I’ve had to suspend all work related activity to place this up here for your listening pleasure but I’ve no regrets for as the old saying goes, ‘When there’s a new Sufjan Stevens Christmas track online, cease all business’. I know it sounds like a cliche but those old sayings are popular for a reason.
It’s classic Sufjan (inasmuch as it’s totally ridiculous and an extension of his constantly expanding structural experimentation) but it’s also nothing like the Christmas songs of past. It features a Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart” refrain that you’ll find yourself singing along to over the weeks leading up to Christmas and obviously it’s thirteen minutes long. The best news is that he’s releasing a second batch of Christmas records called Silver & Gold: Songs For Christmas, Volumes 6 – 10 and they’ll be out November 13. You know what to get me. Judging by this trailer that he posted online last week there will some more traditional Christmas numbers in the mix.
Two minutes and nine seconds of split and spliced, feet on both pedals, synth vacuumed triptronica. That’s probably the best way to describe this joint that I’ve lifted from Thomas William’s Deccan Technicolour. Even if it’s an absolute mess of a sentence, you’re on my blog so you’ll ingest my opinions and afterwards you’ll ask for seconds because that’s just the polite thing to do damnit. Even more so since Life Aquatic Blog closed its doors today, so your sources of quality Australian curation have just decreased by one, and what a one it was.
Now, it’s probably about time you hit play on this so up and at ‘em folks. The lovechild of a drunken threeway between Seekae, Fishing and Brothers Hand Mirror, these tunes are worth investing your bandwidth in, especially since they won’t touch your coin purse. He’s been a stalwart of the Sydney experimental electronic scene for as long as anyone can remember and is only just recently back in the game so we’d all do well to give him a warm welcome given the strength of sound on which he returns. Ignoring all ill-informed comparisons, this record is pretty spectacular.
You’ll find that he’s also a finalist in FBi’s Northern Lights competition so if you dig this enough to cast a vote then cast a vote.
Earlier I cut the literary bonds that held back my unequivocal love for Wickerbird’s debut record. He’s since released the video for the first track off the release, a hallowed folk stapled replete with choral harmonies and finger picking that eventually strums itself to conclusion. It’s exactly what it sounds like and it’s a ripping good joint. Friends and family, partake in this now, this is a good thing. The record is a mere five dollars via the Wickerbird bandcamp and will not disappoint, unless you’re hoping for uninspired garbage. Then it may.
A few weeks back, Channel V sent me to BIGSOUND to write about my emotions. We saw Gung Ho play at Black Bear Lodge on the Tuesday night before the official BIGSOUND had actually commenced and while I don’t want to go too deep into this I think they were the victim of bad mix and a surly crowd. There was a sizeable gap between performer and patron and the three piece looked small and alone in what wasn’t even a large venue to start with. The set sounded more like a sloppy I Heart Hiroshima where I expected to hear the crafty vocal melds that are present on their recordings. As I said, it might have just been a dud night for them.
Gung Ho – ‘Twin Rays’
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The two most recent singles the Brisbane three piece have made available are far less tense than their live set was and the perfect cure for a case of the Mondays. I don’t know if there’s an EP/record on the way but the group would be remiss not to take advantage of the musical vulnerability created by raised temperatures and lowered windows, the appropriate physical setting to their slacker/surf rock.
Gung Ho – ‘Side By Side’
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I usually try to steer clear of the overblogged Triple J favourites but a tune’s a tune, you know? So on that note, here is a bonus track from Jesse Davidson of Adelaide, Unearthed High finalist and future Matt Corby.
Jesse Davidson – ‘Flaws’
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I am posting this because MT over at WTH sung it’s praises so loudly. No, that’s not fair. I hit play on it because she said it was dynamite, I’m posting it because it is dynamite. The EP is unmissable if you’re hoping to hear the shape of things to come for Australian music/all future playlists I make. Here’s ‘Steps’, the first track I heard from Mansion, Alaska, along with the EPs introduction track ‘Lune’, which is a smooth welcome to the five tracks I’ve had on loop all day.
I’ve forever been a proponent of a snare and cymbal heavy drum sound so the drumming on ‘Steps’ was always going to buy the group some credit in my ledger. They’re unafraid to spend time instrumentally, building not to a vocal crescendo but to the patient in and out of radio static.
Downloadable via Triple J Unearthed, here’s just one more to whet your appetite.
