Latest record reviews
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Laura Jean – Devotion
On Press Play, the first track on Devotion, Melbourne songwriter Laura Jean winds back the clock. “I sat behind you on the bus yesterday / You were staring ...
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Cable Ties – S/T
When I arrived at Camp Cope’s pub gig earlier this year everyone asked: “But did you see Cable Ties?” The Melbourne three-piece had clearly done their warm-up set ...
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Julia Reidy – Dawning On
Experimental guitarist Julia Reidy moved to Berlin last year where, in addition to her solo work, she plays in a “thrashy improv” duo called Pales in “places you ...
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Kris Keogh – Processed Harp Works Vol. 2
Kris Keogh is based in Nhulunbuy and his toddler won’t sleep without this music. As for others in the tiny Arnhem Land community, Keogh says: “I think zero ...
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Acharné – Innocence and Suburbia
The dissolution of two romances – the first with his partner; the second with Berlin – saw techno producer Rick Bull, better known as Deepchild, forge new ground ...
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Wolf Shield – Residuum
This is Wolf Shield’s debut but I’ve heard these songs before. Well, fragments of them anyway. These days Randy Reimann is best known as the founder of electronic ...
Latest live reviews
Ben Howard (Sydney Opera House)
In 2011 and 2014, when UK singer-songwriter Ben Howard’s first two albums came out, hunger still rumbled for the guitar-lead musings of sensitive white men born with forlorn ...
Latest features
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features 0Four days at Øyafestivalen, Norway
In August I went to Scandinavia for the first time. I was a guest of Music Norway as part of its international delegate program, showcasing Øyafestivalen. I listened to all of the Norwegian acts before I left Australia. There were heaps! That was my favourite aspect, hands down. Vince Staples will play Sydney again but it’s doubtful I’ll see Stein Torleif Bjella down under. I could ...
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features 0Blacken Festival , 2017
Drive 1,500 kilometers south of Alice Springs and you’ll reach Adelaide. Sixteen hours north is Darwin. These are the closest big towns. Alice (as it is known) is red dirt country – traditional home to the Arrernte people and four hours from Australia’s most famous rock, Uluru. A return flight to Alice from Sydney or Melbourne costs about $700. It’s no casual ...
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features 0Reflections on a weekend in exile
“This song is about underground communities and how they tear themselves apart.” Fifteen minutes after Shogun of Royal Headache said this onstage, I began to experience an offstage version. Only there was no catharsis; no song. In the gig washout, a message popped up on my phone. It was from the admin of a Facebook group I’ve been part of pretty much ...
