Every week, I scour the latest releases from emerging, DIY, and independent artists in Australia. The best of them end up on the playlist.
Follow The Playlist
Listen to this week’s edition here or below, 100% made up of the best brand-new music from the best new artists in Australia – never pay-to-play, and always only releases from the last week (alright, maybe two).
From This Week’s Cover Artist
Oscar The Wild – Ghost
Tracks (A-Z By Genre)
Indie Rock
bloods – all my friends
cheap-skate – on the breeze
kaiyah mercedes – 3 month blackout
loose content – forth & back
oscar the wild – ghost
secret world – it hurts
vertebrae – sharks
waax – bestie song
Indie Punk & Punk
back by unpopular demand – i went to the shop to buy myself some milk
jumbo xl – in paintings
post script philosophy – when i fall – remastered
skulls – running
the good kids – headnoise
Shoegaze & Post-Punk
destrends – hard to love
holloh – bowser
holy forrest – dreaming of losing teeth
inimata – 4eva
julian wa – far out
middle management – like you said
smallways. – know where?
the beefs – headache
Pop Punk
robbie nolan – die young
Indie Pop & Alt Pop
amalia – borderline
angus legg – 12th of may
divebar youth – shadow eyes
kch – ingrained
Pop & EDM
akala newman – intermission
gemma ylana – jealousjealousjealous
jeane – cash
jordz – little thing
midnight pool party – notice me
renee naccari – lovemoneysxdrgs
salty – touch grass
voh – bring on the night
Hip Hop & R&B / Soul
acp – that’s love
aunty mango – luv-b3c3: a thousand cuts (anxty)
gian santoro – rickies by the pool
Aussie Indie
archie – this road
buttermello – fade away
devon street – skye
flynn gurry – shadows
july morning – the colours of darkness
moonwood – casanova
Uptempo Twang
any young mechanic – my house divides
chloe gill – why?
Downtempo Drums
alzzy – monster
angel v animal – seize the night
ariela jacobs – water
circle the sun – gravel road
hannah brewer – chew toy
jack gaby – lion & lobster
maxon – little blue
rebma rose – delusional
salarymen – we could be together
selve – creature of the night
things of stone and wood – fade away
vinted vineer – hope
Unplugged
amelia magdalena – what do you long for?
boof heads – light it up
cate guirguis – emily
duvin – in everything i find
fjordie – enough now – demo
kye arnot – the gaps i could fill
the terrys – jokes aside
this new light – sunshine state
Strange & Heavy
bad juju – the weight of water
dane tutty – god, i miss you
my dog, satellite – the bodysnatcha
prchr. – happy
vicious rain – gods of glass & wire
wollongong – lesson learned
Pictured: Oscar The Wild at The Botany View, Sydney
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From here on it’s just an explanation of the genres. You can safely skip this unless you’re a bit weird about this sort of stuff, like me.
Yeah, I know, genres are a bit weird, but it’s a useful way to collect songs together that feel similar. I always wanted the playlist to flow nicely and I probably put more work into that than is a) necessary or b) effective, but this is how I do it, for good or ill. The genres are mostly pretty self-explanatory, but there are a few that aren’t as obvious. If you’re as dorky as me you might want to be clear on the definitions, even if it’s just so you can tell me I’m absolutely full of it.
These are all the genres I use, but they may not all be shown above depending on the makeup of the week’s releases.
Indie Rock
I put this first because I define this one as particularly higher tempo Indie Rock. If it’s slower, it’s most likely in the Downtempo Drums section below.
Indie Punk & Punk
Coming out of the Indie Rock section it stays fast (or gets faster) and also gets a bit spikier.
Shoegaze & Post-Punk
The fuzz and the motorik have seemed to work together in this section, especially leading into the next one – I also bundle them together because they are both relatively rare, so it’s easier to keep them under one umbrella.
Pop Punk
The guitars stay loud but it starts to get shinier with the pop punk crowd, leading us out of the noisier end and into more polished territories.
Indie Pop & Alt Pop
The gentler end of indie lives here, as well as the more alternative, guitar-adjacent (or just place wonky) pop lives.
Pop & EDM
Full on glittering pop explodes at this point, along with any purely electronic artists
Hip Hop & R&B / Soul
The tempo cools off a little here, but the beats become that bit more emphatic as hip-hop lands, followed by any R&B or soul artists.
Aussie Indie
This is where the overlap and slightly oddball definitions start – this might not be the best name for it, but it’s what lives in my head when I hear artists with that very specific, sunny, Australian guitar sound, with cleaner guitar tones, and often quite a rich vocal. I’m trying to avoid saying ‘triple J’, but it’s that.
Uptempo Twang
This section is very specifically for artists with both a country-ish twang of all stripes, but which are specifically a bit faster.
Downtempo Drums
This ‘genre’ isn’t genre-specific at all, instead being all about tempo. I have a line in my head which decides whether a song is trying to speed my heartrate up or lower it – if it’s the latter, in lands in this section where lower bpms live, regardless of the genre. All the tracks here have drums in them though.
Unplugged
This one’s simple – anything without drums ends up here, the home of the ethereal and the acoustic.
Rock
I know it seems weird to put ‘Rock’ at the end, while ‘Indie Rock’ goes first, but this is a section specifically for those lovers of 1980s Los Angeles hair rock and all it’s variations. While I think it’s awesome, it is undeniably a bit niche, so it kind of gets tucked away where those in the know can find it. It also just kind of amuses me to launch into it after the acoustic section.
Strange & Heavy
Saving the very maddest for the very last – on the basis that it scares the bejeepers out of most civilians – this is where either the more experimental artists live, or where the heavy and hardcore can make a racket without upsetting the children.
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