FLIP THE SCRIPT.
Yeah mate, seems everyone and their dog are doing the nu-hiphop vibe lately. With big wigs like Remy doing solid things and Milwaukee Banks and Baro perhaps being at the top of it, it’s the thing to do. And just like the ‘Australian sound’ EDM thing that happened a while ago, it’s becoming harder for the top kids to raise their heads up above the rest.
Flip The Script feel as though they’re doing things a bit differently. Young dudes, both sing and rap. Both have a pretty cool unique tone in their voice and their flow is undeniable. And to top it off, production is all 90s jazzy vibe. And it kills.
Latest single ‘Acting Profound’ below, and if you dig, download their tape crewsin’ over here.
Sick clip too!
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Miks
[PREMIERE] YOUNG HYSTERIA.
Melbourne people may well have heard the name Jimmy Hawk before – he’s done a fair bit of solo work around town and had a band called The Endless Sea for a bit too. Jimmy’s latest project is Young Hysteria and is a collab with his mate Thomas Van Der Vliet. The guys have been kicking around for nearly two years now, and you may well recognise their single of last year ‘One Young Lover’. It was a pulsing r’n’b infused jam that was as equally dreamy as it was intricate and introspective.
Well, we’re lucky enough to be premiering the clip for that track this morning on this here site. It’s a kaleidoscopic night-time journey for the two fellas, complete with booze and babes and all those blurs and colours you end up seeing towards the end of the night. Sounds like my night last night/allmynights ohgosh 
Rad clip tho!
Keep an eye out for these guys around town this year.
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Miks
SAN MEI.
San Mei has been a bit of a repeat offender over here on maamf. We wrote about ‘Wars’, her second single a little while ago, but now we got the clip. Granted, this has already been kicking around a coupla weeks and I been a bit late with it all, but when you get a young artist doing great things that are slightly off-kilter and forward thinking, you always gotta post it.
San Mei‘s work has always harnessed this idea of vulnerability coupled with a real strong sense of control and forward motion and this clip nails that.
YES!
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Miks.
[PREMIERE] COOL SOUNDS.
We’re lucky enough to premiere this new clip from those rad Melbourne guys Cool Sounds.
As a track, ‘Safe Flight’ is sort of a no-holds-bar approach to songwriting. There doesn’t feel like there’s any filler in here – everything, even the strumming patterns, the sax lines (provided by Mr Snowy Nasdaq), and those little synths at the end (provided by our mate Zac Denton of Ciggie Witch) feels done on purpose, and not just because that’s what happened when they jammed on a riff and thought it sounded good.
Similarly, the clip also takes that step above. We’ve seen clips like this before – that old VHS footage thing has been done forever, but there’s something about the way it’s all interspersed, and layered, and everything else. And although it most likely wasn’t done on purpose, the approach mimics the layers going on in the track itself rather nicely.
The track was mixed by Sam Wilkinson from Sydney guys Day Ravies and it comes from the bands new tape Melbourne Fashion due out next month on new label Whalesmouth which is run by JJ from the rad Bandcamp Hunter.
Really keen to hear more from these guys!
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Miks
TWIN BEASTS.
Very often you’ll find an obvious fine line between totally self-aware and owning, and, well, plain cringeworthy. I think the sheer amount of effort put into this new clip from Melbourne’s Twin Beasts puts it into the former camp. Just. It’s perhaps everything you need in a clip – part gaming, part awkward dancing, part fantastic green screen action.
‘Wasting Time’ is taken from the band’s latest full length, Badlove. It’s a great little track that sort of capitalises on that post-punk vocal chucked up against this sort of 60’s inspired instrumentation. On paper it looks weird, but when you hear it, you’ll get it.
You may have caught the band on a couple of dates as they head around the country launching the new album. Sadly, lagely due to my horrible management of the maamf inbox, I missed the show up here in Sydney…but if you’re in Queensland, then the lads are playing three shows up there next weekend. Full details here.
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Miks.
SONS ET AL.
So this vid has been kicking around for a few weeks, but my gosh, every time i watch it, it manages to be mesmerising. It’s that slo-mo cut with the quick edits that make it, and mate, that songs a bit of alright too!
‘Day By Day’ is taken off Sons et al‘s new EP, Godspeed coming out in a week (pre-order here). Also, if you super keen, make sure you check ’em out on a brief run of dates starting tonight in Canberra. Check out their facebook for more details on those.
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Miks
TEETH & TONGUE.
New clip from Teeth & Tongue is a little nuts. Creepy, and nuts. Although, if you’re into workouts, then it’s probably your thing.
And I love work outs. And I also love the reference point Groove Armada. And I actually do really like this clip. If you can get past the nakedness and flexing of the two fellas in the background, then it’s great in that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. And that track, it’s bloody stellar. Featuring the additional vocal stylings of Laura Jean, ‘Newborn’ showcases exactly what Jess Cornelius is capable of. And if the already building hype surrounding her second album Tambourine is anything to go by, then she’s capable of a hell of a lot.
Tambourine comes out on March 21st through Dot Dash/Remote Control.
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Miks
SAN MEI.
I spoke about the introverted coolness of San Mei‘s ‘Brighter’ back in September. It was a track that took me a little by surprise, especially during the great female-fronted-indietronica-surge-where-most-of-it-wasn’t-very-good that seemed to be the second half of 2013.
The difference with San‘s work is that it is good. There’s a real sense of innocence and freedom to it all that nails, especially when so much of that ‘whimsical’ stuff has failed in the past.
The clip for ‘Brighter’ is exactly what the song needs. And although I’m not entirely sure of the significance of the burning drum, socks, jackets and jumpers apart from the references to ‘setting fire’ in the lyrics, it does have San singing in the back of a car/boat across some pretty fucking lovely backdrops. The clip feels incredibly intimate even though we’re out in the open – there’s something about us as the audience watching San Mei watch the world as she sings a song about love.
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Miks
MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS.
You like cats? I actually like dogs. But, yahno, cats are ok. Midnight Juggernauts also like cats. They like crazy cats.
Their clip for ‘Systematic’ from their album Uncanny Valley of this year features a lot of cats.
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Miks
YEO.
Woah. So it seems as though the world wide web has been going bananas for the new vid and track from Melbourne’s Yeo. This guy is a bit of a music making machine, dabbling his hand in quite a few different styles. And, he actually kinda nails every one.
This new jam ‘Girl’ is in that soulful electronic vibe, and yeah, that style has definitely been done to death, especially in Australia. But when you can rock such a smooth, laid back, sleazy-but-also-really-sophisticated vibe, then it doesn’t matter what fucking style it is.
This is an incredible track. Actually, really really incredible.
And that car trip hair in the breeze film clip – one of the best I’ve seen in a darn long time.
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Miks
KIRIN J CALLINAN.
This clip has been floating around the last couple of days, but I only just got round to checking it out.
Kirin J Callinan is known to provoke, from his ‘performance’ at Sugar Mountain at the beginning of the year to his rather divisive album, this is a guy who makes teetering on the edge of art an art form. Sometimes he goes over the line, and sometimes he comes across as incredibly arresting and strangely confronting. That’s what he’s done with his new clip for ‘Landslide’, the latest track taken from his album of this year Embracism.
It took me a little bit to work out how they’ve done this clip…but when it clicks, it just draws you in even more.
This is pretty wonderful.
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Miks
JAE LAFFER.
None of what I do is objective and this blog is definitely not meant to be some expert taste of what’s the best in Australian music. Instead, it’s just a taste of what I’m digging. And there’s definitely some stuff I may have written about last year that I now would not consider writing about. That’s what taste is though – it changes as you change.
So, with all that in mind, I was never really a fan of The Panics. The thing that I think put me off the most was lead singer Jae Laffer‘s voice. But as Jae’s music changes, and as I change, I’ve grown an appreciation for his music, and his voice.
The lead single from Jae’s foray into solo life is ‘Leave A Light On’. The clip features some grainy, layered footage of Jae doing his thing. The song though, features so many little intricacies, so many little hooks that pull you right in. And Jae’s voice has this tone, this level of earthyness to it that many people have, but very few pull off.
Jae’s debut full length When The Iron Glows Red came out a couple of weeks ago. I definitely reccomend giving it a listen.
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Miks
SEEKAE.
Well fuck me. This is morbid.
New clip from Sydneysiders Seekae depicts the burial of some drunk dude at a building site in order to bring the builders good fortune. What results is essentially a gravesite housing this dead man, but with people living in the structure built on top of it.
It is an excellent clip though nonetheless.
I’m still deciding whether I’m loving Seekae‘s change in direction. Their old stuff was just so beautiful, and whilst I thinkAlex Cameron has got a fair set of pipes on him, I’m just a little unsure as to whether as a result of adding vocals, their music loses that warmth and character that their earlier stuff had.
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Miks
BITCH PREFECT.
New jam from Bitch Prefect makes me feel all melancholy and stuff. With a clip that really suits the style of the song, it just kills me. ‘Better Next Time’ is the b-side to the dude’s new 7″ for their ace track ‘Adelaide’. Both tracks are taken off the bands new album Bird Nerds, although apparently that won’t be out for quite some time yet.
Anyway, enjoy the clip. It features the beautiful Footscray (near where I grew up!).
Also got a stream of the a-side ‘Adelaide’.
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Miks
SHINING BIRD.
I was lucky enough to catch the latter part of Shining Bird‘s set at At First Sight fest last weekend. I’d been pretty impressed with the few tracks I’ve heard via the blogosphere as well as via FBi. But mate, seeing them live was pretty excellent.
They have a big big sound. And I know a heap of people have been talking about how ‘Australian’ they sound, but they kinda do. And not in a Boomgates, Dick Diver kinda way. Moreso a mix between Twerps and say, Australian Crawl or even parts of INXS.
The guys have recently released a clip for their big single ‘Distant Dreaming’. And yeah, they don’t let that ‘Australian’ tag let go with the clip. Pretty great though with the backdrop. Reminds me of the Yothu Yindi clip you could make by yourself at ScienceWorks in the early 90s.
The guys have also announced that their debut album is in the works and is in fact due pretty soon (September 6th). It’s gonna be called Leisure Coast and will be released through Spunk.
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Miks
LUCIANBLOMKAMP.
So this track has been doing the rounds for a while, and after a quick lookback through the maamf archives, I realised I haven’t actually written about it here. You can however check out a small review I did on mismatch.tv.
LUCIANBLOMKAMP has just released the video for the track ‘You & Me’ which features Rosebud Leach. The track has an uneasyness to it, a gentle agression that persists. And the clip captures this really bloody well.
You can check the clip as well as a stream/free download of the track below.
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Miks
SARAH BLASKO.
So, it seems to be a bit of a thing to not like Sarah Blasko. And I was definitely one of those people. And whilst some of her stuff I find quite bland, this song ‘All Of Me’ taken from her album of last year I Awake is pretty special. Ms Blasko has also just released a clip for the song, easily one of the most intriguing and dare I say affective clips I think I’ve seen this year. It is being billed as slightly NSFW, but, you can maybe get away with it.
If you dig, then make sure you check her out on a massive regional tour. More details here.
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Miks
PRIVATE LIFE.
This is such a good clip for such a great song. The track itself featured in the April mixtape.
Melbourne duo Private Life have gone and joined the sex industry, albeit rather cryptically (“I wanna eject my rocket fuel in your spaceport baby“) and also only for the 4 minutes and 7 seconds that the clip lasts, from what we’ve been told…
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Miks
TAME IMPALA
Brand new vid for Tame Impala‘s excellent ‘Mind Mischief’. Sexy cosmic love!
The animation makes this clip – really pretty expressive, and spot on in terms of furthering the story. ACE!
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Miks
HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY.
The new single from Hungry Kids of Hungary, ‘Twin Cities’ flew under the radar a bit for me. It was probably the mid December release date. But man, glad I’ve finally wrapped my ears around it.
I think the clip’s staggered and choppy editing of the pretty mundane daily actions suit the track to a t. The clip doubled with the really quite restrained and controlled brooding epicness of the track nails it.
The bands second album, You’re A Shadow is out on Feb 22 through Stop Start/EMI. You can pre-order it on iTunes here.
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Miks
FOOD COURT.
Food Court are outta Glebe in Sydney and doing some really really great 60s style garage, complete with harmonies. They’ve just released a clip for their track, ‘Not Enough’. Heaps fun clip full of 3 quarters of the band chucking food around, eating decent sized breakfasts and burgers, and lead singer Cristian Campano constantly missing out.
The band have recorded their debut EP due out in April. It was recorded down here in Melbourne with Mark Doman from garage punk legends Ross De Cheyne Hurricanes and mastered by Mikey Young from Eddy Current.
You can check out the clip below and make sure you download the track from their bandcamp.
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Miks
HERMITUDE.
Absolutely killer clip for Hermitude‘s track ‘The Villian’. Taken off their amazing album of this year Hyperparadise. Some crazy thief&security style dance moves!
The dudes are doing a mini run of dates Jan/Feb of next year too. Make sure you check ’em out. Details here.
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Miks
COURTNEY BARNETT.
As a track, this has been kicking around for a little while. And, so has the clip for that matter. But you know what? Better late than never I reckon.
Great clip that suits a really great track. If some widescreen suburban push bike gangs are your thing, then Courtney Barnett‘s History Eraser is probably gonna be your kind of thing.
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Miks
PVT.
PVT are one of those incredible bands that do some of the most innovative, interesting, and thoughtful music out there. The guys are set to release their fourth album Homosapien early next year. The first single from it, ‘Nightfall’ was released a few weeks ago…but just yesterday the clip surfaced.
Directed by Jennifer Juniper Stratford, it’s a pretty freakin colourful, wonky VHS tinged clip. Really pretty darn cool.
You can also get a free download of ‘Nightfall’ below too.
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Miks
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