The old adage goes, “when it rains, it pours” and as of this week we’re neck deep in the deluge. The influx of incredibly exciting Oscar Key Sung related content that’s landed online is quite simply too much for all those who have waited patiently this past year. His Holograms EP was a titanic but hold tight because bigger things lie ahead. He’s this week dropped three different audio offerings on us, the first and most important of which is the lead single from his newly announced and forthcoming Altruism EP. It’s called Skip and in our time apart, he’s obviously next levelled his song writing. That’n below. Premonition was the initial teaser track that he shortly thereafter reedited and put online anew so you’ve got both the original and the secondary cut underneath this too. If this reads more like a press release than my usual posts it’s because I have working relationship with Oscar so if you can no longer trust the honesty of my words then do no under any circumstances hit play below. If however, you’re aware that I have a character of cast iron then play on my son for you have earned these jams.

*edit* this has been sitting here in my drafts for a while now so you’re gonna have to excuse the temporal inconsistencies in it. Think about this though, it only took 66 years for humanity to progress from taking flight to landing on the moon so maybe my slow rate of posting is actually no big deal? Think about it. #science.

I’ve decided that in the vain of I Oh You signings Montgomery and DMAs, Sydney artist JUVENAL isn’t ‘unknown’, he’s enigmatic. We have a name, sure- Corey Furey- but we don’t have too much more than that. He’s been making incredible breakbeats since the start of this year and is getting some good support from FBi who, it should be said, sure can pick em. There are lots of rumours floating around the internet about his background with many positing that he’s in fact Burial while others suggest that he’s actually an algorithm developed in the 70s that’s now gained sentience. One thing’s for sure though, his name is Corey Furey and he has a thing going.

The Parking Lot Experiments have been making music in Melbourne since time immemorial, since before Docklands was a dollar sign in a developers eye, Courtney Barnett was still ghostwriting for Boomgates, Tomomaji was still Timomatic (RIP) and Jake Cleland was still junior vice deputy senior intern at adamNOTeve. Those were simpler days weren’t they? Even then though, The Parking Lot Experiments were in their forties. Now in their sixties, they’ve released the appropriately titled ‘Live Long’, recorded and mastered by Jonathan Boulet, the man, the legend. It’s building, swelling, corker of a track that sounds like some mix of Cloud Control and the Polyphonic Spree and a few other things that don’t yet exist. Good on me for writing about them just after they played their Sydney release show so unfortunately that boat has sailed. I have to get on to the next post though, because I haven’t written about any #greataustralianmusic for a long time and now there are lots of songs backed up so treat yourself below and use the hashtag #SoundDoctrineDoesItAgain if you want to discuss this on social medias. Keep it snappy, keep it viral.

I thought the vocal was what was dragging me into this track but that synthetic organ is actually the main drawcard here, tonally glorious and artfully manipulated into staggered rythm. Or it could be that vocal which is similarly filtered and by the end of the track, layered over itself a whole buncha times. Maybe it’s the video though, a binary tale of a Tokyo micro-chef and a Tokyo businessman-organist who work in the same dive bar. That’s the work of Natalie Erika James, and she’s unexpectedly found a video that does justice to the track. You’re looking at and listening to a triple threat here people, this is a true Hugh Jackman of a track. Hugh can sing and probably dance though I haven’t checked that second bit. To look at him you’d have to think he can dance a bit, you’d have to. And just like Jackman, Life Is Better Blonde (real name Nathan) is from Melbourne, which is the same as Hugh who is from Sydney which might as well be Melbourne because we have small bars now. It’s just science. There’s more on the way from LIBB and just as well because this has whet the appetite

A highly specific situation that speaks to a broader social experience and feeling. The alternative is a track like Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cards.

“If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me
And just forget the world?”

Immediately those phrases mean everything to everyone. Would you lie here with me and just forget the world? Weirdly the mostly specific thing in that entire idea is The World and, now correct me if I’m wrong here, I do believe the world is fairly large, at least compared to my apartment which isn’t altogether enormous, particularly given that we’re paying $6,400 per week in #sydney rent. There are no proper nouns, no person or place is mentioned, just empty house painted in the faintest beige so as we can all agree that we could happily fit our own furniture in it. “It’s perfect for me!” So in summary, that Snow Patrol song means everything and nothing to everyone and noone, which is actually harder to do than you’d think, at least with any degree of success. That first sort of song though, that’s the work of Courtney Barnett. That sort of song is lyrically pinpoint specific while still entertaining a bigger concept like nostalgia or loss and translating that smaller element so as it might speak the bigger idea to a broader audience. That’s Barnett, that’s what she does and that’s what she’s done. The imagery is perfect put together to be altogether familiar in it’s discrete specifics. You know those jars, you know what a railing in the shower implies and you know where Preston is even if you don’t know where Preston is, and if you don’t, then you do. Right? Wrap it up Tommy. The track itself sounds like it would fit admirably on the Middle East’s one glorious LP I Want That You Are Always Happy. The forthcoming CB LP is going to be quite some record, it seems.