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While the most commercial mainstream pop has regressed into the formulaic and uninventive with warbling waifs flogging pseudo-folk and the like, only moderately left of centre of this, emerging from the indie and alternative music scenes came a raft of truly futuristic and contemporary Australian bands, heavily electronic and in one or two cases completely so, has exploded into the music world, creating some of the best and most interesting electronic music on the planet.

While highly sophisticated technically, these acts have nevertheless proved accessible musically and very human, frequently crossing over from the electronic underground, indie and alternative music realms into the cutting edge of the mainstream. No greater example of this has been Empire of the Sun, with three albums behind them, all of which are of a very high standard, immaculately produced and beautifully written principally by its two resident first class Australian musicians, Nick Littlemore also of fellow electronic stars PNAU and Luke Steele, formerly of The Sleepy Jackson as well as PNAU bandmate Peter Mayes, who also produces Empire’s albums.

Mainstream doesn’t always = “bad”, as Nick Littlemore and Luke Steele demonstrate that with the right collaboration of ideas! mainstream can also = “great”.

PNAU playing at the Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle, 2017.Empire of the Sun and PNAU have retained their alternative and electronic underground credibility respectively while also crossing over into the mainstream, with Empire’s monster global hit ‘Walking On A Dream‘ and ‘Alive‘ in 2009 and 2013 and PNAU’s lead single from current album ‘Changa’, ‘Chameleon‘, being one of *the* songs of 2017, on radio everywhere, giving a much-needed injection of quality into the mainstream. Empire of the Sun have gone on to be one of the biggest and most interesting bands in the world. Which just goes to show that mainstream doesn’t = “bad”, it can be great. This isn’t the sole domain of music of the electronic realm, there has been the likes of Tame Impala, San Cisco and the Jezabels as well who have enjoyed substantial success while remaining musically challenging and creatively inspired.

Other acts in this field include the Presets, Cut Copy, Client Liaison, Flume and Grafton Primary. All of these bands operate at a very high level with a consistent output of creative excellence, innovation and inspiration. Such is their standard that they are only really equalled internationally amongst well known acts by performers such as Royksopp, Deadmau 5, Goldfrapp and Roisin Murphy, the best of the best. And as such it really is an achievement that Australian bands have produced so much of the best electronic pop music globally amongst relatively better-known artists. Collectively, they are nevertheless the inheritors of the Australian music tradition that can be traced back to the early 80s, gigging in live venues and met with a certain urgency by audiences.

Though musically their various sounds have a universal quality, not confined to the Australian experience, this group of acts also represent a very Australian sensibility that in these first two decades of the millenium have occupied the space that in the early 80’s was done by bands like the Divinyls, Men At Work, Midnight Oil and INXS. Creating a live music experience that informs an Australian social and cultural experience and reality and generates passion and an emotionally urgent response amongst fans. To witness this evolution, we must first go back one year before the millenium to 1999, when PNAU released their excellent debut album, ‘Sambanova‘.

Already, PNAU were setting an incredibly high benchmark with this album with its hypnotic, dreamy soundscapes, resonating with the evocation of balmy summers days, catchy while remaining musically superlative. PNAU emerged out of a fertile Australian music scene at the time, with other popular artists at the time being Sonic Animation, Gerling, Honeysmack and Resin Dogs, all of whom were creating groundbreaking, compelling synth and electronic-based and influenced work. It was an exciting and highly creative time, both in Australian music in general and the electronic realm, which had truly come of age.

PNAU introduced a sophisticated, international look and feel with both their first two songs and videos, ‘Journey Agent‘ and ‘Need Your Lovin’ Baby‘ in the summer at the end of 1999, plastered all over Foxtel’s then-cutting-edge Channel V, occupying a coveted position amongst the cream of Australian and international acts on the channel, from Jebediah, Regurgitator, Frenzal Rhomb and Spiderbait to Korn and Limp Bizkit. ‘Journey Agent’ incorporated elements of jazz and Latin similar to that which international contemporaries and darlings of the dance music scene at the time, Groove Armada and St Germain were doing. Although it sounded 100% original and not plagiarised by PNAU, rather, a simultaneous exploration of comparable music styles.

While the music was slightly simplified, being their debut album, you can nevertheless hear Peter Mayes’ and Nick Littlemores’ sharp ears and feel for rich, but not overly polished production and emotionally and aesthetically satisfying sound and music. This was a revolution in Australian dance and also alternative music, which they equally comprised, in bringing such an advanced form of electronic music with an international sound and feel, not parochial and exclusively Australian. Even today this music sounds fresh and vital.

Over in Perth, early in the new millennium, Luke Steele was forging a name with superlative indie guitar band, The Sleepy Jackson, whose trademark musical product was immaculate, beautiful, deftly crafted and often gentle songs, charting emotional highs and beauty few others attained. Little did he know when while collaborating on a song on The Sleepy Jackson’s debut album ‘Lovers‘ with Nick Littlemore in 2003, that by the end of the decade, together they would achieve world domination with Empire of the Sun. Before that happened though, PNAU released a slightly more underground album, 2006’s ‘Again‘.

Also in that time, two groups had formed and were honing their craft, Cut Copy and the Presets, who would become another two of the biggest electronically based and influenced Australian bands of the 00’s or naughties with their unique, idiosyncratic, beautifully written and emotionally gut-wrenching music.

Both bands take an 80’s sensibility from different perspectives and marry it with a 00’s sound.

Their references to the 80’s are both oblique but pervasive and from an indie art rock aesthetic, more the underground 80’s music scene and lifestyle rather than commercial, Cut Copy being equally indie guitar and dance while the Presets are pure dance.

The best bet at explaining what this means, looking backwards to the 80’s, is a spontaneous artistic expression, perhaps of a subconscious response to something magical and beautiful from another time, remembered with psychic instinctiveness during the creative process, that leads us to a richer and more profound, substantial personal and spiritual experience. Digging deeper into the cultural sediment, to find echoes of a time and a way of life that was more real and enchanted, needed as a tonic for the more soulless aspects of the harsher neo-liberal capitalist day-to-day world that has exploded into being around us.

The Presets released their first album Beams in the second half of 2005, a very strong collection of songs combining slightly harder-edged, polished dance sounds with melodic pop. Julian Hamiltons’ vocal style is a little bit appealingly Brit-punk with an Australian accent, a broad, blunt, slightly abrasive but emotionally raw and honest vocal delivery.

Photograph: Timothy Saccenti Cut Copy, 2014.Cut Copy’s first album ‘Bright Like Neon Love‘, 80’s influence was hinted at both in the sound and cover art visually suggesting a collision of decay and glamour, their first single, 1981, and even their name, which in combination all suggested administrative office work on early computers in the 1980’s, ironically referencing the boredom and that comes with it and subsequent longing for escape, that universal pop music theme and motivator.

This proposed retro reference to technology also, juxtaposed with its contemporary context, also suggests an artistic and intellectual contemplation of the place of the soul with the almost magical presence the nostalgia for and aesthetics of early technology evokes. This sense of the 1980’s inner Melbourne indie underground and youth culture, perhaps woozily viewed from the perspective of St. Kilda, is intensely present on Cut Copy’s second and most popular album, their 2008 smash ‘In Ghost Colours‘, replete with incredibly beautiful songs. With their 2014 album ‘Free Your Mind‘, Cut Copy successfully immersed themselves in early 90’s dance and house music to impressive effect, on their impeccable post-modern journey through late 20th century music history.

While Cut Copy were more whimsical, with their excellent 2008 Australian smash album ‘Apocalypto‘ Presets developed a more hypnotic and pounding, primal dance music, while attaining some refined emotional highs and moments of sensitive, profound beauty. On this album you can occasionally feel the presence of the raw Sydney beach life in the background, although no less emotional and delicate for it. Another similarly electronic darkwave or noir as it is termed but with their own entirely unique sound, Grafton Primary, released their debut, Neo, in that year also, an electronically sophisticated collection of cheerful, catchy songs that flow very well and perhaps surprisingly evoke fellow Australians, indie dance group Single Gun Theory in the mid-90’s.

Enter Empire Of The Sun in 2008 with their instant classic first single, ‘Walking On A Dream‘. With that song, Empire placed themselves soundly in both a very Australian, both Melbourne and Sydney alternative music world and ethos with a UK indie influence also, that can be traced right back to the mid-80’s, but pop as well, and in a friendly kind of way, managing to be high quality and accessible. Both alternative and resonating with a culturally aware and evolved kind of middle-class sensibility also. What’s really important about Empire of The Sun though is both sweeping, majestic and very beautiful songs with the videos to match as well as a futuristic, vividly imaginative vision as conveyed in their image.

Empire Of The Sun ooze creativity and imagination and have come up with a very modern creation in this band, looking and sounding every bit the futuristic, millennial alt pop group, one would come to expect from this era while remaining very human and accessible, the perfect antidote to the transparent and formulaic pulp pop that dominates the airwaves, with the odd notable exception. Also in 2008, Nick Littlemore’s other band PNAU released their self-titled, career-defining and overall fabulous third album, spawning the indie dance classics, ‘Wild Strawberries‘, ‘Baby‘ and ‘Embrace‘. Similarly, to Empire Of The Sun, with their third album, PNAU managed to create an alternative dance record with a creative and artistic sensibility that sits in the shadow of monied middle class lifestyle and subtly subverts it with a punk, arty spirit, rather like New Order did with ‘low-life‘, but PNAU do it in a much more cheerful way.

BIG DAY OUT – Nick Littlemore (Pnau) Interview

These three singles from the third PNAU album and indeed the whole album itself showed a wonderful, offbeat, quirky and wholly unique and original creativity from them, while retaining an emotional purity and holistic humanity that easily makes it one of the albums of the decade. As is well known, so did Elton John, who pursued them to work with him as a result, leading to the ‘Good Morning To The Night‘ album they made together in 2012. High praise indeed. PNAU’s eponymous third album shows an appealingly contemporary, playful and emotionally very human record, frequently reaching exuberant emotional highs, that was a state-of-the-art offering of dance music at that time.

in 2012, 21-year-old bedroom studio electronic whiz Harvey Streten recording under the name Flume, bursts onto the alternative electronic music scene virtually out of nowhere with his unequivocally compelling and brilliant self-titled debut album, which was the monster smash electronic album backed by Triple J that year and as with the other artists discussed in this article, very Harley Streten, AKA Flume, performs at a Miami Beach pool party, 2016.much heralded the future, well, really, sounds of now with an electronic album that sounded every bit of the millenium which, like the best artists, remained plaintively emotional and human. Sonically and technically advanced but not so pretentiously that it loses all warmth and humanity.

On the contrary, ‘Flume‘ is a tender, querulous, personal and intimate album, and an exemplary exponent of the future bass style of electronic music, modulated synthesiser bass sounds. The Presets released their third album, ‘Pacifica‘ in 2012 also, this time opting for a more angular, oblique and electronically experimental sound and song structure and consequently, while met with wide acclaim, and is a very interesting album, didn’t become the smash success that made the, PNAU, Cut Copy and Empire Of The Sun the stars of electronic dance, indie and alternative pop in 2008. ‘Apocalypto‘ is obviously the Presets’ classic album though, and a masterwork it is.

In 2013 Empire Of The Sun released their second album ‘Ice On The Dune‘, an almost purely electronic record whereas their first album, ‘Walking On A Dream‘, while mostly electronic also, had some indie guitar in it, with one song on their new album, ‘Celebrate‘, sounding like Daft Punk but no less original or great for it and Luke Steele saying the album had better songs than Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories‘ which is debatable, both are fine, though very different albums. Empire Of The Sun suffered something of a backlash from alternative music fans for ‘Ice On The Dune’, accusing it of being an overly slick, robotic dance affair, and but listened to carefully, that doesn’t appear to be true, although if you’re not a fan of dance music, you probably won’t like it.

The fact that first single, ‘Alive’ became a major mainstream hit but in a good way, and was used in a Toyota tv ad a month after its release, probably didn’t help with the backlash. It’s a little odd as it is, more masculine alternative music fans listening to such cultured, beautiful music as Empire Of The Sun. But the reality is, ‘Ice On The Dune’ is by and large an excellent album with several incredibly beautiful songs. It’s a very “up lifting” album that reaches very high musical and emotional highs most of the time. Interestingly, the title track, while still a good song, is probably the weakest song on the album, the only one that isn’t an absolute banger, really, and occurs at a position in the album where it may distract the not entirely convinced listener.

Also, at one or two points the songs run into each other in a slick fashion that gives a slight sound of sameness but these are minor quibbles and there are some fantastic songs on the album. With its state-of-the-art electronic sound and futuristic sci-fi and fantasy imagery, once again Empire Of The Sun bring in an album that sounds fresh and every bit of the millenium, impressive for an Australian act.

In that year also on their second album ‘Eon‘, Grafton Primary entered a similarly electronic darkwave or noir realm to the Presets, but with their own distinct sound. As with the Presets, while exploring darker moods, Grafton Primary possessed the talent to ensure that melodic emotional sweetness is never far away, their songs thus retaining their accessibility and humanity.

Ingenious indie dance pop duo Client Liaison released their self-titled, first EP ‘Client Liaison‘ in 2014, a collection of five very strong songs influenced by late 80’s and early 90’s dance. Another incredibly sophisticated creation, Monte Morgan and Harvey Miller of Client Liaison just seem to burst with creativity at every turn with great videos, outfits and stage sets cleverly reinterpreting 80’s Australian life, society culture and icons with an extraordinary insightfulness for people who were too young to remember it at the time. More than just clever, their songwriting and production are very beautiful and high level, emotionally potent, touching and thoughtful. Some of their videos are so visually accomplished they stand as credible art pieces and the inventiveness and humour with which they infuse all they do is truly astounding.

In 2016 Empire Of The Sun released their third album, ‘Two Vines’, a sumptuous affair but still highly accessible, personal and human. For all their sophistication, Littlemore and Steele are hopeless romantics and it shows in warm and appealing ways. ‘Two Vines‘ while still polished returns to a more organic sound with the return of guitars in places. It’s a sound unique to the album and once familiarised with it, the songwriting is of an incredibly high standard throughout. Empire of The Sun play with the most up to date visual technology and fantasy themes as always in stunning videos such as ‘Way To Go‘ and ‘High And Low‘ while remaining warm and human as ever. Client Liaison also released their excellent first album in 2016 and were riding high with sensational live shows and even their own fashion label, sold at cheekily high prices and again, jaw dropingly accurate reimagining of the late 80’s.

That same year, Flume released his second album, the excellent ‘Skin‘, which calls to mind Jean Michel Jarre, a prodigious single composer with banks of keyboards creating a wall of sound with the most interesting array of blips and beeps while again remaining real and relatable, sounding like a human being wrote it, dealing with themes and problems we can all relate to. After a difficult period with their fourth album, ‘Soft Universe‘, back in 2011, which was somewhat maligned and with Nick Littlemore expressing regret about it, even though it’s far less experimental and edgy than PNAU characteristically are, it is for the most part still a perfectly solid and respectable record, PNAU roared back into form with the release of ‘Changa’ in the second half of 2017.

‘Changa’ spawned the smash ‘Chameleon’, as big a hit as they’ve ever had. For men in their 40’s, it was like they were kings of pop with ‘Chameleon‘ being played everywhere in Australia at the end of 2017 and early 2018, similarly to Empire Of The Sun’s hit ‘Alive’ in 2013. Although lush and sophisticated dance tracks with a mesmerising African soul thanks to extraordinary singer Kira Divine, with all three singles from ‘Changa’, ‘Chameleon’, ‘Go Bang‘ and ‘Changa‘, PNAU have also continued a celebratory and joyful, socially unifying and quintessentially Australian dance and pop music tradition. Cut Copy release their fifth album ‘Haiku From Zero‘ in 2017 also, returning to their more indie guitar sound and retaining the unique, seductively wistful songwriting magic and sound they are known for.

PNAU toured a stunning, hypnotic live show in 2018 expanding on and fleshing out the songs on ‘Changa’ and ‘PNAU’ in the way that any good live act does, increasing the essential understanding of the songs in a way you can’t get on record. The Presets released their excellent fourth album, ‘Hi Viz’ in late 2018 also, a much smoother, poppier and catchier record than 2013.’s ‘Pacifica’ and correspondingly ‘Hi Viz‘ has been met with much more love by its fans. It’s been an incredible two decades in electronic and dance pop music in the first 20 years of the millenium in Australia and it’s not over yet.

As you can see it’s been an incredible journey through the past 18 years on the flipside of generally much safer and creatively stifled mainstream pop from both Australia and around the world. But as an antidote to that, these incredible Australian electronic and dance groups have shown an extraordinary sophistication and musical advancement that collectively represent a joyous explosion of creativity and originality. The lesson in this is we have a choice. We can play it safe and acquiesce to a substantial part of the world that wants to conform, even if it may seem like it’s everywhere, or we can choose to jump into the deep end and seek out the edge where new sounds and creativity abound.

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