This week I’ve been listening Melbourne’s Cold Hiker whose wailing Radioheadisms were passionate enough to keep me more than interested for the full duration ‘Phosphenes’ a whole bunch of times. Old mate’s fluid falsetto was the draw card that pushed me through the first listen but the off beat tom hits and swaggering flow were what’s bid me play it through a few more times. Let’s be honest though, there’s more than a little Paranoid Android in there. I’m a man of faith though and I’ve forgiven it in the foreknowledge that this is just the tip of the Cold Hiceberg.

Anyway, has been sitting in my drafts all week and it’s not getting any more significant with each passing day so I’m going to cut this bird free before I strangle it to death. That hour we lost via daylight savings hasn’t done me any favours even if it’s allowed me to witness natural sunlight for the first time in since March. Heavens above.

Laurence probably won’t last that long. Not as a band I mean, just as the name under which they’ll perform. When they start hitting their straps and these frequencies hit those (read: your) ears, you’ll know that what was meant to happen has happened and that life is good. Your woman will finally start respecting you and maybe that gimp who works the xerox will stop hitting on her when he senses your newfound closeness. Plenty of potential in this track, obviously. Bright Eyes turned americana and vocodered through a tincan + a bonus introductory instrumental. It’s a moving joint if you’ll let it be.

Two minutes and nine seconds of split and spliced, feet on both pedals, synth vacuumed triptronica. That’s probably the best way to describe this joint that I’ve lifted from Thomas William’s Deccan Technicolour. Even if it’s an absolute mess of a sentence, you’re on my blog so you’ll ingest my opinions and afterwards you’ll ask for seconds because that’s just the polite thing to do damnit. Even more so since Life Aquatic Blog closed its doors today, so your sources of quality Australian curation have just decreased by one, and what a one it was.

Now, it’s probably about time you hit play on this so up and at ‘em folks. The lovechild of a drunken threeway between Seekae, Fishing and Brothers Hand Mirror, these tunes are worth investing your bandwidth in, especially since they won’t touch your coin purse. He’s been a stalwart of the Sydney experimental electronic scene for as long as anyone can remember and is only just recently back in the game so we’d all do well to give him a warm welcome given the strength of sound on which he returns. Ignoring all ill-informed comparisons, this record is pretty spectacular.

You’ll find that he’s also a finalist in FBi’s Northern Lights competition so if you dig this enough to cast a vote then cast a vote.

I am posting this because MT over at WTH sung it’s praises so loudly. No, that’s not fair. I hit play on it because she said it was dynamite, I’m posting it because it is dynamite. The EP is unmissable if you’re hoping to hear the shape of things to come for Australian music/all future playlists I make. Here’s ‘Steps’, the first track I heard from Mansion, Alaska, along with the EPs introduction track ‘Lune’, which is a smooth welcome to the five tracks I’ve had on loop all day.

I’ve forever been a proponent of a snare and cymbal heavy drum sound so the drumming on ‘Steps’ was always going to buy the group some credit in my ledger. They’re unafraid to spend time instrumentally, building not to a vocal crescendo but to the patient in and out of radio static.

Downloadable via Triple J Unearthed, here’s just one more to whet your appetite.

[MP3 DOWNLOAD]

Wheat Fields have been on my radar for a few weeks now but hearing ‘Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens’ on FBi this morning was the straw that killed two birds. I should never have (metaphorically) slept on these dudes.

Before that though, can we talk about ‘lo-fi’ for a second? At least 50% of the EPs/demos/streams that land in my inbox on any given day cite a ‘lo-fi’ aesthetic. I have three immediate issues with this.

1) ‘Lo-fi’ is no interchangeable with ‘out of tune’. Seriously, if you have an iphone, you have a guitar tuner, get on that.

2) If your music is clear hi-fi and your press release claims it’s lo-fi (as if that’s a selling point) I’m pointedly going to assume that you’re making excuses for awful songwriting and start a smear campaign about your band’s sexual behaviours.

3) Maybe, just maybe, your music might sound better if you recorded it properly. We’re not talking about high end studios here, we’re talking about any schmuck with a laptop. It could be that the fuzz and crackle is stopping us from that glorious harmony that would have been outlandishly good had you let it be audible.

Wheatfields – ‘Heaven Is A Place’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[MP3 DOWNLOAD]

I’m not going to pretend to know the first thing about audio engineering but even the untrained ear can identify a fabricated sound. To Wheat Fields though. Everything I’ve just mentioned is not in reference to Wheatfields. It’s actually the opposite to in reference to Wheat Fields. Ocassionally a band will get it right and broad lo-fi strokes will enhance a track. There isn’t a negating fuzz over the top of this, just a padding that draws out the guitar parts rather than masking them and Maddie Harriott’s plaintive vocals are enough to break the hardest heart. Take it as a free download below or with a couple of others over at Wheat Fields’ bandcamp.

The Blue Mountains never sounded so good.