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
STUMPS – The Local Drug Front
Tracks (A-Z By Genre)
Indie Rock
1-800-mikey – k style
faker – frida
jj ryan – time is on your side
late 90s – millington
stumps – the local drug front
victoria – ak79
Indie Punk & Punk
cheap-skate – run wild
goonbag – see you next tuesday
grand final – who runs the game?
grub – stability please
l.a.r.m – new shoes
special guest – brazil (1985)
Shoegaze & Post-Punk
bennetts grove – foresight
chessmaster3k – great dividing range
mac the knife – outside
ra ra viper – ramona, again
telopia – rocks
the beefs – take my advice
ups and downs – radio is dead
Pop Punk
forever at midnight – petty
nth rd – heaven
offset vision – calm down
the ritzy kids – nightmares
Indie Pop & Alt Pop
armlock – half time
boredslide – stop the rock (i can’t)
conosuer – september i sleep
duvin – keeping company
effie isobel – honey drunk
elvis – one less death
hallie – muscle memory
Pop & EDM
azure – tragedy
eyes of bel – bygones will be bygones
hellcat speedracer – back to life
streetflicker – nothing fancy
voh – exhale
Hip Hop & R&B / Soul
3% – not many – ganay biralunbar
41lowkey – names l
al and the pigeon – in the beginning
ella thompson – my weakness
kwasi – breathe
locke – be right up
Aussie Indie
chasing astrid – distant land
cheeky leash – best friend’s house
civic video – terrified
krisp – cosmic overload
polly – what i’m talking about
streetlights – close to me
the avenue – senior year
ventura – tybg
wanderers – california state of mind
Downtempo Drums
club halifax – bee sting
darcy lane – jump scare
holly throsby – wouldn’t it be good?
red moon cowboy – tiny heart
sidney – when you know you know
spike fuck – had your way
the brights – the means of production
the hunter express – easier
the salty tenders – peanut butter
Unplugged
giddy – the sailor
santpoort – figment of my imagination
tom woodward – i’ll crawl instead
watson – this ones for u
Rock
boner contention – heavy metal heaven
headsend – biopsy of an unknown growth
the midnight tides – amyl
yendys – no more lies
Strange & Heavy
ashpit – all right with this
excuse for an exit – hate me like i do
mr elusive – best i can
quiet neighbours – watch your mouth
revoid – blackout
rise from ashes – shattered echoes
stabbitha and the knifey wifeys – victory of death
the derrys – forest
Pictured: STUMPS at North Sydney Festival, 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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