Marcus Marr & Chet Faker : The Trouble With Us
Hitting a low-key prolific streak in the valley between album cycles, Chet Faker (real name Chesney Henry Faker Jr) teams up with DFA alumni Marcus Marr for The Trouble With Us – the funked up first taste of their collaborative EP. There are moments where I want to like it, either somewhere in the minimalism of the verse, or the energised hook. But all in all, it plays to neither party’s strengths, echoing like a distant remnant of the blog house era rather than dextrous electronica or solid acid bangers.
Kirin J Callinan : The Teacher
Kirin J Callinan gravitates to demented school age (sometimes pre-school age) narratives, revelling in the perversion of the mundane, leaving allusion to nefariousness in the margins. The Teacher takes the schoolboy aggression of Embracism’s title track and transforms it into first person lust. The piano-led arrangement is flawless to the point of absurd, like a velvet-draped soundtrack to a naïve fantasy of what mature copulation entails. It’s arresting, compounded by an alien cameo from Connan Mockasin, weird in ways you wouldn’t expect, out of Callinan’s comfort zone away from his equator of guitar pedals. Good stuff.
The Chills : Warm Waveform
Lapping like a cool tide, Dunedin luminaries The Chills return with true character, singing charming poetics with an alluring sense of hush. There’s a great sense of comfort here, everything has its own space. Taken from Silver Bullets, their first album in almost two decades.
Violent Soho : Like Soda
Vocalist Luke Boerdam crosses the loud-quiet dynamic on Like Soda with subtle, but powerful impact, harnessing a voice of its own accord. It packs a genuine emotion, never cheap nor derivative. The mood is communal, rather than insular catharsis. Violent Soho’s strongest showing yet.
Courtney Barnett : Boxing Day Blues (Revisited)
In which Court does schmaltz, emanating old-timey charm with a vaudevillian slink punctuating blunt wit lyricisms. Recorded with Jack White in the same session that yielded a version of Shivers, Boxing Day Blues (Revisited) has the charm of a traditional White Stripes album closer. Again, Barnett flexes her chops as a vocalist, feathering with a light tremolo to capture a realness, while never mitigating the fun.
Single Of The Week
Roland Tings : Hedonist
There’s nothing overtly hedonistic about Hedonist, its measure never overindulgent, breezing through an eight-minute runtime. The track powers with a resounding versatility, each build and release carried with impeccable taste. We’re everywhere within Hedonist – late night, sun-drenched, deep sea, deep bunker, summer, winter – an omnipresence to behold.
