Tag Archives: featured

Album Review: James Blake ‘James Blake’

February 16, 2011 by Lachy 4 Comments

I suppose you technically have to call James Blake’s music dubstep. But it’s not; not really. I prefer to think of it as minimalist music. It’s what happens when you strip away everything except a single pulsing bass beat, occasionally a bit of synth, and sparse vocals. It’s an antithesis to modern pop music, to grand arrangements and intricate instrumentation. And, as it turns out, it can be pretty damn powerful.

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Album Reviews
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Laneway Review

February 7, 2011 by Lachy 2 Comments

Yesterday, my favourite Australian one-day music festival, Laneway, returned to Melbourne. With a lineup boasting a wide variety of big international acts as well as a few nice surprises, and considering that the festival remained at the same excellent venue as last year (the Footscray Community Arts Centre), Laneway this year looked to be as close to a sure thing as you could possibly get.

And perhaps this is part of the reason why, looking back on my day, I am ever so slightly disappointed. However it’s probably only natural that the festival didn’t meet my lofty expectations after the absurdly good day I had last year, and all in all I still had a great day that was well worth the money, albeit scattered with a few let-downs.

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Gig Reviews
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Gig Review: Sufjan Stevens @ The State Theatre, 31st January

February 2, 2011 by Lachy 5 Comments

“Hello, my name is Sufjan Stevens and I will be your entertainment for the night.”

I can safely say that I enjoyed this show just as much as the Opera House show, and that it was yet another simply magical and flawless set that left the entire crowd in awe of what we had witnessed and in little doubt that we had just seen one of the best musicians in the world.

It was so amazing and so special that even attempting to review it feels a little like trying to describe the indescribable. But here goes.

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Gig Reviews
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Gig Review: Sufjan Stevens @ The Sydney Opera House, 28th January

January 31, 2011 by Lachy 10 Comments

“It’s a long life, only one last chance. Couldn’t get much better, do you wanna dance?”

Sufjan Stevens is basically my favourite person in the world, and I travelled up to Sydney from Melbourne for the sole purpose of seeing him play at the Opera House. Naturally, I thought this show was pretty much the best thing ever. It has already gone down as one of my favourite shows of all time and was among the best two hours of my life, completely justifying the trip up to Sydney and then some.

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Gig Reviews
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My Problems With The Hottest 100

January 31, 2011 by Lachy 4 Comments

Like a lot of people, I was quite disappointed with the Hottest 100 countdown this year, even moreso than I was expecting to be. Ultimately I understand that a countdown this big is never going to perfectly reflect one individual’s taste in music, and that my own taste in music is significantly different to your average Triple J listener, but I still think that there are a few problems with the system.

This is the first editorial-style piece I’ve done for the blog, so bear with me. At the very least perhaps this will spark some interesting debate, and I hope it makes for a good read. It is certainly not intended as a Triple J hater post, because I’m far from that. Anyway, here are some problems are some potential solutions that I have with the polling methodology of the Hottest 100.

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Editorials
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Album Review: Foster The People ‘Foster The People EP’

January 16, 2011 by Lachy 1 Comment

LA band Foster The People confirm their status as one of the acts to watch in 2011 with this exceptional, albeit short, debut EP that makes for essential summer listening.

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Album Reviews
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