Image by: Duncan Wright

Welcome to the new music review where we connect you with some of the best new music spinning on Breakfast, The Daily and Drive programs.

ALBUMS / EP:

Junior Fiction – Your Love (FEATURE ALBUM)
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Allegra Krieger – The Joys of Forgetting
Gordon Koang – Unity
Johnny Hunter – Early Trauma (EP)
Jonathan Something – Cannibal House Rules
Suzie Stapleton – We Are the Plague
Washed Out – Purple Noon

SINGLES:

Charlotte Day Wilson – Summertime
Dr Don Don – Take Me Back
Gregor – The Rock (and the Stars)
Hallan – Modern England
Pink Matter – You’ll Never Know
Woolen Men – Outta Reach

In 2013, Gordon Koang found himself stuck between worlds: touring Australia, civil war had broken out in his home of South Sudan. Koang and his cousin/musician Paul Biel decided to stay in Australia and apply for asylum. Seven years later, Koang’s permanent protection protection visa has finally been approved, and he’s finally given us Unity, his first album since settling in Australia. Apt for the “Michael Jackson of South Sudan”, Koang makes joyous and energetic music that blends traditional Sudanese rhythms with African pop melodies. Backed by local Melbourne musicians and his cousin on drums, and with Koang himself on the guitar-like thom, Unity is an exuberant ode to finding peace and harmony in a new home.

Before releasing her debut album The Joys of Forgetting, the Florida folk singer-songwriter Allegra Krieger worked as a housekeeper at a motel in Death Valley, California. Perhaps it was that desolate and uncanny environment that gave her such an ear for writing these dreamlike songs about love and loneliness. “Your trousers caught on fire by your cigarette / I don’t know if I was laughing or crying”, Krieger sings on ‘The Push and the Pull’ – a line full of wit and detail that could be plucked straight from a Joni Mitchell or Leonard Cohen record. Sung with purpose over beautifully arranged strings, The Joys of Forgetting is a gem of a record from a promising new artist.