Two posts in one day! Didn’t see that coming, did you? Couldn’t help myself mates, it’s big Summer vibez from Charles Buddy Daaboul. Having just entered December we’re all still too excited about Winter’s demise to complain about the sweltering heat and so our optimism clings on. This is obviously a track written in Winter, about Summer. Come February and you’ll be hearing odes to sweaty pits and failed air-con but for now it’s rose coloured sunglasses and warm nostalgia, a la the chorus of this track. The very same chorus that drags the verse’s drawl into a far smoother realm of higher octaves and Beach House guitar tones. I’m not going to use the term ‘Summer Single’ but seriously, summer single.

Charles Buddy Daaboul – Shorts and Smiles

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At this very moment I’m knee deep in Charlie’s bandcamp and pretty stoked with life. As the old saying goes, ‘good things come to those who are currently on bandcamp’. Never been more true. You too can hear what I hear and feel what I feel simply by following this link and listening to one or both of his EPs. Just as an aside, he’s also a member of Sydney experimental-cool-guy-rock band No Art. Actually a good band. Anywho, here’s an older track for you so that when someone asks “Have you heard Shorts and Smiles? Such a Summer single!” you can be all, “Piss off champion, his old gear was better. Go listen to Zazzbot the Magical then talk to me”.

Charles Buddy Daaboul – Zazzle The Magician

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This is as good a chance as any to put my foot down about that son of a gun Tim Fitz. The dude won’t let me get my bearings before he takes off once more, chopping and changing between styles, navigating the waters between genre and genre with the sincere confidence of an old naval dog. The most recent single he’s provided is Mr Streetwise and it features the most straight down the line pop hook he’s yet written. Admittedly, I heard this track whilst it was still in its formative stages and my feedback was less than helpful. Now as a grown beast though, Mr Streetwise has thrown off his swaddling cloths and covered his fully-formed manhood with the pantaloons of post-production. And for all that, it sounds a million dollars.

This is as good a segway as any to make mention of a mixtape on which this track features. Sure, you could cop a downloadof Mr Streetwise straight from the source (along with the other tracks that make up Fitz’s 3rd EP) or you could head over to the newly formed bandcamp of FBi Radio’s The Bridge. The Bridge is FBi’s Sydney-only music segment and they’ve just now put out their first mixtape, full licenced and completely free. You’ll find a couple of tracks on there you may already have heard via SD (such as Fawn Myers’ You Know Me So Well and the recent Mammals/Flash Forest collab) as well as a fair few that will hopefully be brand new for you. Get on it. Also, how good is this Day Ravies track?

Guerre has never pushed my pulse past its impressive 40bpm resting rate and so I’ve never felt driven to give any real airtime (read blogspace) to his tunes. Potentially I’ve been coming at these from the wrong direction or maybe my current listening habits have better positioned me to take an interest in what he’s laying down. One way or another, I think this is the right time to be sharing these tracks. The last thing I want Sound Doctrine to be is a post-all-the-songs-as-soon-as-possible type affair. There are those out there whose sense of taste looks more like a shotgun blast than a well directed sniper round (I’ve been playing loads of Borderlands 2). There are a few blogs out there that are posting so much daily content that I’m forced to use the search function to find anything of value which basically means they’re of as help finding good music as google is.

Guerre is yet another feather in cap of Sydney imprint Yes Please whose roster grows more nourished with each passing week. Let’s start things off with ‘For Qwanisha’, the B-Side to recent single Rashad (Lose Pace) which you’ll also find below.

And -added bonus- here’s a thirty minute live cut pulled from a set he played a GoodGod about a month back. He’s pushing into the dark, dark territory of beatmakers like Shackleton. Big ol’ sinister bass.

I had ventricular love for Guy Brown before he did this here track with Flash Forest but this is the proverbial icing on the proverbial cake. It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, it’s the bird in the hand, it’s the tip of the iceberg and it’s the bees knees. It’s just so many things, so many great things. It appears to have some significance to more than just myself as Triple J have said “YES! YES MAMMALS!”, declaring him the artist of the week for at least (and indeed, at most) the next seven days. It’s a mantle worthy of his shoulders as the track in question demonstrates an artistry of sound that I was previously unaware he possessed. I was well aware of a recumbent falsetto but this coupling points at more. The underlying beat is the handywork of Flash Forest, a Melbourne based producer whose own musics are most pleasing. Get familiar if you’re not already as amongs his repertoire there’s more buoyant swagger than every other minimalist Sydney beatmaker combined (WITHDRAWN).

I’ve written and rewritten this opening sentence and still, I can’t find an interesting or appropriate way to introduce you to the central thesis of this post; Boats Of Berlin have released something excellent. Their debut EP is as easy to get lost in as Jude Law’s eyes.

It wouldn’t take a debater of any real skill to demonstrate that there are similarities between Grizzly Bear and Boats, but then you’re not in the presence of such an orator so you’ll not hear that claim made. There’re certainly moments where the band’s attention to dynamic bid me cast my mind back to the first Fleet Foxes record too but these animal based comparisons do Boats of Berlin an injustice. They’re not derivative and they’re not going to be Unearth’s flavour of the month despite meriting the truest recognition. Nonetheless, across the EP’s five songs I hear nods to so many American bands that I’ve plenty of time for.

Boats Of Berlin – The Towers

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Dissonant chords are the benchtop upon which the vocals do their work. The understated snare and cymbal dare not pull attention away from the frontline but sit reasonable and calm beneath earlier mentioned chords, those same turning into languid runs as the motion builds. I should probably investigate the name of the vocalist because I get the sense that it’s going to become one of those Robin Pecknold/Jim James/Ben Bridwell/Ben Gibbard type situations where the vocalist makes a name for himself on the strength of his pipes before releasing the inevitable solo album. Full disclosure, I don’t know if that’s happened in the case of all those vocalists but they all come with the same singular strength of personality.

Boats Of Berlin – Lavender Farm

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Hard to know if it’s my favourite B.o.B release with bangers like this to contend with but it’s definitely up there. Cleverly priced by someone with an obvious history in sales, the EP is a mere $5.95. Veto your next wheatgrass infused boost juice and achieve true value for money.