Luke Steel from the Sleepy Jackson meets Nick Littlemore from Pnau/Teenagers to form Empire of the Sun.
If that means nothing to you, then you simply must not have heard Personality – One Was a Spider One Was a Bird, the hugely ambitious and OTT album by the Australian Steel (and whoever he hadn’t ejected from his band at the time). It’s crammed with melodies, violins, multtracked voices and at times is at risk of collapsing inwards under the Spectoresque weight of its production.
Sleeve of Personality
Not one for the 128kbps torrent mp3. Buy the CD and rip her high, high, HIGH.
It came out in 2006 and I bought it in Fopp in London (RIP) purely because of the cover and a faint memory of a decent review. Over the next few months (and years), it became my favourite album of the 2000’s.
Anyway, Steel is back with Empire of the Sun, and the first single is the rather jaunty Walking on a Dream. There is a recognisable Sleepy vibe about it which bodes well for the forthcoming album.
In the video, Mssrs Steel and Littlemore cavort about Shanghai in a colourful and amusing fashion. I do like a popstar who makes the effort to dress up and risks looking like a bit of a tit.
Over at the site for the track (no artist site yet?), you can download the Sam la More mix (cosmic disco, mmm yes). [EDIT: That download isn't working (times out quickly) but look what hypem found....]
“I’m just thrilled, Father!”
Bonus Vid: Devil Was In My Yard by The Sleepy Jackson. Bonkers.
12 comments
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August 23, 2008 at 12:01 pm
doktohkitteh
very interesting. i see potential. naturally you have predicted future hits many times before. we shall see.
August 23, 2008 at 12:10 pm
eguinan
Why thank you! I doubt if this will be a ‘hit’ in the traditional sense, but I’d imagine it will do well in Oz and get critical acclaim everywhere else.
The Personality album is really fricking good though….
August 23, 2008 at 12:21 pm
doktohkitteh
oh he is crossdressing in traditional chinese garb. but you know this.
August 23, 2008 at 12:27 pm
eguinan
I reckon he is batshit crazy, probably a genius of some kind.
August 23, 2008 at 6:57 pm
orn
amazing album by the aussies, and its true, the cover is something else, downloading this track as we speak and hoping for something special!
August 23, 2008 at 9:24 pm
eguinan
I hope it lived up to your expectations! (And good luck tomorrow – I know all of Iceland is out partying tonight because of your Olympic medal hopes tomorrow!)
August 23, 2008 at 10:25 pm
orn
for the 2.07 minutes it kinda did, but then no more? was this only part of the song we got there?
thank you, and oh yeah, we are out partying, its not often that we get the chance of winning a gold medal in a team sport at the Olympic games !!
August 24, 2008 at 10:18 am
eguinan
Um, it works Ok here.
Congratulations on the Silver!
August 24, 2008 at 1:20 pm
orn
thanks, happy little nation over here I guess
You seem to be following closely handball at the Olympics
then I must download again!
September 25, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Empire of the Sun | jcksn
[...] is more info on the band. Apparently Luke Steel from The Sleepy Jackson formed Empire of the Sun with Nick Littlemore from [...]
November 6, 2008 at 7:20 am
lantacko
I love this song, there are new ones out, such as ‘Standing on the shore’, ‘We are the people’ and ‘Tiger by my side’.
Brilliant stuff.
November 6, 2008 at 8:03 am
eguinan
@lantacko Yep! Got the CD and it’s excellent! At least 5 brilliant tracks and the rest are very good.