polaroids of androids

Jul 4, 2008

Girl Talk
Feed The Animals

6.5

This is just a mixtape. Well, actually, it's better than a normal mixtape because the song changes every 7.2 seconds. It's maybe a mixtape for people with short attention spans. Short attention spans and a love of pop music and crunk. But, yeah, it's just another boring mash-up mixtape. [Read More]

Jul 3, 2008

Wolf Parade
At Mount Zoomer

9.1

If this humble little website was around back in 2005, when Wolf Parade's debut Apologies to the Queen Mary was released, it would have been the first bona-fide 10/10 rating we would have ever given. While the process of numerically rating things on an arbitrary scale is at best a weak indication of someone's opinion on an object's inherent quality and at worst a completely meaningless waste of space, I still feel that the fact that I am still as comfortable with that rating 3 years down the track as I would have been then definitely indicates something about the sheer excellence of the record. Even more so when considering the fact we are notoriously inconsistent with our ratings. [Read More]

Jun 28, 2008

Violent Soho
We Don't Belong Here

7.7

I recently went down to my local Lowes outlet and bought a flannelette shirt, which I am led to believe is now more commonly known as a 'flano'. I was completely unaware that hipster kids had taken back the whole homeless man/grunge movement until the next day when someone accused me of being a 'trendy cunt'. This is not too far removed from my initial reaction to Brisbane's Violent Soho. [Read More]

Jun 26, 2008

Lil Wayne
Tha Carter III

7.8

After a steady run of mixtape marketing over the past few years the current 'hottest rapper in the galaxy' delivers a record that acts as a fantastic summary of everything that is so damn great about the young veteran. While originally trapped under the Cash Money / Mannie Fresh sound, this record, along with the remarkable, Tha Carter II, sees the rapper expand his sound and comfortably fit his often insane lyrical gymnastics over the wide spectrum of differing styles that feature across the record's seventeen tracks. [Read More]

Jun 26, 2008

Ghosts Of Television
Furthest Village From The Sun

8.2

Much like their live show, which sees each member swap instruments at least 153 times, Ghosts Of Television's latest EP is a chaotic and morphing journey. Across the four tracks the band change direction at every opportunity, mixing influences and ideas in a beautiful, natural way. This isn't as disjointed or confused in it's direction as it sounds, but rather shows off a band that isn't afraid to muddle things up and get lost within their own sound as they continually change the location of the goal posts, the rules of their own game and their preferred method of attack. [Read More]

Jun 25, 2008

theredsunband
The Shiralee

6.2

Sydney's theredsunband are a great band. Their sound, built around multi-layered harmonies laced over often stark, haunting landscapes, is not only their own unique style but also very rarely misses connecting with the 'sweet spot'. [Read More]

Jun 24, 2008

Le Kingste
Le Kingste

5.4

This six-track EP opens with a song called Eustace, which sputters into life with, what sounds like, an electronic squeak of pain. This makes way for a drum build-up and a grinding guitar riff, before settling on a harmonised, flower-cloud floating vocal track laid over a stripped-back minimal landscape. The vocals then abruptly build with theatrical grandeur, before dying right back down. It took Le Kingste all of two minutes to completely destroy any possible predefined judgments that I may have had. [Read More]

Jun 20, 2008

Frightened Rabbit
The Midnight Organ Fight

7.8

The sophomore effort, The Midnight Organ Fight, from young Scottish band Frightened Rabbit strays away from the whiskey infused garage rock numbers of their first album Sing The Greys and into a world where, while the exterior appears gentler, the interior that is being masked is much more serious and oftentimes is harsher than before. [Read More]

Jun 19, 2008

The Herd
Summerland

4.6

Those that know me know that I love hip-hop. In fact, I was a wanksta for around 94% of the nineteen naughtiez, stuck in the thinking that KRS-One, Snoop Doggy Dogg (yes, only with the 'Doggy' part), Dr. Dre and Nas were modern day poets. I pretty much ignored local rap music during this time, seeing it more as a novelty ("scollops with the lot" anyone?) than on the same level as their overseas counterparts. As the 21st century approached my music taste expanded into 'smash shit' punk, 'indie' rock and became more focused on what was happening in my own backyard. Naturally, it was only a matter of time until local hip-hop caught up with my merging tastes, and groups like the Hilltop Hoods, Butterfingers and Sydney's The Herd came onto my radar. [Read More]

Jun 15, 2008

Eddy Current Suppression Ring
Primary Colours

8.3

The music of Melbourne's Eddy Current Suppression Ring conjures up images of sweaty pubs, inner city shortcuts, smashed pots of beer and wasting away a Tuesday afternoon on cheap jugs. Sadly, these are fading visual references to Australian rock in 2008 where work for the dole schemes, rising interest rates and MySpace seem to have all but suffocated the life out of the blue collar side of local music. No where more-so than Sydney does this concept feel so foreign, as it often seems as though the only bands who are regularly putting on shows are hipster rip-off hacks and kids from the rich part of town who discovered Television via that cool kid at high school. [Read More]

Jun 13, 2008

Sparkadia
Postcards

7.8

I was beginning to think that the Australian music community wasn't capable of producing music that was both commercially appealing and possessing an element of depth and substance. Enter Sparkadia, who create songs that are catchy as hell, yet delivered with just enough emotional connection to make them sound believable and sincere. On this, their debut record, previously released tracks such as Morning Light and Animals find themselves snuggly aligned amongst fresh tunes like the bittersweet theatrical wonder - Connected. The result is an album that flows smoothly and above all showcases just how great this band is at doing what they do. [Read More]

Jun 5, 2008

WOW
Common Species

8.2

It's because of groups like WOW that I find electronic pop chart-toppers like The Presets and Cut Copy so incredibly dull. Whilst technically pigeonholed in the same field, the Sydney duo separate themselves from the others by creating music free of tiresome cliches and overly obvious influences. The two tracks on this, their debut 7" release, literally burst out of the speakers with hard disco punches and pop sensibility. [Read More]

Jun 2, 2008

Snowman
The Horse, The Rat and The Swan

9.5

The Horse, The Rat and The Swan sounds as though it was recorded in a single weekend. This isn't to say that the album sounds rushed or unfinished - far from that in fact, some details seem to have been painfully slaved over - but more that the record perfectly captures a specific moment. This record is the documentation of the events that occurred when the band locked themselves in a supposedly haunted castle and scared themselves shitless for 48 hours. It's the reinterpretation of a fictional story where the line between mystic worlds and real life is blurred. It's spooky. It's scary. It's undeniably brilliant. It's quite possibly the hardest record ever to explain without over-the-top descriptive tom-foolery. [Read More]

Jun 2, 2008

Nine Inch Nails
The Slip

5.7

Trent Reznor's a pretty good guy to be a fan of. Of late, Nine Inch Nails enthusiasts have been treated to copious amounts of free or cheap music, special artwork, limited edition box sets, USB drives full of music left in public bathrooms, cryptic guessing game marketing campaigns and a ton of shows. [Read More]

May 29, 2008

{{{Sunset}}}
Bright Blue Dream

8.1

Sound Team self-released many CD-R's and cassettes prior to laying down tracks for their Capitol-released full-length, Movie Monster, in 2006. A promising major-label debut for the Austin, Texas band was almost certain. [Read More]

May 27, 2008

The Futureheads
This Is Not The World

4.1

Back in 2004 when The Futureheads released their self-titled, semi-Gang Of Four produced, debut record it was a different time. Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park and a brazzzillion other Brit-pop re-inventors were playing a dominant role in the pop-rock genre and record companies were falling over themselves to sign any band that produced a similar catchy style. Two years later, when The Futureheads released News and Tributes, a recycled, weaker version of their debut, the game had changed and people had grown tired of the catchy-stylish-geezer-rock genre. They failed to re-invent, move their style forward and thus the result was a piss-weak, half-assed offering to an audience that was no longer lapping up the sound. They were dropped from their label as a result and now, another two years on, release their third album, on their own Nul Records. [Read More]

May 24, 2008

No Age
Nouns

9.3

The notable increase in substance between this and No Age's 2007 singles collection, Weirdo Rippers, is evident right from the get-go. Miner, a short, noise-drenched two minute wonder, bursts to life as the fuzzy melody absorbs everything. The vocals are buried deep, almost indistinguishably, under the thick layer of guitar feedback. It's a great spurt of energy and kicks off what is a mighty impressive album. [Read More]

May 24, 2008

Tapes 'n Tapes
Walk It Off

5.4

In iTunes (or whatever is your music application of choice) chances are the default genre that is assigned to Tapes 'n Tapes when you add them to your computer is 'over-hyped'. It's not the Minneapolis-based band's fault that the internet masturbated to death over them a few years back and not really too much of a surprise that their sophomore album hasn't received the same 'blog juice' that their initial wave of success did. [Read More]

May 20, 2008

Portishead
Third

9.0

Ten years. Ten whole fucking years to make one album. [Read More]

May 20, 2008

Songs
Songs

7.8

Sydney four-piece, Songs - who recently took out the award for 'hardest band to Google' - mix unbelievably addictive riffs with incredibly addictive choruses to create songs that are really addictive. It's kind of like Heath Ledger in that movie Candy (too soon?) where he couldn't stop taking drugs, so much so that some might say he was 'addicted'. Even when he moved to the country to get clean and hang out with that guy that looks like Bert Newton's son he couldn't clean up his act. Yeh, Songs are like so addictive that even if Matty 'Punch' Newton's doppleganger had made a beat-boxing cameo appearance it would remain unscathed. [Read More]