OCTOBER MIX.
Ah yes, the final tape. The last supper. Last drinks have been called. and hey, let’s insert one more tiresome analogical wordplay here for good measure.
maamf. as it stands: done and dusted. don’t know? keep up.
So this is the last time where this writing, will accompany these songs on this site. I said I wouldn’t go on about it, and I won’t. For too much longer.
Just, really, I just wanted to say the following:
Thanks.
Alright then. No more going on. This is it. My fave selections for October below. Some writing about four of them. Nice tape, as always. A thank you to the artists that helped make it all happen. Full tape at the end.
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This track, ‘Be Brave <3’ from The Descenters, a project headed up by Melbourne based Matthew Stoff, throws a distortion fuelled melange of noisey off-cuts at a wall, and what speaks back to them is something tightly wound, cacophonous, but with a therapeutic clarity. Music hey?
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There’s quite the comfort in this cover from Melbourne’s Parading. It feels justifiably lazy. Lazy within the confines of a slightly drawn out pop song, but lazy nonetheless. Compared to the original from Paul Kelly, ‘Big Heart’ – taken from the band’s second full length Jungle Songs – proves an obvious, distinctive take. This shows the versatility in song writing on Paul Kelly’s behalf of course – a song that that some 29 years later, feels to have stood the test of time. But positioned within a vastly different musical vibe, the melodic dirge that is shoegaze, Parading give this song a new prolonged life, thanks to the grand vision of this Melbourne four piece.
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Perhaps a theme of sorts emerging within these tapes is a vague focus on young musicians emerging away from the main hustle of ‘typical’ music cities like Melbourne or Sydney. Tia Gostelow, an Indigenous woman from Mackay, is 17, a recent finalist in Unearthed High, and writing songs that speak to a potential full blown and successful career in this thing. Capturing that intricate and sophisticated approach to song writing reminiscent of fellow high schooler Gretta Ray, ‘Vague Utopia’ is an incredibly accomplished sounding track.
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It feels a little arduous and obvious to draw out the link between Telling and Gotye. The links are there – Tim Shiel, one half of Telling, founded the excellent Spirit Level, which houses this release, with Wally a little while back. There are also quite obvious similarities production wise, however ‘Guessing Games’ tends more towards Tim’s own intricate, electronic canon of work. As a vocalist, Ben Abraham’s voice lends an almost perfect tone to Tim’s production. What sits Telling at the top of the hill is this combination of two, clearly incredible musical minds.
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That’s it.
Full tape is here. Just for your ears, your eyes and your little beating hearts.
And finally, to borrow from myself, one last thing:
A thank you and good night to each and every one of you. Wake up tomorrow, attack the day ahead and go to sleep knowing you contributed in a positive way to the life of this guy here, Miks Everitt from Melbourne, Australia.
…
Miks.
SEPTEMBER MIX.
So, you may have heard. It’s all true. This tape, right here, this one you got your eyes all over and ears all in is the second last tape on this site for quite some time. The last tape will be up in the early weeks of November.
I don’t want to get bogged down in writing about finishing up, because really, people don’t want to hear that. You come here for writing about music. For those few interested though, keep an eye on the maamf facebook for something in the next couple of weeks that’ll provide ya with a bit more detail.
I was keen to try to run a theme through this post, one that tried to somehow encapsulate the general theme of finishing up. Sitting and listening to this music though, this tape below, I’m struggling to justify writing about an end where all this music continues on and lives on and takes on new meanings and stays with you and lives beyond you. So, as has become tradition (if you count the last few tapes as the setting in stone of said tradition), below are a couple of small ruminations on four of the tracks below.
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It’s interesting how with a new name, you can see new life. DEJA were a duo I wrote about a little bit on this site in the past – big fan of the dark moody electro back then. Now with kult kyss, the new project from Haxx and Rromarin, there’s new life. ‘Get Up Boy’ is pushy and agitated, on the constant attack, only letting up as Rromarin’s vocals are set free at the end.
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‘Nightcrawler’ feels incredibly propelling. Sure it’s dance music, and that’s what the majority of dance music attempts to do, but Planète does it in a way that makes you really listen hard to all the details. There’s room to breath in this, and immerse yourself in all of the little ideas that seep in from every which way. Planète is the master of intricate, dark propelling dance music.
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There is a feeling of being stuck in Deep Blue‘s ‘Disney in Ice’. Starting off with dueling guitar lines, and layers slowly building, you feel prepared for some big explosion of noise towards the end. But then it doesn’t. It holds back on you, restrained in a way that keeps you uneasy. Perhaps it is just my listener ears, but to play with expectation, teasing it out, feels a masterstroke.
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There’s been a lot of adoration thrown Will Cuming’s way of late. As LANKS, Will’s been releasing music for a couple of years now. His Viet Rose EP that just came out is something rather special. ‘Holla’ is one of those rare tracks that on surface feels easy, but with more listens, the more the tension rears its head. In part it’s the production. But it’s also great testament to the work of Will himself, easily one of the hardest working and most interesting artists making pop music in Melbourne.
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So there ya have it. Keep an eye and an ear out for the final tape, up within the next four weeks or so.
A thank you and goodnight.
Miks.
AUGUST MIX.
On the very slight off chance that you take time to read this, I wanted to quickly get across a coupla things.
Australian music as it stands sits underneath the surface of this silly ol’ country most of the time. As is evidenced time and time again on this site and a fair few others, there’s a great deal to be excited by when you have a dig around. Too many of us however (although maybe not you – the other us perhaps) either don’t know or actively don’t give a fuck. I hope for many that it’s actually the latter, although from the small amount of rummaging I’ve done, I fear it to be the former.
I hope it’s the latter because it would mean that the industry itself is working. People are hearing all this great Australian music and realising that it’s not for them. It would make the whole process a hell of a lot easier.
Instead though, I fear that the stories that the musicians below have invested so much of their pain and time into largely go unnoticed. This isn’t the fault of the musician – although there is some utter drivel out there. For a large group of artists though, you can hear the stories and the soul and the makings of people within song. These songs are incredibly personal things. And what’s fucking great about music is that the form opens these really personal ideas up and allows Audience to feel a deep connection.
It has much more to do with the way in which our (although again, you dear reader may well be the odd one out) institutions (largely the media in this instance) have made it more difficult for Australian musicians to be heard. This isn’t something limited only to music as a cultural form. Practitioners of other forms like film, television, literature often have to cut their teeth overseas before anyone locally cares to take notice. The most popular post ever made on this site was for Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Use To Know’ way back in 2011. This was around 2 years before the track became massive in Australia, which only happened after a small amount of groundswell here and it going massive in the States (and right around the world for that matter).
It’s great that such an incredible track (yeah, I still feel that way about it) ended up getting the coverage it deserved, but shouldn’t it be the other way round? Sure, tall poppy syndrome and all that, but we (this time it’s all of us), as a broader media consciousness should be shouting this stuff from the highest fucking rooftops from the get go, not just those low level townhouse rooftops. Let the world take notice of Australian music instead of Australia taking notice of the rest of the world taking notice of us.
So with all that said and done, how about some actual proper writing. As usual, considerations of a select few are below. That’s not to take away from those other excellent songs that form this list.
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Something that appears infinately important to our local Australian music scene is the sense of family that emerges. Sure we are one big ol’ family for the most part, but those smaller ones, largely based around labels and management – think Flightless, Mirror Music, Osborne St – are where we see the real affect of what that close, tight knit sense of family (in a broad happy positive sense) can bring. Pieater, built around the incredible work that Big Scary do are another such family. Airling, who is on Pieater, you can tell brings that sense of warmth across in her work (you should catch her live if ya get the chance). ‘Move Me’ of course sounds like an Airling record. It also sounds like a Pieater record if their sound is anything to go by. ‘Move Me’ is a jaunt of sorts, a kind of angular continuous prod at the body, forcing it to move.
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Young people eh? Who needs ’em, wants ’em? Well lotsa people as it turns out. Gretta Ray has kinda taken the whole of this local scene by storm with an incredible song. Easily up there on my list of the best Australian songs for the year, ‘Drive’ manages to catapult itself forward with a sophisticated propulsion, something that it feels a lot of artists are doing, but very few do well. Gretta does this incredibly well.
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To see the rise of an artist like Jarrow has been nothing short of exciting. From those more humble cut and paste beginnings, a more earnest/ramshackle approach to music-making has emerged. The agitation in a track like ‘$$ Spoilers $$’ is slight but effective. Ideas feel purposefully cut just short, the fragility of how the drums come through in the mix. Everything Jarrow does feels resolute – everything is in it’s right place.
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Prudence Rees-Lee is of course an artist that works on a sense of displacement. Having an experimental string-laden pop thing in the middle of a playlist that is about championing new Australian ‘popular’ music, is a displacement. The way in which ‘Fair Witness’ manages to sit within this playlist with such ease skews the way in which we hear popular music. And all this in just under 2 minutes makes for a quick short jab to the guts. Nothing short of excellent.
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Tape below. Press play on all of it. Go check out some of these rad artists if they’re playing in your town. Go make sure that you go out and find a new favourite.
…
Miks
JULY MIX.
It’s round two. Back. Proper music writing. A nice collection of tunes this time around – chock to the brim and all that. Some thoughts and reflections on the tracks within the tape are below. Have a read and a listen would ya?
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It feels as though songwriters are a hell of a lot better now at accessing a classic song structure and injecting it with enough personality and originality that it pops, so to speak. On this tape you can here it in the layers in L.U.V‘s track ‘You’ll Never Let Me Go’, the embrace of more traditional blues and soul instrumentation of ‘Down To Rest from Tom Stephens. And then of course you have the Waitsesque jaunt of Lost Animal‘s ‘Do The Jerk’ with its organ and sax combo. Dorsal Fins have always been on that classic pop tip – to the point where every single hit/strum/connection of brain to voice feels purposeful. My Brother’s Friends do the sing-a-long duet real well too, offering two perspectives on a track, simply via the differences in phrasing between the verses.
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The cultural significance of movements like LISTEN and Sad Grrrls Club isn’t going unnoticed. Of course there’s forever to go, but the fact that female identifying and GNC artists are now visible is all sorts of good. What makes me (a white cis-dude) a little uncomfortable though is the fact that these artists easily compete (not that it’s at all a competition). It’s not the fact that these artists are themselves good, it’s the question of who the fuck are we to be only now realising that ‘hey music is cool and gee there are some bloody talented people out there’. What the hell were we (predominately white music guys) doing to only get this now. in 2016. Who the fuck are we to put structures in place (like casually sexually assaulting women/overly sexualising women/fetishising those artists that identify differently) that purposefully favour some artists over others? Artists like L.U.V. and Rachel Maria Cox and Julia Jacklin and Tracy Chen and Ninajirachi. All making these tightly wound tracks, some full of more intimacy than you can bear, some with these super tight guitar pop structures. All really really catchy and good (hence why they’re in this tape). We should all make considered and thoughtful choices about who we choose to support.
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It’s something that’s been pushed a lot recently – we have a real super exciting electronic scene in this country. And yeah mate, we do. But the most exciting stuff to my ears (and hopefully yours) is happening away from the spotlight and away from the most hearted and reposted on soundcloud. We got a couple of those in here, from the warm and moving sonics of acts like LAIKS, Braille Face, and Ninajirachi; right through to the more pop sound of CDAD and Yon Yonson. I think special mention needs to be made of Tracy Chen‘s ‘Eggs’, which knocks me over into some tingly mess each and every time I press play on the thing. And it would be remiss of me not to make mention of Japanese Wallpaper, the exception to my most hearted and reposted rule.
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And all the others in this here tape. This tape especially has felt quite a pleasure to post. If you just can’t wait to read more of me writing, then you may well want to sign up to the maamf mailout. Thanks to all those who have done so already. For those yet to, it’s a monthly mailout full with many of things I been reading and enjoying over the past month. You can sign up here. You can check out the past issues here.
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Miks
JUNE MIX.
Sometimes I find it difficult to really properly get at what I’m trying to do with this. As new music hits the inbox, the submit page and the submithub profile, it’s easy for this thing to move further away from its initial purpose. That purpose is to write about and support those new artists I come across and love and am excited by.
That’s not to say I haven’t been inspired somewhat. The past two mixtapes have had me digging deep inside in an attempt to find some purpose in what I’m meant to be doing with all the time not spent ‘doctorating’. It has sparked many an idea, or rather a collection of ideas all focussed around one central big project. I will still write about ol’ mate Steve, but you can head over here for that.
Now that that’s all clear, perhaps we move towards a brief summation as to the contents of this here tape. I think from here on, I’ll write about a selection of those included in the tape. Around 4 or 5. To write about all (in this case) 19 tracks would make for a long read (and let’s be honest, you just come here for the list, not the writing). That’s not to say that all the tracks don’t deserve some level of reflection. Just know that there are plenty of other (and arguably better) spots to find that. maamf mailout is a good place to start. You can press play on the tape below.
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I’ve always been a sucker for local references in popular music. Allan Smithy‘s ‘Four Letter Reason’ does that nicely. It’s becoming an all too common tale within Australian music (especially those in Sydney) to rightfully bemoan the state of living. Nicely, and quite masterfully can I add, using the loose structure of the love song as the base, Smithy details the movement and stagnation of both friends and himself.
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It’s not until the final vocal line, just 20 seconds before the end, that we get a feeling Aeora has reared her head from the underground. ‘Afloat’ kicks along at a careful and constructed pace, not quite quick enough for the listener to forget the self-conscious and reflective lyrics, but with enough classic dark electronic pop to create a tension in the mind of the listener.
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Occasionally I’ll feel flawed. It’s partly due to an inability to adequately articulate myself. The majority of it though is simply testament to the sheer quality of music I find myself listening to. I wrote to Lee Hannah, or Sessility a little while ago in response to their email about ‘Plaza’, a new track taken from an EP that’ll feature collabs with Yeo and Kira Puru. Below is that inability to express when I’m being pommeled with deep deep cuts.
“It’s really something else – those live sounding drums really get me. And those little key lines that sound improvised and off the cuff but fit so beautifully within the structure. Really, Plaza is super super cool.”
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Finally, I wanted to briefly run through some thoughts on Good Boy‘s ‘Poverty Line’. It’s easy to cast this off as a vain Eddy Current Suppression Ring-lite project. Originally I had been sceptical. And either Mikey Young himself from Eddy Current is in dire need of work, or he’s cool with it because the man mixed and mastered the thing and from that point I immediately rethought my initial hesitancy. Again, a comment on traversing the difficulties modern being shoves in your face, Good Boy were probably in kinder when Brendan and co were thrusting around Melbourne’s scene. But still, this nails down an attitude and way of being that is forced upon many of those younger than you (maybe) and me (definitely). The more cut throat this place becomes, the more of these mini revolts happen.
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So that’d be it. I know I know, every coupla months, I change things up. I have historically stuck to things that are easier, and what I find easy changes. What I find challenging doesn’t though.
See ya for the July tape in a month or so.
…
Miks
APRIL+MAY MIX.
The following is a continuation of the piece written for the March Tape. You can read that here.
Later on that evening, I remember reading through that stream of texts you had sent me a week earlier, after you’d arrived back home from your parents. You would tell me everything you wanted, just like that.
‘I’m with you. Now and forever’ you’d typed. ‘But why the fuck are you not here with me now?’ As I stumbled back from the loo, I sat down to order another round. My hands grazed the top of my empty pint glass, as I took my phone back from Jed. As it went from his hands to mine, it lit up.
‘I needed to see you…’ you wrote.
Jed let go – ’She’s come back mate’.
I read through the earlier messages, the one’s Jed saw before I did. You’d arrived back unannounced.
’22 thanks’. I lifted my arse off the stool to reach for my wallet. As I look despondently at the bartender, handing him a twenty and a couple of gold coins, I muttered out the right side of my mouth ‘last round, yeah?’
Jed wrapped his big left arm around my back as I wriggled away.
‘Are you going to come back home?’
‘I neeeeeed you’
I turned back around to Jed to ask when he was flying back to Tassie. We spoke over that last round, mostly about him, my gigs, and the dinner and the fight he had the night before at his folks. We spoke about everything but you. Jed had hinted at moving the conversation that way, but each time he would, I’d quickly ask him why I had to witness that fight he had at his parents place. I would suggest that his brother was right and that his mum and dad should stop dropping everything for him, just so he can come back up to Melbourne every month.
I felt good. As if I was ready to take on any task thrown my way. We left The Bend out in to the cold of the July air. Fuck it was cold, we would laugh. I pulled my beanie out of my other back pocket and pulled it down over my ears. Jed hugged me, wrapping his massive frame around what felt like nothing. ‘Tomorrow night – one more beer before I head back’. I just walked, drained.
‘Have you left me?’
I turned around, Jed had left. As I looked up again from my phone, I was knocked – lightly hip-and-shouldered by an older woman running, scampering back towards the tram stop. I looked back down again.
‘Have you left me?’
I look up again as I hear an older man on the other side of the street yelling, just fucking yelling. I couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying, apart from being peppered with ‘fucking cunt’ and ‘you’ll pay’.
I went to walk back into the Bend, but as I walked in, I was hip-and-shouldered once more.
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Miks
MARCH ’16 MIX.
As we sit up after a moment of rare lost ecstasy, backs straight against the couch, we take notice of what is around us. The smells, the sounds, the weird itches on the outside of your right thigh that you only notice at times like this. You are conscious of your posture, I am too. We profess our hesitancies and proclaim our merit, our value. You make mention of how I’ve changed you. We explore where this is heading.
I admire your earnestness, your heart and everything inside seeping out your sleeve, out there for the world to see. You suggest that I could learn a thing or two from you. “I have” I replied.
With some quick fleeting resolve, I blurt out that “we need to look after each other. Better.” This was the exact thing you had yelled at me weeks earlier as you slammed the front door and left for your parents place. The very fact that I just parroted it back at you wasn’t lost on me.
Still on the couch, you pull your pants back up. I stand up to get my shirt that you threw all the way over to the other side of the room. You didn’t do anything in halves. I had always enjoyed that about you. Slowly buttoning my shirt back up, I meander back to the couch. I sit down and turn to you. You kiss me, the first in what was forever.
We both stand up, and slowly put the rest of our clothes back on in silence. We’ll speak, at various points through the rest of the day. We’ll speak about everything else, all the time waiting again for that moment of fleeting resolve.
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Miks
JANUARY+FEBRUARY ’16 MIX.
As I sit writing this post, I remind myself that this has been a long time coming.
As slight changes emerge within my day to day life both with this site, new silly ventures, and PhD and work life, I remind myself that all of this has been a long time coming. As I finish off with Hayden Calnin’s masterpiece of a track ‘Cut Love’, I steady myself. Feet firmly on the floor and the words flowing steadily from my hands, appearing on the screen in front of me.
All of this. Everything leading up to this very point in time.
As I sit with old favourites like Arthur Wimble, LANKS, and Ciggie Witch, I mark out my territory. And as I sit and be floored again by Marcus Whale, Luke Howard, and LUCIANBLOMKAMP, I wipe away those old tears. And then with those new infatuations – Alice Ivy, Isabel, and the almighty Dogood, I slowly fall back into a feeling of warmth and knowing and remind myself.
This has been a long time coming.
For some time now I’ve made it a habit to talk around the music. This was how you write. The story on Catalyst the other night about music being used to elicit memories for people living with dementia as they sit, still in those old people’s homes I became convinced that fuck it. What’s the point. If music can do that then it’s indescribable. You’re always going to do it a disservice.
But then I read those others who also do music writing. Those others who write about the music itself. None of it’s perfect, but that’s the fuckin’ beauty of it. This game is about getting close, slowly scraping away at the surface and finding some through line, no matter how long/short/narrow/wide and having that one person sit back and think, ‘fuck, that’s it. that’s what I hear.’
As I start afresh, I see that I’m here. This is where I was heading.
…
Miks
NOVEMBER+DECEMBER ’15 MIX.
Sometimes I don’t know what to write at all for these little things. They’re becoming rarer and rarer (it’s the (currently) bi-monthly australian music mixtape site!), and it’s becoming more and more difficult to consider how these tapes somehow relate to my own life in direct, although subtle ways.
For sure it does, what with myself compiling them. And they’re solid tapes too, so, for sure, that’s a nice little accolade for my own musical curating ways. But those direct tangible summaries of feelings and thoughts and states of being that these tapes have helped to provide is becoming less and less clear.
I’m pre-empting a feeling that will hit in a few weeks where after quite a bit of change, I’ll find myself something new.
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Best of the year tape will be up in the next couple of weeks too (although last time I promised something I missed it by a month). So yes. Stay tuned for that.
…
Miks
SEPTEMBER+OCTOBER ’15 MIX.
Sometimes you’ll tell the most unexpected people the most unexpected things.
…
I am the perennial slug. Slow off the mark. No protective shell. But resilient. Leaves a trail. I know my story and can trace those stories to where I’m at now.
I like to be all romantic and believe that this site acts as part of the mucusy trail. But hey, with my lack of discipline with this of late, it’s more like the occasional stop over for supplies. I use to romance the idea that music is my constant. It’s the thing that keeps me going, man. But nah, fuck it, it’s my pit stop. These tracks are my pit stop. A long pit stop full of three or four days worth of sifting through the shit oily crap to find that one (or in the case of this tape, 29), good fuckin’ chiko roll.
Expect another tape, the November one in a couple of weeks. This slug’s been going full hog the last couple of months. Going to stock up on those chiko rolls in a coupla weeks again.
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Miks
AUGUST ’15 MIX.
I find myself obsessed with this idea of rummaging just on the edge. So much of what we do is about doing what we did yesterday, and doing what we’ll probably do tomorrow. There’s a familiarity to repetition. Often it helps us stay sane.
And occasionally you’ll sit on the edge of that Comfort, tentatively dip your toe into those unknown waters and slowly remove some of those covers.
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As I embark on the next six months, I am trying to broaden out those boundaries. And with that, I hope that maamf will too broaden out. Next year though. Next year.
—
I find myself obsessed with priorities. It’s priorities that drive us (insane), keep us (from) going (mad).
DOWNLOAD (Right Click/Save As)
…
Miks
VIOLET.
“I want it to be a raw and possibly uncomfortable reminder of what we have put our Indigenous people through, and urge all Australian’s to respect and support the first Australians.”
Violet.
As those of you will know who read this old site a bit, I also spend my time doing a PhD. Or, I also spend ALL my time doing a PhD. My project is looking at young people and music-making and blah blah blah. It’s been awesome to see young people hone their own sound and make music that is meaningful for them. Violet, although not one of the young people participating in the research has kind of killed it when it comes to honing that sound and making music that is textured and provocative.
Violet, as a musician, wears it all there on her sleeve – her first single, ‘My Dress Hangs There‘ is an obvious ode to trip-hop inspired sadcore and Jackie Kennedy. It’s almost over the top but in the most subtle way – it’s that big waft of mellow melancholia without being smacked over the head with it. Second single ‘Lines of Loneliness‘ was similar in style – showcasing a strong affection for quality Hollywood women of old melded with a much heavier and muddier production aesthetic.
Her third single takes that slightly uncomfortable intrigue and amps it up. As with Violet’s approach to music-making, the use of sample’s help provide her tales with context. ‘Ivory’ uses them in incredibly powerful ways. The audio from ‘White Australia’ documentaries, the manipulation of traditional indigenous percussion and that gunshot, all provide you with context for Violet’s message.
This site veers to the side of being not overtly political, although you can of course argue that having a blog is in itself an inherently political practice – blogs allow us to exercise our political rights. Heck, maybe simply our use of the internet every day is a political act. Lessons in what politics is and isn’t though aside, Violet’s refrain ‘We shot them dead’ makes for uncomfortable listening. Because that is what happened, but still, in this country we operate on a white way is best way ideology. As an aside, it’s not about which is the fucking best way, it’s about taking responsibility, working with people instead of on them. We still as a country are forcing people out of their communities, which makes Violet’s track all the more important.
And if I can also put on my rapidly ageing hat on (fuck man i feel like i’m older than 30 but wotever m8), at 18, Violet is making a stand, and using creative expression as a way of reaching as many people as possible. Bloody young people aye – makes my work feel all the more worthwhile.
Look out for more stuff from Violet. Hopefully we’ll get an EP soon!
Miks.
LOVE MIGRATE.
Long term followers of this site will know that a couple of years ago I use to harbour a deep deep love for a band called Love Migrate. The band haven’t released anything since the Dissolved EP in late 2013, a release that felt a lot more assured and focussed than their debut album of 2012. That’s not to say that I didn’t love that debut though.
This new track ‘Pippa’s In The Highlands’ feels as though a band in its new form, harking back to its older sound. And the track is all the better for it. The sparseness is back, allowing the vulnerability in Eddie’s voice once again to shine through. And those builds are also there – that euphoria that sets in at a minute left makes it all worth the wait.
They’ve also retained that solid pop structure to their songs that seemed to develop on the Dissolved EP, all while keeping that classic Australian singer-songwriter vibe.
The track is taken off the bands new EP Shimmer Through The Night due out May 22. You can catch the band launch the EP at the Gasometer on May 28.
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Miks
HEDGE FUND.
Sometimes it doesn’t take much. The driving, aggressive, propulsion on offer in Hedge Fund‘s latest ‘Look Who’s Back’ gives everything in what feels like one sweet blow to the body.
The fact that length wise, this is within your usual pop song fair says something about what they pack in – I find myself always pressing play again straight after it’s finished.
If you’re around Sydney, you might have caught Hedge Fund play Rare Finds‘s new night over at the Sly Fox in Enmore. If you missed that one then make sure you check ’em out at Junkyard Fest on Saturday. Details here.
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Miks
[PREMIERE] LOSTKEYZ.
Lostkeyz is an 18 year old Sydney MC. On the back end of immersing myself in the work of Flip The Script, it’s real cool to see new young MC’s embrace that more lowkey 90s sounding vibe. Also like the Flip The Script dudes, Lostkeyz has a real natural sense of flow and tone – his voice itself is real direct and personal.
‘Lagging On’ is his latest, a short rumination on keeping a sense of self through change. The production mimics the title, with that drum groove just sitting as far back as possible.
Lostkeyz has the game to back this all up too coming off some top support slots for Daily Meds as well as a killer single ‘Do What You Love‘.
Keen to hear some more stuff from this guy.
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Miks
FEKI.
Ok fair cop – we’ve not been writing heaps.
At least for my part it’s NOT busyness, that old gen-y copout. I’m just hating all Aussie music. All of it. Loathing every single morsel of sound from this oversized island continent.
Well, maybe not EVERY morsel. Maybe there are are a FEW tracks queued up for a writeup. Maybe even a few more than a few. Alright, I can disclose that there are a lot. But stop harping on about the damn queue and besides, my busyness is foundational to my identity. You can handle it, you’re nothing if not resilient.
NOW MUSIC.
Circumnavigating completely around that queue metaphor is Feki with this ‘Remember‘.
Just because wow.
In truth I damn near posted his Paces Remix last week anyway – my point being it’s ALL strong.
The guy has got ears. Classy, heavy, feelsy ears.
Everything he touches carries a kind of classic freshness, now including this (previously manic) post.
In this critical time, with classic freshness more precious than ever, I for one am glad to have this chill brisvegnite churning it out by the truckload.
…
Adam
FEBRUARY ’15 MIX.
I’ve always been a fan of change. Small change though. None of this life changing stuff. Just small things in everyday life that might be slightly different, that doesn’t knock all sense of knowing out of you.
I’ve had a bit of change lately. It a change in between those two extremes. It’s uneasy . It feels distantly right, but large. Fucking large. Music listening, against this, feels soothing, comfortable, and at times nostalgic. This tape for example has a couple of acts that remind me of my teenage years. Kids At Midnight and their warm expansive pop is something that I usually glaze over – it was the kind of music that only ever made sense to me in my teens, but I find myself now, being drawn to it’s ability to draw me back. Same with Planète. Although obviously quite different in style, that minimal sound was something I was lost in in my early 20s. The constant monotony of that beat had back then stripped all the meaning out of the word monotony. It helped me search for something, in it’s ability to enter you and embody you, in it’s ability to propel you forward in an incredibly calm way. It was meditative. It is meditative.
In the January mixtape I wrote about the consumption of new music being the one consistent thing in a life that is anything but (PhD’s are great, but man do they fuck with you). Music has an incredible ability to both transport you back to a particular time or person, as well as allowing you to make sense of what is going on currently. As people we’re constantly seeking out meaning – meaning gives us a sense of self and a foundation. Music, in it’s sonicness gives us a chance to derive meaning and place sense in things that may concern, confuse or excite us. It seems like an old idea of music acting as a soundtrack, and in many ways it is. But that’s because what music does, and how we experience it has been consistent over the centuries.
As I write, and slowly become more confident that these little ‘reflections’ aren’t something I’m going to cringe at when I revisit them in 20 years time, I hope to be offering that insight into the importance of music in my life, especially new music. I mentioned the idea of writing around music when I reviewed the new Dick Diver record over on MISMATCH.TV. It’s the idea that music itself is so impossible to describe properly, that describing everything else to do with it actually gives you a far greater insight into how the music is experienced. Maureen O’Shaughnessy’s opening essay entitled ‘Drive’ which appears in Christian Ryan’s edited collection The Best Music Writing Under The Australian Sun also does this, documenting the intersection of the personal and the musical against the backdrop of a last minute trip to Bluesfest one year.
So this tape, as I started to get into earlier, is pretty fucking important. Hopefully, we all have tapes, or even just songs that do this. I try and ensure that most of the tapes I make for maamf not only are an attempt at objectively suggesting the ‘best’ new music of the month, but also provide some insight into how I experience the music in the hope that you might relate.
So, at the risk of drawing this out a little more, some more words on the inclusions for this month’s tape. Edward Francis threw me in all sorts of unexpected ways; Darts and The Living Eyes reminded me of just why I love short, fast raucous who-gives-a-fuck rock’n’roll; and Ella Thompson, Tam Vantage and Ainslie Wills together propelled the belief that Melbourne is perhaps home to the best songwriters in the country, if not the world.
And all the others are ace too.
DOWNLOAD (Right Click/Save As)
…
Miks
TEAMWORK.
Marc Deaz of Grandstands and Alex Moodie of KIRA have combined to form Teamwork.
They’ve played together before in a little band called Surfing in Hawaii, but this Teamwork tip follows a more ethereal dreamy electronica bent.
As the name would suggest, Teamwork is a project that provides the opportunity for Marc and Alex to work with a whole heap of different Melbourne based musicians. The first taste, ‘Dramatic Sea Cliffs’ features the vocal talents of Alex Servinis from Ern Malley and is an early indication as to what to expect from the duo’s first tape, due out March 23 on Whalesmouth. Limited run of 30 tho, so keep an eye out.
As we slowly edge our way into Autumn and then Winter, these warm hazy sounds feel all the better.
…
Miks
NATHAN ROCHE.
There’s something about Nathan Roche‘s slightly laconic vocal delivery that gives his work this effortless, relatable touch.
His final (Yep, mate, last one) album is due out anytime now. It’ll be called Cathedral Made Outta’ Green Cards. The first taste of it ‘Phantom Blues’ weirdly feels like it could go forever (probably perpetuated by the never ending refrain ‘these are the never ending phantom blues’ right at the end of the tune). It instead harks the ‘death’ of Roche, at least in the musical sense we currently know him. Although he’s not necessarily ‘ruling out the possibility of a string of “comeback albums” in his post-rehab mid-forties’ (direct quote from his presser – it’s really something special), wrap your ears around this one and the album when it hits the internet and the shelves of music selling stores.
Thanks for the good, nice, friendly and welcoming times Mr Roche. All the best in your new travels.
…
Miks
ESESE + HANCOQ.
New hip-hop vibes from Melbourne based collective ESESE.
The Eastern Seaboard Electric Sound Experience (fuckin’ rad name aye?) do them rap vibes, sing, make tracks and film. The first official release from ESESE as a collective comes courtesy of Hudson James Jr and features ace dude Hancoq on the vox. It’s called ‘AINTNO’.
As the local hip-hop game begins to ditch it’s aggressive in-your-face Australian vibe, it’s great to still see some of that bravado and forwardness but presented in a warmer sounding context. And sure, one day, that constant embracement of the jazzier 90s side of hip-hop will get old, but for now, when the production is this top-notch, it still represents something fresh in the Australian hip-hop game. Definitely keen to hear what more ESESE bring.
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Miks
TWERPS.
Let’s give it another shot
Let’s try it another way
Let’s put the puzzle
Back together, our way
Twerps – ‘I Don’t Mind’ (2015)
I’ve come to not know what to expect with Twerps. I thought I knew after their first full length. It was ethereal dreamy guitar based music with the rough edges, the scuffle still there. It sounded polished, but the ideas and the thoughts and process behind those ideas were still on show.
Then, after last year’s Underlay EP gave me the impression that they were going to embrace that more lo-fi aesthetic, they came back with ‘Back To You‘, a track that to my ears re-engaged with that dream like state their self-titled debut had put me in. The flute like synth line was Underlay-esque, but whilst new, still reminded me of some of the more upbeat cuts from the debut, just using different instrumentation. The second cut from the bands new album Range Anxiety (due out Jan 23) was ‘Shoulders’. Again, this one also managed to induce a dream-like state, whilst also putting forward something new in a focus on Julia’s vocals.
Now they’ve let ‘I Don’t Mind’ into the world. ‘I Don’t Mind’ is a track that feels as though it could close out the band’s debut album. It sprawls and is messy in parts, but still with that polish. Dare I say it’s anthemic, especially in that big all engrossing chorus that hits. It feels the most familiar of the three tracks, all of which will appear on the bands second full length Range Anxiety due out on Jan 23. I’ve heard this Twerps before. This is the Twerps I fell in love with.
I think what I’ve realised is that the idea of ‘progression’ in music implies something very particular. It is something that suggests growth and this almost romantic notion of an evolution in sound. It implies leaving behind the old and constantly seeking out the new.
I think with this release though I’m beginning to question just how relevant a term like ‘progression’ is when talking about music output. As music writers we want to be able to tell a story I guess, and the notion of progression lends itself to that old writing trope of the traditional story-arc where it’s all about triumph over adversity and reaching a better place. In having this as the go-to though, the stories we can tell about the musicians we love are pretty lopsided, and dare I say in many cases, not all that honest.
What about those artists that don’t leave their older influences at the door after album one and evolve in that traditional sense? What about those artists that don’t embrace a more electronic side in their latter albums? What about a band like Twerps who instead of moving on from their earlier work, are open to working with the same sorts of ideas, sounds and influences?
The story of Twerps isn’t one simply about re-visiting and re-engaging with the old ideas. It’s about doing different things with similar ideas. It’s not about going back, in the same way as it’s not about going forward. Instead it’s about the now, and the real and direct experiences gained in the present moment.
—
If you’re lucky enough to check out Twerps as they support Belle and Sebastian around the country, or if you’re checking them out at Sugar Mountain or Golden Plains, then have a bloody blast. And if you didn’t realise they were playing these shows and are thinking of trying to head along, then details can be found here.
For those not lucky enough to check ’em out live, then make sure you grab a copy of Range Anxiety when it’s out – you can pre-order on iTunes now or over on the Chapter records store. ‘I Don’t Mind’ got best new music on some big site called ForkPitch or something like that too. Can’t blame ’em – it is a seriously wonderful jam.
…
Miks
MONTGOMERY + JAPANESE WALLPAPER.
Sometimes it all just hits you – everything feels as though it’s sitting in the right place. Things are moving at a pace familiar, but yet you’re still excited to see where it all goes. It reaches the points you know will bring you that extra buzz, that subtle push to the wry smile already forming. It gives you that warm and fuzzy, but it also gives you something else, something a lot bigger than that feeling you get. It feels as though it is actively accompanying something, maybe a memory, or maybe just this current moment, as you sit at your kitchen table after devouring your tuna salad sandwich.
It seems everything Gab Strum/Japanese Wallpaper touches immediately has this pureness and honesty. His latest, a remix of Montgomery‘s ‘Pinata’ took me everywhere that opening paragraph went. No doubt, as it accompanies the mad scurry that is the end of the year, it’ll add a calmness and a stillness – something I’m sure we could all do with.
The track is available as a free download until Boxing Day, so if you need something to play on repeat on Christmas morning as you jump on that plane back to the city you grew up, then this is your chance.
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Miks
SLUMBERJACK.
Last time I posted Slumberjack I used so many mixed metaphors you may have been too tired and confused to even play the track. For a little balance I’ll shoot TOTALLY STRAIGHT this time.
These guys will surely be a very big deal very soon. I’d say as big as they want.
I will be glad about this, will attend their shows, will enjoy their shows.
I don’t know any facts you don’t, but their sound is bedding in and it’s pretty wild. Case in point, this ‘Horus‘ thingo.
The end.
…
Adam
NAKAGIN.
Short version:
December antidote.
Long version:
I hadn’t heard Nakagin before, but when I heard his new Dwell EP I dropped all other “urgent” stuff and wrote this immediately. It’s a real salve to the mind in December chaos.
His is the kind of sound that would be right at home in the Ghostly stable – a kind of rainy day pulse that turns introspective and otherworldy when you press into it. It’s a delicate area to work in – keeping a sublime flow but also embedding enough character and identity to avoid a life as (admittedly well-curated) elevator music.
The reason I think he succeeds so well is a kind of emotive frankness. Like “here’s a feeling that happened, and I caught it with synths. Feel it, or don’t.” It’s not hyped or amplified or demanding – just kind of….pure.
The single from this Dwell EP is ‘Pines‘ and it’s lovely, but my personal fav is the simplest moment: ‘Cave‘. I think it’s the sound equivalent of a hug with a loved one when both of your minds are actually elsewhere. A kind of semi-faded sanctuary.
Clearly that’s an odd feeling to try and describe – but, lucky for you and me, there’s no real need. You have personal access to the actual song. In fact, I’ll just…
*trails off, backs away, puts earbuds back in, leaves with wistful gaze*
…
Adam
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