With the BIGSOUND music conference just weeks away in Brisbane, Undercover has produced the third Sonicbids BIGSOUND program featuring music from showcasing acts Guineafowl, Big Scary, Richard In Your Mind and Disco Nap.
Guineafowl was brought into conception only this year in Sydney. Starting out as a soloist, Guineafowl quickly grew into a sextet to help bring to life the quirky indie-tronic songs. The band manage to balance deep earthy harmonies with soft, electronic bubbles that are seemingly weightless.Guineafowl have only recently made the jump from backyard performances to bars, yet are already selling out Sydney indie venues. They've also picked up a few international supports along the way in their short existence notably playing with The Magic Numbers and Fanfarlo.
Big Scary: Originally planned on creating a four-piece band, Tom and Joanna decided that creating a full-band sound with the two of them would be more challenging, and fun. Forced to look beyond their comfort zone, exploring various genres and experimenting with different instrument combinations. Inspiration came from anything that provoked thought or emotion: from the contemporary expansive Melbourne music scene, to the classics from their parents' record collections.
The result was Big Scary, a two-piece band, as the name suggests is not what is seems. Sometimes acoustic driven and harmony laden folk, sometimes fuzz-driven grunge, sometimes catchy indie/rock, but always completely enthralling.
Disco Nap burst onto the live scene with their first show at 2009's Sounds of Spring Festival. Since then they've supported Oh Mercy, Washington, The Boat People, played on the main stage at the Valley Fiesta, and toured the country in support of their debut single 'The Soft Shell'. In Aug-Sept the band are hitting the road again to launch their debut album "Running Red Lights".
Telling lyrical tales of life, death, love and family, and a grand vision in mind, they set about incorporating strings, drum machines, trumpets and digital soundscapes to create a lush, full sound that escapes the genre pigeonhole.
Richard In Your Mind: In an age where a wah pedal and a couple of beards are enough to get a band labelled 'psychedelic', it's great to see a band doing it properly. Sydney's Richard In Your Mind are just such an outfit.
Full of inventiveness and spark, Richard In Your Mind make beguiling, genuinely odd, mind-bending music, the kind as likely to veer off into a hip hop verse as it is an extended sitar workout.
Now, four years after starting out, the newly expanded five-piece have blessed us with their keenly awaited second lp, My Volcano.
Watch Sonicbids BIGSOUND on uctv.fm
