New Noise: Naps, B Deep, Mornings, Orlando Furious

Three Melbourne solo ventures and one Canberra band dominate this week’s roundup of new music.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

– When someone promises a cross “between New Age collage and decaying hip-hop” – and it’s This Thing doing the promising – you’re right to get your hopes up. Actually, Naps’ upcoming Hydrate LP is even more fascinating than that blurb makes out, and even more so than the stumbling beats and disorienting synth whorls of advance track ‘For Sale’. Fleshing out its crumbly, lethargic aesthetic with murky melodies and windblown turbulence, it’s beat music of the same left-field sophistication as stuff on labels like Alpha Pup and Brainfeeder. It follows 2012’s debut Earthsea on Boyfriend Club and a sold-out 7”, and coincides with a cassette soon on Habitat Tapes (here’s a taste of that). With artwork by Naps himself – Tal Levin – the debut album comes out March 11 digitally and on 100-run tape through This Thing; pre-order it here.

– Skydreams’ first release of the year is a “feel-good” free album from Melbourne producer B Deep. Crafted “in the dizzy spell of a fever at his parents’ house south of Sydney,” Island Hopping Through the Stratosphere parades out a long line of stuttered R&B, pop and hip-hop cues. Different genres hold sway more on certain tracks, like the throwback rap instrumentals ‘Beyond Say’ and ‘What Up’, but it all flows together very naturally. It’s only a digital release right now, but there’s a limited tape run in the offing. While you’re at it, check out his free remix of ‘Barbarian Kings’ by California psych enigma Morgan Delt.

– Last time we checked in with Mornings, it was around their instrumental-leaning debut album Guilty. The Canberra quartet are back now with the six-song Liquid Ill EP, including remixes from Shoeb Ahmad and Calico Cat. The band still exist between soft-sung rock songs and wordless experimentation, with a lot of satisfying guitar gnashing on the opening title track and a long, blistering build-up on the 11-minute centrepiece ‘Milo & Otis’. Recorded and mixed by bassist Jordan Rodger, who runs the prolific Cinnamon Records, the EP is out on that label now digitally or on CD with gatefold art by Canberra’s Alice Desmond.

– It’s hard to get a full grasp of Melbourne DIY weirdo Orlando Furious right away. That’s because his work jumps across genres and exudes a daggy suaveness in much the same way as Mellow Gold-era Beck. On his new EP Popular – also on Cinnamon – he can sound at times like he’s riffing off scattershot ideas while making funny faces in the mirror. Yet there’s a nagging appeal in its squirrely energy and deranged catchiness. It’s out now as a free download or tape, with a video for ‘Nu Body’ to boot.

+

To nominate new music for this column, email us at news@messandnoise.com.