The official home of Australian Independent Music, a place for music industry professionals alike, featuring the cream of the crop of Australia’s diverse and thriving independent music sector.

The Trouble With Templeton's single "I Wrote A Novel" has been sitting pretty on our independent radio charts for the past four weeks. It's a cute radio-friendly song, showing off Thomas Calder's (yes, his name isn't Templeton) songwriting chops and unique voice.

But if you really want to see what this artist is capable of doing, take some time to watch his brand new clip for the song "Someday Soon". Stunning.

In contrast to his whistle-happy first single, "Someday Soon" is a dirge. Slow and sparse, wallowing in its own glorious
sadness but occasionally breaking free of its shackles, accompanied by mourning choir, spare acoustic instrumentation and a beautifully shot but morbid clip. Cheerful it ain't, wonderfully conceived, restrained and compelling from start to finish it is.

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It's easy to compare Sui Zhen to acts that she's supported on stage over the years. She shares her musical aesthetic with a group of artists that have gained cult following world-wide over the past decade. They're artists that feature child-like female voice over clever arrangements, 'unique' lyrical perspectives, all manner of found instruments (glockenspiels, banjos, wind-up toys) and field recordings. She's Kimya Dawson with mystery and musicality. Coco Rosie without opera.

But those comparisons are lazy. There's something else to Sui Zhen's melancholy pop-vignettes. She's a graduate of the acclaimed Red Bull electronic Music Academy and has performed at Sonar Music Festival in Barcelona. Listen to the sonic detail in the gorgeous single "Little Frogs", inspired her sister, to witness her sophisticated, resourceful and beautifully considered arrangements. Sui Zhen's album Two Seas really is a wonderful listen.

For further insight into her music, check out this track by track self-analysis on mess and noise.

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"After some months the boys left their home towns, left their girlfriends, sold their cars moved moved to Paris."

If Parachute Youth's killer single and its visually stunning video "Can't get Better Than This" (1.3 million youtube views and counting) or Soundlcoud mixes don't make them your new favourite dance act then perhaps a read of their bio will. We're instantly attracted to an artist that has conviction and self-belief. We admire an artist that is willing to throw caution to the wind and drop everything for a life in music without any real gurantee of how things are going to pan out.

Mind you, moving to Paris doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice and when you have tracks like these then conviction is well placed. We can't speak for their girlfriends...

Can't Get Better Than This is a rare dance track which is at once a dance-floor filler (triple j played it as their first song on Januray 1st 2012), and a warm, introspective headphone piece. A friend of ours described the track as "like crawling into a bath of warm custard". Yeah, it's weird but can't top it as an explanation of the enveloping gorgeousness of their sound. We want more!

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A lot of people reckon that to be recognised at home as a great Australian artist you need to receive some sort of kudos overseas. It's as if industry types/journalists/fans need the rest of the world to confirm for us what we knew all along, like we couldn't quite believe it was world-class without that vindication. As much as we'd like to think it wasn't true, it took The Boston Globe to succinctly tell us just how brilliant Mia Dyson was.

“Her sublime grit & gravel voice lands her squarely between Lucinda Williams & Bob Dylan.” JR — Boston Globe

When we read that quote we face-palmed. She's f*cken brilliant. Of course she is. Her resume is amazing...(including supporting Ani DiFranco in Central Park, NYC, Eric Clapton throughout Australia. playing with The Mothers Of Invention and touring the USA for the past 4 years). So why hadn't we made that comparison before? Listen to the first single from Mia Dyson's new album, the exquisite guitar work, gorgeous vocal delivery and timeless song-craft puts her squarely in the realm of Americana's best.

Mia won an ARIA for best blues and roots album back in 2005 and 4 years ago moved to the USA to pursue her career further. It hasn't been a walk in the park but she's clearly grown as an artist immensely. If "Tell Me" is anything to go by, Mia's upcoming album "The Moment" will be one of the years best. It'll be one we listen to for many years to come.

Lastly, a couple of weeks ago we featured an interview between Jen Cloher and Mia Dyson in our newsletter. The discussion between the pair was about Mia's "Pledge Campaign" and it makes for fascinating viewing. Mia was able to fund the release "The Moment" through the pledges of an incredibly loyal audience.

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You should watch this clip. Now.

When Tim Levinson (Elefant Traks, The Herd and Urthboy) wrote a column earlier this week in which he said "We need to get over the idea that Indigenous music is solely from the Northern Territory and sounds like Gurrumul." he touched on an issue that many people have battled with for a while. Does music necessarily have to come from indigenous cultural traditions to be classified that way? Or can any music, whether it be hip hop, reggae, metal, rock, pop, country or folk be classified as indigenous if that is how the performer identifies? And what of the music's lyrical content?

While we don't think we know the answers to the above questions, we originally approached The Medics' thinking that their cultural heritage should be immaterial to enjoying them as a band, they should be judged on their musical output. We were content to watch their electrifying and sprawling live shows and listen to their three singles thus far, wide-screened rock following in the footsteps of Temper Trap and The Jezabels in its scale and immediacy, but a fair bit more unhinged (in the best way).

But then we watched the clip... and understood that The Medic's cultural heritage, while not manifesting itself in a traditional musical style, is central to who they are as artists. Yes, it is indigenous music, but not as we've known it. The clip for latest single Griffin clip tells the story about an Aboriginal youth, drawn into a crime and "fed to the monsters" when convicted and sent to prison. Tragic and compelling. The Medics are Independent, dramatic and ambitious musicians telling important stories.

The Medics' debut album album Foundations will be released on May 18th.

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When DZ Deathrays released a film-clip spoof of Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al they were roundly congratulated. It's an amusing little culture-jam, Arj Barker is kinda funny and the song is rad. But to this day we haven't seen anyone ask the question "why?" Of all people, Why Paul Simon? Why Arj Barker? Why this clip? What's the point? Is there one?

We reckon the answer "Why Not?" DZ Deathrays don't seem like the sort of band that wants to complicate matters too much. If it requires too much thinking its probably not right for them. Their methodology is simple, if it feels good, sounds good and looks good, do it and don't ask questions. Course, shouty, aggressive and really really fun. Their debut album Bloodstreams is killer because of its unbundled hedonism.

Fellow Brisbanite Robert Forster once said in his "10 rules of Rock N Roll", that the three piece band is the purest form of Rock N Roll expression". We'll repectfully disagree and tell him that DZ Deathrays have just proved him wrong.

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If you follow Catcall on twitter you'll learn a lot about her. Like she loves tennis, especially Rafael Nadal, watches politics and the news like a hawk, loves community radio, recently had her wisdom teeth out and watches a lot of TV. On the face of it, she's pretty much like everyone other highly-engaged twitter user who populates the ausindies feed except for one constant topic of conversation: Pop music.

Katherine Kelleher (aka Catcall) is a pop obsessive who talks about it as if it's an artform (which it is). She embraces pop without shame, wants to record a Blink 182 cover album and despite the fact that she ridicules hipsters on twitter, has been embraced by large proportion of Australian hipsterdom. In 2010 her gorgeous track Swimming Pool was named song of the year by Mess And Noise and the release of two more singles (Satellites and now The World Is Ours) this year have proven her point. Great pop music is anything but expendable, it's an art worth your learning.

Catcall's debut album "The Warmest Place" will be out in May through Ivy League.

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At the recent Fuse Festival in Adelaide, Howl At The Moon were one of the stand-out showcase acts. Totally captivating. Their debut album Squalls (launched this Saturday at Melbourne's Northcote Social Club) arrived in the mail shorty after that show and it's been on high office rotation ever since, growing on us with each listen. It is dramatic, painted with bold brushstrokes and ambitious.

There's a passing resemblence in the timbre and dynamic range of lead singer Katie Scott and Hayley Mary of The Jezabels and the guitar driven rock often reaches the same grandiose proportions as that band. This said, Howl At The Moon maintain a dirtier, darker and sexier aesthetic. Listen to "Let The Mainsheet Down, My Love" for a taste... killer vocal performance with some explosive guitar-work.

Howl at the Moon - 'Let The Mainsheet Down, My Love'

Howl At The Moon's attitude towards music is reflected in the fact that they chose (the rather awesome) Myles Mumford to produce the album. Myles has made a name and career of recording and producing albums of jazz, contemporary experimental music and sound-art, he ain't your typical indie-rock producer. The resulting sound of Squalls is present, clear and beautiful with musicianship and song-craft displayed front and centre. A really lovely album.

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The first single from The Bamboos' forthcoming album shows why the band long ago transcended the nu-soul and post post-funk genres in which they made their name. Sure, they're still funky as hell but these days they've got to be one of Australia's most exciting recording artists in their own right.

Whether it's their kick-arse collaborations with Megan Washington (7 inch soul releases of Kings Of Leon's 'King Of The Rodeo' or James Blake's Wilhelm Scream) or their killer most recent album '4' (check out the single On The Sly) they've never failed to surprise us just how great they can be.

"I Got Burned 2" takes them to new level of jawdropping radness. A funky and lo-fi blues organ, Lance Ferguson's immaculate rhythm guitar, the tightest rhythm section in Australia, deep sexy horns, gorgeous strings and above it all, Tim Rogers singing nailing soul-falsetto like you've never heard him before. It all just makes us want to strut.

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Re:Enactment call themselves the "anti-fast-food" of the Brisbane electro scene and frankly we can't find a better way to describe their music. Their latest album, a joint release by exceptional Brisbane labels Lofly and Paper Street Records, mixes unbridled pop, electronica, razor sharp production and experimentation. It's complex and worth savouring. We'd call it 'art pop' but that makes it sound not nearly as much fun as it actually is.

"Sport" is a great collection of songs, an album that keeps on giving. From the moment the percussive intro of first track "& bomb'd" gives way to layered guitars, synths and distinctive vocals their blend of electronic and live instrumentation is seemless. At AIR we love pop music, we love to be challenged, we love to dance and we love to put on our headphones, turn it up, close our eyes and get lost. This album lets us do it all.

The band asking you to name your price for the album at Bandcamp. They're letting you take it for free but it's worth a hell of a lot more than that.

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