New Noise: The Moles, Sui Zhen, Mosman Alder, Comatone

This week’s roundup of new music spans resilient pop, supple baritone, moody scene changes and late nights in slow motion.

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– The Moles have just released their first new material in 21 years. Yes, you read that right. Richard Davies (also of Cardinal and solo fame) has returned to using the Moles name, continuing the cult legacy established by the multi-incarnation Aussie/London band with the classic 1994 album Instinct. The free-download single ‘Beauty Queen of Watts’ will sound comfortably familiar to anyone who knows The Moles – and anyone who’s heard the many bands they’ve influenced. That includes Jarvis Taveniere of Woods, who recorded the single in his Brooklyn studio, and the Aussie/American band Free Time, who back Davies here. It’s light and jangly, with the kind of writerly lyrics that make you tilt your head in concentration to take them all in. That makes for a catchy pop song begging for closer examination. Davies says of the song: “Sydney is beautiful but is also the place that people were sentenced to from the British Isles. So, a very romantic, sad, but resilient, hopeful song, like a convict would write.” ‘Beauty Queen of Watts’ is half of a double A-side single with ‘Chills’, and comes out digitally next Monday (June 23) via Fire Records. It coincides with The Moles playing Glastonbury next weekend, followed by three UK gigs including one with label-mates Blank Realm. Fire has also collected all of the band’s catalogue as Flashbacks and Dream Sequences: The Story of The Moles, which scored an 8.0 on Pitchfork.

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– Last heard covering Beastie Boys, Sui Zhen has followed 2012’s solo album Two Seas and a promising Andras Fox team-up with the five-song Female Basic. Released in early May as a limited tape (now sold out) through Japanese label Teto, it remains for sale digitally for 400 yen – or about $4.20 in Australian money. Graced with cover art by Eloise Rapp, the self-produced EP is much dreamier than Two Seas, which was more of a bedroom singer-songwriter affair. Billed as “the soundtrack for a slow-motion, late-night disco found somewhere between Australia and Japan,” Female Basic strikes an ideal balance between the accessible and inscrutable. Slip into the low-key bass and puttering drum machine of ‘Beige Dip’ and wait for her sleepy vocals to come floating along after.

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– A bold, twinkling hook kicks off ‘Germland (of Julien Charbonneau)’, doubling as a nifty reintroduction to Mosman Alder. The Brisbane ensemble launched their debut EP Burn Bright back in 2012, but they’re only now announcing their first album, due late this year through Dew Process. ‘Germland’ is the first taste – a swooning intersection of Valdis Valodze’s supple baritone, Robyn Dawson’s prominent violin and baroque, bittersweet indie rock. Out now digitally, the song was inspired a rocky stint Valodze had “in a desolate part of Germany” (thus the title). If the song doesn’t whet your appetite for the album, maybe this will: it’s being produced by the band’s mentor, Something for Kate frontman Paul Dempsey, who calls Mosman Alder “one of the best bands I’ve heard come out of Australia in a really long time.”

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– Before contributing to Feral Media’s recent (and free) Autumn EP, Comatone quietly released the seven-track mini-album CUE through that same artist-run Sydney label. It’s a mesmerising listen, spanning ambient, drone and score-like terrain. Comatone is the self-produced solo work of Greg Seiler, although Donna Amini lends ghostly, idiosyncratic vocals to ‘Anodised Autumn Failures’. Grab the record now for any price, and enjoy its moody scene changes.

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