Montpelier... timeless Australian indie-pop.

If I was a thoughtful, modern man and wanted to be a band with integrity and class (and I was a good singer and could write great music) then I'd probably record earnest songs about love with subtle string arrangements and slow building crescendos. I'd also set them to uncomplicated visually arresting film clips which are about love too. Wouldn't you?

There's something about Montpelier which to me smacks of class. The name of the band, the beautiful packaging of their EP, the unresolved nature of the love story in this film clip and their songwriting. There's a subtlety there that tells me that they think hard about their music, their web presence and themselves. Big things I reckon, that's what's going to happen to Montpelier.

I had the pleasure to attend the Fuse Festival last week in Adelaide. 2 days and 2 nights of workshops, talks and gigs. Meetings, negotiations, mentorships, roundtables, dinners, beers, wine, circus tents, The Adeliade Fringe Festival, The Adelaide Festival the Australian Performing Arts Market... Adelaide's a vibin place at this time of the year, it certainly didn't leave that much time for sleep, but whatever... who am I to complain? It was rad and I was lucky to be there.

This blog is going to feature some of the incredible live music we saw at the festival...

So, first cab of the rank is The Swiss... You'll have to excuse me for not being a dance aficionado but last time I heard something this groovy, something that made me want dance like this was at Meredith Music Festival watching Henrik Schwartz (he's a legend, an innovator, a master of original house music... apparantly, ahem...). That's a big compliment. The time before that, that I had that much fun listening to music like this was... ummmm... never!

The Swiss won a trip to The Great Escape in Brighton, England after playing a deft set of live dance music and being the highlight of The Fuse's 'Explode' showcase. It ain't as bombastic as many of their Australian dance music contemporaries, in fact sometimes they're deliciously restrained. There's real class on display here.

The clip is kind of hypnotic... kind of silly, not all that subtle but there's no doubt that it works.

Amongst this years nominees for The 2009 Australian Music Prize was a name that I wasn't all that familar with. Next to the gorgeous production of Oh Mercy, Sarah Blasko and Lisa Mitchell, the dark synth-pop of Bertie Blackman and the blues-rock of The Mess Hall , Lucy Thorne was a relatively unknown quantity.

So, I allowed myself a listen.

Beautiful, sparss instrumentation accompanying such sweet sorrow. I've got to thank the Australian Music Prize for pointing me in this direction.

Dripping with meloncholy and reverb, her deep voice and understated delivery makes you want to sit in a corner and cry, in a good way. Lucy makes me marvel at the power of a song, a collection of words put together with a collection of musical notes, in a three minute package and delivered with startling honesty. A great can stop a person in their tracks.

I shouldn't have been suprised, her label (Vitamin Records) has a brilliant hit rate. In fact the last time I was blown away by a band like this was while listening to Lucy's labelmates Tinpan Orange.

Lucy Thorne's Myspace lists her great reviews, it's a long page - here are some of them.

"There are only two people in the room when you're listening to this album: Lucie Thorne and you. There is such an intensity of feeling here...moody folk, country noir...a collection of stories that speaks small but resonates much bigger. Thorne marks out her space with some fabulous sensuality."
Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald. Feature Album, March 2009

"Thorne writes some of the most simple and beautiful songs you will hear."
****, The Age

 Anyway, After I watch this clip I'm going straight to the shops to buy her album. Brilliant.

I remember reading a review of Pikelets performance at a festival. I'm not sure if it was Laneway Festival or perhaps something smaller and less hip. Whatever it was, the author noted that Pikelet would have won the award for best use of a loop station... if there was such an award...

Hang on. A loop station? I LOVE loop stations! (I'd long struggled to master my own loop station, along with contact microphones and a vibraphone). I'd known of Pikelet as the former friend of a friend called Evelyn. I'd never even met her but here she was, blowing my mind through a review as an artist of some critical acclaim having mastered a loop station. 

Pikelet is a bit of an enigma, I first came across her when she was playing drums for a hip hop band. That was before Australia's whiteboy funk/hip/hop jazz explosion in the early 2000's. It totally floored me to hear that she now spent her time playing with an accordion, a bunch of toys, drums, glockenspiels, pedals and liberal use of a loop station.

 It also turns out that I completely missed the fact that she's spent the interim in a bunch hardcore bands...

To listen to her new album is to enjoy the fruits of Pikelet's creativity, patience and sense of humour. Some gorgeous tinkling here,  a deft touch on a harp there, warm synths, guitars, harmonies built upon loops and the military pounding of a drum, all crafted into a pop song. It sounds restrained and intricate but when she throws her head back and sings it also sounds just like the sun has come out.

So, imagine CoCo Rosie - in northcote, wearing cardigans having a musical conversation with Sally Seltmann. I feel enchanted.

Pikelet's new album Stem (Chapter Music/Love and Mercy) sees her move from a solo artist with some great tricks to an artist with a maturing voice, more confident in her songwriting and ready for the world to stand up and take notice.

Check Pikelet out at http://www.myspace.com/ovalyn

There was a time when MTV was still actually playing music and Australia only had 1 touring summer festival...

That was about 20 years ago, when flannel was last in fashion and Nirvana, REM, Alice In Chains, Eric Clapton and any other band that had made their reputation playing rock would get all sensitive and soft for an intimate (and usually wildly popular) unplugged gig.

The concept was pretty simple. Replace the amplifiers with acoustic guitars and a string section, play in a seated theater and let the music speak for itself. Listening back to some of those recordings it's clear that great songs, stripped of studio trickery, compression and distortion allow the listener to hear the music in a new light. And allow the artist to give their audience something new or perhaps even find something in their own music that they didn't know existed.

For Birds Of Tokyo, I can't imagine that the decision to reignite the concept and go unplugged would have been too difficult. At the core of Birds Of Tokyo's sound is classic, melodic songwriting and Ian Kenny's astounding voice which in these recordings is nothing short of breathtaking. Birds of Tokyo played a sold out national tour with a string section, a pianist, a set of brushes for the kit and an array of accoustic guitars, 12 strings, banjos and ukulele. It's clear they took great care in re-arranging their songs for the show, this was no token effort.

Now released on CD and DVD, its a must for any fan and certainly something that might pique the interest of music fans that have previously given The Birds Of Tokyo a wide berth.