Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Melbourne's Inkswel Twists Disco Revival Like No Other Australian
He must ink pretty well.
Photo credit: Honzo Hanh/flickr
Inkswel has about as many synthesizers as the next Australian guy doing disco revival, but this one doesn’t use his for the poppy stuff you hear from most.
The Melbourne producer rocks odd melodies over synthetic drums and muffled voice samples, and though it’s dancy, it’s all a bit strange.
A ton of great vocalists blessed Inkswel’s tracks for his Get To My Party release, and they make it disco-y as hell, and you can even hear crispy vinyl noise now and again.
Deep Sea Voyage, Inkswel’s most recent release before Get To My Party, is an apparent collaboration with the UhOh Orchestra, who may very well just be a collection of machines in Inkswel’s lab. Then again, maybe it’s a big group of actual musicians. There’s really no telling when you hear his twisted incarnations of hip hop, funk, breaks, and electro.
PS – This is definitely something for Mr. Oizo fans.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11223196 Ambulance Dance (Snippet) by INKSWEL
Finest Ego Compiles the Best Beatmakers from Australia and New Zealand
There are beatmakers everywhere.
Image credit: Finest Ego
We know that Australia has been smashing it up with bands reviving disco and new wave, but Finest Ego is showing us another side of the South Pacific.
As part of their Beatmaker series, which has covered Japan and Russia, the collective has compiled an album of tracks from Australia and New Zealand’s instrumental hip hop community.
If you thought that the ambient, textured sounds of abstract boom bap was limited to LA’s Brainfeeder, check out these tracks from down under. You may not have heard any of the names on this list, but any of these guys could be the next Flying Lotus.
You can hear that Australian affinity for cheesy vocoded voice and disco-y synth through out this comp, but keep in mind that this ain’t the sugary good-time dance stuff you’re used to from Australia. It’s eerie. It’s wonky. It’s bouncy. Had no idea things sounded this good on the world’s underside.
Download the comp in full for free here.
Check out more from Project: Mooncircle.
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=1155200320/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB//
Bands We Like: Australia/UK's Space Invadas Blast Funk Through the Cosmos
The funk!
Sweet shades, dudes. Photo credit: Space Invadas/MySpace
Any time an artist brings back the undeniably funky sound of 70s soul, it’s a good thing. We loved it when Mark Ronson did it, we love that Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings ARE it, and we love Space Invadas for doing it one more time. The two halves of this duo, Australian Katalyst and Englishman Spacek, have a number of previous credits individually. Space Invadas is a project centered around big beats, space-age sounds, and more laser gunfighting than anyone can handle.
Their album Soul:Fi is out on February 22nd, and judging from the bits and pieces we’ve heard leading up to it, it’s going to be killer. Spacek has worked with J Dilla and Slum Village in the past, and it shows in some of Space Invadas tracks. Katalyst has remixed the Gift of Gab and Ugly Duckling. Sound like a hip hop fest? It’s a little deeper than that.
Have a listen to “Done It Again.” It reminds me of Lyrics Born and the Poets of Rhythm’s collaboration “Changed My Mind” in the best possible way.
“Done It Again”
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F8159851 Space Invadas – Done It Again by Hypetrak
Melbourne Voice Artist Dub.FX Brings His Compound Sound to the World's Streets
Amagine from glitch hop duo Supergalactic Expansive sent me a link to a street performance video that just changed the course of my day. Dub.FX is a native of Melbourne, Australia who has chosen the streets of European cities as his performance venues. Using only his voice, an Akai looper, and a handful of effects pedals, Dub.FX creates entire tracks from scratch live on the street.
Hold for street applause. Photo credit: Dub FX/Bandcamp
His journey, as detailed in an immense blog post on his MySpace page, brought him to a ton of urban locales. The most important in terms of influencing his sound was Manchester, a town that houses its very own scene of electronic, hip hop, and dub music largely insulated from the commercialized musical debris of the western world’s majors.
The street musician has been sought after by labels since the mid-2ooos, but as he states in the very same blog post, he’s going to go it independent from here on out. It’s the clear choice for an artist who derives his inspiration from street level styles forged from spontaneous collaboration.
Dub.FX’s story is enthralling, and his catalog is extensive. Count ‘em: 15 releases. A couple of them are singles, a few are live compilations, but all of it is original and all of it is totally nasty. The kid is prolific to the extent that some of the work on his page isn’t scheduled for release until this time in 2012. But you can hear it all for free. That’s the beauty of independence.
He’s on tour now, but know that if he’s in your town, you’ll likely catch him performing on Main St.
Just a little tidbit about the track below. In addition to singing the dub vocals with an echo on his regular voice, he raps as two different MCs. One with an effected low pitch voice called Monsoon and one with an effected high pitch voice called Little Man. That’s so bad-a$$ I think i just peed myself a little.
“Free My Soul” (Live in Italy)
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=434172420/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB//
Australia's Kito & Reija Lee Picked Up by Mad Decent
Yes, they’re both blonde and shaped like models, and they share a last name, but are they sisters? I’m not a hundred percent sure. The newest addition to Mad Decent’s roster of artists, Australians Kito and Reija Lee, are a DJ/vocal team that bring a previously unseen sexiness to dubstep, both visually and in the style of their sound.
Not sure which is which. Photo credit: Mad Decent blog
The Lees broke out with a track called “LFO,” less likely an internet era abbreviation and probably referring to the low frequency oscillator, but hey I could be wrong, and maybe you could tell me what you think LFO stands for. The track is pretty crunchy and in a way more radio friendly than some of the super wobbly beats the genre is known for. No doubt these girls got picked up by Mad Decent due to a combination of looking interesting and knowing how to make a sound in the vein of an ever expanding beat style. In short, they’re hot, they produce good music, and there are two of them. Can’t lose.
Kito’s Kito EP dropped at the end of 2010 on Skream’s Disfigured Dubz imprint and featured “LFO” as well as an especially catchy remix of Vaccine’s “Fever.” I’m waiting to hear their first release on Mad Decent in 2011, and so far it’s set up to be a good year for them.
Check out Kito’s mix for Triple J Radio’s Mix Up
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F8308228&Kito-Triple J Radio Mix by maddecent
Brisbane's Mitzi: Another Australian Band Brings Back a Dead Sound
Something’s going on in Australia.
Brisbane's Mitzi has an EP due out on Monday. Photo credit: Future Classic.
What Cut Copy does for new wave, Mitzi does for disco. The four-piece from Brisbane, identifiable by varying haircuts from 20 years ago, plays a brand of disco too true to the sound to be called disco-wave, or disco-core, or whatever kids are calling disco that’s made today. Their debut EP All I Heard is out on Monday, so you’ve got the weekend to brush up on your 70s funk records.
The tracks they’ve released thus far are pretty slick. Like Jamiroquai, authenticity is achieved through the production being true to the sound. No need to do it any differently than they did in the days of yore; smooth bass lines, key stabs, straight drum beats. Alright, the vocal delivery has an apathy to it that you didn’t hear in old disco, likely on account of that decade’s stimulant of choice. But all the elements are there. Disco’s not dead. She just got a new hairdo, moved to Australia, and changed her name to Mitzi.
So far, Mitzi has released three tracks via Soundcloud, and they are all pretty awesome possum. Can you dig it?
This one’s called “Morning Light.”
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F7106562&secret_url=false Mitzi – Morning Light (Radio Edit) by Mitzi (Band)
Hear The Death Set's First Single from Michel Poiccard
Their recent mixtape Artificially Sweetened whetted hipster appetites across the world for something a little less mash-up and a little more album, and soon enough The Death Set’s Michel Poiccard will be dropped on an unsuspecting world like that Coke bottle from The Gods Must Be Crazy. It’ll be another three months before the record drops, but in the meantime, their first single is revving up a whole ‘nother part of the brain.
The first single from The Death Set's upcoming album Michel Poiccard
“Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap” is not a cheat code for a Genesis game, but rather a coded greeting The Death Set dudes have developed during their time in Brooklyn. Eventually, we will all be executing their secret handshake with fluency. This song is your instructional tape on how to say what’s up to the borough’s most notable Australians.
Another little gem on this single is a different version of “Yo David Chase! You P.O.V. Shot Me In the Head,” one without Diplo’s semi-unnecessary phone tone sounds laid over the punk rhythm. You can hear all the tracks from the upcoming single on the Ninja Tune site, and hear the original version (below) of “Yo David Chase!…” so you can compare for yourself.
Stay tuned for March’s release! It’s gonna be a loud one.
Hear the original version of “Yo David Chase! You P.O.V. Shot Me in the Head.”
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F6993083&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff00e8 Yo David Chase! You P.O.V. Shot Me In The Head (feat. Diplo) by The Death Set
Healthy Candy from Australia's The Death Set
Put on your ADD hat for this one.
Mishka presents The Death Set's latest mixtape, Artificially Sweetened
Sydney-by-way-of-Brooklyn’s The Death Set gives us an erratic sampling of their all-genre mash-up style hosted by NYC clothier Mishka. Mash-ups are dead, you say? Never! As demonstrated on the Artificially Sweetened mixtape, there’s so much that hasn’t been done; ODB and the B-52s, Jay Reatard and the Beastie Boys, and an especially sick little blend of Biggie’s “Hypnotize” and Roni Size’s jungle anthem “Brown Paper Bag,” although you could mix animal noises with that bass line and it would sound good. Furthermore, that track could have done without the vocal cuts from “Blitzkrieg Bop.” Now, I’ve just spent too many words describing a single minute on this 43 track stew of music new and old. Maybe just download it, it is free after all.
For any of my fellow nerds out there, here’s a video giving a technical breakdown of some of The Death Set’s equipment straight from the band’s mouth, thanks to ProAudioStar.
In the studio with The Death Set
Australia's Ghoul Gives Us a Preview of Their Next Haunting
Once again, a sound reaches our ears from Australia and has us hooked.
Ghoul releases "3Mark" from their up coming EP Dunks
Without using anything resembling a standard drum beat, Sydney’s Ghoul makes you do that neck-and-shoulder dance without realizing it, so you look like a spaz on the train. The four-piece band doesn’t always sound like one, pulling together a collage of little sounds to form a rumble — something like a digitized Homelife song but more dreary. Vocalist Ivan Vizintin sings in a throaty voice that fits the group’s range, emulating dance rock and sing songy IDM alike.
Ghoul has an upcoming EP called Dunks due out in January, to be released by Speak N Spell, which previously brought us sounds from Black Lips and The Walkmen, among others. Dunks is just a little appetizer to get us all hungry for their full-length release, which will be out later in 2011. Ghoul just gave the world a tasty whiff of what’s to come with “3Mark,”. The track moves from sound clutter to glitch a-la-Radiohead to funky clapping beat, with Ivan’s appropriately ghostly vocals coming at us straight before getting chopped into the beat. Before you know it, there’s a near-complete Afrobeat rhythm breaking out.
If this is any indication of how Dunks will go, we’re all ears. I’ve got a premonition that we’ll be talking about his again real soon.
Bands We Like: The Glitchy Genius of Australia's Spoonbill
Close your eyes and turn it up, and in no time the wonky sounds of Spoonbill will have you in the Australian outback surrounded by impossible creatures. The Melbourne producer combines equal parts wobbly low end and twangy patchwork, peppered with blithe live instrumentation and playful voice samples. Spoonbill is the psychedelic mushroom cap to past collaborator Tipper’s acid sugar cube.
Photo credit: spoonbill.net.au
Spoonbill’s vibe has the intentional cheese of early Wagon Christ, but takes the complexity into a synthetic realm. Sequences of goofy samples are all over the place, tied together with oscillating synth and sequenced percussive rolls. Underneath all the chaos, a trip hop beat carries each track. There’s a lot happening on each song, but if you listen close, you can hear the folk music buried in Spoonbill’s DNA. Hidden, composite melodies are upbeat and energetic, battling to be heard through a steel grate of synthesizer sound.
Compared to his previous releases, Spoonbill’s newest Airborne EP is a touch more friendly to the layman’s ears. It’s the kind of thing you can listen to closely and pick apart, or just throw on and bob your head to. No two bars of a Spoonbill track are the same, yet he executes it sans the abrasive nature of his contemporaries of the same ilk (for instance, Vibe Squad). So, if you or someone you know is still listening to those archaic things called “bands,” and hasn’t crossed over because they can’t stand the heat of serious produced music, Spoonbill is likely an apt bridge.
Check out Airborne and Spoonbill’s other releases on his website. We know it’s tempting, but don’t play that pong game for too long.
