Hailing from Sydney’s Blue Mountains, blues and roots solo artist Claude Hay is a rarity in today’s musical landscape; laying down a modern version of what, in another age, would have been called a one man band. Claude fuses slide guitar, sitar, bass and electronic percussion in a loop-driven edge-of-the-seat live show that invokes the best of stomping trad blues with funk-dance edge that is making people’s ears stand up and take notice.

November 2009 sees Claude Hay release a new single “How Can You live With Yourself”, a funky feat of ambidexterity detailing the atrocities of super cheap printers that are destined for landfill one day after their warranty has expired. Unlike most office equipment Claude Hay is one artist who’s likely to be around here for a long time to come.

For more details of Claude Hay: http://www.myspace.com/claudehay

Mew most recent video “Repeaterbeater”, the second single from their latest album, the frustratingly titled No more stories / Are told today / I’m sorry / They washed away / No more stories / The world is grey / I’m tired / Let’s wash away. It takes the band to an eerie Victorian mansion/ritzy old folks home to take some trippy drugs, or so it seems. The schizo-imagery paired with the haunting beats does well at keeping the viewers’ attention—a very nice follow-up to the weirdness of “Introducing Palace Players”, the first single off No More Stories.

The video has been directed by Martin De Thurah with the help of Adam Hashemi and Lasse Metinussen and was produced by BACON.

These works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The ‘…happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.

The Disney versions almost always have sad beginning, with an overbearing female villain, and the end is predictably a happy one. The Prince usually saves the day and makes the victimized young beauty into a Princess. By Dina Goldstein.(http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/11918)

I’ll like to call this a modern day version of a fairytale - taking away all that sell out fantasy lines and potraying a more realistic point of view or story. Impactful and well executed. Certainly a collection you must check out.

Another Arts & Crafts-signed group making waves beyond their native Canada, Young Galaxy are a duo comprised of Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless. ‘Swing Your Heartache’ evokes early nineties indie without resorting to shoegaze copyism, coming across as oddly jubilant in a slow-burning sort of fashion. (http://www.boomkat.com)

For more of the band and their music, here’s a link to their myspace: www.myspace.com/younggalaxy

The Hungry kids of Hungary is a band made up of four gents whose musical inspiration touches on Blues, Rock, Soul, R&B and 1960 style pop-rock. On the surface, their songs are catchy, rhythmic and well balanced with fetching guitar chops and contempory stylings. But also employ light and shade, and sweet vocal harmonies that’ll knock the pants of you. It’s basically fun and energetic music that anyone can get into…Even Grandma!

HKOH have played a massive run of shows in the last couple of months and are set to play a string of supports including The Boat People, The Seabellies, The Devoted Few, Washington and Kid Confucius.

This song is indie at its finest. I really dig this song - its got a really sweet melody with a reminiscent sound with a modern twist - and the hook is catchy as hell!I love the vibe, no matter how many times I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, this song never cease to set it right up. But also the fact it has a great chord progression with a well written melody. Love the chorus effect on the verse vocals and how the keys double the vocals in the right areas. Awesome bridge - the overtones created by the keys, guitar and how the drums build with intensity towards the end. Well arranged dynamically.

http://www.myspace.com/hungrykidsofhungary

HOWL. Winner of Unearthed High. Aged around 17. These teenagers are wicked! Killer dynamic and great elements in their sound, definitely well-deserved.

“Rock’n’roll, punk and rockabilly all rolled into a combustible ball. Wicked energy on this track, and interesting arrangements. And yeah, that voice! What a howl!! (Oops, bad pun!)” - Dom Alessio, triple j 08 jul, 2009.

I could barely remember what I was doing at their tender age. Kudos to these bunch of insanely intelligent teens, they pretty much reminded me of The Vines and a bit of the distillers caught in an art commune that only serves whisky sours, beatniks samples and cigarettes. With that organ synth, thumping drum beats, well-synchronized back ups, insane wails, diverse screamer vocal yet in key, classic guitar - all in all - one crazy local garage rock band.

All I wanna say is that, are those guys really from high school? They are too good to be. They have what is beyond their years.

http://www.myspace.com/thehowlmusic

Spontaneous photoshoot with allenang.com

The xx are a London quartet, featuring the dual lead vocals of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim (who also play lead guitar and bass guitar respectively), Baria Qureshi (keyboards and guitar) and Jamie Smith (beats, MPC sampler).

Bonding over a shared love of dark, emotive 80s guitar sounds and the high-end sheen of American R&B, The xx’s unique sound befits a band whose wide range of influences combine via beautiful, hushed vocal duets and a brilliantly inventive use of samples and low-end frequencies to produce stark, sweet melancholic pop.

My personal favorite would have been VCR,which is no where to be found on the world wide net. However enclosed is their early cover of Womack & Womack’s “Teardrops”. Strongly influenced by modern R&B and had been liken to Aaliyah to CocoRosie, Rihanna to The Cure, Missy Elliott to Chromatics, The Kills to Ginuwine, Pixies to Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake to Tracy + the plastics, this band is bound to be huge in the years to come. Not to mention the numerous gigs in UK under their belts to boot.

For more of The XX, check out their MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/thexx