Today I official retract any complimentary things I had to say about Sydney weather over the weekend, for today is a wet hell. My only watertight pair of shoes proved far from watertight under the onslaught that was the morning’s gushing skies. Luckily I had a spare pair of boardshorts in my car with which to dry my head and am now ready for the day ahead. Yesterday (or maybe even the day before) Beach House dropped the first single from their fourth studio album, set for release later this year and it’s ticking all the right boxes. The iconic voice of Victoria Legrand is the key to the sonic wash, underlayed with the paradox that is Alex Scalley’s simultaneously twinkling yet downcast guitar line. The trilling guitar toward the end of the track reminds me a whole lot of Vampire Weekend’s Walcott (around the 2:00 minute region) but it’s obviously not unique to either song. Also, it’s downloadable here. Anyway, make up your own mind, but I’m feeling this.

Something extra for the greedy, here’s another first taste, this time from s / s / s, which is the collaborative project of Sufjan, Son Lux and Serengeti. As usual, Sufjan is unusual.

It’s a beautiful Sunny sunday in fickle Sydney today and on such a day one wonders what would best soundtrack the surprisingly decent weather outside. I can’t think of a better aural outcome than Dry The River’s new record Shallow Bed, free for you to stream as of yesterday. They’ve been covered on Sound Doc a few times now (see here and here and here) and almost all the songs we’ve streamed from their earlier EPs and subsequent single releases are present on the album. It’s uplifting, it’s sensitive and it’s powerful. I’ve made no secret of how I feel about Peter Liddle’s quavering falsetto but I think only the face of Gary Busey can truly representing my sentiments. Every time I’ve written about them, I’ve made the claim that they’re ‘going to blow up soon’ and this is the last time I’ll make it. If they don’t get gargantuan on the back of this record then I’ll give each and every one of you $10, and this is big for me, because I don’t have $70 to just throw away like that. It’s rare to see a talented and well marketed band, but here we have it. Play it through, you won’t be disappointed.

I’d love to provide you with an embedded stream but that doesn’t appear possible, so for the time being you can hear it all here: http://shallowbed.drytheriver.net/ I’m not sure when it’ll be released in Aus but it’s out tomorrow in the UK and April 17 in the US.
James Watson, who has been listening from across the hall and is best pleased by what he’s heard, gives Shallow Bed four and a half stars out of five.

Behold the anthemic first track from Jonathan Boulet’s incoming We Keep The Beat, Found The Sound, See The Need, Start The Heart. The jungle drums that were present on his well-received, self-titled debut are still there. If anything they’re even closer to fore. Some folks have declared his output to be in line with the jungle drummed, harmony obsessed chant bands of Unearthed, but it’s important to remember that he dropped that record before that sound was polluted by an absence of song-writing and an over indulgence in novelty instruments. One would have to think that this would be the record opener and if so, I sure as hell can’t wait to hear what track two sounds like. Those crunchy guitars hint at something a touch heavier than the first record, potentially influenced by his time in Snakeface.This is just enough of a teaser to get me thoroughly interested, without wasting a big single early in the piece. Really, really excited to see what comes next. Self-mixed, self-produced, self-recorded, self-played and self-sung (it’s not heaps making sense anymore), the forthcoming album follows the same process of the first. The last thing he put his hand to was a new track from Sleepyhands which was pretty top dollar, and worth a listen if you haven’t already. Long live the garage champ.

“I don’t even know what I said, I’m a meathead born and bred”

Jonathan Boulet – ‘Trounce’

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You can cop a download of the newie at the cost of a week’s subscription to his mailing list, because let’s be real here, you’re going to unsubscribe (though you shouldn’t) at the first chance you get.

Oliver Tank is basically a household name these days, at least in Sydney, in my house. I often make the mistake of assuming that just because I’ve been exposed, over and over, to an artist, that means that everyone has. Sometimes it’s the case, but othertimes an artist is known amongst the company I keep, but not necessarily to those who read this here webblog. So here are the facts about Oliver Tank. He has one really good song and an EP of decent tracks, but they’re all free so you don’t even care, you’ll just download the whole thing anyway. He’s got cascading torrents of raven locks, but any goodwill garnered because of this is immediately negated by the fact that he tweets like a private school boy who just discovered Dre for the first time. But all this aside, he’s actually doing really well right now. It was unsteady footing during the early days as a good few folk thought he may have been cutting a little too close to James Blake stylistically but he seems to have found his feet as a legitimate artist unto himself. The first time I saw him live it was almost without merit but his support slot at the Youth Lagoon was much, much more captivating. Just quietly as well, Youth Lagoon were the best thing I’ve seen this year to date.

In the second half of 2011 FBi held a competition wherein two winners were deported to Iceland, forced to play shows with local artists and contractually bound to produce an EP for FBi Radio. Our boy Oliver was one of those two winners. Oliver and fellow competition winner Rainbow Chan were shipped over in a 6x6x6 foot crate and began their forced labour immediately upon arrival at Reykjavik. They produced a pair of tracks with the aid of local acts Pétur Ben and Just Another Snake Cult. Below you can listen to the fruits of the Scandinavian exploits and you can also download them (gratis) packaged with 6 remixes and a bonus track from Oliver Tank (also streaming below).

Oliver Tank & Rainbow Chan – Golden

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Oliver Tank & Rainbow Chan – To Love Again

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Oliver Tank – Help You Breathe

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The name’s not much I know – a combination of obscure male name and my sixth favourite animal (after fox lion owl bear and giraffe) – but this is easily better than the sixth best Austrayan band I’ve heard this week. It’s probably the first best. In fact I’m enjoying the select few tracks Wilfred Jackal are currently offering, and I’m willing to forgive them for saying ‘hook-laden’ twice in their info section. To my mind, their tinny guitars and all-round gentleness (to the point of jazz) is vaguely reminiscent of Cloud Control, but minus the obvious hooks – go figure. They’re vocally bold, borderline unintelligible on the lyrics front, and they know when to bring in some brass.

The band’s publicist and I may disagree on several points, like “big guitars and pulsating keys”, but they’re doing good things and it all bodes well for the not-too-distant future, when we’ll hopefully see a more extended release. Don’t mistake my disagreement for disapproval however, I genuinely think Cayle Stephens’ powerful voice will be something you’ll be hearing more and more of from here on out. Their first single ‘Dead Eye’ is likely the stronger of the two that you’ll stream below but ‘Rooms’ isn’t without merit and makes me think they’ve listened to more that a little Radiohead in their time. Both tracks are freely available courtesy of Unearthed.

Wilfred Jackal – ‘Dead Eye’

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Wilfred Jackal – ‘Rooms’

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