It’s proving more and more difficult to keep up with our young friend Jacob Rohde at present since he seems to be releasing tunes like a regular David Guetta (which is to say frequently, not lazily). The new one (though there’s been a few since we last touched base) is called ‘People’ and features the tinkling of wind chimes sampled among some R&Beats. It’s certainly his most polished recording to date so it makes sense that I present it in conjunction with his brand new moniker ‘Bocaj’ which I was able to discover using an online anagram solver, is Jacob backwards. It’s like word warp up in here! Go on then, give it a go.

The Falls are a two piece from Sydney that appear to have pretty equally portioned male and female vocals. While I have nothing negative to say of the female vocals I really like the dude’s voice and when the two come together it’s generally a good time. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. They are a fairly straight down the line folk outfit sans gimmicks and frills. It’s simply a pair of voices mingling over what is for the most part just an acoustic guitar, and as it has for hundreds, nay thousands of artists through the years, it just works. The highlight from their “four track demo”, which strangely only features three tracks is ‘Home’, a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes release. They may not be breaking down the door of musical ingenuity but there’s an authenticity residing in their simplicity that will speak to even the most folk-jaded soul.

They’re playing a whole swathe of shows over the next few months, including a residency at the Art Gallery of NSW’s Art After Hours, which I will be clearing my schedule to attend. If you live in Bathurst then you’d be a fool to miss their show with Packwood at the Australian Fossil & Mineral Museum which will be both a fun night out and a geological adventure.

The Falls – Home [DOWNLOAD]

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.

[EDIT: I’ve had this one in the bank for a little while now and since the time of writing, the shows mentioned, Fossil based or otherwise, have already taken place. AND there were no strings in the version I was listening to at the time.]

Your already great day is about to get even better with the introduction to a song you’ll be hearing time and time again on Triple J over the next few months. This song is called ‘This Song Is Called Ragged’. See what I did there? It’s far less abrasive than Trounce (which, to make clear, I loved). I like that you can hear the rumbling guitar underneath it all still, which makes me think this will be a guitar driven record in a way that his first was not. His self-titled debut was all about those big, big drum sounds. The base level tribalism that also characterised the first record is still here but the undertone is stonier. You might even say… rockier? I’ve close friends that hated the production on Boulet’s debut but I’m going to stand strong here and say I’m all about this. The weight garnered when those gang vocals come in is undeniable. Let the public rejoice.

Don’t forget to hit the download button over there to get a copy for keepsies. We Keep the Beat, Found the Sound, See the Need, Start the Heart, will be out on June 11 through Modular.

All we have here is a pair of voices and a Rhodes but my word, I’m liking what happens when the two combine. Seriously, the warmth of that Rhodes sound is enough to fully account for the torrential downpour that’s going to ruin the football I’ll be playing on this, on Darling Harbour this evening. No joke. I don’t pretend to understand the chemical release activated when that Rhodes tone hits my primary auditory cortex but I do get more than appropriately excited, I’ll say that. The party responsible for this recording are a pair of brothers called Mrs Bishop. Hailing from Sweden originally (like The Hives whom they here cover), the duo now reside in Sydney making their particular blend of lilting pop.

You can also here an original of theirs called ‘Broken Wing’ which I don’t think quite as highly of, potentially because it reminds me of a few artists for whom I have very little time. They have a debut EP out at the end of next week and if they can keep the xylophones, glockenspiels and all manner of other twinkling sounds to a minimum, it may be pretty decent.

My first worry for Sydney band Pockets was that their name had almost certainly been taken by another band somewhere else on God’s green earth, and we were about to see a battle play out on similar proportions to the One Direction vs One Direction conflict which has deeply affected us all. My fears proved unfounded however, as Pockets have since broken up. A new set of fears then arose, derived from my worry that I’m only now listening to the goodworks of a band that I’ll plainly never hear live. Yes, there are other incarnations of the same band members (see the Mountains) and I’ve seen them play way back when, but I want to see these songs played live. Why world, why?

If you couldn’t already tell, I think Pockets are really, really good. There’s a strength of musicianship that transcends the ability to play music that’s popular here and now. These are songs you could come back to in years and still appreciate the craftsmanship of even after the fact, when trends and styles have come and gone. To give you some idea of what you’re about to to listen to, the recipe is something like the following:

• 1 part Real Estate
• 2 parst Silversun Pickups
• 1 part Copeland (ca. 2004)
• 1 part I Heart Hiroshima

It’s not as black and white as that and there’s a whole lot of exclusive influence tumbled in with the rest but that’s what I’m hearing, that’s what I’m feeling. Below are my two favourite tracks from the record. The sun-soaked vocal harmonies in ‘Caretaker’ are pleasing, wrapped around a guitar melody that’s reclining on a bed of doo-wops. ‘Telescopes’ starts with some rare lone wolf vocals from Trevor Davis (which the record could easily have had more of) and concludes with a guitar part to delight any lo-fi, post-rock officianado. If you don’t have any money to spare, worry not, you need make no greater offering than the thirty seconds it’ll take you to click this link and hit the ‘Free Download’ button.