Flume: Australian post-glitchpop
February 28, 2013 8:18 PM   Subscribe

If you follow music chart news in Australia at all, you might have heard of a young chap who goes by Flume, born Harley Streten in November '91. Now a mere 21 years old, Flume's self-titled debut knocked One Direction off the #1 spot last November (though the boy band ended up out-ranking the homegrown talent in following charts) and earlier this month bumped Bieber down a notch on the Aussie charts, too. But what is the sound of this Australian chart-topper? There's plenty of the "spectral beats ... 21st-century, post-glitchpop" on his Soundcloud page, including the complete album, or as individual tracks on Grooveshark.

Pitchfork was fond of the album scoring it a 7.4/10, warning that many of his songs have a similar structure, but ending on the note that "Flume could easily evolve into a sought-after producer." He got a similar rating from The Guardian, who likened to the album as a modern take on "1980s experimentalists Art of Noise," with clear influences from California wonky beat producer extraordinaire Flying Lotus.

If you're looking for more from Flume, his discography is slim at the moment, with the album and a single, plus some remixes. You can find that material (some repeated) on Grooveshark, or you can check out a few of his mixes, from Fader (with an interview), and Streten put up his hour-long Triple J mix to stream or download from Soundcloud. He also put together a 38 minute mix for Oyster Magazine, again streaming and downloadable from Soundcloud. And like every young producer, he's got a bunch of stuff on his YouTube collection.
posted by filthy light thief (27 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
His music is utterly boring, but my profession compels me to point out that in 10 minutes Flume has sold out two massive shows on his first national tour. I suspect that, for better or for worse, we have found our new gotye.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 8:21 PM on February 28, 2013


I wouldn't consider him anything startlingly new, but a fun mix of styles you have probably come across elsewhere. I dig his sound. To each their own.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:29 PM on February 28, 2013


If you follow music chart news in Australia at all, you might have heard of a young chap who goes by Flume,

It says either something about me or the importance of the charts in Australia that this is the first I have heard of Flume, and I'm not entirely sure it's my cranky, set-in-my-way ways.

Flume's self-titled debut knocked One Direction off the #1 spot last November

1D are so over.
It's all something called 5SOS I believe.
posted by Mezentian at 8:55 PM on February 28, 2013


One Direction are an underrated band who at least perform traditional pop.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:00 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


Flume is damn good. A lot of his tracks are indeed boring, but when he's at his best it's truly something. I'm hoping that he ups the consistency with the next album.
posted by sp160n at 9:27 PM on February 28, 2013


I .. don't know how to respond to 1D as underrated traditional pop.

And the internet tells me 5SOS is probably 5 Seconds of Summer, an Australian pop/rock band.

To be honest, I hadn't heard about the Australian charts until reading up on Flume. It's interesting to see how local artists fare compared to international pop stars/bands. Then again, Nick Cave & The Bad Seed's new album is currently Australia's #1 album, so it's not all pop stars at the peak of the charts, which makes me happy in a general sort of way.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:28 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


Apparently Nick Cave no longer counts as a local artist, since he's lived so much time outside Australia. This means he doesn't count for things like local content quotas.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:36 PM on February 28, 2013


His remixes are his best stuff. He definitely has the talent, if he is ever to realize it he will need to create more songs and less tracks.
posted by chaz at 9:45 PM on February 28, 2013


One Direction are an underrated band who at least perform traditional pop.

"In my day, we didn't have any of this computerized beep-boop sampling nonsense!"
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:48 PM on February 28, 2013


I wonder how Charlemagne in Sweatpants feels about electronic music? Maybe someday he'll tell us.
posted by en forme de poire at 9:48 PM on February 28, 2013 [10 favorites]


In other Australian music news... NEW AVALANCHES! No not really per se: there was an update to their site in late Jan - a DJ set from 2006 is now online. Tracklist includes Bowie, Mylo, Bon Jovi, Daft Punk, Prince.
posted by shortfuse at 9:59 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


BTW, "What You Need" is my favorite so far - the vocal treatments are reminiscent of a bunch of producers' I like (Dilla, Luomo, Burial), but without ripping any of them off. Talented kid. Thanks for the post.
posted by en forme de poire at 10:10 PM on February 28, 2013


Well, I live in Australia and am a fan of Flying Lotus but have never heard of this fellow so apparently I'm just extremely divested from local culture.

What a world where I can do this.
posted by solarion at 10:15 PM on February 28, 2013


His music is utterly boring,

1st comment, three minutes after the post is made ... christ man, just because it says 'music' and 'Australia' doesn't mean you have to comment.

Personally I'm in the boat of liking his remixes over his own work, but maybe he just needs some time to hone his songwriting craft. The hour long mix is nice though even sitting here on the couch, and I think I'll like it more doing something more active like biking.
posted by mannequito at 11:55 PM on February 28, 2013


I love this genre. A tad on the boring side, maybe, but it's actually perfect when you're doing something else. It's my ideal stuff when I'm out and about, walking to the bus, etc...just a nice groove and interesting sounds.

Person below has a lot of good mixes if people want more like this. I'd recommend any of the ones with black & white icons.

http://8tracks.com/pamelar/
posted by victory_laser at 1:30 AM on March 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


A lot of it is pretty same-ey, but there's def some promise there - dude's twenty-one years old for heavens sake, give him a chance to develop
posted by moorooka at 2:03 AM on March 1, 2013


I also thought it was pretty boring.
posted by mary8nne at 2:22 AM on March 1, 2013


Sounds like Ableton Live which is not a bad thing. Sounds like good music to have on while driving to the beach. I think if you can pull that vibe you are a good chance of a #1 song in Australia.
posted by vicx at 3:43 AM on March 1, 2013


I'm sorry but this song, Holdin' On, is an epic earworm and I guarantee that I'll be bouncing it around in my head for the rest of the day. I agree this dude has a way to go yet but he's definitely laying the groundwork now.

Great post.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:40 AM on March 1, 2013



If you think some of it is a 'bit samey', perhaps that is because he is exposing every thing he is doing, he is being very prolific, and if you listen to all that stuff, you hear him approach the same idea again and again trying work out what to do with it.

that doesn't bother me at all

I like flume,

I think he's great

with no "the first guy sad he was boring i better not be uncool, i better say yeah he's a bit boring too" reservations.
posted by compound eye at 5:22 AM on March 1, 2013


One Direction is a really good pop band that gets unfairly drubbed. "What Makes You Beautiful" is as good a pop song as anybody has put out in years. They also have a ton of charm, and I wish someone would give them a sketch comedy show a la The Monkees.
posted by jbickers at 6:37 AM on March 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


OK, I'm cynical of artificially created pop bands, but I can totally get behind a new era of pop music sketch comedy shows.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:55 AM on March 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


compound eye: "If you think some of it is a 'bit samey', perhaps that is because he is exposing every thing he is doing, he is being very prolific, and if you listen to all that stuff, you hear him approach the same idea again and again trying work out what to do with it."

I wasn't aware of Flume before today, but I hit him up on Spotify and gave him some serious listen time after this post went up. I'm of two minds.

On the one hand, he's basically modern muzak. Sitting in pubs and wine bars in four states and one territory in the last two years, I've heard a billion songs just like those from his debut album. It's the default background noise one hears these days in certain kinds of establishments. Catchy enough to get you tapping your fingers, but bland enough to be unoffensive background rhythm.

On the other hand, the fact that he's single-handedly making these so young is a pretty great thing, and it'll be good to see how he develops as an artist as he moves beyond this sort of bland restaurant corporate music into something more unique and personal.
posted by barnacles at 10:08 AM on March 1, 2013 [2 favorites]


with no "the first guy sad he was boring i better not be uncool, i better say yeah he's a bit boring too" reservations.


Haha. ouch. Electronic music is a bit "boring." Instrumental music is a bit "boring." There's just less going on. Not necessarily a bad thing.
posted by victory_laser at 2:01 PM on March 1, 2013


i let my buttons get a bit pushed,
my son is an electronic musician, just a few years younger,
and i hear his music again and again slowly changing slowly over the weeks,
all the incremental stages behind the rare finished work.

I feel I'm hearing something similar with flume, I think he's off and running and good luck to him.
posted by compound eye at 2:57 PM on March 1, 2013


Electronic music is a bit "boring." Instrumental music is a bit "boring." There's just less going on. Not necessarily a bad thing.

I don't know that I buy this -- there is definitely electronic music that I would say has more going on (in terms of timbre, structure, rhythm, etc) than a lot of acoustic music, and similarly with instrumental vs. vocal music. All music has aspects that are more vs. less inventive. But I do agree with you that having "more going on" doesn't equal "better."
posted by en forme de poire at 12:17 PM on March 2, 2013


Electronic music is a bit "boring." Instrumental music is a bit "boring."

I will fight you ... with words.

My little sister came back from her first "full" rave experience and said "I understand why you like electronic music!" To which, I said "I don't do drugs." She didn't believe me. Even my parents thought my taste in music was odd, but they were impressed by Moby's God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters.

My wife likes music she can sing along to, yet every now and again I'll play something that catches her ears.

In short, listen long enough, and you'll find something unexpected that will move you. It could be an acoustic guitar piece, or some minimal techno, but to write off anything electronic or without words is to greatly limit your exposure to possibly amazing music.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:15 AM on March 4, 2013


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