Four weeks in which the season finally (kind of) changed, the Pluto inner-cleaning (gross) retrograde ended and many people attempted to hide from Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and failed (to which I say: go with it; it’s not all that often the writer-producer team of Max Martin and Luke Gottwald take over the world and when they do it’s far less psychologically straining to just get your skank on, learn the words and ride it out. Their songs are far too strong for our feeble minds to fight, as previously proven with The Veronicas’ 4ever, Pink’s U + Ur Hand, Kelly Clarkson’s My Life Would Suck Without You, etc. And, yes, all those songs are the same song rewritten, but I’m pretty sure market research has declared that no one cares, so who are you to argue?). There have also been a few rather excellent releases otherwise.
Melbourne’s Heirs (above) released their second album, Fowl (Denovali), and it’s a sublime seven tracks of metallic-Swansian grind-and-release playing. Cloudy, layered guitars and synths get ripped apart by unrelenting riffs and fall into spiralling, captivating effects and elegant rhythms. That all sounds like a load of ‘music writer’ wank, but it all sort of adds up to being the 2010 version of industrial rock, which might sound oxymoronic but I’m having a hard time describing this so just go and listen to it because it’s really very, very good.
Sydney duo Kyű last week released their self-titled debut album through Popfenzy just in time for some sunning and giving us the most intriguing psych pop record since Flying Scribble’s album of last month. Yes, this year is turning out to be the culmination of whatever bizzaro theatrical bent pop-making Australian kids have been on of late. In Kyű’s case that means ‘tribal’ rhythms used to remarkable effect, piercing vocal harmonies and arse-shaking-and-shimmying melodies (even though there’s something about using the words ‘arse-shaking’ that seems very wrong in this context).
The most common thing that has been said to me about the new Blonde Redhead album, Penny Sparkle (4AD/Remote Control) is that it doesn’t sound like Blonde Redhead, which is usually spoken with a satisfied grin and pisses me off because I always liked them, but is also reasonably fair. Blue-toned keys and sparse beats build subtle pop melodies, shone down on with ghostly effects to sort of add up to being the 2010 version of French electronic pop. Except they aren’t French. Wow, I’m really using my words today. Anyway, it’s very good.
Probably the biggest surprise to me personally has been the new track from My Disco (above), Turn, from their upcoming Little Joy album (out 15 October through Shock). The word ‘minimal’ has always been used to describe the Melbourne trio – indeed at times to be ‘made for them’ – but there’s something about Turn that’s very un-minimal without being at all bordering on maximal (again with the excellent word-using today, sorry). Almost tinny, again ‘tribal’ drumming, a lack of the usual unrelenting rhythmic guitar jabs and softer vocals make it an unassumingly danceable affair. By god, it’s almost tropical.
Into what the blogs have been talking about: a band from London called The Vaccines have been getting talked up after posting their first demo and homemade clip for a track called If You Wanna, which takes the kick-drum-riding and wang-out guitar strums of the UK nu-gaze set and adds them to jangly ‘60s pop sensibilities, slotting in with the whole ‘chillwave’ aesthetic but creating something entirely different and much more of their nation. You can download it free from their Facebook page.
Brooklyn’s How To Dress Well is still the most over-written-about man in the western blog world, creating something of an interesting on-minute discussion about why people like him so much or whether all the praise is ‘justified’ but not giving much of a chance for anything other than an online moment to really happen for the ‘post-chillwave’ ‘chill-scape’ dude.
Finally, Adelaide’s Fake Tan (below) are three newbies giving their own angle to all the ‘60s thing, making nagging and completely loveable pop songs for slackers that’ll get yer heart racing in yer skin-tight jeans.
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