PREMIERE - half/cut's New Single 'Martin Was A Diver'

We have a few premieres coming up over the next few weeks, and first cab off the rank is this incredible number from Melbourne dream pop outfit, half/cut. From their forthcoming debut album Ecco Locale, 'Martin Was A Diver' is a silky, sinuous movement, with Jessie's exquisite vocals stretching and overshadowing, a delicate Siren of confidence. The description of the band's sound as "Cocteau Twins meets American Football" is perfectly balanced here. Their sound shimmers, a mixture of the moddish New Wave pop of The The with more earnest, cinematic mores - pretty incredible seeing the band have barely stepped out into the live arena since their inception a couple years ago. The production may help - the album was recorded by Neil Thomason (Augie March, My Disco) and mastered by Harris Newman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcade Fire) - but half/cut arrive fully-formed. Listen to 'Martin Was A Diver' below, as well as other cuts 'Coming Of Age' and 'Your Shadow Builds A City I Can Never Visit'.

Opening Up The Milkk

Sydney instru-mentalists Milkk have blown me away with new EP Open Signals Cast. Why? Because I haven't seen them play bar a show in Sydney in some bar in Surrey Hills in late 2013, and their fare was intoxicating in a more homogeneous, nebulous way - there was a warmth in their oddness that I embraced. That has been dissolved over the past couple years, replaced with a serrated fecundity that is just as intoxicating, just a far more jagged a pill to swallow. Take double edged bookends ' - 'Dadadada' and 'Hear The Toad' - the former a Don Caballero-shadowing sense of deconstructed turbulence, the latter a rambunctious and euphoric rouser that ebbs and flows in intensity to a tetchy frisson imbued with American Football-esque parallels of warm meditations. There are elements of the contemplative mists permeating from 'Garden of Earthly Delights', a beautiful elegiac meander that frees up the freneticism, and is all the more breathtaking because of it. Out through No Safe Place (Beast & Flood, Solid Effort), Open Signals Cast is bloody great. Too much Milkk is never enough. Get it here.

Obviously Meant To Be A Tearjerker

Just stumbled over Toronto trio Tearjerker on Soundcloud today while listening to the Royal Headache song 'High' for the hundredth time. 'Obviously Wrong' is the band's new single, off upcoming album Stay Wild next month. I originally thought I was listening to American Football when this started up - and it keeps that melancholy/euphoric mid-tempo atmosphere for its four-minute duration. It feels like a deliberate tempering of the senses, as if Tearjerker are as capable (and willing) to let the catharsis cascade from their instruments as anyone, and bring the noise only when emotions are wrought and shot through. It may have been by chance, but they certainly have my attention now.

American Football Replay

I have only been a fan of the self-titled debut record from Chicago trio American Football for the past couple of years. The fact that it is the band's only full-length release heightens the appeal; the fact that they barely played any shows before disbanding piques the interest further; the fact that Mike Kinsella went on to play in another band with only one release (up until last month), Owls, and his brother Tim formed Joan Of Arc, makes the short-lived fire that much more fervent. Now fifteen years on from its initial release in 1999, Polyvinyl has seen fit to reissue American Football - and I for one am so excited about the prospect of having this on vinyl for the first time. Never heard of it? Maybe not. But if you are a fan of Explosions In The Sky or other introspective, gossamer-knitted, emotive instrumental bands (see most of Temporary Residence's early roster), then you have tasted their influence. They aren't entirely devoid of lyrics though - yet on tracks like opener 'Never Meant' they perfectly encapsulate the tone and timbre of the music itself, playing out as a true complement rather than a counterpoint or embellishment. But what makes American Football such a great record is the emotional resonance that emanates from its very pores, something that very few bands (excepting the aforementioned Explosions...) can evoke. It for me is a true, deserved holder of the term timeless.

You can pre-order American Football here - it's out May 20. The deluxe edition includes an album's worth of rare live recordings, demos, and practice sessions (in which the group rehearsed material they never recorded elsewhere) to complement the original record. Beautifully expanded packaging incorporates new
photographs from Chris Strong along with lyrics, detailed liner notes written by the band, and never-before-seen band pictures. The below unreleased track is 'The 7s', which comes from a 1997 live recording. IT WAS THE FIRST SONG THEY EVER WROTE. It was the set closer until they wrote my favourite track (neck and neck with 'Honestly'), 'Stay Home'. They discarded this - most bands will never write something this good in their lives. Incredible.