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It’s been 4 years since Tame Impala released their third studio album Currents and it feels like it. Hopefully the wait has been worthwhile and the first signs are good. A fortnight ago, the band released the single ‘Patience’. Patience indeed.
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Fans of Tame Impala, prick your ears. It’s been far too long since the release of Currents; and Innerspeaker and Lonerism seem like distant memories. So what a delight to hear the psychedelic pop sounds of Yuno Moodi, a 27-year-old from Jacksonville, Florida (his parents are British and of Jamaican descent). Last year, Sub Pop signed him and shortly thereafter, Yuno released Moodie. The EP features ‘No Going Back’. Rejoice Sub Pop. Rejoice Juno.
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‘The Less I Know the Better’ was released by Tame Impala towards the end of 2015. Selected as the third single off the album Currents, the song flows from Kevin Parker’s love of “dorky disco”.
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Formed by Midlake’s Eric Pulido, BNQT (Banquet) is a supergroup comprising Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, Fran Healy of Travis, and Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle. Songwriting duties were split between the five singers for their upcoming album, Volume 1, while the remaining members of Midlake provide the backing band. The whole is groovier and heavier than the sum of its parts. Like Tame Impala flirting with Bolan-esque glam.
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‘Sweep Me Off My Feet’ will feature on Pond’s forthcoming psychedelic offering Man It Feels Like Space Again, which arrives in “early 2017”. Once again, sometime bandmate Kevin Parker is heavily involved, producing the album to obvious sound effect. Pond and Kevin Parker are becoming one.
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Like a cross between MGMT and Tame Impala, Temples are UK purveyors of psych-rock. They have released the second single from their second album Volcano. ‘Strange or be Forgotten’ is my kind of groovy. Have a great week.
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As we emerge from a wet weekend, I use the tenuous opportunity to segue the ‘The Whale’. Off the ELO’s unreal gatefold album Out Of The Blue, this ambient track feels forever current with its Tame Impala-style trippy disco, vocoder sounds and electronic funk. Jeff Lynne, you are an unlikely genius. Have a great week.
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Western Australia has given us its fair share of quality electronica – Empire of the Sun and Tame Impala to name but a couple. Methyl Ethel added their name to the list with last year’s album release Oh Inhuman Spectacle. The off-key androgyny of Jake Webb’s vocals give ‘Idee Fixe’ added credentials. One part The War on Drugs, one part Animal Collective, one part Methyl Ethel.
This year’s been chock-full of classy sounds. In no particular order…
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Honourable mentions also go to: Outfit for ‘Smart Thing‘; Shura for ‘2Shy‘; Lindstrøm for ‘Home Tonight‘; Foxes for ‘Body Talk‘; Sufjan Stevens for ‘No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross‘; and, yes, Justin Bieber for ‘What Do You Mean?‘.
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‘I Follow You’ opens Melody’s Echo Chamber’s eponymous debut album. And what a start it is too – lush guitar hook, melancholic vocals and an overtly psychedelic production. It may sound a little bit like Lush, but this is in fact the musical collision of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and My Bee’s Garden’s Melody Prochet. The result was Melody’s Echo Chamber and the collaboration was more than just musical.
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Somewhat unusually, I feature the same band two weeks in a row. But their new single ‘Let It Happen’ is worth it. No lead guitars from the usually psychedelic Tame Impala. At eight minutes long, singer-songwriter Kevin Parker instead delivers a disco workout. Have a great weekend.
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Tame Impala may be a psych-rock outfit, but ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ always had the potential for a broader audience. It found it through a number of covers, but the band itself were accused of plagiarising Pablo Ruiz’s song ‘Océano’. In this case, the event of unconscious plagiarism feels like a modern hazard.
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Damien Jurado has been around the block. But gone is the sound of pure americana and arrived is something far more interesting – Latin drums, some rich Tropicália psychedelics and otherworldly vocals. He has been working with Richard Swift of The Shins – and it shows. ‘Silver Timothy’ features on his new album Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son. Damien Jurado meets Tame Impala – who would have thought it? Have a good week.
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‘Solitude Is Bliss’ was the first single off Tame Impala’s debut album Innerspeaker. With its commanding guitar lick, sonic booms and psychedelic echoes, it’s a Beatlesque romp to start the week. And what a great way to do so – have a good one.
Psychedelic indie rockers singing soul to a funk breakbeat. What is there not to like about that? If Tame Impala was to take orders off Mayer Hawthorne… I give you ‘So Good at Being in Trouble’. The track features on Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s second album II.
