Features
New Noise: LOD, Rat Vs Possum, Cat Cat, Jack Colwell
By Edward Sharp-Paul
It’s time for another round-up of the best new music on the internet, this week featuring the long awaited return of Love Of Diagrams, a radical Rat Vs Possum remix, Melbourne’s Cat Cat and Sydney’s Jack Colwell & The Owls.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
– It’s been a while since we’ve heard some new music from Melbourne’s Love of Diagrams, who celebrated 10 years in February. Thankfully, the dream-pop impulses that made 2009’s Nowhere Forever such a triumph (it came in at #7 in our annual Critics Poll) are still intact. Starting out slow – real slow – the track features ethereal vocals from Antonia Sellbach, who seemingly poses the question, “Am I dreaming, or am I dead?” over Luke Horton’s driving guitar and Monika Fikerle’s incessant fills. The track is the side-A of a new vinyl 7”, which was recorded by Jack Farley at his Transient Studios over a weekend in September. It’ll be launched at Melbourne’s Buffalo Club on November 26 and Sydney’s FBi Social on December 1.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] IN MY DREAM by LOVE OF DIAGRAMS
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
– Rat Vs Possum’s recent single ‘Fat Monk’ has been subjected to the remix treatment by Sydney producer Simo Soo. Seemingly affronted by the breezy synth lines of the original, Soo has taken a chainsaw to the track, turning it into a stuttering, snarling beast. Snares and kicks stutter, and a recurring electronic loop provides the aural equivalent of a strobe light. Singled out for particular attention is Daphne Shum’s vocal, which now sounds like a dying, but tuneful, robot.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Rat Vs Possum - Fat Monk (Simo Soo remix) by Simo Soo
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
– Melbourne-via-Canberra trio Cat Cat have spent the bulk of 2011 writing, recording and relocating. Soon to release debut album Uralba, ‘Hate Me’ and ‘Keys and Locks Don’t Work’ offer an early taste. The latter is the pick, a study in tightly-wound, yearning guitar pop. There’s a bit of young Steve Kilbey in the vocals – both in the far-out delivery, and in the audaciousness of dropping ‘phantasmagoria’ into the opening line. There’s also a whole lot of jangle in the guitars, and a tension that never quite lets up. All in all, reminiscent of a certain influential Dunedin label, in a good way.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Uralba (out on Dream Damage soon) by Cat Cat Music
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
– Folk-minded polymath Jack Colwell has gone back to the future on debut single ‘Hopechest’. Over stately piano, guitar and other acoustic instrumentation, Colwell offers his musings in a distinctive, endearingly over-enunciated style. It’s pretty much classic hippie folk, which figures, given that ‘Hopechest’ is a reworking of Vashti Bunyan’s ‘Just Another Diamond Day’. It’s taken from impending debut Picture Window, which Colwell completed with the assistance of a rotating cast of musicians, known collectively as the Owls. Colwell and the Owls will be launching ‘Hopechest’ in Canberra (Nov 19, The Front Gallery) and Melbourne (Nov 26, The Empress).
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Hopechest by owlsayeah
+