Hailing from Melbourne, Hemm, the duo comprising musical soulmates Juice Webster and Robert Downie, are the new signees of Spirit Level. If you remember well, it’s the collective who recently brought to your ears the bewitching ambient pop of Happy Axe. Hemm are going to release two EPs on this imprint – one is actually a re-release of their 2017’s project “Space Between Us”. The second collection is named “Emerging With The Day” and we’re happy to share with you its title track today.

Their evasive, atmospheric pop is loaded with caressing layers, synthetic arpeggio, unusual beats and cracking sounds. On the intimate single, which can sound a bit abstruse at first, the two artists are asking each other: “Will you remind me what it’s like to love?”. The only answer they provide is their mysterious music, both complex and beautiful. Interpret this as you want.

Kllo‘s “Dissolve” stays in line with most of the tracks from the duo: warmful and emotional vocals on an electronic and hypnotic production. The build-up of the track is particularly well made and this chorus is definetely infectious. The song was apparently inspired by a bad Skype call overheard while they were on tour in Cologne. “Dissolve” is already another promising track to be added on Kllo‘s discography. We are very curious to discover their debut album “Backwater”.

Kllo‘s upcoming album “Backwater” will be out on October 20 via Good Manners, Caroline Australia, Ghostly International, and Different Recordings. It will also feature the previously released singles “Virtue“, “Downfall“, and “Nylon“. The band will also support this release with a worldwide tour. Check all the dates below:

18/10 – Chicago, Shubas
20/10 – Detroit, El Club
27/10 – Vancouver, Waldorf
28/10 – Seattle, VERA Project
1/11 – Los Angeles, The Resident
2/11 – San Francisco, Bottom of the Hill
4/11 – New York City, Elsewhere
5/11 – New York City, Berlin
12/11 – Madrid, Costello
13/11 – San Sebastian, Dabadaba
14/11 – Barcelona, Sidecar
16/11 – Paris, Supersonic
17/11 – Rotterdam, V11
18/11 – Brussels, [PIAS] Nites
20/11 – Amsterdam, The Sugar Factory
23/11 – London, XOYO
24/11 – Bristol, The Louisiana
25/11 – Manchester, The Soup Kitchen
27/11 – Glasgow, Broadcast
28/11 – Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s
29/11 – Leeds, Headrow House
30/11 – Nottingham, The Bodega
3/12 – Berlin, Badehaus
4/12 – Cologne, Yuca
5/12 – Hamburg, Haekken
8/12 – Sydney, Oxford Arts Factory
9/12 – Perth, Jack Rabbit Slim’s
14/12 – Brisbane, Woolly Mammoth
15/12 – Melbourne, Corner Hotel
16/12 – Adelaide, Fat Controller
1/1 – Melbourne, Let Them Eat Cake Festival
19/1 – Auckland, REC Bar
20/1 – Wellington, Caroline
2/2 – Adelaide, Laneway Festival
3/2 – Melbourne, Laneway Festival
4/2 – Sydney, Laneway Festival
10/2 – Brisbane, Laneway Festival

Kllo are cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam. They released a promising EP last year, ‘Well Worn’, and had the opportunity to support NAO on her tour.

Today, Kllo announce their debut album ‘Backwater’ and share the first single taken from it: ‘Virtue’. The track is a solid indie pop and dance offering, mixing an ethereal vibe with an infectious beat.

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Kllo‘s debut album ‘Backwater’ will be released on October 20 via Ghostly.

Check the tracklisting below:

01 “Downfall”
02 “Still Motion”
03 “Virtue”
04 “Predicament”
05 “Last Yearn”
06 “Backwater”
07 “Dissolve”
08 “By Your Side”
09 “Making Distractions”
10 “Too Fast”
11 “Nylon”
12 “Not Like Them”

Connect with Kllo via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Soundcloud.

As infectious as their previous single, the duo has shown their ability on creating catchy pop songs infused with strong electronic sounds. While the vocals remind clearly the likes of The Knife, their take on electronic sounds could perfectly fit with the description of their fellow Australians artists Cut Copy and well… The Presets.

Kult Kyss are currently preparing the release of their debut EP that is awaited for later this year. For now, you can follow them over Soundcloud, Facebook and Twitter.

Bonus: You can listen to their debut “Get Up Boy” below.

I think I’m too bourgeois for performance art. When I arrive at Yo! Sissy festival’s Australian tour, it is to the sound of blood-curdling screaming. Before entering the main room of the event, I jokingly compare it to the howls of black metal. The actual source of the sound makes black metal seem rather tame; upon entering, I see two persons both with shaved heads, painted head-to-toe in blue and each wearing nothing more than a G-string. I am, for the sake of journalistic professionalism, essentially sober, so at the very best this is a surreal experience. This group is Hyenaz. Their extreme stage-show is a blend of noise music and performance art and is basically what I imagine Throbbing Gristle shows to have been like in the ’70s. It is, in a word, confrontational. Personally, I’ve rarely been into anything that goes too far into abstract noise territory (or crowd participation) so the performance does little for me. After the end of Hyenaz incredibly antagonistic performance, it is disarming to hear one of them break character and sincerely thank the audience for being in attendance.

“the audience is just as important as the performers”

The audience here is key. During Hyenaz performance people seem to be inspired by their radical identity play. Hyenaz push the idea of identity so far out of its comfort zone to challenge everything people might want to press on you as ‘normal’. At an LGBTQI music festival, this is obviously of crucial importance. At one point my friend observes that “the audience is just as important as the performers”, a line which I promptly tell her I’m stealing, but a crucial point. I’m used to going to techno nights where you’ll frequently spot trendy hipsters refusing to move a single muscle to the beat. The lack of self-consciousness and the enthusiasm showed by everyone in the room is really rather inspiring. In many cases, the crowd is dressed just as dressed up as the performers. The line that PR people might spin at conventional club nights that “the crowd is part of the show” actually doesn’t feel like bullshit here.

Next up is the drag portion of the show. Pansy and Scout, the hosts of the drag show, are funny and political in equal measure (and often at the same time). The two are dressed as fairy bread, an Aussie children’s treat made of bread, butter and sprinkles – in its rainbow-coloured innocence it also makes perfect sense as an Australian gay icon. At one point, fairy bread is actually given out to the crowd. I actually haven’t had it since my Australian mother confused parents in the UK (where I grew up) by making it at my birthday party as a child. Much talk is made of the importance of safe spaces like this is in a world that is becoming worryingly hostile to difference by the day. There are also, rightly, numerous references to Australia as a land stolen from its native people. The drag performers include the fantastically named Dandrogyny and Karen From Finance. I guess it’s hard for me to say anything about drag performers as someone who has basically no experience with the art form, and is clearly not the intended audience anyway. I do enjoy, though, that humour, drag itself and more standard political speech are fused into one form where each seem equally important and subversive.

HighClouds’ special envoy Ed eating fairy bread

The following performer is Fritz Helder. For the first ten minutes of the set, the artist seems to be acting as a physical interpreter for the DJ, rarely singing anything while making effortlessly technical dance moves. At one point, Helder tells the crowd to separate so he can walk through it. After a while, he’s just part of the crowd, merely the person who is in focus at this moment. At any other point, he might choose someone to dance with who inevitably rises to the challenge and ably joins in his performance. Musically, the performer manages to nimbly rap and sing over house, dark techno and full-on trap.

As someone who’s always loved dance music, I’ve been completely uninvolved in its gay origins. I’m sure this is fairly typical for those that grew up hearing Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx on the radio as a child rather than encountering radical club nights in the city. There’s no need to straightsplain house music’s gay origins here, but it feels like they are being fully celebrated when Helder riffs on Frankie Knuckles‘ ‘My Baby Wants To Ride’. In a world where dance music can so easily be separated from DJs like Knuckles learning their trade DJing in gay bathhouses, this feels important. Although when the some of the biggest producers/DJs in the world are gay (or queer), like Midland and The Black Madonna, and when the most culturally important club is Berghain, it certainly feels like this is better than it was a few years ago even.

Following this is a DJ set from Melbourne-based performer Tanzer, whose set is mostly made up of the sort of disco that I can rarely summon much enthusiasm for. Although disco is obviously crucial to both LGBT and clubbing history, it is a rare DJ that can truly make me feel enraptured by it. Tanzer does, however play a garage-y remix of Björk‘s ‘Human Behaviour’ which seems like an apt song for a night that questions identity as much as this one. This means I’m pretty relieved when the DJ Brooke Powers takes the stage. As she switches the music up to some darker techno sounds, I’m much happier. Despite being a Melbourne local, Powers‘ set is more reminiscent of the type of music I imagined a festival from Berlin having. This stereotype of Berlin techno as dark and pounding is probably what led Powers to play music like this as well. Generally, Melbourne makes little secret of its Berlin-o-phile tendencies. Some people, slightly optimistically one might say, refer to Melbourne as the ‘Berlin of the Southern Hemisphere’. I mean, to be sure they’re two of the most OTT hipster places I’ve ever been, they’re both covered in graffiti and they’re both pretty into their techno (this is certainly an understatement for Berlin). I’d say after this the comparisons stop.

Pictures by Bianca Fioritti

Overall, Yo! Sissy Goes Down Under feels like exactly the sort of thing that could become an annual fixture in Melbourne’s vibrant nightlife scene. Even the music or performers that I enjoy less add up to a greater aesthetic of the malleability of identity and an interesting exploration of that which exists outside what is ‘normal’. It was slightly disappointing to see the room only half-full, but I feel the crowd’s reaction more than made up for this. I’m sure each of those people will be dragging a friend or two along if Yo! Sissy returns Down Under.

Pictures by Bianca Fioritti.

Yo! Sissy 2017 will take place in Berlin on July 28-29. Check their website.

The Meredith festival is located about an hour and a half drive outside Melbourne, yet feeling like a whole different world from Australia’s hipster capital. Rural Victoria is certainly something to behold with its omnipresent gum trees, worryingly large (and venomous) ants, and a liberal amount of mullets (whether these are worn ironically or not I have no idea).

This is my first time at Meredith festival and there has certainly been a lot of hype. It seems to be a widely accepted fact that this is the most Victorians favourite festival. Compared to many of the relatively large (and occasionally huge) European festivals I’ve attended it’s certainly rather cozy. There’s one stage, located in a natural amphitheater, and only a five-minute walk from our campsite to the main area. Comparisons with Glastonbury are inevitable: the festival is held on private farmland, forefronts eco-responsibility, and doesn’t feature any corporate sponsorship. These things plus a bluntly Aussie “no dickheads” policy which discourages moshing, blocking other people’s views or generally aggressive behavior. Alongside the festival’s chill vibes are its quirks like the naked sprinting competition and even a cleaning period after every few acts soundtracked to Todd Terje‘s eternal “Inspector Norse”.

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The first act I see is Cass McCombs who I enjoy more than I imagined. He seems like a scruffy take on American Beauty-era Grateful Dead with both the earthy Americana of his songwriting and a fondness of the occasional loose jam.

The Swedish psychedelic band Dungen is the first act I’m paying active attention to. Their knotty, jazz-inspired sound provides a beautiful soundtrack to the festival’s easygoing vibe. They are clearly in no rush to compromise their sound as their set starts with the beautiful instrumental “Fredag”; a set that mostly skews away from their occasional psych-pop sensibilities. The Swedes are certainly one of the best I saw throughout the whole event. Essentially it sounds like they’ve taken inspiration from the most tripped-out parts of a 70s stoner’s record collection from “Bitches Brew” to “Close To The Edge” and synthesized it into their own genre.

Kelela is the next act to take the stage. Her late-night minimal R&B, to me, is perfect headphones music for nocturnal walks but can struggle to translate to an entertaining stage show. Many of her songs sound as if they’ve been whittled down to little more than heavy bass, a single hook, and an often plodding tempo. Saying this, with tracks like “Rewind”, the second half of her gig picks up significantly in tempo and intensity, sounding closer to the bass-heavy intensity of her frequent collaborators from London’s Night Slugs label.

Before Melbourne’s own King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard take the stage we are treated to a somewhat appropriate selection of songs from some of psychedelic and garage rock’s more intense acts. The PA system booms out “Movin’ On Up”, “Kick Out The Jams” and The Sonics‘ version of “Have Love Will Travel” as a way of getting the crowd into the band’s acid freakout aesthetic. King Gizzard end up being the most energetic act I see all weekend and the only one who has to remind the crowd of the festival’s “no moshing” policy. The band are having somewhat of an international breakout moment with their most recent album, “Nonagon Infinity”, having received a fair amount of overseas acclaim. The stamina level very rarely dips as they, and their two drummers, stitch all their set into a seamless loop even managing to repeat one song. The least aggressive part of their set features the band riffing on the jazz classic “Take Five” for a good few minutes before launching back into space. King Gizzard‘s nighttime psychedelic rave-up is the perfect counterpoint to Dungen‘s more mellow early evening set.

Sheila E is above all things an incredibly talented performer. Throughout her set, the former Prince bandleader played guitar and percussion as well as singing and dancing. Her performance was heavy in its nods to Prince, from her ‘love symbol’ shirt to some truly fantastic covers. Thankfully the set mostly avoided super-obvious choices in favor of some slightly lesser-known, but much-beloved classics, like “Erotic City”, “Alphabet Street”, “Baby I’m A Star” and the coda to “Purple Rain”. The set, however, was much more than Prince covers and featured some of Sheila E‘s own material and a few more standard R&B covers, including Sly & The Family Stone‘s “If You Want Me To Stay”. This high-energy set was mostly entertaining R&B played by a group of slick party starting professionals.

After this was Mount Liberation Unlimited who I can’t say I was really into. The vibe was somewhat like Stranger Things-style synth wave with a kick drum. Their ‘cosmic house’ sound was seemingly largely improvised on a few hardware synths and you could tell (and not in a good way). Although, during this set I was crashing pretty hard so it’s hard to pretend to be objective.

The next day started with the brass band from the nearby town of Ballarat taking the stage to gently arise festivalgoers from their hangovers/comedowns. The first band I seek out are Philadelphian lo-fi classic rockers Sheer Mag. On record, the band’s Thin Lizzy-ish antics are stopped from being full-on dinosaur rock by the protective spell of their blown-out-speaker production. Live, they obviously lack this layer. What I felt I was left watching was an unexceptional hard rock band with a series of songs that grew increasingly monotonous. The one song I really love by them, “Fan The Flames”, was played as an encore and remains both the highlight of their discography and the highlight of that set.

Canada’s BadBadNotGood are often understood as a jazz/hip-hop group due to their covers of rap songs, collaborations with Ghostface Killah and appearances at festivals like the Mad Decent Block Party. Live they really just come off as a very strong ’70s fusion band with a sense of fun and showmanship. Their energetic style seems to win over the crowd, even those that wouldn’t have any conventional interest in jazz. While, to me, their records can sound overly respectful of tradition (despite the occasional rap features), live they are really a powerful force and an act I would love to see again and again.

Angel Olsen is really one of those modern indie guitar acts that leave no resonance in my mind whatsoever. Although this isn’t specifically her fault, I’m just, as one of my friends put it, “picky”.

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Southern sludge metal band Baroness are easily one of the unexpected highlights of the festival. I often find that heavy metal makes vastly more sense to me as a live music and they are no exception. Their tight riffing and beautiful harmonized vocals makes them basically impossible not to pay attention to. Frontman John Baizley is a formidable stage presence who seems almost possessed by the music. Songs like “Shock Me” transcend the shackles of their recordings and take on a beautiful new life. The next band I see is the Canadian anthemic punk band Japandroids. They are easily the band I am most excited for over the whole festival period. They open with “Fire’s Highway” and I instantly remember why I love them so much. Despite having lost all of my friends for their performance, I befriend some other fans and we instantly strike up a camaraderie based on yelling Japandroids lyrics at each other. This, I imagine, is an entirely typical experience at this band’s shows. While the band does play OG classics like “Wet Hair”, “Nights Of Wine And Roses”, “Younger Us” and “The House That Heaven Built” they also play three new songs (including the previously released “Near To The Wild Heart Of Life”). Having never seen them before it was slightly disappointing to not just have a set of screaming-fodder (especially considering their 45 minute set time). Vocalist Brian King is clearly slightly less strong on the vocals live but their live show is such an experience that it hardly seems to matter. Either way, the band is as ridiculously adrenaline pumping as you’d expect live. As I left, I hugged my temporary best friends and wished them a good night with my now barely-there voice.

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Feminist electro-punk Peaches is an extreme artist to see live. Part electroclash, part rap show and part some sort of absurdist fetish show. Her set features as much audience breast-flashing as the average hair metal show (but, you know, in a different context). The show is as much a spectacle as anything and the songs certainly start to blur into each other but it’s an undeniably entertaining spectacle. Highlights include a giant inflatable penis that Peaches uses to navigate the crowd and, obviously, “Fuck The Pain Away”.

Aussie electro-psychedelic band Jagwar Ma are essentially the last headliner band of the festival. They come across as Soulwax with Panda Bear on vocals but never reach the same level of electro-rock transcendence as Soulwax nor the bliss of Panda Bear. This psychedelic/electro fusion should – theoretically – be right up my alley but something about the band has never quite clicked for me. Their set is entertaining enough but I find it mostly becomes fairly repetitive.

After this is London DJ Throwing Shade who I must say I barely remember but thoroughly enjoyed and Melbourne’s own CC: Disco who avoids the occasional disco purism of her sets to throw an enjoyable party.

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Technically the Meredith festival [aka MMF] continues the next day but with much smaller acts. I’m in the kind of mood where your sleeping bag not fitting back into its sack makes you feel like you’re being teased by an Old Testament God. I go home and sleep for 14 hours.

Check on the Meredith Music Festival on the official website!

Her approach to pop music is through experimentation with her own voice and sounds creating a melting-pot of electronic vibes, lo-fi music and dream-pop. Being inspired by eggs, memes and nostalgia, Elle Tayla (her name in mogul life) took some time to answer to some of our questions.

Highclouds: Can you introduce yourself to our readers that don’t know you yet?

I’m just your typical egg-loving girl who likes making dreamy beats.

What is your musical background and when did you start making music?

I learnt guitar for quite a few of my high school years and taught myself how to sing when I hit year 10. But it was only after I moved to Melbourne a few years later that I started to teach myself how to use programs like Logic and equipment that would allow me to record and produce the music that I wanted to make.

What does your name mean?

It’s just a reference to eggs and I threw a double “L” in there because my name “Elle” has two “Ls” as well.

How would you describe your music?

Overall I’d describe it as dreamy and lo-fi. But a review recently came out that described my music as “dark dance” electronica which is also pretty spot on.

What can you tell us about your first release “Return To Sender”?

It got a bit of everything, synths, vibes, ambience, angst. It’s a nostalgic song about letting go.

Australia is getting a lot of attention thanks to their amazing approach on pop music. Why do you think Australia exports so many good pop songs?

I think we just have a community that thrives off live music and the social aspect of going to gigs and festivals. Especially in Melbourne. From there it makes it so easy for musicians to befriend one another, refer each other to places and people that can help them out and get their music out to the public.

“I just love getting inspired by what my peers are doing and making.” – Yollks

How does your country influence your music?

I just love getting inspired by what my peers are doing and making. I think it’s easy for people to look at someone who’s doing really well or making really great tunes and feel jealous or envious, but for me I like to draw inspiration from people like that instead because then it’s always going to result in me improving and stepping up my game.

What can you tell about your future, Yollks?

There are a lot of memes involved.

What can we expect from you?

More tunes and more gigs!

What advice would you give to young artists who are about to release their debut track?

Promote it! Don’t be afraid to hit up blogs and media and get them to review it/post about it.

Do you have any songs to recommend us right now?

“Wooden Moon” by HUIAS is always a fave of mine.

You can follow Yollks on Facebook, Soundcloud and Instagram.

Creating a real 80’s vibe thanks to the strong presence of synths but, he also keeps a very dreamy way of singing connecting him with the shoegaze genre. His voice is soft, the instruments are there to transport you into the clouds. Being inspired by italo-disco, 90’s dream pop and the French House, we are not surprised to see that Retro Culture is truly becoming a rising star, hitting over a million plays with his previous track “Cold” and “Thread” where he also explores the same combination.

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The single was co-produced with Jack Arentz who is behind Kult Klyss and I Know Leopard, and mastered by Huntley Miller behind some works of Bon Iver or Slyvan Esso. The inspiration for the track were described over an email by Retro Culture himself:

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The film “Drive” has played a big part in my musical inspiration recently so I guess that’s where that comes from. Also I was watching “Stranger Things” at the time of writing “Fading” and it has this really amazing synth sound track. It reminded me of Drive. That 80s sound is my current obsession. Lyrically, I tend to draw from what’s going on around me or from my own life

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You can follow the rising career of Retro Culture over Facebook and Soundcloud.