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Showing posts from December 13, 2015

Saturday And: Slow Culture - Shields

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Slow Culture - Hoax. Background promo - Slow Culture is the musical child of four guys who spent their adolescence saturated in music. The culmination of various lineups and bands dating back to 2009, their music holds within it the personality of four people who've effectively grown up together. It started (as all promising bands do), when Jack, Ben and Lee decided to form a band even though two didn't play an instrument. Ignoring this basic requirement, the three carried on. With Payton joining later, opting for bass synth, the groups sound was cemented, developed from a wide variety of influences.  The product of various lineups dating back to 2009, Slow Culture could be described as the meeting place of psychedelic and alternative rock. Their debut single, “Hoax”, alternates between quiet withdrawn verses and raucous choruses, layered with psychedelic sounds reminiscent of early Pink Floyd. Recorded at Free Energy studios in Camperdown and produced by the legendary Phil

Friday Pairing: Anna Rose - Powerkompany

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Anna Rose - Start A War. Background promo - At first glance, one wouldn’t guess that Anna Rose, the adorably petite blonde with the sugary name, is a fearless, unabashed, mind-blowingly talented Rock and Roll powerhouse.  But, Rose, in fact, is walking, singing proof that big things most definitely come in small packages.   It’s no wonder that Pancakes and Whiskey declares her a “complete badass.” Anna Rose is gearing up for the release of her new EP, Strays In The Cut, a collection of six mesmerizing tracks that find the singer/songwriter pushing her musical boundaries. “I am very much an album artist and a storyteller, so the idea of scaling it all back to the size of an EP was a challenge in itself. It forced me to look at the songs in a different way, the production, everything. These six songs needed to tell the whole story. The limitations I placed on the length made the process so much more imaginative in every other aspect.” shares Rose. Strays in the Cut is the much-ant

Thursday Two: Three Tree Town - Ghost Wave

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Three Tree Town - Two Birds. Background Promo - The pleasantly contrasting vocals and war-drum beats of Three Tree Town’s latest track “Two Birds” marks the beginning of the bands delve into their new sound. After several successful festival sets and over ten years playing together, the band now takes their countryside popularity and head for bigger lights.  In an unprecedented alliance with renowned musician and studio owner Beau McKee (Closure In Moscow) the band have managed to capture their alt/folk roots and combine them with new percussion grooves to form an en/rely alternate sound. “We never tire of this track” says one of two lead singers Dylan Berends. “And now with the alternate arrangement, this apple landed nowhere near the tree it fell from!”  With a “pull and go” style guitar technique, mix of female and male vocals and bouncing drum rhythms, “Two Birds” is an upward journey, speeding towards eternity, gaining momentum with each bar. The raspy vocals Dylan Berends

Tuesday Two: Flightress - Doprah

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Flightress - The Room. Background - “The Room” is the latest offering from Perth acoustic duo Flightress, and explores the idea of homelessness, and one version of how it could feel to be put in that place personally. Songwriter Minky G says, “I wasn’t trying to make a political statement on being a refugee or losing your home, this is just how it feels to me when something that you thought was solid and immovable is taken from you, and you have to rely on other people to get you out of that place. But sometimes, that’s when you find the best parts of others, because it’s so much easier for them to walk away, and sometimes they don’t”. Recorded by the sea at Driftwood Studios in Trigg, WA, and produced by the talented Rene de Vries, “The Room” takes on a uniquely Australian sound, with the duo including sounds from the garden outside the studio (check out the magpies at the end of the track!) They also enlisted a cello player, who rocked up with a 19th century instrument to inclu

Two For Monday: Living Hour - Chrystyna Marie

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Living Hour - Seagull. Background - Living Hour began in the basements of South Winnipeg, writing dreamy love songs inspired by the cinematic sky of their hometown. Blending bright shimmering guitar pop with thick casio drones and uniquely powerful, smoky vocals, their sound washes over you like  the soundtrack to the best parking lot makeout session of your youth.  Watery echoes of gorgeously sung melodies, psychedelic interlocking guitar, and huge driving crescendos create an enchanting wall of blissful dream pop. Living Hour contributed two songs to Family Portrait II, a vinyl compilation put out by Art is Hard Records (Bristol/London) in April 2015, and released a super limited edition cassette of their debut s/t album with Tree Machine Records (Bloomington) that same month. The band will release their debut album world-wide with Lefse Records (Portland) on February 19, 2016. Tour Dates: March 3    Winnipeg, MB    The Good Will Social Club March 4    Fargo, ND    The Aqua

Alternative Take: Human Movement - Tomas Doncker - Jerome Blazé

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Human Movement - Robots Have A Voice. Background - Last week Australian duo Human Movement, released the first taste of their upcoming debut EP, "Dancing Room," with a one-two audio-visual punch for the title track. Lead single "Dancing Room" reassured eager fans that the 19 and 21-year-old duo still have a Midas touch when it comes to poignant dance floor hits, while the music video granted them a first time look into the Movement.  Now, after debuts on Anna Lunoe's Apple Music Beats 1 Radio, spins on Triple J Radio, and praise from Insomniac, Stoney Roads, Your EDM, Music Ninja, Next2Shine, and more, Human Movement's Blake Gilray and Edward MacDonald have unveiled their second EP cut, "Robots Have A Voice."  On this track that Nest HQ calls "powerful and dark," Human Movement relish in their trademark sound that fuses menacing rhythms with pulsating kick drums and synth.   Looking forward to the remainder of the EP, fans can anti