One of the many (many many many) artists that I’ve been wanting to write about for some time is an incredible new Sydney band that have just recently appeared on the radar. They’ve already begun collecting much acclaim around the traps, and really I’m just dropping in my additional two cents on a group that is sure to be doing many more great things in the very near future.

Bon Chat, Bon Rat are a three-piece group specialising in a melodic, partially electronic sound that never you never quite pin down to any particular genre. Somehow they manage to cohesively tie together a dreamy, synth-pop oriented sound while never actually sounding constrained by any of the particular “scenes” that synth-pop has found itself in. 80s synth-prog/pop revival? No, somehow it’s fresh enough that it never feels like it’s retreading a past movement. Chillwave? Nope, it’s definitely not within that category. IDM’s second coming? Nope, it’s more accessible, more organic than that. Throughout the EP’s play you can definitely spot a lot of seminal influences amongst it all, but as a whole the band manage to get away with sounding like they’ve got their own thing happening.

Part of the identifiable fingerprint of the band’s sound is live instrumentation which is frequently included without being too smoothed-over by effects and post processing. Whether it’s a minimal guitar arpeggio creating texture across the mix, or a distorted live bass line sitting amongst the foundations of a track – they have a direct, live feel rather than something that’s been shorn of its natural characteristics. In a sense, it helps give the impression that the band is much more than elements filtered through a laptop.

On their new six track EP, three of the tracks feature vocals (four if you count the vocoder-tinged closer “Nowhere Paradise”), which are all differently approached – ethereal in “Map of São Paulo”, densely harmonized in “Tribes” and very direct in “Le Rayon Vert”. All are impressive in their delivery – excellently developed melodies, great vocal performances. Meanwhile, the instrumental tracks are densely atmospheric, almost soundtrack-like pieces built around simple ideas which explore dynamics via elaboration in texture and instrumentation.

Through all of this rambling and raving I guess what I’m trying to say is this EP is great dammit and you have utterly no excuse not to have it when it’s available as a free download (linked below), or in physical form for the low price of $5. Go get amongst it.

Download

• The full Bon Chat, Bon Rat EP

Buy

• The EP via the band’s store