New Noise: Hammocks & Honey, Broadway Sounds, Pleasure Clone, Bobby Brave

Free songs and synths rule this week’s roundup of new music.

– It’s been four years since the last Hammocks & Honey material, so we’re greeting the free-download new single ‘The Pawn’ with wide-open arms. The Melbourne duo of Prudence Rees-Lee and Alex Nosek spend four minutes canvasing territory that’s cinematic yet homespun, laced with tingly synths and Rees-Lee’s usual breathy vocals. There are also sumptuous faux strings and puttering programmed beats contributing to the indulgently woozy vibe. The pair’s last two releases were 2010’s Spellbinder EP and its free 2011 remix EP, after which Rees-Lee made a bewitching solo debut with last year’s Court Music From the Planet of Love. There are no gigs on the horizon just yet, but it’s still good to have these guys back.

– Broadway Sounds caught our attention in a big way with the video for mid-year single ‘Booby Trap’. The over-the-top daggy treatment earned the Melbourne oddballs “Indie Video of the Week” on rage, and it actually fit with the song’s Afrobeat-damaged, super-danceable combustibility. (Look for multiple cameos from World’s End Press bassist Sashi Dharann.) The band’s new video for ‘Something Sensual’ isn’t quite as amazing, but it’s still colourfully cheesy and nostalgic in the same self-aware fashion. The song, meanwhile, is a slinky, synth-squiggled romancer in line with Toro Y Moi. It was co-produced by Aaron Shanahan (Miami Horror), which makes perfect sense. Both songs come off the band’s genre-crossed three-song EP The Last Detail, which you can buy either on tape or as a $3 download. The work of frontman, producer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Diamond Phillips, Broadway Sounds launch the new single this Saturday (Oct 25) at Shebeen, supporting on GL’s EP launch alongside Mcinnes and Halloween enthusiast Wooshie.

– We know nothing about Pleasure Clone except that they’re a Melbourne trio that moved to the big smoke from “the tiny, railway ghost town of Korong Vale.” They have only one song online so far: the any-price download ‘Same Mistakes’. The first taste of their forthcoming debut EP, the self-recorded tune is very Strokes-y is its over-caffeinated propulsion and whip-like guitar lines, but the singing has more of a slacker-pop air to it. (Almost a dead ringer for Snowy Nasdaq, actually.) So yeah, watch this space.

– You might remember Bobby Bravington from his work in Montero and Early Woman as well as his production work. Now he’s stepping out with his partner Caitlin Perry (ex-Early Woman) as the duo Bobby Brave. Their free-download debut singles ‘Not Done’ and ‘Everything’ are warm and snuggly, all steamy bass lines and Miami Vice-ish synth nostalgia. As supremely laidback as ‘Not Done’ is, it’s sneakily catchy too, whereas ‘Everything’ has more of a New Age/prog-rock ballad vibe but is just as coolly groggy. These guys could time-travel back two decades and land a job as the house band on Silk Stalkings like that.

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