Mark Barrage's new album is much more avant-Krautrock than dance anthem, no matter how much the onesheet tries to tell you otherwise. One of Melbourne's finest fuzzy pop electronic wizards has another heaped plate ready to shove down your throat. And we're not just reviewing it because he's our Music Editor either.

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Description:
Mistletone Records turn in another A-class lineup with the change of season. Befitting the earthly excitement of spring, the go-ahead indie touring company and label have this time booked acts in a general folk-psychedelic vein, headlined by participatory electronic-tribalists Lucky Dragons from the USA.

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Event: Bands

Stimulus: A

Description:
Fearless local label and touring force, Mistletone Records, continue their seasonal approach to kicking ass tomorrow night with Winter Tones - the latest instalment of Melbourne's only independent quarterly music festival. Upping the ante as only this label can, all three of Roxanne Parlour's rooms will play host to more than a dozen bands including dream pop vanguards Beach House (USA), New Zealand's synth pastoralist Bachelorette, local genius Qua, existential punks Love of Diagrams and ascend/transcend-ent acid-rock quintet of the moment, Beaches.

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Event: Party

Stimulus: W

Description:
There are parties, launches, gigs and other people with hair-brained schemes luring you out this week. But, if you're feeling the limited-wardrobe strain or general antisocialness, we advocate a weekend of online shopping too. Mistletone records are having a sale and the only place you need to be is there website and all you need is your plastic.

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Event: Sales

Stimulus: W

The nanotechnological dream of photosynthesizing computers appears within reach when listening to Lucky Dragons. While the Macs employed by the LA duo are probably the regular kind - plastic, circuits, software - the weird and near-total naturalism of their sound on umpteenth release, Dream Island Laughing Language, begs the question - are they not living things, inlaid with grass, coconut husk or animal skin? While everything here is excessively treated, chopped and processed, somehow it comes across as Natural History - ethnomusicological and live, suntanned and relaxed - like a bunch of geckos and undiscovered aboriginal life jamming together on some Tron-island beach.

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Mistletone Records planted its flag by releasing a little album by Ariel Pink. For some time, House Arrest was that one album people put away entire nights for, despite critical review. Now, the powerhouse pair of the Melbourne-based record label have a cherry-picked catalogue worth throwing a party for.

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Recent outbreaks of Internet-slaves playing bongos, all hyphy "like Fela" reeks of moneyed putrefaction - at best reminding of C. Thomas Howell's character in Soul Man, who overdoses on tanning pills in an effort to 'get down' with his college basketball team. It's imperative Alegranza - the debut record from Barcelona's Pablo Diaz-Reix, aka El Guincho -is not confused with this vapid trend.

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