Books Editor. An admirer of songs and reader of books. Simon has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature. All errant apostrophes are his own.
Today Irish singer-songwriter David Keenan has dropped, “Tin Pan Alley, the first official taste of his forthcoming debut: A Beginners Guide To Bravery, which is set for release early in the new year. Keenan is something of a prolific songwriter, so it’s somewhat baffling that A Beginners Guide will be his debut album. He has…
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Following on from the release of his debut LP Oscillations back in April, Central Australia producer and multi-instrumentalist Resin Moon returns with a brand new music video for album opener “Bullet”, which we are excited to be premiering today. Fittingly, given we’ve just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Moon landings, the clip features a…
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Glasgow rockers Declan Welsh and The Decadent West have continued to tease their forthcoming debut album, dropping their new single “How Does Your Love”, a paean to those questionable ‘provincial discotheques’ that can be found just about everywhere. More than that, it’s a song about escaping the mundane and their troubles on a sticky dance…
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GRAMMY Award nominated duo Bob Moses will be taking to the East Cost for two very special shows later in the year. Already in the country as part of the huge Strawberry Fields line-up, the versatile duo will be making the most of their time here, appearing at The Metro in Sydney on November 28th…
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Byron Bay singer-songwriter Sam Buckingham is back with a new single and a handful of solo tour dates later in the year. New single, “Real Life” is the first taste of Buckingham’s latest material, her first the release of The Water back in 2017. “Real Life” sees Buckingham very much in singer-songwriter mode, with the…
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Earlier this month emerging Adelaide indie quartet DRESS CODE dropped their new single, “Youth Culture”; a dreamy gem of a track that’s been lifted from the band’s debut EP, which is set to drop in early 2020. Reflecting on the ways in which young people romanticise everyday moments in a bid to imitate the glamour of…
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Enigmatic Melbourne artist Woodes has returned with her new single, “How Long I’d Wait”. Replete with a live string quartet, this has all the hallmarks of a classic Woodes tune, there’s soaring guitars and those distinctive anthemic vocals. Talking about the single’s gestation and creation, Woodes said: “My friend Scott (who I wrote Dots with)…
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Alice Springs-based cellist and multi-instrumentalist Xavia has returned with new single, “Rain Falls”, a stunning blend of strings, earthy rhythms and beautifully ethereal vocals. The new single further builds on the success of her 2018 single “Horizons”, which garnered some traction on Triple J and across a range of Spotify playlists, and was shortlisted for…
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London-based Jersey singer-songwriter Tadhg Daly has returned with new single “Stuck In The Middle”, which is out today. Percussive, punchy, and ridiculously catchy this one will hook you in quick and have you singing the chorus in no time. According to Daly,“The track is a song about the space between your head and your heart….
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British folk rockers Red River Dialect have this week announced the forthcoming release of record number five, Abundance Welcoming Ghosts, and have dropped lead single “Snowdon” in celebration. Recorded in rural South West Wales, shortly before principal songwriter and singer David Morris moved to a remote Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia, the record finds the…
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Dublin based DJ and producer Double Screen (Dónal Sharpson) has teamed up with Cork singer and beat maker Blakkheart (Eimear Ann O’Sullivan) for soulful new single, “Blood Stream”. Built for easy listening and the club, “Blood Stream” combines Blakkheart’s sublime soul enriched vocals with heavy bass lines, tribal drums and some experimental production, leaving the…
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London-based Australian musician Jordan Rakei has just dropped his new album, Origin, his third, and first since the release of Wallflower back in 2017. Initially I came to this album on a bit of a whim, unfamiliar with Rakei’s past output, but drawn in by plaudits from the likes of Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin….
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Omar Sakr’s The Lost Arabs was one of my most anticipated new releases for the year. It has more than lived up to expectations, which isn’t always the case. It’s intimate, vibrant, beautifully composed and engages creatively and powerfully with a whole host of concerns and themes intrinsic to understanding the modern world. The Lost…
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This week has seen Sunshine Coast singer-songwriter and musician Angharad Drake drop her new single “Start Again”, her first since the release of her debut album Ghost in 2017, and since becoming a mother. On “Start Again”, Drake has returned to a more stripped back style of making music, erring towards the intimate and natural….
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Contemporary jazz septet Nérija have this week announced plans to release their debut album, Blume, on August 2nd. To coincide with the announcement they’ve also dropped a taste of the album, in the shape of “Riverfest”. “Riverfest” and Blume were recorded in London’s legendary Soup Studios and produced by Kwes. The group’s goal of the…
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Melbourne producer and vocalist Archy Stranger drops his new single, his second for the year, tomorrow. Ahead of tomorrow’s official release date we’re stoked to bring you this exclusive first listen of his latest indie pop gem: “Home”. Some of you will already be familiar with the name Archy Stranger through his work as session…
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Sydney-based queer-pop artist BOLEYN dropped his sophomore single, “Re: 21”, yesterday. Produced and mixed by Clockwork Odyssey at their studios in Kings Cross, the single sees BOLEYN challenging the generalisations that surround life in your twenties, with each of the verses dealing with a specific anxiety: alcohol, mental health, drugs, the hook-up culture and more….
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Gold Coast duo Tully John & Liza-Jane are going to be dropping their latest slice of pop-folk tomorrow. Ahead of its official release the duo have kindly allowed us to bring you all this early pre-release taste of new single, “Embers”. As I’m sure you’ll all agree, it’s a beauty. Delicately layered and with an…
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Byron Bay dream-pop quartet Seaside dropped their new single, “Sycamore”, at the end of last month. The single, which is inspired by lead singer Darcy Dexter’s personal experiences with social anxiety and self doubt, is a beautifully jangly slice of Australian indie rock. If you’ve not already had a listen, now is the time. “Sycamore”,…
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Norwegian trio I See Rivers have returned with their new single, “Helios”, the first taste of their forthcoming album, which is set for release in 2020. The trio, whilst all originally from Norway, actually met whilst in Liverpool where they were studying. Now they’ve upped and moved to Pembrokeshire in Wales, having fallen in love…
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It has today been announced that Tayari Jones’ novel An American Marriage has won the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction, taking home the £30,000 prize money. Endorsed by both President Obama and Oprah Winfrey, An American Marriage, Jones’ fourth novel, follows the devastating aftermath of a young African-American man’s incarceration following a wrongful accusation of…
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Last week saw Folk troubadour Kaura Cronin release his emotive new single “Gotta Get Outta This Place”, a song all about longing for the road and desiring to be flung outside of ones’ comfort zone. Cronin, himself, is no stranger to an itinerant life on the road, having performed over four hundred shows across the…
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Last week saw Gold Coast larrikins and punk rockers, Radolescent drop their debut album, Prehab. Recorded at Queensland’s Blind Boy Studios, with Mark Duckworth and Brad Hoskings on production duties, the album has the band reflecting on everything from drug culture to mental health issues on the Gold Coast. It’s an album that explores, and…
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Melbourne-based pop singer-songwriter Jemma Siles has today dropped “Light Me Up”, the follow-up to her debut single, “D.A.M.N.”, which was released last year and won her the Australian Songwriter of the Year Award (Pop/Dance) in 2018. Though this might be only the second single release from Siles, she has been steadily making a name for…
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Earlier this month rising Australian hip hop artist Birdz released his highly anticipated EP, Place of Dreams. Released on Bad Apples Music, the EP sees the NT-raised and Melbourne-based rapper explore some hard-hitting themes and personal experiences, and collaborating with some quality Australian vocalists along the way. Following the release of the EP, we caught up…
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British/Nigerian/Jamaican singer-songwriter Bianca Rose has returned with her new single, “Run & Hide”; the first release since her 2017 debut album No Fear Here. Written with and produced by Jake Isaac, “Run & Hide” encourages us to feel our feelings, especially surrounding loss, and not bottling up your emotions, or allowing yourself to get stuck…
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French-Australian singer-songwriter Eugénie has today dropped, “Little Bit in Love” her debut single and the lead single from her forthcoming EP Arrhythmia, which is due to be released later in the year. Raised on the bustling streets of downtown Manhattan, and having studied Comparative Literature at NYU, Eugénie has recently relocated to Melbourne to make…
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Earlier this month Sydney singer-songwriter East Denistone dropped his new single “River”, his second for the year, and a fitting continuation of the indie sounds presented on its predecessor “Amongst Taller Trees”. From its dramatic and evocative prelude through to its conclusion, “River” aptly displays the Sydney artist’s rich lyricism and commanding and strong vocal…
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“Everything” is the debut release from Melbourne-based songwriter Reuben Apirana a.k.a. Camp 8. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Apirana moved to Australia and the Sunshine Coast at a young age, before relocating to Melbourne about four years ago. Having grown up in a music family it’s perhaps unsurprising that Apirana has turned to a career in…
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The first teaser trailer for the forthcoming TV adaptation of His Dark Materials has been released out into the world, and we for one are excited! Set for release later in the year, the BBC and HBO co-production has amassed a sterling cast of small screen and big screen talent. Logan actress Dafne Keen has…
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