Every year, Australia rocks the pier at Santa Monica during their Twilight Concert Series, and this year DMA’s and Ben Browing were representing their country in the most eclectic way.
DMA’s could not have been more classic in the garage pop rock of the term, with their layered acoustic and electric guitars, and a singer with strong and bold voice who immediately made me think about Liam Gallagher’s delivery. Their songs were instantaneously catchy with a familiar vibe, reverb in the vocals and they were easy to like at the first listening. They had a few quiet ones, all vocals starting with an acoustic guitar, progressively stuffing more instruments in the mix and going back to their big explosive sound while adding vocal harmonies.
DMA’s is officially a trio – the musical project of three friends Johnny Took, Matt Mason & Tommy O’Dell – but their were actually six on stage last night. They released their debut single in February this year, as a short film accompanying a song entitled ‘Delete’, which owned them an overwhelming reaction from critics and fans.
While adopting a very causal attitude all set long, their music was more pop than rock, they were leaning on their poppy melodies, sounding like a more all-jangling-guitar version of Oasis – I read later on that Dave Rowntree of Blur compared them to Arctic Monkeys & Oasis, so I am not the only one making this comparison. I don’t know about the Arctic Monkeys, but my mind mostly kept going back to the Gallagher brothers, which is not a bad comparison right? May be it was the Australian accent not too far from the British accent, may be it was the way the singer was leaning on the mic, may be it was their throwaway attitude, their we-don’t-care-too-much-about-the-audience demeanor, leaving the stage without any notice at the end… Oh I know that’s a style that works well sometimes.
Ben Browning’s sound could not have been more different, as the electro pop duo opened a big dance floor, and although their first songs were more dreamy pop than real club hits, their tracks got progressively more and more alive and animated to end up into a steamy disco floor.
Ben Browning is in fact the real name of one of them, a more personal project after being a long-time member of the Australian electronic band Cut Copy. I don’t know much about Cut Copy, but BB, as they had written on their computer which was occupying a central position on stage, was truly dance oriented. With almost dreamy light vocals, bouncy rhythms and even some new waves elements on some songs, they were wandering around genres, with a most definitive upbeat attitude, expanding their slow jams around the computer, bringing some tropical and festive bits. At times, it almost sounded like happy music for people on a cruise or beautiful people in a Miami club, and may be that’s why there were pink flamingoes on the shirt of one of them.
People in the pits were jumping, clapping, it suddenly took the ambiance of gay-disco-club on a Friday night,… It was music for carefree times, sunny beach and cloudless islands. And it is not their fault if I always feel alone on a dance floor.
