Melbourne kids
Rat vs Possum (above, left) have just finished work on their second album dubbed
Let Music and Bodies Unite. Due out in September this year, the band's follow up to their 2010 debut,
Daughter of Sunshine, is a step away from the long-form "tribal" drum jams of the past (and judging from the glut of mustachioed fluff beaters spilling from the nation's venues currently, not a moment too soon). Buoyed by a slew of festival appearances in 2010 and '11, the band reconfigured their set to work in a more direct fashion; a tactic that saw them translate as one of the highlights of Meredith in 2010.
Such self-analysis has seen them ditch those percussive elements of their past and focus more on synth-noise pop jams, anchored now by vocalist proper, Daphne Shum. And while repetitive lyrics are still a saggy point, the reconfiguration packs a huge punch live. Meaning while we miss the hiss and volume on first single 'Fat Monk', it's somewhat reassuring to know it should do the business in the live setting.
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On first listen to
Jamie Hutching's (above, right) new album
Avalon Cassettes, it was difficult to shake off the dreamy, summer-haze fuge that the thing seems shrouded in; like some post-rain steam cloud drifting through the house, blown in off hot bitumen. Exactly. 'Gimme Failure' and its video here do little to dispel such notions—the Bluebottle Kiss frontman lolling about in grass and on wood floors like a summery mannequin. Ice Creams, waves, passing countryside and pastoral landscapes seal the deal.
Jamie Hutchings - 'Gimme Failure'
You can buy Hutching's album
here on Bandcamp for (thanks to the current US dollar) less than $10. Criminal.
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Sydney punk mainstays
Frenzal Rhomb are on their way back with the delightfully titled
Smoko at the Pet Food Factory. First single 'Bird Attack' concerns the predatory habits of birds. That'll do it. That the entire song comes home to roost....on Jay's guttural screams of "MAGPIE. SEAGULL. IBIS", upholds the bands commitment to lyrical transparency. 'Cause Ibis'
are fucking scary.
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Super bummed that the new
Total Control album
Henge Beat doesn't have the awesome 7" only tracks 'Paranoid Video' or 'Pyre Island' (see below) amongst its eleven tracks, but the inclusion of 'The Hammer' very nearly makes up for it. Featuring members of the UV Race and Eddy Current Suppression Ring (aka Mikey Young, who's done an outstanding job on the production of this record, by the way) Total Control's 'The Hammer' is a sinewy, relentlessly bleak track complete with synth farts, bloopy drums, coin jangling and doomy guitar squalls, that still somehow manages to emerge as a sweet, atmospheric pop song. That's what you want.
The Hammer by Total Control
Total Control - Pyre Island by smartguy
You can download
Henge Beat in it's entirety right now for just $7.70 from
the band's bandcamp. Why wouldn't you?