School Damage: lessons in charming indie pop

New music from School Damage, Sam Amidon and more . .

SERvin’ Up! – w/c June 5, 2017

Husky – Punchbuzz
H Hawkline – I Romaticize
Sam Amidon – The Following Mountain
Dauwd – Theory of Colours
Big Thief – Capacity
School Damage – School Damage
Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu of Ethiopia
Molly Nilsson – Imaginations
Marika Hackman – I’m Not Your Man
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Hello,

America’s Sam Amidon wowed crowds here just months ago performing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Amidon contributed his trademark banjo and honeyed voice to the program titled ‘Murder and Redemption’, singing classic old-time folk songs that have been the staple of his career until now. The Following Mountain is the first album from Amidon to feature his own songwriting and it follows Amidon’s interests in the dark side of the psyche explored in those traditional tunes but also opens his work up to new shades of feeling. As has been his wont over his last few albums, Amidon also uses jazz to stretch and bend his sound and accentuate the varying turns in lyricism. Some great American jazz musicians are on deck and notably The Following Mountain features Juma Sultan, one time percussionist with Jimi Hendrix who scored a song named in his honour on the album, ‘Juma’s Mountain’.

Now up to album number eight, Sweden’s Molly Nilsson has been riding the 80s synth-pop revival for longer than most now. Her new album, Imaginations, is gorgeously immersive and atmospheric but there’s as much agitprop as there is dream-pop throughout. Nilsson spent a lot of time travelling over the last year, discovering cities as far afield as Mexico and Glasgow connected by great socio-political upheaval, her songs taking flight from her experiences and her wish for an optimistic future. In the path towards pure bliss a lot of this music floats toward, Imaginations is absorbing in a very different way.

School Damage are part Melbourne, part Geelong but their self-titled debut is simply all Victorian. The Chapter Music label knows ramshackle and adorable indie-pop when they hear it and their ears haven’t let them down choosing to release the band’s self-titled debut. Bearing some pedigree with members also playing in Chook Race and Frowning Clouds, you can add their hyper-dottery keyboard sound (anyone for Pel Mel or The Reels?) to a stellar list of bands from down south that can wring excitement and transcend the limits of suburbia and the ensuing ennui that can go with it.