We listen to a lot of music here at Tone Deaf HQ, and we’re the first to admit we’re perhaps a little biased towards sounds of the Australian variety. We do make the best music in the world, after all.
In honouring our favourite Aussies, we’ve once again compiled a list of the most outstanding local releases you should be listening to right now – whether they’re smaller indies acts or big-name essentials, these are the newest Australian records you should be adding to your ‘must-listen’ list. Let’s get started.
Felicity Groom – Hungry Sky (Spinning Top)
Since West Australian crew Spinning Top arrived onto the scene with a roster armed with the likes of the more known Tame Impala and Pond, we at TD have asked the question “who is this Felicity Groom?” and finally, with the release of her new record Hungry Sky, we’ve gleefully found out.
On full-length record, Groom has produced a stellar electro pop album, laden with brooding and chunky percussion beats, flitters of jovial jangle pop, guitars licked in heated psychedelica and strong emphasis on dreamy Air-inspired atmospherics, Hungry Sky is a record full of intrigue and production expertise.
However, the main star of Hungry Sky is naturally, Groom’s soaring vocal delivery. Traversing from bellowing bone-shaking deep tones to angelic high pitches, Groom fronts no fear in revealing her incredible talents. (Joe Harris)
Pronto – When You’re Gone (Off The Hip Records)
Think that your week can do with some rambunctious garage and punk rock? Let us introduce you to Pronto and their ass-kicking debut release, When You’re Gone.
Producing tracks that fire at a 2 and-a-half minute pace, the quintet’s unabashed approach to their songwriting creates an explosive sound that harkens back to the dark dingy days of CBGBs where such sonics where immortalised.
That’s not to say that When You’re Gone is a basic rip from New York City’s punk scene of the 1970s, killer tracks such as ‘Red Flag’ and ‘Call You Up’ have a pure, modern Aussie twang that sound like your best mate’s garage than The Big Apple. (JH)
Yeo – Come Find Me (Sabremetric)
With the amount of touring this young beatsman has done this year insofar, we’d be shocked if you hadn’t at least heard, let alone seen the talented Yeo.
Come Find Me is his 5-track EP release that features a healthy stock of electronica inspired beats, including the mind-bending space-synth charged track ‘Move It Or Lose It’ and the slow-tempo, electric guitar burner ‘Always Open’.
Of course, the main excitement from this release are two mega tracks. The first, ‘Kobe’, has got to be a contender for best dancefloor anthem of 2014, the EP also including the sublime Chief’s remix.
The second track, and a personal favourite, is ‘Girl,’ which features Yeo in more of a subdued, less electro-sonic whirlwind, emphasising simple samples and making use of his silky vocals to create the best track he has released thus far. (JH)
Step Panther – Strange But Nice (HUB/Inertia)
On their sophomore record, Sydney three-piece Step Panther have pushed their boundaries to produce a ripping 40-minutes worth of their own breed fuzzing, surfy-jangle and head-bangin’ rock, and it’s fuckin’ great.
The band’s influences shine true on tracks like sonic buzzer ‘User Friendly’, echoing the true ’90s spirit of alt-rock legends Pavement and Weezer, the record closer ‘Number One Fan’ delves into the Velvet Underground archives, whilst the trio emphatically cements their own sound with the breezy blue-waved ‘It Came From The Heart’.
Strange But Nice has been produced by Big Scary’s wonderboy Tom Iansek, which alongside the band’s creative songmanship, sees Step Panther’s sophomore not only their best release to date, but one of the strongest in Aussie music in 2014. You need to spin this record. (JH)
Andras & Oscar – Café Romantica (Chapter Music)
In what has been a dream Aussie collaboration, Andras Fox and Oscar Key Sung have at long last released their gorgeously smooth full-length, Café Romantica, and far out, it’s so damn good.
The house record is littered with funky bass lines, buoyant percussions, enlightening key progressions and candle-lit vocals that would be the perfect soundtrack for a romantic evening with your sweetheart.
Our very excited Tone Deaf writer aptly described the track ‘Looking Back’ as “a pastel-coloured pop track with a tropical flavour, gliding along on a leisurely house melody with plumes of breezy synth chords.”
You can stream Café Romantica in its entirety on Tone Deaf by clicking this link. (JH)
The Delta Riggs – Dipz Zebazios (Inertia)
It seemed bands worldwide couldn’t wait to jump on the bandwagon and ape grunge like a 1,000-year-old man drinking from the fountain of youth. The results were varied at best and left most of us wondering why the same precipitous reaction didn’t occur with the children of Britpop. Never fear, The Delta Riggs are here to answer the question of what would have happened with their latest effort, Dipz Zebazios.
Though most of them were toddlers when Oasis vs. Blur seemed like the most vital conflict since World War II, the Gold Coast via Melbourne boys have done their homework. Wearing their influences on their sleeves, this highly enjoyable 11-song trip bears shades of The Lightning Seeds, The Verve, Supergrass, and their forebears, while ‘No Friends’ sounds like a forgotten Beastie Boys B-side. This is the album Primal Scream should have made after Screamadelica. (Greg Moskovitch)
Ausmuteants – Order of Operation (Aarght)
The crazed schizophrenic punkers Ausmuteants have returned with a record that sounds like, well, it sounds like Ausmuteants, but it’s this level of uniqueness that we dig so much about the band.
Order of Operation sees the crew trudge in the familiar grounds of their one obvious influence, DEVO, the guys unafraid to crank the synthesisers and keyboards to full volume as they fly through tracks at an insane pace.
This record sees Ausmuteants grow both sonically and lyrically, they band have ditched the toilet humour, gotten nasty and written songs about other people’s problems, terrible bands, fighting crime and trading sex for porn. Pretty standard, yeah? (JH)
Hamjam – Hamjam EP (Pilerats)
Unfortunate as it may be, most bands looking to make a career out of music are forever relegated to playing an endless balancing act. At one end, swagger, and teetering precariously on the other end is respectability. Fortunately, for Perth outfit Hamjam, their self-titled debut EP never sacrifices one for the other. There are plenty of slacker rock tropes to dissect here, but they’re thankfully cocooned inside deftly executed songcraft and a sonic scope that is impressive for a five-track release.
The vocals are guttural, the production is unapologetically muddy, and the songs are consistently quality, from the sidewalk-kicking opener, ‘Rare Books’, and the ‘Peter Gunn Theme’-like ‘No Time’, to the light-as-air ‘Love’ and the closing psychedelic crescendo of ‘Fishing’. There’s plenty of attitude on Hamjam’s debut, but it’s skilfully backed up by a collection of catchy melodies and memorable lyrics. (GM)
