Words: Doug Wallen
Band image: Gunay
After nearly a year and a half between releases, Naarm/Melbourne psych-punk trio Bitch Diesel are suddenly a flurry of activity, dropping a new four-song tape on the way to a full album later this year.
Tag Archives: Melbourne Music
Listen: ROMERO – ‘TROUBLEMAKER’
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Kaitlyn Hickey
Naarm/Melbourne group Romero returns with a brand-new single called ‘Troublemaker’, helping blow back the leaden clouds that have lingered over our heads for most of the year. Another slice of euphoric power-pop brilliance, ‘Troublemaker’ reaffirms Romero’s emergence as one of the more vital and exciting things to happen in 2020.
Listen: SARAH MARY CHADWICK- ‘EVERY LOSER NEEDS A MOTHER’
Words: Lakshmi Krishnan
Artist image: Simon Karis
Sarah Mary Chadwick introduces her seventh full-length LP with an achingly post-satirical, post-grunge lead single and video ‘Every Loser Needs A Mother’. Stripped-back with a darkly confessional pairing of toughened piano refrains and vocals, Chadwick honours her past with a “smirkingly [brutal] self-depreciating” force.
Continue reading Listen: SARAH MARY CHADWICK- ‘EVERY LOSER NEEDS A MOTHER’
Listen: RATH – SELF-TITLED EP
Words: Connor Drum
RATH is the COVID-19 bedroom solo project of Sean Bailey (also of LAKES, GRANE and TOL), and his self-titled three-track tape is an excellent gothy response to the extremely grim reality of contemporary Australian life, and an interesting sketch for a concept that boasts a lot of potential.
Premiere: HYDRA FASHION WEEK – ‘SICK (DAY #132)’
Words: James Frostick
Artist image: Laura Hannan
Hydra Fashion Week has just released a brand-new track composed in the midst of Naarm/Melbourne’s lockdown. ‘SICK (day #132)’ is a song steeped in a thick layer of melancholy, one that conveys the boredom, frustration and dispirited nature of being cut off from the world at large and the support systems we depend on.
Continue reading Premiere: HYDRA FASHION WEEK – ‘SICK (DAY #132)’
Premiere: ELA STILES – ‘LOVER’
Words: James Frostick
Artist image and cover art: Cait Burgoyne
On October 7, Naarm/Melbourne-based singer and producer Ela Stiles will release Songs On Harmonium With Voice – a seven-track album featuring old and new songs reconfigured into solemn and austere compositions. ‘Lover’ is the album’s first single – a haunting and enthralling work that sees Ela manipulating the sparse palette of sound to make it feel all-encompassing – a frisson-inducing swell that could fill any vastness, physical or incorporeal.
Listen: DAG – ‘I WILL MISS THE OCEAN (I WILL MISS THE TREES)’
Words: James Frostick
Three years on from the release of its debut LP Benefits of Solitude, Melbourne/Naarm-based group Dag has just dropped a new two-track release called Breathe Deeply. Lead single ‘I Will Miss The Ocean (I Will Miss The Trees)’ is a pristine piece of introspective songwriting – an ode to how the little things can tether and ground us when life’s errant gusts threaten to carry us off course. Continue reading Listen: DAG – ‘I WILL MISS THE OCEAN (I WILL MISS THE TREES)’
Listen: DOUBLE VANITY – ‘ESCALATOR’
Words: James Frostick
Band image: Kalindy Williams
Melbourne/Naarm-based trio Double Vanity recently dropped ‘Escalator’ – the second track from its forthcoming length album (out later this year via Psychic Hysteria). A lush and languid effort, ‘Escalator’ is an ode to life’s relentless upward trajectory and a reminder to stop and smell the roses once in a while.
Premiere: SERF – ‘RESTORATION’
Words: James Frostick
Rory Maxwell – aka SERF – is releasing a fresh cut from his forthcoming debut album All You Need In Life Is Someone To Love And Your Family. On ‘Restoration’ SERF examines the pitfalls of technological over-reliance in the modern world via his enlivening brand of bedroom-crafted synth-rock.
Premiere: HOOPER CRESCENT – ‘LOGOS’
Words: James Frostick
Image: Kalindy Williams
Melbourne art-rock crew Hooper Crescent are following up their self-titled 2018 EP with Object Permanence, a full-length record arriving at the end of July. We’re stoked to be sharing the first listen of lead single ‘Logos’, a snappy number that examines the disconnect between creativity and capitalism.
