Here’s a gentleman worth keeping an eye on courtesy of his apparent ability to make music within any chosen genre. Have a listen to the pair of songs streaming below and you’ll have to agree, you’ll just have to agree that they are quite dissimilar, am I right? I’m right and I’m astute and that’s why I’m a viable music media node. Respect me. The one song sounds like an under produced Justin Timberlake, with the light sprinklings of an Oscar + Martin jam. There are some organic sounds in there that thanks to my well honed ear, I’ve been able to identify as the jingling of car keys and the clinking of a vintage collectible spoon on an empty jar of Cottee’s jam.

The other, the more recent ‘Selma Blair’ from his third record Home, has this chorusey bit that comes in around the 1:00 mark that is sure to set your heart a-flutter. Rollicking banjo? Don’t mind if I do. It’s a far folkier affair and it’s a better representation of the album in which it resides which is, incidentally, free. He’s from Melbourne too, just by the by.

Yeo – ‘Two sides Of A Door’ [DOWNLOAD]

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Yeo – ‘Selma Blair’ [DOWNLOAD]

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While their band name has dated worse than a Von Dutch trucker cap/hooded t-shirt combination, I argue that their 2007 record The Ghost That Carried Us Away is still relevant even in this indie-folk saturated market. Released through Morr Music (known for Radical Face, The American Analogue Set and Electric President) it was vessel to a track called ‘I Sing I Swim’ which immediately won me over. Lead singer Sindri Már Sigfússon also works under the moniker Sin Fang, and when he does, my oh my, good sounds abound. He’s that guy who comes to the party with two bottles of wine when you only asked him to bring one bottle of wine. In this analogy each bottle of wine represents a different musical project, though it’s important to recognise that both wines (musical projects) are of fine vintage (songful quality) and do not lead to extended drunkenness (unenjoyment) and possible termination of employment due to indecent exposure (possible termination of employment due to indecent exposure). Again though, I reiterate that there are two good things where you only expected one good thing, which exceeds all expectations by 100%, maybe more if you have low opinions of this blog.

Streaming below are two songs from Seabear’s The Ghost That Carried Us Away and one from each of Sin Fang’s two records.

Seabear – I Sing, I Swim [DOWNLOAD]

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Seabear – Libraries

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Sin Fang – Clangour and Flutes

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Sin Fang – Always Everything [DOWNLOAD]

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I’ve slept on this one for a good six months now because I think part of me has been incapacitated by the thought that someone might think my tastes too cheesy, or maybe too comfortable which they probably can be, but I shouldn’t project that onto you. You deserve better than that. You’ve been here since I was exclusively a Sufjan Stevens exposure blog (not entirely untrue) and you stuck with me even when I didn’t really know how to use twitter. You did that, that was you! So let’s take a moment to mourn any credibility I might have once had.

And now let’s get on with things. Actually let’s not yet. Buckley Ward, if you are reading this, I want to make clear that I’m not saying your music doesn’t have credibility. I’m saying that people are quick to declare accessible music valueless. I think your music is a bang on. It’s carries that indie pop sense that often comes laced with tropical guitar tones. I was drawn to the none-too-overpowering nature of those tones however, in that you don’t make them the centerpiece of the tracks where bands like New Navy seem to let it override the sense of melody. I really feel these songs.

The Melbourne group have a full-length out April 20 through Shock which will house the two single below. I’m forced to use soundcloud embeds because you destroyed my bandwidth last month.

I know, I know, the title of this post reads as if I’ve made a pop sampler but there’s no Ne-Yo nor Beyonce in sight, just a recently renamed Morning Benders. That’s right, the band former known as The Morning Benders are now called POP ETC because they’ve only now, seven years in, discovered that Bender is derogatory cockney slang for a homosexual. Hard to believe since it was the first thing I thought of when I first saw their name on paper, but there it is. They immediately christened the new name with a new release, a mixtape on the house. It’s a little more synth-centric, the indie rock might be slightly closer to an indie pop, but these days the two are virtually indisitinguishable anyway so we cool. I actually think there’re comparisons to be made between this and the most recent record from NYC band Fun. (who are a massive guilty pleasure of mine), in that both of them push the autotune envelope, have a frontman who can wail, and have underplayed moments of lounge as well as hip-hopesque beats. Below is my choice cut ‘Everything Is Gone’, which would fit perfectly on the next Blackroc record if the vocals were traded for an MC’s verse. Download the whole thing here and make your own assessments.

Pop Etc – ‘Everything Is Gone’

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While I’m here, I’m going to come out and say that I’m completely ok with autotune. It’s only the enemy of the Idol/X-Factor singer. I want to hear creative composition and interesting aesthetics, I don’t need an artist to prove they have the best set of pipes on them. It’s become just another tool in the same way reverb is. Obviously, it’s not always the case, but seriously, Sufjan could pee in a cup and I’d still call it Champagne.

To me the the organic and the digital fused most beautifully when I first discovered Candy Claws in December 2009. I remember vividly a sweltering Summer, but most of all I remember driving back from Blueys Beach to see Why? play the Annandale (An artist for another post). On that trip down, my worthy travel companion Nick Hurditch provided a playlist downloaded from a last.fm connection that might have been incredible though I don’t actually remember another track it contained. The key song for me, that will forever remind me of that Summer and that drive, was Catamaran by Candy Claws. It was a deep breathing Summer wash that resonated perfectly with late afternoon drive through sweltering coastal roads with one’s hair whipping about one’s head. It feels unusual writing without my characteristic cynism but my memory of that afternoon is so crisp and pure that I refuse to tarnish it with any half-heartedness.

Anyway, parallel to the memory of that warm afternoon is the memory of that song and in turn the memory of that record. It was (and still is) called In The Dream of the Sea Life and more than most records that I recommend, I demand that you purchase it. Truly, it’s around $7 for the full download so you’d be outright foolish not to. It’s more ambient than almost anything I’ve posted before this and the melody is blurred beneath what I think are the integrated sounds of the ocean, declaring the record title relatively poignant. I am having a genuinely difficult time choosing the right songs for you to stream, and the end I’ve come to these two, though you should hear the album as an unabridged piece of art. It just feels like the product of a very specific time and place. I am all about it.

They had a follow-up record come out further down the trail but it didn’t hold a candle to this thing, despite receiving more critical attention.