By Natalie Salvo
Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that Björk is an artist that never fails to be eccentric and interesting. Last year’s Biophilia album was a sprawling, mixed media affair where the music was released as an album alongside shows, educational projects and a special app for every single song. In 2012, Bastards draws together remixes of virtually all of these tracks.
Björk has acknowledged that these particular remixes took the listener somewhere else. The cuts were all chosen by the fine lady herself, because she says they contain much sturdier legs to dance on thanks to their rather heavy reliance on synths and beats. These particular songs have all been offered on the Internet as downloads at different times and this release collects them together in a handy but rather unnecessary package.
Continue reading Album Review: Björk – Bastards (Biophilia Remixes)
The Sunday set for the Gold Coast 
As is the case with many bands that are somewhat lesser known, despite being critically acclaimed and possessing a stellar live sound, British four piece 
thenewno2’s debut album sounded more like Beck than the output of Beatle progeny. The comparison to the Fab Four was inevitable as the project is the brainchild of Dhani Harrison (son of George Harrison). And while Dhani looks and sounds like his famous father, the music actually falls on the opposite end of the musical spectrum. Again, Harrison has teamed up with his friend and famed engineer, Paul Hicks (son of The Hollies’ Tony Hicks) and it’s clear the two share their tastes in modern music.
The art of blending hip hop with a multitude of genres is on the rise and has recently been done by Bliss & Eso and East Londoner Plan B. The latest to be inducted into the fold is 
Whilst many have argued about labels and band choices for the covers, Fearless Records has delivered another popular album in their Punk Goes Pop series. Released this month, Punk Goes Pop has delivered more interesting covers of hit songs such as Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe” and Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend”.
Travelling to 
Just about every time you think music is becoming stale, over-saturated or downright boring, there’s always a band ready and waiting to put your faith back in music. Twelve Foot Ninja are one of those bands. Forming in 2007, Twelve Foot Ninja quickly rose to prominence, releasing two EPs packed with genre bending moments of reggae, metal, funk, dub and hardcore, sometimes within the same song. Their debut album, Silent Machine shows the same tendency, with added heaviness and polish.
Australian death metal fans generally aren’t quite as lucky when it comes to high-profile gigs like their brethren who enjoy less-heavy strains of metal. You could probably blame the state of the music industry for the lack of international death artists all the way over here to our little patch of dirt in the middle of nowhere.
Sex, sing-alongs, comedy, catchy tunes and balls out fun! Yep, 
Tonight’s all-ages gig meant it was an early start for punters hoping to check out all four bands playing The Big Top at Sydney’s Luna Park. While the eager crowd wrapped its way around the Luna Park grounds in serpentine fashion, patiently waiting for the doors to open, it seems as though most of the other press outlets missed the memo on playing times, with the photo pit looking rather barren for opening act, 
On a darkened stage and with little fanfare, a pretty and bespectacled 
Boldness is not generally an adjective jumping to mind when you think of Kiwi band Shihad. With its skinny black-jeans clad legs planted firmly in the safe melodic-tinged rock scene pushed forth as the genre de jour of the late 90s and early 00s, you’d hardly seek out their albums to push boundaries or explore sonic adventures. Even more so in the past few years, where they’ve rotated around the all-too-familiar downward spiral of record-promote-tour-hope for relevance-rinse-repeat: it’s hardly a recipe for the cutting edge.