So I’ll be honest. The only reason I really looked twice at this song is because it’s by someone called Dinner. And today I missed breakfast, skipped lunch and only had time for a Mars bar and two coffees in the last 12 hours. They were big coffees. My eating habits are my own, stop judging me. The facts are, I’m hungry. Which is what bought me to a song called ‘Turn Me On’ by a guy from Denmark who google tells me lives in both Germany and the US, by a man named Anders Rhedin, who calls himself Dinner. Maybe it’s my lack of nutritious foods today, but that songs sounds like a giant lollipop and that clip looks so very tasty. So awfully simple but so awfully effective, the filmed on my Sony handicam vintage vibes make me wonder why VHS had to go away and the beats remind me of the way a lot of music worked in the early 80s, somehow equally depressive and danceable, like a good can of cold Tab. Ah, 80s beverages. Anyone under the age of 60 is going to need to google that to know what I'm talking about. While you're there, google "Dinner" and "dance music" and see if you can wade through the millions of results involving "dinner party music" to find this guy instead. It'll be worth the search I promise, you just might need a snack on the way.
Jo Michelmore gives 'Turn Me On" three emoji fries out of five....
Jo's Pick of the Week: I’m still lamenting the loss of Snakadaktal, because, well, who didn’t love the name Snakadaktal? However, the sorrow can be mended slightly with the sounds of Two People, a little duo whose name describes it all, consisting of ex-Snakadaktal members Pheobe Lou and Joey Clough, who haven’t lost their Snakadak-ey roots, but have moved on and grown up a little with this track, the first from their debut EP, due for release later this year. ‘Fading’ is all atmosphere and drive with a certain darkness pushing its way through, the repetitive synth hypnotising and the voice of Pheobe pleading for you to listen over and over. Looking forward to hearing what else these Two People (boom! See what I did there?) have in store for the rest of 2016. (Jo Michelmore)
3. Highasakite - Someone Who'll Get It
4. PJ Harvey - The Wheel
5. Ella Hooper - Monkey Mind (NEW)
Matt's Pick of the Week: Earlier in the week, Ella Hooper released a preview of her upcoming New Magic EP in the form of 'Monkey Mind'. After last year's somber, heartbreaking and reflective Venom EP, 'Monkey Mind' promises there are brighter days ahead for one of our longtime favourites. Hooper is no stranger to reinvention. She's always leaned in an alternative direction, but here we find Ella with arguably her most 'pop' sound and I couldn't be loving it more. There's a constant drive to the beat and some mighty fine electronic touches behind the guitar lines. But despite a more summer-y demeanour to the music, everything we've come to love about Ella Hooper remains. As a storyteller, she continues to prove she's at the top of her game. You'll be listening over and over again to explore and interpret the lyrics. And about the lyrics... there is something so deliciously Stevie Nicks-esque about a line like, "is it wrong to hold on, child?" that puts the biggest smile on my face. The more I listen to 'Monkey Mind', the more I love it. (Matt Bond)
There was a point late last year during the giant countdown that Matt and I compile at the end of each year in which Matt asked me if I could listen to an (unnamed for the purposes of this review) song and tell him what some of the lyrics were so we could pop them in said countdown we were compiling. It was at this point I realised how much I love the lyric video. I sat at my laptop for ages and ages, listening over and over to a song I loved, but having very little idea what the vocalist was singing. I knew it was a language I could speak, I just couldn’t decipher what was being said. Great song but. All of this leads me to Colourwaves and the recently released clip for ‘Archons’, which, by the way, is a beautiful piece of chilled electronic music. Not a simple lyric clip, it's a stunningly shot couple of minutes, in which Ryan Dodson (aka Colourwaves himself) is a distant participant, an observer in an all too familiar cityscape, creating a sense of detached warmth. Perfect accompaniment to a perfectly produced track. But, like I said, the thing I really like are the subtitles running throughout the clip, which I know were an artistic choice and they do add a certain something to an already pretty clip, but they are also a godsend to time limited bloggers like ourselves. Now, if only I knew what that last line was. Ummmmm…down sit you want really? Great clip but.
Jo Michelmore gives ‘Archons’ three and a half party popper emoji out of five….
Violent Soho, Mia Dyson, Highasakite + The Lumineers!
1. Montaigne - In The Dark (#1 for 3 weeks!)
2. Grimes - Kill V. Maim
3. Highasakite - Someone Who'll Get It (NEW)
4. PJ Harvey - The Wheel (NEW)
5. Le Pie - Up All Night
6. Violent Soho - Viceroy (NEW)
Jo's Pick of the Week: Violent Soho are like the Paddle Pops of Australian music. No matter what fancy toppings you put on your ice cream, no matter how many cookies you squash ice cream in the middle of, no matter whether it’s deep fried or gelati-fied, all of those ice creams are fine, but there’s always the Paddle Pop, sitting there in the corner of the convenience store fridge, doing its thing, not bothered by the salted-caramel-double-chocolate-with-nuts-covered confections nearby; that Paddle Pop is confident and just getting on with the job of being a rectangular-ice-confection-on-a-stick-delight. Just like Violent Soho, taking no guff from anyone else, doing their thing, getting on with the job of rock, playing their gritty guitars in their suburban garage rock way and singing their suburban tales with so much heart, simply being their solid rock selves. All of that and in ‘Viceroy’, they also sing one of my favourite lyrics of the year so far “a computer is a better friend than I’ll ever be, I ditched you Saturday night cause I want you to know, take a photograph it’ll last longer, I feel so temporary, like some viceroy…” Even though it’s only February, I’m pretty sure I’ll find those words impressive for as long as I have the slightest social media addiction. Which will probably be a while yet. (Jo Michelmore)
7. Ecca Vandal - End of Time
8. Bad Pony - Zombie
9. Mia Dyson - Right There (NEW)
Matt's Pick of the Week: Australia's champion of the blues, Mia Dyson, has released the title track to her Right There EP, which is due out February 12, 2016. If you want to give the EP a listen in full before it's out there in the world (and you should), US Billboard have given it a little streamy-stream and talk about how P!nk is a big fan of Dyson's. 'Right There' has all the trademarks of a classic Dyson track; lyrics that paint a vivid story in the listener's mind, guitar lines from one of Australia's very best musicians and that soulful and at times totally defeated voice that we've come to love so much over the past couple of years. We're thrilled to have one of AUS music's greatest storytellers and performers back and later in the year you'll be able to see Mia Dyson on tour when she returns to our shores. (Matt Bond)
10. Leisure Suite - Heavy Head
11. Massive Attack, Tricky and 3D - Take It There
12. Nicole Millar - Tremble
13. Primal Scream and Sky Ferreira - Where The Light Gets In (NEW)
14. Private Life - Dragon
15. PASSERINE - Lost In Each Other
16. Dear Plastic - Zero (NEW)
17. Gideon Bensen - Talk Talk
18. Paces ft. Jess Kent - 1993 (No Chill)
19. The Magnetic Zeros - No Love Like Yours (NEW)
20. The Lumineers - Ophelia (NEW)
21. Ali Barter - Far Away
22. Santigold - Chasing Shadows
23. Niki and The Dove - So Much It Hurts (NEW)
24. Flume ft. Vince Staples and Kucka - Smoke and Retribution
There's this old saying that goes something along the lines of suggesting that you learn something new every day. If that’s the case, then today I learnt that Gideon Bensen is actually a member of The Preatures. Not sure how useful that information actually is, but it seems to be a fact people like to write about if all the things I've read about Gideon are any indication. More importantly, I learnt that he makes some pretty impressive sounds on his own, with the release of the second single from his upcoming EP Cold Cold Heart. While his first solo track, ‘All New Low’ took some not so subtle but very, very welcome hints from some of David Bowie’s work from the 70s, ‘Talk Talk’ seems to come from another decade, it’s synths and quick-fire beats resting nicely in a mid-80s sound. Dare I say it? Is that some kind of Billy Idol influence I hear in there somewhere? Whatever happened to Mr Idol? That's a question, answer and lesson for another day. Whoever Gideon's influences are, he seems to have a knack of picking up sounds and making them his own. The most important thing I learnt today is that 'Talk Talk' is as addictive as it is awesome.
Jo Michelmore gives 'Talk Talk' three and a half fries emoji out of five...
Album: The Hope Six Demolition Project (out 15 April, 2016)
Now you see them, now you don't
Children vanish 'hind a vehicle
Now you see them, now you don't
Faces, limbs, a bouncing skull
PJ Harvey has been the champion for many causes over the years. Her music has been raw, powerful and full of meaning. And never has this been more true than on 'The Wheel', the lead single for her ninth studio album. Whether you take it as an examination of the true victims of war and crime or a passive and realistic view on the world's reaction to missing children cases, you'll be left in awe of the magic that PJ Harvey weaves throughout her music. The video for the song specifically takes a look at the effects of the war in Kosovo. More often than not, Harvey's music leaves you shaking your head at the world, the government and even yourself and this is no exception. 'The Wheel' doesn't branch far from the music we came to expect on the Mercury Music Prize winning album, Let England Shake. Specifically 'The Words That Maketh Murder' finds itself channeled here and the results are just as memorable as they were in 2011.
If you invest yourself in everything that Harvey has to offer, from the striking words to the imagery of the spectacular video and the saxophone driving the tune along... you won't be able to not love this and find yourself questioning so much about the world around you. There's just over two months to go until The Hope Six Demolition Project is available to all. It's shaping up to be another brilliant PJ Harvey experience. And who knows, maybe it'll see one of the world's most treasured music makers take out the Mercury Music Prize for the third time in her illustrious career.
Matt Bond gives 'The Wheel' four and a half golden crown emoji out of five...
