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.
It is 30 years since Visage released the seminal Fade To Grey. It was a huge dance floor hit, topping the charts in the UK and Europe. To celebrate this anniversary, Universal Music have announced the release of The Very Best of Visage, updated with 2009 remixes of Fade To Grey by Michael Gray – of The Weekend and Borderline fame, and Lee Mortimer, AKA Sawtooth Sucka and resident Ministry of Sound DJ, alongside the group’s complete chart topping hit singles and some of the classic and highly sought after original remixes and 12” versions.
Deadmau5 / Faxing Berlin This track introduced me to Deadmau5 and I have been an avid fan ever since. He is the only DJ I have gone to see perform. To people who came for his music, his gigs at 02 club “matter“ and at The Roundhouse in London, the sound and lights were the stuff of my dreams from my early ecstasy trips at acid house parties.
Before Yeti Lane, there was Cyann and Ben. The four-piece were signed to the legendary Gooom Disques label alongside M83 and between 2004 and 2006 released three albums of fantastic, folk-inflected space-rock that, despite the proselytising of Pitchfork, went woefully under appreciated. Then, just as they started work on album number four, Cyann quit the band, forcing Ben (vocals, guitar, synths), along with LoAc (vocals, guitar, synths) and Charlie (drums, percussion, synths), to make a fresh start as Yeti Lane. The unusual name was chosen to echo releases by both Amon Düül II and The Beatles, which also rather conveniently sums up their new sound.
Pavement / The Hexx A song on their final album, Terror Twilight. I really appreciate the guitar parts and how it repeats in the song. It’s so insistent, until it becomes a maelstrom that carries away the listener. Even the drums accentuate those parts. This is one of the best Pavement songs for me.
We Fell To Earth’s debut album contains grains of that desert night ambiance. Richard and Wendy’s way with harmonies is almost ecclesiastical on the likes of Lights Out, but tasty electronics are never far away, notably on the pulsing, bleeping Sovereign.
David Bowie / Heroes Dreamy. This song puts me in a good mood. I love to blast it and chase the animals around the house. They like it too. I love the desperation in his voice in the last verse. It makes me wish I was him.
Australian rockers Powderfinger’s new album Golden Rule was again recorded with Nick DiDia, who was responsible for their massively successful Internationalist, Odyssey Number Five, and Vulture Street albums. The band are the headliners for the Big Day Out and Homebake, and are also curating a festival in Brisbane.
Rolling Stones / Gimme Shelter From the guitar intro solo genius and riffing, through Mick’s insightful lyric, to when Mary Clayton’s spine chilling vocals break at the peak of the song, it is a benchmark for me as to how a song can have restraint and be heavy at the same time. It wreaks of a band in fine form. I’m also a sucker for a dirty harmonica. Give me dirty harmonica!
Recently signing to Kanine Records in the USA (Chairlift, Grizzly Bear), and Speak n Spell in Australia and New Zealand, Zaza is the musical union of Jennifer Fraser and Danny Taylor, both West Coast transplants who connected by fate in New York.ZAZA resides in Brooklyn. They are a musical marriage of Jennifer P. Fraser and Danny Taylor. They write for each other, they write about each other, they write to exalt and exact the other. And they hope it turns you on, too.
David Bowie / Heroes This song, any version really, is so stately and ceremonious that I have, on many occasions, pronounced that this song would either be my wedding song or my funeral song. Whatever came first.
The Lovehammers feature ex-LA GUNS front man Marty Casey. Their new record, Heavy Crown, was released recently.
Ladyhawke / My Delirium I love this tune because Ladyhawke so confidently sings about being thrown through the wringer. I love the driving rhythm and the tone of the guitars. This songs just kicks my ass!
Brooklyn’s The Jaguar Club have been playing around the city for a couple of years and have just finished up their debut album, which they recorded with Kevin McMahon (The Walkmen, Die Die Die, Frightened Rabbit) at Marcata Recordings. Their debut is full of perfectly crafted New Wave pop songs, with Will Popadic’s vocals soaring above it all.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere Picking one Neil Young song to talk about is an impossible task for me. This song is a great one to pull out when people complain that Neil is all about one note solos that last ten minutes. I also love the solos, and there are plenty of those later on this album, but the title track is a great little three minute country rock song. Everyone can relate to a little homesickness.
It’s been an action packed journey for Tiny Masters Of Today. Almost overnight, the band went from a few homemade recordings on a MySpace page to collaborating with Karen O and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fred Schneider (B-52s) and Gibby Haynes, being remixed by CSS and Liars, and touring the world. David Bowie even praised their first homemade single as ‘Genius’. Not bad for a band that double as full-time students in the New York Public School System. Their new album, Skeletons, has just been released on Mute.
Green Day / 2000 Light Years Away My favorite Green Day love song. I have a Green Day pillow case of this album cover.
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.
