AusScene: Appleonia – ‘Lost at Sea’

Appleonia

Appleonia

Jessica Chapnik Kahn has a certain mystique as she glides through life, encrusted with glitter as the spiritual creation of Appleonia. OH! is her first album of her own material, and thanks to Vittoria Coffee, can be downloaded for free here. With each download, its value in food will be donated to OZ Harvest for those in need. Free music equating to charitable free food? What is stopping you?

Single ‘Lost At Sea’ is a highlight from OH! A slice of shimmering indie pop that soars with an unbelievably catchy chorus hook, it reeled me in. The accompanying video depicts an unconventional take on a flash mob in an underground subway station. If you want to have an idea of what my dance moves are like, you must look no further. Like all flash mob videos, it warms my heart to toasty temperatures and makes me want to get groovy in the public domain. Try Appleonia out for yourself below.

Defeater – Letters Home

Defeater

One album I cannot seem to stop listening to lately, although a couple of months late to the game, is Defeater’s Letters Home. It is definitely on my top list of hardcore albums brought in 2013 by a long shot as the vocalist’s passion  and the instrumentalists’ originality work in perfect harmony. The first song of the album,Bastards

Stoney: More Than Animals

stoney

Listening to Stoney‘s new full-length album More Than Animals, what is most impressive is that practically everything was written and performed by just one guy. Of course, that’s not the most uncommon thing in music, but the sheer breadth of styles and sounds found on the album make it a particularly shocking fact. After moving from the U.K. to Austin for “sunshine and change,” Mark Stoney continued to make a name for himself with his band Bobby Jealousy, a collaboration between Stoney, Seth Gibbs, and Sabrina Ellis. But it’s his return to making music on his own that allows him to spread his wings. More Than Animals is at once challenging and impossibly catchy.

Monks of Mellonwah

Last year we enthusiastically shared Sydney-based indie-rock quartet Monks of Mellonwah‘s Neurogenesis, an EP that showed off the group’s technical ability and strong songcraft. And after a year of releasing increasingly great great music like their Sky and The Dark Night concept EP, the Monks are finally ready to release their first proper LP, Turn The People. Listening to the album, you get the sense that the band has fully come into its own skin. Musically and lyrically, the album is confident and polished rather than wide-eyed and over-reaching like many debuts.

Thelma Plum

Thelma Plum

The past 12 months for Brisbane lass Thelma Plum have been packed. Her first EP Rosie, her first performance at the National Indigenous Music Awards, her first headline tour, her first entry in the Triple J Hottest 100; she marched in and demanded attention.

With a smile that could kill and a distinct yet ever evolving fashion style, combined with with a penchant for dogs and a love for the f-word, Thelma is a blend of softness and steel. This is reflected through her music; it initially sounds delicate but underneath there is a strength that sets her apart from the breathy songstresses of late.