2SER New Music Report! (January 22-28, 2024)

Welcome back to the first new music report for 2024. It’s actually been an amazing summer of music so far, both locally and abroad, and as you can see above there is much to catch up on.

Some highlights include Whoopee, the watery sample-based trip-out from J McFarlane’s Reality Guest (our first Feature album for the year), as well as a new music from Canadian slacker rock auteur Madeline Link aka Packs.

“@” are back (a band this is understandably hard to google, real names are Victoria Rose and Stone Filipczak and they’re from Baltimore if that helps). Their new EP “Are you there god, it’s me, @” is a spun out collection of Krautrock and electronic run through a blender of pandemic-era weirdness and begs to be heard.

Similarly experimental but much closer to home, Katoomba-based Mahne Frame has released a new EP on Monkeytown records, the mystifying “I gave my legs to a snake”. Recently returned from several years in Tokyo, Frame is an artist that writes his music consciously as an exercise in experiencing his environment and what is available, and he also caught up with Mitch on the 2SER Local Artist Spotlight last week to tell us more – it’s a great listen.

Cranking up the tempo and noise considerably, the third record from Naarm’s Metdog just wandered into the yard and it’s a wild one. Fans of Dr Sure and RMFC will be in for a treat with this, filled as it is with absurdist, motorised punk that is themed on dystopian visions of the digital age and a floppy disk full of madness. Full title “QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS REGARDING COMPUTERS AND SCREENS” – out now on Critter Records.

Much-loved local favourites Lord Esme came in under the radar this week as well with their debut record “A nice sit down”. We’ve been loving their music through the last year here (particular singles “Cold Canberra Nights and Shane Warne) – and the full album carries on with their understated and excellent take on jangle-pop with plenty of humour and heart. The album launch is coming up in April but keep an eye out for them on other bills in the meantime.

Melbourne-based jazz singer (and recent BBE signing) Audrey Powne has just released a killer cinematic soul track about the bushfires of 2019 and their link to the climate crisis and the Government’s unwillingness to acknowledge this connection.

If the music of Yasmin Lacey and Quantic does it for you (as it certainly does for 2SER), the latest from London-based vocalist Bryony Jarman-Pinto is a slow-grooving horn-laced scorcher that “celebrates the deep sense of security and steadfastness Bryony cherishes with her partner while navigating newfound parenthood together.”

Local power-trio ARSE have released their latest “Shame Bomb”, a ripping hard rock track that is about environmental and heritage injustice – “Rio Tinto continues to wreck millennia-old sites in Western Australia and all they have to say is ‘whoops, sorry’. It’s like domestic terrorism, but Australia says it’s legal” says vocalist Dan Cunningham, who is one third of the band along with Tim Watkins and Jonathan Boulet (of Party Dozen). The have a new EP out next month, Kaputt!, as well.

Khruangbin are back! That probably doesn’t require much more explanation, but the Houston jazz-funk trio have just dropped A love international, the first single from their just-announced fourth record (A La Sala) which is due in April. As you can see from the list below, there’s a bit too much to go into everything, but keep an ear out for the stunning debut track from Californian Chicano Soul group Thee Heart Tones as well as “Right back to it”, the latest from Waxahatchee.

ALBUMS:

@ – Are You There God? It’s Me, @ (OS)
Bill Ryder-Jones – lechyd Da (OS)
J McFarlane’s Reality Guest – Whoopee (AU)
Josiah Soren – Samurai (OS)
La Femme – Ressort EP (OS)
Lord Esme – A nice sit down (L)
Mahne Frame – I gave my legs to a snake (L)
Marika Hackman – Big Sigh (OS)
Metdog – Questions and Answers Regarding Computers and Screens (AU)
Packs – Melt the Honey (OS)
Sleater-Kinney – Rope (OS)

SINGLES:

ARSE – Shame Bomb (L)
Audrey Powne – Feed the Fire (AU)
Bryony Jarman-Pinto – Moving Forward (OS)
Chem Trails – Bang Bang (OS)
Dead Witch – Sunshine (L)
El Gato Negro – Le Tigre (OS)
Faye Webster – Lego Ring feat Lil Yachty (OS)
Four Tet – Loved (OS)
Helado Negro – Best for you and me (OS)
Jess Locke – Uncomfortably Happy (AU)
Jlin and Phillip Glass – The Precision of Infinity (OS)
Khruangbin – A Love International (OS)
Logic1000 – Every lil feat. DJ Plead and MJ Nebreda (L)
Nick Andre, Joyo Velarde – I don’t wanna (OS)
Psymon Spine – Wizard Acid (OS)
The Morning Star – Marchfly (L)
The Umbrellas – Gone (OS)
Thee Heart Tones – Forever & Ever (OS)
Waxahatchee – Right back to it (OS)

*Are you a musician or producer and looking to have your music played on 2SER? We’d love to hear from you.

Please send it through to Submitmusic@2ser.com with a downloadable link (in wav or 320 mp3 format). Be sure to include the release date, your location and any bio, epk links