Maybe these are real drums we’re listening to right now, maybe not. Hard to tell these days, these new fangled sonic engineers can make anything sound like anything. You know the other day I was listening to a song thinking I was hearing a synth and it was actually a kangaroo. I kid you not, it was a wiley bedroom producer and he convinced me that a synth was a kangaroo. Wait, no, that a kangaroo was a synth. You know what I mean? It’s a crazy world. Up is down and down is up and Astral Classix are re-releasing Flume’s third album with a bonus track featuring guest vocals from Ice T’s hologram and the entire verse is lifted from his Law & Order quotes and the whole time you’re wondering, “Is this a sample or is this an actual band?”

In the end, I’m less than certain that there was a real life human hitting real life drums but I real life don’t even care because the song is beautiful. Such a clear, warm vocal line that’s not quite perfect but certainly comes close. Three guesses as to who leveled this one so perfectly though if you need more than one then you’ve not followed #melbournemusic these past two years. Tropical sounds that interpose between the more quickly plucked parts and the overlayed twangs are also, mostly likely the product of a keyboard and artfully arranged to leave no jagged edges, the whole thing sanded down to a perfectly flush surface.

Whatever this is, it’s undeniably pleasurable to listen to and a marvelous start for Leisuire Suite.

On Spookyland

the earth, clad in her coloured glory,
is
a pin.
no more or less, chaps.
perhaps several
overstatements have been made
about the size of her womb.
I know she is pregnant.
but maybe not as due as
she first seems.
there has always been clamour and clang
throughout the ages.
there has ever been the roar of pretense
and the deafening cage of violent thought.
but through the cracks of her pinched skin
some bard, prophet or thing
connects.
comforts, sums and protects
the swelled heart that pin
does long to stick
itself in

While I’ve been writing this I’ve felt like that french balancing guy, though more like a young, attractive, Australian version with plenty of friends and the critical journalistic respect of his peers. Not because I’ve chosen the carny life and ditched my three by two meter cubicle to start walking literal tightropes -that’s ridiculous- but because I’m struggling to be as positive as I feel this Laneous single deserves without losing all written form and spilling into an amorphous mass of press release.

Look, I want to be grounded about this, but it seems as if I can’t help but heap high praise onto this song. The fact of the matter is that it may be the best new song that I’ve heard this year, and that comes from a man who has heard something in the vicinity of twenty to thirty songs thus far. Laneous themselves are less new with a handful of years under the belt and have released more songs now than Client Liaison have released music videos which is- wow, ok, only four. Way more than that then. As a travelling troupe of lovable misfits they’ve teetered delicately across the ‘great live divide’: playing club tours and major festivals alike, and have maintained their balance throughout.

I want you to know the key things here but you mostly just need to know that this song is sort of groundbreaking. It’s actually everything you like about music- think boatloads of sitar-esque noises contrasted with bright synth bounce which combines into what we in the business, ladies and gentleman, like to call modernism. I’m drawing a limp bowstring here but the closest thing I can parallel it to is Kirkis combined with tUnE-YaRdS and if that doesn’t whet your appetite then it’s best I simply stop writing and you start listening. Here we go then.

They’re playing a few East coast shows from the end of the month onward which you would be a straight fool to miss.

Some days it’s hard to come to grips with the idea that anyone with the name Rick Scully isn’t a private investigator. First it’s anger, then it’s grief and usually just before lunch it’s acceptance. It’s a pain mitigated by the knowledge that though the name is near wasted, this one particular Rick Scully is doing something that clearly suits his skill set better than any sleuthing ever might have. He lives out Burwood way making guitar based beats of quality commensurate with his relevant musical background. You see readership, Rick Scully is one third of Yon Yonson. Your collective gasps will suffice to show you understand the gravity of the situation. Correct, you are in the digital presence of a mastermind, Burwood’s truest muse. The EP is a cheerful four tracks long and is calm but warm, moving forward slowly but forward none the less. I’ve chosen Nestle for your single song pleasure but listen to the whole EP through because each of the four songs reveals something different about Rick Scully as a musical entity.

JP Klipspringer (Real life name Jack Poulson) today shares with you [via me] his debut EP in its entirety. If you’re an Australian music devotee then you may have already heard the first two Klipspringer singles but he’s given over his remaining 50% for yours truly to round out the release. Fortunately he’s kept some ammunition in the chamber in the form of Anastasia, my favourite from the EP.

The inimitable Simon Lam has used some precious annual leave from his regular projects I’lls and Klo to leave his fingerprints on this one. He never overshadows Poulson on any of these songs, allowing some warmth and padding to underpin the vocals and cradling the existing melodies in a technicolour sheen. The full EP, here, now, for you.