STACK #135 Jan 2016

MUSIC NEWS

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MYSTERY JETS

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music was where her heart lay. Several years and much hard work later, Platten has just released her third studio album, titled Wildfire ; the musician's classical piano and guitar training permeate every carefully crafted pop song on the record, which beats with powerful spirit-affirming choruses with sometimes vulnerable, sometimes defiant versus in between. Her performance on Australia's The X Factor certainly isn't the last you'll see of this lady.

RACHEL PLATTEN I f it's traditional for an a cappella group's name to involve a musical pun (see: The Treblemakers, The Be Sharps, Voice Male), then Rachel Platten's college group both ticks

Q1/ The “messages in bubblegum under your feet” ( Bubblegum ): it sounds almost like advice to yourselves, from your subconscious. Do you attempt to tap into that kind of gut advice when you are writing? [Blaine:] That particular lyric came to me very early on in the writing of the album and it was very much a case of patiently waiting for the right music to turn up for it to live in. The middle section of Blood Red Balloon came from a voice note I recorded in the middle of the night that I have no memory of making. Ideas can come from anywhere and that place you wander into on the cusp of deep sleep is an incredible place to find them. I wish I could freeze time in that moment and explore it in slow motion. Q2/ There’s a beautiful melancholy throughout Bombay Blue – did you write it in India? Bombay Blue is an experience that William [and I] shared whilst traveling around India. We came across a homeless Indian family who were living on the streets below their hotel room window, and [we] went down to offer the family some money for food and a roof, but the family refused to take the money or any form of help. This encounter had quite a profound effect on [us], and henceforth came Bombay Blue . Q3/ The vocal harmonies in Saturnine are gorgeous: how were they put together, and is it only Blaine’s voice, layered? Thank you! It's actually all of our voices, and the addition of Sophie-Rose Harper. We all sung it in the room together. I believe Will might have added a few sneaky ones in there when nobody was looking. We've been singing and sampling some of them live, which is working great! Q4/ There are some amazing synth and organ sounds throughout the album – what kinds of hardware did you use? Was there much experimentation going on? As a band I would say we have a pretty healthy synth addiction. This album saw a lot of experimenting with Prophet 5 and Jupiter 6. We actually stole an old organ off a film set too, which turns up on a couple of songs and sounds pretty insane. Q5/ Did you spend much time pondering the significance of the button’s role in your lives while you were recording inside the factory? Oh yes of course! We had to clear out all of the button-making machines when we moved in, which was a real workout. But in answer to your question, we never really quite realised how important buttons are, all shapes and sizes. Amazing, really. Recorded inside an abandoned button factory, Curve of the Earth is the rather remarkable new album from Mystery Jets. We spoke to vocalist Blaine Harrison .

that box and flips its hair. The Trinitones – the all-female a cappella group at Connecticut's Trinity College – set the first backdrop for Platten's musical journey. She joined the crew of young vocalists while studying International Relations, and after graduating with her degree in 2003, knew for certain that

Wildfire by Rachel Platten is out now through Sony

SHEARWATER

T he bucolic beauty of Texan five-piece Shearwater lives to enchant another day, with their astonishing thirteenth album, Jet Plane and Oxbow , soaring into view later this month. Fans will not be disappointed with the beautiful gravitas of this effort, which still finds room for mirth: Jonathan Meiburg's vocals lead strange glissing harp, trotting electronic beats and bass, heavy piano chords, and oddities of percussion hidden just at the edges.

MUSIC

Jet Plane and Oxbow by Shearwater is out January 22 through Inertia

PANIC! AT THE DISCO H aving shed all former five members of the band (which at last count numbered three, for 2013's full-length release Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! ), Panic! At the Disco returns as the project of founding and only remaining member Brendan Urie. New album Death of a Bachelor offers a little more soul in its emo- esque pop tracks, with unexpected horns and vocal choruses, and plenty of thumping hooks.

Y ou can practically taste the crisp new confidence in Not To Disappear , the sophomore release from ambient folk-rock trio Daughter. The group have clearly hurdled any anxieties which the fame from the remarkable emotion and scope of their debut granted them; the beautiful tumult of first single Do The Right Thing is just the beginning. Daughter

Not to Disappear by Daughter is out January 15

through Remote Control

Curve of the Earth by Mystery Jets is out January 15 through Caroline

Death of a Bachelor by Panic! At the Disco is out January 15 via Warner

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