Big Skies commands a strong presence. Following their post-punk roots, Mere Women build up to a four-piece incorporating thumping bass into the already strong ensemble; precise pulsating rhythms that are never predictable, hallowing synths and spiralling guitar echoing off the ceiling. Thematically, Amy Wilson draws from dated ideas of gender roles. During the title track, Wilson repeats in quick succession ‘You’d better get a dog, girl’ linking to her first-hand experiences as a woman living regionally, receiving word that getting a dog and locking all doors will offer protection. Mere Women have presented a true statement piece in Big Skies; encapsulating the beauty, isolation and gendered perspective of the countryside – presented with pure urgency and hopefulness veiled beneath unsettling tones.
Band Members
Katrina Byrne
Amy Wilson
Flyn Mckinnirey
Trisch Roberts
Stark acoustic rumblings and tales of yesteryear are brought to the forefront on Down The Unmarked Road, a joint collaboration between Peter Fenton (Crow) and Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss/Infinity Broke) that feels like it has more in common with 70’s Dylan and Van Morrison than their individual projects. It is an album that conjures up Sydney’s Inner West and by extension, the rural outskirts of New South Wales.
Fenton and Hutchings spin yarns about solitary travels at dusk, nights out gallivanting on King Street, and abrupt endings that lead to hazy beginnings, which feel like they’re only still just occurring; all the while pointing out the nostalgia and the regret of it all. The album doesn’t just feel brooding however, songs like ‘Moller’ and ‘The Buyer Beware’ give the record momentous lifts with their presence. You can’t help but be drawn to the almost effortless approach that each song takes with the album feeling like it began with two friends sitting down with acoustic guitars to see what would transpire.
It’s heartening that a new voice can still come along that requires you to stop everything, take notice and listen. The owner of these beautiful vocals is Adrianne Lenker, singer and guitarist with Big Thief, a four-piece from New York, who have more than delivered on their early potential.
As the front cover may allude to (it features vocalist Adrianne Lenker being held by her young Uncle), Big Thief’s sophomore album delves deep in to family history. There are stark accounts of death, domestic abuse as well as guttural romances themes littered throughout the LP. Though the true theme lie in the duality of life and the continued fight between the two. It’s a piece of work that sees Lenker and Co. at the height of their powers.
Intense yet generous, Capacitymakes you wonder what the big deal is with second albums. That just 14 months separated the release of Masterpiece and Capacity ensured the band wouldn’t overthink their next move, but there’s more to it than prolificness. Adrianne Lenker’s lyrics and the music they inhabit rarely subvert each other via the more familiar way of placing words and melody at opposite emotional poles. Equally fluent in metaphor and memoir, Lenker blurs the two in a way that resists strict autobiography, while still inviting you into her worlds.
Only formed in 2015, the band are already onto their second album – Capacity is the follow-up to last year’s well-received debut Masterpiece – and the band have long been championed by BBC 6 Music.
The album’s cover – Adrianne Lenker’s uncle cradling her when she was a baby – gives a clue to the themes of family explored on the record. Standout track Mythological Beauty, recalls a childhood accident that almost killed Adrianne, considering the impact it had on her mother. In an interview reflecting on the familial story-telling, she reveals “I’m not quite sure if I’m writing the songs from myself to my future child, or to my inner child, or from my mother to me.”
Expect to hear more from this group as 2017 continues to unfold. They’ll be visiting the UK for gigs .
This 21-year-old young woman from country Victoria is leaving everyone stunned by her raw lyrics and haunting melody. Jack Grace is producing her, adding the electronic elements driving the beats and sonics. This one is going to be a special one!” .The Australian talent wrote ‘Figure It Out’ recently, with production coming from fellow rising artist Jack Grace.
A simple piano and vocal combination, it’s remarkably effective, with the songwriter dreaming of a return to her youth. Yearning for a simpler time, this theme turns the video into something extraordinarily effective.
Shot in Eliott’s home town and even features some of her family and friends.
“I think it was so important to go back to my hometown for this video,” she says, “It was such a special few days filming, because I got to do it with all of my best mates – there was no acting, it was honest and real. Figure it out is about leaving the comforts of home and doing something purely for yourself.”
Following the release of her acclaimed debut single ‘Figure it Out’ rising newcomer Eliott, has just revealed a video for her next single release ‘Over & Over’ which is released on the 2nd March 2018 and has been produced by rising fellow Aussie artist Jack Grace.
Official music video for The Blue Marble by GUM off his album, The Underdog. If a member of both TameImpala and Pond made a solo record, what would it sound like? The answer is GUM. The solo project of multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson, GUM is another offering of psychedelic pop from a man who is well versed in the genre. His full album, The Underdog, drops April 6th.
Sydney-based band Noire aka Jessica Mincher (vocals and synth) and Billy James (guitar). Following up their self-released EP Baby Blue in 2015, Noire have announced the release of their debut album‘Some Kind of Blue’, Growing up in the small regional town of Gympie, QLD before moving to Sydney where they formed in 2014, Noire craft dark, melodic and tenderly sculptured pop songs that traverse shoegaze, reverb heavy blues and indie rock.
Citing inspiration from Air, Mazzy Star, David Lynch, Wim Wenders and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ‘Some Kind of Blue’ is a cinematic soundscape charting the fluidity of love and loneliness.
Noire’s patient guitar licks sound like you’ve just turned up in a 1950s western town that’s piecing itself back together after a shootout. The Sydney band’s ethereal vocals via lead singer Jessica Mincher, and effortless production and song arrangement make you want to just close your eyes, block out the world, and drift away for a few minutes.
Official music video for ‘He’s My Baby’, the second track from NOIRE’s debut album ‘Some Kind of Blue’ released 29th September 2017 via Spunk Records.
What kinda 24-year-old can writes lyrics as light-hearted and fun as, “Sittin’ at the swim club stretchin’ my quads, everyone wants to be a part of my squad”, and brutally honest as, “She doesn’t wanna see me tonight, not for a minute, not for a second, she says ‘nothing here for you to make right’”? (Sandy) Alex G, that’s who. While those in certain circles are probably crying out that he’s far from an undiscovered act, we believe the multi-instrumentalist from Philadelphia is someone everyone should know. Discovered largely via his releases on Bandcamp, and now signed to Domino, Alex G began his career making music in his bedroom, and he’s still there (only ’cause he’s uncomfortable relinquishing control of the songwriting process in a typical studio setting). Give him a listen, you won’t regret it.
(Sandy) Alex G – “Proud” from ‘Rocket’, released 2017 on Domino Record Co.
Texan singer-songwriter Jess Williamson’s sophomore album Heart Song is not even a year and a half old yet, but Williamson is about to return with a new collection, her first for the label Mexican Summer. Named Cosmic Wink, it finds Williamson once more exploring a new chapter of her life in new surroundings while, appropriately enough, further broadening her musical palette.
The name Cosmic Wink is apparently a nod to the Jungian concept of synchronicity, summing up an album as rooted in an “inspired companionship as it is a rebirth.” Plenty of Williamson’s past work chronicled her experiences in and outside of Texas, her stints in other towns and the call of home and the anxiety of searching for new places. Cosmic Wink picks up where its predecessors left off, with Williamson having fallen in love and decamping to California. Across the album, she meditates on her new life, at times conveying her thoughts via folk-rock, other times bearing the influence of her new home by situating ruminative narratives in enveloping, warm compositions that recall stray elements of ’60s rock.
Along with the announcement, Williamson has shared Cosmic Wink’s lead single “I See The White.” It’s a low key gorgeous composition, an acoustic rocker that sounds like a meandering, twilit journey down the beach that’s equal parts melancholic and joyous. Starting with the memorable line “Tell me everything you know about consciousness,” “I See The White” soon builds to one hell of an old-school pop paean of a chorus. Here’s what Williamson had to say about the song:
Love is at once so precious and so painful when we acknowledge how little time we have with the ones we love. Most of us walk through life like we will live forever. Since most of us have no memory of ever dying or being born, it’s pretty common for us to act like we are immortal. There are benefits to this way of living, but the dark side of that is it can lead to a lot of complacency. But start to notice the graying of your dog’s fur around her eyes, see the sun move lower in the sky, recognize that the wave you’re riding will one day descend, and see how your life starts to change when you inject a little more gratitude into your every day. This song is a love song and it’s also kind of me throwing a tantrum. It’s begging for answers and making a few demands too. I get it, life is short but our souls live on, right? So, I’m gonna need my sweetheart to come too, okay? And maybe my dog. Is that so much to ask? Musically, I wanted this song to feel joyful and pretty, because why shouldn’t we celebrate love alongside the tough questions? Life is wild and beautiful and sad and ecstatic all at once, and I wanted this song to be the same way. We might as well dance and sing and have fun with the time we have because we’re here and then we’re gone, and nothing lasts forever… or does it? 😉
“I See The White” also comes with a video by Eli Welbourne that alternates between matter-of-fact beauty and tongue-in-cheek reflections on mortality. Early on, Williamson serenades a skull and accidentally shatters an hourglass. Later, she dances on the beach and wanders LA.
Forth Wanderers signed to Sub Pop Records for their upcoming self-titled album. Lead single “Not For Me” suggested the wait for new music since 2016’s Slop EP has been worth it; we named it one of the week’s best songs when it dropped last month. Well, if you liked that one, I’m here to tell you the second single is even better — one of the best indie-rock songs of the year, in fact.
Album opener “Nevermine” is built around spindly guitar interplay that expands into a huge, glorious chorus, almost like the New Jersey combo’s instruments are constructing the foundation for a towering monument. It certainly sounds monumental, anyway, without being too showy about it.
Ava Trilling’s first words seem to be addressing an ex: “I am the one you think of when you’re with her, and what do you have? Nothing on me.” She continues from there with a drowsy detachment in her delivery that belies the intensity of the narrative.
Psych-rock greats Dead Meadow turn 20 years old this year, and the long-running band will release their eighth album The Nothing They Need this week on Xemu Records. Ahead of its release, we’re premiering a new track from the LP, “Nobody Home.” The band tells us it’s “a song about being alone in solitary places,” and it’s the kind of psych freak-out that Dead Meadow do so well, with fuzzed-out proto-metal riffs, trippy wah solos, and a permastoned vocal delivery.
Dead Meadow are playing psych festival Levitation in Austin Texas,
Dead Meadow have shared Nobody Home, a new track from their forthcoming album, The Nothing They Need. It is a classic, riffed up, behemoth of fuzzed up psych rock.
