Richard_MacFarlane has written the following articles:
Frightened Rabbit have had one hell of year, from touring with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie and Biffy Clyro, to their life-affirming album The Midnight Organ Fight finding itself at number 2 in our end of year list. DiS caught up with the notoriously timid guys to find out how 2008 was for them... »
One and a half songs into High Places' set, the sound suddenly cuts out on account of the US to UK power converter exploding. This unfortunate turn of events fails to outshine what still proves to be an inspired display of music and resourcefulness»
Thanks to their relocation to the rural, mountain-laden landscapes of New Mexico, it’s easy to mythologize Brightback Morning Light’s vibe. Their place has solar panels, meaning the duo could only record when the sun was out, and Motion To Rejoin reeks of that Zabriskie Point dusty canyon heat, all sensual and brooding.»
Influenced as much by Black Dice as they are hip-hop sounds, an oddly friendly type of alien sound inhabits the hazy, psychedelic and percussion-heavy land of High Places...
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Tonight, Vampire Weekend are a band at once comfortable with their rapid-fire popularity and ecstatic about making new music to spread further delight»
Contrary to popular belief, they aren't just about obscuring their melody behind tape hiss and grungy no-wave like a lot of their similar sounding peers»
There are so many moments on their new album where The Sea and Cake sound exactly like they have before, but it’d almost be worrying if they’d gone done anything different; they’ve built a career out of making those chilled, breezy ballads for ages now»
As Islaja, Finland’s Merja Kokonen has made lo-fi folk over the last six years that you could certainly describe as weird and dark. DiS checks in with the Finnish lo-fi folk artist in anticipation of her upcoming Approximatley Infinite Universe tour»
The Sage and its shiny, slick-curved posterior is a long way from the Wisconsin cabin in which Bon Iver’s pastoral folk pop first took shape. »
DJ Scotch Egg grinds his Gameboy - okay, four of them - into the curb and effects scream out of it, mutilated and chopped up in some experimental ADD frenzy»
The Laneway Festival moves to Brisbane, and DiS is in town to catch Dan Deacon, Broken Social Scene and The Cool Kids play to a small crowd on the city's streets. Better than the Sydney version? Not quite»
Festival fever starts early in 2008 as DiS heads south... further... bingo... for the annual Big Day Out festival in Australia. Our man on the Gold Coast takes in Arcade Fire and Björk while dodging questionable domestic rock acts and wrestling rugger thugs. Spirits are high and rising»
No. 3 of 2007... How? That’s the question Person Pitch asks. It’s a broad question, and with it comes the looking towards distant rolling hills and thinking you could probably climb them. Then looking back down and seeing that it was kind of really far»
Apparently in Berlin there’s a university paper about Eddie Argos and Art Brut, and being a ‘depressive dandy’, and it’s easy to see why. The singer busts down typical notions of performance, acting out the satire of the rock and roll show with pizzazz»
Mixing alien sounds and familiar rhythms, Black Dice’s new Load Blown LP is their 'party' album. Bjorn Copeland spills the beans to DiS: I like the fact that it could be interpreted as a party record, and the idea that we tried to make it have a really strong pop element»
On the phone from London, Conrad Standish of Australian expiates Devastations speaks in a slow drawl. The vocalist reflects on the reception of third album Yes, U, and how its origins may have differed had their creative environment been the warmer climes of their homeland»
Black Dice still belong in the DIY basement space but with Load Blown they’ve made their most accessible album yet. There’s a lot to grasp onto here (beats, especially) and a lot to get lost within...»
As is usual with Prefuse 73 albums past, Preparations is fairly relentless. A certain tension and tone carry through the album, and while there isn’t much deviation from this aesthetic, it’s an aesthetic well and truly his and his alone...»
From lounges to dancefloors, Bumblebeez blend a not-so-seamless mix of pretty much everything, Chris Colonna tells DiS's Richard MacFarlane: "I pretty much based all my production on the same style. Someone like RZA is a good link, or a lot of the ways that hip-hop music is made. Even if I’m making a rock song, it’ll still be based in hip-hop production..."»
DiS's Richard Macfarlane speaks to Mouse on Mars' Jan St Werner - currently one third of the Mark E. Smith featuring Von Südenfed - about the unlikely collaboration and just why the drums and bass and guitar set-up is, apparently, so much more the 'real deal' than anything else...»
Liquorice Night is a flight of fancy; an awkwardly beguiling, sweet and earnest lullaby...»
DiS's Richard MacFarlane explores the dark new worlds crafted out of silence by Handsome Furs, a husband-and-wife-to-be pair from Montréal comprised of one part Wolf Parade and another author and poet. They say: "There's this insanely loud guitar". We say: yes, there really is...»
The first song on Hope For Men finds Pissed Jeans' Matt Korvette yelling, “I’m not a people person!” over and over in the chorus, and right from the get-go you know that this band fucking mean it. This is certainly an example of lyrics on paper (or screen) not even carrying half the effect of when sung (or shouted, or bellowed even) but, really, this record pulverizes from the very beginning. It means business, that much is sure...»
Night Maps is an extremely apt title for the way this record sounds: it’s all mapped out, never with contrivance or much evidence of just how all its parts fit together seamlessly...»
I tried listening to Omns while falling asleep, although I didn’t have to try as such - it lulled me there easily, gently...»
No Shouts, No Calls is a record that is subtly surprising. It’s a little bit adventurous, capable of surprising sidesteps, but remains safely at home in Electrelane’s own engagingly individual aesthetic...»
Seriously, I don’t know how Yo La Tengo are so good, and I’m gushing, I know; maybe it’s practice, twenty years dedicated to perfection, but I have a feeling that they have something extremely unique and unparalleled, an insight into something...»
Subbed - out Feb 26
After recording an album full of material, Rand and Holland's Brett Thompson scrapped everything to go to work on what is heard here on Caravans. A smart move, it seems, as this is a wonderful record...»
Vashti Bunyan was unreal. It’s tremendous to see her in person, pouring joy into her craft, as if Lookaftering wasn’t staggering enough in its beauty and scope...»
The Shiver Like Timber EP is homemade, so the production is primitive, but the ambition is at the forefront...»
