Hear
HEAR is the enema your iTunes needs. Bringing you the most thought-provoking and up-to-date music reviews this side of Lester Bangs, HEAR sifts through the ever growing mountain of press releases and promos to only feature albums, EPs, LPs and mixes that we want to, not that we have to. Also, we try and make things make sense in 200 words or less so that you can just listen to the music.
Liars, 'Sisterworld'
It's hard to like Liars. How do you trust someone who doesn't tell the truth? And it's even harder still to love them. Yet they go and make a record like this and suddenly you know why nice guys do, in fact, finish last. You fall for those Liars all the same.
Liars trade in subverting expectations.
Holly Miranda, The Magician's Private Library
Words like magical, enchanting, and playful get used a lot these days. Unfortunately, they're often meant to endear you to bands whose work has more twinkling and twee affectation than real emotion.
These words could describe Holly Miranda's debut - yet DON'T be frightened by this (or the album's title or artwork.
Kitchen's Floor 7"
Brisbane's very own band of doomed youth takes timeout from dwelling in apathy and distressing furrow-browed mothers to deliver a three-song 7" record. Their first foray into vinyl sees Kitchen's Floor continue to carve out dank and mould-ridden outsider pop with a raw, primitive temperament.
Format Festival Opening Night
First, a clarification. A couple of weeks ago I suggested that Adelaide indie supergroup Avant Gardeners sounded like the Pixies. In all good conscience I should point out that they do not sound even a bit like the Pixies. Nevertheless, I would wager that every member of the band is a Pixies fan, that every Pixies fan in that crowd thought the show was awesome (in the original sense), and that Avant Gardeners poo all over almost every other gaggle of indie pretenders in this dishwater berg.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Rush To Relax
When asked to describe the difference between ECSR's Primary Colours and their self-titled debut, guitarist Mikey Young said it was more '82 than '76. With their third album, Rush To Relax, I don't think Mikey would be able to sum up the difference so easily.
Rush To Relax picks up where Primary Colours left off.
'Popular Songs', Yo La Tengo
There's a strange ramshackle formula to every Yo La Tengo record, a vow of consistency to the inconsistent. Kind of like that oddball friend you have who's liable to blow your mind and do anything at any time, but you just don't know when or where or how or why. And so the veteran group's twelfth album Popular Songs continues in that same vein, but it's a glorious rut to be stuck in.
Four Tet, 'There is Love in You'
Kieran Hebden has had a good time of it just lately. The guitarist turned much-feted producer and DJ has continued along the rosy path of critical adoration, and he’s done so by consistently straying from his comfort zone. Along the way, he has shed the long-standing ‘folktronica’ tag that dogged his early Four Tet and effectively reinvented himself.
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