The cream of local underground DJs bring you their top 5 tunes of the moment: this week it’s SCOTT WALKER, the man who provides killer prog and tech grooves to us via the awesome Drop parties.

1. Laurent Garnier pres Alaska – It’s Just Muzik (Crosstown Rebels): Garnier’s eye to detail really shines on this epically moody, brooding ten-minute monster. A searing lead synth line is paired with the recurring vocal, ‘it’s just muzik’ and a killer kick drum. This will tear clubs apart over the next few months!

2. Faithless – I’m Not Going Home (Eric Prydz Remix) (Unreleased): The tune that Digweed used as the peak of his set at Future Music Festival recently! It’s Faithless at their best, with Maxi doing his spoken word thing under a typically epic trademark Faithless chimes hook. It’s all about the build to get there though.

3. King Unique – 2000000 Suns (Bedrock): Outer planetary techno at its best – great to see King Unique back on track again after a couple of years in the wilderness!

4. Saints & Sinners – Pushin’ Too Hard (Nic Fanciulli Remix) (Bedrock): Tasty new update on one of the most popular prog bombs ever made – Nic has upped the chug factor so its straight up heads down dancefloor action on this remix.

5. Hybrid – Finished Symphony (Original Mix) (Distinct’ive Records): Progressive breaks at its finest – I finished a set with this recently and it’s still as powerful and poignant as ever.

SCOTT WALKER plays Therapy at BarSoma on Friday Mar 19. Check out www.soundcloud.com/scottwalker for more info.

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• ’Cabaret punk marauders’ Ghostboy With Golden Virtues have a busy week coming up – they play X&Y Bar on Thursday Mar 25 (with Dizzygotheca), then perform as part of thehuge Globe 10th Birthday Bash on Saturday Mar 27, alongside Los Huevas, Smokestack Orchestra, The Strange Attractors and Bremen Town Musician.
• With an accomplished sound based around his voice and piano skills, Tim Nelson and his Cub Scouts are launching their debut self-titled EP at The Troubadour on Thursday Mar 25, accompanied by rising stars Montpelier and Courage. Featuring members of Hello Yoko, it looks a safe bet Nelson and his gang will be making a significant mark on the local pop scene.
• Young electric indie types Vasy Mollo are headlining an all ages show at The Hive on Saturday Mar 27, where they’ll be joined by rockers Yorke and folkies Hello Yoko. It’s $10 with doors at 6.30pm.
• Much-loved local rock kids Rocketsmiths are previewing their new Magoo-produced album The Bones at a Cubby Hole (Rosie’s) show on Saturday Mar 27. Along for the rocket ride are The Mercy Beat and Jackalpac.
• Riding high on the success of 2009’s Temporary People, which made a host of end-of-year best-of lists, critically lauded jazz singer Tina Harrod is set to bring her national Underneath Your Spell to the Brisbane Jazz Club on Sunday Mar 28. Doors are at 5.30pm for the early evening show. 
• Local guitar-based genre-benders Nikko – soon to release their long-awaited debut album The Warm Side – are teaming up with singer-songwriter McKisko for a Brisbane Powerhouse Live Spark show on Sunday Apr 4. The free gig kicks off at 3pm and will no doubt be a great opportunity to check out Nikko’s new tunes.
• Adelaide punk rockers Paper Arms are launching their Days Above Ground release in Brisbane with a trip to Snitch (Club 299) on Thursday Apr 8, alongside Lungs and Fires Of Waco.
• Melbourne feedback and fuzz trio Mother And Father are headed to Brisbane for two gigs in quick succession. They’ll be blasting the Step Inn on Friday Apr 9 with Geese, Butcher Birds and Feathers, then squeezing into the Cubby Hole the following night, Saturday Apr 10, to play with Loomer and Per Purpose.
• Tatarstan-born singer and regular Doch Gypsy Orchestra guest Zulya has just released her sixth album, Tales Of Subliming, through Unstable Ape, and will be performing it in Brisbane with The Children Of The Underground. Singing songs in Russian, Tartar and English, Zulya appear at the Judith Wright Centre on Sunday Apr 11.
• In a huge move for Brisbane’s growing roller derby scene, the Northern Brisbane Rollers will be moving in from the suburbs and hosting an event at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on Saturday Apr 17. Organisers are now currently looking for bands to play at the event, and also vendors for stalls. You can find out more at www.northernbrisbanerollers.com.au.
• > Slide guitar virtuoso and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman is headed back to Brisbane for a show at the Judith Wright Centre on Thursday Apr 29. A veteran of the East Coast Bluesfest and Woodford Folk Festival, the US performer has 17 albums to draw from and this time plans to touch on “blues, jazz, Hawaiian, Calypso, creole as well as elements of African and Indian music.” Global!

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Melbourne indie trio Otouto sound like a post-rock version of Cat Power. Here’s a lyrical sample, from their first single, Sushi: “I mistook a man eating sushi / For a man putting on a fake moustache.” So yes, they’re a bit odd. Just how odd we’ll surely find out when their national tour to launch their album Pip brings them to The Troubadour on Thursday Apr 22. Brisbane’s own Seja, of Sekiden and Regurgitator fame, will be supporting with the launch of her We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares album.

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Straight from London comes Tim Green (pictured), with a selection of house music, electronica and IDM under his arm set to fill dancefloors across Australia. He’ll be demonstrating them in action at Monastery on Friday Mar 19.

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BEC   Mon Mar 8

Assisted by two backing singers, a scruffily handsome guitarist and a backing track that just won’t quit, Ricki-Lee Coulter plays a satisfying opening set, with a few originals crammed in alongside covers of Beyoncé, Gossip and U2. Her voice is strong, but hearing an arena full of people singing along to Heavy Cross is bizarre enough to be worth the price of admission alone.

Backstreet Boys are a foursome these days (wow, that seems really dirty when you say it like that, doesn’t it?), but they still know how to harmonise and dance in sync, and dammit, they still put on a goofy, entertaining pop show. Amidst expensive-looking videos that place the band members inside movies like Fight Club and The Matrix, they bust out bulletproof, Max Martin-penned tracks like Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) and I Want It That Way, and while it’s a little weird to consider that men in their 30s are still performing these songs, it’s easier just to go with it. The highlight of the set is Larger Than Life, which turns unexpectedly and kind of awesomely into a cover of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, further validating my theory about how that song goes with everything. Next time around, a Kings Of Leon or Mumford & Sons cover would be nice – think about it, guys.

ALASDAIR DUNCAN

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(Smalltown Supersound/Stomp)

Lindstrøm’s new groove

Norwegian nü-disco maestro Hans-Peter Lindstrøm has certainly been a busy man of late: 2008 saw the release of his début proper, Where You Go I Go Too, which was swiftly followed in 2009 by his second album with frequent collaborator Prins Thomas and this, his first full-length with another frequent collaborator, vocalist Isabelle Haarseth Sandoo (AKA Christabelle). But there were some concerns that Lindstrøm’s early success had given way to self-indulgence: Where You Go does feature, after all, a 28-minute-long title track, and his recent work with Prins Thomas, as lovely as it sounds, often has the listener searching for the music’s pulse. Fortunately, now that Real Life Is No Cool has secured a belated local release, we can safely say that Lindstrøm is back in the saddle. In place of epic slow jams are tight, well-constructed pop songs such as lead single Baby Can’t Stop, with its infectious vocodered hook and dazzlingly fun brass accompaniment. Indeed, aside from opener Looking For What’s disorienting intro, in which Christabelle’s voice is looped and reversed to weird effect, Real Life Is No Cool barely lets up from start to finish (with the exception of closer High & Low, a cruisy synth-pop number that could feature over the closing credits of a 1980s Michael Douglas film). Throughout, Christabelle’s vocals provide the perfect foil for Lindstrøm’s productions: like Glass Candy’s Ida No or Chromatics’ Ruth Radelet, her icy sing-speak plays nicely with self-consciously retro production, with the added advantage that Christabelle has a much more versatile range. Real Life Is No Cool represents a new chapter in Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s discography, and if the thought of 28-minute-long disco jams doesn’t appeal, it’s also a great place for the uninitiated to encounter this masterful producer.

****½

CHAD PARKHILL

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