Welcome back to the Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This time out, we’ve got a really arty track with a strong 70s undercurrent, a disarmingly honest number from a young, up and coming singer-songwriter, some vaguely baroque adult oriented pop, a legendary band fusing different styles in an unexpected way…and more. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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Since the release of their ‘Aloha Moon’ album back in 2012, Magic Wands have been a consistantly reliable source for enjoyable music. Their blend of light electronica and dream pop, at its best, sometimes shares some DNA with the short lived Transister; it sometimes plays like a mix of Garbage, Metric and Elastic Sleep, but wherever the melodies go, they’re always strong – and usually very accessible.
The current single from The Zenith Passage, ‘Fleshbound Reliquary’, isn’t big on accessible melodies, but approached from a purely technical perspective, it’s hard to beat. From the outset, the track comes with absolutely brutal rhythmic work, both from a pneumatic drum part and from some insanely heavy muted guitar chords which come together in such a way, they make the sharp prog metal of peak Symphony X seem half-arsed. Add a little hard edged slap bass and a deeper chug and you already have something that’s absolutely brutal before the death metal influenced vocal arrives.
Around the turn of the millennium, the oddly named Drool Brothers delivered a self-titled debut LP that shared a world of different rock and funk influences to create an interesting listen. ‘Fullerton’ somehow managed to fuse baggy-centric rhythms, garage rock guitars, psychedelic elements and semi-spoken vocals without sounding too messy; ‘Happiness Fair’ filled a couple of minutes with heavily treated voices and dance-y beats; ‘Can’t Lick It’ threw a world of fuzz guitar over an upbeat groove and peppered with it with a world of surf tinged melodies and a keyboard sound that felt as if it paid homage to ‘Schoolhouse Rocks’; ‘Blue Velvet Pig Mask’ sounded like a Funkadelic tribute, by way of a rock band deep into experimentation. Better yet, the album’s stand out, the effortlessly cool ‘Lay With It’, worked keys and horns into a soul groove that paid homage to Jr. Walker & The All Stars. There might be many words to sum up such a record, but “eclectic” fit the bill better than most, and while it didn’t always sound like the creative endeavours of the same band, somehow, the Brothers managed to make it all work.
Shannon Smith’s breakthrough single, 2023’s ‘Dance The Night Away’ introduced the Australian singer songwriter in fantastic style. The track’s upbeat nature, driven by stabbing keys, bright horns and a shamelessly infectious, wordless chorus presented a near perfect homage to the AM radio sounds of the past. It would have been easy for him to follow that with something equally uplifting, but instead, he chose to explore moody balladry and country influences on the tracks that followed.