Archive for February, 2014
This is everything you’d hoped it would be, then doubled, then doubled again because you’ve got depressingly low standards for Australian music. Oscar Key Sung here drops what is the perfect counterpoint to the four ito the floor anthemic pleading that was October’s ‘All I Could Do‘. It’s Alyosha to the Ivan, Seachange to his Odelay, ‘Take Care’ to his ‘Started From The Bottom’. He’s had this one in the arsenal a long time, deploying it live with with less affect than ‘All I Could Do’ or ‘It’s Coming’ but to an audience not yet acclimatised to the newness. The man himself is so far past this track that he’s been spinning remixes of it in his sets before the original had yet flavoured the public palette. The news in tandem is that the long (LONG) awaited Oscar Key Sung EP is upon us. Maybe set a date with your girl, go to the pharmacy to collect the relevant supplies because come March three, when you put this on in your Corolla there’s going to be some back street freestyle a la sixteen year old Kendrick. I’m saying you’re gonna get laid. Way to make me spell it out, good grief. Taste the future below, even Pitchfork know what’s going on.
Sooooooo… Colourwaves huh? An EP from colourwaves… You know who would be highly qualified to write about such a thing? Someone who had listened to the past Colourwaves EPs. Not this guy though, no sir, haven’t listened to them, I certainly have not. The new one though, that’s a doozey. Am I better able to discuss it because I come without preconceptions? Maybe. Am I going to some research to better inform myself on the journey? Not a chance. Let’s do this.
I’ll spend the key words of this “review” summarily referencing the Drive soundtrack, Washed Out, chillwave and Candy Claws. Lots of elongated oohs and aahs, dark synth and it’s all quite lovely. Enjoy.
In my mind there’s a perennial battle between what I know and what you know and where exactly the two overlap. The middle space in this venn diagram waxes and wanes depending on the subject matter but when it comes to Australian music who even knows!? Maybe sometimes I give you more credit than you deserve and in those moments I don’t provide you with the necessary backstory to properly gorge yourself on a new artist. Other times I assume you know very little and I’ll hold your hand as we explore hot new producers like Gizbo Glabbelstork or Flume. I think with GUM I 
thought “Hey. These guys know a thing or two about good tunes. They’ll be across this”, so despite the song itself being fundamentally excellent I’ve let it sit on what I thought was the mantlepiece but was in fact an old shoebox under the bed. So, retrieving that shoebox of unspoken goods, let’s talk GUM. Meanwhile, I hope you googled Gizbo Glabbelstork.
This one from GUM might be one of the most reverbed tracks I’ve EVER LISTENED TO. Even the reverb has reverb. Listening to this song is like standing in an elevator with opposing mirrors multiplying each other into the pseudo-distance. Also you’ve downed two tabs that afternoon and visually, none of it makes sense to you. The reverb works in that same way, bouncing off itself until it fades into the ether. Structurally it’s hard to detect what’s what. I don’t know if the upper range vocal section is the chorus or the explosive guitar part that follows or even if we’re existing in a cosmic binary universe wherein two chorus are socially acceptable. I hope it’s the latter. Imagine that.
GUM is the same Jay Watson who did some real ol’ drumming in Tame Impala (famous band) and some real ol’ guitar in Pond (semi-famous band). I like to think that his arch-nemesis is Joe Ryan (Shiny, they say) who also plays guitar (and other stuff) in (semi-famous band) Pond. Nemeses only by virtue of the fact that they both dropped their most recent singles on the same day in an effort to see who is most famous. At the moment it’s Jay but pundits are tipping a late game resurgence from Shiny Joe.
Because you’ve sat still through this entire post I have a special treat for you. It’s a song by POND theyselves, and a true jam at that. It’s written as part of the Spirit of Akasha soundtrack which has been something I’ve been working on at work this past year or so and I kid you not, having it finally released is like being cured of the Bubonic Plague. I feel so healthy, like I could crush a schoolbus with just one hand. Pond wrote a song for it and so did heaps of other good sorts but we’ll just listen to the Pond track for the moment if that’s cool? Thanks m8s.
Artists you need to know rn
| 1. 1300 |  |
316 |
| 2. Voidhood | |
259 | 3. jamesjamesjames | |
186 | 4. Zan | |
174 |
| 5. Sesame Girl | |
147 |
