I’ve come at this one from the rear (shhhhhhhhhh) ignoring what’s probably been a lucrative past year or so for Naysayer & Gilsun (6k fb likes has to mean something right?) and focusing on the collborative side of this affair. You see, this track features the vocals of boy wonder Simon Lam. Remember him? You should, he was in this post about I’lls’. Oh and this one about Nearly Oratorio too… and he worked on Mansion, Alaska post-production, so the dude knows his way around a good tune, that’s fairly clear. This fourth connection makes it four from four with Lam’s vocals tightening the cinch on a cruisy Naysayer & Gilsun joint.

Remember Jeremy Neale? He made music history earlier this year when he became the first Australian to use a saxophone as a sonic aphrodisiac. If you didn’t follow the above hyperlink then you might not already know that he’s a Brisbanite but more than that, you may be unaware that he’s previously been referred to as “Brisbane’s answer to all overseas bands”. The earlier mentioned saxophone was a function in of the year’s best singles. It was (and probably still is) called Darlin’ and by jove it was a mid-year diamond. Even on the back of Darlin’ however, I almost didn’t write about the next single as I have a most severe papercut on my index finger but also because Jeremy Neale is a Queenslander and they’re the natural foe of the NSWelshman. This is because they always beat us in the world state of rugby championships or something, and that’s real bad. Cut it out Jeremy/other Northmen. I don’t know if you realise this but rugby league football is of particular import to me and when the blue waratahs lose I get crazy down on myself, in much the same way I do when I’ve a painful papercut. And thus, we’ve come full circle and things return from whence they came – back to the single making credentials of Mister Neale. The new single is called ‘A Love Affair To Keep You There’ and look, it’s no Darlin’ but it’s still a tour de melody. I want to make mention of “sixties guitars” but I can’t think of another sentence that would sound so broad and uninformed so I’ll leave that right out. The guy can sing which is a significant one-up on most other garage-rock outfits. He can properly sing. I saw him at BIGSOUND a few months ago and despite a sound guy who obviously had the high and lofty goal of permanently rupturing my eardrums, it was still fairly obvious that the dude could wail. Lend your ears to this.

Also, heard the new Wiz Khalifa record today (I know, right?) and it featured the lyric “I’m the shit, literally”. Either I didn’t hear what I thought I heard or excrement is finally beginning to become a hip-hop feature.

Sweet heavens, Brothers Hand Mirror have thrown me a curve ball. The pair had the nerve to release a new EP the very night that I’m off to see their show. HOW AM I GOING TO MOUTH THE WORDS STAGE RIGHT WHEN I DON’T KNOW THE SONGS!? How indeed. Hopefully it’s loud enough so as I can just move my mouth about a bit and the rest of the club will assume that I know something they don’t via bootlegs/youtube. “Yeah, this is set is mostly just underground joints for the oldschool fans”. I won’t actually say underground though, I’ll just say “UG”. Up on it.

Posturing aside, it’s a good EP. A much, much more cohesive collection of tracks that hold together more than those of their last EP, while maintaining that eccentric aural collage that gets your underarms moist. The first song you’ll stream below is called ‘Friend of Mine’ and it sees Oscar Key Sung providing a more accessible beat than most we’ve heard from him (Assuming that this is one of his. HTMLFlowers has been dabbling in his own beatsmanship lately). The second is the last of the five, the title track ‘Muddy Now’ and it’s most pleasurable indeed. It’s no more than a single note electrified and repeated with some birdsongs buffering it from the ever more impressive verse of HTMLFlowers. I have to shuffle off pretty soon so let’s call that it for the moment and barring accident I’ll pad this out later down the track. I’ll let you know how the live versions are played out. If you’re in Sydney then you should probably just meet me there. k-c-u-soon.

Brothers Hand Mirror – Friend Of Mine

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Brothers Hand Mirror – Muddy Now

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Download the whole EP over here on a pay-what-you-want basis.

Two new cuts from the forthcoming Silver & Gold Christmas records that I may or may not have spent near $200 on last month (SPOILER: I did). The new tracks are inspiring me to think that it may have been a great decision after a slight scare with Mr Frosty Man. The video was excellent but the song was, you know, alright or whatever. Good King Wenceslas is straight out of the Age of Adz songbook while Alphabet St is a cover of the Prince original. Both are crazy cosmic. Sort of bizarre that at the end of Good King Wenceslas he takes up an ‘Alphabet Street’ chant although by this stage you’d think there was little that old man Stevens could do to surprise me. Play the two in quick succession as there’s a really lovely transition. You can download the both of them via soundcloud (for free) or you can wait another nine days and get the full 58 tracks for a mere $15.

Sufjan Stevens – Good King Wenceslas

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Sufjan Stevens – Alphabet St

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Summer joints for young lovers ready to trade the colder months for the warmer. It’s reasonably clear why Perth’s Sunny named themselves so, their warm and fuzzy tunes the perfect partner to a day on the ocean. You’ll probably need a few repeat listens to fill said day since the EP only clocks in at a sum total of ten minutes but you’ll find that the decision to repeat will be based on pleasure as much as time. You might already be happy to put that whole ‘bedroom recording’ thing to bed but if you’ll stay your hand long enough to connect with just one more home project I’m sure you won’t regret it. There’s a little glock in here that reminds me of Oberhofer‘s most recent effort but at no point does it delve into dangerous hyper-twee territory. Other time’s it feels like a toothless Kurt Vile. The group are offering a full refund to anyone who doesn’t feel that they receive their whole money’s worth. Download the four songs here.