Lee Scratch Perry - Jamaican E.T

Conversing with the owner of my local record store, we discussed why reggae and ska do not sell in Tasmania, as he has a dwindling stock, with only two people buying it in the whole city. He says that it is because of the climate. Tasmania is a cooler climate, whereas it would sell maybe in Queensland and Darwin and abroad like the Pacific, but it does not sell because of this colder climate. There has been a resurgence in Afro-beat recently, with people revisiting Fela Kuti. It shares a similarity with reggae with rhythm and lyrical content. 

Stephen J. Malkmus - Traditional Techniques

The thing about the ''old guard'' of early indie is the fact they struggled for so long to reach any sort of success. They are the ''old guard'', and will continue to release music, quality albums that is for sure, but music is generational, with each generation throwing out the old and starting something afresh. But the peculiarity about the sudden generation today is the fact that was highlighted by Brian Eno, the fact that everything is available. You can listen to music created in the 40s, 50s or 60s and everything is at your fingertips, with the current technology, so there is a nostalgic element that people draw on from music, and the lo-fi style is incredibly nostalgic, drawing upon a 70s and 80s style recording process. Ariel Pink even covers distinctive 70s and 80s music.

Mikey Dread At The Control - Dubwise

Post-punk plays a large homage to reggae and dub, as seen in bands like P.I.L etc. It is basically ''white boy reggae'', there is also a significant influence of Afro-beat on bands like Talking Heads, who carved out entire albums borrowing African grooves and instrumentation. You either get reggae and dub or you don't, as a white man. I scored the one in a thousand copies of this LP, a rare transparent red copy. Mikey Dread is famous for collaborating with The Clash on Sandanista!.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - S/T

The combination of raw stripped back garage, free of the additional attributes. Lo-fi recording with punchy lyrics and a DIY aesthetic, Eddy Current Suppression emerged on the Melbourne music scene with a bang. Putting garage rock literally back into the fold of Australian rock. They just pack a punch. It is music for youth and absolutely devoid of pretensions. Energetic and loud. Proof that punk has not died. They even got good reviews from abroad. The first two albums pack a minimalist approach.

Pavement- The Secret History

Pavement consisted of the ingredients of a an original sounding rock band, and that is the fact they were counter-cultural. They were not following a trend, and at that time in the 90s bands like Nirvana ruled. Raw shambolic indie rock was not popular. Did it phase Pavement? Absolutely not they were unwilling to abide by the masses and join the movement that was taking place, where hardcore punk had diverged with metal to make grunge. Pavement remained stoic. 

Stephen Malkmus - Groove Denied

This is certainly a curveball from Malkmus. Dropping the Jicks and veering into electronica. It was not really well received by the critics, but it shows that electronica is certainly a prevalent influence on indie music. Basically, because the origins of techno and synth-pop are found in the very underground of music history. Juan Atkins and Patrick Cowley built on the sounds coming out of Europe. Yes, it is extremely popular today, but the origins of electronica are this underground phenomenon and the homage to electronica is, in fact, this harking back to its roots, not celebrating the state of electronica today which is very chart-topping and has lost its edge.

Akira Kurosawa - Seven Samurai

The immense influence Kurosawa had on the modern Westerns is certainly interesting. In Leone's films, the main protagonists are renegades who do not bow down to anybody, nor do they take orders from a master. Eastwood's ''The man with no name'' is a direct homage to Kurosawa's samurai. Not only characters and script there is a great influence on the action scenes. Westerns would not be the same again if it not for Kurosawa and just looking at the state of Asian cinema welcomed by the West, these samurai films were not popular strictly down to the appalling representation of Asian cinema in the world. Times are changing and Korea's Parasite is sparking interest in Asian film.