In 2021, the Seattle project, NewVersionOfBlue released the EP, Waves, however, in September of 2023, the title track has been given another lease of life, using anime to create an entertaining new video to accompany it.
There is a laid back vibe for “Waves,” with the vocals relaxed and soulful. The waves roll in and out, and this is the same in life with people and events entering our lives and then leaving us, often a little more changed. The song has a groove about it that reminds me a lot of the experimentation of Gorillaz. This is a NewVersionOfBlue floating in the tide of “Waves.”
We are going back in time…well….back to the beginning of 2023, when the single “KillMe” was released on Bandcamp, by Oklahoma artist, SaturnDethroned. I actually know nothing about SaturnDethroned, but I am guessing this is his debut track.
The rhythms from the beginning inform you that this is industrial, with the machine working, to be joined by a growing surge of fuzzing electronics, almost serpentine in its winding sound. “KillMe” grows from slow simple clunks, into a instrumental track that builds like mental breakdown, throbbing and overwhelming. If experimental industrial is your thing, then you are going to get a kick out of the SaturnDethroned track “KillMe,” and the best thing is you can download it off Bandcamp for name your price!
The latest single from RobotsInLove is here, with a video included, for the track “GossipInYourHead.” Ex-pat Aussie, ElenorRaynor, who is based in Ōtepoti (Dunedin), is the driving force behind the project, and the other current members are Alex Burchell on drums, guitarist Pierre Higbee and bassist Tony Lumsden.
“This year, friends The Sound Key played me some of their music and I was particularly enthralled by a song called ‘Gossip in Your Head’, and so it was recorded in the Robots In Love studio with Pierre Higbee on guitars and Alex Burchell on drums. Alex then produced a remix which was even more atmospheric than the original recording, emphasising the haunting vocal harmonies. The depth of emotion in the remix captivated everyone who heard it, and so it became the A-side of the single release: a masterpiece of beautiful dark pop.” – ElenorRayner
The gossamer tendrils of this song are hauntingly beautiful and are only enhanced by Rayner’s delicately phenomenal vocals. The words are weighted by melancholy, as the speaker seems to have an internal discussion, torn by the voices that feed self doubt, plucking at mental health. I love there is such a simplicity to the music that showcases the play between the vocals and guitars. Robots In Love have most definitely brought out the darkness in “Gossip In Your Head,” and it is a jewel of a track.
Label, 4000Records, on September the 1st, saw the debut release of post-punk, Brisbane band, StartTogether, which also, is sadly, their farewell album, called FounderInOddity. The line up for the recording of the album is GerardLawrence (guitar, vocals), EmmaWalton (bass, backing vocals), DemetryMalahoff (guitar, synths) and JamesBoothroyd (drums).
Photo by Madeline Randall
“ImposteringTheNascent” or pretending to come into existence, is the jangle shoegaze filled starting instrumental that introduces you StartTogether, wandering from brusque to enchantingly dreamy. One cannot help if the heart cares, and so there is the sweet “SquireJeffersonCareInstructions“, as the music cries out, while we are introduced to the dulcet vocals of Lawrence. You might think the track “Lookfar” is a quiet affair, but you are plunged into peeling walls of guitars for the chorus and vocals that are filled with longing, and the poetic lines ‘Assemble me Tireless moil And mark An incendiary soul‘ are simply golden.
There is a joy in the music of “SeparateBeds,” yet the lyrics bely this with a certain amount of cynicism, while I hear echoes of TheStrokes mixed with TheChurch. Another instrumental in the form of “Skeptics,” in truly entrancing as the music dances around your ears, propelled by the rhythms conjured by the drums and delightful light guitar that graces your senses, and drops into a murky morass of sound, changing up the feel. Last track is also the title track, and befitting this role, “FounderInOddity” encompasses the essence of StartTogether’s poppy hooks with the robust guitars.
Not the first time 4000Records has brought us a release that marks first and last album of a project, and yet we should be eternally grateful, because they have captured the crux of StartTogether, as well as fellow defunct Meanjin band, BalloonsKillBabies, giving us heavenly slices of glorious brilliance. StartTogether has given you post-punk, drenched in shoegaze goodness and FounderInOddity deserves your utmost attention.
Onyx Music Reviews 