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
Alex Lahey – You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me (feat. Tegan and Sara)
Tracks (A-Z By Genre)
Indie Rock
about yesterday – otherside
alex lahey – you don’t think you like people like me (feat. tegan and sara)
body type – mulberry
dc maxwell – the singer
rageflower – push pin
the beefs – invisible man
the gnomes – thinking of me
trophy wyfe – spiders
Indie Punk & Punk
as people – don’t you wanna
back by unpopular demand – assonetic trains
blackwax – braindead
caligula – bloodlines
cammy cautious and the wrestlers – criminal
cheap-skate – crammer
earl gray – rhett’s stoned
ratsalad. – it’s not even that bad
reverse revolution – cherry blossom kiss
we are not robots – only you and everyone – wanr version
Shoegaze & Post-Punk
david grey – raincoat
pearly stars – choke
uglieboy – fake it
Pop Punk
lamphead. – better health
people taking pictures – let this be
Indie Pop & Alt Pop
butterknife – details
charli lucas – fun 4 you
civic video – just like you
kaiyah mercedes – manic!!!
maya ixchell – perfect life
pamela. – better than before
z.a.m – say goodbye
Pop & EDM
drifting clouds – rarrandharr
george alice – stupid question
go-jo – sweat
jaguar jonze – naked
jewel owusu – blurryeyed
Hip Hop & R&B / Soul
alisya rae – i might
bigredcap – 16 16
hannah donnelly – free
j1ay – get down
Aussie Indie
dice – loose change
lazy haze – web
old mervs – tether
rum jungle – got time
surf trash – golden plain
the kind hills – making memories
Uptempo Twang
conor o’donoghue – just another town
jeremy beggs – outlast
Downtempo Drums
cherry rype – do you think i’m too much?
giddy – salt
josh pyke – you’re doing better than you think you are
kaeda daze – finally fine
maia toakley – space song
prchr. – staring at the ceiling
rising bliss – blown to bits
thom – it’s a crime
Unplugged
little green – who do you love
myma – blame it on my ego
newport – carry
possum – little bones
Rock
santino salvadore – eventually
Strange & Heavy
alt. – twenty seventy-three
exit future – it’s time to party
liminal – the crop
ocean sleeper – break the cycle
outloved – iloveme
same pains – death’s adore
we set signals – replace me
Pictured: VOH at The Duke Of Enmore, 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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