An Ed Sheeran remix isn’t exactly the Sound Doctrine standard fare but this Sable edit of Don’t is a jim-jam of the highest order. Only time will tell if jim-jam is a wildly cool turn of phrase or something that I’ll be ill remembered by. This song answers that eternal question posed by the great philosopher Odd Mobb. Yes. It’s a banger.
Massive shoutouts to two incredible properties that have come together this week in what can only be described as a holy union of good things. Zero Through Nine, Melbourne label run by two of the sweetest chaps I damn well know have just announced that they’ll be releasing the next EP from Edward Francis. Remember Edward Francis? We got all gussied up about him at almost this exact time last year. He plays saxophone in a way that demonstrates a lifelong connection with the instrument rather than a response to the saxophone’s resurgence in popular culture music these past few years. You can hear it in his older songs back here and even more so in his newest offering ‘Braver’, just below. It’s a big thick kick drum that makes the song pulse with energy (and that sax obviously) but the song is actually quite introspective and personal at its lyric. It’s not a song about the sort of braver that demands any physical behaviours but it’s a ‘braver’ that demands one open one’s self up to another self, take a risk, reveal more of the inner. “I should tell you that I need more people like you in my life.”
I’m not sure us major city dwelling types are going to be seeing much of EF because he lives in Alice Springs but if you want to bring him to Sydney, maybe send me an email or something and we can try to convince him to crowdfund a tour or something. I’ve preordered my copy of the EP and strongly advise you to do the same.
Gessafelstein has that same ability to utilise thick sounds and silence in a way so as that a song can sound chunky and airy at the same time and I bloody well reckon this Newcastle kid functions similarly. Constant rythm dance music that’s probably going to be key to your next functional workout, y’all need to be on this now before it’s too late. Hell, it’s probably already too late if I’m telling you about it, you know the end is nigh when I’m your first port of call for techno.
Look. There are two truths at play here. There’s the Truth, that this is the first song from Slum Sociable’s second EP. Their first was really good and I wrote about it with fairly abstract allusions and it was one of my favourite Australia releases from 2013. That’s the first Truth. The second truth however, is that this is the debut single from Slum Sociable, which is the truth inasmuch as it’s the debut single through Liberation and having since cleansed that lovely back catalogue from the internet, I guess for all intents and purposes, this is the Truth. The game must be played and its not the fault of artist or label, its more our own fault for demanding that everything be sparkling brand new and placing discovery at the forefront of the process rather than simply the music. That preamble now said, the music is strong in this one. The act is a two piece and between the two of them they’ve constructed something with synthetic harp sounds, heavily reverbed vocals and a whole bunch of harmonised vocal padding. The feel of the track is overall fairly washed out with reverb and backing vocal but it still feels quite sharp because of that vocal sitting higher in the mix and a drum track that feels far less filtered then the rest of the song. The sound is good, the game for hereafter for the Slumdogs is going to be the crafting of those melodies. Gonna be a good one to watch!
Here’s a young producer vocalist duo that are seemingly split over Seattle and Canberra. Sucked in to whichever one’s in Canberra, AM I RIGHT!? Nah you’re ok Canberra, you have the war memorial and infrastructure and affordable housing and Questacom which has not aged favourably against my timeless nostalgia. Parissa’s vocal is gorgeous and vulnerable, drawing me in the same way that the Schilling sisters 
do on Swimming tracks. The production is structurally clever, calmly padding the verses and announcing the choruses with intensity. There’s a couple of different tricks in the play book so that ‘Thru’ is high energy, upper end synths layering across the track’s conclusion while ‘Young’ is a calm, slow burner relying more on acoustic guitar lines. Reprieve is bright and textural, pitches untouched underneath Parissa’s vocal. I don’t know why I’m bothering describe all this, you’ll make your own judgements when you hear the music and I expect they’ll be rather favourable if you’d kindly make your way over to the duo’s bandcamp. You can pick up their four tracker for $7 – about $2 more than Thom Yorke’s most recent record, but $9 less than it’s actually worth, despite what streaming services are trying to tell us about market value. Take me back to the good old day’s where Sanity would sell you a jewel case for a casual $33, now that was an industry!
