STACK #133 Nov 2016

MUSIC

NEWS

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engagement with her audience when she plays live, something that evaded her when she began as Banoffee despite having performed with several bands previously. “I’ve always had almost like a cave of percussion instruments and things that I could hide behind, and with Banoffee I didn’t,” she explains. “I remember when I supported Architecture In

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FROTHY FOR BANOFFEE

M artha Brown’s sunlit, humble countenance is so engaging that it’s basically impossible not to slip into familiarity with the Melbourne musician. She’s abashed with formal self- promotion but totally, casually articulate when it comes to describing her approach, and her conversation with STACK begins in comfy territory where she gets to talk about the influences of her sister Hazel and friend Alice Glenn. “They’re pretty amazing,” she says warmly. “I’m very lucky to have them. I think without the women around me, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, that’s for sure. Me and Alice do my clips together, and Hazel ran my label and was my manager for a while. I’m not even sure I would’ve released a first EP without Hazel’s help especially, just because it’s really hard to have self-belief, as I’m sure we all know.” Brown speaks openly and often about self-belief, and it turns out her physical process of shaking off doubt dovetails just so with the

Helsinki a couple of years ago, my friend Ben O’Connor came – who I really respect, he’s a great manager – and he said ‘I loved your set, but you have got to look up! You look at your feet the whole time. These people have come to see you and you’re giving them nothing!’ So I actually put in effort to start looking out, and I realised that I enjoyed it more as well. If I don’t look up, regardless of what people are doing, I’m going, ‘They’re hating it, it’s terrible, God, get me off here.’ So I started engaging, and that made people like it more, which made me feel confident, and be able to give them more. But I feel so proud of myself when I do it. I can give myself a proper good high five when I get off.”

clip for gorgeous single With Her (a delicately marching lament with piano and synths behind Brown’s wistful, blushing lyrics). “[The clip] is a reflection of what I was doing the whole time I was recording this EP,” she says. “I would go to the pool, and, you know, you can’t listen to music while you’re in the water, you can’t do anything. So, super luxurious concentration on my own body flowing through the water, and how that felt. And I guess that’s sort of how I had to think about everything when I was writing this EP: just about my own body going through it, for me. ‘Cause after you’ve released something and you start again, it’s so weird; it should be really nice when people encourage you. But for me it came across as, ‘What are you going to make next, is it going to be better? Will it be as good? I liked the last one, but don’t disappoint me now, I might not like this one,’” she chuckles. By all accounts, her new EP Do I Make You Nervous? is disappointing exactly nobody. She’s also building up a palpable

Do I Make You Nervous? by Banoffee is out now through Remote Control.

tiny little houses

AIR AWARDS' TOP DOGS

T he agonisingly gorgeous, bittersweet energy of Tiny Little Houses is the sort that wriggles into the spot just under your lower two ribs and won't go. The group's EP, titled You Tore Out My Heart (apt) is making waves for Ivy League's newest signatories; the Melbourne four-piece will bring their precocious sounds to their home state this month with a number of shows, including a slot within the pretty insanely cutting edge line-up for Paradise

J ust as you suspected (you oracle, you), Courtney Barnett (pictured) has razed the annual Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR) Awards. The Melburnian triumphed in the top three categories – Best Independent Artist, Album and EP – and her label, Milk! Records (begun by Barnett in 2012), received the Best Independent Label award. Other champs included #1 Dads (Breakthrough Artist), Seth Sentry (Best Hip Hop Album), Frank Yamma (Best Country

Music Festival (Nov 27). Check ivyleague.com. au for details.

Album), C.W. Stoneking (Best Blues And Roots Album) and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Best Hard Rock, Heavy Or Punk Album). Congrats, legends!

See air.org.au for all the victors

You Tore Out My Heart by Tiny Little Houses is out now through Ivy League.

raury

R apturously noisy with a lazy grace, Crazy Rack is bright, smudgy and just super cute. The second album from Sydney guys palms

S ometimes a new artist sticks out like a blackberry-brie tart on a plate of dry Jatz. Single Forbidden Knowledge will prime you for the kind of shrewd insight that Raury is capable of; his prose is delivered in this poetic way which begins with personal reflection and expands into philosophical and sociological themes, which are all generated by hope and love. Backed by soulful instrumentation and beats that evoke Raury's idols Andre 3000 and Kanye, All We Need is an ambiguous and fascinating album.

Palms pushes forward more

fearlessly into that magical, disparate style they're so fluent at. Also, the cover art (a photograph drummer Tom Wallace happened to snap as he strolled past an op shop on the central coast) is amazing. Flip to our reviews section for Doug Wallen's write-up.

Crazy Rack by Palms is out now through Ivy League.

All We Need by Raury is out now through Sony.

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