The Null Device blog: Recent listening

I hadn't been going out much, or blogging much for that matter, lately due to work having been rather insane. However, I have been listening to CDs, so here's a list of what I've been listening to lately:

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions, Bavarian Fruit Bread. The more I listen to this disc, the more it grows on me. The quiet vocals floating sleepily over the subtly muffled guitars, with barely audible brush percussion and the odd xylophone. Very, very lovely.
Parsley Sound, Platonic Rate; understated, with subtle distorted beats, analogue synths, vintage keyboards and floating, reverbed vocals; rather dreamlike and atmospheric, with perhaps somewhat of a 1960s psychedelia influence in places.
Malory, Outerbeats. Best known as "that German outfit that tries to be Slowdive", this album goes beyond their influences somewhat. Granted, the Slowdive-circa-Just-For-A-Day influence is obvious (you can pick out specific songs and rhythms there), though they add synth textures and crunchy beats. And it works. Some of the tracks almost edge into Gus Gus territory.
Which probably prompted me to dig out my copy of the Icelandic chillout outfit's This Is Normal album and give it a spin or two. It's still as good as it was back in 1999 when I picked it up.
Victor Lancaster, Mr. Mention. Yes, the plastic bucket drummer who plays on the streets of Melbourne; and better than you'd expect it to be. Some of the remixes are particularly impressive.
The Love Letter Band, Even The Pretty Girls Take Medicine. One of the raft of 555/Red Square indiepop releases I walked away with during one of Stewart and Jen's popfests, and quite a nice one, in a somewhat fey electro-pop vein.

Posted by: Luke | http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ | Mon Jul 15 07:46:43 2002

Victor. He's not the guy who used to play plastic drums outside Hoyts in Sydney, is he? I sincerely hope so...

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Mon Jul 15 08:09:36 2002

Don't know. He's in his 50s, unshaven, somewhat scruffy-looking. I'm not sure if he has ever been in Sydney, though he apparently has been in Melbourne for years.

Posted by: Luke | http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ | Mon Jul 15 15:34:26 2002

Dark hair? Beard? Shortish? Could be the same guy; he disappeared from the outside of Hoyts in about... what, 95? That'd be a long enough time...

He used to have a sign that (I think) said "My name is VICTOR. If you want to take a photo it will be $1." - could well be him. Hmm.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Mon Jul 15 17:11:30 2002

More stubble than a beard, though sounds similar. He's short, balding, and somewhat weathered-looking.

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