Further Listening:

5. Ainsley Farrell Puts Up A Wall

Although originally from California, it wasn’t until Ainsley Farrell crossed the Pacific ocean to a new life in Sydney that her musical career began to take off. From pounding on her parents piano as a child to picking up a guitar in High School, Ainsley has always written songs; it was only after seeing “artists that are standing up and speaking out about social issues and trying to make positive shifts in the music industry”, that she began to take it a little more seriously. Having supported the likes of Julia Jacklin and Stella Donnelly, you can see why she’s feeling inspired.

Currently touring across the US, and plotting an album release for her return to Sydney, Ainsley has this week shared her latest single, Walls. The track is a result of a period of creative drought and questioning, “It was a lot of looking back at what I’ve given up to get to here and wondering if it’s all been worth it.” Built around a waltzing acoustic-guitar rhythm, there’s a stunning simplicity to Ainsley’s music. For the most part her vocal is uncrowded, undiminished by the gentle musical backing and all the better for it, as the vocal soars to highest notes the emotion around them swells in perfect harmony. A hugely promising introduction that makes you wish she was rushing on the first plane back to Australia, an album of huge accomplishment surely awaits.

Walls is out now. Click HERE for more information on Ainsley Farrell.

4. Lonely Parade Hit The Road

Lonely Parade and Buzz Records, home of Weaves and Dilly Dally among others, feels like a match made in heaven. Last month, the Ontario trio announced their signature to the famously angular and noisy label, and this week they’ve confirmed details of their first release for them, The Pits, as well as sharing the first single from it, Night Cruise.

Night Cruise is a wonderfully awkward tail of small town teenage romance, about hanging out with the guy you’ve got a crush on, of going to McDonald’s because there’s nothing else to do, of playing basketball and getting drunk with your friends. Musically, it’s considerably less naive; propelled by Augusta Veno’s angular, stop-start guitar lines, it teeters on the edge of rhythmic disaster but thrillingly never collapses into complete chaos. In the same vein as acts like Lithics or Weaves, this is music without boundaries, constantly pushing the limits of art-rock, post-punk or whatever you choose to call this deeply creative, knowingly uncommercial sound.With the coming release of their second album, the band look set to take the tales of their small town dramas out to a receptive, worldwide audience.

The Pits is out September 14th via Buzz Records. Click HERE for more information on Lonely Parade.

3. There’s Just No Telling Claire Morales

Ever since regaling her family with mash-ups of Disney tunes and The Beatles, aged three, Claire Morales has been wanting to entertain the world. Her tastes may have changed, the influences of PJ Harvey and Albert Camus now sitting happily alongside John Lennon and Sebastian The Crab, yet the bold, fascinating performer unquestionably remains. This week, Claire has shared the new video to No Telling, the latest track from her upcoming album, All That Wanting.

Built around fuzzy guitar riffs and energetic drums, No Telling is a thrilling piece of songwriting, with Claire’s vocal and lyrics placed right at the heart of proceedings. Recalling the likes of Lucy Dacus or Neighbor Lady, it’s a timely reminder heartfelt lyrics don’t always come from finger picked acoustic guitars, as shown in Claire’s tale of the all-encompassing power of unrequited lust. The passion in the vocal is evident as she sings of not being able to drag herself from, “the sheets that might consume me if I let them” as she spends her days picturing, “the things I ought to say” and attempts to become, “all and exactly everything you need.” All the time though, she falls back to the chorus, at one second yelled with rage, the next whispered with quiet desperation, “you’re blind, blind to it all, blind.” One of the year’s finest dissections of the painful, hopeless pursuit of the one who was never meant to be, for analysing all that wanting, Claire Morales feels fresher, more exciting and more vital than ever before.

All That Wanting is out June 29th. Click HERE for more information on Claire Morales.

2. The Beths Are Happy Being Unhappy

“Wish my heart were really made of stone and I could forget you like I really want to”, a throwaway line in the middle of The Beth’s new single, Happy Unhappy tells you so much with so little. The track, a rambunctious, racing slice of garage-pop, is at first glance bright and unashamedly upbeat, with all its ooh and ahhs, clattering drums and quick fire guitar work, yet there’s at its heart a contemplative sadness.

The song is the latest to be lifted from the bands upcoming new record, Future Me Hates Me, a record of joyful hooks, sun-drenched harmonies and cutting, brutal lyricism. It’s a heady and unbeatable mix, a sound that draws you back to teenage years, to your most painful heartbreaks and most thrilling, dizzying highs. The Beths are living their teenage dreams, and with one listen you’re living your’s all-over again, they simply make us feel that thrilling rush, and there’s little higher praise than that.

Future Me Hates Me is out August 10th via Carpark Records. Click HERE for more information on The Beths.

1. Haiku Salut Return With A Cracking New Single

The first article this writer ever wrote was a review of Haiku Salut’s debut single, Los Elefantes back in 2013, it would be fair to say they’ve come a long way since that single. Now collaborators on a top five album, with Public Service Broadcasting, receivers of glowing reviews in national newspapers and general rising stars in the making, the band have this week announced the release of their third album, There Is No Elsewhere, their first for their new music home, PRAH.

As well as announcing that record, the band have also this week shared the first offering from it, the sublime Cold To Crack The Stones, a song that combines, “a manipulation of a NASA recording of pulses emitted by lightning” and the Glastonbury Brass band – don’t try telling them nobody does anything new in music anymore! The band have suggested their upcoming record is an attempt, “to keep a nearness between the natural and unnatural.” Instantly on Cold To Crack The Stones, that is evident, the track brings the electronic and organic together as one, it attempts to blur the lines between the two, to the point where as listeners we start to give up and accept that even the most electronic music is propelled by a human heart. The result is a triumph of sonic exploration, a beautiful textural soundscape, warm, human, glitchy, processed, perfectly imperfect in every way – it’s a complete triumph.

There Is No Elsewhere is out September 7th via PRAH Recordings. Click HERE for more information on Haiku Salut.