Monthly Archives: June 2022

Debuts that were worth the wait, intensely personal records about grief, deliberately impersonal exercises in craft, latter-day career classics its difficult to draw sweeping conclusions about the releases that have made NMEs mid-year report of the best Australian records of the year to date.

We have six more months left in the year and many more incredible releases left to come, but lets celebrate what we have right now. Here are the 15 best Aussie albums of 2022 so far.

Stank face moments abound in Foreign Language, the debut mixtape by Korean Australian hip-hop mavericks 1300. Nerdie and pokari.sweats production is bassy, bold and bright but never predictable witness the deep groove and AutoTuned melodies of UMUM, or the chiming callback to Biggie on Rocksta.

Hopscotching all over these chaotic confections are rappers rako, goyo and DALI HART, who have swag in spades and gleefully shit-talk their haters in both English and Korean. Fuelling their motor-mouthed flows are the thrill of landing an audacious bar and the sheer joy of rapping circles around others no wonder Foreign Language is such an infectious listen. Karen Gwee

1300s Foreign Language is out now.

Few bands make it to LP7 with the same energy or passion they had in the good ol days, but sporting their stickiest hooks, tightest playing and sharpest songwriting, Weirder & Weirder is Ball Park Musics best record yet.

The band wrote it at their lowest point, yet its inescapably upbeat, and although it landed at the start of a brutal winter, it feels tailor-made for summer festivals, road trips and beaches. Even its subtlest flourishes like the grit spiking the otherwise beautiful pop melodies, or the twinkly atmospherics that add an extra dash of magic to the soundscape make Weirder & Weirder a home run for Ball Park Music. Ellie Robinson

Ball Park Musics Weirder & Weirder is out now via Prawn Records.

Of all 2022s debut albums, Body Types had the most scenic route. A half-decade of gigging and EPs had already established the band as a compelling force of Sydney indie music, meaning that Everything Is Dangerous But Nothings Surprising wasnt the proving ground most debuts are.

Perhaps whats most interesting, then, is just how big the band are swinging here. The Charm is career-best throat-shredding fury, Sex & Rage lives up to its title and the six-minute slow-burn of An Animal is completely mesmerising. They may have taken their time, but one thing is perfectly clear: Body Type arent fucking around. David James Young

Body Types Everything Is Dangerous But Nothings Surprising is out now via Poison City Records.

Its been four years since Camp Cope taught us How To Socialise & Make Friends and now theyre back, older, wiser and more mellow than before. Running With The Hurricane is a glorious example of a band stripping back their hard exterior and welcoming us into their new sound.

The trio havent discarded their power emo roots entirely, but the guitars are softer and the drums less commanding. Georgia Maqs lyricism has also become more poignant and introspective, giving the singer space to showcase her stunning vocals on The Screaming Planet and One Wink At A Time. Greta Brereton

Camp Copes Running With The Hurricane is out now via Poison City Records.

Self-aware lyricism meets sick EDM production on Tilt, an album of pure unhinged and untethered hedonism delivered with the unique charm that has become synonymous with Confidence Man and Confidence Man only.

To make an album sound like it doesnt care at all is a tricky task that requires a sharp ear for sound and aesthetic. Luckily, Confidence Man are a band whose drawcard is their ability to revel in the gleefully raucous facets of dance pop and not take things too seriously. They prove across its 12 tracks that theyre sharper than ever and more importantly, their vision for their output is unshakeable. Sosefina Fuamoli

Confidence Mans Tilt is out now via I OH YOU.

The DJ/producers artist album can be predictable, even boring: cut banging beats, bring in big-name vocalists, boom. But, with Palaces, Flume switches things up. Harley Streten conceptualised Palaces while staying in New South Wales riverlands and its a sonic retreat thats alternately ravey and ambient.

Led by a celestial Caroline Polachek, the hyper-glitch Sirens surreally manifests the pandemics dystopian dread, while MAY-A shines on the baile funk hit Say Nothing. Flume also collaborates with Damon Albarn on the meditative title track, which single-handedly gives Gorillazs comeback Humanz a run for its money. Palaces shows Flumes uncanny ability to read a crowd and the culture. Cyclone Wehner

Flumes Palaces is out now via Future Classic.

Gang of Youths have made their Achtung Baby. Their third album Angel In Realtime. presents a matured and refined version of the band and their sound, fusing influences from time spent in the UK Britpop, UK garage and drumnbass with sounds of Oceania that frontman David Leaupepe collected on his journey to reconnect with his Samoan heritage in the wake of his fathers death.

This album is about grief, but also rediscovery and celebration, matching the bands stadium-sized rock to Leaupepes own personal evolution. Sosefina Fuamoli

Gang of Youths Angel In Realtime. is out now via Sony Music Australia.

Hatchie is purposeful and assured on Giving The World Away. In her previous material, including 2019 debut album, Keepsake, she chronicled ill-fated romanic liaisons. But this new record is about self-knowledge, Harriette Pilbeam reliving mental health struggles in the resounding single Quicksand.

For the album cover, Hatchie cosplays as Claire Danes angelic Juliet from Baz Luhrmanns Romeo + Juliet. The cult 90s soundtrack could well have been a sonic touchstone. Embracing heavier guitar, synths and percussion, Hatchie sheds shoegaze nostalgia, instead hybridising industrial, grunge and electronica. Imaginative and regenerative, Giving The World Away finds Hatchie spreading her wings. Cyclone Wehner

Hatchies Giving The World Away is out now via Secretly Canadian & Ivy League Records.

Jaguar Jonzes Bunny Mode is the sound of trauma being exorcised on the dancefloor. You couldve destroyed me, but then I got loud, Deena Lynch declares over staccato synths that owe as much to Alison Goldfrapp as Trent Reznor.

From incandescent rockers (see Punchline) to stadium-ready ballads (Little Fires), Jaguar Jonze has crafted an unpredictable electro-pop album that shows off her versatility as a songwriter, her voice snapping easily from a snarl to a whisper. Bunny Mode is a call to arms and a defiant refusal to be cowed into silence. Chris Lewis

Jaguar Jonzes Bunny Mode is out now via Nettwerk.

Playing together since the members not-so-distant early teens, The Lazy Eyes flex that longstanding rapport all over their confident and self-produced debut album. The four Sydneysiders settle into a pillowy groove while exploring the competing hues of psychedelias sonic rainbow. Theyre not in any rush either, as heard on six-plus-minute voyages like The Seaside and Wheres My Brain???.

Tempering King Gizz-esque jams with the dreamy depth of Tame Impala, The Lazy Eyes dish up intense freakouts naturally alongside the sweetest and most optimistic of melodies. This psych-pop isnt confined to past glories rather, it has infinite room to grow. Doug Wallen

The Lazy Eyes Songbook is out now.

Mallrat and earnest songwriting go hand in hand. Grace Shaw has long had the ability to take the ups and downs of adolescence and weave them into relatable, bright and catchy pop numbers that soundtrack the Australian teenage experience.

We get the same lyrical honesty on Butterfly Blue, but Mallrat is older now, and its reflected in the maturity of her music. Though some songs still bottle that childlike innocence (Wish On An Eyelash and Butterfly Blue), she exudes a newfound vulnerability and contemplative edge, baring it all in Arms Length and Im Not My Body, Its Mine. Greta Brereton

Mallrats Butterfly Blue is out now via Dew Process.

Jake Webbs ghosts are far more than mere spectres. On the Perth art-pop polymaths fourth album a former lover played by Stella Donnelly demands recognition on Proof, the planets plight intrudes on Something to Worry About, while Neon Cheap suggests the seductively sharp edge of social media.

With an eclectic palette of jagged synths and jinking rhythms, these songs are invocations that pivot between clarity and confusion so that they form their own reality. Dispensing with boundaries, Webb makes the unknown tactile. Hes called the album his least personal record yet, but these spirits bear his distinct fingerprints at every turn. Craig Mathieson

Methyl Ethels Are You Haunted? is out now via Future Classic.

Purely on premise, Partner Look could have been dismissed as too cutesy: two musician couples combining to create a band named after identical dressing. But their debut album is a perfect storm of indie-rock pedigree (the band sport members from Cool Sounds and The Ocean Party) and the exciting premise of a blank slate to work with.

With a sonic spectrum that ranges from steadily-building jangle-pop (Partner Look) to Play School whimsy (Grasshopper), By The Book revels in its charm and doesnt hide its dorkiness in order to score cred points. And really, why should it? David James Young

Partner Looks By The Book is out now via Spunk Records.

The world is run by people who show up, and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are as consistent as a grandfather clock. The Melbourne quintets third album Endless Rooms arrives bang on time with a healthy advancement of their jangly guitar sound courtesy of more overt political themes (Tidal River) and winding, cinematic touches (My Echo).

Somehow, the triple threat vocals of Fran Keaney, Tom Russo and Joe White never crowd each other. On The Way It Shatters, White steps forward and scathingly asks If you were on the boat, would you turn the other way? in a neat extension on the forward-thinking lines from previous cuts (Mainland). Mikey Cahill

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fevers Endless Rooms is out now via Sub Pop Records.

Romero arrive fully formed on this head rush of a debut album. Bolstering anxious proto-punk momentum with Alanna Olivers soul-trained vocal swagger she once sang in a Blues Brothers tribute act the Melbourne five-piece joyfully split the difference between The Strokes and Sheer Mag.

For a band that rarely slows down to catch its breath (especially live), its surprising that the best song here might just be Halfway Out the Door, a hook-riddled ballad halfway through the tracklist. Its also the clearest showcase of Olivers casually passionate delivery, which promises a crossover appeal well beyond even those gloriously scuffed guitar runs. Doug Wallen

Romeros Turn It On! is out now via Cool Death Records & Feel It Records.

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The 15 best Australian albums of 2022 so far - NME

Lets get one thing clear: Versace isnt just a brand its a whole damn lifestyle! Its a fact that you soon realise on attending one of the houses shows, staged in the sprawling garden of the Milanese palazzo that it calls home. While the usual coterie of press, buyers and co. turned out for what was its first mens runway show in three years, the most notable attendees were the die-hard fans who showed up in full force, decked head to toe in decadent silks printed with Versaces signature brazen Greco-Roman-inspired prints.

Its a testament to the cultish appeal that Donatella has managed to cultivate those that buy into brand buy into it. And were not just talking clothes the truly obsessed out eat off Versace plates, sleep in Versace bed linens, stay in Versace hotels, and, after last night, will be drinking rhinestoned reusable Versace drinking coffee cups the moment they hit stores, too! Yes, in what almost felt like a nod to the creative ingenuity born of having spent so much time in our goddamn houses over the past few years, homeware pieces were translated into keystone accessories - think: cup-and-saucer belt clip-ons, the aforementioned glitzy refillables, and even gigantic, ornately decorated ceramic urns, tucked under the arm like clutches.

The clothes toed a similar line between familiarity and zany eccentricity, with easily palatable louche suiting in muted stripes and cerulean blue and cargo-pocketed coats offset by the zing of acid python-effet outerwear and highlighter-hued zippered hobo bags and Pompeiian death-mask prints on inky satin polos and trousers that billowed with every step. A flair for logomania proudly declared itself in allover Versace prints on silky separates and roomy structured totes if youre a Versace boy, youre gonna wanna let the world know it! as well as the houses instantly recognisable glinting gold leaf Medusa motifs.

The only thing thats more distinctly Versace than that is, of course, the shameless sex appeal it exudes. Here, that came through with gusto, from pieces that could just about be worn in chaste daytime context like interpretations of the seasons boxy shirting in glossy leather, slashed to create a grid of lozenges that offered peaks of flesh beneath through to gasp-inducingly slinky tanks tops with naked backs and oblique cut-outs and subtly seedy latex coats clothes you (well, probably) wouldnt wear to visit your granny in.

That bubbling hedonism spilled over into the after-show, with Donatellas bow swiftly followed by the emergence of a slick army of champagne-tray-toting waiters, an exponential jump in the volume. As revellers bobbed along, drinks in hand, to the thumping bass, it was immediately clear why so many people buy so heavily into the fantasy that the Milanese house sells: as we said, Versaces not just a brand, its a whole lifestyle and a bloody fun one at that.

Credits

All images via Gorunway.com

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Versace Mens SS23 was all about brazen sexiness and homeware? - i-D

Review of Dsquared2 Spring 2023 Mens Fashion Show

Is this (the Summer of) Love?

By Angela Baidoo

Dean and Dan of DSquared2 took us on a world tour for their Spring Summer 2023 presentation, merging influences from countries and cultural icons. This season, the DSquared2 man came down from the mountains and hit the waves, as Californias surf culture (not a new concept admittedly, but one that is being refreshed by new voices, such as South Africas Mami Wata Surf) was given new life with the heritage of Bob Marley, Honda-backed biker fits, and Balinese culture.

Believing in the power of collaboration, DSquared2 looked to Honda for their expertise in developing authentic biker gear, which gave the collections hybrid jackets a credibility that cant be bought

Presenting the collection in a sun-drenched space, matched only by the sweltering Milanese streets outside, the brothers Caten gave us a laidback mash-up of Cali-surf (a popular theme of late, see Kim Jones Resort 2023 for Dior Men, shown in and inspired by Venice beach for reference) by way of Jamaica, as an unexpected yet expertly executed collaboration with the Bob Marley foundation, saw the reggae icons image being harnessed literally, in the form of T-shirts emblazoned with the musicians likeness, worn by the Directors to take their bow. Items that are sure to be clamoured after by the brands fans, yet it was unclear whether they were part of the show and would go into production. While Marleys personal brand of laidback cool played into the red, gold, and green stripe track jacket (a nod to his Rastafarian culture and love of football), as well as a suede trucker and flared jean combination.

Fully embracing the return to hedonism as a viable way-of-life, the designers played with inspiration from the coastlines of LA and brought us a luxe version of thrift. Encouraging the wearer to get dressed, and then keep on going, the layering of textures, lengths, and prints is key to what makes this collection work, as each expertly styled item will work perfectly well individually, but combined they created a new narrative for the brand.

Not explicitly alluded to, but the entire vibe and construction of the collection could very easily lend itself to the brands sustainability efforts. Patch-worked denim could be made from up-cycled jeans, andnatural dyes used for the ombre shirts, not to mention the achingly obvious cannabis motif jeans, which we can only hope will be redeemed by the fact they will be revealed as made from hemp.

As an extension of its One Life, One Planet capsule, it wouldnt be a stretch to incorporate elements of this collection into the range and re-brand it as One Love, One Life, One Planet.

Having fallen off-the-radar, we could see the return of David Beckham as muse, with the number of looks reminiscent of the former footballers days as a style icon, when he donned a sarong and soft knitted beanie hat in the late 90s

It wouldnt be a DSquared2 outing without a tailoring call-out, but these bold blazers in emerald green, wavey checks, or hybridised with wet-suits were made for the guy who wants to be in the boardroom at 9 and boogie boarding by lunch.

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Dsquared2 Spring 2023 Men's Fashion Show Review - The Impression

My boyfriend sent me this message last week: You are killing me. And he meant it, literally.

For context, he has a new fitness gadget a bracelet thingy that measures body stress and recovery. Its called a Whoop but I, for one, am not cheering because its incessant updates on his physical wellbeing are coming between us.

It tells him how healthy or not his actions are. He loves it a little too much for my liking. He sends me screen grabs of his data. Look at the night you stayed over, he will message. You are putting me in the red zone. Indeed, the graphs generated do show that me being around does have a detrimental effect on his health.

When I slept over at his house his average overnight resting heart rate was 71 bpm. The nights he slept solo either side of my stay it was 57 and 58 respectively.

Surely its a good thing I make his heart beat faster? Apparently not.

Next, it pings his recovery score. For the uninitiated (and if this is you, I suggest you stay that way) this reveals how well his nights sleep worked to repair his body. During my sleepover his percentage was woefully low and his average hours of sleep also plummeted (no comment).

I feel the Whoop might have to go missing or have a freak accident whereby it somehow meets a blunt object with force.

Because its only a matter of time before the Whoop starts detecting my presence and sending out flares.

This makes me consider the balance between health and fun in relationships. For all my complaints about the Whoop, my lifestyle is also fairly controlled. On the whole, I eat healthily. I exercise, get my recommended hours of sleep and dont drink much on school nights. But romance and relationships, while mainly flourishing under healthy mental and physical habits, do sometimes benefit from taking your foot off the brake.

To test my theory I allowed the wheels to come off rather spectacularly last week. I had a craving for the kind of night where you lose a shoe and some decorum.

It was Friday evening and the boyfriend and I went to a party. I had worked hard all week and wanted a shot of hedonism. Or at the very least a shot of gin.

Reader, I drank my weekly allowance in three hours and ate only beige things with a high saturated fat content. I had to be helped out of my jumpsuit at bedtime. I did not take off my make-up.

The next morning I woke up with crippling hangxiety. As I stared at myself in the mirror (oh hello, Alice Cooper) I tried to remember what I had said to whom.

When the boyfriend awoke I was nervous I may have done irreparable harm to my reputation. But he was overjoyed.

I need to see Four Gins Green more often, he said.

And I realised that, for me, and for him, sometimes cutting loose shows you are in it together. That you can be vulnerable enough to drop your guard.

And its FUN.

I have friends who go on dates, dont drink then leave early to get enough sleep. Which, while understandable, isnt that sexy.

David Beckham says whatever restaurant he and Victoria go to she orders steamed fish and vegetables. Again, not sexy. I guess you dont look like Victoria Beckham on vats of white wine and bar snacks. But still, sometimes letting go is essential.

And as for the Whoop? Well, it cant measure happiness. Theres no graph for the oxytocin/dopamine/serotonin hit that comes from a kiss. No chart that measures contentment or a performance index for pleasure.

Maybe I need to create one. The Love-o-meter.

See you on Dragons Den.

@lifesrosie

Read more of Rosie Greens columnshere

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Rosie Green: There's nothing sexier than having fun - YOU Magazine

For the first time in nearly three years, British rockers Foals are back with new music. Titled Life Is Yours, even with the world in the tumultuous state its in, the group tries to be optimistic about their outlook. This is reflected by the strength of its lyrics and the experimental nature of the bands sound.

With the album out now, we asked Foals singer Yannis Philippakis to give us the stories behind the songs on Life Is Yours. Heres what he had to say.

Life Is Yours contains the sentiment of the album at large, which is about an optimistic spirit, and being in rapture at the possibilities of life. With the shadow of the pandemic and climate change, and the feeling of jeopardy thats out there, I think that was an important sentiment to tap into. The song is set in the Pacific Northwest where Ive spent quite a lot of time. Theres something really fresh about the boreal forests on the coast. It felt fresh, and sonically its fresh for us too. Weve not touched upon that aesthetic before, or that way of putting a song together.

Theres a journey that the band has gone on experimenting with different palettes of sound. This time there was a desire to take it back to more of the initial idea of the band, where the rhythm, the grooves and the guitars are interlocking architecturally. We wanted to tap into the physicality of music. And we wanted it to feel good. Lyrically, I just wanted to write a song about transporting yourself to a better, idyllic situation.

Musically 2am is one of the poppiest songs weve ever written. Its about repetitive cycles of destructive behavior, which I think lots of people can relate to, and certainly its an expression of something that I struggle with. Theres something cathartic about expressing that feeling to this upbeat music thats got a sense of release and the hope ofresolution.

2001 feels like a postcard from the past. Its a very summery, disco-sounding track, and I felt the visual landscape for it should be Brighton. We moved there around that time, we were a young band, and there was the feeling of the first taste of independence. The moment you get those freedoms, youre surrounded by temptation. The references to beachside candy and Brighton rock are symbols for drugs and hedonism. This was written in the depths of the pandemic winter, and theres an escapist desire to break out from the feeling of being cooped up, both in terms of the pandemic and adolescence.

Flutter is one of my favourite songs on the record. Ive always been a fan of Malian and Senegelese guitar players, and this song evolved very naturally out of a jam that came from that kind of groove. We wanted this song to just chug, we didnt want to take it into a huge dynamic range. Its one of the more narrative songs on the album. Its essentially about someone fleeing and you never see them again. Theres no closure, and no neat tying up of the emotion that comes from someone departing so suddenly.

Lyrically this is looking back to a more hedonistic time in my life, and a more innocent time in society in general, pre-pandemic and before the existential threat of climate change. It takes place in an alley in Oxford with two clubs-The Cellar and The Wheatsheaf-that all of the citys nightlife gravitated towards. It was before clubs started to close down and before our cities started to change into more corporate, arid places. Theres an element of being haunted by nightlife thats no longer there. Jimmy wrote the demo for this, and it was originally a kind of a slower, Prince-ier creature. When we took it into the live room, the tempo accelerated. We were reveling playing live together again and feeding off each others energy.

This is one of the most new wave songs weve ever written. It felt like a forgotten Pixies song to me, like a view of the future from the 1950s with a surreal, slightly sci-fi element to it. Its talking about isolation and loneliness in the modern age and wanting to be transported to anywhere else other than where you are at that time. But I wanted it to keep it very playful rather than being heavy-handed, with fractured images and a collage of images in its emotions and words.

A portion of it existed in 2011, and we had demoed it in Australia and just left it for years. But it was one of those songs which had always been at the back of our minds, like there was some unfinished business there. As we wereplaying around with it with some of the themes on this record, we cracked it open and really revelled in adding lots of layers to it in the studio. Its another transportive song. Its set in St. Lucia, which has always struck me as being very powerful visually, with the mountain plummeting into the sea.

The Sound couldve been played at one of the nights I was talking about in Looking High. Musically its interesting in how it takes from UK dance, house and garage, but then the guitar top line comes from a different world. Somehow the combination of all of those facets makes something really fresh and fun. Its going to be a really great one to play live. Aesthetically I wanted it to be surreal and industrial, and contrast the precision of the tune with the freedom of its words.

We recorded this in Real World Studios, where we looked out at this verdant British summer scene, with dragonflies and kingfishers flying around. Its a song that feels alive in the same way that the summer time feels alive with pollen and creatures; this tapestry of life thats reemerging. Hopefully it mirrors the reemergence of our world coming back together out of the pandemic. Its optimistic, but theres a melancholy to it. However long a summer is, we know its ephemeral So, the second half turns into a farewell, an elegy. We knew right from the beginning that this was going to be the album closer and its one of my favorite songs on the record.

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Foals' Yannis Philippakis Breaks Down Every Song on Life Is Yours - Spin

Anna is in her late mothers attic brandishing a book. It is called Grief and Grieving and she has two more copies in her bag. They are for her wayward sister Maia and kid sister Chloe, the one who stayed at home as a carer, hanging on while Anna forged a career abroad and Maia lived it up in the city.

None of them seems interested in the book. They dont need any lessons in grief. In Matthew Bulgos play, created with directors Jonnie Riordan and Jess Williams for ThickSkin, grieving is pretty much all they do. Having got the funeral over, they relive childhood memories, air old arguments and wallow in a state of inertia.

Feels like the beginning, says Chloe when the play is very nearly at an end. Perhaps it would have been a better place to start, because Blood Harmony is a play in which almost nothing happens.

How could it? Grief is an emotion that is backward looking. It is a denial of the present-tense movement on which drama thrives. It is a state to be experienced, not a dilemma to be resolved. Bulgo tries to spice things up with a standard-issue pregnancy plot and some interplay about the women being at a turning point in their lives, but it is not enough to bring any sense of urgency.

Tellingly, the songs scattered through the show do nothing to forward the plot. There isnt a plot to forward. Instead, they strike an elegiac note and luxuriate in it. Written by indie folksters the Staves, they are pretty and melodic and, with the harmonic arrangements of Kate Marlais, strikingly sung by actors Eve De Leon Allen, Keshini Misha and Philippa Hogg.

The three performers fight their corners with feeling: De Leon Allens sweet-natured Chloe contrasting with the hedonism of Mishas Maia and the narcissism of Hoggs Anna. They are attractive performances but the show really finds its theatrical life when they turn the struts of Hayley Grindles attic set into a climbing frame and stand silhouetted against the strip lights concealed by lighting designer Charly Dunford. Grief might be no friend of drama, but in moments like these, it is not bad for visual poetry.

At the Lowry, Salford, until 18 June. Then touring until 28 August.

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Blood Harmony review sombre three-hander mourns a lost mother - The Guardian