Music

I hate to admit this but I have always found bouncy upbeat tunes featuring violins a bit twee. Perhaps it was the Switched On Classics of my youth. Perhaps I was attacked by a pack of poorly played violins as a child. Who knows? I can’t be certain what caused Continue Reading

Is there such a genre, in this ever more musically fragmented world, as Rastafarian-Funk-Tribal? Because if there is, then Jinja Safari should own it hands down. Not that that is the dominant sound on this wholly unique album. It also possesses some Bon Iver dreaminess, or the folk sensibilities of Continue Reading

Why does everyone hate Lana Del Rey so much? I know it is much easier to tear down than build up, and people are often too cowardly to voice a differing opinion when the inflamed mob is of one brain-addled mind. Even so, it is like people have gathered together Continue Reading

For Chairlift the 1980s, and its synth-drenched rhythm never really ended. And no, I am not using their choice to put down creative roots in the heyday of Gary Numan, and Duran Duran as some sort of patronising putdown. It is anything but. Unlike so many other bands that draw inspiration Continue Reading

Madonna has a new album out March 27 my friends and I am excited! I love the cover, which is bright, colourful and sassy. I love the first single, Give Me All Your Luvin’ (which was leaked a little while back), which is 80s pop confectionary of the highest order, Continue Reading

Zola Jesus, or as her mum calls when she’s angry, Nika Rosa Danilova (from oft cold and frigid Wisconsin which explains the Icelandic sensibilities), is a woman who, like Kate Bush and Bat For Lashes, treads her own musical path, heeding not the siren song of mainstream ordinariness. And that Continue Reading

So I thought this might be a fun way to start the year! I have lots of great ideas for very cool topics, and while those percolate away, in the interim, I thought you’d enjoy checking out album covers of people with unique ideas on how to sell a record.

It’s 1976, and along with the rest of Australia I had fallen hopelessly, irrevocably (in my case anyway) in love with Swedish superstars ABBA. I loved how they looked, how they talked (with that delightful clipped accent), and most of all, of course, I loved their crisp, bright pop melodies, Continue Reading

Thank god for ABC’s JJJ radio, a government-funded music network that is primarily targeted at a younger demographic that plays some mainstream music but mostly spins records from bands than the commercial FM radio stations would never consider adding to their playlist. It is because of JJJ’s willingness to play Continue Reading

I want to live in a snow globe! Well not really – you’d be forever brushing shredded polystyrene off your clothes for one thing – but Matt Wertz’s makes his magical tale of living in a hermetically sealed Christmas wonderland sound so beguiling, I am close to considering it. Just Continue Reading