My monthly if-I-get-around-to-it Mixtape of exclusively Australian songs is called Postcards From Home and it usually lives on the Sound Doctrine facebook or over at the Tapes section of this blog but that’s all about to change. I’ve made a decision to post each and every one of them right here on the blog and even though I don’t have board’s approval yet I’m confident it’ll get through when I bring it up at the AGM in November. I can say for certain-like that this is a positive change that will result in increased financial growth and massive team synergy as well as at least (and indeed at most) one new post featuring a mixtape each month.

This very special October edition is the only one I’ll be releasing this year during the month of October and showcases some crackers. Foreign/National cover the Harpoons, Leisure Suite live up to their name and Medium Punch collaborates for the second time with vocalist Matt On The Moon. Electronic pearls from Flash Forest, Super Magic Hats, River Yarra and HOWL run a perfect counterpoint to Peter Bibby and the Harry Heart Chrysalis. Blair De Milo gets a track on here after he nailed that UV Boi collaboration and Brighter Later rides tandem with Lower Spectrum on their first new track since 2013’s The Wolves.

Some new signings in here to sit sweet on your palate in the form of Cabana whose first ever track is out through Pilerats Records. Similarly Spirit Faces has debuted his first track through Sydney record label TEEF, a company that people are already calling “merciless”, “a lot of fun” and “a record label”. Pretty cool right? Must have been started by one heck of a gnarly dude.

A few months back I asked, on the Sound Doctrine facebook, what my loyal and lovely constituent thought the best song of the year to be. I put forward Dick Diver’s New Name Blues as a very possible candidate and now October deep, I don’t think that’s changed. My number two spot however, may have just been filled by the one and only Peter Bibby. I am very [very] privileged to have listened to the album roughs of this forthcoming Bibby record and I [very] promise you it’s that it is one of the more valuable records of the year and that Bibby is one of the key prospects of Australian music over the next decade. I sat with my buddy James on Thursday of night last week listening to Nick Cave and wondering if Australian music [consumption] would ever be as open to storytelling as it once was so as to allow for future Nick Caves. Courtney Barnett is a damn promising prospect and something that offers a counter discourse to the hook laden, production focused Oz music success stories of the past few years and it’s going to be a ride as we watch and see if she can establish a similar cult following as our man Cave. I don’t want to put Bibby next to Barnett simply because they both have an Australian drawl and write songs from personal experience (I haven’t read anything on Bibby before but I’ve no doubt the comparison is often made) so we’ll leave CB back there and just talk about this damn song. It’s no secret that Bibby loves a beverage (his band is The Bottles Of Confidence) and here on this track he sings about his girl’s desire to see him extricated from the habit. Seemingly his love of sauce is as uncompromising as his songwriting, so sayeth that last line but I’ll let you get to that yourself. It’s hard to focus on any one lyric when you’re tapping a vein this rich. It doesn’t have the social gravitas of New Name Blues but it’s real life, listen to it over and over and just ingest the thing.

She loves my soul but she hates my drinking

If you haven’t before, take a moment to listen to Medicine. There’s not a whole lot online from Bibby still but plenty on the cusp. If the guy can retain his sense of self while continuing to write new and similarly captivating songs, the sky’s the limit.* For bonus viewing and reading, watch a live video of Bibby performing Medicine and read his pick for ‘Best Song of 2013′ as part of the Sound Doctrine 2013 wrap-up.

*Although more likely 8-10 thousand record sales is the limit, unless commercial station directors drunkenly add him rotation sometime over the next decade. Record sales tho, who needs ‘em.

An extremely unexpected collaboration between Brighter Later and and the almighty Lower Spectrum. I suppose it makes a lot of sense inasmuch as these are two artists whose respective stars are fiercely on the rise but still, if someone had hinted at this a few weeks ago I would have told them they’re dreamin’. But here we are, Brighter Later doing what Brighter Later does, that is restrained, gorgeous progressive folk and Lower Spectrum reportedly dropping in those late game string arrangements. I know I’ve already talked about scenarios that are seemingly far fetched, but I’m going to put something even more ludicrous on the plate here. Imagine Ned Beckley being involved in music that wasn’t exceptional. Can’t be done can it? Think on this today.

Brighter Later themselves are notable for their 2013 record The Wolves which was described as ‘Straight Gorgey’ (The Guardian) and ‘This biz is outta control’ (SMH). There aren’t many artists in this field that captivate me still but Brighter Later have a thing and Jaye Kranz has a voice that will. not. quit. She also has a way of writing/speaking in imagery is seemingly at once vague and specific to the listening experience so if you want to feel something on your Tuesday, this is the jam. There’s a new record due sometime next year.

“Seven minutes fifty one!” you scream, bloodshot eyes darting rabidly from side to side. “Where am I going to pull a stray eight minutes from, I don’t even have time to shower at the moment let alone indulge in glorious, glorious progressive dance music!”
You’re agitated but you’re gonna play it cool today because here at Sound Doctrine I have but one motto, and that is ‘Have Fun With It’. Bad haircut? Have fun with it. Your exorcist is running late? Have fun with it? Xbox live store not accepting your paypal account? Have fun with it. There’s a pattern here friends and it’s a pattern of non-committal geniality you easy going sons of guns. Look at you, you’re doing it already!

This song:

a) There are Dusty Springfield look of love vocal samples cut and spliced throughout
b) It’s released through Solitaire, the upstart label of Dan Rutman and Hamish Mitchell from oh, I don’t know, ONLY ONE OF THE BEST CURRENT AUSTRALIAN BANDS THERE IS, GUYS. Correct, they are from the band I’lls who are reportedly mere moments from releasing a new song of their own.
c) There is a heavily filtered didgeridoo living in the songs third quadrant.
4) River Yarra is real name Raudie McLeod which is a great name, isn’t it?
e) It’s a marvelously textured thing that has a consistent, throbbing bed of bass across its length with some colourful sheets of synth and sample on top. It’s not rocket science but it’s driving in its patience and it’s all carefulness and it’s rather good.

Go on then:

Sometimes it’s nice to see someone making music external to the neuroses of the music industry, outside of the game. James Blackwood has no facebook, no soundcloud or twitter, no formal release plans and no idea what he is doing, most of the time. He just writes some really rather good songs, records them, puts them on his bandcamp and sends them to his friends. Inevitably he himself hates them a few months later and deletes them out of existence. In a sense it’s sort of like Snowy Nasdaq’s one song a month campaign (wherein he deletes that song at the end of its one month life) except with even less intent. James Blackwood is a cosmic deity, lobbing songs into the universe from behind a distant sun, sweaty from proximity and nebulous as all hell, later swallowing them once again in the fury of his astral vortex. Maybe just give these a listen, think about the words, think about the guitar parts, think about how lovely they are and then go see him play with Tim Fitz on Saturday night at FBi Social.