It might have arrived a few years late but this is a sound worth
waiting for. Melbourne musician Whitley (a.k.a. music project of Lawrence
Greenwood) is about to release his first round of new tunes since 2010. A
few years ago he was named one of Rolling
Stone’s top 10 artists to watch but since then has contemplated retiring
and flown under the radar.
In the ultimate expedition (by far more productive than your average
gap year) the singer-songwriter travelled through Mexico, Cuba, England, The
Netherlands, Peru and Italy among other places before arriving in the Amazon
Rainforest to shoot his latest music video for ‘My Heart Is Not A Machine’.
The crisp, creative footage (directed by young Melbourne filmmaker
Johann Rashid) supports his unique sound. Cats, parrots and funky Aztec
patterns make for a video true yet imaginary, where Into the Wild meets the Lost Boys of Peter Pan.
On that path, when Greenwood is donned in khaki, smoking forlornly in a hammock, it’s not too far from a scene out of The Motorcycle Diaries.
‘My Heart is not a Machine’ is romantic yet understated, with delicate
harmonies oozing through the melancholy music. Indie darling Esther Holt
provides the guest vocals among others on the album Even the Stars Are A Mess.
Whitley will be
performing at the upcoming Splendour in
the Grass festival.
Before then, you can catch him on his national tour.
Also, if you’re into shamans, new instruments, baby monkeys and dinner
parties (who isn’t?) check out instagram @lawrencegreenwood.
Among the frantic hype surrounding
the leak of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories a lesser-hyped album
slipped by the social media front. The National are back with their sixth album Trouble Will Find Me. With a no-fuss attitude, we can only lay back
and bask in the impressive production and emotive vocals.
This is an album of well-recorded material ranging from
deliberative guitar riffs to deep, husky vocals from Matt Berninger. The National are known for their dark
tone but the album is by no means mellow. They seem to be moving away from
their alternative sound and reaching a more classic rock aesthetic.
It kicks off with subdued acoustics before expanding into
steady percussion and a sweeping chorus demanding attention in ‘I Should Live
In Salt’. With an understated
throw to Dylan-esque spoken poetry, The National recreate their world of
pain and anxiety but with a certain strength that supports the broad dynamics.
‘Demons’ and ‘Don’t Swallow the Cap’ follow with a more
driven, upbeat atmosphere. Rolling Stone related
it to Springsteen-style energy and
although there is a retro feel to this release, the marriage between restless
lyrics and rhythmic music sounds progressive. It is an album for the music
lovers, with a sneaky reference in ‘Cap’: “If you want to see my cry, play Let It Be or Nevermind.”
‘Fireproof’ breaks
the full sound of the album with a delicate ballad and sore despair conjuring heartbreak
tunes from Elliot Smith (“You’re the
needle in the hay”). It feels like there is something simmering under the
surface. It harks back to the common characters of National albums who are dejected and cynical.
And then the sound changes with ‘Sea of Love’ – I can only expect
will be one of their favourites on the live circuit. Strong bass and melody
line underlies whining electric guitar and sing-a-long lyrics: “Hey I’m sorry I
hurt you/ but they say love is a virtue.”
‘This Is the Last Time’ has the spiteful address to
heartbreak reminiscent of Joy Division
or The Cure: “Jenny I am in
trouble/can’t get these thoughts in trouble”. Whereas “Graceless” is musically
expressive with an open sound - pounding drums, hesitant harmonies and distorted
guitars.
It always seems to be musicians from Brooklyn who are
burdened with swirling anxieties. “I’m in the crush and I hate it/my eyes are
falling,” he mumbles about the trouble of facing a failed love in ‘Slipped’.
For the soppy romantics out there, ‘I need my girl’ is the
heartbreak anthem. It reaches that bittersweet reflection, signature of Leonard Cohen, with an acoustic
minimalism and sweeping synth giving voice to the floating lyrics: “I need my
girl/I’m under the gun again.”
The final three tracks are looser in structure, with a freer
aesthetic. After an emotional crescendo, it is satisfying to reach the sweeter
end.
Often when a band reaches album number six, it can become a
critical flop (One Hot Minute- RHCP?). However, Trouble Will Find Me has a simpler, more accessible construction than
earlier work from The National which
will make for a more accessible release. They are storytellers at heart and
their latest release only unveils a sense of wisdom given years of experience.
Listen if you like: Interpol,
Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, The Antlers, The National (duh)
Top tracks: Sea
of Love, This is the last time, I need my girl
The debut album from English indie folk group Daughter is
cashing up on the winter sorrow, envisaging a wretched world akin to the
heartbreak town of Adele. Sharing the production work of ‘xx’ (Rodaih
McDonald), If You Leave is a moody,
atmospheric exploration of all the anxieties, setbacks, regrets and (I hate to
say it) adolescent angst of the modern youth. The production is tight and
guitar work intricate but if it weren’t for the temperate outbursts at the
chorus, it would make for a very depressing listen.
Daughter have a very clear aesthetic – at the root are folk arrangements
with broad reverb, haunting melodies and vocals from Elena Tonra fragile and
whispering. It is a very personal approach to music and openly expressive. Far
from optimistic – If You Leave is one
to either listen attentively to poetic lyrics or enjoy the soundscape from
afar.
The album begins with enveloping, ethereal sounds in
“Winter” reminiscent of Cocteau twins. It is melancholy from the start:
“Drifting apart like two sheets of ice, my love,/frozen hearts growing colder
with time.” Following on, “Smother” is less spacey, riding a deeper groove and
feature Florence-style cascading back vocals. You’ve got to wonder what England
does to people’s state of mind with the group churning out lyrics like: “I
sometimes wished I stayed inside my mother/never to come out”
A standout single is “Youth” – it is fast-moving and dynamic,
breaking into heavy percussion and deep piano chords that make for an addictive
listen. It has a textured layering which belongs more to an indie rock/dream
pop release (I feel Beach House here especially with those shimmering cymbals).
Tonra’s voice has been criticised for being too weak and hushed
but there is an integrity which saves the music - and thanks to the English for proper annunciation, she
doesn’t completely obscure the lyrics.
“Lifeforms” and “Tomorrow” are two of the darkest tunes, spilling
forth stories of lost children and deserted lovers. “Still” has a great groove
in the chorus and epic electric guitar in between verses and “Human” has a go
at answering all of life’s critical questions: “My mind’s lost in bleak
visions/trying to escape but keep thinking.”
After a while the haunting melancholy tone becomes numb and
the navel-gazing weary, save the flashes of fury in chorus outbreaks. It is at
once bittersweet and subdued, delicate and articulate while heavily soaked in
angst and existential crises.
If You Leave is an
intimate listen – not yet at the point of weaving characters into folk such as
classics Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Tonra’s voice is so romantic it almost
verges into the Twilight-zone (don’t
go/I need you/I’m dying without you). Nevertheless, there is some beautiful
music in there and it will be atmospheric in the crisp, wintery parklands of
Byron Bay come Splendour in the Grass this July.
The past two years for Buchanan have been intense; "The highs were high, and the lows were shitty" according to Josh Simons, leader of the band but now that a debut album has emerged from the process, mastered at the all-famous Abbey Road Studios, the group is only looking forward to an even more prolific future.
Another round of hard work begins with
the group kicking off rehearsals for a string of live shows to come later in
the year. The show is centred on the fresh new tunes off their
creation Human Spring. In a world of mp3 streams (Human Spring here)
and leaked singles, Simons has just one request to his listeners.
"I’ve been telling people to please
listen to it from start to finish – don’t skip a track. I don’t really care
whether they’re listening to it while they’re having sex or while they’re
eating Maccas as long as they give it a chance. I think the only way people are
going to get it is if they do it that way.”
Buchanan has, up to now, been often
categorised as a 'Melbourne' band but Simons wants to see this label evolve,
especially considering their history of national touring.
"I hope that we get past that
description because I think we’ve certainly played the country several times
now. I understand why we got that – we hadn’t put out an album, we’d been
working really hard but we hadn’t particularly done anything yet."
It was only when exposure to
international managers led the group to realise that the fans wanted something
tangible.
"They’d say 'there’s nowhere for
them to discover it'. You know what’s going on because you live and
breathe it but how the hell is anyone else? It’s reality checks like that make
you go - 'oh shit, we actually do need to actually do the work before we can
expect the results'."
But as far as expectations go for this
album, Simons admits that everyone in the group is getting nervous. After more
than 18 months of work, it’s a question of how the public is going to receive
the music. Positive feedback already reigns on triple j unearthed.
Luckily, Buchanan have had a taste of the audience vibes when they
performed a selection of new songs during their last national tour late 2012.
"When we did those gigs that was
really interesting for the band because we actually got a chance to go back and
work on things that we thought would translate live, but ultimately
didn’t."
"I’d say definitely based on that
experience we’d definitely do it again,because you actually got to see when
people went back to the bar and bought a beer and those moments when people
started to dance. It was fairly consistent across the shows and the states as
well, so it became really obvious what the strengths and the weakness of the
album were."
"Certainly, when we’re in sync, the
audience comes along as well. You feed off the audience and they feed off you.
You’re either having an on night or an off night. I think it takes a while as a
group to get to that point. It’s kind of liberating but it’s also scary."
Human Spring shares producer work
with Foals and Interpol. as well as mixing from Andy Baldwin(Midnight
Juggernauts, Bjork) and Abbey Road’s Geoff Pesche
"I think there’s something really
nice about actually making sure whatever you wanted to do is on the finished
product. If you give it to a producer to finish off, it’s not going to reflect
the kind of album that you want, that you thought you were making. I’m sure
there are some artists that are absolutely fine with that but that’s just not
how we work."
Simons owns his own record
label Raw Imagination People Expect (RIPE). It is partnered with another label, Gigantically
Small, and provides the band with the freedom to control their own funding
("I have the responsibility of spending the money") while receiving
support from the bigger fish. "It’s kind of like the
states and Commonwealth situation." Simons laughs. Noting the conflict-ridden
album cover and name evocative of Arab uprisings - Simons says that he took a
backwards approach to songwriting on this album, although that wasn’t his plan
at the start. "None of us are super
political. I think watching all that stuff is exciting and it conjures up
emotions. I think that’s what we found inspiring as well, feeling something –
living in the 21st century nothing makes you feel anything any more. So we
thought let’s actually look at the things behind that, why they resonated and
then how can we write songs from those things. Even though it was spread out
over years of recording sessions. Being able to come back to the same story
really helped.” Although most of the
songwriting is attributed to Simons himself, former band members also
contributed to the album and so it is marketed as “Josh & Friends”. “This album was great –we
really had a lot of collaborators, which is awesome so in the finished product
there are a lot of difference colours there but I think for the next album the
plan is just to work out the strengths of the four of us.” In the upcoming
months, Buchanan will set off on a national tour ('probably
September' according to Simons) with a launch party in Melbourne on June 6.
Plans are also in the works to announce an accompanying Sydney show. Until then, Simons will be in
rehearsals, continuing the album promo (“I’d like to think that if you’re a fan
of Buchanan there’s an experience you can follow”) and heading to England to
continue writing. "I think it’s a good thing
we haven’t blown up yet because when we do blow up, we’ll be ready." Human Spring is out May 10.
Buchanan will be launching the album at the John Curtin Bandroom, Thursday June
6, with support acts Harts and Clubfeet DJs. Published
onthe
AU review.
They don’t joke around – their music doesn’t aim to entice,
tease or deliberate but get right into the strength of the song. The debut
album from MS MR indulges in deep,
heavy melodies with striking dynamics. It is a pleasant surprise to hear such
soul from an electro pop release – mostly thanks to the husky, youthful voice
of Lizzy Plapinger. The other half of the Brooklyn duo, producer Max Hershenow,
has put on a splendid production brimming with glamour of pop but also with a
tinge of grunginess.
Secondhand Rapture starts
with the successful single “Hurricane” off the Candy Bar Creep Show EP. Dark yet alluring, Plapinger’s vocals are
intertwined into wielding strings, deep bass and jangling percussion. There is
a mystical quality, haunting yet strangely cosy, MS MR dig up a world of anxieties yet create a sound completely blissful.
‘Bones’ follows –having had a token appearance on the
ever-dramatic Game of Thrones, there
is a sense of the fight but glittering electronics cut through the eerie
background to deep piano chords and tricky lyrics. “Dark twisted fantasy,
losing reality/ kissing death and losing my breath.” At times, it can feel that
the layering steals away value from the lyrics but it’s just as pleasant to
bask in the flowing textures.
In a nod to a primary influence of theirs, Florence + The Machine, the album
sports dashes of emotions in chorus outbursts. Thankfully, it never gets too
angsty or blubbering. It’s as if
the spirit of the album has been knocked back into a bittersweet reality – she
is deep, sophisticated and no longer naïve.
Standout tracks for me are ‘Head is not my Home’, with
eccentric arrangements and a grittiness fairly likeable and ‘Think of You’
which I feel will be a family favourite.
From the upbeat and playful ‘Salty Sweet’ to more sombre
‘Fantasy’ and “Btsk”, Seconhand Rapture fans
into a few different personality. However, there is a similar aesthetic
throughout – so I guess you’re either going to be a fan or not.
The great thing about MS
MR is that their music is quite accessible for the fact that there is
nothing too obscure to turn off listeners. What began as an act of anonymity –
where the two chose to veil their identities – is now a highly personable creation.
Massive changes since the EP? Yes and no. Worth the listen?
For sure.
