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This week, Three D Radio’s Steve Hocking selects their must-listen local tunes playing on community radio right now.
Three D Radio’s Steve Hocking Amrap Picks
Stella Donnelly – Love and Fortune
Of late I’ve noted a growing number of fellow Three D Radio announcers swooning over Stella Donnelly’s third LP, Love and Fortune. Having had this perfect gem of an album on repeat in my home for the better part of a week, I now understand (yes even share) the giddiness. It’s the excitement at having encountered something truly special.
Love and Fortune is a balancing act expertly executed: musically gentle and light, lyrically poignant and substantial. Songs about the aftermath of a relationship and the heaviness of emotions left behind hold a vulnerability that belies the (at-times) minimalistic breezy sound.
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On “Year of Trouble”, Donnelly sings over a simple piano motif, “My belly aches when I hear your name called out in a crowd,” just one faultless line in a song teasing at themes of hurt and loss. Elsewhere, “Please Everyone” has an otherworldly Eno quality that pulses and floats, and vocal cries haunt the layered instrumentation of “W.A.L.K.”. But album closer “Laying Low” is easily my pick of the bunch, its catchy drum trip carrying through a rhythmic and tender pop song.
This is a beautiful album of artful orchestration from a songwriter not afraid to explore personal wounds to deliver something with enough emotional weight to make you weak at the knees.
“Starline”, the latest single from Adelaide based country/folk singer-songwriter Ryan Martin John takes flight with an easy rolling, gentle dream-like quality. It’s such a light touch as to almost be a lullaby, and the delicate harmonies and intricate acoustic guitar wouldn’t be out of place on a Gillian Welch or Dave Rawlings Machine album.
The song ponders and marvels at bigger things. It all sounds remarkably simple, but I bet it ain’t. There’s texture and shade here too, in moments like those caught in an intimate live performance, in a caught breath, a bass buzz, a heavy strum, a raw moment of vocal frailty.
I thoroughly enjoyed Ryan Martin John’s August 2025 single “Ways to Fall”, but this latest offering is a revelation, an elevation, and easily as good as anything from 2023’s Goodness Gracious Graceless album.
Isabel Rumble – Hold Everything Lightly
Isabel Rumble, an indie folk singer-songwriter from the Southern Valleys of NSW returns with her second full-length album, Hold Everything Lightly. This quiet ‘mountain lake’ of a record has a peaceful surface with amazing depths below. Textured with fingerpicked guitars, piano, bowed strings and pedal steel, and led by Rumble’s breath-close voice, these new songs sound raw and tender, yet they’re also meticulously arranged and professionally executed.
Isabel Rumble’s songwriting has turned inward on this release, producing an introspective set of songs exploring personal growth, connection, vulnerability, and strength.
I’ve read many comments comparing Rumble’s sound, particularly on this album, to Laura Marling, and I feel they are well deserved, particularly on “Lonely Hunter”, a moody and dense track thick with a melancholy folk sound, laced tight with cello and upright bass. But here, the finger-picked classical guitar also reminds me of Songs of Love and Hate era Leonard Cohen.
“Born Again” is sparser, almost spartan, just guitar and voice and also warrants comparisons to Laura Marling, but also to Blue era Joni Mitchell. “Knowing” and “Better Half of Me” are more country-folk songs, based in acoustic guitar and gorgeous pedal steel. “Room to Grow” is another quiet gem and is just one the tracks that bring to mind one of my favourite albums in this genre of music, Holly Throsby’s On Night (2004).
Hold Everything Lightly is a small-hours of the night record, an album to emerge from looking at the world differently.
Mouseatouille are a nine-piece band from Naarm/Melbourne. Their new album DJ Set was a revelation to someone unfamiliar with their music. It is poppy, accessible and carefully arranged, yet it also manages to sound joyfully DIY with raw noise elements and layer upon layer of instrumentation including guitars, synths, brass, violin, and clarinet.
There is a warm nostalgic feel to DJ Set at times. When a band can remind you of many of your favourite bands but also sound distinctly unique and original, something special is afoot. I kept getting flashes of Pavement (“Tom’s Lament”), Yo La Tengo (“Mike & Melissa”), Grandaddy (“Song for Growth”), Modest Mouse (“…And They played Forever”) and SA band Bromham (“Today Will Be The Greatest Day Of Our Lives”).
I’ve heard that Mouseatouille recorded DJ Set in various DIY spaces, from a garage to a share house kitchen, perhaps contributing to the lo-fi quality that gives the album so much of its charm. Created by the band over five years, it shows a commitment to experimentation. The result is a vibrant, collaborative album that feels both highly crafted and spontaneous, naïve yet perceptive.
My Chérie – Life Is Short & Life Is Long
Adelaide-based Multi-instrumentalist, producer and solo artist, My Chérie, has a strong reputation as a highly talented songwriter and astonishing live performer, who also continues to release surprising genre-bending singles and EPs.
I’ve been enjoying My Chérie’s music since Summer EP in 2020, but the 5 songs collected on Life is Short & Life is Long are among My Chérie’s best yet. Title track “Life Is” has soaring complex vocals, and is a high energy opener, in moments reminiscent of Kate Bush. “On My Mind” brings in loops, samples and electric beats and so many layers you lose count, but it all works to create a near perfect alt-pop song.
“Child Again” blurs folk and pop, and “Dishes in the Sink” is another genre-defying hybrid, an enticing slow burn building to a powerful high energy pay-off. Closer “Box of Pencils” is probably the most intimate and raw sounding track, but it’s still encased in layers of ethereal vocal until being stripped back again in its final moments.
For a short EP, Life Is Short & Life is Long is an intimate yet expansive work, filled with emotion and nuance, and talent in abundance. An accomplishment.
Maybe Hugo has delivered a catchy indie single that is a twist on contemporary soul, with a gorgeous disco vibe and effortless falsetto backing vocals. Originally a saxophonist, Hugo Dahlen-Flight, released his debut EP as Maybe Hugo, Maybe, Might Be, Could Be, in 2024.
Maybe Hugo may be a relatively notable new voice in the South Australian music scene, but “Another Lvl” deserves to elevate that voice, because this song will most definitely get you moving, or at least wiggling. I can’t hear this and not crack a smile.
An ear-worthy inclusion to your list of best new releases to explore. More please, Hugo.
