Features
New Noise: Trjaeu, Tim Guy, Aluka, Straw King Eye
By Doug Wallen
The sounds of Melbourne splinter into folk, a cappella, blues and electronics in this week’s roundup of Soundcloud offerings.
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– Let’s all take a moment in rejoice in some deeply lovely new work from Trjaeu, the genre-blending Melbourne five-piece who self-produced their pay-what-you-want debut album Heights Peak, following 2010’s Home EP and scattered tracks since. It’s out on Fallopian Tunes, who did a swell team-up with New Weird Australia a while back. As heard on the below ‘Endings’, these guys excel at drifting, crackling, organic compositions with plenty of dewy melodies and vocals that materialise only periodically. It’s all a perfect fit with member Simon Gardam’s Mick Turner-esque cover painting.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Endings by Trjaeu
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– Pairing his Will Oldham-ish vocal delivery with a haunted tone and even a brief whistling section, Tim Guy’s folky ‘Armour Weight’ is the lead single for his fourth album Dreaming of a Night Mango, due early next year. It showcases Guy very much stripped back, in contrast to his fuller 2010 outing Big World. The new record was penned in Melbourne, as opposed to previous ones written in New Zealand (where he lived for a stint) and Spain. The likeable, rolling single will launch on Wednesday, November 7 at the Workers Club, with supports from The Zebras (in duo mode), Laura Atwood and Microflora.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Armour Weight by tim guy
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– There’s a real Otouto feel to ‘Keep My Cool’, the new single from Aluka. Partly it’s the similar style of singing, but of course the beautifully open production work of Nick Huggins unites both acts. Nodding to R&B and gospel, this is the first single from the a cappella trio’s debut album, out next March. Recorded in a Melbourne stairwell “one freezing morning in August,” it’s an example of how Huggins recorded each song in an unconventional space, be it a public swimming pool, barn or World War II bunker. The single has already been remixed by Oscar Key Sung (half of Oscar + Martin) and will get launched in Melbourne at the Toff (Nov 7) and in Sydney at the Newsagency (Nov 9).
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Keep My Cool by showoffservices
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– Having launched their debut LP The Girls of Paradise at the Tote last month, Melbourne quartet Straw King Eye have absconded to Europe for a few months before setting up more Australian gigs next year. In the meantime, lose yourself in the glowering six-minute romp ‘The Basement Blues’. Recorded in “a fit of passion” at Northcote’s Soundpark Studios, the album is self-described as “a loosely conceptual discourse on the good, the bad and the ugly sides of youthful lusts, or a straight-up garage rock banger, depending on your mood.”
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] The Basement Blues by Straw King Eye
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