FRESH SOUNDS: Top 10 June Releases

Whether performing acapella with a vocal looper or surrounded by her dedicated band, she’s astounded countless audiences with her 4.5 octave vocal range tearing up the stages of St Kilda Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Womadelaide, and Queenscliff Music Festival. Can’t Do Anything Right explores the socially systemic hypocrisy of behind expectations and the clear double standards between females and their male counterparts. “[The track is] about the frustrations of not being able to live up to anyone’s expectations.  The literal feeling of not being able to do a thing right, especially as a woman,” explains George.

The evolution of the Lotus Moonchild sound comes from a post Covid renaissance.  Asserting a place in the Melbourne music scene, Foura’s impressive residencies boast names like Revolver, Section 8, Lucky Coq, Glamorama and Hawker Hall, just to name a few.   

Hugo entices you to pump out party-squat groove moves as his track waivers between feel good funk, elements of disco and chilled utterings of rap. Sunshine lives up to its name – playing on the feel good vibes of what we’ve all been searching for this past year – emanating soothing vocals that propel beams of clarity.

This life-affirming April release found its genesis in a bedroom studio offering impassioned vocals over chugging guitar, which he’s been playing since primary school. A bassy warm blanket captures the reverberating contagiousness of the pop-rock riff on this tale of blossoming love.

It’s the sound that fuses futuristic beats and R&B immersing us in ultimate contemplation, Dani best summises My Shadows in her video release statement: “This is for all the people struggling to accept that it’s okay to be who they are. That it’s okay to love and be loved and experience what home feels like between two individuals. This is for everyone experimenting with their sexuality and gender…

Be safe and make sure you’re experimenting for you, and not from what is expected of you…  This is for everyone that has chosen to not come out, because it’s safer to do so…  This is for everyone who doesn’t want to lose their loved ones by expressing their truth.”

A soundscape of ordered chaos by Jordan Bakker. Composed, mixed and mastered throughout the series of lockdowns in Melbourne, Australia. “I chose to name the track ‘Anima’ (Italian for ‘soul’) because of the groundwork I was undertaking to reconnect with spirit.” explains Bakker, “I felt like that was one of the most important lessons to be learned throughout 2020; finding strength and tranquillity within our own being, instead of looking to external sources”
It’s the internal awakening through reflection, Bakker hopes ‘Anima’ will impart to its listeners.

Released just last week, Enui commands a whopping 314,244 listeners a month.  Get lost in the mind of a true creator.   The sound perfected ambience is takes a seductive path reminiscent of previous hits Tachyon and Vanishing.   Once reeled in, there’s no rush as the deeply emotive electronics takes it time to sharpen blades before going in for the clear of hypnotic and fragmented sounds that follow the back beats to the end.

Retrospective hip hop beats channelling social defiance and spit wacky rhymes mark the debut of this new artist and cool suave with promise.  The pace is set leaving us wanting more of an exploration of his poetic pen and gangsta rap musicality.

The melodic canvas of Southern style charm gospel and blues couches a buttery vocal of acceptance and emancipation. “This track is important to me, it was written for a friend of mine who was going through a very tough break up.  There was a lot of love in the relationship, but her partner was having mental health issues at the time, which he felt he needed to deal with on his own.  In the end she knew she had to set his spirit free, and hence “Fly Bird” was written.

Electro house pleasures of bouncy bassline percussion, vox synths and organ in an uplifting hypnotic melody of vocal sampling. It’s the happy end note to a collective awakening from personal captivity.