Pilerats, Journalist

Will Butler - the talented composer from Arcade Fire, and the 'Her' film soundtrack - gives us his first solo single.. Californian artist Will Butler, better known as the composer for Arcade Fire, is forging himself a solo career, late last year announcing a debut solo album is on the cards, Policy. Will, whose been in Arcade Fire for ten years, is brother to the band’s lead singer, Win Butler. While Win writes a fair amount of tracks for the group, Will led the charge for the band’s recent sountrack to Spike Jonze’s Her, in conjuction with Owen Pallet. Policy was recorded in Jimi Hendrix's old living room at Electric Lady Studios in New York,  and Butler has announced that "Policy is American music—in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, the Breeders, the Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, the Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah. And John Lennon (which counts)." At a gig in Brookyln in November last year, Will Butler previewed his solo material, playing guitars and synth, with b

Shlohmo announces his first album in four years, Dark Red, delivers heavy first single Buried.. After a brief Twitter lead-in, at the witching hour last night, Henry Laufer, AKA Shlohmo, delivered new track Buried, the second bout of new music we've heard from the popular Los Angeles underground producer, after he gave us the broody Emerge From Smoke last month.  He also announced an album, Dark Red - his first solo offering since 2011's Bad Vibes, with the exception of No More, his incredible EP collab with Jeremih last year. It will feature both Buried and Emerge From Smoke, as well as a collaboration with fellow WeDiDiT bro D33J. Shlohmo's self-described the direction he's taking on his new album: "I wanted this one to be loud, and not just loud but really really f***ing loud. I wanted the sound of the thing to be devastating and violent...as if Electric Wizard tried to make an R&B record, or Boards of Canada meets Burzum by the River Styx.”  Indeed, Buried's already giving us the h

After eight years together and three albums, Collarbones are finally taking themselves seriously.. Sydney/Adelaide collaboraters Marcus Whale and Travis Cook have been working together for eight years as Collarbones, which is a pretty lengthy career in the age of Internet hype. After a two-year release hiatus, Collarbones really ramped things up in 2014: putting out both a mixtape (Atlantis), performing at Vivid Sydney, supporting internationals Jessie Ware, Deerhunter and How To Dress Well, and putting their hat in the ring with some great Australian artists, including Rainbow Chan, Guerre, Oscar Key Sung and Martin King. A 2014 highlight (amongst many highlights), however, was the release of their first album in two years (and third studio album) Return, via Two Bright Lakes/ Remote Control Records. Return has signalled a real maturation for the boys. Collarbones’ Travis Cook recently told NOISEY: “We have a philosophy, or at least I do, about faking it until you make it,”; this is c

Eleanor Dunlop's rumbling surf-rock tune Rollin' On gets a retro video treatment.. Sydney's Eleanor Dunlop has followed on from a successful 2014 and the release of her debut EP with her latest offering, Rollin' On, a track that sees her moving away from the darker piano-pop stylings on that previous release, into a rumbling piece of surf-rock underpinned by Dunlop's smooth, smouldering vocals. Kinda like a somehow-more relaxed Best Coast, it's the first taste of her 2015 EP release, and today we have the pleasure of premiering its video accompaniment, featuring plenty of super-8 and retro-shot footage and colourful editing: SHOW DATES: Fri 6 Mar - Brighton Up Bar, Sydney w/ Jenny Broke The Window (TICKETS) Thu 19 March - Shebeen, Melbourne w/ Lester The Fierce (TICKETS) Follow Eleanor Dunlop: FACEBOOK / WEBSITE / TWITTER

JOY. continues to rain down a hellfire of killer music in 2015.. If you look at a list of artists we talked about a heap in 2014, after our own Pilerats Records artists one of the next inline would definitely be Brisbane producer Olivia McCarthy, better known to most of you as JOY. How much did we rabble on about her? This is how much: Stone Young Franco - Close 2 U (feat. JOY) Captured Captured (Pilerats Live Recording) Stone (Zuri Akuko Remix) It's all leading up to the 2015 release of her new EP (pre-order from iTUNES), and Weather is another cut from it. We're pretty sure McCarthy isn't even allowed to legally drink yet, but as you can see in all the above examples and again on Weathered, she's got production chops that put even some of the big wigs to shame, with the added bonus of a silky smooth voice that'll melt your heart/mind/ear holes. The Stone EP is due out the end of this week and she's headed on tour next month with the lads from Flamingo, so check the dates HERE and mar

Rustie looks back on a huge 2014, and forwards to Laneway 2015.. Russell Whyte, probably better known to most future-bass music fiends as Glaswegian-based producer Rustie, successfully managed to follow up his break-out 2012 album Glass Swords with last year's Green Language. An album that shows the kind of cohesiveness and maturity many artist's can struggle with the dreaded second album. One of the world's most-hyped producers, and at the forefront of dance music's obssession with the future-beat sound popularised by the likes of our own Flume, he's continually pushing boundaries, and we're looking forward to much the same when he plays the  Red Bull Music Academy x Future Classic Stage at St Jerome's Laneway Festival, along with a couple of sideshows (dates down the bottom): First up congrats on what seemed like a pretty great 2014, especially with Green Language – were there any major lessons from the release of Glass Swords you were able to carry into Green Language’s release? I

Next Hype-man Gurvin Dhillon selects a deluxe dancefloor playlist ahead of 'the Summer of Next Hype'.. Fun times are always afoot when Next Hype are around. The Perth-based boutique promotions collective is the little brother of Horizons Touring, the brains and brawn behind Origin NYE. They have a knack for curating music line-ups of highly credible underground dancefloor talent from around the world; ranging from burgeoning to established artists. They then combine those first-class talent choices with special venues, extra thoughtful touches, and round out the package with brandinga and limited edition merch. Their Why Make Sense? parties being a case in point: seeing Julio Bashmore and Gold Panda play with an intimate crowd in a tiny alley with a ceiling of fairy lights and stars was pretty memorable. Likewise, we won't forget seeing Glasgow producer Rustie on the beach by moonlight. Or witnessing Oneman ripping up the rooftop of an abandoned Fremantle department store: Next Hype h