Albrecht la’Brooy – Tidal River
Identity can be a puzzling concept for Australian electronic musicians. Where do producers from the ‘burbs of Melbourne fit on the worldwide stage? Albrecht la’Brooy have come up with an answer on this album. Tidal River soundtracks a day spent in Wilson’s Prom, each track representing a location and time, and it’s pure Australian bliss. The sounds of native birds and bugs float around ambient guitar, piano and synth licks, and as you reach later in the ‘day’, beats start to kick in and things go up a notch.
CC:DISCO! – First Light Vol. 1 (Compilation)
Melbourne’s CC:DISCO! curated this compilation for Vol 1 of First Light for Soothsayer, shining a spotlight on the incredible talent found Down Under (and one artist from New Zealand) and it’s gotta be the one of the best snapshots of our dance music scene ever produced. It’s quite a journey over its 85 minute running time, starting with some blissed out acoustic guitar and synth washes from Angophora, building into disco breakdowns on Love Deluxe’s ‘Ivan’s Hymn’, getting deep with Ben Houghton’s ‘Don’t Worry’ and peaking with Nite Fleit’s grim as fuck ‘Al Bebe’.
Roza Terenzi & DJ Zozi – PE001
This four-track EP from Melbourne-based producer Roza Terenzi and Vancouver-based producer DJ Zozi is one of those times where mashing two styles together has worked really bloody well. Zozi’s weirdo-jungle and breaks-influenced percussion finds its feet beautifully amongst Terenzi’s melodic wizardry. It makes for an overall pretty bizarre, but really attention-grabbing collection of sounds.
Jon Hopkins – Singularity
So at the time of writing, this album isn’t out yet. But I’m calling it. We’ve waited five long years since the incredible Immunity and there’s no doubt in my mind Hopkins has more in the tank. The two singles he’s released so far, ‘Everything Connected’ and ‘Emerald Rush’, are enough for me to make that call. Nobody can toy with my emotions like Jonny Hopkins can. Love you Jon.
Confidence Man – Confident Music For Confident People
It could be observed that a lot of dance music got really serious in the last few years, but Confidence Man are the antithesis of that. The silly, sassy and all-out stupidly fun duo exploded onto the festival circuit, performing live with two drummers and dance routines that got crowds bouncing harder than I’ve ever seen. Confident Music for Confident People captures that vibe perfectly. I could say something like “Confidence Man draw on references of the bubblegum pop of the mid ‘90s, clashing breakbeats with Spice Girls style ‘girl power’ anthems in a flurry of bright technicolour instrumentation.” But that would be overthinking it. It’s just fucking fun.
Artists I’m looking forward to hearing new releases from in the remainder of 2018:
FKA Twigs (it’s been ages, surely it’s coming), Flying Lotus (has tentatively confirmed an album is coming this year), Grimes (album incoming), The Black Madonna (debut album and guests have been mentioned in interviews), NO ZU (lots of mentions of studio time, fingers crossed), Oneohtrix Point Never (coming Friday June 1).
