We listen to a lot of music here at Tone Deaf HQ, and we’re the first to admit we’re perhaps a little biased towards sounds of the Australian variety. We do make the best music in the world, after all.
In honouring our favourite Aussies, we’ve once again compiled a list of the most outstanding local releases you should be listening to right now – whether they’re smaller indies acts or big-name essentials, these are the newest Australian records you should be adding to your ‘must-listen’ list.
Let’s get started.
Klo – Cusp (Dot Dash/Remote Control)
You’d be hard-pressed to find an Australian act with more buzz right now than Klo. Alongside their buddies Oscar Key Sung and Banoffee, the cousin duo are leading the charge of an exciting musical movement that’s been bubbling away in Melbourne for quite some time now.
There’s a reason the pair amassed so much hype before their sold out debut show. On paper, they’ve got it all.
Singer Chloe Kaul’s vocals are utterly dreamy, striking the perfect balance of sweet and soulful, while Simon Lam’s crisp dance-R&B production lays the foundations for a perfect pop formula that was evidently etched in their genes. It certainly doesn’t hurt that they can take some magazine-worthy press shots, either.
The pair’s highly anticipated debut EP Cusp – officially out tomorrow – is a polished display of their effortless, ever-stylish sound.
From the dreamy drifting soundscape of ‘Make Me Wonder’ to the skittish, glitching beats in the moody ‘False Calls’, it’s a five-track master class in eclectic electronica that’s clean, restrained, and perfectly-plotted.
Prior to the release of their debut EP, Klo had everyone predicting them to be the next big thing. Now that their sublime first body of work is out in the world, they’ve carved all that hype into stone. Yeah – Klo are ‘it’. (Dylan McCarthy)
Black Cab – Games Of The XXI Olympiad (Interstate 40/Remote Control)
Five years in the making, Melbourne’s Black Cab have put out their much-awaited fourth LP, Games Of The XXI Olympiad, a concept album revolving around the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.
It explores a critique of the ideas of success and idealism that are created by sporting values, which proliferate away from the arena and into the reality of our daily lives.
Sonically, it’s an artistic psychedelic vision with long, stretch-out soundscapes made up of hazy analogue synths, elongated vocal mantras, and a warbling blend of electronica and drone rock.
Games Of The XXI Olympiad might be Black Cab’s most ambitious output to date. (DM)
Leaks – Jaunt EP (Zero Through Nine)
Melbourne producer Thomas Guida, aka Leaks, has been making blips on our radar since he put on a breakout performance at last year’s Strawberry Fields.
A year later, Guida has finally put out his long-awaited EP, Jaunt, and it’s well worth the wait.
It consists of four chilled out arrangements that splice together dialled down R&B beats with warped vocals.
Old favourite ‘Often It’s You’ is still there, while newcomers like the lushly atmospheric ‘Give’ or ‘Underthought’, which sees Guida laying down more vocals than ever before, all provide fresh reminders of why we fell in awe of Leaks’ gorgeous sound in the first place. (DM)
Holy Serpent – Holy Serpent EP (Independent)
‘Metal’, ‘doom’ and ‘sludge’ are just some of the tags you’ll find on Holy Serpent’s Bandcamp.
The Melbourne psych-rock outfit only formed in early 2014 but they’ve already seemed to find their own sound.
Their debut four-track EP is an impressive taste of their mind-dripping psychedelica – in case the album artwork didn’t already give that away.
Take ‘The Plague’, an engrossing 10-and-a-half minute shoegaze trip of heavy guitar riffs and sparse, screeching vocals. It’s a terrific debut that have put Holy Serpent on our list to watch. (DM)
Food Court – Big Weak EP (Independent)
Sydney-based indie garage band Food Court’s new EP is a bursting seven-track collection of 90s-influence rock jams.
They told Rolling Stone that they cite Wavves and Weezer as influences, so you can expect plenty of Californian (though in this case Central Coast) summertime vibes, blissful melodies, and bombastic energy.
EP opener ‘14 Years Young’ explodes out of the gates with a surf-punk energy Nathan Williams approve of, and from there it’s an infectious noise bender that tells stories of Spanish hangovers, strangers in Vondelpark, and the ups and downs of their “manic lifestyles”.
By the end, it almost feels like you were with them. (DM)
Doc Holliday Takes The Shotgun – Odd/Even (Independent)
One can only assume that this winding, 12-track hypno-wheel of horror-surf and frankly unsettling song noir came from the same muse that inspired The Cramps and the Manson Family Murders. Don’t let the title fool you, the first full-length release from these alley-dwelling Sydney punk urchins is mostly odd.
Furthermore, it’s poised to make even the most cynical of music fans (oh, but aren’t we all cynical these days?) get lost in the meticulously arranged atmospherics and just-short-of-tight instrumentation to leave them thinking they just stumbled upon a forgotten ’60s artefact that was banned after everyone involved in its production mysteriously died in increasingly tragic and coincidental ways. (GM)
The Bennies – Heavy Disco (Poison City Records)
If you haven’t jumped on the Bennies bandwagon yet, then you may not know that those of us who were early adopters of their quintessentially Melburnian brand of punk-informed garage ska have been waiting for them to blow up for a while now.
For some, this desire exists in the abstract – selfless fans who want to see their local heroes scale the heights they so deserve to mount. For the less altruistic among us, we simply knew that playing more often and to bigger audiences would result in a more explosive raft of pit-ready mosh anthems.
Much to their credit, The Bennies have always been a band that gives their fans what they crave and Heavy Disco is the result of their near-expert ability to balance their own artistic needs and sonic curiosity with rewarding the fans who made them so buzzed-about in the first place.
Everything, from the propulsive urgency of opener ‘Heavy Disco’, which kicks dance-punk down a long flight of stairs like the proverbial grandma, to the militarised third wave ska of ‘Party Whirlwind’ is as much for your enjoyment as it is for theirs. (Greg Moskovitch)
