Lists: 2013 in Musical Review (Revue?)

Musically, 2013 has been about writing towards a new Wasp Summer album (which we’re thinking of calling Mitropa – listen to some demo tracks)  and booking shows for amazing acts through Sofa Salon and A Headful of Bees. 2014 will definitely be about recording and touring and much, much less about booking for other people.

In regards to concerts, it was a good year. I’ve seen great, moving small-scale shows this year. Look these artists up: Lindsay Phillips, Gillian Grassie, Roland Satterwhite, Elyas Khan, Ben Salter, Liz Stringer, Pinto, Kini Mod, PHIA, Bernhard Eder and Vincent Long, amongst others.

I saw great club, arena or festival shows from Oneida, The Re-Mains, The Knife, Brandt Brauer Frick, Hans Unstern, Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, Mudhoney and Everything Everything.

So to my list of my favourite songs of 2013, in no particular order, plus five songs that found their home in my head in 2013:
Dancing Suns – Tarnished
Ben Salter – The Prophetess
Dead Sentries – Nowhere is Home
Elyas Khan – Bells
Everything Everything – Cough Cough
FKA Twigs – Papi Pacify
Jimmy Tait – All My Friends
Lindsay Phillips – The Crossing
Neko Case – Where Did I Leave That Fire?
PHIA – Do You Ever?

Ainslie Wills – Fighting Kind
Brandt Brauer Frick – Skiffle It Up
HAIM  – Forever
Kat Frankie – Please Don’t Give Me What I Want
Jens Friebe – Neues Gesicht

Happy listening and a Guten Rutsch.

Cheers,
Samantha

Music that moved me in 2011- Part Two

Part 2 of my music of 2011.

Brian Campeau – Reinventing Myself from Mostly Winter Sometimes Spring
I heard Brian’s music for the first time this year. And fell hard for this track in particular. The Sydney-based Canadian is in possession of the most heavenly male voice since Jeff Buckley and the music on this track is somewhat akin to the pastoral folk of Fleet Foxes but with more emotionally pointed lyrical content. He plays with Elana Stone in The Rescue Ships – a fantastic pairing.

David Creese – When You Were A Man from When You Were A Man
David is, in my opinion, one of the finest lyricists in Australia, making delicate, minutely observed, dark and often darkly witty vignettes. From behind the drums, David fronted one of my all-time favourite Australian bands, The Dumb Earth. Late in 2010, he released a solo album under his own name and on it, David’s warm, vernacular voice and the exquisite musicians with whom he shares his songs created beautiful and, in places, devastating music.

 

Mute Swimmer – Song Against Itself from Mute Swimmer album
Guy’s my favourite songwriter in Berlin at the moment, and he’s got hard competition. During the year, I saw his live performances get more compelling and heard his minimalist folk become a revealing exploration/satire of the process of making music and performing. The songs are intelligent earworms, and he’s a lovely man.

Big Strong Brute – You Were Always Right from We Can Sleep Under Trees in the Morning
Paul played a Sofa Salon club show for me in Berlin and I played an awesome backyard show with him in Brisbane. Both times, I was absolutely taken at how, while you’re lulled by his conversational tone and the songs’ sparse melodic structures, his clever, yearning lyrics sneak up and belt you over the back of the head. This song, from BSB’s 2010 EP reminds me of 90’s RooART compilations. In a good way.

Hans Unstern – Tief Unter Der Elbe from Kratz Dich Raus
I don’t know much about Hans Unstern. I haven’t seen him live yet, but this song was one of the great Ohrwürmer of my 2011. I’ve been in the Hamburg river tunnel that goes deep under the Elbe and, while it was interesting in the same geeky way as the Rathaus Schöneberg Paternoster (see video below), it wasn’t quite as moving an experience as this lovely song always is.