NATIVE TONGUE is a fitting title for the third studio album from Mojo Juju and it is her very essence laid bare. It is raw, honest, emotional and intrinsically political. It is also brutal and relentlessly real.

Through the telling of family history and her own personal experiences, Juju explores her relationships with Elders and Ancestry and how that informs her own identity. Contemplating her Mother’s Indigenous heritage, her Father’s experience as a Filipino immigrant and her own place in the cultural landscape of modern Australia, it is an album about self-discovery and it is her most sincere, heartfelt and personal offering to date.

Mojo explains: “In a lot of ways, I wrote this album for my younger self, because as a kid growing up in regional Australia, I would have benefit so greatly from having heard more stories from, by or about other people of colour, queer people, people like me. I wanted this to be an album for First Nations People, 1st generations, 2nd generations and 3rd Culture kids.”

Stylistically, Juju once again embarks on new territory through collaborations with multiple producers; Steven Schram (Paul Kelly), Joel Ma (a.k.a. Joelistics), jnbo (The Cactus Channel) and Jamieson Shaw (Netflix series ‘The Get Down’) and includes a number of features from an eclectic array of guests; Hip Hop MC Mirrah (L-Fresh The Lion), soul music royalty Joshua Tavares and spoken word artist Lay the Mystic.

This time around Juju has taken her eclectic influences and created a seamless and authentically original sound, continuing her dedication to bucking labels, bending genres and doing her own thing. Perhaps the manifold musical incarnations of Juju are symbolic of the manifold pieces that make up her identity. Perhaps this unique blend of soul, r’n’b, blues & hip-hop is in fact her ‘Native Tongue’.

Mojo Juju will perform in Hobart on Friday, October the 19th, at the Republic Bar and Cafe.

​She has partnered up with PLUS1 for her album tour, a charity that supports Aboriginal Legal Service, working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People to provide culturally appropriate legal services, influence positive change, and increase access to justice. For each ticket sold, there will be $1 added on which will go towards PLUS1 to help make a difference.

Release: August 24th, 2018, ABC Music/Universal
Words: Secret Service PR

“[Mitski]’s probably the most advanced American songwriter that I know.” – Iggy Pop
 
Hailed as the new vanguard of indie rock following the breakout success of 2016’s Puberty 2, Mitski has returned with Be The Cowboy, out on Dead Oceans via Inertia Music. Mitski’s carefully crafted songs have often been portrayed as emotionally raw, overflowing confessionals from a fevered chosen girl, but in her fifth album, Mitski introduces a persona who has been teased before but never so fully present until now—a woman in control. 

“For this new record, I experimented in narrative and fiction,” comments Mitski. Though she hesitates to go so far as to say she created full-on characters, she reveals she had in mind “a very controlled icy repressed woman who is starting to unravel. Because women have so little power and showing emotion is seen as weakness, this ‘character’ clings to any amount of control she can get. Still, there is something very primordial in her that is trying to find a way to get out.”

In Be The Cowboy, Mitski delves into the loneliness of being a symbol and the loneliness of being someone, how it can feel so much like being no one. 'Geyser' introduces us to a woman who can’t hold it all in any more. She’s about to burst and unleash a torrent of desire and passion that has been building up inside. While recording the album with her long-time producer Patrick Hyland, the pair kept returning to “the image of someone alone on a stage, singing solo with a single spotlight trained on them in an otherwise dark room. For most of the tracks, we didn’t layer the vocals with doubles or harmonies, to achieve that campy ‘person singing alone on stage’ atmosphere.” 

There is plenty of buoyant swagger on Be The Cowboy, but just as much interrogation into self-mythology. Throughout these 14 songs, the music swerves from the cheerful to the plaintive. Mournful piano ballads lead into deceptively uptempo songs. “I had been on the road for a long time, which is so isolating, and had to run my own business at the same time. A lot of this record was me not having any feelings, being completely spent but then trying to rally myself and wake up and get back to Mitski.”

Release: August 17th, 2018, Dead Oceans/Inertia Music
Words: Dead Oceans/Inertia Music

Phantastic Ferniture is the euphoric garage-pop project of Julia Jacklin, Elizabeth Hughes and Ryan K Brennan.

While their spiritual home may be the garage, they were born in a bar, specifically the hallowed basement of Frankie’s Pizza in Sydney. One late night in 2014, on Jacklin’s birthday, a group hug manifested amid the pinball machines, with all ten participants vowing to form a band. “Only four of us remembered the next day,” notes Hughes. United by fern puns and a love of leisurewear, the band met up whenever schedules would allow, writing songs and playing smatterings of dates to an increasingly devoted audience. Eventually it was decreed that this was no side project and an LP should follow.

The brief? More spontaneous and less technical than their solo projects. “That was the fun part,” says Jacklin. “Ryan never played drums in bands, Liz had never been a lead guitarist, Tom didn’t play bass and I’d never just sung before’". Hughes adds, ‘We wanted a low level of expertise, because a lot of good music comes from people whose passion exceeds their skill”.
 
The mission was obvious: Don’t overthink it. That’s evident in the urgent garage-pop perfection on Phantastic Ferniture's self-titled debut album, and in the unconventional path the band has taken to releasing it. The result is one of the most enjoyable albums of 2018. “It feels really good,” Jacklin says with satisfaction. “It’s like having an alter ego.”

Release: July 27th, 2018, Makeout Records/Caroline Australia
Words: Caroline Australia