I’m going to place these before you largely without comment. Actually you know I’m not going to be able to help myself, without a LOT of comment. Two new tracks from Oscar that are mouthwateringly good and are pretty indicative of the direction he’s heading. I think his strength lies in his constant evolution and we’re seeing the mid-to-end stage of his most recent metamorphosis. I’m rather glad to be able to share with you a talent as prodigious as this man so it’s hard for me to avoid gushing out something overly weighty and pregnant with praise. I’ll simply say that there’s a bright future for any individual who can drop tracks like these on a whim. The first is a slow building beast that speaks volumes about Oscar’s attention to production while the second is a cover of Miguel’s Sure Thing that doesn’t deviate too far from the original. The key lesson learned here though, is that the guy has a set of pipes on him. We always knew he could knock up a legitimate beat but this is a hell of a vocal showing. For those interested to see how this translates live then your time is nigh, come see him headline at FBI Social on Thursday, 30th May.

First off, let me say that it pains me to have two different players embedded in the one post. I know, it’s not cheese and chalk but maybe it’s something more along the lines of a combined orange and spearmint tic-tac experience. It’s not going to taste like gutter taint but the combination will never reach the lofty heights of either individually. Orange tic-tacs though, what a delight. I can drop a punnet of those treats in a second. Silent Jay comes straight outta Melbourne with a number of similarly tasty cuts and loops, hi-hat and bass regularly making his tracks sound more organism than android and providing a good portion of the regular groove. How long until an MC walks all over one of the beats? Not soon enough I say, not soon enough.

It’s a credit to the man himself that I had such a hard time picking and choosing which Silent Jay tunes to offer up here. If you sift through the digital stratosphere there are literally hundreds (but also not literally) of different tracks he’s put together for various mixtapes and purposes which says to me he has it within his creative womb to proliferate a long spanning canon of jams. Definitely a name to watch within the field of future producers. He’s got the touch.

Apparently the ideal ear imbibed companion for skybound pyrotechnics and just as likely the perfect sounding board to the late night regret fueled self-inquisition that you wouldn’t have to go through evening after night after evening if you’d just done the law degree your overly caring yet frightfully punishing mother insisted you should have and then met the gently but correctly spoken speech therapist that would have become your eventual wife. But you didn’t, you thought three chords was enough to see you to the top of the Unearthed indie/rock charts (it was) and yet nobody cared. Why didn’t they care? Now you’ve moved to Melbourne which is reportedly the home of garage rock and you’re reverbing your way from support slot to small bar while some prick blogger writes about “another bloody dj who can’t even play an instrument”. But if it weren’t the jam I’m saying it is, then it probably wouldn’t be muffling it’s way out of your dirty 2009 macbook speakers right now. Got you there mate. These dudes are a legit “band” because there’s three of them and if that doesn’t make them a band then they’re at least a collective borderline a party maybe a crew and easily a clique. Maybe they even have instruments, instragram photos are showing me a few but we’ve all seen those posed for with little to no musical chops so let’s not jump the gun fellas. I’m hoping they’re making their own sounds and cutting all that junk together. Now we’ve just to wait for a little vibe before the subsequent PR package (and I certainly mean package in every possible way) and then we’ll know for certain just what Yujen are about, oh then we’ll know, oh yes. That said, the BPM is probably a little high to see this featured on your usual digital minimalist chilltronica digital haunts or whatever. Tunes below:

The forthcoming Wintercoats EP is looking sounding good. It’s sort of looking good too but I can’t much tell what on earth is happening on the album art. Full disclosure, the last time I saw Wintercoats it didn’t do much for me but that was almost two years ago now and there’s obviously been some real progression over that period. Once the Wintercoats experience felt too much like Owen Palette mk. II, now I get serious Porcelain Raft vibes from both of the tracks but this time they feel far less subordinate to their reference. More importantly though, the tracks are both big ol’ lumbering glaciers, full of pretty tinkle bits + oohs and ahhhhs. These two tracks point at a strong second EP that’s probably going to an elevating experience for all involved. Heartful is out April 17.

I thought we had something special but two sniffs from boss man Alessio and we’ve got ourselves a Home & Hosed exclusive. Well band, I call betrayal. I call corruption and I call shame. Shame upon the band and shame upon the very land itself, ABC. The code of conduct gets filtered through the industrial shredder when an indie-rock exclusive comes around. What happened to us I’lls… We had something real. I wrote about you and you said you liked me for who I was. I looked through your photos and, a wistful sigh upon the wind, I whispered “now there’s a band… there’s a band.” I even showed my folks a photo of ‘my musician friends’ and they said I was making great progress. Somehow here we are though, shunned and distant, emotions strewn everywhere and feelings leaking from the worst places to leak feelings from.

The saddest part about this whole affair is that the band are, as they say, bananas and this track is also, as they say, bananas. That was to be expected though, I suppose. When you send Simon Lam and co into the studio you know full well what the returning swaddling clothes will contain. Cloudy vocals that sit veeeeeeery deep in the mix and a whole lot of clever drum track. Granted I’ve just pointed at a Matisse yelling ‘look at the pretty colours!’ but the colours ARE pretty even if I’m ignoring all other technical attributes in the assertion. I previously wondered what might be if Simon were to let his vocals come forward just a touch more as he did on that Naysayer & Gilsun banger from back when and it looks like we’ll see that puzzled out on the forthcoming EP. That’s right sirs, there’ll be a new one come May, out through your good pals at Yes Please which seems like a good home for I’lls’.

As is, this is precisely the sort of thing I was hoping I’lls would produce in the wake of their innovative self-titled debut. A real attention to detail that’s usually lost in a track so sonically thick. More impressive is that even so replete with padding, the track never lends itself to excess.