SUNFLOWER BEAN | Tame Impala

“Neo psychedelic for the digital age.”

Recently named this week as the “Best Rock Band of Day 1” at CMJ by NPR’s All Songs Considered and also celebrated by NYLON Magazine as having title track of the week is Brooklyn garage/lo-fi rock duo, Sunflower Bean. 

SANSYOU | The Dilettante

Listeners will remember Washington DC three-piece Sansyou best by their Japanese inspired 2011 EP, When We Become Ghosts, which constructed a post-rock narrative around the photography of ethnologist, Fosco Maraini, of 1960’s Honshu pearl divers. The result was an inherently introspective record laced with ambient post-rock sounds replicating the noises of the submerged and the seafaring with oceanic guitar tones.

DYNASTY ELECTRIC

After receiving over 500 remixes through a world-wide producing casting call for their 2012 hit, Eye Wide Open, Brooklyn psychedelic dance-rock duo, Dynasty Electric, decided to abandon the traditional studio approach to record their next album by experimenting with an open source, cross-collaborative platform. Through the help of crowdfunding and the online genius of music networking site Indaba, the Dynasty duo were overwhelmed by the creative responses from stems and tracks which subsequently turned into material for their latest full length album, Euphoria.

ABBE MAY

Abbe May does love a bit of rock 'n' roll…which is why she surprised the hell out of everyone with Kiss My Apocalypse - an exploration of pop sensibilities that have been hardened with the guise of erogenous Doom Pop. Topping iTunes, ARIA, and AIR charts, her second album could easily be one of 2013’s best Australian release contenders. And there probably hasn’t been a review yet that's left out the words 'brave', 'cool' or 'sexy' to describe this album’s feat. 

THE BASICS

At one point The Basics were recognized for being the hardest working band in Australia. Across a ten year period the trio clocked over a 1000 shows, received international screen features for their music (Scrubs and Californication), and built a loyal following both locally and overseas, yet they strangely divided local radio critics with their distinct flavour and amalgamation of music styles. 

HARTS

Darren Hart is one of those rare multi-instrumentalists; guitar, bass, keyboards and drums all add to the one man show producing palette of this Melbourne musician and singer/songwriter. His latest EP, Offtime, mixed by Lars Stalfors (The Mars Volta) is a combination of the best music that has influenced the musician across the years, such as disco, 60’s rock, disco, 80’s glam and pop. With charismatic delivery and multifaceted producing hands, Hart’s could very well be Australia’s counterpart to Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange fame, but with a little local vigour thrown in.

WILD CUB

Nashville duo Keegan DeWitt and Jeremy Bullock formed Wild Cub a little over twelve months ago, combining their skills of film composition, songwriting and multi-instrumentation, and making their debut album from the intimacy of a home studio. And the subsequent response has been far from modest - PASTE Magazine, The Guardian, SPIN, and even a spot at New York Fashion Week led by Rebecca Minkoff. So what has made everyone fall in love with the tales of Youth? It’s one of those questions that they try not to ask themselves during their time of growing fame. Front man Keegan DeWitt discusses human experience and emotion, New York Fashion Week, and Gus Van Sant.