Monday, August 31, 2009

Leafing Through Memories

These days you have to learn to appreciate a lovingly packaged cdr. Such as the new ep from Apple Orchard! The sparkle of the clear plastic sleeve immediately promised musical delights and as I turned it upside-down a lightscribed disc fell out. I immediately placed it on the cd tray and pressed close then play. Leafy Lanes contains four new songs and the much older "Near-Perfect". All of them quite similar to the sound on last year's Half-Steps Toward Bright Skies: polished, with well-programmed drums, woozy keyboards, languid vocals and the occasional burst of guitars. It's the little things that make this ep so great. There's a cover of Carnival Park's (one of the best Filipino bands!) "Fall Fast" which I am sure I've heard before but at the moment I can't remember what compilation it is on. My favourite track is the upbeat jangler "That Sleepy Side of Town", but I'm not going to share that since you can already stream it from you-know-where.

Instead, here is another cover. As we all know The Lucksmiths have now split up (they just did their last gig, down in Melbourne), and of course I had the honour of supporting them on their last two European shows, which now seems slightly unreal, but anyway, this is also a tribute to them. Apple Orchard have recorded a fantastic cover of one of the Luckies' best tunes "The Great Dividing Range", and I would also like to recommend the compilation it is from. Music to Hold Hands to is a Filipino tribute cd to the band that you can (and should) download for free here. Apple Orchard is a band that have shared plenty of music online anyway, and you can still find some treats on their
site. I'm going to check out that Galaxie 500 cover myself!

CLOUD 95 Apple Orchard - The Great Dividing Range

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