Mary & the Banks are really going places…but they’d like to find their way back to you

Posted by Amy Bastow on 27/03/2012

Listen to ‘Way Back To You’ Mary and The Banks EP

Bio supplied by Mary & the Banks…thanks guys!
Mary & the Banks grew out of an entirely serendipitous encounter. Mary, fresh from school, moved from a small town in the Southern Highlands of NSW, to Sydney looking for a dream and a band…not quite sure where to find either. As luck would have it, at a music industry party in late 2011, Mary met bothers Zane and Jy-Perry Banks. The trio soon discovered that they all had a love of the same type of music and all shared a common goal – to write songs and play music around the world. With the New Year, the phenomenon of Mary and the Banks was born and after just six weeks of song writing together, they recorded their first EP, Way Back To You.

Way Back To You – Mary and The Banks

I know Zane and Jy from our days of studying classical music together at the Sydney Conservatorium. Zane is currently completing a PhD focusing on the use of guitar in contemporary classical music and has just returned from performing the premiere of Australian Composer Brett Dean’s new Ballet, Fire Music with Orchestra Victoria and The Australian Ballet. Their debut EP is unlike anything I expected the brothers to produce. What they, and Mary have crafted is truly beautiful….the most incredible blend of pop, rock, jazz, blues and folk. How you can marry all of those styles into one is beyond me, but they do it! Their music sounds like a trip to your favourite candy store when you were five – it’s delicious, exciting, worth telling your friends about and worth savoring; with moments of familiar flavours but also the discovery of new delights. I give them 4 out of 5 kisses.

Mary & the Banks are holding their EP launch at the Basement in Sydney on the 10th of April from 8:30pm. Make sure you check them out and like their facebook page, because Mary & the Banks are really going places, and they’d like to take you with them!

Chiddy Bang have served up a breakfast smorgasboard

Posted by Amy Bastow on 20/03/2012

Artist: Chiddy Bang
Album: Breakfast
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
Release Date: March 5, 2012
Producer: Xaphoon Jones, Yuri Beats, iSHi
Label: Parlophone

I’m not normally an avid hip hop or rap listener, but this is almost everything I could want in an album. A 14 track aural banquet from beginning to end. So many layers, with intelligent use of samples and beats, along with frequent use of pianos and brass which has been appropriately coined “hip hop for indie fans”.

The indie rap group are from Philadelphia and are comprised of rapper Chiddy, and his sole beatsmith Xaphoon Jones. Its their first LP after a slew of critically acclaimed mix-tapes and Chiddy’s nine-hour freestyle session.

The biggest digression from Chiddy Bang’s earlier work is a lack of well-known samples. In the past, they’ve fused hip-hop with the likes of Radiohead, Passion Pit, and MGMT to produce party-inducing songs. Despite this, it is still an extremely clever and interesting album.

I just love the track Ray Charles where Chiddy Bang sample the legendary blues piano of Ray Charles and create an amazing blend of soul, hip hop, rap and even gospel. This soulful piano riff oozes retro charm. This is one of those songs that jumps out of the record player and into my body, taking over my limbs and making me move in ways I never knew I could.

Mind Your Manners, which ingeniously samples Swedish pop outfit Icona Pop’s song ‘Manners’, is also incredibly clever and catchy.

VV Brown’s vocal on Happening is another slice of soul-pop heaven, but it underlines the obvious Chiddy formula, of hooks so simple they resemble playground chants and nursery rhymes. The Philadelphia duo sampled MGMT’s Kids on their 2010’s global hit Opposite of Adults. They prove without a doubt that not growing up is their obsession.

The track Does She Love Me? has a perfectly formed three-note hook that sounds like a robot child, again, suggesting as if Chiddy Bang are only content in a state of arrested adolescence. Breakfast works less when the boys force themselves to act their age. The title-track is, strangely, one of the most uneventful tracks, and 4th Quarter, the final track, is anti-climatic. But all in all, a really great debut album from Chiddy Bang.

4 out of 5 kisses.

The Shins have parked their latest album in the port of yesterday

Posted by Amy Bastow on 20/03/2012

Artist: The Shins
Album: Port of Morrow
Released: 16^th of March, 2012
Label: Columbia / Aural Apothecary

This is the first Shins album without keyboard player Marty Crandall or drummer Jesse Sandoval, both of whom were fired by frontman James Mercer after the band’s 2007 tour. Bassist Dave Hernandez seems to have got the flick too at some point during this album’s recording, so of the original members, it’s only James Mercer left, who to be fair, has always and will always be the essence of The Shins.

I’ve read a lot of reviews this week from die-hard Shins fans who were disappointed in this album, saying it just isn’t the Shins they know and love. Interestingly, the listeners coming to this album a-fresh seem to really love it.

Many of the reviews I have read about this album claim it is James Mercer’s most sophisticated work to date. Personally, I don’t find this album musically sophisticated at all. Sure, some of Mercer’s lyrics are poetic and thoughtful, something he has always been talented at, but musically, it provides little excitement and at times, is even embarrassingly banal.

None of this album is surprising. It is calming, relaxing and melodic, but very very predictable. It misses countless opportunities to really shine musically and instrumentally, leaving gaping holes in textures that could be filled with something unique. Instead, we have countless verses and courses that can only be likened to eating bland leftovers for days in a row.

The track Fall of ’82 does have a cute little brass solo section, which for me, provided some much needed interest and as the eight track, gives the album one last chance to deliver, which it unfortunately fails to do.

For me, this is not an album that looks forwards or paves any kind of interesting musical path. I understand Mercer’s intended musical shift towards the nostalgic in this album, and I’m all for vintage and being influenced by music of the past, but these nostalgic references need to say something new and exist in their own right.

I give it 2 out of 5 kisses.

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