The Melbourne duo behind Slum Sociable are following up their debut hit single Anyway with the release of their first EP ‘TQ’, and it’s out tomorrow, Friday October 9.
They have been touted as everything from indie, electronic, jazz, hip hop and many variations in between, but it’s their washed-out, chill sounds and captivating vocals that have got people listening.
The seven track ‘TQ’ is an adventurous and confident first offering, and one that is best listened to in full. The duo, made up of Edward Quinn and Miller Upchurch, play around with song length and compilation, experimenting with instrumental fillers between their longer, more well-rounded tracks.
‘TQ’ opens with their already released single All Night, the dreamy, shimmering track with jazz piano samples and a really mesmerising echoing hook. They recently released the video for All Night, take a look:
The second track Apartment has more of a hip-hop vibe, with heavier use of percussion and a steady beat. The layered synth samples on the chorus create a dense, lush sound, quickly slipping off at the end to lead into their next song.
I Want To Sit On The Biggest Chair You’ve Got is a light and sun-drenched sound grab, with the same use of echoing hook as All Night, giving it a dreamlike quality. But after 58 seconds it’s over and you’re left wanting more.
Paradigm quickly follows on from the experimental transition and delves into more of a heavier electronic sound. There’s quite a few layers going on, with lots of synth samples reverberating over the top of each other, but it still has the dreamy, washed-out quality of their other songs.
The follow-up Not Everything Turns To Gold returns to more of a percussion heavy sound, with some sparse bass notes and a drum solo at the end. The duo’s vocal ability really stands out on this track, as they delicately play with range and the slightly crackly quality of an old jazz microphone, a consistent favourite of theirs.
My Main Broad Got Into My Wife's House bridges the gap to the last song on the EP, lasting just 53 seconds and creating a magical, crackly little moment. It’s also here that you’ll notice Quinn and Upchurch have ironically given the shortest tracks on the EP the longest titles.
But, alas, everything must end and ‘TQ’ is rounded out with Luck So Far, a swoon-worthy track with a romantic vibe, probably helped with the harp samples and ethereal vocals. They definitely finish on a strong point, showing how easily they cross genre’s, from jazz-hop to lo-fi, to electronica, and coming to rest in a dreamy place somewhere in the middle of it all.
Slum Sociable can, for the moment, argue that nothing else like them exists in Australia currently. Although, it would be hard to know, really, because we know so little about Slum Sociable.
The boys from Slum Sociable return with their laid-back jazz/hip hop track ‘All Night’, cut from their debut EP TQ, due to release on Friday, October 9.
What the Ekka is to rural Queensland BIGSOUND is to Brisbane’s music scene, and we are on the cusp once again of that most wondrous of weeks in Fortitude Valley. BIGSOUND Live tickets for both...
