New Noise: Lucy Cliché, Cedie Janson, Catlips, Felicity Yang

Solo electronic outlets from four cities dominate this week’s roundup.

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– Lucy Cliché is on a well-deserved roll at the moment. The Sydney fixture was included in FACT’s “15 Australian electronic artists to watch in 2015” as well as January’s best dance tracks from NPR. Celebrated in the past for her work with Naked on the Vague, Knitted Abyss and Half High but increasingly best-known as a solo artist, Lucy Cliché is about to drop the Drain Down EP via Australian label Noise in My Head. The four-song 12” comes out next Monday (Feb 16) on vinyl and March 9 digitally. Side B kicks off with ‘Drain’, a frayed and insistent instrumental that balances pop and industrial impulses, while other tracks have titles like ‘Smash’ and partly include her ominous vocals. As the presser puts it so well, “her dark dreams sabotage our calculations of modern dance while demonstrating how physicality and the ethereal can interact.” Lucy Cliché is also joining her NOTV/Half High partner Matthew Hopkins and members of Holy Balm in the potentially one-off Destroy All Monsters tribute act Crying in Bed. Check out their video for ‘Cutting My Losses’ and catch them live supporting Gary War and Purple Pilgrims at a secret warehouse in Marrickville this Saturday (Feb 14); RSVP for the address.

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– Brisbane producer Cedie Janson is complementing his fine work in the psych-leaning band Naked Maja with solo material planted more firmly in shuddering electronics. His latest single ‘Light Curve’ is the title track off an upcoming tape on Lost Race Records, the label run by Nite Fields’ Danny Venzin. It’s a chilled-out, morphing wonder that’s been described as having “a post-rave sound influenced as much by Brisbane's underground noise scene as it is by sunrise hours in and after clubs.” Janson is coming to Melbourne next week for a pair of free gigs with Junk Mneomic founder Pare Ohm.

Thurs, Feb 19 – Bar Open, Melbourne, VIC [free, 8:30pm, w/Straylight + Pare Ohm]
Sun, Feb 22 – Sunday School @ Public Bar, Melbourne, VIC [free, 4pm, w/Shima + Pare Ohm]

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– Perth producer Katie Campbell (a.k.a. Catlips) approaches the mutant pop of fellow WA breakout Kučka with her new single ‘Fade’, a gaudy house-tickled earworm that lives up to its retro-damaged cover art. It’s the first whiff of her debut five-track EP Casual, due out March 6 on Pilerats; pre-order it from iTunes and get an instant download of ‘Fade’. Despite this being her first proper release, Campbell has already remixed Kučka and Chela, supported Baths and DJed everywhere from London to Istanbul. Hear some of her earlier tracks via Soundcloud.

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– Melbourne’s Felicity Yang is one of our favourite discoveries of late, between her floaty mix for Triple R’s Golden Syrup program and the Strict Face-esque track ‘Cloud Forest’. She has also collaborated with HTML Flowers and put in an appearance on Ears Have Ears, and has a cassette due soon on Habitat Tapes. Airy to the point of feeling gravity-free, Yang’s tracks sound like suspended cosmic forms gently pricked with beats and washed with bass. Hear more on her Soundcloud.

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