Image: Bon Jane

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:
Magnetic Heads – Moral Outage (FEATURE ALBUM)
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Damon & Naomi – A Sky Record
Gavin Turek – MADAME GOLD
Laura Stevenson – Laura Stevenson
Nick Garbett & Mike Majkowski – The Glider
Ty Segall – Harmonizer

SINGLES:
Andy Golledge – New Stamp
Big Thief – Little Things
Charlotte Cornfield – Headlines
Good Morning – Country
Mall Grab – Love Reigns
Mess Esque – Take it Outside

New York singer-songwriter Laura Stevenson has typically been known as a quiet, modest indie folk musician. But the opening song, ‘State’, from her self-titled album absolutely explodes those expectations. Maybe taking a cue from Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions from earlier this year, this is a loud and fierce sound from Stevenson, whose voice explodes with rage, grief, and sadness over loud guitars. Grappling with the fading memory and the near-loss of a loved one, Laura Stevenson is an equally devastating and breathtaking record.

Damon & Naomi’s music operates at a level barely above a whisper, but it nonetheless conjures a power and beauty greater than a lot of albums you’ll hear this year. Working with Tokyo guitarist Michio Kurihara, the Boston dream pop duo and former Galaxie 500 members have returned for their first album in six years, A Sky Record. Like much of their music, this is patient stuff: singer Naomi Yang’s voice glides over Damon Krukowski’s listful guitar chords that you might barely recognise it’s there. But for listeners willing to come at A Sky Record with open ears, you’ll find one of the best albums of the year.

In 2019, Sydney avant-garde jazz duo Nick Garbett and Mike Majkowski met in Berlin to write and record what would become their debut collaborative record The Glider. With the Necks drummer Tony Buck by their side, the touchstones for the group seem to be experimental jazz of the late Jon Hasell and Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. Acoustic instruments work in tandem with digital effects and distortions, creating a sound which walks the line between ambient, jazz, and classical, and is utterly compelling.