Party Dozen is a sonic partnership loosely based on improvisation between saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet.

Their debut LP The Living Man earned critical acclaim in 2017, and they’ve toured relentlessly ever since – each performance a trial of physicality and an expression of maximalism. Like the legendary Dirty Three, the members seem to meld into one mind, oblivious to the viewer. Tickle effortlessly navigates Boulet’s ever-shortening attention span and wild tempo changes; form gradually materialises from chaos.
 
Notorious for this challenging, unhinged and technically enthralling live show, Party Dozen have played Falls Festival, MONA FOMA, Dark Mofo and WOMAD and toured the country with Liars (UK), These New South Whales, Tropical Fuck Storm and Viagra Boys (SWE). 
 
The duo return with their second album Pray For Party Dozen in May this year – once again self-producing and releasing on their own label, Grupo Records. Tracks like the eponymous "Party Dozen" act as a bridge between The Living Man, where evil sample loops build the foundations upon which the duo erect a brand new temple of irreverence. 
 
Elsewhere, they flirt with electro-Krautrock (Auto Loser), stoner (The Great Ape) and even subtlety (Scheisse Kunst). It still sounds like Party Dozen, but somehow louder; more hushed; even wilder. Plus there are two songs with lyrics. It’s smart enough to make you move and dumb enough to make you think.

But it’s not greater than the sum of its parts. There are no parts – there is only Party Dozen.

Release: May 22nd, 2020, Grupo Records
​Words: Best & Fairest

græ is a conceptual patchwork about greyness and expands upon the sonic universe built in Sumney's critically-acclaimed debut LP Aromanticism and subsequent EP Black In Deep Red, 2014. 

The songs on græ may seem divergent, like the visceral, Smashing Pumpkins drama of Virile - which arrived with a Sumney-directed music video - but there's always that voice, knowable and penetrating, threading the pieces together: a heavenly rasp, a whale call, Miles' horn. 

The album includes collaborations with a diverse array of contributors and is Sumney's first work to be written in his new home of Asheville, North Carolina. It all works to create a paradox, keeping art and artist somewhere between any one sure thing - but surely something that demands your attention affixed and your breath bated.

Moses Sumney evades definition as an act of duty: technicolor videos and monochrome clothes; Art Rock and Black Classical; blowing into Fashion Week from a small town in North Carolina; seemingly infinite collaborators, but only one staggering voice. A young life spent betwixt Southern California and Accra, Ghana - not so much rootless as an epyphite, an air plant. The scale is cinematic but the moves are precise deeds of art and stewardship. Sumney's new, generous double album, græ, is an assertion that the undefinable still exists and dwelling in it is an act of resistance. 

There's probably a biblical analogy to be made about a person who just happens to be named Moses, who flees the binary, splits a massive body into two pieces, and leads us through the in-between - holy and wholly rebellious. By breaking up græ into two multifaceted, dynamic pieces, Sumney is quite literally creating a "grey" in-between space for listeners to absorb and consider the art. Not strictly singles, not strictly albums, never altogether songs or spoken word segments on their own. It's neither here nor there. "Neither/Nor," if you will.

Release: May 15th, 2020, Jagjaguwar Records/Remote Control
Words: Jagjaguwar

Five years since the release of their debut full length album, Dianas' record Baby Baby is a culmination of the band's intricate history and their interlacing musical connection. Last winter, Nat, Caity and Anetta spent some time away from the hustle and escaped to a haunted farmhouse on the outskirts of Victoria to write, and this collection of 12 songs is the result. 

In true Dianas Do It Yourself fashion, the album was then recorded and mixed by their very own Nathalie Pavlovic, resulting in a sound that is inextricably theirs, capturing their raw energy as seen on the stage and shaping it into an angular astral orb ready for your listening pleasure. 

The album is darkly atmospheric, mathy, uninhibited, bewitching and truly like nothing else happening in Australian music right now. A bit Kate Bush, a bit Bjork, a bit Sonic Youth, Baby Baby features complex guitar parts duelling over pulsing drums and lyrics exploring womanhood, self perception and relationships with a gothic twist. 

After almost a decade of playing together, founding members Caitlin and Nathalie have developed an intimate musical language through their duality in tone and phrase, nailed to the ground by Anetta's driving whirlpool drums. Baby Baby is the sound of Dianas inviting you in to their private universe and letting you in on their secrets - if you dare take the plunge.   

Release: 4 May, 2020, Blossom Rot Records
​Words: Blossom Rot

Maddy Jane has released her highly anticipated debut album, NOT ALL BAD OR GOOD. Recorded at The Grove in 2019 with Jackson Barclay (Vera Blue, Timberwolf, Apes), the distraction free estate environment was the perfect place for Maddy Jane to settle in to record the album.

“I’ve recorded at The Grove before with Jackson when we were finishing off my first EP, NOT HUMAN AT ALL. So, knowing the area and having already fallen in love with it, it was the right place to record the album. Recording there was comforting, the bush reminded me of Tassie and it allowed for that focus. Staying on the property you don’t have to worry about anything, it’s eliminates all those distractions and for me, that environment makes a huge difference.”

“When writing, although there has been significant growth, it will always be like self-therapy. It’s getting it out and expressing myself, and I’m so grateful that people relate to that too because it’s just me getting shit off my chest! But it will always be the most honest I can be.”

Maddy’s latest single Perfection's A Thing And You're It  is the one song that sums up the two key themes of the album: self-awareness and opposites, and how they coincide. “It’s not a love song,” explains Maddy. “It’s sarcasm for; perfection’s not a thing and you can’t be it. It came from people in my life who were not willing to accept other people’s faults, or their own. It’s a song saying no one is perfect and we should try to love all of ourselves and others, faults and all.”

Visually, Maddy felt that the playing card theme was a strong metaphor for the ups and downs of life – which is what the album is all about. “The playing card idea kept coming up whenever I thought about the visual representation of these songs. NOT ALL BAD OR GOOD is about different aspects of life, but I think it relates a lot to a game of cards – you play what you get and its life so it’s going to have some highs and it’s going to have the lows.”

Hailing from Bruny Island in Tasmania, Maddy's honest lyrics and captivating song writing have earned her places on huge arena tours supporting the likes of Catfish and the Bottlemen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Harry Styles. NOT ALL BAD OR GOOD, produced by Maddy and Jackson Barclay, is a cathartic release for a rising star of Australia’s indie word, and a debut that this incredible storyteller is proud to now share with the world.

Release: May 1st, 2020, Lemon Tree Recordings/Sony Music
Words: Lemon Tree/Sony

A recent New York Times profile describes Car Seat Headrest's hugely anticipated new album, Making A Door Less Open, as "some of the most direct and accessible music (Will) Toledo has ever made. What’s new here, apart from the rippling synth lines and programmed beats, is the sense of fresh-start possibility and hard-won optimism that infuses nearly every track.”

Created over the course of four years, Making a Door Less Open is Car Seat Headrest’s first set of brand new songs since 2016’s Teens Of Denial. The album is the result of a fruitful “collaboration” between Car Seat Headrest and 1 Trait Danger, a CSH electronic side project consisting of drummer Andrew Katz and Toledo’s alternate persona, ‘Trait’. It sees Toledo embarking on new and imaginative roads to writing and recording, placing emphasis on the individual songs, each with its own “special energy”, resulting his most dynamic and open-ended work to date. 

The album has been released with distinct track listings and mixes for digital, CD and vinyl.

Release: May 1st, 2020, Matador Records/Remote Control
Words: Matador Records

WA hip-hop collective SUPEREGO have released their sophomore EP, Nautilus.

Nautilus is a journey through the dark, choppy waters of SUPEREGO’s unified psyche. Exploring themes of isolation, depression and anxiety, the group pulled on the collaborative talents of Sampa The Great and Cruz Patterson (Koi Child) to bring their concepts to life. Nautilus sees the collective move on from their earlier rocky, guitar-driven sound to a darker, glitchier, electronic palette.

SUPEREGO explain, "Nautilus represents us at those times when we were most introverted and in our shells. Fighting rips of depression and anxiety, finding our identity and searching for the strength in ourselves to keep swimming. The creation of Nautilus was an incredibly cathartic experience and while the songs on this EP are often raw, honest and intense, they helped us come to terms with a lot of things and grow both individually and as a collective. Through our combined creative energy we’ve managed to channel all the inner turmoil into this EP, be there for one another, move forward and evolve. We’ve been truly blessed by the features on this EP and all those behind the scenes who’ve helped this project come to fruition. This is the best thing that we have created yet. We are super proud!"
​
Nautilus not only displays SUPEREGO's ability to eloquently explain the intricacies of defining one's identity but propels the collective's signature sounds to new heights. 

Release: March 25th, 2020, Independent
Words: Here For Good