The steady rise of the producers from down under continues. This time it's Harley Straten, aka Flume, who brought home Australia's “J Award,” an award given out every year by the public radio station Triple J for the Australian Album of the Year. The award has recently been favoring more traditional folk/rock artists (ex. Tame Impala, Gotye) and the award hasn't been handed to an electronic artist since The Presets in 2008.
The self titled debut album has garnered a lot of respect and imitation in the past year. The jazzy, deep house based album is equal parts eeriness and intrigue that would easily fit as a soundtrack to a modern film noir mystery with it's whining, reverb-laiden vocals and saxophone modeled lead synths; You can practically hear the smoke rising from the cigarette of the shadowy femme fatale.
Triple J Music Director, Richard Kingsmill, said the album was so influential that “[w]ithin the space of just 12 months, it's inspired so many soundalikes and wannabees.” Hopefully, the “soundalikes and wannabees” can frack some simple inspiration instead of whole cloth style copying because this style of bombastic minimalism is pushing EDM in a much more heady, and interesting, direction.
