i don’t usually play australian music on the fat planet radio show – the listeners in sydney hear that all the time on fbi, so i take the angle that its ‘music from everywhere else but here’. obviously, judging from your comments / referrals, the vast majority of people clicking onto this site are from outside oz, so it seems only right to check in with the local scene now and again. any day now, fbi will be launching live to world via online streaming, but in the meantime you’ll have to make do with some mp3s to satsify any australian cravings that you might have. bands such as wolfmother and cut copy are making a name for themselves internationally, but here’s some more artists that are taking australian music out of the ac/dc age.
THE EMERGENCY [AUSTRALIA]
after dark mp3
the emergency hold the distinction of being the first band i ever saw after i arrived in australia (on a double-bill with the then solo artist, spod). over two years later and their first release arrives. i remember thinking at the time that they were simply riding that electro pop revival wave, they looked and sounded much like ladytron, harking back too to numan, or john foxx-era ultravox. it’s somewhat reassuring to find their debut rammed full of remixes from a class A selection of electronic artists – electronicat (france), g.d. luxxe (austria) plus homeland mixes from spod, dscio and talkshow boy. the album is due soon, but in the meantime you can also find them on a suberb double CD of new australian music entitled ‘the sbs whatever sessions – volume two’ [site] featuring 23 artists across all genres and sub-territories of the underground musical map. [emergency site]
MINIMUM CHIP [AUSTRALIA]
oooo mp3
another artist from the sbs sessions is minimum chip, recently spotted in sydney supporting le tigre. originally founded in brisbane ten years ago, the band relocated to melbourne and have been making music there ever since. with seven releases under their belt thus far, they’re following a blueprint laid down by the likes of stereolab and the krautrock movement in the early 70s – the above mp3, sadly only recorded at 56kbps, could well be a modern reworking of a can album track, or something from the earlier kraftwerk albums. it’s taken from the 2003 release ‘gardenesque’ which has since by followed by 2004’s ‘sounds asleep’. [site]
SPOD vs DECODER RING [AUSTRALIA]
born 2 luv mp3
two australian bands who couldn’t be more different come together for this fucked up remix / collaboration. the movie ‘sommersault’ recently sent the australian film industry into a spin, seemingly scooping more AFi awards then there were categories. if you’ve ever seen scottish director’s lynn ramsay’s ‘ratcatcher’ or ‘morvern callar’, then you’ve got an idea of aesthetic style. the movie was helped in no small part by the gorgeous soundtrack from decoder ring – a swathe of ethereal post-rock that perfectly matched the misty-eyed coming-of-age story. and then there’s spod – an electro-rock lovin’ machine, who injects the scene with a huge bag of humour, glamour and theatrics. perhaps the bastard offspring of the darkness and peaches, watched over by the guiding hand of chilli gonzales. so when the former got the latter on board for a remix, the results were unsurprisingly tipped in favour of the rad hand of spod. reprazent! [spod site] / [decoder ring site]
TALKSHOW BOY [AUSTRALIA]
fuck the pain away mp3
talkshow boy is adrian k-sahara from melbourne and when he’s not performing in the (self-described) “hypercore rock band” cattle of the sun, he’s recording skewed alternative pop, with the aid of a sampler, drum machine and acoustic guitar. check out the lyrics to ‘i’m a motherfucking vampire’ – “who’s that motherfucker riding the rhythm? / oh my god, it’s adrian / god, i want a piece of him”. got the picture? there’s an mp3 festival going on at his site, and check out the above track for his take on the peaches‘ classic.
DSICO [AUSTRALIA]
walking mp3
while we’re trawling australia, i have to make mention of dsico‘s new album. the guy’s made a name for himself at home and abroad with his ‘bastard pop’ work – audio and video bootlegs and electro / vocoder covers of contemporary classics (missy, joy division, the white stripes, public image limited etc), he’s “given up” and decided to write original music instead. which is a blessing for us, as the mini album ‘you fight like a girl’ is full of electro & post-punk delights and well worthy of fbi‘s ‘album of the week’ slot last week. onya, ya no talent hack. [shop @ spasticated records] / [dsico blog