Local Artists:

Calski: Folkus EP (Hydrofunk)
- True to tradition, Local MC, Calski has dropped an EP heavy on the bap. Having also surrounded himself with some Australian vets like Hau and fellow Brisbanite I AM D, his focus is one of respect of tradition and growth. (Nick Rodwell)

CKNU: Can't Get Enough (Single) (Indie)
- CKNU are set to get you electro-funked up. Their single, Can’t Get Enough, is a bumpin’ piece of modern r’n’b, with that synth-encrusted cosmic goodness to make sure you know how much you mean to them. (Nick Rodwell)

The Counterfeit Umbrellas: The Counterfeit Umbrellas (Indie)
- The self-titled EP from local folk-pop quartet The Counterfeit Umbrellas is an emotional and melodic journey, with vocals to strike up nostalgic memories of lost lovers and the musical technicality to keep listeners enthralled until the very last note. A true gem mined from Brisbane's music scene. (Clare Neal)

Extra Foxx: Goodbye Insanity, Hello Humanity (Swashbuckling Hobo)
- Conwae Burrell serves up Extra Foxx’s first ever slab of vinyl. On it you’ll find some new stuff and a bunch of reworkings of older fuzzy Foxx rocking. Both new and old benefit from a really positive and productive headspace that Conwae and co are operating in right now. A quintessentially Brisbane band with a new lease on life. (Chris Cobcroft)

Heights: The Daylight Hours (Indie)
- Low-key Brisbane curiosity, Heights, has offered an eclectic album of electronica. Stretching from the ambient experimentalism of label Room40 to gritty depth of LA’s beat scene, Heights is a hidden gem. (Nick Rodwell)

Moreton: The Water (Single) (Create/Control)
-This has such a seductive sense of drama that you’d be happily duped into thinking it was the wise Marianne Faithfull. Brisbane’s Moreton are steeped in some seriously sonorous alt-rock that is bound soothe many. (Nick Rodwell)

Sacred Shrines: Come Down From The Mountain (Indie)
- Brisbane psych-stoners Sacred Shrines have quite a record here. Dark, grim but also diverse, stylish and full of really infectious melodic hooks. With Perth’s psych-pop in the ascendency for the last few years, Sacred Shrines’ brand of leathery, hard rock has been in short supply. Come Down From The Mountain arrives like a tanker-truck filled with LSD for the grateful masses. (Chris Cobcroft)

Australian Artists:

Various Artists: Imperium In Imperio II (TEEF)
- The second in the series of TEEF compilations, dragging the work of Australia's underground downtempo and left-field dance producers into the spotlight. It's not just the couple of star turns from Lower Spectrum (appearing under a pseudonym) or Sampa The Great, this is stuffed full of great tracks, it's a testament to just how strong the beats scene in Australia is right now. Also, all the proceeds go to Oxfam and helping out in Syria, so, I'm not twisting your arm or anything, but... (Chris Cobcroft)

BASECAMP: 1 Thing Feat. Hoodlem (OWSLA)
- Melbourne experimental pop duo Hoodlem have joined forces with Nashville Producers BASECAMP, turning Amerie's 2005 R&B classic 1 Thing into a bass-heavy slowburner. The track features the disjointed, glitchy, hip hop influenced production style BASECAMP is so good at crafting, and both groups’ singers creating alluring and soulful vocal harmonies. Let's hope this isn't the last we hear from this long distance collaboration. (Ben Gibson)

Dorsal Fins: Sedated (Single) (Dot Dash / Remote Control)
- Back with their characteristic eclecticism, Dorsal Fin's latest offering, Sedated, brings feel-good, indie-pop vibes with catchy riffs and singable melodies. This new track sits in the sweet spot of electronic, psychedelic and indie-rock, giving a taste of the diversity the Melbourne nine-piece incorporate. The brooding, somewhat melancholy theme of the lyrics is juxtaposed with the bright and perky tone of the song, making Sedated a well-balanced, easy listen for contemplative bopping and humming along. (Alyssa Bebbington)

Holy Balm: Activity (Indie)
- With their unassuming vibe, Holy Balm’s Activity is a playful exercise in subverting concepts with their “Wonk House” (parts dance, parts electro-pop and all DIY baby). It’s a little kitschy but no less infectious for it. (Nick Rodwell)

Jade Imagine: Stay Awake (Single) (Indie)
- Melbournian Jade Imagine’s single chugs along in slightly dissociative state. Close echos and bouncing organs combine to fuel this ode to insomnia as it plays off of Angel Olsen’s lo-fi saunter combined with the Courtney Barnett’s droll lyricism; a very charming combination. (Nick Rodwell)

Jarrow: Cube (Single) (Barley Dressed / Remote Control)
- Jarrow is a twenty-year-old Melburninan and he packs a lot of song into just three-and-a-half minutes. You could almost miss it, because the tinny intro sticks around for just a bit too long before the song proper descends in a gale. The man and his guitar echo into life, the sound becoming ever more lush till the rather excellent sax solo guides everything to the finish. A few, simple ingredients are turned into a psych-pop epic. Cube will grab your heartstrings in a fist and yank them right out. (Chris Cobcroft)

Juliette Seizure & the Tremor-Dolls: Chewing Out Your Rythm On My Bubblegum (Off The Hip)
- Garage-power-pop-proto-punk out of Adelaide. I'd come up with my own witty description of the band's spiderweb of influences, but they nailed it themselves: "Screeching Weasel making out with the Shangri-Las in the backseat of an EH Holden at the drive-in and listening to the Muffs on the way home." Sold, like, really sold. (Chris Cobcroft)

Omar Musa: Dead Centre (Big Village)
- Omar Musa cuts an unusual figure in the Oz hip hop scene. The Malaysian Australian A heavyweight performance poet and novelist, you can see both of these things at work on this Joelistics' produced record. The beats are wisely restrained, letting Omar's warm, solid flow make a grab for most of the attention, which it succeeds at. Musa is fast and packs a mean vocabulary, but doesn't aim to bamboozle with big words. Dead Centre is smart but engaging, political but relateable, serious-minded but entertaining. Impressively different. (Chris Cobcroft)

Parnell March: Dragon (Single) (Uncle Herb)
- Drawing influence from the likes of Jon Hopkins and Apparat, it's easy to hear why Parnell March's new release Dragon sounds like it does. With loads of ambience, a constantly looping bassline, and glassy synths that rise and fall throughout the track, this is electronica that wouldn't be out of place in the soundtrack of the movie Drive. (Ben Gibson)

The Posse: MS-DOS (Single) (Plastic World)
- A cut from the rather jam-packed Plastic World Comp that’s forthcoming. Some things are designed right the first time, MS-DOS and simple, funked out house are similar in this way. Which adds soo much more to -Sydney-based house collective- The Posse’s track. They keep it smooth and groovin’ for you here on with hints of ironic nostalgia. (Nick Rodwell)
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The Preatures: I Know A Girl (Single) (Mercury / Universal)
- The Preatures return, and though one guitarist might be missing (Gideon has left the band), there is no shortage of sun-soaked guitar layers, and a hint of synth evokes vast allusions to the Kim Carnes classic Bette Davis Eyes. A collision of retro ‘80s and 2016 pop-rock ensues in I Know A Girl that retains the feel-good summer vibrations of their previous work, but is an effects-laden escapade that hints at a fresh direction perhaps delimited by an immovable desire to be radio-friendly. (Harry Rival-Lee)

Rainbow Chan: Work (Single) (Silo Arts)
- Björk’s name (though it gets rolled out all the time) seems like an especially apt comparison for Rainbow Chan’s bouncingly energetic dance anthem. In the same way it’s kinda joyfully industrial (two words you don’t hear together too often), yeah, without having exactly the same ingredients it reminds me a lot of I Miss You, perhaps if it was remixed by Janet Jackson. I don’t know what that says to you, but I mean it as a big compliment. (Chris Cobcroft)

Sarah Mary Chadwick: Roses Always Die (Rice is Nice)
- Sarah Mary Chadwick continues her transformation into an outsider synth-something-or-other. Beyond the tinny drum machine and muted synths the focus is on Chadwick's songwriting and confessional lyrics. Those lyrics are brutal - full of despair, sex, booze and scraping along the bottom of life. Hopefully some of it is roleplaying rather than lived experience. Either way, she finds a rare poignancy that recalls the uneasy but profound power that you'll hear in recent Leonard Cohen, late Gil Scott Heron and other voices from the outside. (Chris Cobcroft)

Spartak: Eulogist (Single) (Provenance)
-You know that when experimentalists write pop songs that it’s going to be an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable affair. Spartak’s sleek single is tight in it’s execution of noise in song and is a testament to knowing both your hardware and your software. (Nick Rodwell)

SPOD: Part Of One (Single) (Rice Is Nice)
- SPOD returns with his new song 'Party Of One', creating an ode to personal time with semi broken synths and a steady beat. The track meshes an ascending and descending electro melody and with a driving electronic bassline, overlaid by the spoken lyric reinforcing the concept of looking for solo satisfaction via food and computer tablet technology. As is now always the case for a SPOD release, it comes with a deliciously creepy video. (Alyssa Bebbington)

Thy Art is Murder: There Will be Another One (Single) (Nuclear Blast)
- Heavy themes, heavy sound. Thy Art Is Murder is heavy AF. Which all amounts to some seriously good deathcore. It grinds, roars and blasts with a potent dose of damning reality. Be warned, it’s not for the faint of heart. (Nick Rodwell)

Thunderbolt City: Flashback (Single) (Dream Damage)
- Carey Paterson who you may well fondly know from Canberra’s awesome TV Colours has been jamming with some friends on this new thing. Their explicit influences in thT endeavour are Cheap Trick, The Replacements and Big Star, which on paper sounds like a pretty intriguing concoction, or possibly a recipe for disaster. In these hands and on this single it comes across as big, fuzzy, tuneful and yearning. Tick. (Chris Cobcroft)

Two People: If We Have Time (Single) (Liberation / Mushroom)
- Move over Emma Louise & Flight Facilities, Melbourne indie-pop duo Two People are on the chilled out scene with If We Have Time. Featuring catchy hooks and melodic vocals, If We Have Time will leave you with the decision of whether to play more, or remain motionless in your new state of relaxation. (Richard Prendergast)

Overseas Artists:

Various Artists: Bigo & Twigetti Summer Compilation 2016 (Bigo & Twigetti)
- Haunting yet heart-melting, this compilation is the perfect companion for the alternative to a summer spent doing body shots in Cancun. Subtle progressions whisk the listener like a sea breeze, from the acoustic piano of Pavel Karmanov's opener Michael Music to the electronic stabs of Jim Perkins' closer '21 to 21 (Harry Rival Lee).

Andrew Bird: Are You Serious (Single) (Loma Vista / Universal)
- Quirky Chicago multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird delves deeper and rawer on his latest record, Are You Serious. Rather than writing about third person strangers in alternate universes, the title track and latest single Are You Serious, like most of the LP, recounts a profound personal moment and for the first time leaves Bird naked before his listeners, as if to say "Here I am, but no photos". However, with peculiar yet accessible instrumentalism and other-worldly aromas, this single makes Gotye seem like a poor man's Andrew Bird (Harry Rival Lee).

Delroy Edwards: Horsing Around (Single) (L.A. Club Resource / Redeye)
- A single from a very soon to be released full-length. The LA producer's sound is characterised by a warmly AM radio indistinctness. Contained there-in you'll find melancholy synths, slow techno beats and what sounds like a mechanical parrot in its death throes. That shouldn't add up to something good, but it does. All you vaporwave kids and Boards Of Canada fans, you'll know what this is about. (Chris Cobcroft)

Delroy Edwards: Hangin' At The Beach (L.A. Club Resource)
- The latest full-length offering from L.A.'s Delroy Edwards is a dark electronic journey along a beach littered with plastic bottles on an overcast autumn day. Murky ‘80’s synth textures, industrial beats, and song lengths mostly around the 1 minute mark purvey a sense of dystopian bliss that Boards of Canada hear in their nightmares, and exude a coolness only an underground Californian artist has the right to exude (Harry Rival Lee)

Die Antwoord: Banana Brain (Single) (Zef)
- Banana Brain is the latest single from South African power couple Die Antwoord. Swinging wildly between acid rave, drum'n'bass and trap, it's a big middle finger to purists. Featuring the trademark outrageous rapping of Ninja and equally provocative-if-whimsical vocals of the elfin ¥O-LANDI VI$ER, this track promises everything that fans have come to love about this musical act that is nothing if not unique. (Clare Neal)

Dinosaur Jr.: Goin Down (Single) (Jagjaguwar / Inertia)
- Geesh, I cannot seem to get tired of Dinosaur Jr. sounding like Dinosaur Jr.. Why can’t The Pixies seem to work the same magic? Enormously warm guitar fuzz and J’s quietly wistful vocal, just add Lou and Murph and it can be 1991 again. (Chris Cobcroft)

Drugdealer: Suddenly (Single) (Domino / EMI)
- This is Michael Collins’ band and he’s formerly of Salvia Plath, among other things. If this sounds a bit like the weird retro-pop of Ariel Pink, well he’s in the band too and the lilting vocal comes from Natalie Mering, aka Weyes Blood. All up it feels a bit like Stereolab covering The Beach Boys, which is delightful. (Chris Cobcroft)

Faun Fables: Born Of The Sun (Drag City)
Remember how Tom Waits moved out to a ranch in the ‘90s and it resulted in the creation of the darkly bucolic Bone Machine? Well, LA-orientated Faun Fables have released something similar, a selection of off-kilter folk and blues which are quite engaging. The difference being, where Waits wrote from a humanistic standpoint, Faun Fables have this modern pagan stride. (Nick Rodwell)

Gonjasufi: The Kill (Single) (Warp Records / Inertia)
- Suamch Ecks’ own music as Gonjasufi has always been noisy and grim, like fighting through the cobwebs to reach grandpa’s war letters at the back of his shed. With his return he still remains enigmatic in this gritty switch-up between languid drums and unhinged guitar to his usual breakbeat / loose rap. It’s as intriguing as deciphering grandpa’s annotations in the margin’s of his bible. (Nick Rodwell)

Hi Tom: Tablet (Single) (NLV)
- The latest acquisition from rising Aussie dance magnate Nina Las Vegas is the debut label release from the blue-eyed baby-faced Hi Tom, from the frontline of NorClub. Paradoxically this is gritty electronic music with the innocent purity of a Scandinavian lake. Elements of bass music and ambient figure in making this very listenable, retaining features of his contemporaries but with an excited quality reminiscent of a sixteen year old attending their first drinking party. (Harry Rival Lee)

Hieroglyphic Being: The Disco's of Imhotep (Mathematics / Inertia)
- Hieroglyphic Being is a seriously out there producer/DJ and Disco’s of Imhotep will show you. This is simultaneously deep and ethereal tech house with a futurist bent. This is the kind of guy that makes Boiler Room sessions worthwhile. (Nick Rodwell)

Ian Sweet: #23 (Single) (Hardly Art / Inertia)
-This single by Brooklyn trio, Ian Sweet, is awash in reflection and raw feels. Their approach to alt-rock is both brittle and boisterous with Jilian Medford’s vocals and guitar culminating at points of catharsis with the track’s explosive end. (Nick Rodwell)

Jenny Hval: Conceptual Romance (Single) (Sacred Bones / Rocket)
- Jenny Hval’s experimental electronica continues to intrigue with her latest brooding single. Conceptual Romance sifts it’s way through dark and dense textures whilst Hval explores relationships through abstractions and poignant honesty. (Nick Rodwell)

Kishi Bashi: Say Yeah (Pod / Inertia) (Single)
- There is something unashamedly free about Kishi Bashi leading single. It may be it’s chiptune opening, it may be Kishi Bashi’s serene falsetto, it maybe the flute solo, maybe it’s the revitalisation of ‘70’s pop and soft rock? What matters here is that you shouldn’t feel ashamed about enjoying something so confident and gleefully pop. (Nick Rodwell)

Merchandise: End Of The Week (Single) (4AD / Remote Control)
- Merchandise are always a lot to take in. This single, taken from a forthcoming new full-length for the Florida band, is no different. Elements of darkwave, indie-rock and something heavier, more brutal, whirl in a hail of fragments. The storm centers on Corey Carson's mesmerising baritone. Taken altogether it's tense and disorienting -the song was inspired by a JG Ballard short story, so that's appropriate- but also thrilling, galvanising. (Chris Cobcroft)

Mild High Club: Skiptracing (Single) (Stones Throw / Inertia)
- There’s more than a little bit of Mac Demarco yacht-rock-zotica to Mild High’s happy stonerisms. Set the cheap-ass drum machine to cow bell and then drift away on the gently lapping guitar licks. Simple as that. (Chris Cobcroft)

Moglii & Novaa: Down Under (Lekker Collective)
-There is a great sense of elasticity in Moglii’s production across this EP. His disassembled future beat is captivating in its sparsity and slinkiness - a most accommodating medium for Novaa’s silky vocals to coalesce within. (Nick Rodwell)

Morgan Delt: System Of 1000 Lies (Single) (Sub Pop / Inertia )
- Sun-drenched psych-crooner Morgan Delt continues to mine the annals of slow-drip psych-rock with this sublimely hazy trip. Lose yourself in his hypnotic drones and the dissolving intonation, as we all wait, hand in hand, eyes closed and dreaming of his impending album. (Nick Rodwell)

Naked: Zone (Single) (Lucky Me / Inertia)
- Alexander Johnston’s ‘beat’ here sounds like the love child of Godzilla and an AT-AT. It’s paired with Agnes Gryczkowska’s elfin vocals which -for a contemporary reference- gives this a little bit of a Die Antwoord or Crystal Castles feel, but it’s more like the oldschool digital hardcore of Atari Teenage Riot and Alec Empire. Crushing, thunderous, inescapable. (Chris Cobcroft)

Patten: Sonne (Single) (Warp / Inertia)
- This is some cold, hard electronica. The experimental duo’s sound has this skewed techo drive with a juke thrust. Complimented by the haunting vocals, it’s ominous, dark and electrifying. (nick Rodwell)

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: I’m Still Here (Single) (Daptone)
- You cannot keep Sharon Jones down, and thank f*** for that. Where would we or soul music be without her remarkable voice, her commanding presence and her resilience in the face of cancer. Released in conjunction with her forthcoming biopic, she and the Dap-Kings remain as strong as ever on this jivin’ ballad. (Nick Rodwell)

Virginia Wing: Grapefruit (Single) (Fire)
- Virginia Wing are a London synth / indie-pop that sound like they make their music on instruments made out of glass. Cute and crystalline, if the rest of their forthcoming record is as infectious as Grapefruit then look out. (Chris Cobcroft)

Wilco: If I Ever Was A Child (Single) (Anti- / Warner)
- This track from the Chicago-based chillers Wilco dares to ask the quintessential question: was I ever a child? After all, children are just miniature adults. All pondering aside, the song showcases Wilco's trademark dreamy vocals and laidback guitar strumming, making it just right for those who wish to sit and contemplate life's deeper queries. Jeff Tweedy's been chipping away at the rock face for a while, I reckon he knows a thing or two. (Clare Neal)