It’s a great day for music, and an even greater day for Sydney electronic wunderkid Flume whose album has finally made it to #1 today, banishing One Direction and Justin Bieber from the top of the Australian album charts.
Although released 12 weeks ago, Flume’s self-titled debut has been propelled to the top of the charts after a strong showing in last week’s Triple J Hottest 100, and has been buoyed by his appearances at Laneway Festival nationally.
Flume had a huge showing on the Hottest 100, with his breakthrough track ‘Holdin On’ taking #4, as well as ‘On Top’ and ‘Sleepless’ reaching #67 and #12 respectively. His appearances at Laneway Festival have also been lauded by fans.
It’s an impressive rise for the 21 year-old beatmaker and production whiz who played his first show just one year ago. Since then, he has built up a huge fanbase by releasing a succession of assured singles (Sleepless’, Holdin On) and accomplished remixes (most notably Hermitude’s Hyperparadise) and some stand-out appearances at Splendour in The Grass and triple j’s national House Party tour.
Not bad for someone that started making music after finding Andrew G’s Music Maker in a packet of Nutri-Grain at age 13.
Although the 20-year-old has been working as Flume for some years, he took a break from his solo project when he began What So Not two years ago. Lucky for all the fans out there that he went back to his original moniker and started creating more works of art about a year ago.
The album sold a total of 7,019 copies last week, propelling the album from #16 to the top of the chart and beating Just Bieber’s Believe acoustic album which was kept at #2 with only 6,411 sales. Flume himself was kept at #2 when the album originally dropped last November by Bieber rivals One Direction ,who now find themselves at #18.
Sales from last week also mean that Flume’s album has now been given a gold accreditation, signifying sales of over 35,000 copies, and his single Holdin’ On also re-enters at #25 on the ARIA Singles Chart, after originally peaking at #49.
No doubt Flume’s record label, Future Classic, will also be celebrating today. The #1 position achieved by Flume is the first for the label and will no doubt fire up further interest in the Australian electronic music scene.
But the good news for Flume doesn’t stop there. On Friday it was announced that the album has made the short list for the Australian Music Prize, and Flume has also been announced as one of the headline acts for the Groovin The Moo Festival nationally which will see him reach new regional audiences.
However the impact of the Hottest 100 on album sales wasn’t limited to just Flume, with a number of other acts enjoying bumps in their sales. Hottest 100 and fellow Laneway act Alt-J jumped to #12 with their album An Awesome Wave, while Sydney’s The Rubens self-titled debut jumped to #23.
Frank Ocean, Tame Impala, Of Monsters and Men, Mumford and Sons and the Black Keys also enjoyed a boost in album sales.
So what’s next on the horizon for Flume? He’s just dropped a collaboration with Melbourne electronic maestro Chet Faker, and is currently busy preparing for what will no doubt be some pretty important showcases at SXSW in Austin in March.
CORRECTION: The original version of this article incorrectly associated Future Entertainment with Future Classic. Future Classic is 100% independent from Future Entertainment and has no official affiliation.
