Image: Elliott Lauren

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:
The Goon Sax – Mirror II (FEATURE ALBUM)
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Charlotte Day Wilson – ALPHA
Happy Axe – Maybe It’ll Be Beautiful
LoneLady – Former Things
The Murlocs – Bittersweet Demons
SAULT – Nine
Shock Friendly – Head Down The Avenue

SINGLES:
Amen Dunes – Feel Nothing
Courtney Barnett – Rae Street
Nice Biscuit – Passing Over
Partefacts – Time Travel
Pearl & The Oysters – Soft Science
Sierra Ferrell – In Dreams

One of the most exciting new Australian bands in recent years has been the Brisbane indie rock trio the Goon Sax. With Mirror II, their third album and their first for Matador Records, the group have developed their dolewave sound into something much more slick and much more progressive. The sparkling synth and motorik drum machine on ‘Psychic’ are maybe a result of frontman Louis Forster’s relocation to Berlin, or maybe of their work with producer John Parish; either way, it’s a stunning reinvention of their sound.

Last year, the anonymous British jazz-soul group Sault broke through their two untitled albums. They’re now returned with Nine, their fifth album, which recontextualises children’s playground melodies into sounds and genres across black music (including jazz, hip-hop, and drum-and-bass). But the use of these sing-a-long melodies shouldn’t imply that the album is by any means childish or comfortable. Instead, Nine is a vital and polemical work that’s in direct conversation with Black Lives Matters. and one that traces the lives and histories of black Britons.

You wouldn’t think a dance punk album about Manchester’s decrepit urban architecture would work, but somehow LoneLady’s (Julie Campbell) Former Things does. Mixing harsh electric guitar lines with danceable drum machine beats, there’s a weird euphoria in how Campbell traces her home’s psychogeography and turns into something for the club. One of the most fascinating and inventive albums you’ll hear this year.