I’m privileged to engage with two institutions that I hold in generally high esteem, the forward thinking boutique label Feral Media and the longstanding bastion of innovative electronica that is Bon Chat Bon Rat. If you’re having trouble getting your head around this, try thinking of this union as the chemical symbol for water. Correct, it’s H²0. In this analogy Bon Chat are represented by two parts oxygen and Feral Media are obviously that remaining one part of hydrogen. No disrespect meant toward The Feral Folk by leaving them with fewer molecules but even they’d have to admit that Bon Chat have a longer name which warrants a more significant chemical situation. Each element is great on their own right? Of course. Everybody loves a bit of oxygen, you’d be a fool to go without! But what happens when they come together? You get water, and the human body is made up of over 10% water, while the earth surface is covered by nearly 15% percent so I guess you can see how great water can be if properly treated. Remember though, drinking saltwater is never a substitute for good, Brita filtered water. Keep hydrated, keep active.

The tune itself is released within the greater boundaries of a seasonal Feral EP (this one is Summer) that sees a a strong trio join BCBR. We’re talking Tim Fitz, The Townhouses and Friendships all delivering brand new tunes. The Bon Chat song itself had a looping synth sound that manages to seem almost organic enough to be a pan flute or something similarly ‘world’ and there’s a pace to it that’s dramatized by some grandiose lyricism courtesy of INXS. Sorry, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, this is an INXS cover. It’s dark, it’s fearful, it’s great and it’s further padded by course synth coming in and out of that piping initial synth. Lots of synth, obviously. It’s been too long between drinks for BCBR so if they could just move things a long a little that would be lovely. More songs please gentlemen. Meanwhile, if you haven’t looked into the Feral Media back catalogue, let this be the day.

If you think I’m going to write a post that mentions both Feral and Rat and not deploy this image then you are absolutely and fundamentally kidding yourself. Get your Life in check.

In 1916, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky described dance music of the day as ‘the musical ideal…music that wishes to express nothing’. This is exactly what I love about B Deep’s album Island Hopping Through The Stratosphere. The creativity, emotions and production skills of B Deep have been focused into creating tunes with one primary goal: to get you grooving. Don’t look for anything deeper. Like jazz in 1916, this music was not intended to be enjoyed intellectually from the couch and ESPECIALLY not on laptop speakers. I cannot stress this enough. Laptops weren’t even invented in 1916.

The album starts with ‘Want To Bail’, and let’s all just admit openly that at certain times in life [afternoon engagement parties] we have related heavily to the concepts explored in this track. The calculated stumbling of soulful piano chords against a beat that the blogosphere in its current word-vacuum could only describe as ‘off-kilter’ brings to mind the whole J-Dilla thing, as well as early 60′s soul-infused Kanye West samples.

Most of the tracks are based on ultra-short loops and this gives them a hypnotic quality. Portions of the album could arguably be classified as ‘chill music’ but the intersection between ‘dance’ and ‘chill’ is a confusing place, often only a question of tempo and marketing. ‘Beyond Say’ is a perfect example of this. Plug in the subwoofer, and it is a bass-heaving groove explosion; decrease the volume a few dBs and cut out the low end and it becomes nothing more than a light sonic garnish.

Which I guess brings us to the ironic truth of the whole ‘instrumental beats’ scene; that it has created some of the most interesting dance music of recent years but at times tracks are so smoothly produced and non-offensive that they wouldn’t be out of place backing the Foxtel Menu. Foxtel is still a thing right?

Spontaneous post provoked by real excitement here. I’ve got raging tune-wood for this pair that I heard today via Who The Hell, Mecca of all mp3s Australian and arbiter of tastes amazing. If you’ve read through all previous syntax and you’re still here then truly you’ve earned this. I reward you with a treat and that treat is Edward Francis.

I’m all goosed up on both these jams and I’m almost anxious in my haste to listen to both of them, repeatedly, constantly, so I can come to terms with them. They truly are both wonderful. Horse Rock Love Song because it manages to combine spaghetti western guitar with drawn out sax licks in a combination that shouldn’t work but good gravy, it does. Of course I’m spending each five minute listening trying to determine whether the spaghetti western reference was supplanted in my mind by virtue of the songs title but we’re done, we’re past that, the next song has begun. The tempo is up, the sound bed expanded (though that sax is still really right among things) and we’re hearing piano runs and… a marimba? Do my ears deceive me? The lady vox is Phia who has made waves in her own right the past year round. I’ve dug a little deeper, IT’S A KALIMBA, PEOPLE. Now we know… Now we know.

This is everything you’d hoped it would be, then doubled, then doubled again because you’ve got depressingly low standards for Australian music. Oscar Key Sung here drops what is the perfect counterpoint to the four ito the floor anthemic pleading that was October’s ‘All I Could Do‘. It’s Alyosha to the Ivan, Seachange to his Odelay, ‘Take Care’ to his ‘Started From The Bottom’. He’s had this one in the arsenal a long time, deploying it live with with less affect than ‘All I Could Do’ or ‘It’s Coming’ but to an audience not yet acclimatised to the newness. The man himself is so far past this track that he’s been spinning remixes of it in his sets before the original had yet flavoured the public palette. The news in tandem is that the long (LONG) awaited Oscar Key Sung EP is upon us. Maybe set a date with your girl, go to the pharmacy to collect the relevant supplies because come March three, when you put this on in your Corolla there’s going to be some back street freestyle a la sixteen year old Kendrick. I’m saying you’re gonna get laid. Way to make me spell it out, good grief. Taste the future below, even Pitchfork know what’s going on.

Sooooooo… Colourwaves huh? An EP from colourwaves… You know who would be highly qualified to write about such a thing? Someone who had listened to the past Colourwaves EPs. Not this guy though, no sir, haven’t listened to them, I certainly have not. The new one though, that’s a doozey. Am I better able to discuss it because I come without preconceptions? Maybe. Am I going to some research to better inform myself on the journey? Not a chance. Let’s do this.

I’ll spend the key words of this “review” summarily referencing the Drive soundtrack, Washed Out, chillwave and Candy Claws. Lots of elongated oohs and aahs, dark synth and it’s all quite lovely. Enjoy.