Down Sounds: April 2010

It’s easy to see where the listening time has gone over the last four weeks. Between the debate over whether the new MGMT album is any good (no), the debate over whether Lisa Mitchell had any right to win the AMP (yes) and the debate over whether Tom Hanks should direct the Green Day movie (OK, there was no debate; the answer is lying back and thinking of England), there have been plenty of decent releases to distract from other things like life. I won’t cover them all – if you haven’t heard the new Gonjasufi, Gorillaz or JJ releases, that’s hardly my fault.

One of the most pleasing releases of recent weeks has been the iTunes single release of Sleep by Melbourne new wave rhythm’n’trance woman Romy. Though the song has been kicking around the net longer than that, the release comes with a B-side and two remixes, one by Juan MacLean and the other by The Breakdown’s other obsession, Melbourne kosmische calypso duo Brain Children. The BC remix really is that good, bringing the kind of dance single ‘moments’ long out of fashion but secretly held dear – ie. the ‘nostalgic bass drop’. So good.

Staying in Melbourne, Jarred Brown’s ‘other other’ band Eagle & The Worm, who give ‘60s good-time rock’n’roll a nudge, released their double-A 7”, fittingly titled Futureman/Goodtimes. Bubbling, plinking, warping garage nu-gazers Yolke released their debut EP, Poppy Wash. And supremely excellent ambient slacker-pop outfit Love Connection set off to launch their self-titled album (through Sensory Projects).

In Brisbane, Carry Nation’s Jessie Warren made good on her promise with a debut album, Like A River Does (through El Nino El Nino/Inertia) of the kind of pause-causing, simple folk that acts as a reminder that great, affecting songs can be written and played with only an acoustic guitar and a relatable voice (though Warren does slap some strings and horns on them, too). On the other side of the songwriting saddle, former Sekiden member Seja put her kleptomania to good use by employing nearly 20 synthesisers to record her first solo album of elated, sophisticated and just really-good pop.

Speaking of really-good, I can’t really explain in any words how really-good the new Latin America track from Holy Fuck (pictured) is, mostly because I don’t want to sound like Lester Bangs and get all “chugging trains through the tunnels of my mind”. It’s from their upcoming Latin album, which is out in May through XL (at least it is in the States).

South By Southwest did its thing of acting as the official launch pad of a few bands people were already talking about. While The Middle East and Crayon Fields attracted a slab of attention from US blogs, American bands who got online love included New Jersey’s moody, anthem-writing, country-edged punks-with-violin Titus Andronicus, Austin’s rather amazing distorto-darkwave outfit Psychic Violence, Austin’s more amazing ‘90s-throwback new wave trip-rockers Ringo Deathstarr (who sound strangely like that band from High Fidelity) and LA’s Pearl Harbour, who stick to their regional pop sounds with more of a melancholic, lo-fi reverb bent.

Everyone’s favourite new label to say is their favourite new label, Sensory Projects, gave us the debut album by gruff-fronted Toronto experi-folk cult Bruce Peninsula, A Mountain Is A Mouth, while Remote Control Records handed us the first album since 2006 from Norwegian band Serena Maneesh, led by their pretentious-rock-shtick-clinging frontman Emil Nikolaisen (and not in a bad way; you’ve gotta appreciate an unwarranted and unrewarded ego), No 2: Abyss In B Minor, an album that really pushes their distorted walls of noise to the grainy limits and is their first record for the 4AD label.

Finally, to the category of Acts Who Might Have A Hard Time Getting Much Attention On Australian Radio But Should, Remote Control Records have also just given us the first single from 21-year-old UK ‘soul’ singer Rox, who, like the UK’s Little Jackie, will probably prove to be too far either side of the commercial-alternative divide (but, hey, hopefully not). The song, My Baby Left Me, is a winner; the kind of groove-led, rusty R&B we haven’t heard since Lauryn Hill was, er, really-good.