I don’t know about you but June felt like it went for ages for me. This is the soundtrack to how it played out.
Song to watch
Frank Ocean – Pyramids
Anyone who has not yet heard Frank Ocean’s music will undoubtedly be introduced to him in the very near future. Working his soulful melodies around his ridiculously well crafted beats, Ocean has won an incredible amount of fans. With the introduction of ‘Pyramids’, the first single from his debut major label full length, he has blown everyone away with this 10 minute masterpiece. This dude is going to be freakin huge and this is the song you need to watch.
Cassian – Reach For Love
So about a year and a half ago now when I was really into exploring soundcloud, I kept seeing the name Cassian appearing everywhere, like a rash. It was based on this that I purchased the ‘Friday Night’ EP from Beatport and became obsessed with Cassian. For anyone that hasn’t heard the Friday Night EP go out and do yourself a favour, I get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but to understand the hype around Cassian you must hear this EP and it’s un-paralleled energy. After that stunning debut came the ‘I Like What You’re Doing’ EP which had a ridiculous amount of remixes on it and took me a few more listens to get into but never-the-less is freaking amazing and earned the producer some primetime airplay on Triple J.
This year, Cassian brings us a new EP ‘The Love Cuts’ with the insane house track ‘Reach for Love’ and the equally cool and majorly loved ‘I Love It’ on the flipside. Reach for Love has been spinning on Triple J and both of them have been seeping their way through the blogosphere like the rash that Cassian is. A lot of more people seem to be behind ‘I Love It’, but I’m backing ‘Reach for Love’, It’s all about the energy.
Best Video Clip
The Bloody Beetroots – Rock Steady
The Bloody Beetroots’ ‘Church of Noise’ was one of the most incredibly underrated songs of 2011, and it’s mostly for this reason I was drawn to the new track, Rock Steady. Going back to the raging electro riffs that earned them their initial appeal, The Bloody Beetroots have seemingly dropped the unique direction they were heading in with ‘Church of Noise.’ It’s a move that has seemed to please a lot of people, but is pretty disappointing for me. Rock Steady is a solid track and as a certifiable banger it comes with a wild ride of a video clip. The Beetroots are up to all sorts of antics in this one, highlights include shotgunning drinks underwater and smashing up a moving car from the inside.
The Sun and The Sky – River
Everytime I see that a song is called River or The River it makes me think of Bruce Springsteen’s epic and haunting tale from his 1980 double album of the same name. It’s fair to say that most of them are nothing at all like the Springsteen track but this song by Adelaide synth rockers The Sun and The Sky has that dark aesthetic and slow haunting melody with a tale of desperation that actually does reminds me a little of the feeling captured by the Boss 32 years ago.
The video clip suits the mood of the song nicely and really sets up the intrigue into the band. While in general it was a pretty bland clip with only a few highlights, the song itself is awesome with a commendable chorus that not only makes the song, but draws you back to relisten. The Sun and The Sky will be on tour in July playing Saturday 7 at Crown and Sceptre Adelaide, Thursday 19 at the Brunswick Hotel Melbourne and Saturday 21 at the Barwon Club Geelong. They will also be playing at Streetlight Symphony’s single launch on Fri 10th August at Ed Castle Adelaide.
Most favourable news
Have you seen the line up for Parklife yet? How about Harvest? Both of these are very exciting announcements so I’ll let you choose which is more favourable.
Parklife 2012
The annual celebration of the end of winter comes at us with an all-round pleasing line-up for the usual locations of capital cities
Harvest Festival 2012
They have promised never to repeat the issues that plagued last years event and bringing some ridiculously good bands along the way.
Remix discovery
The Presets – Youth in Trouble (Light Year and The Finger Prince Remix)
The Presets are back with a brand new song introduced by their recent teaser video. And back in style might I add, with this percussive wet dream of a remix that is the result of a team-up from Light Year and The Finger Prince.
Blog You Should Check Out
Me and All My Friends
http://meandallmyfriends.wordpress.com/
This Melbourne based blog is rad. Always fresh, always focusing on local tunes and always relevant (I’m ignoring the fact that often their mixes are late because the June mix was right on time). The special thing about this blog is that they clearly just love music and can’t really be pigeonholed, they post about massive artists, small bands, remixes and rock songs meaning that you are bound to find something that you love on the blog.
Featured local band
Red Light Sound
http://www.facebook.com/redlightsound
Even though the band has been together for a few years now, it was only a bit more than a year ago that Red Light Sound debuted their live show to the Adelaide music scene. It seems that the years spent working away at their sound behind the scenes has paid off for the band however, as their rise since then has been swift. Anyone who has witnessed their live show is truly moved by the sheer energy and emotion this band exudes.
In the relatively short time since their first live show, the band have released a stunning debut EP, an astounding follow up single, earned local supports for the likes of Dead Letter Circus and Thousand Needles in Red as well as winning a competition to open for Dead Letter Circus in Queensland on New Years Eve. Red Light Sound are a good bunch of dudes making killer tunes with an intense live show. It’s pretty safe to say that the only direction for these guys is up and pretty soon they will be teetering on the edge of greatness. Have a listen to the new single ‘Earth Divides’ and a personal favorite of mine from the ‘Signals Fade’ EP ‘Miles to Save’. You can catch these guys live all over Adelaide in the coming months this Friday 6 July at Enigma, Friday 13 at the Gov for a massive line-up of Adelaide bands and Friday 10 August at Ed Castle for Streetlight Symphony’s single launch.
Earth Divides
Miles to Save
El Mirador 