October 21 2016 - Hot Top Ten

TRACK OF THE WEEK
NVDES - 8AM
A Little Indie Track Of The Day earlier this week, the LA project produced and co-performed by Josh Ocean impressed us on first hearing of this propulsive, electronic-pop fizz-banger new single, the first track from debut EP 'Life With Lobsters', due November 18 via B3SCI Records.




BAD PONY - BOTTLES
Released this week, the Sydney-based indie-rock five-piece self-produced fusion of fuzzy synths, explosive drums and Jarred Young providing the singalong vocals on this catchy jangle a la Foals number.




SLOW RIOT - ABSENT DREAMS
New single - released November 18 via Killing Moon Records and produced by Kevin Vanbergen (The Pixies, The Maccabees, Biffy Clyro)- shows the Irish three-piece follow 'Trophy Wife' with more of the band's dark and anthemic post-punk. Vocalist/lyricist Niall Clancy describes the song as "about reaching the realisation that those who affect your life negatively don't need to be tolerated. It's about looking for reasons to hold onto the past and not finding any".




MARA - OPEN UP MY EYES THEY ARE CRYING ALL THE TIME
Little Indie first introduced the then 16-year-old Sydney musician Mara Schwerdtfeger back in 2014, when she had put out her 'Get Lost In The Night' album. Now this week she follows that with her second album 'Liquid', from which this dark, experimental and rather eerie, track comes. Compared to fellow contemporary Lupa J, she bleeds acoustic with electronica, viola and violin to electronically manipulated sounds, to mix with her own delicate vocal to create a soundscape that is as interesting as it is hypnotic.




BLEACH GIRLS - LIKE YOU
Debut single from Aussie (Byron Bay-based) beach-punk/garage-rock duo, lifted from their forthcoming debut EP ‘Hi!’ due next month. The track takes fiery, lo-fi punk to meld with pop sensibilities across two minutes of high velocity energy.




HAARM - IN THE WILD
The Liverpool four-piece follow their debut ‘Foxglove' with this new six minute long, grandly epic, Massive Attack influenced single, available digitally from November 18. If they keep this kind of exquisitely textured quality up they'll be a force to reckon with in 2017. Catch live on October 30 at the Arts Club Loft, Liverpool.




CURELIGHT WOUNDS - SALTED HOUR
Lead single (released this week), from the Brooklyn psych-gazers' new 'Wearing The Strings' EP which is out November 1, which nails shoegaze, feedback, and distorted vocals. The follow-up to this year's 'Strange Collapse', written, recorded and mixed by Steve Schwadron in between tours as the bassist for Dead Leaf Echo.




DARLING JAMES - GOD'S GRAFFITI

Released today, former frontman of Melbourne's The Boat People, James O’Brien, drops this third single from his debut EP 'Theory Of Mind', out November 18. Zither, marimba, piano, a fuzzy guitar solo are just part of this bouncy little number.




AFFAIRS - LIFE OF LEISURE
Fierce Panda latest signings released this new single earlier this week, the follow-up to 'Runaway' from this summer. The Manchester-based five-piece once again on fine form as they shimmy through three minutes of 80s-influenced synths with a high-end chorus. "So where do we go from here?" asks James Robinson on that deep, but s bit dark too, tone. To the top, we'd say. While comparisons abound to the Smiths, give it a year or two and it could well be Affairs that are being name-checked.




MAGIC BRONSON - WHAT A WEEK
New single from the LA electronic duo  - Michael Nicastro and Matthew Lieberman after their self-titled debut EP from earlier this year. Lush 'ooohs', lush synths, highly infectious, woozy  vocals and pulsating beat ...what a song.