Month: November 2020

Sam Marks

Exclusive Single Premiere: Sam Marks “Eventide” (2020)

Sydney singer-songwriter Sam Marks is just about to drop his latest summer-laced track “Eventide” and we are thrilled to be having the first listen of it before its release on Friday. An experienced musician who has played in many bands over the years, it’s a recent journey for Marks to be releasing music under his…

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JBL Quantum One

JBL Quantum One Review: Motion-tracking gaming headphones perfect for PC

As JBL’s new flagship gaming headphones, the Quantum One packs a lot of punch into a hefty price tag. And although it asks a lot, it gives quite a bit in return, performing well across comfort, audio, and versatility both as a PC and console set. For players who have just picked up a PS5…

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Death Leaves The Station

Book Review: Alexander Thorpe brings intrigue and crime to the Goldfields in Death Leaves The Station

Alexander Thorpe’s debut novel, Death Leaves The Station introduces a standard Australian farmhouse in Western Australia’s wheatbelt to a world of crime, homophobia and racism.  Set on Halfwell Station, Mullewa, in 1927 Death Leaves The Station is also a coming-of-age novel. Ana, a young woman, starts encountering the world outside the seclusion of the family…

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Alice Skye

Track of the Day: Alice Skye “Stay In Bed” (2020)

Singer-songwriter and Wergaia / Wemba Wemba woman, Alice Skye hasreturned with the raw and intimate new single, “Stay In Bed”. Accompanying the single is a wonderful video clip that celebrates Blak excellence and features a host of First Nations talent — including the wonderfully inimitable Uncle Jack Charles.  On “Stay In Bed”, Skye has once…

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YUNGBLUD announces 2021 Australian all ages tour

Last in Australia for the Falls Festival tour back at the start of the year (hard to believe!), Yorkshire born singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist YUNGBLUD is set to return to Australia in September 2021 with a four city all ages tour. It’ll be his fourth tour of Australia and will follow the release of his…

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Sydney Festival

Sydney Festival 2021: An all-Australian and Covid-safe celebration

Sydney is to be the canvas for 24 days of culture, fun and artistry once again, with Sydney Festival set to start the new year from 6-26 January 2021. The 2021 program has been specially curated to showcase all things “Australian made”, with artistic director Wesley Enoch and his team lining up 130 events celebrating…

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Win a pair of germ-busting LG Tone Free HBS-FN6 Wireless Earphones

Not every pair of truly wireless earphones come with a charging case that uses UV to kill 99.9% of bacteria (that cause S. aureus (staph) and E. coli). Yet LG and luxury audio partners Meridian have achieved greatness with the new Tone Free HBS-RN6 buds. Along with a heavily customisable sound signature, capacitive touch controls,…

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Fitbit Charge 4 Review: Plenty of value with this reliable fitness tracker

Fitness trackers are steadily adding more sensors to the bank of wearable stacked stacked on your wrist, and while that’s now led to a healthy amount of competition in the market, the pioneers aren’t to be counted out. That’s Fitbit mind you – the company that got the world into fitness trackers to begin with,…

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Track of the Day: Stevie Jean “Graduation” (2020)

With the phenomena which is “schoolies” about to hit many of Australia’s regional towns, Northern Territorian singer-songwriter Stevie Jean, reflects on her own experiences in leaving school in another gritty tune, “Graduation”. Having only left school two years ago, the memories are fresh, and Stevie Jean delves into the depths of how it doesn’t always…

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Live Review: Spacey Jane – Bar 1, Perth (20.11.20)

As restrictions are slowly eased around Australia leading to the gradual return of live gigs, it feels like there’s pent-up energy ready to be released at every show but Perth indie-poppers Spacey Jane took the cake at a sold-out Bar 1 in Perth on Friday night. The local garage four-piece are quickly becoming renowned for…

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LG Tone Free HBS-FN6 Wireless Earphones Review: Hygiene is a unique selling point for these excellent buds

Hygiene concerns with wireless earbuds aren’t often discussed, but there are important points to be made for the potential harm they can can cause. They are, after all, fitting right inside of your ear canal. Films of dirt and dust can form on the tips that often touch the outside of your ear drum, trapping…

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Amazon Studios acquires Coming 2 America from Paramount Pictures

With the landscape of cinema seemingly forever changed, thanks to a certain pandemic, streaming services have become the new go-to for major studios to offload certain staple titles in a parallel act opposing the alternative of simply delaying the release. The latest title to find a new home outside of the theatre is Coming 2…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 4 has a big reveal that closes some canon gaps

We’ve now reached the halfway point of The Mandalorian Season 2 and interestingly this episode decides to return us to the planet where it all began. As we delve into this review, beware of spoilers.  The Razor Crest is in dire need of repairs and despite Mando (Pedro Pascal) wanting to find Ahsoka Tano he…

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Film Review: All My Life has enough appeal and charm to offset its overtly sugary packaging

Likely to appeal to the Nicholas Sparks crowd, All My Life is a particularly sweet (almost too much so for its own good) true story-inspired tearjerker that, in many ways, gets away with being so cookie cutter because – as we are informed in the opening monologue – we only remember the most beautiful and tragic…

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Lach Marshall

Guest Playlist: Aussie singer-songwriter Lach Marshall shares his top tongue-in-cheek tunes

Stripped-back and altogether mellow singer-songwriter Lach Marshall is out with a new single “Tired Old Gag”. Since the release of his debut song “December”, Lach has been pinpointed as an artist to watch, most recently collaborating with Alex Fasso on their joint track “Borrowed Nostalgia”. On “Tired Old Gag”, the singer-songwriter delves into indie heartland….

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Interview: Azure Ryder on Crazy With The Light, her family roots and songwriting

Azure Ryder‘s tale of discovery is beyond the wildest dreams of any musician. When a friend posted a video of the young singer at BluesFest on her Instagram story a few years ago, she captioned it with a line about Azure having “the most beautiful voice”. By chance, her now-manager viewed the story and was instantly…

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Harmony Byrne

Track of the Day: Harmony Byrne “The Good Days & The Bad Days” (2020)

Singer-songwriter Harmony Byrne returns this week with a new single, the quietly devastating “The Good Days & The Bad Days”. The single, written and recorded during quarantine in the Bush, is the first from her forthcoming acoustic EP The Songs I Sing When No One Is Listening – due early 2021.   “The Good Days…

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Sugar Coat It is your new favourite dessert box

Whether you’re looking for the perfect birthday, anniversary or Christmas gift, the sisters at Sugar Coat It have got you covered.  19-year old Holly Northott and her sister Hannah from Perth are making headlines with their aesthetically and extravagant sweet and savoury gift boxes. Curated by the sisters themselves, each box has boundless options including…

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Booker Prize

Douglas Stuart wins the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction for his debut novel Shuggie Bain

New York-based Scottish author Douglas Stuart has been announced as the winner of the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction, with his debut novel Shuggie Bain. Stuart is only the second Scottish author to win the prize in its history.  Although a work of fiction, Shuggie Bain draws upon Stuart’s lived experience, and takes the reader deep…

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Nicolas Cage

Film Review: Jiu Jitsu is much like Nicolas Cage; scrappy, eager-to-please and a lot of fun

Jiu Jitsu stars Alain Moussi as Jake Barnes, an amnesiac military man who is on the run from an unseen force that is attacking him. Sustaining a severe head injury in the process, he is taken in and nursed back to health by the military. He is interrogated severely by Myra (Marie Avgeropoulos); who believes…

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Something for Kate

Interview: Something For Kate’s Paul Dempsey on the band’s album return, gigs, lockdown and Donald Trump

It’s been eight years since Melbourne alt-rockers Something For Kate released any new material so you’d be excused for thinking they’d split up as a band. But, this Friday their seventh album The Modern Medieval drops to much anticipation. Frontman Paul Dempsey says: “I should point out that we have played shows in every one…

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Film Review: Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt) is a genuine crowd-pleaser of a LGBTIQ rom-com

Sophie Hawkshaw stars as Ellie, a high school student captain who has a healthy relationship with her overprotective mother Erica (Marta Dusseldorp) and feels content with her existence via her good grades and her source of inspiration through her subject for her assignment Faith Underwood (a cameo by Chiara Gizzi). The main thrust of the…

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Exclusive Single Premiere: The Lulu Raes “Not For The Weekend” (2020)

The Sydney-based quintet The Lulu Raes are about to release “Not For The Weekend”, another signature high-octane tune to get the party started. These boys know how to put together a song which will put a smile on your face. “Not For The Weekend” follows on from their previous single, “Can’t Run No More”. We’ve…

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Peking Duk

Guest Playlist: Reuben from Peking Duk’s choice of the most iconic collaborations of all time

Australia’s resident dance floor party specialist Peking Duk have teamed up with festival favourites The Wombats on collaborative electro-rock anthem “Nothing To Love About Love”.  The single is the second official release from Peking Duk this year, and follows on from the release of “Move” earlier in the year, which featured Alisa Xalayith of The…

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Apart Together

Album of the Week: Tim Minchin – Apart Together (2020 LP)

Tim Minchin‘s story is one of many failures and victories. Seemingly as stop as it was start, Minchin is now one of the most recognisable Australian artists anywhere in the world. It may have been a slow burn for him, but ever so slowly and surely the West Australian has managed to cultivate a persona…

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Biting The Clouds

Book Review: Fiona Foley critically (re-)examines Queensland’s colonial past in Biting The Clouds

Biting The Clouds is the latest book from visual artist, writer and academic Fiona Foley. Adapted from her doctoral thesis, Biting The Clouds, is a compelling critical examination and exhumation of Australia’s, specifically Queensland’s, colonial history from an Indigenous perspective.  Foley is from the Wondunna clan of the Badtjala nation, and is a renowned visual…

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Tilly Tjala Thomas

Track of the Day: Tilly Tjala Thomas “Ngana Nyunyi” (2020)

Emerging South Australia artist Tilly Tjala Thomas has just released her debut single “Ngana Nyunyi” as part of Part Time Records’ Singles Club.  Coming from the Fleurieu Peninsula, Tilly Tjala Thomas has been writing and performing her own songs around Adelaide since she was eleven. This year, her final year of High School, she’s undertaken…

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Interview: Spacey Jane talk J Awards & returning to touring, “I’ll never take live music for granted anymore”

It’s a huge week approaching for Perth’s indie-pop four-piece Spacey Jane who begin a new tour in Western Australia on Friday, while they’ve been nominated for Triple J’s Australian Album of the Year, with the winner to be announced on Thursday. Drummer Kieran Lama admits they’ve deliberately set their expectations low for the J Award…

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Film Review: Palm Springs delights in pushing the limits of its comedically fantastical premise

Most films that play with infinite time loops as their narrative hook inevitably find themselves compared to 1993’s much-loved Groundhog Day.  And though such films since then have broken the mould as much as they can regarding the premise on hand – the Tom Cruise actioner Edge of Tomorrow and the horror/comedy Happy Death Day…

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Crocodylus

Behind the Scenes: Sydney’s Crocodylus take on Ginkin and a debut album

Out from under the wreckage of closed venues and cancelled gigs, Sydney’s unruly punk trio, Crocodylus are hurtling toward the end of the year with a new tour and a scattering of new tunes. After holing themselves up in the idyllic and icy regional town of Ginkin, NSW, fuelled by a burning fire and plenty…

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