Daniel Lopatin's name has become synonymous with era-defining art. At the end of 2019 Lopatin soundtracked one of the most unanimously critically acclaimed film scores of recent history, an anxiety-driven joyride paired to the Safdie Brothers’ noir thriller Uncut Gems - cult studio A24’s biggest commercial film to date.

Magic Oneohtrix Point Never is a truly career-defining release for Oneohtrix Point Never. The eponymous title is taken from Lopatin’s original Oneohtrix Point Never moniker - a misheard play on the Boston soft-rock radio station Magic 106.7

Sonically, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never takes is an amagamation of OPN’s output of the last 10-12 years. From the deconstructed New Age plunderphonics of Replica and R Plus Seven, to the alt-rock and chamber pop songwriting of Garden Of Delete and Age Of and the symphonic, cinematic nature of the scores for Uncut Gems, Good Time and his production work for other artists.  Magic Oneohtrix Point Never synthesizes all elements of his previous material to craft a cohesive humanistic masterwork, rendering the self-titling of the album as much a reference to his roots as to his entrenchment in the present moment.

An eponymous album is a symbolic highlight in an artist’s career. Though often reserved for the beginning of a catalogue, the tradition has also been evoked to designate a celebratory body of work that looks back and epitomizes a defining cultural moment. Oneohtrix Point Never categorically challenges most standard notions of linear thinking in music, constantly shifting within traditional paradigms, unwinding and re-weaving digital sensory triggers into contemporary sonatas. 

Release: October 30th, 2020, Warp Records/Inertia Music
Words: Inertia

On December 26th, 2018, Emily Cross received an excited email from a friend: Brian Eno was talking about her band on BBC radio. “At first I didn’t think it was real,” she admits. But then she heard a recording: Eno was praising “Black Willow” from Loma’s self-titled debut; he said he’d had it on repeat.


At the time, a second Loma album seemed unlikely. The band began as a serendipitous collaboration between Cross, the multi-talented musician and recording engineer Dan Duszynski, and Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg, who wanted to play a supporting role after years at the microphone. They’d capped a gruelling tour with a standout performance on a packed beach at Sub Pop’s SPF 30 festival, in which Cross leapt into the crowd, and then into the sea, while the band carried on from the stage—an emotional peak that also felt like a natural ending. “It was the biggest audience we’d ever had,” she says. “We thought, why not stop here?”   


Following the tour, Cross went to rural Mexico to work on visual art and a solo record, while Meiburg began a new Shearwater effort. But after a few months apart (and Eno’s encouraging words), the trio changed their minds and reconvened at Duszynski’s home in rural Texas, where they began to develop songs that would become Don’t Shy Away. Loma writes by consensus, and though Cross is always the singer, she, Duszynski and Meiburg often trade instruments.  Meiburg compares their process to using a ouija board, and says the songs revealed themselves slowly, over many months. “Each of us is a very strong flavour,” he says, “but in Loma, nobody wears the crown, so we have to trust each other—and we end up in places none of us would have gone on our own. I think we all wanted to experience that again.” The album that emerged is gently spectacular—a vivid work whose light touch belies its timely themes of solitude, impermanence, and finding light in deep darkness.

Release: October 23rd, 2020, Sub Pop
Words: Sub Pop

Proud pakana artist DENNI has revealed her new EP RUNAWAYS - a powerful collection of six hip-hop inspired tracks that capture her evolution as an artist and a storyteller.

After much hard work and musical evolution in recent times, DENNI has spent the last few months getting down to business in the Brisbane NO ONE network studio. With a dynamic team fully focussed during the recent COVID-19-studio-lock-down/lock-in situation, DENNI has managed to bring together a set of brilliant collaborations, joining forces with fellow Tassie hip hop mainstay Greeley, Brisbane's Nerve, Adelaide's Lariken and Tassie's AO.

Painting an alluring picture of worlds colliding, intriguing stories of self-determination and insight into the universe of DENNI, RUNAWAYS is the dream of leaving it all behind, chasing your passion and moving with the waves of change. Her first physical release, RUNAWAYS picks up in a fresh and exciting way from where 2019'S Wise Ones EP left off. It's an EP full of fire, with big boom bap beats and powerful, timely lyrics straight to the point.

“Music and art is my deepest expression of self love and a part of my healing,” says DENNI. “As a Tasmanian Aboriginal person growing up in dual communities, it really shaped who I am as a woman and the issues and themes that I write about in my music.”

Starting out as a talented indie folk singer songwriter, DENNI continues to transform; recently taking the exciting twist and leap into the world of Aussie hip hop. Teamed with lush electronic synths and hard hitting beats, DENNI's soulfully smooth vocals and skilful lyrics are jam packed with story and heart.

Release: 22nd October, 2020, Vibestown Records
​Words: Habit Music Co.

In Waiting, Pillow Queens' debut album, is the result of four years of brotherly love in a sisterly unit from Ireland’s most urgent, yearning, queer indie-rock band. Crafted from their lives, and honed in a studio in rural Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, this is a record by queens in waiting and kings in the making. 

This is an album about the in-between; the transitionary period of an adulthood that never seems to arrive. It’s an album about the purgatorial aspect of late-stage capitalism, where the systems conspire to burden and punish; job insecurity, housing crises, income inequality, and social inequity. It’s an album about family; chosen, given, received and earned. 

It’s an album about spirituality; from the engrained confines of religion, to the expanding borders of spirituality, and the iconography and ritual that populates the emotional interior of anyone who grows up in Ireland. It’s about resilience of the politics of the self and belief in the power of art. The wounded deer leaps highest. Tiocfaidh ár lá.

Release: September 25, 2020, Independent
Words: Positive Feedback