A quiet, introspective one from Jack R Reilly that sounds like the closer to a Jimmy Eat World record and I mean that in the most flattering possible way. Also bonus points for reminding me that Bright Eyes still exists and that I should be listening to I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning right now. Well not right now, after this song, but almost immediately. As far as I can tell it’s the first track from the Sydneysider but then the dude has listed this as his official website so there’s every possibility that he’s hidden his tracks across the internet as some sort of interactive digital treasure hunt. Update, it seems like this isn’t the first track but it’s still the only one I can find currently available so it may as well be. “Finding it hard to tell you we’ve lost our way”. Fan. Meanwhile you can see this ditty done live on September 19 at Oxford Art Factory.

Meanwhile there is no photo attached to this post because my one month trial of photoshop has now expired.

Hello friends, followers and family (divided into a clean 10-10-80 percent split), today I share you Tim Fitz’s most recent body of work which is actually his fourth EP. When did that happen? It was only after reading this most excellent mess + noise piece on Fitz (who I have never met and am now reviewing from an impartial and objective setting) that I realised how prolific an EP producer he is but if it took four EPs to get him to the point where he could accomplish this most recent endeavour then damnit Fitz, you did good son. As a complete work it’s superior to all he’s released prior and I think it’s because he’s wrinkled out some of the creases that kept showing up across his previous output.

Instead of feeling disjointed (technically, thematically) these six songs flow through like a river undammed. The sound palette has some uniformity and the record opens with a proper opener and ends with an proper ender. You know? Also, few artists can navigate between organic sound and electronic burst with the surefootedness that Fitz shows in The Wanderer (Fleet Foxes meets Animal Collective) and Fracture (my personal favourites).

He’s also reinforced the hook in songs like Hospital (and to a lesser extent Happiness Is Tugging At Your Heart) so that there’s a strong pop foundation over which he can apply the snap beeps and trills that typify a Fitz record. In terms of straight up songcraft, these are the best evidence.

This release takes itself more seriously. It’s always felt as though he didn’t see himself as a worthy contender when placed side by side next to, well, any other artist but there’s a sense of confidence and seriousness now that has been previously absent. There’s no technically impressive yet conceptually ridiculous outbursts (see Huhuhuhuhu) and again, I refer you to the resounding structural uniformity to this release as a whole.

That said, I just listened to his exceptional Beforetime EP (now see my best Aus releases of 2011) and I realise that he’s been mental-good all along, so uhhhh….

The big news in all this is that one of my favourite Australian music blogs Skydreams is evolving from music blog into an outstanding record label / music blog hybrid. It’ll probably be a long time before they start releasing (inevitably excellent) music though, so we sh- WRONG! They’ve jumped the gun! They haven’t waited, not a day, not a second! The first Skydreams mixtape is here and I don’t overstep my bounds when I say that it’s the best new thing on the entire internet right now, including this reddit thread that ruined my whole day thanks alot Reddit #goodonereddit. Anyway, I’d be remiss not to throw up my favourite from the mixtape as it’s been an absolute revelation to me and a capital-J Jam. It’s the project of a dude named Luke who is from a little band you might have heard of MAYBE, ONLY THE LAURELS! Yahztee! I bet you’re grinning from ear to ear right now, I know I am! Everyone is looking into my office (I’m a suit!) being all “why is Tommy smiling so much while he does his TPS reports?” but they don’t even know, THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW! We know though. We know that this is excellent and we’re going to share it with absolutely every connection we have via social media and word of mouth. Do it for me, do it for Luke, hell, do it for Skydreams cause those dudes have worked a long time to set this label up.

Just so that you don’t think our Skydream pals are a one trick pony though, here’s some Bonetwister to keep you guessing. Who? EXACTLY! Magic.

Stream the rest of the mixtape here and keep your ear to the ground and your eyes to the skydreamsies

Seems like this race has been run and I’m just vernturing forth to the starting line but not to worry, it’s not about reaching the finish line first [I hope]. In fact it’s not even about the delivery, it’s just about the tune. Sometimes I forget that I guess. This new one from The Smiths Camden is an easy affair consisting of lazy Saturday guitar brushes and lax bass rolls. Technical terms the lot of those. You’ll hear more of the Morrissey reference if you’d delve into the Camden back cat (at your leisure) which, while not an unpleasant experience, is a little too derivative for my liking. Still, to sate your curiosity, you’ll find a less recent tune below though has more than a little in common with The Kooks’ Frankie’s Gun. Shouts to Hugh for being across this over eleven years ago. On drums you’ll hear the same man who sits behind the skins for Food Court whilst the rest of the band have performed in various other Sydney incarnations. If the songwriting continues to improve then I see no reason why Camden couldn’t swell ever larger as a known outfit. Let it be so.

Even though it aint what we’re all holding out to hear (the new Oscar record slash EP slash release of the year) it’s still got the name Oscar Key Sung across it so you know it’ll be [at the bare minimum] interesting. It’s the second beat tape he’s dropped so rather than comparing it to most recent single ‘It’s Coming‘ you’d be better off putting it next to Tape Beats EP from 2011. This particular beast is a little dark and a little underground, which isn’t to imply that it’s unknown but more a suggestion that it reminds me of this. You’ve witnessed top flight music criticism here, I hope you were taking notes.