Big Dead
Nu-jazz/alternative
Big Dead have a knack for making complicated instrumental arrangements, which flirt with discordance and tamper with modal standards, sound perfectly normal. Fronting the six-piece collective is an emotive and sometimes-romantic male vocalist, who has no trouble forming a complementary union with the jazz-inflected backdrop.
Thursday July 28 – The Foundry – Brisbane, QLD
The New Savages
Country blues
The New Savages aren’t radicals tearing apart traditions and spitting in your soup. The Melbourne duo are well educated in various forms of pre-WWII blues music, conveying stories and relaying instincts via droning chords, baritone vocals and distinctive slide guitar. Thursday July 28 – Republic Bar – Hobart, TAS
Middle Kids
Indie pop
I’m the younger of two siblings; would’ve been the middle kid of three if mum had it her way, but fate didn’t accommodate. I imagine being in the middle would be difficult, but it would also lead to a feeling of kinship with others in a similar position. I assume that’s the case with Sydney trio Middle Kids, as the band’s non-fluffy, heart-stirring indie pop suggests they’re not afraid to get deep with one another.
Thursday July 28 – Newtown Social Club – Sydney,NSW
Lucy Roleff
Folk
Lucy Roleff is one half of Magic Hands, a subdued, electronic-infused psych pop outfit. Roleff gets especially intimate in her solo work, pairing wistful and enchanting vocals with plucked acoustic guitars and the pang of time’s refusal to slow down.
Thursday July 28 – The Gasometer – Melbourne, VIC
Steve Tyssen
Psych folk
When not playing drums in King of the North, Brisbane’s Steve Tyssen keeps busy writing and recording paisley strewn, reverie-inducing psych folk. It’s not exactly revelatory, but it’s finely – sometimes elaborately – executed.
Friday July 29 – Black Bear Lodge – Brisbane, QLD
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Kane Ikin
Experimental electronic
Modern Pressure, released last month, is the latest work of experimental electronic music from Melbourne’s Kane Ikin. At eight songs long, it’s somewhere between album and EP, but such classifications are beside the point – this is hair-raising, unnerving music that’s not so much a distraction from the pressures of the modern world as it as an illumination.
Friday July 29 – Mojo’s Bar – Perth, WA
Hey Geronimo
Power pop
Hey Geronimo’s new album, Crashing Into The Sun, positively drips of the summer time. It’s buoyant, upbeat, in your face and rammed full of melodic hooks and jangling guitars. The decision to release it in the heart of winter might’ve simply been a pragmatic necessity, but it could also relate to the fact that Brisbane tends to be delightfully sunny and 20-odd degrees at this time of year.
Saturday July 30 – Newtown Social Club – Sydney,NSW
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Lawrence Arabia
Chamber pop
Lawrence Arabia’s oddball chamber pop suggests he shares a similar infatuation with the songwriting and production of Brian Wilson to fellow Kiwi, Liam Finn. But, where Finn’s songs have a tendency to go all-out boisterous, Arabia ventures in a more whimsical direction, letting melodies prance and pirouette while pianos saunter in the middle distance and guitars quietly insist.
Saturday July 30 – The Gasometer Hotel –Melbourne,VIC
Zond
Noise rock
Zond are just plain filthy. Noisy, ugly, messy and overwhelming. Putrid stuff; simply nauseating. So, will you dare?
Saturday July 30 – The Old Bar – Melbourne, VIC
En.V
Dance/experimental pop
En.V (or Natasha Vomit) makes deviant dance pop. Atop club beats, found sounds and spoken vocals push aside listeners’ routine expectations. She’s no slouch in the melody department, but even when summoning a hooky vocal line, V prefers to keep the picture slightly blurry. Sunday July 31 – Format – Adelaide, SA
