I’m sure I’ve heard of BURNS before but just to recap, this Londoner was born on Halloween and according to Last FM grew up with a mother who was an artist and a father who was a boxer. His music is thus a result of this influence of beauty and power, which comes through in his songs through melodic vocals propelled by a strong electronic beat.

Another collaboration which is a real scene stealer is No One Else, featuring Until the Ribbon Breaks, which has a seductive beat and a cutting but catchy line, “you only thought about yourself”. This is perhaps my favourite of the two releases, but together the songs present a very solid start to the year for BURNS.

I sauntered in late to the opening on 15 March to browse through some very talented and unique works, beer in hand. What I had missed was a spectacular commencement where spotlights gradually introduced the artists’ pieces while a naked guy drank paint. But I didn’t miss out altogether.
Not just a simple theme of the colour red represented through life and death, through a variety of mediums and textures, the artworks depict something more cohesive and, on first impression, a bit bizarre. Shannon Cranko’s creepy installation of babies caught my eye, indicating the direction of the exhibition; the idea that birth, life and death are intricately and possessively linked, such that one cannot function without the inevitability of all three elements. The beauty of such an approach is that this can mean and feel like a number of things to each observer.

I highly recommend this contemporary exhibition. Chloe has an eye for talent and identifies (seemingly with ease) those from whom we can expect more great art to emerge. RED showcases the works of very promising artists from Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra including, Sabrina Baker, Hannah Beasley, Rowena Boyd, Alexander Boynes, Bill Brown & Caryn Griffin, Kieran Bryant, Shannon Cranko, EARS, Alexandra Frasersmith, Sacha Jeffrey, Elizabeth Kenway, Pamela Leung, Viola Nazario, Alexandra Orme, Adam Veikkanen and Celine Roberts.

In attempting to add some musical texture, very probably unnecessarily, I asked Chloe what kind of music might suit such an exhibition. She suggested artists which “have qualities that the show does; like a sense of change or demise (through gravelly or textured sound), a sense of isolation and aggression – anything that conveys the different manifestations of the body like fluids, emotional pain or awakening.”

I immediately thought of Queens of the Stone Age, whose music is at times aggressive and provokes a sinister feeling of departure. I personally felt that RED’s qualities could aptly describe the ritualistic eb and flow of relationships (though certainly not exclusively), so I’ve included below the more poppy Alex Winston, who sings of the return of an unwanted lover in Guts.

RED is showing daily from 3 pm – 6 pm at Nishi Gallery on Kendall Lane in New Acton, Canberra until mid-April. For more information, and in any case, please read Ms Mandryk’s blog, Art on Show.

Queens of the Stone Age – Monsters in the Parasol

Alex Winston – Guts

Never Again is taken from Spender’s debut EP, Modern Pest, out 21st June.

One of my dearest childhood friends made this. Beautiful. themusic.com.au/watch/video/20…

— sia furler (@Sia) March 18, 2013

First track released, Uphill, plays on the cool side, reminding me at once of Jessie Ware.
Maple’s latest leak, Fixed, is moody and unassuming, very trip-hoppy and a little sultry.
In both songs, Maple has taken her mature, deep voice, and introduced a unique and satisfying first listen.
For those lucky enough to be SxSW-ing it this year, she is to make an appearance.

I remember well the times of Sufjan Stevens, when sad emotive music was at every corner and instrumentals plucked at the heart strings to the point of near nausea. But lately sad music is kinda boring. Maybe it’s because I haven’t heard an album’s worth of Daughter’s music all at once but they continue to resonate for a lot of listeners even though they’re focussed primarily on guitar and female vocals. I think their strength is perhaps in their music writing.

I don’t have nearly as many poetic things to say about this song as some reviewers but I will say that the song speaks for itself and is beautiful as expected. The accompanying video plays out like a mythological Greek tragedy and they’ve had a bit of fun with the mise-en-scène, breaking conventions without over-reaching.

Young Galaxy may be an established band but this is the first taste I’ve had and its rolling drums and evocative vocals make for some addictive listening. I will have to look into them further!

Until this point Alpines have proven themselves to be a sexy and seductive duo. This song is their best yet, starting slow and building to a dramatic and memorable crescendo.

Swedish duo, The Deer Tracks, write, perform (with various instruments and vocals) and produce their songs and somehow manage to pull this off without egotisically showing off. If I was going to SXSW (and I’m eternally jealous of those who are!) I would make sure I saw these guys.

Tom Odell – Another Love

I only just realised that the Burberry Acoustic sessions I’ve watched many times before is managed by the clothing line of the same name, haha! Duh! Anyway I was browsing a line of shiny new trenchcoats when I heard this beautiful song by someone I’d not before discovered, Tom Odell. Let’s hope his future releases are just as grand.

Moxi – Terrible Disguise

What a great introduction to this little bird with a broad vocal range! Californian, Anna Nelson, cleverly teamed up with mutli-instrumentalist Andy Toy to perform as Moxi. Working with award winning Bobby Hartry on the debut EP, In My Dreams, Moxi has unveiled itself with an impressive bang.

Skream – Copy Cat (feat. Kelis)

I’m not particularly fond of Skream and have never before heard who Skream is. But I’m always excited to see new Kelis. Fingers crossed she releases some new material of her own in the near future. This song is subtly provocative and… kinda funny.

Bastille – Oblivion

I’m not sure I need to introduce Bastille, who have really made their mark with the incredible pop song, Pompeii. Before releasing their debut album Bastille covered some artists on two free LPs called Other People’s Heartache. These albums indicate how well Bastille identify stirring tunes. Oblivion is as equally moving as the songs covered by Bastille, if not more.

Ava Luna – Ice Level

This is first I’ve heard of Ava Luna and it reminds me a little of Dirty Projectors and is so experimental it borders on pretention.
But they are not completely untethered (the way pretentious music is), strapping down their songs with solid vocals and instruments and playing something pretty unique. Ice Level is like a moulding of two songs, and the listener is bandied between the two wondering where it has left them.

Everyone is talking about James Blake at the moment as the second song in 2013 leaks. Digital Lion suggests Blake may be releasing a more soulful styled album. Sure, he’s always had soul but his songs in the past have been fractured and tumultuous. Though more structured, Digital Lion still experiments with sound, paced much like a train, chugging along and speeding forward at an unstoppable rate.

Excitingly, James Blake will be performing in Australia very soon! Tickets go on sale this Monday 11 March and details are below.

Tuesday 19th March: The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets available from: cornerhotel.com & 1300 724 867

Friday 22nd March: Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
Tickets available from: ticketmaster.com.au & 136 100

Tickets on sale Monday 11th March at 9:00am

Expect a debut album release some time this year.

I quite enjoyed the night life culture in Italy. It was great to see young folk in Milan having a few quiet drinks outside a bar/cafe/cigarette counter, while some older folk downed their post dinner limoncello inside. But no one was disorderly or gross; just the opposite, in fact. Maybe I’m getting older, maybe I’m becoming a prude. All I am really aware of is that Australian blokey blokes are making it increasingly risky to go out at night in our cities here. I’m not preaching. I think it’s great to go out, get drunk and let loose… just not if it makes you an arsehole.

CHVRCHES – Recover

Darwin Deez – Alice

Rihanna – Nobody’s Business (Cousin Coles House Edit)

I haven’t been this excited about an album release in ages! Everything Everything at first seem like an edgy Bloc Party or Two Door Cinema-like band, but as their second album proves, they also have a beautiful crooning and soulful side which reminds me of old Elbow and Doves. Somewhat melancholic and very harmonic but mature, approachable and relatable.
While most songs are guitar-laden and magnetise towards radio rock, strings and electronic keys exalt songs like Duet to the same dramatic and epic heights you would have heard on Elbow’s album The Seldom Seen Kid.
And songs like Feet for Hands remind me of Radiohead’s The Bends. I know I have tossed a lot of comparisons in here but for me some of the best music has clear influences and feels, for the listener, a bit nostlgic. The album as a whole raises the band on its shoulders as a unique and memorable undertaking.

This British collective formed in 2007 and received a stamp of approval by BBC with the pick as ‘Sound of 2010.’ While its great to see that BBC have their finger on the pulse, I would argue that this album makes Everything Everything a strong contendor for the Sound of 2013, though to be fair it is still early in the year.
Lyrically and musically these guys are very world weary, earnestly indicating that their approach is intentionally “highly stylised and deracinated”. I don’t really know what ‘deracinated’ means but I do love a clever and considered vocabulary.

The rhythm and the pace of the lyrics and percussion only further sures up the album’s delivery. This album is full of catchy hooks that will never stagnate or irritate.

I hardly need to endorse this band but I found it too impressive not to post about. For those keen on a free sneak peak, Arc is triple j’s album of the week. Tune in if you’re an Aussie, or check out the Spotify stream triple j usually host.

It’s so easy to vote so I will always vote. And the culling process to ten votes is made easy by the fact that I vote for songs I’ve only heard played on triple j. Anything else feels like a throw-away vote.
I have tried to retain integrity. I have not voted for songs because they will do well, like Holdin’ On (yes I’ve voted for Flume, but not this particular possible number 1 song) and I have not voted for Frank Ocean’s ‘Lost’ which for some reason I feel will do well too. I have really simply voted for my favourite songs of the year, with the exception of a few, like Dems (who wouldn’t make the cut anyway).

This may be the first time I’m mentioning some of these artists on here; I don’t always blog about my favourite songs or albums because they are often covered by other blogs. It’s noisy enough without me throwing in my two cents with the thousands of dollars worth of two cents on the Hype Machine. This post being the exception ha!

With the Hottest 100 I’ve had this theory (the same logical theory I’m sure heaps of others have) that the songs that make up much of the Hottest 100 are on high rotation on triple j. The ever incredible website ‘j play’ has compiled a list of the top 100 high rotation songs in 2012 on triple j. It would be interesting to see if some sort of correlation could be made between the two lists.
My ten votes are below, they are not ranked.

The Presets – Promises

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Household Goods

Calvin Harris – Sweet Nothing (feat. Florence Welch)

Disclosure – Latch

Chvrches – The Mother we Share

Feed Me & Crystal Fighters – Love is All I Got (Larse Remix)

Flume – On Top (feat. T-Shirt)

Rudimental – Not Giving In (feat. John Newman)

Flight Facilities – Clair De Lune (feat. Christine Hoberg)

The year 2012 was supposed to bring about ‘the end of the world’. But here we are compiling ‘best of’ lists as if it were 2011 or 2010 or any other year from when blogging started.
For me it was a big year with my new job travelling to remote Australia, and some pretty crazy stuff happened out there. On Christmas Island the craziness was the wild chickens and many nervous crabs, along with the locals who choose to live somewhere both remote and expensive. There was Darwin, a beautiful developing city, with an odd aggressiveness to it which put me in hospital, and Curtin (two + hours from Broome and teeming with bugs and not much else). Outback Australia is pretty boring.

Between these trips I always had new music; my little place to slip into where I could take my mind off work and remind myself that there is a world bigger than anyone, and where I could worry less about the isolation and the fact that the colleague I’d confided in just caused me some trouble.
Fortunately I have some time off and a Europe trip to look forward to in under a month (not bragging).

Sadly this year I had to retire from BMA Mag as I was travelling too much and had no time for it anymore. But I will always make time for A Has Been, which has fewer deadlines and urgency to write (a blessing and a curse). So this Top Ten is mind to blog, unedited.

10 – Bertie Blackman – Pope Innocent X

Just to get this out of the way, I was a bit annoyed at how physically inaccessible this album was. I liked ‘Mercy Killer’ and loved ‘Boy’ but had to wait until the compact disc (remember them?) was released to listen to them outside triple J. Humph!
But when I FINALLY got my hands on the full album I was delighted to see the direction Bertie Blackman had gone in since I interviewed her. Back in 2009 Blackman had suggested she wanted her music to become more orchestral.
This album, instead, has brought in an uplifting vibe with a deranged cartoon-like church sound. It is as if Blackman was tormented by nightmares and then one night her nightmares turned into cupcakes and she ate them.
A very unusual and satisfying album which I am sure I will listen to beyond its 2012 time.

Bertie Blackman – Accordian Boat

9 – Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Trouble

Well we saw this album coming, each single creeping out month by month. I remember seeing a clip of this guy, Orlando Higginbottom, playing a beautiful song on piano called ‘Stronger’ and what it became once recorded was more beatsy and pretty fun.
He borrows heavily from Hot Chip and this album is mainly singles from two years but there is a diversity to the songs from this album which I can only imagine will be used for many a soundtrack and mixed tape.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Your Love

8 – Big Boi – Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumours

Yes, it’s a new release and maybe it’s too fresh to determine as a ‘favourite’ for the year BUT I had been craving some nineties influence r’n'b pop and Macklemore only served as an appetiser. This is Big Boi at his best, along with the fitting accompaniment of Phantogram, Kid Cudi, Little Dragon and Kelly Rowland.

Big Boi – Lines (feat. A$AP Rocky & Phantogram)

7 – Jessie Ware – Devotion

At first with these songs I thought ‘they’re not bad, but nothing special.’ The songs are memorable of nineties sultry pop but the structure of each song is what makes it such a rewarding listen. You can tell how textured each song has is by the number of remixes purging from Soundcloud. Which means you can expect to hear this shit on the dance floors of many a gay bar (one hopes).

6 – Flume – Flume

This will already be flooding the blogosphere top tens and perhaps this is a result of good media and marketing online. But it is perhaps this very young man’s choice in what to sample that makes the album so deliciously addictive. It shouldn’t matter so much if every arsehole DJ plays this because it’s unique and playful.

Flume – On Top (feat. T. Shirt)

5 – Zedd – Clarity

Although there is an element of Daft Punk in this album, it is perhaps more pop princess dance anthem, which might have Calvin Harris and Example sweating nervously at the competition.
Clarity singularly draws emotion, dance beats and focused song writing into a uniform but unpredictable piece. It was a wise move bringing in Foxes in for the album’s title centerpiece. She’s a little darlin’ and deserves the spotlight.

Zedd – Lost at Sea (feat. Ryan Tedder)

Bat for Lashes – Winter Fields

3 – Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE

This album has already topped a lot of lists so far, but for good reason. From the storyboard ‘Pyramid’, the catchy ‘Lost’ and the Stevie Wonder-esque ‘Sweet Life’ Frank Ocean continues to illustrate his natural affinity for good song writing, evoking a sense of sentimentality across a range of genres.

Frank Ocean – Bad Religion

2 – Twin Shadow – Confess

Maybe it’s cheating to borrow so heavily from the Bowie era and target the major group Gen Y, but Twin Shadow pull it off without sounding like they’re ripping off the iconic eighties figure. What a spectacular array of songs; I love them all in different ways. The slow groove rock really hits me when the mood strikes.

Twin Shadow – Run My Heart

1 – Alt-J – An Awesome Wave

And an awesome album! A lot of hard work has gone into this album. Upon first listen I thought each song was pretty nice. But over time I’ve realised how special this band really is. The grinding smash of ‘Fitzpleasure’ is addictive, the oriental finesse of ‘Taro’ is beautiful, the summery surf sound of ‘Something Good’ lulls without becoming boring, piano always stepping in to sure up the song. Timeless.

Alt-J – Dissolve Me