Compilation - Hear
HEAR is the enema your iTunes needs. Bringing you the most thought-provoking and up-to-date music reviews this side of Lester Bangs, HEAR sifts through the ever growing mountain of press releases and promos to only feature albums, EPs, LPs and mixes that we want to, not that we have to. Also, we try and make things make sense in 200 words or less so that you can just listen to the music.
Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox
The history of punk and DIY music is super inspiring, and songwriting is fucking tough.
These are just two reasons why Chris Knox is revered not only in his native New Zealand, but worldwide. In 1979 he formed Tall Dwarfs with Alec Bathgate, helping to pioneer a lo-fi, DIY aesthetic that combined punk's simplicity and disdain for musical virtuosity with home-recording experiments, cryptic lyrics, introspection, and the ultimate rebellion in counter-culture circles - admitting to love pop songs and hooks.
Punk Becomes Pop: The Australian Post-Punk Underground
A while ago I was wandering down Gertrude Street under the multi-windowed gaze of the Commish. As I noticed an old-fashioned lamppost, Fitzroy's hidden former incarnations suddenly loomed close. Admittedly, I was drunk, but too often things are lost to us because the places where they happened have changed beyond recognition.
Fly Girls! B-Boys Beware: Revenge of the Super Female Rappers!
I like women. It's no secret to anyone who knows me; girls are right at the top of my list of interests. Just below that is under-appreciated music, so when Fly Girls! hit my desk, I almost went into a state of shock.
Female hip hop is now thirty years old. These woman have been struggling and subverting the overly male dominated world of hip hop for three decades.
Rooftop Cinema soundtrack
There's no denying that a soundtrack can make a film. It can also make your night and, if you're lucky, make your summer. This year Rooftop Cinema has got some sound advice from Sophie Brous - musician (jazz, chanteuse), new Program Director of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and presenter/broadcaster on Triple R (Dance Cadaverous, Wednesday nights 10pm-midnight 102.
Calypsoul: Caribbean Soul and Calypsoul Crossover 1969 - 1979
Strut Records is a UK-based boutique label that stumbled a bit and is coming back strong. After releasing the first two discs in the 'Disco Not Disco' series, the level of unreleased, old, significant music that they were able to put together for compilations went downhill, fast. No matter how slighted 'Spasticus Autisticus' was when it was released, it doesn't need to show up on more than one of your compilations.
Bang Gang Deejays, D is for Disco, E is for Dancing
Recently I caught up with Jamie Doom from the Bang Gang Deejays. We took a few minutes to chat about the new album they are releasing, why Melbourne is better than any other city in Australia, who the Bang Gang would knife fight, and poo. While one of these topics was awkward, overall the interview turned out well.
K7 Tapes
The Rapture, those seminal disco punk innovators, have hooked up with the incredible German label !K7 to skip the DJ kicks lineup and put out their own DJ mix entitled K7 Tapes. This obviously caused an earthshaking ‘hell yes' from within the indie underground and resulted in at least one worldwide disaster.
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