An esoteric and ethereal blend of vocals and bold beats, Berlin-based Seabourne is a collective of songwriters, bands and solo artists who function as the perfectly placed puzzle pieces to this mysterious music project.
Seabourne is the brainchild of established songwriter and cryptic chanteuse, Larissa Rate (KIDS AT RISK) who began experimenting with producing her own music with one objective; no rules.

Seabourne sails on the new wave of intricate outer-limits pop.

Writing with orchestral instruments (particularly horns) coupled with layers of vocals, the sound evolved into a unique universe of its own….their single Heart Shaped Pills certainly errs on the side of esoteric, quirky and intelligent pop. A perfect fit for those crazy Berliners, and currently sits in our Indie Spotlight Chart as one of our top trending tracks!
With nods to the likes of Canadian chanteuse, Grimes, Seabourne masters the combination of haunting yet accessible vocals coupled with electronic beats. Here, dark themes and caped concepts hold hands with bright melodic melodies and uplifting soundscapes.
Written in various locations around the world, Seabourne creates other-wordly soundscapes steeped as much in darkness and nostalgia as light, intelligent pop. Here, Icelandic pop holds hands with German disco, as an 80s dance sound from the UK pops it’s head in to leave the party as quickly as it arrived. Now basing themselves in Berlin, Seabourne sails on the new wave of intricate outer-limits pop and Berlin is a perfect back drop to their intelligent pop sound ‘Last Trumpet’ was the debut single from Rate, released last year and gained much airplay and a strong following. Seabourne has already start DJ’ing, collaborating and remixing the work of others, both locally and internationally.

We look forward to hearing more music on Holding Pattern from such a ground breaking artist that sees no boundaries to her music, just wonderful colours of collaborations

Here’s s a list of Seabourne’s  favourite hangouts in Berlin,  from the good folks at Posse.com

Kugelbahn- This is a live venue, bowling alley and art gallery all in one in the guts of Wedding. We played our first Berlin gig here and its generally just a great place to hang day or night.

Berghain- Not much to say about this super techno club in Berlin except that if you feel like losing yourself for 48hrs there’s no where else like it.

8MM Bar- One of the only chilled rock n roll type bars in Berlin, we like to come here and listen to our friends spin some indie tunes.

Görlitzer Park- Love this park for its trashy, grungy, absolutely anything goes vibe. Very Berlin.

No Fire No Glory- Cafe in Prenzlauer Berg that makes the best coffee in town.

Marie Antoinette- Great indie music venue in Mitte . We played a gig here with some cool bands from France when we first arrived.

Cassiopeia- Located in the badlands of Friedrichshain, it’s like mad max in a beer garden

Biesenthal- Annual music festival held in an old youth group camp site on a lake. It’s a a great place to catch some music you’ve never heard before.

Annandale Hotel - an iconic Sydney (and Australian) live music venue. Many great shows there as a punter as well as a musician. Fingers crossed it will continue.

Sydney five-piece, Cogel, released their debut self-titled EP in February 2011. With video clips for ‘Aquarium’, ‘The Bug’, and ‘Felusine’ being featured on Rage.
With the privilege of supporting Gotye in October 2011, and a new EP called ‘Nowhere Near‘ released in 2012.
Cogel are a band with an enviable past and a promising future.
Nowhere Near is diverse 5-track EP riddled with punchy hooks and memorable choruses, is an impressive release for this Independent Sydney 5-piece.
Erring between ethereal and anthemic, these five tracks flow seamlessly as a record and stand strong independently.
‘Felusine‘ already sits in our Independent Spotlight Chart at No.3 position and has been described as:
“An explosive orchestral opening track that would make Arcade Fire proud, Cogel’s Nowhere Near EP immediately captivates your attention.” – Tonedeaf
Damn straight! The first single of this impressive EP is a ball of emotion tearing through your senses, taking the listener through a wall of sound, only to ever so slightly drop you into a net of delicate violin…..Stunning!
A wonderful release and a true indication of the musicianship of this band comes from the melodic, rhythmical 2nd track of the EP ‘The Bug‘
Clearly this is a band that enjoys the intricate language of musical change and a landscape laced with the Celtic undertones of hooky violin lines.
I mean who doesn’t?!
Your quickly singing choruses and hearing influences like Deerhunter or a little Vampire Weekend poking it’s head out perhaps in tracks like “Out Of Touch”
Some beautiful harmonies linger around the title track of the EP ‘Nowhere Near‘ and an ever so slight Bon Iver flavour is conjured up….but this is different, independent, it’s organic and has a beautiful anthemic rhythm to it that leaves you pining for more.
This is where the teasing rhythm of Cogel’s ‘Habit‘ arrives at your senses tickling its way around your eardrums, where repetitive bass lines are matched with some fantastic drum licks that could be mistaken for a modern day Joy Division…I mean why not, someone’s gotta do it!
With vocals both front and back matching so effortlessly in this band we expect massive things from this Sydney 5 piece.

Here’s s a list of Cogel’s favourite nationwide hangouts from the good folks at Posse:

State Theatre, Sydney – While we’ve never played there (maybe one day..), the interior aesthetic is stunning. While it’s steeped in a rich history of opera and classical music, there have been spine tingling contemporary performances staged there over the last 5-10 years that have blown our minds.

Baxter Inn, Sydney – There have been a whole spate of novelty and themed bars popping up over the last couple of years, but this one takes the cake. A jazz and blues bar, tucked away in the basement at the back of a CBD building, this is as close to a time machine as humanity has come.

Brother Baba Budan, Melbourne – This unassuming cafe has hands-down the best coffee in Melbourne, and potentially Australia. It’s only large enough to seat about 15 customers, but their trippy soundtracks take you to your own little world whilst enjoying coffee that is out-of-this-world.

The Vanguard, Sydney – The Vanguard plays host to everything from comedy and novelty burlesque shows, to jazz, folk and blues gigs. The atmosphere inside is small enough for an intimate gig, while large enough for an energetic buzz. We’ve only ever had great shows playing there ourselves.

Ferdydurke, Melbourne – This bar has the aesthetic of a small architectural studio, with ornate wood finishings, spotlights and raised benches. It’s a challenge to find it if not for a local’s direction, but the payoff is worth it, with a great selection of lounge beats accompanying their mix of cocktails, spirits and uncommon beers.

Revolver, Sydney – If you manage to get a table here, they do the meanest cooked breakfast in Sydney. It’s always a 15-30 minute wait to be seated, but they say good things come to those who wait..

Pocket Bar, Sydney – Great for a catch up with friends, trying to impress a girl on a date, or a tasty shareplate with drinks. It’s dim, comfy, and filled with ambience.

Oxford Art Factory, Sydney – The best medium-sized venue in Sydney, without question. They host great international names and promote local talent too. Their sound can be impeccable at times, and if you’re partial to dancing, they have club nights that go late into the night.

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to attend the Techconnect 2013 conference at UTS in Sydney.
Surrounded by a number of mentors, investors, VC Capital firms, and other entrepreneurs we navigated through and gained valuable advice on the funding ecosystem both nationally and internationally.
Set up as a revolving panel of speakers tackling a number of issues, ending with a Q&A.

Topics included:
- The Australian Investment Scene
- Think Big!
- Money to Grow
- Accelerating Growth
- Setting up for Global Success
- Building Value

Each topic had 3 speakers ranging from Mick Liubinskas (Cofounder, Pollenizer), Dr. David Skellern (Founder, Radiata), Doron Ben-Meir (CEO, Commercialisation Aust), Niki Scevak (MD Blackbird Ventures), Tony Surtees (CEO, Hyperlocalizer), Bill Bartee (MD Southern Cross Venture Partners) plus many more fascinating speakers across all types of industry.
Australia’s top technology entrepreneurs shared how they have headed out of start-up territory to establish real, solid growth, how they jumped hurdles placed in their way and navigated the snakes-and-ladders landscape of funding options, all of whom have had success and some failures.
So here I am, a musician of 15 years experience, Founder and Captain of the ship The Holding Pattern.
A young music start-up in the Australian market designed to promote the independent and undiscovered artists of the world under one creative marketplace. After 3 years of design and development, and being live only 14 months, I can say we are building, and we are building quite quickly. As we prepare for another 80,000 tracks to be uploaded from UK Distribution Company Ditto Music, as well as other fantastic independent artists upload their music from around the world…and I pondered on the possibilities and hurdles we have faced during our existence.
After a number of speakers had their say, I noticed that we were the only music start up that was present at the conference, and it was obvious from the get go that each entrepreneur and investor pitched the idea of creating something that a customer wanted, and your points of differentiation, and most importantly building relationships with your investors.
This was the reoccurring theme of the day…
“BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR INVESTOR/S”
While I sat and listened to the fascinating success stories from these leading speakers in the industry, I took note as to which I wanted to start that relationship with, and spark a conversation about what HP is planning within the independent music space…. and of course, ask a lot of questions.
So I went in search for guidance, a mentor, and an investor perhaps.
With a business model under my arm and a passion to change the way music is shared, listened and explored, I set off to build on our existing team, and the right investors who will partner with us, and share the same vision.
It was like a frenzy of start-up owners and entrepreneurs lining up to speak to investors and mentors after each break we had, and I quickly realised that I was not the only one who had ear marked certain investors and speakers to talk to, there were others…
I was on a mission, and that was to have my elevator pitch down to a silky delivery about what HP offered, what we will become, the benefits within the commercial marketplace… and of course have a handful of business cards at the ready.
I approached the investors that I thought would be a great fit for HP, and I listened and learned from their business experience.
I realised that most I spoke to have a love of music, which was great, and subscribed to certain services to access their music.
Perfect, I knew what they would say next, and they rattled off certain music streaming services and ITunes.
“Did you know we only get access and listen to about 5-10% of music out there?” I said
“And what we’re trying to do is drill down into the remaining 90% of ‘Black Gold’ out there”
I had their attention, “Black Gold?” said one investor.
I repeated the percentage “Only 5-10% of music..”
That means the remaining 90% of amazing independent, undiscovered, unsigned music out there… hasn’t even been heard yet.
That is a lot of music. Mind-boggling in fact! More music than any site, streaming or otherwise boasts it has.
And that’s what we are passionate about at HP. Bringing together music fans, creative’s and the public to share and explore this music.
“How are you going to do that?” asked one investor.
Our vision and mantra at HP is to ‘use music as a currency to communicate between people, not an end transaction forever lost in a digital player’
We are designing innovative tools and platforms to entice fans and creative’s, to interact with artists and each other.
I explained we are currently building an EBay type commercial platform for creative’s, production companies or the general public wanting to access music for public broadcast. From YouTube videos, TV Shows, to Feature Films. Bringing together artists and creative’s through mobile applications so the art of accessing music still retains the 3 most important things, Speed, Quality & Price…. but keeping the artist in the front seat where they can control where their music is placed, and for how much.
I had them listening.
“The answer is with the people” I explained.
They are the source; they are the connectors, the movers and the shakers, and the changers. You just need to give them the tools to do this and they will.
And this is what we are building right now.
One of them is a simple interactive tool that will allows fans to visually connect with other fans, to connect to artists, who can connect to creative’s, which will show real time trending tracks that creative’s sourcing music for public broadcast will want to use…. and much more.
This is the beginning of where that 90% of incredible music never heard before can begin to sustain itself.
We want to learn, improve and innovate from existing music services out there.
“But you shouldn’t confuse convenience, with innovation” I said.
Accessing your music through a streaming service is great idea, in fact it makes sense, as we are building this service as well, but you have to offer more to the user than just a stream, connect them to other fans and artists, give them greater access, so they feel part of your platform and they have a say as to what they really want. After all, if they are paying a subscription they should at least be able to personalise what they want.
Which leads me to the source and fuel of this service, the artists. You must be completely transparent and fair around how much the artists are paid per stream, and then do the math around how many times you listen to a track, with how many users. Simple right?
We would include packages for users that would give greater access to the site, gifts, and exclusive offers, providing greater exposure to the artist, and more bang for their buck to the fans.
One thing you can’t do is have an infinitesimal amount paid to artists per stream, as we see now, this will only bring the devaluation of music.
“Why not work around existing artists that people know of?” asked another investor
I went for the jugular.
Because Independent music is always just that little bit better, it has no boundaries, and answers to no one. It takes risks, like no other and is not afraid to be individualistic and stand tall in a crowd. It’s where popular culture can be changed. It is the HQ of cool, it is cutting edge, and it is always fresh.
In a world that has an abundance of mediocrity, I think this becomes a currency far beyond a monetary figure, but a currency to be able to connect and influence the people? That’s an investment plan I’d want to be involved in. Provide a marketplace for the creative minds of the world, and connect them through incredible independent music.
After a number of fascinating talks from more guest speakers, and conversations with all types of industry leaders, the day ended with a networking party of drinks and canapés. It was a long day, but fruitful in so many ways.
I think every entrepreneur had his or her pitch down to a silky delivery, and a cold beer was welcome addition.
I left with a large number of business cards, some new friends, ideas, and hopefully the blocks to building a relationship with an investor/s.

- Nick Arnold

The Khanz is a four piece band from Sydney who bring a fresh take on New Wave/Electronica music.
Differing from traditional line-ups with all four members contributing to the vocal duties, it makes for some really pretty harmonies and helps make their sound a big synthy dream…. and it’s bliss!
‘Wolves’ is a track with a synth/pop, floaty quality… like a chill out song on steroids. Something I could easily listen to all day. It washes over you like a comforting blanket after a hard day!
‘Hope You’re Not Far’ continues the dream-like state.
It features some big drum sounds that remind me of a surf pop song that’s been given a synth makeover.
The group’s harmonies are prominent and give the song a nice uplifting tone over all.
‘Wild Animal’ feels like quite a different beast tonally (mind the pun). It has a much darker feel to it with the female lead vocals adding to the change in mood of this track.
It’s not as instantly catchy as the other two, but it shows the diversity of this group.
The Khanz are a really fun group to listen to.
It’s a shame there are only three tracks up, I would love to hear more from them!
Add to: Good Mood Playlist, Road Trip Playlist, Beach Playlist.
Sounds like – Van She, The Volitaire Twins, Vampire Weekend.

Nadia Albuino
Follow me on Twitter @Nadswashere

Check out their video to Wolves

Hailing from Brisbane, Signature Series offers a diverse style of hip hop that’s bound to turn heads.

Upbeat tracks, enhanced by a horn section give this hip-hop artist an edge in the market. Rather than his backing tracks sounding like programmed beats, it actually sounds like you’re listening to a funk/soul band with a singer who happens to be really good at rapping.

This blend works together really well, when listening to these tracks you can almost forget where you are, but most of all it makes you want to dance!

‘Heist That!?!’ opens the EP with energetic drums that grab your attention. Punchy rhymes carry throughout the track, with flickers of horns throughout the backing track. It’s a great song for getting yourself pumped up for a night out or on a workout/running playlist.
The title track ‘Corner of 4th & 58th’ has had airplay across the Triple J airwaves. Featuring the vocal skills of Georgia Potter helping to bring this soulful track up another level.
‘Here Comes The Fuzz’ is a little reminiscent of a 1970’s cop show soundtrack. It’s full of funky bass lines once again combined with the horns, with a few siren effects to set the scene. It sounds messy but it all combines to make a fun track.
‘Kickin On’ – Has a much smoother/crooner feel to it. I get the feeling the singer is trying to appeal to the ladies in this one.. or perhaps one lady in particular.

Signature Series is definitely a name to remember, this EP gives a good selection of talent, I look forward to seeing what they come up with next!

Add to: Pre-Party Playlist, Workout Playlist, Road Trip Playlist

If you like The Roots, The Bamboos, Urthboy get onto these guys!

Nadia Albuino
Follow me on Twitter @Nadswashere