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Pokey LaFarge Returns to Australia with New Album and a Fresh, Bold Sound – Backseat Mafia
It’s been six years since Pokey LaFarge the smooth-talking, vintage-loving Illinois native graced Australia’s shores. A lot’s changed since 2019, but now, he’s back with Rhumba Country (2024, New West Records), his boldest, most eclectic album to date, promising Aussie fans a night of music that blends old-time charm with bold new experiments. Born Andrew Heissler in Bloomington, Illinois, Pokey got his nickname as a kid when his mother would urge him to stop dawdling. But there’s nothing sluggish about him now. After years of crisscrossing the States in search of a home, LaFarge found refuge in Mid-Coast Maine, working 12-hour days on a local farm. It’s here that he…
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Botany View Hotel and Young Henrys Present Newtown Sound! Gadigal Land/Sydney’s New Music Spotlight – Backseat Mafia
The Botany View Hotel and Young Henrys are teaming up to launch Newtown Sound, a fresh initiative that champions emerging artists while giving Sydney’s live music culture another inner west music-centric event. Starting 31 January, this weekly showcase will take over BVH every Friday night, spotlighting Sydney’s newest talent across indie, punk, rock, electronic, and everything in between. For just $10, we’ll get access to a stacked lineup and some tempting extras: Young Henrys beer specials and bites from The Sunset Diner, all served in the heart of Newtown. Over the next 10 weeks, expect to see acts that’ll make you wish you’d heard them first, from psych-folk to cinematic…
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45s bring the classic soul sound in new single “The Way That I Love You” – Backseat Mafia
Manchester collective The 7:45s are back with their new single, The Way That I Love You, and it’s another step closer to perfecting their classic soul sound. Out January 10th digitally on LRK Records, this relaxed, summery track is drenched in infectious grooves and vintage vibes, and precedes a 7” vinyl release in March With Martin Connor on vocals, the band – and he in particular, deliver a performance dripping with soul. His vocal carries a heartfelt sincerity, while the backing harmonies and warm brass lines sweeten the song’s twists and turns that keeps you hooked. The Way That I Love You nails the balance between authenticity and accessibility, offering…
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More heartfelt hauntological pop from a singular sound artist. – Backseat Mafia
The Breakdown Hive Mind Records – 8.9 There’s something reassuring about the music of sound artist boycalledcrow regularly sneaking through all the noise and getting some attention. It restores faith that singular, outsider work will always find its way to listeners who want something less defined, tinged with eccentricity and creative determination. It also suggests the lineage which extends from Syd Barrett through Ivor Cutler and Robert Wyatt onto Broadcast and Pye Audio Corner right up to Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Cosmo Sheldrake and Sam Lee, still has a healthy pulse. Former folk singer Carl M Knott, now boycalledcrow has been exploring these pastures for a while now, since…
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Rising Bassist Blu DeTiger Brings Her Powerful Sound to Australia – Backseat Mafia
Blu DeTiger is the kind of artist who doesn’t ask for permission to take centre stage—she just picks up her bass and commands it. For a long time, bassists were sidelined, the steady undercurrent beneath the flash of lead guitars and vocalists, but Blu rewrites that narrative with every slick groove. Her Australian debut tour, with stops at intimate venues and a spot at Changing Tides Festival, feels less like a formal introduction and more like a homecoming to those who’ve already felt the pulse of her sound. Born and raised in New York City, Blu has the kind of grit that only comes from playing your first gig at…
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Hiatus Kaiyote Transform the Enmore into a Universe of Sound 20.09.2024 – Backseat Mafia
Hiatus Kaiyote will take the stage at the Enmore Theatre tonight, and the air is thick with anticipation as they’ve recently released their new album ‘Love Heart Cheat Code’, which dropped this past June. First up is Gut Health the dance-punk outfit who are firm favourites at Backseat Mafia. The band recently dropped ‘Stiletto’ of which our reviewer Jess Hutton wrote, ‘Stiletto’ unfolds like a sprawling film score, constantly shifting and twisting, never settling in one place for too long. Tonight Gut Health stun the crowd with their raw, unfiltered energy, a collision of punk, post-punk, and experimental noise that electrifies the room. The Enmore pulses with each chaotic riff…
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Spectacular sound sculptures with an internal energy. – Backseat Mafia
The Breakdown We Are Busy Bodies – 9.1 “Distinctly gifted musician”, “Canadian mainstay”, “master sonic storyteller” are all quotable snippets which journos have rustled up for multi-instrumentalist and composer Colin Fisher. But as you dig into his sprawling catalogue you begin to realise that for once these aren’t empty words, if anything they’re an understatement. Here is a musician who’s been energising the Toronto music scene and beyond for around two decades now. A virtuoso guitarist, acclaimed sax player, drummer and more, a brilliant interpretive improviser, a boundary pushing electronic artist, Fisher’s work confounds easy definition. He’s played alongside Jamie Branch, Joe McPhee, Braxton, Laraaji and Frith as well as…
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Sound artist extraordinaire, Michael Scott Dawson previews new album with the achingly poignant ‘Present Day’. – Backseat Mafia
You could say that Saskatchewan sound artist and producer Michael Scott Dawson is a key contributor to the We Are Busy Bodies catalogue. Since 2020 he’s gifted the label three solo albums and two collections as a lead member of the post rock minimalists Peace Flag Ensemble, but those numbers only hint at his significance. Dawson’s essential artistic restlessness, his progressive shifts from release to release, his commitment to ambient forms and the emotional edge in his music all encapsulate WABB’s core endeavour to “Change the world, one record at a time”. Now comes a heads up from the Toronto curators that a new Michael Scott Dawson album ‘The Tinnitus…
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The Argentinian sound artist’s ambient hymn to a living landscape. – Backseat Mafia
LA based, Argentinian Qoa (aka. Nina Conti) is a digital sound artist and illustrator who focuses on tuning in and responding to the non-human world. That involves the composer’s serious engagement physical and imaginary, with plants and animals, streams and undergrowth, winds and weathers, and from this starting point developing a musical connection with the living planet. Their solo recording ‘Achiyaku’ from 2020 was a devotional to a river’s rhythms and ripples while 2021’s ‘Asteroide’ on Krut Records imagined land and plant forms beyond this planet. Now comes a new Qoa album ‘SAUCO’, out on LA’s reliably nourishing Leaving Records which offers up further evidence of their probing yet playful…
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Ibibio Sound Machine – Koko, London 06.06.2024 – Backseat Mafia
By Henry Groves A slightly different show for me tonight. Tonight, I was at KOKO in Camden for the electro/afrofunk band Ibibio Sound Machine. Before I even got to the venue, I knew this was going to be a night to remember. This was a hometown gig for the band, and people have travelled in their numbers, packing out the iconic Camden venue. Speaking to a few people before the show started, they assured me that this was going to be an incredible show, and that they never disappoint live, and they were not wrong. As soon as they hit the stage, the first thing I noticed were their outfits.…
