Magichour, the self-titled debut release from acclaimed songwriting duo Ian Housten Shadwell and Gemma Deacon is an intricate tapestry of sounds wrapped into dreamy pop songs. Gemma and Ian are best known as the songwriting team behind iconic Sydney acoustic pop classicists, Cactus Child.
Magnet / Where happiness Lives I have always had a deeply sentimental side, the kind of cloying cry in the movies kind of girliness that has marked me as a soft cock lover of the acoustic ballad, and they don’t come anywhere softer or more ballad like than this fingerpicked folk paen to a lost love. It became the soundtrack for a particularly difficult break up in which I would press replay with a Pavlovian frequency, each time feeling the tears well in my eyes with a delicious sadness. My own instincts aside and I can recommend it you as a very pretty song indeed by someone who I think is more or less unknown outside of his native Denmark.
Boasting members of Serena Maneesh, Harry’s Gym and Danielson, revolving around frontman and songwriter Frode Stromstad — with the album’s supporting cast including Sufjan Stephens and Gary Olsen of Lady Bug Transistor — I Was A King are a misty eyed pop-gaze of West Coast harmonies and ringing Rickenbacker. They have just released a new single — Norman Bleik — through Sonic Cathedral.
Flaming Lips / Slow Nerve Action The last song out on one of my favorite Flaming Lips albums, Transmissions From The Satellite Heart. I think Flaming Lips are responsible for creating the coolest drum sound ever.
Moriarty may just be France’s best kept secret — although not in their homeland where their album Gee Whiz But This Is A Lonesome Town has gone gold. Taking their cue from the worlds of Depression era American folk and European cabaret, this stripped-back ensemble comprises four men on various acoustic instruments fronted by the stunning and haunting vocals of the enigmatic Rosemary. Singing in English and with a Natalie-Merchant- meets-early-Neil-Young sound that’s been variously described as folk, country, blues, jazz and even Americana, the one absolute of the somewhat mysterious group Moriarty is that their sound is irresistible.
Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht / Alabama Song I imagine Weill and Brecht in a club in LA in the 60s, listening to The Doors playing a weird version of their Three Penny Opera song.
Firekites, from Newcastle, Australia, have a beautiful album, The Bowery, which is earthy, organic and delightfully unrefined. Across the gentle folky acoustic-based songs you can hear the subtle sound of the fingers sliding across the guitar frets, the gently whispered vocals, which hint at secrets and cheeky serenades, and the sense of soulful introspection that tangles itself elegantly amongst its minor chord tapestry.
Whitest Boy Alive / Golden Cage This song really is a stand out for these guys. Clearly captured instruments knitting sharply together, great lyrics, amazing film clip.
Born the youngest child of two blind parents, William Fitzsimmons was raised in the outskirts of the steel city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Due to the family’s inability to communicate through normal visual means, William’s childhood home was filled with a myriad of sounds to replace what eyes could not see. The house was suffused with pianos, guitars, trombones, talking birds, classical records, family sing-a-longs, bedtime stories, and the bellowing of a pipe organ, which his father built into the house with his own hands. When his father’s orchestral records were not resonating through the walls, his mother would educate him on the folk stylings of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel. By the completion of his youth and schooling, Fitzsimmons had become well-versed at a variety of instruments, at the minor expense of social standing, and a knowledge of proper shaving technique.The Sparrow & The Crow is out now on Mercer Street/Downtown through Inertia.
Sun Kil Moon / Carry Me Ohio The first Sun Kil Moon record was actually my initial introduction to Mark Kozelek’s music. His voice is utterly recognizable, calm but very communicative, and the economy of speech in this tune is brilliant. I connect strongly with regret songs, and this one is dripping with it. This song helps me connect pieces from my past I might be tempted to too quickly forget.
Vandaveer is the alt-folk song singing/record making/globetrotting project penned and put forth by DC-by-way-of-Kentucky tunesmith Mark Charles Heidinger. The son of a preacher, whose father was a gambler, whose father was both judge and US Congressman, Heidinger one day found himself in possession of a golden pocket watch owned, wound, and regularly counseled by each in this paternal line. On the backside of the watch was a family name engraved, passed down for more than a century like the timepiece that followed. That name was Vandaveer. Vandaveer will release Divide & Conquer through Supply and Demand Music on August 25.
Elvis Perkins / Shampoo This is the first track on Elvis’ new record, and it bites and lurches with intensity. Black is the color of a strangled rainbow, as Perkins rightly points out. Why isn’t a song like this topping the charts? I just don’t get it.
Founded by French musicians Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, Nouvelle Vague have used a variety of female singers including Alexandra Pavlou, Mélanie Pain, Marina Celeste and Phoebe Killdeer for their unique acoustic covers of classic New Wave 80s tunes.
The Beach Boys / God Only Knows One of the most beautiful pop songs a human being can hear. The chord sequence was, is, and will always be, stunning.
Named after the patron saint of outsiders, taboo subject matter and general disorder, Gang Gang Dance’s new album, Saint Dymphna is a stunning follow-up to the critically acclaimed, God’s Money. With cinematic production — characterised by 1970s Brian Eno intricacy and 2000s Timbaland immediacy — Saint Dymphna is Gang Gang Dance’s finest work to date.
Ryuichi Sakamoto / Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence From the soundtrack with the same name as this. It’s just an amazing piece of music: serene, austere (in a heavy, beautiful way), emotional, a great mix of electronic sounds, patient, and a wonderful melody, with a quality of yearning for a better place. Every time I listen to this song, it puts me in a trance.
Most people got their first taste of Australian singer-songwriter Josh Pyke’s music with the release of his exceptional ARIA Award winning debut album, Memories and Dust. But we knew of him way back in the day when he was the frontman for the sadly before-its-time Sydney rock band, An Empty Flight. His latest solo album, Chimney’s Afire, is another collection of fluid, sanguine, and deeply personal music from one of Australia’s finest young songwriters.
Arcade Fire / Antichrist Television Blues I love all the songs from Neon Bible, but the frenetic nature of this song gets my blood pumping. I saw these guys at Glastonbury last year, as well as on the Big Day Out tour of Australia, and I came to realise they are probably the best band in the world right now.
Singer-songwriter Yoav takes his disparate cultural heritage — predominantly Israeli and South African — and mixes it all up into a compelling musical montage of beats and acoustic instrumentation, all whipped into shape by his hauntingly beautiful voice.
Radiohead / Idioteque I’ve been listening to this exhaustively as I am working a cover of it up at the moment. I love the breakbeat and the strange time signature, as well as all the sonic weirdness going on around Thom Yorke’s voice. The lyric seems to be a very prescient, yet not a preachy lament about the human race destroying itself.
My Secret Playlist is a music discovery website and weekly email publication. We invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. These are their words on the music that inspires them.
