The sheer number of excellent new releases coming out right now are tough to keep up with. I could easily create a 30-track playlist this week of rad Aussie music coming out, but hey, you can just go and check out my monthly playlists, which include every week’s ten tracks, plus a whole bunch of bonus ones that don’t quite make it! Just jump to my Spotify profile to find them! Onto the music!
Kira Puru is not slowing down in a hurry, and I’m here for it. After creating a 🔥🔥 self-titled EP last year with tracks like Tension and Molotov in it, you’d be excused for thinking she may have a rest. Hells no! Everything Is Better Without You is another belter of a track, again with that bass line starting it up and a chorus that will sound best yelled out from the audience on her huge upcoming tour in June/July. Off the back of a support tour with Peking Duk, I think she might have borrowed a little off them with the chorus, “Oh oh oh, oh oh!” Great to hear new music from her so soon.
The slowly, slowly approach of SAFIA means we’ve been drip-fed a few new tracks from them each year since their massive 2016 debut, Internal. Resolution is the 4th new track since then and it’s a minimal, slow-burner track, but with all of the hallmarks of the Canberra trios beautiful warm swell accompanied by schmick as production and songwriting. The track comes with the announcement of album number two, Story’s Start or End, to be released later in the year. Check out the video, set in Mongolia and starring a young woman called Tuvshinjargal Bum-Erdene striving to become a sumo wrestler.
The rise of Carla Geneve is an exciting thing to watch, but mostly, to hear. The outstanding Perth singer-songwriter has already dropped a few top notch singles and with Yesterday’s Clothes she announces a debut, self-titled, EP to be released on the 7th of June. This track, with it’s solid lead guitar refrain, is a guilty and sad break-up song, written whilst on the lonely roads of remote WA, in between gigs. She will be supporting San Cisco around the US over the coming months, but look out for a live show near you after that. That voice is simply awesome to hear live.
The solo form of Angus Stone is known as DOPE LEMON. It’s a suitable moniker for a guy that seems to move in a smokey haze, with a twist. Hey You is the latest single from the project and it’s a tune with a swagger-like Western feel and that well-known nonchalant vocal over the top. Smooth Big Cat is the name of his second album and it’s due out on the 12th of July, just before his Splendour in the Grass performance. If you’re after a cruisy driving song to get you to Byron, you need this.
It’s time to get lost in the sound of Mere Women again. Since transfixing us with their 2017 album, Big Skies, we’ve been just a small taste of new material (a split-single with Harmony), but this new cut, Spell, is the driving, crunchy sound that I love from the Sydney four-piece and is the first taste from a future album. Singer, Amy Wilson, is – as always – devastating in her vocal delivery, positioned perfectly over the urgent music and songwriting that articulates the “inner chaos and agony felt when personal freedoms are stymied.”
In the second part of her trio of EPs that commenced with Life in 2016, Mirrah now delivers Love, a five-track EP that explores everything about the greatest of emotions. There are so many beautifully warm moments on this EP, but opening track, Salute is the perfect place to start. With some smooth production, a touch of piano, jazz-fused horns and samples and spoken word that tie the track together, there is a seriously cool flow going on here. Together with the positive messages that emanate from this amazing artist, I am loving this journey we are being taken on. The EP also includes a couple of awesome collabs with L-FRESH The Lion and Dobby.
Following on from an amazing couple of years, including being nominated not once, but twice, for the prestigious APRA song of the year, Ainslie Wills shows no sign of slowing, releasing another beautifully crafted song in Fear Of Missing Out. It’s a feeling that I experience way too often – FOMO – and as usual Wills manages to articulate that feeling in her songwriting with an intense connection that you can feel in every song. Raw, personal and relateable are three things that Wills does so well and we’ll get a brand new album, All You Have Is All You Need, on the 9th of August followed by an east-coast tour. Sublime.
Despite not having released new music for a while, Sarah Belkner has been anything but quiet. Whilst performing with Sarah Blasko, Tim Minchin and Missy Higgins or producing for Julia Johnson and Jack Colwell, she’s not had a chance to release solo material, but that’s changed with Animals. This new release, her first since 2016 album, But You Are, But It Has, shows off a vocal that is powerful, yet touching and a soaring sound mix that includes intricate layers of woodblock, organ, synth and airy guitar. This is an artist that cares a lot about their craft and it shows. A brilliant return.
Oly Sherman may not be a name you know yet, but his new track, Bones, could go a long way to changing that. I saw the singer-songwriter supporting Alex The Astronaut a couple of years back and the story-telling in his songs as well as in-between was something that I took notice of. This track, riding on it’s rollicking drums and driving guitar, builds into a wave of sound with a crescendo of vocal harmonies and synth. In the words of Sherman, “It’s been a big year for me emotionally, and I wanted to create something that people could just dance to”. Job. done.
One of the best band names you’ll ever hear is that of Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. This Canberra band, formed during high-school after watching School of Rock, make fuzzy, raw, indie-rock and damn, it’s good. Along with Glitoris and Moaning Lisa, you’ve got a few female (although not totally in Moaning Lisa’s case) groups that are leading the way from the nation’s capital. Their latest track, I Like That You Like That, came out about a month ago, but I slept on it, so it gets a run in the playlist this week so you, like me, can catch up with this killer track. Soaring vocals, crunchy guitars and a grungy beat that infects you – this is something you need to hear and a direction that the band should definitely continue in.
(Spotify playlist updates with the latest week, each week)
(click on album art to view videos of tracks)
(Click through to Spotify profile for all monthly playlists)
