[Note from Tommy: Ben Madden is a young twitter maniac who has no sense of cultural context and is a self described "Business Synergy Expert."
Please, please, please don't listen to anything he says. He is a rogue element and this review has only come to life because he blackmailed me and in no way do I endorse his opinions. Thank you.]

Ah music. Some of the best experiences of my life have come through music. It’s also led to me making some poor decisions, like choosing to listen to the latest Wombats album. Is that topical enough? Anyway. Tommy brought me on board to review some young Australian upstarts. Personally, I stick to the classics. AC/DC. Pete Murray. Newton Faulkner. Here are my thoughts on one track. Future looks pretty bright with these young fellas. Not as bright as the sun reflecting off the 1000 mirrors Ta-Ku carries around with him to make sure his hair is all in place, but still quite bright.

This song sounds like a lot of the meme pages I have liked on facebook. In a good way. There are enough elements in this track to separate it from the run of the mill producers. I am Coming Around to it. Time for a commerical break. Here is a joke that I just thought of while on the toilet. Why does Chet Faker always ask for unlimited texts in his phone plan? Because its not 1998 anymore and he knows Talk is Cheap.

Now back to the track. Electronic music has taken off in this country recently. Every man and his dog wants to be the next Flume, Darude or Will Sparks. Personally, I prefer “rock” music. These Guy isn’t even grammatically correct. The Rolling Stones? If you gave that name to an English teacher it would certainly pass the test. These Guy wouldn’t. Yeah sure, make music, but don’t misuse the Queen’s tongue.

I bet William Shakespeare is not only rolling a joint in the afterlife, but rolling in his grave as well. A pretty good tune though. I give it 4/5 for tuneage, and 0/5 for murdering the English language.

PS. Does anyone else think that there should be an Australian Rules themed version of Space Jam featuring Warwick Capper? Me neither.

Here’s one from Melbourne storm trooper Herzeloyde that’ll have you [absolutely bare minimum] nodding your head in the Qantas executive lounge. Wait, what am I doing at the airport? You’re ABOUT TO TAKE OFF SON. Hit play on this thing and see if you’re still seated in two minutes time and if you are then you just don’t get it, you don’t. I’ve been doing big ol’ gangster arms to this thing in my glass cube at work and given the nature of glass (fairly transparent, most of the time) it’s been a statement of intent for the rest of my business day.

So huge thanks to Herzeloyde who has soundtracked my burgeoning office manhood but also provided what would be the ideal track for Danny Brown to rap over. Can you imagine? WELL STOP IMAGINING. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. Here is that exact thing, just a little tasty taste.

He’s a bastion of soundcloud culture so go deep

I have absolutely no information on this one bar that he’s from Brisbane and he’s up on Triple J Unearthed dot com but that’s enough to get me through at the moment. It’s a fairly simple track with James Blake inspired chord progressions and a vocal loop built around ten words. There’s a sprinkling of glass sounds that could have been lifted from the announcement of a wedding toast and the modulation of their pitch is what allows the rythm to become part melody too. It also lifts this from what might be called down tempo electronica into something a touch more energetic. Bonus x-files synth in the background for added #mystery and we’ve got ourselves a tasty teaser. He’s probably affectionately called Artie Wimbie to his friends and I’ll be furthering that nickname as we speak. Shout it with me, ARTIE WIMBIE! Scream it!

This next Sable EP has been about a thousand years in the coming and now that the first of it is here it’s immediately obvious why it’s taken this long. It’s a massive departure from the EP that brought him to the international stage but if you were taken entirely by surprise then you weren’t paying attention. That Kanto two tracker that he released toward the end of last year hinted at a love for affected vocals and Thunder Wave particularly can be seen as a bridging track between this new EP and the older material, retaining the casiotone twinkles but moving toward the sparser, longer syllabicated tonality and vocal fueled new tracks. There’s a big bunch of PC Music influence through the vocal most obviously but also there’s a reference to Sophie’s Lemonade in the central dropped section. The big takeaway is that Sable is proper songwriter now but also that the branding around this song is without equal, at least domestically. The press shot is the live action partner to the graphic novel that’s being slow released through his socials as we speak, featuring a pokemonesque fox like thing that turned up on the Kanto release too. I suspect it’s the same animal that’s been his logo for a while now.

But hey T-man, isn’t this a bit too commercial for you mate? Aren’t you into all that underground business? Doesn’t this already have 7.6 billion plays on tunecloud? Well yeah, sure, I’m a hot tastemaker with a heck of a sonic palette, but this is a good song right? And in the end, isn’t that enough? Historically it hasn’t been, but today it is. Plus look at these graphics from the cartoon and then come back to me you peanut. Now where’s that new Wave Racer?

*NOTE: Sable out through Pilerats Records who I have a business relationship with. If you feel like this post was written for any reason other than simply because I like the song, please don’t listen to the track.

Really into this new one from Melbourne chap Jamil Zacharia whose session credits run deep through the Wondercore Island / Hiatus Kaiyote clique down here. The Oscar Key Sung interpretation he recorded last year was what announced him but he’s been remarkably quiet since. Magic Snuff Box is the first track from his forthcoming The Soft Tread That Inspires EP and whilst I’d hope that the track was a conceptual piece dedicated to this, I console myself through the sonic quality of things. I’d be remiss if I didn’t go on to say that it really would have been quite a special track though. Nonetheless, it is what it is and that’s a stunningly intricate little spirit quest of a song, something to accompany your next ayahuasca field trip. This reeks like a smoky tent and pitches like heaving ship, and if my imagery hasn’t won you over then nothing damn well will. Respect this.

Oh it’s a free download too.