Elizabeth, do you hate SEO? I can name, and this is just off the top of my head, two different Elizabeths, or Elizabi. The queen and the one in Austin Powers whose last name I can’t remember. I’d wager there may be as many as double that figure in existence. So THIS Elizabeth wants to go head to head on the google battlefield with four other conames? Seems a gamble if you ask me.

To her credit though, she has this really wonderful pop song called ‘Parties’ in her warchest and maybe that’ll be enough to finally bury Elizabeth Hurley (remembered it) though if dating Warney didn’t put a chink in her armour then she’s nigh on invincible. This song ‘Parties’, it’s produced by John Castle (who’s got a strong list of credits and would’ve come at no small cost) in the spirit of Beach House but it’s Elizabeth’s vocal that steals the show. They float lightly through these sonic hallways yet somehow they still feel huge, powerful, mighty – like a colossal spectre, edging its way through an empty passage.

I think this song strikes me so immediately because lines like “I go to parties like I don’t need anybody but I only miss you more” are such a lived experience for me. It certain doesn’t hurt that this same lyric rich chorus is the musculature built on the bones of a perfect melody. I find myself wordlessly humming this chorus constantly. Between words and sounds, it’s Elizabeth’s sledgehammer melancholy that sticks with me all these listens later.

Also, just a quick answer to one of the questions posed on this one – “when’d you get so good at being bad?”
Bud I’ve got bad news for you, some of us a just born with it. I’ve been good at being trash since day dot.

At first I thought Jayvin’s name was actually Jayvid and it’s like… come on bro, just say David. But someone recently told me that Jayvin is a more common name than I’d realized so sure, there’s egg on my face now. This highschooler is evidently inspired, first and foremost by hip-hop but to look at it singularly through that lens is reductive. The span of production sounds and stylistic choices on display from vocal through to the beat are wonderfully mixed and what’s more, they change at various points through the song so that the final record is ultimately nothing like the opening bars. It’s no stretch to say that hip-hop is transcending it’s landscapes and, I believe, is the spot to look if you want to hear adventure and innovation. This kid’s take is only a thin slither of hip-hop, but I truly can’t find anywhere else to hang my hat if not on that exploratory label, so there it swings. Reportedly he’s been producing music in his home state of WA since he was 10 years old. Now he’s on his way out of high school and alongside his ATAR he brings a manila wallet full of deluxe mp3s like the one below. Stream it, it’s quite something.

Didn’t think I’d find myself writing about a band called Mountain Wizard Death Cult this week but I also didn’t think artists were still uploading to reverbnation* so I guess it was a big week for learning new things. This band get it, and by “it” I mean, the capacity to make heavy records that are exactly what I want to hear in 2019. “Records!?” I hear you say. “They have but one song!!!” Ok, maybe I’m jumping the gun a little here but like… what a song? This caustic bile is some of the better sludge I’ve heard in a very long time, local or otherwise, channeling not just Jacob Bannon’s throat tearing intensity but Kurt Ballou’s angular guitar parts in both fast and slower moments.

*not this band

I’ve waxed on about Mango so much to those I know IRL that he’ll need no repeat introduction. You lot, however, haven’t felt the hot breath of my fandom sufficiently and I’m about to sit uncomfortably close while I monologue about him. Sorry, am I spitting? Don’t even care, Agung Mango is on that polymath tip and it’s time everyone at this party acknowledged it. Reportedly he’s a reputable basketballsman, he has his own most excellent fashion line, he’s one half of music video production team Shady Trees, but most importantly, he’s releasing these monumental records that I truly can’t suppress my excitement over. Before today’s newest issue, the most recent was ‘WOKEUPINJAPAN’, a track and video I wrote about earlier this year having not clocked it until months after its release. No such mistake this time, you’re here with me on day one for ‘Toughskin’.

I’m going to steal some of the sentiments I expressed in my review of this song over on Unearthed when I flagged this dudes capacity to move between voices like a motorbike weaving between lanes. You’ll hear that tonal fluidity in full affect around the 1:50 mark when he really Goes In and around that higher energy moment so too does the production. He’s got bars, confidence, cadence, flow, lyricism and every necessary element to announce himself as a 2019 rap luminary. Mango’s in season my friends.

Single uno from album three for this small Melbourne man who I’ve followed since his formative days under the name ‘Laurence‘. He’s historically felt like an isolated node within the sprawling Melbourne ecosystem but increasingly he’s become a central figure in that weird jazz-kid / indie world where everyone graduated VCA and now tutors at Box Hill Institute. Sure I might not know what any of the words I’m saying mean but the desired effect of them is that you’d understand that your local Cops are back on their business, making laconic retrofit pop music. It’s a co-prod with Gab Strum (Japanese Wallpaper), mixed by Simon Lam (Kllo) and has this cute as hell video to accompany it, so where he’s previously been a man of few release assets, he’s thrown the lot at California Way.