W
inter has whipped Australia into a hot choccy-seeking frenzy, but you wouldn’t know it from the soundtrack: the new albums from Spacey Jane and Ball Park Music are tailor-made for the summer festival season, while Lucianblomkamp’s banging debut is sure to get dancefloors feeling sweaty. Ditto for BLESSED’s new long-player, ‘Aussie Blackstar’, a celebration of the hard-hitting hip-hop gold the Western Sydney rapper mined in his teens.
Speaking of throwbacks, the debut album from Johnny Hunter deals in bold and beautiful new-wave plucked straight from the mid-’80s. On the opposite end of the spectrum is ‘Bunny Mode’ by Jaguar Jonze, a fierce and fearless catapult into the future of alt-pop. Vintage Crop’s ‘Kibitzer’ sits perfectly in the middle, with their loose and lively pub-punk mirroring the way all of us have tumbled headfirst through the 2020s.
It’s a good month for sequels, too: June sees Miiesha follow up on last year’s striking ‘Smoke’ EP with the mesmerising ‘Mirrors’, and Polish Club bring the real fire to the party they started on ‘Now We’re Cookin’’ with their rip-roaring chaser, ‘Now We’re Cookin’ In Hell’. Needless to say, June offers plenty of soul-warming tunes to keep us distracted from this numbing cold – get the heater going and the headphones ready…
Ball Park Music
‘Weirder & Weirder’
Pieced together slowly over the past two years, with a looser approach and less structured dynamic, Ball Park Music’s seventh album was more a labour of love – framed around ideas they allowed to bloom naturally, not by force – than another thing to tick off their to-do list.
- READ MORE: Ball Park Music: “That ‘Fuck it!’ attitude is more prevalent in the band than ever before”
And despite being made in notably dark times, ‘Weirder & Weirder’ is distinctly upbeat, pillared by lavish soundscapes lacquered in fuzz and reverb, and carried along by shimmery, sun-kissed melodies that beckon copious replays. Ellie Robinson
Ball Park Music’s ‘Weirder & Weirder’ is out now via Prawn Records.
BLESSED
‘Aussie Blackstar’
Defined by its palette of bristly 808s, twinkling synths and thumping bass – and of course the ultra-sharp bars that cut deep and hit hard – ‘Aussie Blackstar’ sees Blessed Samuel Joe-Andah make a bold return to his hip-hop roots, while building on the legacy he began as Miracle.
Highlights come in the more off-kilter cuts – the breezy, tropical-tinged ‘No Changes’ and the string-centric, ballad-esque ‘Family > Changes’ – but even the straightforward bangers like ‘Loot’, ‘Reply’ and ‘Sydney Niggy’ are sure to get heads nodding and shoulders swaying. ER
BLESSED’s ‘Aussie Blackstar’ is out June 3 via Rainbow Valley Records / Warner Music Australia.
Lucianblomkamp
‘Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp?’
After two albums, a slew of EPs, and years of grinding away to become one of the country’s most interesting producers, Lucianblomkamp‘s expansive new record feels like a victory lap, oscillating between future-conscious hyper-pop, club-ready burners, slow-burning R&B and everywhere in between.
It’s also a star-studded love letter to the joy of collaboration, with guest vocalists like Ninajirachi, Stevan, A.GIRL, Liyah Knight, Darcy Baylis and more bringing out the best in Blomkamp. Alex Gallagher
Lucianblomkamp’s ‘Where In The World Is Lucianblomkamp?’ is out June 3 via Good Manners Records.
Jaguar Jonze
‘Bunny Mode’
After two hugely promising EPs and years of staunch advocacy for abuse survivors in the music industry, Deena Lynch’s incendiary debut album as Jaguar Jonze spotlights her as both a fierce voice for change and a wildly talented polymath.
Oscillating between soaring, cinematic pop and blistering, buzzsaw dance-punk, ‘Bunny Mode’ shows Lynch at the top of her game: her creative vision clear, her convictions unwavering. AG
Jaguar Jonze’s ‘Bunny Mode’ is out June 3 via Nettwerk Music Group.
Miiesha
‘Mirrors’
The second half of a project that began with last year’s excellent ‘Smoke’ EP, the singer-songwriter continues to build on the most immediately compelling elements from debut album ‘Nyaaringu’ (which NME called the best Australian album of 2020).
Whether featuring crisp electronic production (‘Skin Deep’) or sparse acoustic instrumentals (‘Ready’), what threads these songs together is their emotive storytelling and Miiesha’s incredibly expressive delivery, leaving a powerful, lasting impression that belies its short runtime. AG
Miiesha’s ‘Mirrors’ is out June 3.
Polish Club
‘Now We’re Cookin’ In Hell’
Though it’s positioned as a sequel to last year’s ‘Now We’re Cookin’’ – Polish Club’s overly polished, pop-centric leap into the future – the Sydney duo’s fourth album instead flicks back to the gritty, overdriven rock’n’roll they turned heads en masse with in their earlier days (albeit with an added lick of red-hot shredding à la AC/DC).
Hard, fast, fuzzy and funked-up, the soundscape commands your full attention, with David Novak’s leather-jacket swagger and icy coolness impossible to ignore. It’s a belting return to form for a band whose quality had started to slip, and one primed to shine especially well in the live realm. ER
Polish Club’s ‘Now We’re Cookin’ In Hell’ is out June 10 via Island Records / Universal Music Australia.
Johnny Hunter
‘Want’
Johnny Hunter describe themselves as “equal parts unfiltered anarchy and cabaret”, which is apt: behind their grungy, grime-laced aesthetics lie widescreen soundscapes that soar with shimmering keys, warm guitars and hypnotic vocal melodies, intensified considerably by Nick Hutt’s rich and soulful tenor.
They put the new in new wave on this striking debut, adding a modern post-punk edge to the style made timeless by names like Split Enz, Devo and Talking Heads. ER
Johnny Hunter’s ‘Want’ is out June 24 via Cooking Vinyl Australia.
Spacey Jane
‘Here Comes Everybody’
Spacey Jane’s second album doesn’t reinvent the wheel – if 2020’s ‘Sunlight’ didn’t reel you in, don’t bother with another bite here – but it does show the Perth band in the midst of evolution. The melodies hit harder, the harmonies soar higher, the playing is tighter and the hooks are more catchy (a mean feat when you remember that ‘Sunlight’ had ‘Booster Seat’ and ‘Head Cold’).
Tracks like ‘Lunchtime’ and ‘Hardlight’ feel primed for the golden hour slot at a big summer festival, while the more languid ‘Clean My Car’ and ‘Yet’ are tailor-made for the drive home afterwards. ER
Spacey Jane’s ‘Here Comes Everybody’ is out June 24 via AWAL Recordings.
Vintage Crop
‘Kibitzer’
With bouncing rhythms, wiry guitars and frontman Jack Cherry’s sardonic musings, the Geelong punks‘ fourth album retains all their buzzy, frenetic energy on straight-ahead rippers like ‘Drafted’ and ‘Under Offer, while synth-heavy cuts like ‘The Duke’ and ‘The Bloody War’ build on the wider palette seen on 2020’s ‘Serve To Serve Again’. AG
Vintage Crop’s ‘Kibitzer’ is out June 24 via Anti Fade Records.