Features
New Noise: Vague Cuts, Unity Floors, Apricot Rail, Zone Out
By Mess+Noise
Soak up home recordings and all-around intimacy in this week’s roundup of Soundcloud offerings.
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– Vague Cuts have released no less than four album-length EPs in recent memory, all available for free download. Now 32 of those songs have been gathered on a self-titled CD while the Melbourne project of Damien Sargeant gears up to record its first “proper” album and perhaps one day even take to the stage. Guests on these recordings include Teeth & Tongue’s Jess Cornelius and Marc Regueiro-Mckelvie, Mass Cult Suicide’s John Beard and Plague Doctor’s Tim Molloy. ‘Fresh Zombie Meat’ is characteristic of Vague Cuts, pairing cartoonish themes with lo-fi indie rock over a stunted duration.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] fresh_zombie_meat by VAGUE CUTS
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– That opening threatens to launch into Dinosaur Jr.’s immortal ‘Freak Scene’, but Sydney’s Unity Floors step out of anyone else’s shadow right after that. ‘Nice Fit’ is an alert and compulsively replayable little two-piece anthem that wobbles its way instantly into our hearts. The single lands between 2011’s Women’s Golf 7” and a debut album slated for mid-year through Popfrenzy.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Nice Fit by unity floors
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– Perth six-piece Apricot Rail do the instrumental thing right on ‘Basket Press’, the first single from second album Quarrels. It might show signs of post-rock in its build and classical or folk in its gentle woodwinds, while the guitars recall the more placid side of Sonic Youth, but it’s engaging in a way all its own. Songs for the album came during a hiatus in late 2009, following the band’s self-titled debut. Quarrels is out February 23 through Perth label Hidden Shoal. Watch a five-minute trailer here.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Apricot Rail - 'Basket Press' by Hidden Shoal Recordings
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– The name may conjure something different, but Zone Out is bedroom indie pop all the way. The work of Melbourne’s Ashley Bundang, who has also recorded as White Australians, ‘What’s Missing?’ is wonderfully delicate (think The Softies) but also deceptively well structured and layered. It follows last year’s free eponymous EP and isn’t likely to wake the neighbours next door, let alone your housemates in the next room. More of this, please.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Zone Out - What's Missing? by Mess+Noise
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