Let’s get closer with your Laneway Festival 2015′s Line-Ups!

Angus & Julia Stone

Australian siblings Angus and Julia Stone. Angus started writing songs in his teens, after his parents separated. He shared his music and his guitar skills with his sister while she was living in Bolivia. It was she who encouraged him to start performing after hearing the songs he had written. By 2005 Angus was playing at open mic nights at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney, sometimes with Julia performing backing vocals. Julia also started writing her own material, so they played split sets with each providing backing vocals for the other.

Banks

Self-taught in piano, Jillian Banks – simply known as Banks – started writing songs when she was just 15 years old. Vogue named her Artist of the Week in August 2013, saying her songs “perfectly capture a feeling of being lost and powerless in the world.” The 26-year-old was also labelled by Billboard as a ”magnetic writer with songs to obsess over”, while more than a dozen media outlets suggested she was the artist to watch in 2014.

Chet Faker

Australian electronica musician Chet Faker is Nicholas James Murphy. Faker used to play for a band called Sunday Kicks, and an electronic/dance duo “Knicks”. He also played under the name Atlas Murphy, but decided he needed to play under a stage name after people came to his shows thinking he was a different and already established musician named Nick Murphy. He settled on the name Chet Faker as an homage to Chet Baker.

Courney Barnett

Melbourne-based guitar player and singer/songwriter, Courtney Barnett, started her own label, Milk! Records, and released her first EP – I’ve Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris – to glowing reviews around Australia. She used to play in a garage grunge band which released one self-titled album on cassette. She was also a member of Australian psych/country band Immigrant Union, before she started her own label in 2012.

Eagulls

Eagulls is an English post-punk band comprising Mark Goldsworthy (guitar), Henry Ruddel (drums), Liam Matthews (guitar), Tom Kelly (bass), and George Mitchell (vocals). Eagulls has played with many notable artists, including Manic Street Preachers, Flipper, Milk Music, and as the main support for Franz Ferdinand’s 2014 UK tour. Formed in 2010, the band released its first single, Council Flat Blues, on Moshi Moshi imprint, Not Even Records.

Enterprise

The music of this five-piece band may be hard to define, but it has been described to carry influences from indie rock bands to electronic sound. The Malaysian band has played in music festivals, parties and shows. A keen favourite for nightlife events and party gigs, these boys produce upbeat grooves that carry a blend of electronic and analog percussions, synth soundscapes and guitar melodies that prompt your feet towards the dancefloor.

FKA Twigs

English singer-songwriter and dancer, Tahliah Debrett Barnett, is FKA Twigs. Before all these accolades came to be, Twigs was an independent singer who self-released her music. Now, she released debut album through Young Turks in August 2014. The record titled LP1.

Future Islands

Future Islands is a synthpop band whose members first met and formed while studying art at East Carolina University in Greenville. From recording their first album in a skateshop, and their second in their living room, this three-piece band has moved up the ladder and been signed on by 4AD. Originally called Art Lord & the Self-Portraits, Gerrit Welmers (keyboards and programming), William Cashion (bass, acoustic and electric guitars) and Samuel T. Herring (lyrics and vocals) roped in Erick Murillo, who played an electronic drum kit, and renamed the group Future Islands.

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.gif (pronounced “dot jif”) is an electronic duo based in Singapore. They strives to make electronic music that combines lush soundscapes with lyrics that are intensely personal and meaningful. The duo – Weish and Din – see .gif as a space for freedom, respite, and honesty. Sometimes mystical, sometimes bizarre, other times captivating, but always experimental, the twosome’s music can best be described as intriguing.

Hanging Up The Moon

Needing a further outlet to express himself, Sean Lam of Concave Scream embarked on a solo music project, Hanging Up The Moon. As hinted at by the name, the songs were recorded in the dead of the night after the day’s work was done, his daughter put to bed, and when all was finally quiet. By simply accompanying the songs in his debut album with the guitar or ukulele allowed his plaintive vocals and introspective lyrics to shine through. It was deliberately left lo-fi and rough around the edges, to reflect the home-made nature of the project; and it is this quiet honesty in both words and sound that has captivated both critics and listeners.

Jungle

Formed by two best pals, Jungle is one of the most exciting, but yet unknown, bands to emerge from Britain in 2013. Friends since they were nine, and neighbours growing up in west London, the two were trying to make ends meet as session musicians and songwriters, and played as part of a seven-piece live band, before forming Jungle. With a desire for honest and true connections, as well as a belief in working as a collective drawing upon cumulative energy, Jungle has worked with different artists across diverse disciplines. Wanting to challenge themselves, they often resist the temptation to simply reproduce their music from their laptops. Instead, they translate their songs into a full and organic live experience.

Little Dragon

Gothenburg’s Little Dragon has gained international acclaim after three successful albums and having toured all over the world. Their energetic live set and unique recording process have made fans out of some of the biggest names in music, including Pharrell Williams, Questlove, and OutKast. They have collaborated with artistes such as Big Boi, The Gorillaz, and SBTRKT.  The band, which blends strands of R&B, electronic and indie into beautifully and meaningfully crafted songs, comprises Yukimi Nagano, Erik Bodin, Fred Wallin, and Håkan Wirenstrand. Nagano, Bodin and Wallin used to meet up after school to jam and play records by De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Alice Coltrane. The band’s name was inspired by the “Little Dragon” nickname Nagano earned because of the fuming tantrums she used to throw while recording in the studio.

Lykke Li

Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson, professionally known as Lykke Li, was born on March 18, 1986 in Ystad, Skåne, in Sweden. She grew up in an artistic environment with a photographer for a mom and a musician for a dad. Throughout her childhood, Lykke Li and her parents lived on several places, including Stockholm, Portugal, Lisbon, Morocco, Nepal and India. Lykke Li, along with her younger brother Zacharius and older sister Zara Lou, embraced their unconventional lifestyle. Lykke Li even moved to New York on her own for three months when she was 19 years old. There, she performed at open music nights and admitted that she pretended to be a Swedish superstar to score gigs.

Mac DeMarco

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Mac DeMarco is best known for his solo career in which he released two full length studio albums and one EP. DeMarco’s live shows can be quite raunchy, with the musician engaging the audience with off-colour jokes, or some involvement of nudity and lewd acts. When asked why he engages in onstage behaviour that doesn’t necessarily relate to his musical style, DeMarco said that getting the crowd loose and goofy usually lightens them up and allows them to have a funkier time.

Pastel Lite

From the capital of Malaysia comes Pastel Lite, an experimental duo comprising vocalist Eff Hakim and multi-instrumentalist Mohd Faliq. After meeting via Facebook in 2012, the pair joined forces to release a run of promising demos that combine subtle harmonic vocals and minimal electronic melodies to much effect. The pair had chosen the name Pastel Lite because they originally thought their music was going to be pure and innocent, but that gradually changed. Their music now involves mostly a mass of synth pop and electronica, though they do tap into to a wide range of sounds.

Pond

Just like the ripples in its namesake, the crew of Pond is ever changing. This stems from the psychedelic rock band’s original idea of letting Pond get anyone who wanted to play whatever they wanted. The current line up is of this Australian band is Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, Joseph Ryan, Jamie Terry, and Julien Barbagallo. They shared three members with psychedelic rock band Tame Impala which rose to prominence with its 2010 breakthrough debut album, Innerspeaker. This prompted Pond to release its fourth album – Beard, Wives, Denim. It was released to critical acclaim in March 2012.

Royal Blood

Royal Blood is a British rock duo band whose sound is reminiscent of, and rooted in, modern garage rock and blues rock. Singer/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher make up the band which released its debut single Out of the Black, with a B-side called Come On Over. This was followed by their second single, Little Monster, in February 2014. A month later, they released a four-track EP, featuring Out of the Black, Little Monster, Come On Over and Hole. Their debut album, Royal Blood, was released on 25 August 2014 to commercial success, and was well-received by critics. It was verified by the Official Charts Company as the fastest-selling British rock debut album in three years in the UK.

Rustie

Born Russell Whyte, Rustie is a Scottish musician from Glasgow. He is associated with the sub-genre of laser hip hop, a genre described as an experimental offshoot of hip hop that emphasizes slowed down, low-slung beats, with lashings of electronic mutterings and morphing basslines. Rustie believes his work conveys movement and fluidity, and that his creative process is an “immersive world” wrapped up in sound, rhythm, and color. Rustie’s long-time interest in videogames has influenced his approach to electronic composition.

St. Vincent

American Anne Erin “Annie” Clark is musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist St. Vincent. Her music has been noted for its wide array of instruments and complex arrangements, as well as its polysemous lyrics.  She began playing the guitar at the age of 12, participated in her school’s jazz band, and dropped out of the Berklee College of Music after three years. After that, she joined choral rock band The Polyphonic Spree, just before their European tour. She was also part of Sufjan Stevens’ touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Apart from the guitar, Clark also plays the bass, piano, organ and theremin. Similarly, her music often features a wide range of instruments, such as violins, cellos, flutes, trumpets and clarinets. Which explains why her unorthodox musical style has been called a mixture of chamber rock, pop, indie rock, and cabaret jazz by critics.

Time seriously flies! It seemed like it was just yesterday that we compiled our annual Kaleidoscope. As the time goes by, we have gradually modified and trimmed some of the categories for our kaleidoscope. In 2012, we had ‘The Goodbyes’, which is pretty much a tribute from the late musicians who passed away in 2012. In 2013, we added new categories; best albums, best local albums and the comeback kids. 2014 surely has been a great year for us to review and scout and witness some of the great live acts, and also the great bands in the making. It’s clear, that most of our readers must have been very busy through out the year, which leads to the fact that you must have missed some of the music updates. Boo. But no worries, we have got it covered just for you in the 2014 Kaleidoscope.

This year, we have decided to bring three most prominent and anticipated categories : The Best Albums, Best Local Picks, and Best Newcomers. Here is how the categories go, The Best Albums covers our top 10 albums from our most favorite musicians, we also have reviews from Pitchfork, NME, and Rolling Stone as our references. We gathered the mixed reviews from each album and compile them in a solid list. For Best Local Picks, we present you ten most anticipated local albums which has become our favorite playlist in 2014. Last year, names like Raisa, Pandai Besi and Sore, made it to our list, and this year we have listed some of the best local talents to fill up your music encyclopedia. Lastly, Best Newcomers. This category definitely has become our most interesting ones to review. We have scouted and collected ten music babies whose musics are just mindblowing. Unlike what we had last year (in 2013, we took the list from our weekly column, The Next Big Thing), we looked to a wider scale to present you the hot-shot names.

(Illustration : Puty)

About the illustrator :

Puty Puar. Mid-20′s. A geologist on weekdays from 8am to 6pm. Will write, draw and design for prizes and expensive things that only money can not buy. She blogs on byputy.com and some of her artworks are on created.byputy.com.”

]]> https://www.svanapaper.com/svana-paper-2014-kaleidoscope-the-lists-of-the-year/feed/ 0 https://www.svanapaper.com/westhill-festival-2014/ https://www.svanapaper.com/westhill-festival-2014/#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2014 13:08:19 +0000 Michael Reily http://www.svanapaper.com/?p=6148 Don’t miss #westhillfest this upcoming October 31st, 2014!! Go get your tickets for only 100k/each..]]>

Remember how Vincent Vega caught our attention about years ago and they just disappeared for 2 years? Well, yeah, if you forget, they just come to remind us. Elegantly, with a special showcase at Superbad, couple days ago.

Looking back at the 90′s, our roots of music. They just made a music with perspective to play it live. Here, a band that still conservatively views that music is for a stage, small or big, to fill our hunger to enjoy show for eyes and ears.

Now, Vincent Vega consists of Fikri Hadiansyah (Guitar), M.Saugan Najib (Guitar), Rhesatama Anthony Orah (Vocal), Aryo Bangundityo (Drums),  and Aulia Ramadhan (Bass).

Released an album, Always Hard to Make a Change, Just Like How to Stay the Same, ideas are bulletproof. Not only to share good music, but also good inspiration to bands nowadays. Well, wait for their enigmatic live performance, as well as their concept- based studio releases.

And another, we give you their songs for nostalgia and our reminder to move forward, without forget our roots.

Photo Documentation: Superbad Facebook.

Tracklist:

1. El Guincho – Bombay
2. Goldfrapp – Happiness
3. Wild Belle – Keep You
4. Twin Sister – Stop
5. Supercar – Yumegiwa Last Boy
6. Radio Dept. – David
7. New Radicals – You Get What You Give
8. Modjo – Lady (hear me tonight)
9. Atlas Sound – Logos
10. Beach Boys – Good Vibrations
11. Blur – Song 2
12. Fleetwood Mac – Dreams 

How did you end up with The Vickers? Are you guys high school friends? or?

Well, it happened five years ago, Fra and Fede were schoolmates, they started to play with other guys here in Florence, then I met them and I contacted Marco to play drums. We started to play some covers by Syd Barrett, Kinks, Beatles, Blur etc… In three months we were working on our original stuff!

In 2008 you’ve been chosen by David Bash for IPO. That’s awesome. How did that happen??

David is a fantastic music lover, really cool person. One day he sent a message on our MySpace messages box (at that time MySpace was at its best): “Hi guys, you sound great, amazing songs, do you wanna come to play at the Cavern Club in Liverpool?” I remember we were incredulous, we formed the band a few mounths ago and now we’re gonna play at the Cavern Club? It was an amazing experience, we all remember those days with affection, four young people at the Beatles’ home!

When I listened to your Album Fine For Now and then listened to She’s Lost I felt something different. Fine For Now is kinda brit-pop-rock or more like garage rock and She’s Lost gives more psychedelic ambiance which is cool. Do you guys also think it’s different?

We definitely agree with you. Fine For Now was an album strongly influenced by British music, we tried to do an LP full of singles, catchy tunes, short and fast tracks, jingle jungle guitars, we still think it was a great record. She’s Lost is different; it’s a space song, a psychedelic dream made of delays and echoes with surrealistic vocals. After Fine For Now we decided to take more time to produce the songs, we experimented new sounds and we approached the songs in a different way.

For Andrea, since you wrote She’s Lost. What’s the story behind that song? what inspired you when you wrote it?

She’s Lost is inspired by a person very near to me. She uses to tell me her childhood memories. Those kind of images showed me a lost and far time that unfortunately will not return causing a deep conflict between past and present. So I wrote the song trying to describe the feelings of those tales and after we produced the track like it was a dream.

Since you guys are from Italy, how’s the music scene in there?

The scene in Italy could be more and more better. There are a lot of talented bands suffering the difficult of Italian music situation. We should need people who believe in music like promoters, labels, journalists..Someone is trying but is not enough. At the moment the good and real music is not on TV, radio, there are no important summer music festivals in Italy, and this is horrible.

What do you want to show to the music listeners when they listen to your song for the first time?

We write and play music cause is our passion and we’ll do it for the rest of our life. We hope that people enjoy our songs and we hope that our music makes they feel good! This is the role of The Vickers!

You can get their ‘She’s Lost’ single on bandcamp for €2 EUR  or you can buy their limited edition 7” vinyl here. You won’t regret it. I promise.

The band’s name was inspired from the famous neurologist Sigmund Freud. The band that consist of Haikal Azizi (vocal/guitar), Nurachman Andhika (guitar), Mirfak Prabowo (bass) and Pratama Kusuma Putra (drums) was actually have been making music since 2008. Even though they haven’t released an album but earlier this year they have released an EP called ‘Cerebro’. The EP includes of four songs, Cerebro, The Long Haul, Ring of Saturn, and Atom Heart Father. I can easily feel what kind of ambiance that they want to show us. As for me it is a psychedelic rock. The band who just got back from they micro tour to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are currently giving you a free download on their website. Or if you prefer the old school style you can get their 12” vinyl.

(Photo credit: Decky Arrizal)

Nadafiksi’s tone may be formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious, ironic, condescending, or many other possible attitudes at the same time. Contemplative. Anything the music gives to you, you shouldn’t have another think coming, you just listen to it. You will have your mind occupied by one comforting chaos. You might want to listen “Darimu Untukku”, their single-album Extended Play, Marujelaba.  The lyrics are about disquiet of human wrapped by an acoustic music. The changes from minor to major music is providing us a kind of mixed feeling of happiness and sadness, vice versa. Once again, comforting chaos.

“Sayup-sayup tercium wangimu
meninggalkan semua kenangan
Sayup-sayup tercium wangimu
menjauh meninggalkan daku..”

Another track on the EP is “Susah Tidur, Susah Bangun”. Released on Kineruku’s 10^th birthday party (Rukustik #5) on 7^th April. And also, give it a try to their debut, “Burung”.

Formed on 2009 and fixed on early next year, Nadafiksi was formed by Dwi Kartika Yudhaswara (vocals, guitar player, and lyricist) and Ida Ayu Paramitha Saraswati (as a key-flute and on vocals), also Raden Rizka Gunadi Ganda Permana (as a cello player).  When Yudha met Ida, it connected about anything, and there was this persuasion to make music together. “Ida’s musical taste and the preference to painting art have the same scratch and meaning with me,” Yudha said. And so they tried to search down for their music objectives all the time until they met Tesla Manaf, Bani Ambara, and Ahmad Kurnia. The last three names give the spark to Nadafiksi live’s set. Contrabass, flute, jimbe, sadatana, and guitar synthesizer are the things we could see on their live perfromance. Now they are currently on progress to record an album. It will be produced by Tesla. “What will we do is always sincere and surrender ourselves to The Mighty Lord,” added Yudha.

Let’s celebrate the sadness beautifully!

Follow them on Twitter: @nadafiksi

The band’s musical architect, aesthetic director, and also producer, Rostam Batmanglij said on his twitter page that “It is a good time to tell you I think it’s our best record“. With help from Ariel Rechtshaid as co-producer, Batmanglij and Rechtshaid successfully built the ‘dark’ character on this album and made it to be their best record. If you listen the song ‘Hudson‘ and look at the album’s cover, it’s an art photograph taken by Neal Boenzi for The New York Times on November 24th 1966, you can easily feel the ambiance of the tunes.

Photo by: Alex John Beck

Batmanglij and Koenig started writing materials for their third album right after they finished ‘Contra‘ tour in 2010. The band’s drummer, Chris Tomson helped them writing ‘Hannah Hunt‘, a song about Koenig’s classmates in college. After all the material wrapped up the band who just performed on Saturday Night Live last Saturday (11/6) began to record the album at L.A.’s Vox Studio.

Speaking of the whole album we can assume that it is different than the two previous albums. You can see the preppy Ivy Leagues grads have become more mature in every songs both for musics and lyrics. But you still can feel their unique characteristic. Like in ‘Diane Young‘ or ‘Dyin’ Young‘, ‘Unbelievers‘, ‘Finger Back‘ and ‘Worship You‘ you can still jumping around and dance your ass off (just like what you do when you listen to the songs on their previous albums). In the last track ‘Young Lion‘ you can hear Batmanglij’s tender voice because this song is written and sung by him.

The actor and director Steve Buscemi, who directed Vampire Weekend American Express Music Unstaged at Roseland Ballroom, said, “What I love about them is that you can either just get off on the musicality of it or go deeper.” and we couldn’t agree more with him.

]]> https://www.svanapaper.com/the-modern-tunes-from-vampire-weekend/feed/ 0 https://www.svanapaper.com/vampire-weekend-revealed-new-song-obvious-bicycle-and-hudson/ https://www.svanapaper.com/vampire-weekend-revealed-new-song-obvious-bicycle-and-hudson/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 04:19:08 +0000 Andriani N Pratiwi http://www.svanapaper.com/?p=4072 Vampire Weekend are ready to release their new album ‘Modern Vampires of The City‘. Their..]]>

Vampire Weekend are ready to release their new album ‘Modern Vampires of The City‘. Their third album will be out officially on May 14th 2013 around the world. As we all know, Ezra Koenig described the upcoming album as “darker and more organic” and “very much the last of a trilogy”. This New York-based band has already revealed six songs from their upcoming album, Unbelievers, Everlasting Arms, Ya Hey, Diane Young, Step and the latest one, Obvious Bicycle.

Photo by: Matt Ellis/Spin

Earlier this week, the four-piece Columbia alumni held a concert directed by Steve Buscemi for American Express Music Unstaged at Roseland Ballroom, New York City, where they finally played the newest song from MVOTC Obvious Bicycle for the first time. It was also the first time we saw Ezra Koenig sang without his Epiphone Sheraton II/Rickenbacker 330. According to Rostam Batmanglij’s interview with NPR regarding Obvious Bicycle, “This song is interesting because it evolved. It started with a very hectic drum beat that I made, and that inspired me to play piano, and I just played these simple piano chords that came very quickly. I was listening Plastic Ono Band, the John Lennon album a lot, and that might have had some inspiration on me.” Their most recent track is obviously different than the other Vampire Weekend’s song. Also in this interview they leaked a short clip of ‘Hudson‘, another track from the new album.

Last night the band performed ten songs during a live session at Maida Vale Studios for BBC Radio 1′s Zane Lowe and they played all the six new songs. This is the set list and times: Diane Young – 00:48 | interview – 3:44 | Holiday – 8:04 | White Sky – 10:21 | Obvious Bicycle – 13:38 | Shots/Everlasting Arms – 18:05 | Step – 22:28 | Ya Hey – 26:56 | Diplomat’s Son – 32:28 | Unbelievers – 38:56 | Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa – 43:13 | A-Punk – 46:57 | Diane Young (encore) – 51:18.

 

 

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Kau Keluhkan, Ke Entah Berantah, Di Atas Kapal Kertas, and Rindu were available to download on their Soundcoud and gained encouraging responses from listeners. Rara in Ubud, Ananda in Jakarta. The fact that they are currently living on a different land does not stop them from joining as Banda Neira. Thus the release of their first full-length album, Berjalan Lebih Jauh, earlier this April. Claiming nelangsa-riang as their genre, the innocently poetic lyrics are delivered in such delightful duet, wrapped with folk-popish tunes which made them undoubtedly easy to enjoy.

 Bangun, sebab pagi terlalu berharga ‘Tuk kita lewati dengan tertidur

Bangun, sebab hari terlalu berharga ‘Tuk kita lewati dengan bersungut-sungut
You can listen, purchase, or contact them on Soundcloud and Twitter. Alrighty, enjoy your weekend!