys and angst-ridden phrases that fall like burnt out stars. Check out "Be Wild" followed directly by "Cyborg" (Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, 2003) and you'll get what I mean.

"Midnight City" is the first official single we've heard hit the airwaves and it's already got my arteries pulsing and the ends of my nerves scrounging around online for more leaked tracks.

It's quite 'pop' this track; with that surging 4/4 beat and fuzzy layers of 80’s style synth (something M83 have always unashamedly been a fan of) only emphasised by the top-line sax solo taking us out at the end - which has made quite the comeback this year! So, it will be interesting to hear if the rest of the album has the same kind of vibe as a whole... and if the diehard shoegazers droop their chins accordingly in a different direction as a result   (as many did with the release of Saturday = Youth, 2008). This is what Anthony himself had to say,

"It's a double album. It's mainly about dreams, how every one is different, how you dream differently when you're a kid, a teenager, or an adult. I'm really proud of it. If you're doing a very long album, all the songs need to be different and I think I've done that with this one." (Spin)

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is due out this October 2011, and I for one can't wait to plug it in and close my eyes...

Girls ‘Vomit’ Tastes So Sweet

This kaleidoscopic new track 'Vomit' from Girls’ forthcoming Album Father, Son, Holy Ghost feels like you’d imagine it would if you were one of those cement-footed Mafia victims (circa 1970) sinking to the bottom of the sea as your last bubbled-breaths escape before your eyes.

The sinking, heart-wrenching finality is stretched from ballad-verse into some raw sweet-arse retro power riffs (Velvet Underground Vs Zeppelin?) and you go all the way down with it...

That is, until the characteristic yellow-toned optimism of Christopher Owens’ vocals break through the surface & breathe life into the back end of the track against a welling gospel chorale and ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ style organ to cry, “Come into my heart, my love...”

Fuck, I love that kind of contrast in music, and Girls do it so well. I remember when I first heard previous singles ‘Laura’ (Album, 2009) and ‘Broken Dreams Club’ (Broken Dreams Club EP, 2010) the sweet & sour mix was so alluring and confusing; you felt like laughing, crying and dancing all at once. And that’s life, isn’t it? Hmm, maybe just mine... but there is something so relatable about Girls’ music it makes me think I’m not alone.

Girls, as the song goes, “I really wanna be your friend forever”

PS. You can download it now for free from Girls offical facebook page.

Memory Tapes, Yes I know...

So excited about US producer Dayve Hawk AKA Memory Tapes new material, since his first LP Seek Magic fuzzed around my ipod and the back of my head for endless days after its release. His sound is dappled so beautifully with light and loneliness, where lots of sampled layers give it this watery texture that just moves through you until it literally moves you.

His latest video "Yes I know" directed by Eric Epstein is also one of the best new music videos I've seen. Absolute creative genius; on par with the Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham's music video art of the past.

If this new track is just droplet of what we can expect from Memory Tapes forthcoming album Player Piano (out July 5) it is sure to be a high-rotater.

For You - Oscar + Martin

Discovered this little Melbourne duo on yet another lengthy binge of Australian music... Oscar + Martin.

Such a unique sound: perfect little popping beats overlaid by sweet little edible melodies make for an impressive first LP release from the boys entitled For You. I love how honest and raw the lyrics are too: there's lots of soft little peaks of heartfelt sincerity which make you really want to know the characters behind them.

Hopefully I'll get yo meet you at your Oxford Art Factory gig tomorrow night!

In the meantime, get lost in this juicy little ditty, 'Recognise'.  

30 Seconds to Mars Get Their Butts Pinched

So I'm not a great fan of their music, but Requiem For a Dream is one of my favourite movies - and I told Jared Leto that when I shot this interview. Got to give it to him , he is good on the witty banter.

Top 10 Best Albums and Songs for 2010 (ok ok so it blew out to 40 – I couldn’t help myself)

2010 has churned out some of the most awe inspiring music ever to skittle its way around ear drums, curl down to clench the ends of our nerves and move us in countless different ways impossible to scratch out on paper.

Some I’ve flailed limbs uncontrollably to in crowded bars, some I’ve clutched close to my chest alone on rocky outcrops in the dark, some I’ve screamed to with arms wrapped around strangers on muddy fields and some I’ve even attempted to make love to… (Apparently LCD’s Drunk Girls only works as an aphrodisiac on certain occasions)

Regardless, it has been an incredible year of music and hence why I failed so dismally at whittling my list down to a standard top 10.

I’ve also included a few of my fave tracks from each album, although I would argue that the top 10 albums at least are near perfect bodies of work. Like a fine wine, I’m sure a lot of the 2010 albums will only get better with time and like the memories of being front-centre at the respective artist's gigs (or squished at the back, imprinted into some sweaty dudes beer gut like a Hollywood star hands impression) eternally unforgettable.

Please argue with me on your choices if they differ - love a good argument!

1.Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Fave songs: Coronado, Earthquake (and only because I am responsible for about 200+ consecutive plays on youtube of Helicopter before the album was released)

2.Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Fave songs: World Sick, Sweetest Kill

3.Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
Fave songs: I Walked, Impossible Soul

4.The National - High Violet
Fave songs: Little Faith, Lemonworld

5.The Radio Dept. – Clinging to a Scheme
Fave Songs: A Token of Gratitude, You Stopped Making Sense

6.Local Natives (Australian Release 2010) - Gorilla Manor
Fave songs: Sticky Thread, Cubism Dream

7.Foals - Total Life Forever
Fave songs: What Remains, This Orient

8.Caribou - Swim
Fave Songs: Jamelia, Odessa

9.Jonsi - Go
Fave songs: Tornado, Kolniour

10.Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Fave Songs: Suburban War, We Used to Wait

11.Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner
Fave Songs: Same Dream China, Snow & Taxis

12. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
Fave Songs: Dance Yrself Clean, All I Want

13. Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Fave Songs: Grizelda, Madder Red

14.Beach House - Teen Dream
Fave Songs: Zebra, Norway

15.Seabellies - By Limbo Lake
Fave Songs: Smoketsar, Trans Ending

16.Delphic - Acolyte
Fave Songs: This Momentary, Remains

17.Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Fave Songs: Alter Ego, It’s Not Meant to Be

18.Mice Parade - What It Means to Be Left Handed
Fave Songs: Old Hat, Tokyo Late Night

19.Parades - Foreign Tapes
Fave Songs: Hunters, Tripping Over Your Eyes

20.Delorean - Subiza
Fave Songs: Warmer Places, Stay Close

21.Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
Fave Songs: Infinite Arms, For Annabelle

22.Mount Kimbie – Crooks and Lovers
Fave Songs: Maybes, Sketch on Glass

23.Menomena – Mines
Fave Songs: Queen Black Acid, Lunchmeat

24.Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II
Fave Songs: Empathy, Suffocation

25.Zola Jesus – Stridulum II
Fave Songs: Sea Talk, I can’t Stand

26.Best Coast - Crazy for You
Fave Songs: I Want To, Honey

27.Warpaint – The Fool
Fave Songs: Undertow, Bees

28.Bear in Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth
Fave Songs: You Do You, Lovesick Teenagers

29.Glasser – Ring
Fave Songs: Home, T

30.Twin Shadow – Forget
Fave Songs: Castles in the Snow, I Can’t Wait

31.James Blake – Klavierwerke EP
Fave Songs: I Only Know What I Know Now, CMYK

32.Alpine – Zurich EP
Fave Songs: Villages, Too Safe

33.The Books –The Way Out
Fave Songs: The Story of Hip Hop, All You Need Is a Wall

34.How to Dress Well – Love Remains
Fave Songs: Ready for the World, Decisions

35.Hunting – Earnest Ellis
Fave Songs: I am the Beast, When I feel Like Jesus’ Son the World Will Feel Much Different

36.Twin Sister – Colour Your Life EP
Fave Songs: Lady Daydream, Phenomenons

37.Blackbird Blackbird – Summer Heart
Fave Songs: Sunspray, So Sorry Girl

38.The Holidays – Post Paradise
Fave Songs: 6am, Conga

39.Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
Fave Songs: Round and Round, Beverly Kills

40.Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
Fave Songs: No Future Part III: Escape from No Future, A Pot in Which to Piss

Broken Social Scene - Texico Bitches Official Video

Check out this saucy new video for Broken Social Scene's "Texico Bitches". And I thought the Preset's "This Boy's in Love" was homo-erotic! Whether it be milk or chocolate sauce, it's good to see artists using their creative license to be adventurous with their content direction. Sadly, some attitudes won't change themselves. This is a cracker of track to boot by one of my all time favourite bands:

Bear Bands and Bear Hands

Having the word “Bear” as part of your band name seems to be a mystical precursor for quality music these days, badged by scout-leading bands like: Grizzly Bear, Bear in Heaven, Panda Bear, Boy & Bear, Bearhug (Sydney band), the former Bear Vs Shark and the Bearnaked Ladies (oops wrong bear…and they were shit weren’t they). And now these little Brooklyn based furry nuggets, Bear Hands join my personal sleuth.

The boys began to cause a stir via a steady slog of support slots on the New York indie scene back in 2007 (Vampire Weekend, Les Savy Fav etc) after the release of their debut Golden EP. But it’s been their latest LP drop Burning Bush Supper Club that’s finally starting to chink its way into the independent Aussie airwaves.

They could be likened to fellow Cantora Records psy-rockers MGMT (upon hearing the track “Camel Convention” – I was envisioning a strange bird-like creature losing control of its limbs in the desert – or perhaps recalling my last night out on the town…) but Bear Hands seem to have a more jaunty texture to their sound: fuzzed-out vocals and just enough reverb to claw over dynamic percussion arrangements: some rollicking and tambourine infused, some unsuitably standard - but sounded out sweetly either way with woodland-romping melodies and abstract lyrics. I don’t know about you, but I love non-figurative language in song writing: where the sound of a feeling becomes the story and the way you flesh it out internally, tells it (true poetry? You tell me).

One of my fave tracks off Burning Bush Supper Club would have to be “Julien” (you can here what I mean by woodland-romping) as well as “Tablasaurus” (which has an Empire of the Sun kind of flavour to it).

Will Bear Hands get their bear heads mounted up on indie music fan's cabin walls alongside the formidably talented Grizzly Bear and Bear in Heaven? Only time - and perhaps a handy air rifle will tell...

You can purchase Burning Bush Supper Club from the Bear Hands website or here on itunes(although only their Golden EP is available in Australia as yet), or you can lend your heart to “Julien” here on Hype Machine. Check out their first single of the LP “What a Drag” below:

Grouplove - Get Involved

Much love to Grouplove: a nouveau LA collective consisting of: Christian Zucconi, Sean Gadd, Hannah Hooper, Ryan Rabin, Andrew Wessen. The boys and girl joined salty hands together one summer on the remote island of Crete (Greece) after meeting by chance: Hooper invited to participate in an art installation . Their music almost resembles a melting pot of Manhatten sound: the gritty textured riffs of Les Savy Fav mushed together with layered Local Natives style keys and vocals.

I am a bit slow on the uptake in posting this killer track "Colours" which was released earlier this year, but the group's self-titled EP is only just available this month in Australia on iTunes.

Get involved in Grouplove.

The Amazing Broken Man - New Year Son

Hunted online for this track after watching the 4th season of Skins recently. It’s one of those series with a brilliantly off-beat soundtrack thanks to music director Kyle Lind… and this track is just an eyelash on the snare of musical goodness it has to offer. The artist is Odorico Leal AKA The Amazing Broken Man from Sao Paulo, Brazil and this track is called “New Year Son”. It's love... for a while, until you open up your eyes at the end.



If you haven't seen Skins, get out of yours and underneath those of the horny dysfuntional teens of Bristol. You won't be the same again.

Seabellies Come Alive @ Beach Road Hotel

Multi-instrumentalist Newcastle sextet Seabellies wrenched hearts at Beach Road Hotel recently tailing off their national By Limbo Lake LP release tour. They’re a band that have managed to channel their once-choppy instrument-swapping stage performance into a tight tank of dreamy indie-pop: without drowning out the energy. Their swoon-worthy melodies bound simply and beautifully over a complex layering of synth, sampling and at times an entire brass fanfare: the band rallying the crowd as they crescendoed into “Ices” to begin their set, incidentally the first track of the LP. Seabellies music is weighted in nostalgia and lifted by front-man Trent Grenell’s playful falsetto and the band’s rollicking musical phrases as they dance that fine line between sweetness and sorrow.

Check out the video for their latest release “Trans Ending” below for a taste:



The Bellies are a band with more raw talent than Ozzy Osbourne’s speech pathologist and yet they seem to have been left off many a summer festival line up (Laneway? What gives?). Fortunately, you can catch them at Peats Ridge Festival just out of Sydney this New Years or if you're in Melbourne, they have a Wednesday night residency with Aleks and Ramps @ the Evelyn.

If you haven’t seen these kids live, get your head out of the fish bowl and some sea into your belly: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll probably get really drunk and send inappropriate picture messages to your ex – but it will be well worth the ride.

You can stream or grab a copy of By Limbo Lake from the Seabellies website.

In the meantime have a listen to their cover of Angels classic "Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again" for Triple J's Like a Verson below, amazing stuff: