The A&R Department is an Australian music service organization that identifies its ethos as "we get the music right and then help you get it out there." They manage, develop and guide Australian artists. Indie Obsessive is a fan.
An effective method for tracking which artists take advantage of the skills of The A&R Department is to follow their Soundcloud uploads at https://soundcloud.com/the-a-3. Below are some of the songs that we particularly enjoy from among those uploads.
In July, the song “Steam” by Green Stone Garden appeared. The band has been together since 2011, but this is our first awareness. Our immediate reaction upon hearing “Steam” was, “Duck and cover music world, an explosion is about to occur!” The song begins unassumingly enough. The first 38 seconds are good, but nothing special. Afterward, the term “good” is left in the dust, because the term “extraordinary” ran it into the ground.
The members of Green Stone Garden are Mike Meston (vocals, guitar) James Gough (drums, vocals) Paul Dopper (bass, vocals) Marcel Zimmet (keys, vocals). They hail from Darwin.
“Steam” by Green Stone Garden
Lyke Giants very effectively incorporate shoegaze into its Rock. The members are two brothers and a friend. Their names are James Brewer (vocals, guitars) Callaghn Thomson (bass, keys) and Luke Thomson (drums) from Tasmania.
The song “Let Up” is set for release on August 4. The song features power vocals and well executed abrupt energy transitions.
“Let Up” by Lyke Giants
Rock from Darwin, then Shoegaze from Tasmania. Let’s move to Indie Folk in Melbourne. The song “Down the Line” surfaced two days ago. That amount of time is usually insufficient to create a confidence in posting a song. But the a graph that indicates our progress in appreciation for “Down the Line” has a steep upward slope. The members of Run Rabbit Run are Casey Martin (acoustic guitar, lead vocals), Jess Patterson (keys, backing vocals), Marcus Jennings (bass, backing vocals), Michael Palmer (drums, backing vocals) and Michael ‘Mouse’ Roberts (lead guitar, banjo, lapsteel, backing vocals).
“Down the Line” by Run Rabbit Run
Time for a quality singer/songwriter. It’s JesseTaylor from Queensland. In his song “In My Bones,” we particularly enjoy down tempo and up tempo “events” that occur between the 2:25 and 3:06 marks.
“In My Bones" by Jesse Taylor
Yes, The Occupants were previously featured in an Indie Obsessive post. “Streets” was reviewed on July 7. As a reminder, The Occupants are brothers Flynn and Luke Gower from Byron Bay, Australia. To show the flexibility of the brothers, we are also including the eight-minute version of “Wonderland.”
“Streets” by The Occupants
“Wonderland” by The Occupants
Website: http://theoccupantsmusic.com/
The Electronic genre now takes its turn. Indie obsessive loves “Burn this House” by Mwansa (pronounced mmm-one-sa). The song has far more dimensions that typically for the genre. We’ve listened to the song often, but still find new reasons to like it. It is worthwhile from any one of a number of directions – lyrically, emotionally, instrumentally and vocally.
Mwansa is a singer/songwriter from Perth.
“Burn this House” by Mwansa
Going Australian tribal (at least with respect to the percussion), there’s “One in Front of the Other” by Melbourne’s Big Creature. The members are Max Willian-Jones (vox, guitar), Joshua Hall (guitar), Kent Williams (bass, keys) and Rohan Wilcox (drums).
“One in Front of the Other” by Big Creature.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigcreaturemusic
The band WISH is new to the Australian music scene, having formed in late 2013. But with the song “Pictures” this Sydney band is off to a running start.
"Pictures" by WISH
Here’s one of our favorite songs releases of 2013.
"I Will Find You” by
Lyon Apprentice
