Lowtide Pick Out Some Gems From The Melbourne Underground

Exploring the Australian city's complex music scene...

Melbourne is one of Australia’s real arts hubs.

A city where creativity seems to pour out of the walls and gush through the streets, it’s home to all manner of musicians, producers, DJs, bands, and other vagabonds and ne’erdowells.

Lowtide earned a fair bit of acclaim in this hemisphere last year, with strong radio support and a sought after slot at End Of The Road Festival.

The group’s self-titled debut album was a deft fusion of all shades of dream pop and shoegaze, a shimmering delight with a bittersweet soul.

New record ‘Southern Mind’ follows later this year, and will hopefully mark a great conversation between UK audiences and the Melbourne guitar underground.

Here, Lowtide's Anton Jakovljevic guides Clash through some of his favourite Melbourne groups…

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Dianas – 'Leave Love'

Songs twist and turn in unexpected directions while vocal melodies and harmonies float over the top. Getting better with every release and a fantastic live band.

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Time For Dreams – 'Operator'

Tom Carlyon (Devastations, Standish/Carlyon) and Amanda Roff (Harmony, Moon Rituals) make up the shadowy electric dreamscape that is Time For Dreams. We listened to their album over and over in the van on our UK/EU tour last year.

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Parsnip – 'Health'

Parsnip write short super catchy pop songs with a 60s flavour but avoid sounding clichéd. They’ve released just one 4-track EP (which comes in at just over eight minutes!) so far, which left us eager to hear more from this quartet.

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Terry – 'Rio'

These guys are a bit of a Melbourne supergroup with each member playing in multiple other bands (Total Control, Constant Mongrel, Dick Diver and Primo to name a few). Together they create catchy lo-fi pop/rock that likes to wear cowboy hats.

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No Sister – 'Always Already'

Influences are worn proudly on their sleeves but when post-punk is done this well, I don't have any issue with that. Both their albums are worth a good listen. These guys supported us at our Alibi single launch last year and it was one hell of a set.

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NUN – 'Can’t Chain'

Darkwave electro punk outfit fronted by Jenny Branagan whose powerful vocals and stage presence make NUN an impressive act and one of my favourite Melbourne live bands.

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Beaches – 'Void'

Known for their live shows of guitar heavy psych rock, these guys released their first album 10 years ago and are still going strong. Never not had a good time watching them on stage.

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Miniatures – 'Jessamine'

Actually from Christchurch NZ, Miniatures were based in Melbourne for a few years so I’m going to claim them.One for 80’s 4AD/shoegaze/dream pop fans, they released an album late last year on US label Saint Marie.

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The Shifters – 'Contrast Of Form'

Formed around vocalist/guitarist Miles Jensen, The Shifters were originally a rotating group of musicians with a different line up at every show (hence their name). A now settled line up creates a blend of punk, pop and jangle.

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Loose Tooth – 'Bites Will Bleed'

Warm fuzzy guitars, driving drums and all three members contributing vocals. Guitar pop with rough edges and just a little bit of bite.

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Summer Flake – 'Wine Won’t Wash Away'

Stephanie Crase was in the awesome 2000s Adelaide band Batrider and is now based in Melbourne. Summer Flake does 90s-tinged indie pop/rock as well as I’ve heard recently.

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Hollow Everdaze – 'Catastrophe'

We’ve played with these guys a few times and they always impress. Catchy, warm, hook-laden psych pop.

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The Stevens – 'Pulling All The Facts Together Now'

Their new album is called 'Good'. It is indeed good. Obvious influences would be Big Star and Guided By Voices, but this isn’t to say they sound similar – The Stevens have got their own distinct thing going on.

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Lowtide are set to release new album 'Southern Tide' on February 16th.

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