‘Glow’ seems an appropriate title for a song that’s filled with synth noises and programmed beeps that seem to bloom with life and pulse rythmically across the song’s few minutes. Each signal rises from the flattened plane in slow gradient, pulling upward and then smoothing downward, not unlike (and I’m stretching here, but bear with me) the curvature of braille itself. Small undulations across a level surface that each hold meaning should you be willing to invest some time in the medium. Sheets of ambient sound are the bed from which the vocals and blips swell from and they’re sometimes solid, sometimes quavering with uncertainty. It’s a great a first step forward from Melbourne label Spirit Level who relaunched last week with news of Braille Face’s signing.

Bonus fact for my regular readers (if this is your first time here please look away, this is a members only fact): Urban dictionary taught me that braille face is someone with an intense pimple population and I for one am going to wield this term like a claymore going forward.

Trigger warning, if you are a person who is prone to #feelingthings then this song isn’t for you. Or maybe it is for you, I guess it depends on how open you are to the idea of weeping into your pillow tonight. ‘Maths and Engineering’ is lifted from an [as yet untitled] upcoming record soon to be released by Brisbane duo ROI. Barnaby Gickel and Matt Schrader have played intermittently with various Brisbane projects but under the moniker ROI they’re releasing a series of songs featuring a range of guest vocalists. There doesn’t seem to be any intention to leverage the brand of any of these vocalists because damned if I can find any reference to who is singing on this track. The vocal reminds me a little of Rohin from the Middle East and a lot of Grand Salvo but the underlying lyricism of the thing is the cincher. There’s very little subtext, just a plainly-spoken narrative that takes you on a journey through a suburbia that could be any of Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney if he didn’t explicitly mention Birdee Num Nums and the Brisbane River. The cues used to establish the setting all stick perfectly in my nostalgic longing for simpler school years- that friend who was the first to have internet at home, inter-school athletics carnivals, the significance of a friend at school being an adopted child. Simple emotional reference points that weren’t battered by the constant onslaught to bring your life forward, to have things and to be things. I won’t speak to the story that weaves through these settings because it’s best received direct but I’ll say that it definitely put me back in my seat for a few minutes. Fingers crossed there’re more tracks as siginificant as this on the album because this is a very special record.

Streaming this one direct from Triple J Unearthed – shoutouts to the good people over there championing records like this one.

In October last year I bought an incredible cassette by an artist called Oliver White. It wasn’t an arbitrarily selected release as I came pre-loaded with a love of the delivering record label Healthy Tapes and of Swimming. This is to say, the Adelaide three piece band Swimming, not the aquatic activity. My love of watersports had absolutely no bearing on this purchase. I’d been living in Melbourne for around six months by this stage and the Great Ocean Road was an infrequent part of my lifestyle but nonetheless something that I’d participated in a few times. So with the full admission that I’m no Great Ocean Road deep alumni, I’d like to assert that this song captured the movement of its gentle curves, the salty smell of navigation by retracted window and the warm but crispy air of a Melbourne Spring. The whole EP feels just as momentary so I highly recommend your purchase of the digital record though sadly you’ve missed the boat on the physical edition. Before she was Oliver White, Angela Schilling’s work as part of the earlier mentioned Swimming was a source of much celebration here at Sound Doctrine Dot Website Dot Com. There’s a wonderful remix EP worth checking out and an entire hot damned LP so start here and then work your way backward.

This is a record I’m going to have to see live in the next few months because there’s a raw intensity to it normally reserved for guitar bands and my mate Aaron whose presence at any party is quite frankly unbearable and who despite constant reminders never remembers to bring his iphone charger with him and lives perpetually out of battery. NO YOU CAN’T USE MY PHONE AARON. The breaks on this record make for an industrial strength punch in the ear zones akin to an old favourite of mine called Phobiac who dropped an incredible EP in 2012 and then disappeared (reminder, email Phobiac). After A/Bing the two I’ve come to the realisation that it’s not crazy that a drum break would sound like a drum recording so there’s another Sound Doctrine exclusive. This is certainly a nice palette cleanser to the chill electronic music that I’m forever swimming in and might be the sort of thing that’s going to break through because after all, we’re all getting a little tired of listening to pretty, gentle electronic beats with a nice crooning vocal over the top of them. Those chill records are kind of like my friend Aaron though aren’t they, they don’t really have teeth. With Aaron it was an elective surgical decision but with the ol’ chilltronics, it’s really in the blood isn’t it. Anywho, this one has some teeth and there’s seemingly a big voice behind them which is also part of why I’d like to see it in its most live format. It’s a little buried in the mix but it’s in therrrreeeee. Get around it, there’s an EP coming I think.

Edward Vanzet has come through with something special this week, a track called ‘Everyday’ that’ll tap into that same section of your psyche that took so much pleasure in the washed out rythms of… Washed Out. It’s just energetic enough to be of some dancefloor worth but every element of production feels so filtered and muted so as to make it seem like you’re in a carpeted environment. It’s that muffled warmth that makes the heavily reverberated claps from 3:28 thunder out like a dropped saucepan in an empty carpark. That production change isn’t an isolated incident either as the song progresses forward with constantly evolving sounds and tones. The introduction has more hi-hats than Pharell but they’re sucked out through the tracks middle before returning with compliments from a beautifully maneuvered electric guitar. The vocals initially made me think of Kavinsky’s Nightcall but after a little further investigation, even those have been softened to accompany the enclosing record. The track is perfectly articulated which seems wildly impressive before you realise that the chap has a history of well developed ideas. Added below for your listening pleasure is ‘Lichen’, a record from two years ago now that’s more Bibio than Washed Out but just as lovely with its guitar melodies and agile instrumentation. I’m head over heels for this one, friends.

The EP arrives tomorrow, prep yourself.