I tried so hard to resist Donny Benet. Couldn’t do it. I saw write-ups on a whole swathe of hot dollar Australian and Sydney music blogs, listened, liked, fought against, maintained, but the walls have come crashing down. Seven times around the city of my mind, the trumpets (read: snyth) sounded, and that was the fall of my cerebral Jericho. Benet conquered and invaded my hallowed halls like the deviant he almost certainly is, plundering at will, taking his full share of the cash and prizes. The guy deserves to be paid though. I fought so hard because for the longest time I considered him to be little more than a gimmick artist, an 80s themed Jinja Safari but it’s become apparent that the dude can write the ass off a song.

Single ‘Gimme Your Heart’ has been given the video treatment and it’s a sight to behold. The track itself also goes alright. Don Don cuts loose some rising synth bars that are part 80s power-pop, part Zelda (NES, not that Ocarooney business) sample. THEN, just when you think it’s safe to step out again, he caps the thing off with a quiveringly sexy solo. Oh my. Oh me oh my. Stylistically you’d never guess he was of Sydney (or of 2012) but here we are. Show some love for a dude just doing his thing.

Electric Love is out TODAY through RICE IS NICE, get on it.

Donny Benet ‘Gimme Your Heat’ from SPOD on Vimeo.

Here’s another from Electric Love:

I don’t promise this will be the last post about Lord huron until release date but I do promise that it will be the last this week. Every new single they make public is strengthening my belief that Lonesome Dreams will blow most of the year’s other releases out of the water. They’re slowly revealing the record little by little like a Burgo’s Catchphrase finale, but with a bigger payoff at the end.

Here is a list of things I’m looking forward to a fair bit yet not as much as Lonesome Dreams:

- Christmas
- Cirque du Soleil
- This courier company picking up their phone so I can finally run this track and trace. 49 minutes of hold, no joke.
- Robo-tennis
- Merrick getting new glasses
- Seeing Merrick in his new glasses

Things I am looking forward to more than Lonesome Dreams:

- Robo tennis

I’ve comprehensively demonstrated how significant this release will be. Only the combination of cyborgs and ballsport holds more promise than this record and that’s a fact. Nope, not Australian but I don’t care, I’m smitten. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart if you want to make your dreams dance through the chasms of our lives.

Lord Huron – Brother

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A throwback to the SoundDoc days of yore when harmonies were the primary currency and trade agreements were settled almost exclusively by contests of fingerpicking and beards. Those days may be gone but there’s still some pretty ol’ folk floating around, even if the most of it sounds too similar to be distinguishable. This one’s an overseas band (obviously I’ve done my reasearch) called Wickerbird who have a new record coming out called The Crow Mother. The lead single ‘Druids’ (and from what I’ve heard from the record stream, the whole album) is a haunting wash of layered vocals. Blake Cowan’s voice hovers above the crackle and pop of the recording with but the barest instrumentation behind it, be they Bon Iveresque acoustic chord progressions (see: Tripoli) or just the dull thump of a slow, earthen beat. Oh, you know what this reminds me of? The Wilderness of Manitoba. I don’t know how to explain to you that the forest sounds you can hear in the background of some parts of the record are actually really endearing without hating myself for it, so let’s not think too hard on it. Really lovely stuff.

The few singles I’mma share with will win you over, that’s my solemn promise. Failing that I promise a full refund to the disenchanted few. It really will be the few because James Teague is a rare breed of musician that has managed to produce something both interesting and enjoyable (exceedingly rare this year). His debut record is called Lavender Prayers and across its twelve components you’ll hear the full spectrum of influence and output, provided your spectrum begins with folk and ends with psychedelia.

That sort of reference is going to point you at one man in particular who, if you need a further clue, has a name that rhymes with Mavendra Tanhart. You’ll hear him in both the vocal quavers and the orchestrations but there are moments where Teague takes the psych-folk mentality that Banhart pioneered to it’s logical yet painful gender bending conclusion. Sometimes it’s just too tiptoeingly saccarine to be taken seriously. Whoa there folks, don’t close this window yet, there’s still SO much to be had from the Lavender Prayers. Luckily the vocal over-indulgence isn’t constant across the record with Teague hitting some sweet and free tones in songs like ‘Turn Your Back’

Easily, easily the highlight of the record is Naked Eyes, Deluded Minds which features an unexpectedly ballsy guitar solo amid equally unexpected time changes. Guy uses the track as an opportunity to show us that he’s more than a one-[vocal]-trick pony. You’re loving it right? Yeah you are! Eleven tracks, eleven dollars. You do the math! Here you go.

A big day in as much as this is the first Maltese artist that I’ve ever shared with you. If you’ve ever listened to Youth Lagoon and thought “I want to hear something similar to this but with more acoustic loop” then remain seated, you’re in the right place/reading the right post. As rare as our Maltese situations are my posts about artists from my inbox. This is the beacon of hope that says ‘send on, bands, send on’.

Drowning In A Dream is the appropriately titled EP from Tollens, appropriate because the sense of going under is palpable in most of these tracks. The water’s surface is lined with the furry fuzz of distortion and off key bends and quavers making it hard to punch through to the clean air your lungs are begging for. Eventually though, you just let yourself sink downwards and start breathing in the fluid and before you know it the immersion has left you more buzzed than the gas you wanted to drag through your pipes. As already mentioned, there’s some pretty massive nods to Youth Lagoon here, be they beat or vocal.

If this dude hasn’t listened to Trevor Powers before then I’ll eat my recently polished loafers.