Joe Oppenheimer

Dali's Angels - Nightswim - [Point Studios Productions]

In their time away from silky missions on behalf of the mysterious phone-voiced Dali, these concerned young Angels have put together an enjoyably pumping album. The ten tracks are impressively diverse, thoughtfully played and well conceived with the proud stamp of popular song. Main vocalist, Luke Costelloe, is endowed with a clear and beautiful voice which brings shine to every verse. The album begins with the grooving title track, a buoyant ode to the teasing loveliness of she who unreservedly nightswims. The proud ABBA-esque bounce of its opening moments quickly gives way to a tight indie rock deployment in which the Angels have an easy fluency, and proves to be the album’s sonic bedrock. The ultimate unattainability of our nightswimmer prefaces the habitually brooding themes of the later songs: at the heart of Microscopes is a troubled frustration at the allocation of human resources, I Don’t Believe is a loudspeaker call for the reappraisal of popular information and its sources and the fierce Pulse Goes Up explores personal decay and a crippled exhaustion – “I had a battery but she drained away.” Dali’s serious face is dropped for some musical wit in the penultimate tale of Ethyl and her damaging gambling habits; a story proceeding with solemn detail. The energy of these stern social comments is concentrated by the solid production quality, resulting in an album with both flesh and discernible bones.

Hungry Kids of Hungary

It's rare for randoms to be 'discovered' these days. To do so, you need: a) talent, b) appeal and importantly c) some awesome, hardworking would-be-agent to think you're the shiz. Far more common is the long suffering 'unfamous' - described by fans as 'sooo good I can't believe they're not famous!' but only known by a small community, for example Canberra's Nigel McRae or James Fahy.

The Brisbane boys HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY dominate the above checklist, and in doing so have fallen in with the seemingly inspired and proactive management and publicity crew, Mucho-Bravado. This has enabled them to tour relentlessly the past few months, as well as gather an incredible posse of associations to shine benevolently upon their image, including the wonderful Tara Simmons and Drawn From Bees. Though they are but talented randoms, theirs is to entertain with exquisitely professional pop songs, enthusiastic homage and the charm of the unfamous.

Guitarist and co-singer Dean was a lovely young man to chat to, confident and wordy - sadly, he'd called prematurely and those well-phrased answers were lost to the ether - but it's easy to remember his general gist. HKoH were picked up by Mucho-Bravado during one of their Big Sound showcases held around Fortitude Valley, Brisbane late last year. This wasn't too long after they'd performed together for the first time, being one of those bands that rigorously spend a good eight months rehearsing and writing before daring the stage. During this period they picked up their bizarro name, of which Dean said something like, "It gets us a lot of attention... we never really thought about it that much."

triple j aided HKoH in their wider discovery, which is sometimes all the blessing a group needs south of 'Nesia. "There's no secret to it... we put a song up on Unearthed and for some reason they liked it." Since radioplay it's been tour, record, tour. The Hungry Kids have supported excellent headliners: (Little) Bertie Blackman and Little Birdy (Whitegirl), the latter being "probably the nicest people in the business that we've ever encountered." This next time they get to headline themselves, which is essentially playing twice in a row - no, just joking, that was a play on words. Typically talented random, both Dean and keys/vocalist Kane have day jobs, meaning they'll fly down the day of their Canberra gig and continue it from there. After a chuckle at the mention of a hungry kid's carbon footprint, Dean says, "...the conversations definitely get weirder as the tour goes on."

If you'd like to hear the most authentic pop of antiquity both written and performed today, then you'd best out and see the Kids. Or, if in is your thing, check out their kicking Old Money or Set It Right videos on YouTube. Remember, when it comes to K, it's always: "The next one is going to be spectacular."

Hungry Kids of Hungary will play a show with the Trivs at Transit Bar on Thursday November 19.

Hungry Kids of Hungary - Mega Mountain

HKOH have done what Silverchair's New Modern couldn't: they have created a crystal window into the '60s. Each of their songs are tight, extremely well written and full of character. In fact, every song on the disc seems to continue a favourite theme of that time - Two Stones evokes a Beach Boys led by a vaguely bitchy Brian Wilson, and the new single Old Money contains perfectly McCartney-esque phrasings from his early solo period. Where the Kids score big points is in their variety. Each track could be from a different band; however, so flawless are they in genre that one thinks of excellent musicians simply having fun. But their most convincing argument? Talent.