Keep an eye and an ear open in 2007 for the following Australian acts that come with the UP Magazine seal of approval. We at UP magazine are confident that these bands will bring an extra layer of sunshine to your obviously impeccable music taste. THE PRESETS The Presets are all about whip cracks, insistent beats, low slung bouncing basslines and fluttering arpegiated synths. Their excellent debut album 'The Beams' is equal parts beauty and beast. Tracks like 'Down Down Down' and 'I Go Hard I Go Home' are all driving psychotic beats and distorted primal yelps guaranteed to have indie dancefloors convulsing and spasming in reckless abandon. The Presets also set such barnstormers in contrast with spine tingling tracks like the haunting tragedy of 'Girl and The Sea', which i guarantee will nurse you through many a morning after the weekend before. The Presets are Have toured the US with The Rapture, debut album 'The Beams' is available now on Modular Recordings and from any record outlets worth its salt. MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS The Midnight Juggernauts are another two piece electro rock duo consisting of the refreshingly eccentric Andy and Vincent, otherwise known as Noreaga and Gadaffi that describe themselves as "A sonic blizzard traversing dirty-organ-rock to stadium-disco-metal to sci-fi roller-skating jams, igniting dancefloors along the way". They frequently site their biggest influences as Giorgio Moroder (the synth genius behind Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love') and John Carpenter (the man who directed and scored films such as The Fog and Halloween) as big influences on their sound. If you were lucky enough to have got tickets to the Presets at their sell out ULU show in October you may have caught the Midnight Juggernauts in fine support form. Keep an eye out on ebay for their EP Secrets of the Universe and a full length album due out sometime in 2007.Also look out for 'Raised By Wolves' a split 7" record with The Coronation on the up and coming UK indie label Worst Case Scenario Records. WOLF N CUB This adelaide outfit have been winning new fans across the globe with their take on desert-party stoner-indie rock. Imagine a (slightly) more coherent Bobby Gillespie jamming with The Music whilst caught in a gunfight between Bloc Party and early Queens of the Stone age and you'll begin to get the picture. Wolf and Cub felt that one drummer wasn't quite enough to get their point across. So they got two to really kick it down your earholes and wind you up into a sweaty percussive dancefloor joygasm. Wolf & Cub would basically kick the living shit out of nearly any indie band you could care to mention. Musically speaking of course. Look out for their album Vessels on 4AD records. THE VASCO ERA This sharply dressed 3 Piece grunge-blues outfit from Apollo Bay, Victoria (population 1000) are currently thrashing screaming and chugging their way through a national tour of Oz. Their first two EP's were payed for by the earnings from winning battle of the bands competitions. Since then companies have not stopped throwing money at them, which is everyones gain thankfully. Lead man Sid (Guitar, percussion, screeching) looks like an angel faced teenager flirting with 1950's biker culture whilst the hairy ones, Ted (bass & grooves) and Michael 'Fitz' Fitzgerald (drums, destruction) dress in sharp 70's suits. Their surprisingly fresh take on the quiet/loud dynamic will both make you weep then build into a guitar thrash dervish that will strip the paint off the walls in any club they get a chance to play in. The Vasco Era recently supported Wolfmother and also headlined some of their own sell out shows in London on a brief soiree to these isles and impressed everyone with their raw & heavy blues guitar and instrument swapping stage antics. Look out for a debut album in 2007 which, if it can successfully capture the live shows, will be a proper hot piece of plastic. THE FOLLOW Goth punk outfit The Follow have weighty rock celebrity backing having supported the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Sonic Youth. Lee Ronaldo of the latter subsequently produced their first album 'Empty Orchestra'. Their latest offering, the awesome EP 'Hope Your Happy' is fronted by the single 'Christian Girl', a growling fuzzy bass line, razor sharp guitar and schizophrenic growling vocal expressing the internal struggle of a boy trying to reign in his heathen ways with his Christian lover. The title track 'Hope Your Happy' however is sure to win them more crossover appeal with its fusion of all the best bits of Joy Division, The Cure and the best girl/boy vocal turn since Pixies 'Gigantic'. Enigmatic front man Azaria has androgyny in droves to add fuel to those difficult and confusing teenage years, whilst Bassist and backup vocalist KJ is frankly too cute for words, albeit in a sort of scary please-don't-eat-my-kittens sort of way. Look out for a 7” release in the UK on Worst Case Scenario recordings of Smashed Heart and hopefully a UK release for the album and EP in 2007.