Welcome to final 2SER New Music Report for 2024 – featuring all the new music on your 2SER airwaves this week across your Breakfast, The Daily and Drive programs!

ALBUMS:

Anastasia Hera – Way Outside (OS)
Cameron Winter – Heavy Metal (OS)
Elodie Gervaise – Exosoul (AU)
Oblique Occasions – Nova Cultura (OS)
Peggy Frew – Dial Up (AU)
The Morning Star – Two (L)
Various – Unity (L)

SINGLES:

D.D. Mirage – So Hot (L)
Grid – Go Easy (L)
Maia Toakley – House of Cards (L)
Scatter Light – Loud and Clear (L)
Threatnique – 777 (L)
Wifey – Season of the bowerbird (L)

Standard “music industry” lore is that most quality releases dry up as December hits and Michael Bublé reissues take over. Not the case with 2024, which as been brimming with incredible music abroad, but particularly in our own neck of the woods. Just down the M6 in the Northern Illawarra lies Stranded Studios, the base of operations of hyper-prolific singer/songwriter and engineer Cody Munro Moore. Just releasing this week is Two, the latest from The Morning Star, Cody’s project with Ali Molica. You may remember their debut record from early 2023 “Songs of the Morning Star” as a feature album on 2ser, and their sophomore is a continuation of their inherent knack for alt-folk and Australiana. Written and recorded while on tour/holiday across Turkey, Greece and Italy last (Euro) summer, this one leans into a leaner and more laid-back acoustic pop direction, while making use of various field recordings and other subtle sonic tricks.

Fans of Geese (the NYC-based band and also possibly Anatidae generally) are in for a treat with the first solo LP from Cameron Winter. The frontman of the Brooklyn group has gone to great pains in the press to emphasise this in no way is in no way indicative of creative differences in the group, and that Heavy Metal was accumulated over several years touring and during off-time. Lyrically it’s focused on a mix of existential dread, the chaos of life and love, and it’s a bit of a gem, stylistically flirting sunny, optimistic pop and introspective, unsettling balladry. Winter’s distinctive, frayed vocal delivery is virtuosic in itself, as it wraps around twisting melodies and this is worth a deeper listen over summer.

Berlin-based Australian expat Elodie Gervaise is releasing a debut album as well and it’s a shot out of the blue of sultry electronica. The producer and vocalist began her musical path on the North Coast as frontwoman  Galaxy Girls and Candy Lucid before moving OS and releasing solo work. Here, she  has crafted a sound that is an alluring collision of trip hop, house, RnB and synth music. Exosoul‘s intricately composed beats gel perfectly with closely delivered spoken-word poetics. Gervaise’s lyrics cover a lot ground too, from self-realisation, sexuality, artistic inspiration, communication and relationships and much more, and this is a bit of a gem of left field pop and gothic, mystical electronica. It’s out now on B3SCI RECORDS.

BANDCAMP LINKS POSTED SO YOU CAN CHOOSE TO SUPPORT ARTISTS DIRECTLY RATHER THAN RELYING ON HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE RETURNS COMING VIA STREAMING PLATFORMS.