The Music Feeds team wrangle together the fresh new tunes that made an impact on them this week, for the ultimate new music playlist. It’s Music Feeds Faves!
Howl At The Moon – ‘Backsliders’
I was lucky enough to review Melbourne band Howl At The Moon’s stunning debut album Squalls back in 2012, so I’ve been waiting not-so-patiently for their follow-up record A Slave To The Ghost, which is now out in the wild.
Howl At The Moon’s new album might not be as instantly captivating as their last, but it’s still damn impressive. Opening track Backsliders begins tentatively, but escalates with piano, guitar and layered vocals into something that’s pretty rousing, and gives the album its initial momentum.
If there’s currently any small part in your heart for acts like Radiohead, PJ Harvey or The Drones, Howl At The Moon absolutely deserve your attention. Now bring on album number three. / Tom Williams, News Editor
BV – ‘B2V’
BV (the artists formerly known as Black Vanilla) have finally released some new material in the form of their enormous sounding new mixtape B2V. Lead track Huh (which has been up on their SoundCloud for a couple of months now) announces this release as the thunderous statement that it is. On the razor’s edge of contemporary hip hop and electronica – straddling genres and resisting any clear definition – BV draw together influences from grime, trap, jersey club, and even moments of Aphex Twin-esque sonic insanity. Wrapping this intense cocktail of sounds up with abstract and evocative lyricism, the result is a hard forged and thoroughly modern music.
This is unsurprising considering the group is made up of a who’s who of emerging talent, including Marcus Whale (Collarbones), Lavurn Lee (Cassius Select, Guerre) and Jarrad Beeler. Other highlights on the mixtape include the twisted minimal percussive banger Hunted, the alternatively sensual Mouth, previously released single Slug, while Up In The Flesh and the instrumental Plakate takes things to their most kinetic.
Moving through a number of moods and atmospheres across its 8 tracks, what holds it together is a constant sense of momentum and energy that never lets up. Some may find that hard to handle in their headphones as opposed to a club sound system. Yet, while it is hard to listen to without raving in your chair, the detail in production and songwriting makes it well worth a close listen. Get the full mixtape here./ Michael Carr, Contributor
Endless Heights – ‘Drain’
Endless Heights haven’t just returned to the forefront of the scene, they’ve decked the bounces, flicked off the door person and jumped onto the pool table declaring – righteously- that this is their house now motherfuckers.
Drain lulls you in with a mild-mannered verse, clean cut so that the words linger by your ears. You think. You relate. You think a bit deeper. Then, you’re hit with the Kamehameha of choruses. / Mike Hohnen, Staff Writer
Vallis Alps – ‘Fading’
After a breakout 2015, Vallis Alps have taken things to another level this year with their live show coming in leaps and even bigger leaps – with the duo bringing their gorgeously joyous, melodically-heavy style of electro straight to your heart via your willing earballs. After their huge single Young last year many may have wondered where their uplifting, dreamy style was headed next but here we are with Fading, and if anything it’s somehow even more joyous. It’s surely near-impossible to wrap your listening tendrils in and around this absolute belter without coming out of it on some other-worldly plain of pure happiness. / Zanda Wilson, Staff Writer
Camp Cope – ‘Keep Growing’
The relative garbageness of 2016 is a pretty well agreed upon consensus right now. On a global scale we’ve dealt with shock deaths of music and entertainment greats, ongoing global crises, humanitarian calamities, misogyny, racism and impending (orange-tinged) catastrophes.
Like, it hasn’t been a year to write home about, you know?
All of this breeds a sad despondency about the world and our collective future. But it also rallies a communal sense of defiance. And defiance is all over Camp Cope’s new belter of a track Keep Growing.
The single, which follows Camp Cope’s most excellent self-titled debut, is, according to the band themselves, “a reflection on society’s skewed standards” and it couldn’t come at a better fucking time.
Keep Growing is a rattling cry of revolt. It’s angsty. It’s defiant. And it’s empowering.
“I’m not gonna walk like I’m in your shadow anymore,” sings Georgia Maq. “I’ll keep growing my hair out/ I never want to do anything when you’re around/ I’ll keep growing my hair out/ It’s not for you.” / Nastassia Baroni, Managing Editor
GRMM – ‘Give Me Up’
The quality choons just keep coming from Sydney producer GRMM, and his third track for the year is the densely textured Give Me Up. Combining glittering vocals and shimmering melodic samples with full-bodied, hard-hitting synth drops – GRMM goes a little bit heavier on this one but pulls it off with aplomb. As always, the vocals sit perfectly in the mix – clearly a feature but without drawing away from the other intricacies of the track. GRMM is definitely building towards something… / Zanda Wilson, Staff Writer
The Art – ‘Sugar Queen’
Sydney rock n’ roll warhorses The Art have come charging back into combat with a brand new LP dubbed All In The Mind. The provocative foursome have bottled their trademark brand of cultured chaos into a 12-jam jar of anthemic hard rock, potent enough to knock your socks off but uplifting enough to leave you nursing a good buzz.
First swig Sugar Queen is as sweet as its name would suggest, combining 90’s inspired alt-rock guitar lines with hard & tasty drums and David Bowie style swagger. Part love song (to someone or… something), part statement about the frustrations of being trapped in a vapid world of trend-chasers (NB: the awesome lyric: “All the scene kids are dancing to the beat of machines and soulless drums”), the freshly released tune encapsulates The Art’s glitter-in-the-gutter steez and knack for blending old school cool with big modern pop hooks.
Check out the live video below, and catch The Art touring Australia with legendary British act The Cult later this month after they launch their new LP at Sydney’s Oxford Circus this Saturday, 19th November. Get in amongst it.
