If there’s a scene in the film you’re producing where two starcrossed lovers split and walk through empty night streets, tears astreaming down their screen-friendly faces and damnit, you just can’t find the right track for the moment… I’ve got you. The new single from Sydney’s Cogel opens with the distorted mauling of some poor wretched guitar and it’s that same abused guitar that receives most attention throughout the thing. It cuts in and cuts out with a grief-stricken violin part to keep it company between drinks. It’s one part Efterklang, one part Arcade Fire and a whole lot of angst. It’s interesting how I can’t say ‘angst’ without immediately thinking of teenage angst but I’m not being cynical here, it’s just some heavy juju. If you’d care to hear more (recommended) you can follow this link and start with ‘In The Middle’.

Cogel – Felusine

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Let’s stop for a second and admire those sleek grey player below. Haven’t seen these for a while, have we. It’s been all bandcamp and soundcloud. Here’s another, less recent recording from Cogel. I dare say you can hear more of the Arcade Fire influence on this one.

Cogel – The Bug

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I made mention of a Melbourne three piece called I’lls a few months back. Today it’s my most unaffected pleasure to share with you the solo work of Simon Lam, vocalist and drummer for the very same I’lls. The track below is called ’1st Day Of No Uni’ and it pretty much polarises my own state of mind when I used to find myself at the helm of holiday extravaganza. “Find a place and settle down”. Not me Simon, first day of no uni and I’m doing everything all the time always and everywhere. Unlimited possibilities, that’s where my head’s at, but this song isn’t about that. It’s been a semester of bad grades, bad campus coffee and overzealous student body representative candidates and the guy needs a hug. Cups of cold unforgiving synth and droning/sweet pleas. “Keep me warm”.

You can pick it up along with six other tracks on Nearly Oratorio’s Showers EP for five big ones or you can download the single track free. It’s one of the more verbose of the seven. The whole thing reminds me of a 2012 Pinback. Very pretty, a little melancholy but not mired in the depths of self-pity.

If the name seems familiar to you it could be because Fawn Myers featured on two tracks from Oliver Tank’s Dreams EP. Gifted with a gorgeous voice, Myers is aided by Tank’s production on her debut solo track ‘You Know Me So Well’. If someone had pitched this to me saying it was an early cut from Oliver Tank’s next record I wouldn’t have batted and eyelid. His hand is heavy on this thing. That’s not to say that the song itself isn’t a subtle affair, far from it. The beat is slow, sparse and punctuated by Myers’ repeated line “I just can’t let you go”. Every time I hear that sax part I think of Bob Seger’s Turn the Page (in the best possible way) and I think it’s probably the most attractive feature of the track. I was about to say that for a a first offering this is brilliant but scratch that, this is brilliant regardless of career situation. More from Fawn Myers please.

It’s like the aural equivalent of dropping a stone into the centre of a grand body of water and watching the ripples move out from their initially miniscule start to their final, lake sized circumference. One might ask how the stone-wielder’s presence in the centre of the lake is leaving the surface of the water unperturbed, or even if the wave form will retain its strength as it increases in diameter. One might ask those things, that is, if one were a complete twat. I’m happy to just think of it as a good way of depicting the gradual, cascading bloom of Exitmusic’s ‘Passage’. The song comes from their debut album of the same name and is quite simply, glorious. Aleksa Palladino’s voice is riven with pain and quivering vulnerability and though this might sound hard to listen to it’s far from it. Frail and empowering, pretty and strong. Big song from a big record.

This one has been sitting in my inbox longer than reasonably explainable. Since mid August actually. Sorry Sky Squadron. In my defence I did download the tracks and they’ve been in my itunes library I’ve just you know, never listened to them or anything. It was when I saw them on the flyer for Phobiac‘s recent show that I thought it could finally be time to do this thing. I’m glad I did too because the four tracks these dudes have available are more interesting than most everything else in my inbox, that’s for certain. Muffled post-rock with vocals suspended like thousand foot condensation. I’m pretty sure it was recorded during a thick studio mist (rare but beautiful) before being mastered by Beef. It’s good to see the various meats entering the production game, I’ve been waiting on that for a while. Enjoy all four tracks below. ENJOY THEM.