Sydney-based designer, illustrator, and artist, Lalita Lu, has many creative feathers pinned to her cap, and now, we can officially add kick-arse seamstress, too. Under the guidance of a menagerie of creatures, shoppers can choose a me and oli print, match it with their favourite garment shape, punch in their size specs then hit send. Bespoke designs handmade to suit your actual shape. This is how shopping should be.

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From the dusty depths of Western Australia comes the making of another great Aussie band. Tame Impala have just released their self-titled EP and it’s already seducing ears across the airwaves. With a psychedelic sound akin to the rollicking groove of Led Zeppelin mixed up and delicately caressed with the sound of modern day hope and desire, this is an EP that absolutely deserves your attention.

David Holmes’ fourth solo album has been a long time in the making. The man who is best known for his scoring of films such as Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13, and remixing for bands like U2 and The Manic Street Preachers, took just over ten years to make his latest album. In his own words, he describes the album as beginning the day his mother passed away. ‘I had always wanted to make a record about my life in Belfast and all the things attached to that — family, friends, loss, love and starting a family of my own. All the stuff that shapes the person you become’. The result is a soothing blend of eclectic indie folk, which ranges from the soft and tranquil, to the upbeat and and joyous; an entirely delectable, personal album which touches on the universal trials of human emotion. Listen to the David Holmes track, Holy Pictures.

As the final festival devotees gather their bags, pick up their muddy gumboots, and make their long journey home, the hills of Byron Bay seem eerily quiet. Over 17,500 music fans poured into Belongil Fields for the three day Splendour in the Grass event to watch music juggernauts Devo, Sigur Ros, Wolfmother, The Presets and The Cold War Kids do their thing.

Highlights of the bill included a few Australian acts rocking out, with notable performances by The Grates and The Presets with their brilliant new sophmore albums, The Panics, Yves Klein Blue and the ever-so talented Clare Bowditch. Crowd pleasers Wolfmother and Van She had everybody dancing, and The Wombats and The Cold War Kids cemented their popularity with fantastic shows that was a highlight for many. With Splendour 2008 officially over, and the very real possibility that the festival has played its last show in Byron Bay, I’ve have to say, Splendour I salute you.

Twenty-six year old Beth Rowley hails from Bristol, England, but her smoky gospel style creates a beautifully mysterious impression of a dark diva from yesteryear, sashaying across a small stage to a packed crowd. Her debut album Little Dreamer is an enchanting mesh of country, blues and gospel that draws heavily on Rowley’s talents as a singer-songwriter. Indeed, Little Dreamer is the perfect soundtrack to a rainy Saturday afternoon, when you’ve got nothing to do but drink wine and sing along.

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Sydney band Circle have just released their debut album Just Keep Swimming and boy does it make me smile. It’s an album that works hard to take your mind elsewhere — and succeeds. Driven by piano, the album is a layered sing-a-long pop fiesta with a good dose of guitar stroking, hand clapping shout-out-loud anthems. It will remind you of Ben Folds, Ben Lee and the Beatles, all in one song, and then in the next, Tim Freedman and your family gatherings. It’s definitely an album for those lazy Saturday afternoons. Look out for their song The Chicken and the Troll.

For those who missed the amazing debut album of Amy Winehouse, you’re in luck. They’ve just re-released Frank in it all its award-winning glory, with extra bonuses such as unreleased tracks, B-sides, original demos and live performances. An intensely personal debut, Winehouse created an album of highs, but mostly lows, about a man she’s trying to love. It is an album about her rejection, and it’s so raw it will make you cringe. Undeniably, Frank shows Winehouse’s talents as a soul singer, but more importantly, as a young woman struggling with her life (she was 19 when she wrote it); a woman that has an openly devastating devil do, devil die attitude, and a depressive state of mind that’s on par with Janis Joplin.

It may have been a bad move on my behalf to play the soulful tracks of Duffy for the first time at 9:30 this morning. The talented 24 year-old Welsh native had me crooning along to her emotional roller-coaster of melancholy like I needed a strong southern drink — pretty impressive considering I’m not one for soul music. Yet what makes Duffy’s music so inviting is not just the fact that she oozes the fun of Amy Winehouse on a high, or the nostalgic woes of Dusty Springfield, but her marvelously modern take on a genre that is belittled by bad covers and aspiring country singers. No surprises then that her debut album Rockferry is the biggest selling album in the UK this year, selling more than 560,000 copies already.

In the milliseconds between pressing play on the latest album from James and settling back onto your comfy bed and adjusting yourself just so, life is seemingly ordinary. Then the music begins. Just like those first milliseconds of a morning, when your eyelids are fluttering gently to the morning sun, listening to the opening track Bubbles from the album Hey Ma will make you feel like an innocent child on Christmas morning. As the first album from the recently reformed James, Hey Ma is a beautiful soundscape that weaves seamlessly through gentle melancholy and toe-tapping folk. You’ll feel like singing along, sipping a gin, grabbing your partner and dancing slowly. And playing this time and time again.

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Dark and somewhat extraterrestrial, The Preset’s sophomore album Apocalypso has just landed on my desk and I’m beside myself. Starting off with the aptly titled Kicking and Screaming, the boys, true to form, dress their fans in space suits and rocket around the galaxy with techno pop anthems such as My People and If I know You. Halfway along the trip, you’ll discover the inspiration behind the intergalactic soundscape — Prince, Boy George, The Addams Family, and a serious amount of touring in sweaty nightclubs to thousands of fans. I couldn’t think of a better album to play on the first commercial flight into space.

It was late afternoon in Sydney on a rare sunny summer’s day when I pressed play on Cut Copy’s latest album, In Ghost Colours, and immediately felt like I was in the midst of an awesome chilled out holiday. Hooked from track one, with the pop perfection of Feel the Love, I spent the next hour nodding my head to the trans-electro tapestry of emotional highs and lows, all encompassed by a smooth steady beat that drives each song with a sense of reckless love. Fans of Cut Copy stand united: we have a winner.

Growing up on the road in the deep south of America will either maim you or make you stronger. In Ryan Bingham’s case, it was the latter. On his debut album, Mescalito, Bingham’s childhood memories of shuffling from roadhouse to roadhouse prove to be excellent song material and is built upon with strong bass lines, harmonica, bluesy slide guitar riffs and a deep Southern drawl that’s seen and done it all. [hear also the music of The Silver Seas]

Inspiration can come from strange places. Singer-songwriter (and former pro-skateboarder) Matt Costa credits staring at his green wall for his second album, Unfamiliar Faces. The method to his madness involved placing his most treasured items on the wall’s shelves — and staring at them until the memories and inspiration flowed. Goodness knows how long he stared because this album is dynamite: a wonderfully balanced combination of happy pop and laidback melancholy, which is hardly surprising really when you consider he counts G Love and Jack Johnson as friends. [read also about Sydney-based singer-songwriter Lior]

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That street art has defined our cities as a myriad of individual cultures has nothing to do with most people’s knee-jerk reaction to it. Despite negative media coverage, most people do enjoy the randomness and intricacies of street art. It’s only when the ingenuity wears off and our cityscapes are vandalised with meaningless second-rate versions — commercial and otherwise — that we tend to get bored or angry at its appearance. How fitting then that culture commentator, Francesca Gavin, has taken on the task of documenting the latest talents in street art in her book Street Renegades: New Underground Art. Uncovering what Gavin terms as ‘new wave’ is a fine selection of innovative street artists from all over the world, whose sole intent with their work is to humanise our cities and give them back to the people. Notable inclusions are Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, and his building sized charcoal drawings, G* (Jerome Demuth), and his powerful photographic street installations, knitting group Knitta and their world-wide attempt to colour the world with yarn, and my favourite, On_LY (Carla Ly), who is simultaneously fixing the urban appendages of her city with humour and seriousness by attaching extra large band-aids. Essentially, the importance of Street Renegades lies beyond its ability to capture the emerging talents in modern street art, and to focus on what these artists are actually engaging with — freedom of speech. As Gavin herself admits in her introduction, ‘In a world where everyone is transformed into a passive consumer, creation can be a potentially revolutionary alternative’.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve never listened to The Eels before. Yup, blame it on all the other sweet stuff circling the globe right now. So how lucky am I then that The Eels have decided to release the aptly titled Meet The Eels, a compilation of their sweetest music from 1996 -2006. Fans and newcomers will be united in appreciation of Mark Everett’s tenacious honesty that rhythmically weaves its way through the highs and lows of an eventful if not melancholy life with wit, black tarred humour, quirky riffs and beats. The compilation features a mix of their greatest work, unreleased recordings, and a DVD containing the pick of the band’s music videos. [read also an interview with singer-songwriter Reed KD]

As the world’s New Year resolutions slide on down the proverbial gurgler, so does my simple yearning to start a rock band and change the world. After listening to the epic, intergalatic rock ‘n’ roll ramblings on The Mars Volta’s newbie, The Bedlam in Goliath, I reckon it’s best to leave that stuff to the experts. A torrent of guitars, dense vocals, and clipped beats, this is a stunning album, complete with mind-blowing artwork. [see also The Killers]

Listen to the Mars Volta track, Askepios.

We spoke recently with Thom Moore, frontman for Sydney-based buzz band, Mercy Arms. How does it feel to have finally released your debut EP, Kept Low? ‘It’s great to finally get it out. It’s been so long, but we just took our time with it without rushing like some bands make the mistake of doing. It’s a great feeling to see your work on the shelf at a record store’. We’ve heard you guys are moving to UK to take the next step in your career. Do you think Australia is lagging a little behind the rest of the world when it comes to providing a platform for aspiring bands to make a career out of their music? ‘No, I just think there are a lot of opportunities in other countries as well as here in Australia. The music culture in the UK is so big that it’s just been a goal of ours to go over there when the time is right’. Are you sticking around Australia for summer? ‘Yes, we’ll be here. We’re doing a tour with Cut Off Your Hands in early December and are aiming to start recording our first album after that to take us to the end of the year’.

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I’ve been a big fan of Michelle Vandermeer’s work since I came across her Mini Majellen zines at this year’s Sydney Writers Festival. Describing herself as a doer — as in one of those people who are always doing or making something — Michelle’s work, which includes book binding, illustration, jewelery making and her zines, stems from an internal creative springboard and a double degree in architecture and graphic design. Her work is smart and succinct. When did you first venture into making zines? ‘I set out to make a zine when I was in my third year of my design course, but I accidentally made an artist’s book instead! Being a graphic designer, I went totally over the top with all the different papers I used and the hand embellishments and the bindings. A few months later, I decided to try something more ziney and simple, and ended up with Mini Majellen’. Do you have any favourite zines in your own collection? ‘One of my most favourite zines was actually the first one I discovered. It’s called Little, and it’s an A6-sized perzine created by Brisbane-based writer Joanna Coltman. I can credit Little with introducing me to zine subculture’. What do you think marks a good zine from a bad one? ‘I think a good zine is one that has had some good, expressive, creative thinking go into it. For example, I love the Melbourne zine YOU because it has a clear pivotal idea — a weekly letter to the world, delivered in a handcrafted paper bag — and I love Vanessa Berry’s zines because her quirky writings are beautifully focused on her inner-city exploits and observations. And I particularly love zines that have a purpose, like Ivana Stab’s tiny zine that gives ten suggested ways to enjoy Sydney’s western suburbs. Bad zines are too random, too pointless, too ‘nothing’. Like any method of communication, you’ve got to consider both the medium and the message, and the good zines successfully utilise both well’.

We’ve been touting the work of Australian illustrator Lang Leav, creator of Akina, for some time now. She’s just created a new character — Pandora [above] — as well as re-launched her website, so we figured it was a good time to get the low down. We last spoke to you in July. What have you been doing since then? ‘Since July, I have been really focused on defining what Akina is and in which direction I want to head. I have decided to stay away from mainstream fashion and carve a little niche for myself that hones in on the three things I am most passionate about — art, books and fashion’. And this new character? ‘Pandora represents transition and the consequences that derive from its cause and effect. In the original story, Pandora opens a box and is confronted with misfortune, calamity and despair. In spite of which, there is also hope and joy to be found amongst the suffering. Pandora is a very personal piece and reflects a lot of the personal struggles and life changes I have faced in the last year’. How do you plan to spend the Australian summer? ‘There are four things I absolutely love about summer —Havaianas, short-shorts, the beach and ice cream’.

Ian Brown has never been a man to look back. Formerly the lead singer of the Stones Roses – an eclectically talented group that never quite reached full potential – he has since carved out a successful solo career, moving well beyond the poppy melodrama of Fools Gold and into a more left-field sonic terrain. His fifth solo album – The World is Yours – is another example of his determination to experiment. Amidst orchestral signposts pointing to easy listening, and with a little help from his friends Sinead O’Connor, Andy Rourke of The Smiths and The Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones and Paul Cook, Brown has created a sound which is lush and very, very lovely.

For old times sake, check out the blistering pop rumble of Fools Gold, the remix of course.