Jaguar Jonze, Crowded House, Tkay Maidza: Australia’s best new music for March | Australian music

Tkay Maidza – Kim

For followers of: Kari Fake, Migos, Nicki Minaj

It’s been enjoyable to chart the rise of Tkay Maidza. Worldwide media are flocking to reward the constant high quality and dexterity of her work; she has signed to UK powerhouse 4AD; and even had a billboard in Instances Sq.. Kim is one other step ahead, as Maidza flexes over a entice beat and warped synths that sound like a melting Recreation Boy. Within the video clip, she embodies three separate Kims – Kardashian, cartoon character Kim Potential, and Lil Kim – as she repeatedly declares “I’m Kim”. A visitor verse by up-and-coming American rapper Yung Child Tate provides selection, however regardless of that – and the a number of personas – that is actually a Tkay showcase.

For extra: Take heed to her most up-to-date EP, the Final Yr Was Bizarre Vol 2.

Crowded Home – To the Island

For followers of: Betchadupa, Elliott Smith, Badly Drawn Boy

Neil Finn has at all times integrated parts of psychedelia in his work, from the quirky artwork scholar pop of Break up Enz by to the japanese influences that tinged the Crowded Home catalogue and his solo work – however To the Island is his strangest and darkest tune to this point. The newest model of the Crowdies sees each Neil’s sons Liam and Elroy grow to be official members, together with two unique team-members: bassist Nick Seymour and Mitchell Froom, who produced the band’s first three albums. The result’s a revitalised band, weirder and bolder and clearly all the way down to experiment – with a brand new album, their first since 2010’s Intriguer, set to reach in June.

For extra: Dreamers Are Ready will likely be out 4 June; Crowded Home are touring New Zealand this month.

Hayley Mary – Would You Throw A Diamond?

For followers of: Divinyls, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Ramones

As frontwoman of the Jezabels, Hayley Mary made anthemic, atmospheric music that unfurled slowly and intentionally. Her current solo work does the precise reverse: a giddy rush, all guitars and driving energy pop, brightly produced and dripping with hooks. Would You Throw Away A Diamond? hits like a freight prepare. It’s a vicious kiss-off, a snarling and gnarly punk music, scrumptious in its anger.

For extra: Take heed to Mary’s earlier single The Chain or her 2020 EP The Piss, The Fragrance – or catch her touring Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney over the subsequent few months.

Jodi Phillis – Summer time of Fires

For followers of: the Clouds, Bjork, Kate Bush

Jodi Phillis’ chiming voice will likely be acquainted to followers of the Clouds, the ethereal Canberra band she fronted for a lot of the Nineteen Nineties – however here’s a haunting, stripped-back lament instead of their lush, layered pop. Summer time of Fires is a fragile funeral march for the devastation of the bushfires, and an admonishment of the human destruction that enabled it. The hypnotic plod of the vocal melody and the sweeping orchestral association (artfully achieved by Melbourne musician Biddy Connor) is anchored by the underlying sorrow that seeps all through. “Now the ship has sailed and it’s time to get up,” Phillis solemnly sings over Disneyfied strings. That is the primary single from Sound As Ever, a Fb group-turned-label that celebrates unbiased Australian music from the 90s. The topical lyrics could seem at odds with that mission however, as Phillis sings, this present second definitely makes you lengthy for the previous.

For extra: Try this single’s B-side, Music For Georgia.

June Jones – Dwelling

For followers of: New Order, Antony and the Johnsons, Sade

That is the third single from Jones’ second album Leafcutter, and probably the most musical difficult of the three. Hypnotic, ice-cold manufacturing and moody bass synth make means for June’s wealthy voice: silky, placing and twisting emotion out of every syllable. Followers of Bjork will benefit from the quirky preparations and flights of fancy Dwelling takes, a downtempo dance music one minute, an artwork pop manufacturing piece the subsequent because the bassline snakes alongside. “It’s a mirrored image on the thought of the physique as a spot that we’re at all times arriving at,” Jones says, “a house that’s each fixed and continually altering.”

For extra: Leafcutter is out now.

Bob Evans – Concrete Coronary heart

For followers of: Icecream Fingers, The Sleepy Jackson, the Panics

Subsequent month, Kevin Mitchell releases his sixth album below the Bob Evans moniker, surpassing the 5 albums he made with 90s rockers Jebediah. The demarcation between the sugary emo of Jebediah and his folk-influenced solo work has slowly evaporated over that point, to the purpose the place a spritely tune like Concrete Coronary heart may have slotted on to any of the Jebs information. Mitchell has been a top-rate songwriter since his teenagers and continues to sharpen his melodic senses right here. A shimmering duet with Stella Donnelly, Concrete Coronary heart is a brilliant blast of energy pop; a summery jangle in reward of not being a cold-hearted cynic. The music gallops like an early Beatles tune, and it’s throughout far too quickly.

For extra: The album Tomorrowland is out 16 April; a Bob Evans tour will likely be introduced quickly.

Flyying Colors – OK

For followers of: the C86 compilation, the Pains Of Being Pure At Coronary heart, The Hummingbirds

It hass been four-and-a-half years since Melbourne shoegazers Flyying Colors launched their criminally neglected debut album Mindfullness, a good looking swooping report that paired punishing waves of guitars with laconic melodies. OK strikes barely away from the likes of Trip, My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, bouncing round within the sugary finish of pop and echoing the kind of music Sarah Data launched again within the day. Which isn’t to say this lacks energy – the guitars nonetheless whirl and tunnel, and the drums pound you into submission – however the melodies are crisper, and the music appears lighter and brighter as an entire. A incredible headrush of a report.

For extra: Flyying Colors’ new album Fantasy Nation is out now.

Bones and Jones – Apples

For followers of: Wilco, the Jayhawks, Neil Younger

Over the past yr, Geelong revivalists Bones and Jones have been steadily releasing an album’s price of acid-dipped Americana, two songs at a time. The fabric they recorded all through the pandemic lovingly and expertly conjured ghosts of music’s previous; and Apples – among the many final batch launched from the resultant album, Ginger Gold – is a chic nation tune. It opens with tight, brilliant two-part harmonies and a crisp again porch acoustic earlier than rolling into basic rock territory, with peeling guitars and a rollicking rhythm that invitations comparisons to the lofty likes of Neil Younger and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Apples is a superb, closing drop from one of many absolute best pandemic initiatives to come back out of Australia.

For extra: Bones and Jones are touring the east coast in April; Ginger Gold (Farm Songs) is out now.

Pierce Brothers – Brother

For followers of: Mumford and Sons, Ryan Adams, the Lumineers

It’s a disgrace this sweeping, huge-hearted music didn’t come alongside on the peak of The OC, or the Pierce Brothers would have little question been flung throughout American radio by Pitchfork and Seth Cohen. This can be a mighty music, a gradual galloping beast that tackles large themes with out beating them to loss of life whereas managing to land near Springsteen nation. It has that Vast Open Street really feel of thundering drums on highways, and Arcade Hearth’s anthemic ambition – and can hopefully get a Mumford degree of consideration.

For extra: Into the Nice Unknown is out now. The band are enjoying quite a few reveals all through Victoria over the subsequent three months.

Jaguar Jonze – Curled In

For followers of: T-Rex, Madonna, the Kills

There’s a sure futuristic glam sound that pops up all through the works of Woman Gaga, 9 Inch Nails and lots of others within the vastness between. It’s defiantly digital: the guitars sound somewhat like computer systems, the keyboards sound somewhat like guitars, and it manages to be clubby and plastic and moody on the identical time. Curled In curls into this class snugly, an enormous guitar-driven juggernaut which throws one-liners like grenades (“It’s a little bit of a twist for me to be a masochist”) and revels within the abandon. 2020 was a formidable yr for Jaguar Jonze, with the robust Diamonds & Liquid Gold EP adopted by two even stronger singles as she took on sexism and abuse in the music industry. There’s a futuristic bend to the newer materials, which bodes nicely for the forthcoming EP.

For extra: Jaguar Jonze’s second EP Antihero is out 16 April.