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

[DOWNLOAD]

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.

Today¹ The Paper Scissors released their brand new² EP. You’ve come at a good time too because I’ve got the exclusive streaming rights³ to first single ‘Held Down Threw Up’ which, after a quick google search, you’ll find nowhere else on the internet*. They’re four tracks of gravity free slow jam bliss. As I understand it, climate change means that in 2212 we’ll all be marooned on small islets with the water level roughly mid shin sipping on robotic coconuts. Most land will have melted and the sun will have run out of petrol and oil magnates will control movement tween day and night. Eventually aquatic habitation will become a possibility (most scientists believe this will occur around 2260) at which point we can abandon our islet stilt-huts and migrate to our final home in the Atlantic. Roboto-tropicana will be the flavour of the day and our Paper Scissor pals will be prying wallets open by the dozen. Take this chance to smoke a download while it’s free. I sent it to my pal Merrick and asked him his thoughts on it but he didn’t reply to me so either something has happened to him or he is disrespecting me. I hope he’s ok. I think he’d really like this too.

[EP DOWNLOAD: RIGHT CLICK + SAVE AS]

The Paper Scissors – Held Down Threw Up

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The Paper Scissors – Down With Something

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¹ Back in May
² Not that new
³ I don’t.
* Some places

Here’s a quivering mess of an EP with more pent up  energy than little Johnny Ritalin, bane of teachers, curse of parents, ruiner of educational outcomes. The group is Phobiac and this isn’t the first release they’ve rel… -put out, but it’s the first I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. Vocal styling that maybe makes me think of the Medics, or even Royal Headache (it’s a stretch), is the most understated element of the noisy shamozzle. Delayed guitar clangs around itself like the earlier mentioned child in a caravan kitchenette and the whole thing is recorded, as the youth keep saying, ‘lo-fi’.

The drums sound like machine gun bursts in ‘Triangle Song’ (probably my favourite from the six-tracker), a tune which spends the last twenty seconds pulsing with what might be the richest moments of the EP. Phobiac seem to be at their strongest when they build up a head of steam but their slowest songs have a poppier, shoegazing sensibility that will better lend themselves to radio play (which they will have when awareness of this EP comes). They’re based in Surry Hills, which has no shortage of no-talent grunge so it’s nice to see something sturdy come out of the place. That was rude. I actually really like you Surry Hills, you’ve given me some good times and I meant that as a compliment. Let’s never fight again. Allow me to make this clear, this EP is fantastic and undoubtedly some of the best rock’n'roll I’ve heard this year. It’s a free download or $5 for a physical copy so whichever you choose, just choose. While we’re talking choices, I probably could have picked a different image for this post. At least you get to see it a full three times this way. People are into repeat images, right?