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:

Introducing Spirit Faces, proprietors of 70s soul backed groove mumbling, cymbal heavy jazz referencing free beats and overwhelmingly underwhelming basslines. That basslines bit sounds negative, but it’s not. I’m effectively trying to argue that the basslines have an overwhelming subtlety, in as much as I’d like to be overwhelmed by a bassline (so, you know… a bit). Central to the band’s ethos is freedom of direction (read: improv) which you can hear spattered throughout their only available track, ‘Feels Like Nothing’. It’s just bass, drums and guitar conversationally interacting with a few props littered around the set. Is that a wind-up toybox? Maybe. I don’t know and truly, I don’t care because despite the sweet contrast it creates with singer Pete Covingtons deep husk, it’s not the point of the track. Plus, I’ve recently learned that very few of you will actually read this far through each of my posts so for all intents and purposes I could just start rattling off any old nonsense. Violent offender sells house for bogus skin graft. The first three Apollo missions were largely funded by white supremacists. Sports cheese shares fierce fire shame.

You might know Pete from his work in Sydney’s second biggest Islamo-vegan folk collective Valar who, if the rumours are to be believed, will be releasing their debut record sometime in the latter part of this year. I. Am. Keen. In the meantime, stream and download and share the first Spirit Faces tune below:

If there’s a scene in the film you’re producing where two starcrossed lovers split and walk through empty night streets, tears astreaming down their screen-friendly faces and damnit, you just can’t find the right track for the moment… I’ve got you. The new single from Sydney’s Cogel opens with the distorted mauling of some poor wretched guitar and it’s that same abused guitar that receives most attention throughout the thing. It cuts in and cuts out with a grief-stricken violin part to keep it company between drinks. It’s one part Efterklang, one part Arcade Fire and a whole lot of angst. It’s interesting how I can’t say ‘angst’ without immediately thinking of teenage angst but I’m not being cynical here, it’s just some heavy juju. If you’d care to hear more (recommended) you can follow this link and start with ‘In The Middle’.

Cogel – Felusine

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Let’s stop for a second and admire those sleek grey player below. Haven’t seen these for a while, have we. It’s been all bandcamp and soundcloud. Here’s another, less recent recording from Cogel. I dare say you can hear more of the Arcade Fire influence on this one.

Cogel – The Bug

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[DOWNLOAD]

If the name seems familiar to you it could be because Fawn Myers featured on two tracks from Oliver Tank’s Dreams EP. Gifted with a gorgeous voice, Myers is aided by Tank’s production on her debut solo track ‘You Know Me So Well’. If someone had pitched this to me saying it was an early cut from Oliver Tank’s next record I wouldn’t have batted and eyelid. His hand is heavy on this thing. That’s not to say that the song itself isn’t a subtle affair, far from it. The beat is slow, sparse and punctuated by Myers’ repeated line “I just can’t let you go”. Every time I hear that sax part I think of Bob Seger’s Turn the Page (in the best possible way) and I think it’s probably the most attractive feature of the track. I was about to say that for a a first offering this is brilliant but scratch that, this is brilliant regardless of career situation. More from Fawn Myers please.

This one has been sitting in my inbox longer than reasonably explainable. Since mid August actually. Sorry Sky Squadron. In my defence I did download the tracks and they’ve been in my itunes library I’ve just you know, never listened to them or anything. It was when I saw them on the flyer for Phobiac‘s recent show that I thought it could finally be time to do this thing. I’m glad I did too because the four tracks these dudes have available are more interesting than most everything else in my inbox, that’s for certain. Muffled post-rock with vocals suspended like thousand foot condensation. I’m pretty sure it was recorded during a thick studio mist (rare but beautiful) before being mastered by Beef. It’s good to see the various meats entering the production game, I’ve been waiting on that for a while. Enjoy all four tracks below. ENJOY THEM.