Triple J Unearthed Pick of the Week

Yuko Nishiyama ft. friendships
Step Up

While triple j was busy with its own Hooking Up theme last week over at triple j Unearthed we were playing matchmaker too, pairing up two artists from different ends of the spectrum and tasking them to collaborate on something new in the space of a week. Picking the right two artists for the project wasn’t easy either with considerations going to finding performers who’d be adaptable to making a track with an previously unknown musical partner and also being able to knock something together in such a short space of time. We chose Melbourne’s Yuko Nishiyama, who uploaded her first song to Unearthed earlier this year, the floaty, winsome indie-pop jam Heart Of Daisies, to pair up with inventive future-beats/visual arts outfit friendships who won the Unearthed Listen Out festival comp in 2013.

Though neither artist had encountered the other at the start of the collaboration by the time they delivered the track live to Unearthed’s Rosie Beaton last Friday Yuko and Nick from friendships seemed to get on like old friends, giggling at some of the aborted experiments they’d begun that week. With less than 48 hours to their deadline the pair hit upon some gold with what became Step Up; a clattering robo-tribal banger that sees Yuko trading soft for sass while Nick throws in the plumbing to match the kitchen sink production. It couldn’t have turned out better.