Taking the softer moods of Josh Rouse, the accessibility of ‘Gold’ era Ryan Adams and coupling that with narrative drive of Michael McDermott, Garrett Hinson hits upon a winning formula on his second full length album. ‘Nothing Is Destroyed’ serves up a selection of timeless tales and immensely appealing Americana sounds; it’s the kind of record you get halfway through and find yourself wondering why he’s not far better known.
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BEC STEVENS – More Scared Than Me
There are thousands of acoustic singer songwriters out there sharing tales of broken relationships and personal travelogues – those all important journeys of the heart, if you will. On ‘More Scared Than Me’, Australia’s Bec Stevens takes folk pop into very outspoken territory, very much as Frank Turner did on his best-selling break up record ‘Tape Deck Heart’. This is not new ground for folk music, but when delivering such familiar themes from a female perspective, Stevens’s work comes across with an unflinching honesty, resulting in a short collection of songs which should resonate with many listeners.
HECTOR AND THE LEAVES – (interiors)
At the very beginning of 2016, Hector and The Leaves released ‘Little Bee’, a self-financed EP of material drawing influence from The Beach Boys and The Beatles, redressed in singer-songwriter threads, mixing 60s pop with strains of folk from across many decades. While the EP didn’t necessarily gain country-wide recognition, it showed Tom Hector to be a songwriter more than able to take different influences and recycle them with style, while still allowing his own personality to inform the result. Eighteen months on – and after posting a selection of musical sketches and unfinished ideas online – ‘(interiors’), the first proper follow-up, takes more of a lo-fi singer-songwriter path, but the many things that made ‘Little Bee’ worthy of an ear are still very much in evidence.
DEVIL ELECTRIC – Devil Electric
There have been some great stoner and doom bands surface over the first part of the twenty first century. Whether recycling straight up Sabbath-isms, or channelling Fu Manchu-esque dusty grooves that sound like they’ve been borne from a sweaty, clapped out van, this unashamedly retro sub genre of metal rarely disappoints. It’s so often predictable, but that doesn’t diminish from it’s overall power.
Every once in a while, a band appears on the scene that – although still treading a very familiar path – also seems to raise the bar. Such is the case with Devil Electric, a four piece stoner metal outfit from Melbourne whose riffs are so big, they could cause a tremor somewhere in the outback. Their 2016 EP, was hugely enjoyable, but their first full length exceeds expectations.
INDONESIAN JUNK – Indonesian Junk
Whether conjuring memories of ‘Surrender’ by Cheap Trick – the song from which this US band have taken their name – or Manic Street Preachers’ deliberately provocative 1991 single ‘Motown Junk’ (how many bands would dare to snipe “I laughed when Lennon got shot!” in little over a decade since the former Beatle’s assassination?), there’s something edgy and exciting about the word junk. Whether meaning trashy or the slang for heroin, it has a certain connotation. However, Indonesian Junk really aren’t as spiky or as confrontational as their chosen moniker suggests. For this Milwaukee based trio, it’s all about the relatively lo-fi, the fuzzy guitars and a general noise rather than any actual sharp edges, either musically or lyrically.