The Single Life: Flying Lotus, Step-Panther & More

So, they’ve remade Annie again. The once-stage musical is about to reappear on your local multiplex or pirate download screen, with the likes of Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz aboard. If that pairing doesn’t strike as odd enough, the soundtrack is previewed via the potentially brilliant/appalling collision of Sia & Beck. But Moonquake Lake (RocNation) is bright and poppy, almost surprisingly orthodox, and maybe just that bit disappointing because it is.

This multi-media world also means video games now sometimes come with their own soundtracks. Thus, the Grand Theft Auto V update arrives with a selection of new music playing through the in-game radio stations including the Flying Lotus-curated FlyLo FM (must have taken the committee ages to come up with that brand-name…). As a sample thereof, Medication Meditation (Mass Appeal) features one Krayzie Bone (of Bone Thugs N Harmony, naturally) as background noise and fast-spoken whispers to your automotive mayhem.

A new recording label is reason for celebration, or at least congratulation for bravery. Inertia have a new imprint apparently designed to concentrate on Australian pop music of a modern edgier bent, which make Kucka a good kick-off release. The once Laura Jane Lowther’s electronica now comes with a quieter, almost liquid feeling. Divinity (Midnight Feature) flows by, her voice and the machines melding and intertwining.

To see British India described as ‘Oz-rock stalwarts’ the other day seemed just plain weird. But any band that lasts a decade, and more than a couple of albums maybe deserves the description. Wrong Direction (Liberation) chugs along, the clip tributing those nicely dark and discomforting b-movies this country can make with just a patch of scrub, a couple of utes, and something in the dark just out of the campfire light.

You kinda have to be of tougher stuff to survive here. Although, Steve Smyth ending up with a broken jaw merely for trying to defuse a scuffle on the mean streets of Sydney’s Newtown is possibly taking it a bit far. Said injury has possibly speedbumped a wider appreciation for his rather wonderful Exits album, but Digital Heart (Ivy League) may be the best balance of his sometimes-folk croon and Waits-ian growl as the computer screen drains his spirit.

There are those who don’t often compromise. And make music utterly individual and of quality. Jamie Hutchings is one such artist, who has rightly found a fiercely loyal following here in his homeland, and elsewhere as well - as this clip of Gallows Queue (Independent) from a festival appearance in France by his latest band guise, Infinity Broke, attests. Appreciate him on a new year solo tour where 20 years of his work – Bluebottle Kiss and more – will be delivered for your enjoyment.

And Step-Panther are that noise coming from the behind the Roll-a-Door down the lane behind your place. User Friendly (HUB) is what it claims to be, but it’s got enough frayed edges to give you a nasty scar if you come at it wrong. Bit messy, bit good.

Melbourne’s Pearls has their mix of distracted voices and occasional outbreaks of reverbed guitar racket in good proportion on Big Shot (Dot Dash). As they head toward a 2015 album, the insistent push in the rattling percussion in this may be the way forward from a past where they might have been a little too reserved for their own good.

Reserve would not often be a word used in relation to Kim Deal. She, once of The Pixies, then of The Breeders, and The Amps, and more, and just being god-damn Kim Deal is unlikely to brook any argument about doing things her way. Biker Gone (4AD) churns and motors along, with handy foundation provided by sister Kelley, and Britt from Slint drumming, completing a dream team for ‘90s alternative trainspotters.

One-time Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy backing voice, and about to appear hear for the next Laneway festivals, Angel Olsen could be a fallen one such is the beautiful ache in her words. Windows (Jagjaguwar) is a handy introduction if you are yet to know of her glory. Does a nice line in costume changes, too.