Year: 2024

Crime writing duo, Nicci French (a.k.a. husband and wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) returned with a new detective series earlier this year. The first offering, Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? is set to be the first in the Maud O’Connor detective series. Though curiously, the eponymous heroine does not actually appear until the latter…

Though there is a high-concept present in the narrative forming of My Old Ass – shroom induced time travel could be the easiest elevator pitch summary (so, a high-concept if ever there was one) – Megan Park‘s deliriously sweet, always charming, oft-hilarious venture is, at its core, an uncomplicated affair that simply wants to make…

Last Friday, New Zealand/Aotearoa’s Georgia Lines released her stunning debut album, The Rose of Jericho. This record is bound together by stunning vocals and mature, well-crafted songwriting drawn from life experiences. Lush instrumentation, with piano and sparkly synths to the fore, permeates throughout this gem. The album was written over two years in response to…

There’s a sense of too many eggs in one basket present in Problemista, a loaded-with-ideas, absurdist comedy from comedian Julio Torres who treats his first-time feature as if he may not get the chance to do a second. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with the ideas that Torres – a former Saturday Night Live scribe,…

As Yorgos Lanthimos built up his profile with more mainstream-inclined audiences over the years – blending his unique storytelling vision with noticeable, A-list talent – the filmmaker viscerally tells them to essentially f*ck off with Kinds of Kindness, a 164-minute blackly comic, absurdist, and boundary-pushing surrealist drama that makes his previous oddity, last year’s award-winning…

Modern gaming is in a bit of a limbo. In some ways, it’s never been better, with eye-watering budgets and grand-scale adventures. In other ways, it’s never been worse. Despite huge growth and Oscar-worthy narrative-focused games like The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption, a significant amount of titles seemingly suffer a lack of…

The train rolls on for Summer Game Fest 2024, as Ubisoft Forward 2024 gets their turn. While a few of these games have already been announced, it’s nice to get a closer look. We’ve packed in all trailers here for your convenience. enjoy! STAR WARS OUTLAWS GAMEPLAY XDEFIANT SEASON 1 SKULL AND BONES SEASON UPDATE PRINCE…

In Sydney at Computex this week ASUS announced their new and extensive lineup of AI-powered laptops. With a host of new-look models purpose-built to target individual functionality across art, gaming and portability, the incorporation of advanced AI capabilities promises a leap forward in PC functionality. For the artists: ProArt Series ASUS’s new ProArt series trio…

It’s always a thrill to be showcasing music from bands very much in their infancy, and today we are stoked to be premiering “All Night Long”,  the second single for Brisbane duo STAHR. STAHR is an alternative rock band born from the collaboration of folk artist Gracie Lou and alt-rock visionary Sam Syrah. “All Night…

This past week, Brisbane hosted its annual Brisbane Writers Festival, drawing thousands of eager bookworms to Southbank for four days of literary celebration. With 150 events packed over four days, there was certainly plenty on offer. Featuring author panels, speeches, and performances showcasing both international and domestic talents from blockbuster bestsellers to literary luminaries, BWF…

“Here, one man becomes a multiplicity. Here, the star is both indie and a block, busting.” – Scott-Patrick Mitchell, “Hello Keanu” Canadian actor Keanu Reeves has captured hearts around the globe with his thrilling action blockbusters on screen and genuine affable nature off-screen. Hello Keanu! is a quirky love-letter to the actor from the contemporary poets…

RISING Festival this year, as much as any other year, is well known for its headline acts. The winter festival takes place in the heart of Melbourne city for only two weeks and never fails to deliver a stellar selection of music and arts programming. Good Morning reunited for a special hometown show this time…

Freemantle’s San Cisco are on the tail end of a two-week blast around Europe, touring their fabulous new album, Under The Light. They’ve hit Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, followed up by a handful of shows in England. I caught them last night in Manchester, and they were on top form. It was a packed…

Despite it being quite a warm day, there were threatening clouds on the horizon at the start of the third day of Porto’s Primavera Sound festival. On the main Porto stage, Best Youth, Portugal’s indie pop band showed that a little rain was not going to dampen their enthusiasm. They played their infectious music and…

On the final date of her North American tour for her latest album – the brilliant Cyan Blue – Canadian R&B artist Charlotte Day Wilson sold out one of Toronto, Canada’s most popular new venues, History. “You know it’s a big night, right?”, Wilson said as she stared out into a crowd full of fans,…

Summer Game Fest 2024 rolls on with Xbox joining the long lists of announcements and shows over the past few days. While Xbox did tack on their latest purchase here with a Call of Duty Black Ops 6 mini showcase, we’ve included every announcement from the show for your convenience below. Enjoy! CALL OF DUTY…

Men behaving badly is at the core of Annick Blanc‘s Hunting Daze, a surreal visualisation of toxic masculinity that refuses to ever pigeonhole itself into one category.  It’s horrific without ever devoting itself entirely to that genre.  It’s blackly funny, though never satirical.  And it’s always engaging, even if the extreme manner in which Blanc…

It’s been an absolute whirlwind of announcements across a range of developer showcases this past weekend. Everyone is seemingly throwing their hat in the ring this June for Summer Game Fest 2024, so we thought we would wrap up every announcement and trailer for you below! Enjoy! LEGO HORIZON ADVENTURES HARRY POTTER QUIDDITCH CHAMPIONS MIGHTY…

I love my hometown. I know its ins and outs, the traffic to avoid, best food and drink spots and most importantly, it is comfortable, familiar and feels like home. For Middle Kids, their Enmore Theatre show was a triumphant homecoming showcasing the best from their recent album Faith Crisis Pt 1 and their ever…

Though it leans into the action/thriller genre with a supreme wink, Thelma, Josh Margolin‘s frequently hilarious, always poignant ode to his own grandmother (and, clearly, a love of the action genre), is never spoofing the films it so evidently is earning its laughs from; and it’s that sweetness and keen sense of reinvention that helps…

The second day of Porto’s Primavera Sound Festival was marked by threatening rainclouds overhead. Despite this the rain stayed mostly away and raincoats were not really needed. But the action on stage was what people were there for. The Vodaphone stage was strangely under construction which meant that artists such as Justice did not perform….

Primavera Sound Porto celebrates ten years of music festivals with an amazing lineup. Created in Barcelona, the Porto, Portugal leg is held in the Parque da Cidade, a large park right on Porto’s shore. With four stages and numerous pop-up installations, there’s plenty to keep everyone entertained. The atmospheric pop and futuristic Portugese R&B artist,…

The controversial historical treatment of Australia’s native people by white settlers and the continuing generational trauma within the Indigenous communities weigh heavy on the narrative themes of Jon Bell‘s The Moogai.  There’s a ripe premise to lean into horror genre sensibilities – “moogai” is the Bundjalung language for a malevolent child-stealing entity that is the…

Russell Crowe stars as troubled actor Anthony Miller, who begins to unravel while working on a supernatural film. His estranged daughter wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. Such is the logline for The Exorcism, a new dramatic horror film from writer/director Joshua John Miller,…

The blending of genres isn’t as easy as Richard Linklater makes it look in the deliciously fun Hit Man, a-sexy-romantic-comedy-cum-philosophical-action-film that the School of Rock helmer and lead charmer Glen Powell have co-scribed together in a seamless fashion. Given that Linklater has so often deviated from the expectation put forward in some of his films…

There’s something of a full circle moment experienced with Am I OK?, Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne‘s co-directorial feature debut.  The real-life couple, who met on the set of a Sundance selection title (2013’s In A World…), returned to the festival as married women detailing their own journey of self-discovery and acceptance with a film…

As we step further into June, we’ve added ten more tracks to our Discovery Playlist on Spotify and Apple Music. Our Track of the Week is “24 Hours in Paris” and comes from Naarm-based pop-trio Blusher. The track is lush and dreamy electro-pop, infused with a hint of melancholy. The band shares the background to…

Turtle Beach has released two previous versions of the Stealth 600 range in the last few years, with versions for PS5, Switch, PC, and a separate headset that is compatible with Xbox. With so many options flooding the market, it becomes a more difficult task to decide on value for money and longevity, taking into…

While a spate of skyscraping new-builds has given Downtown L.A. a much-needed kick into modernity, Santa Monica hasn’t added much to its hotel count over the last few years. The city of Santa Monica has around 40 hotels, including a few eye-popping grand dames like The Georgian Hotel (with its unforgettable candy blue exterior), the…

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, an ill-fated tale of star-crossed lovers, has been re-imagined time and time again. I honestly thought there was no ground left to cover when it came to adaptations of the beloved classic. I have never been more delighted to be wrong. Set to Prokofiev’s iconic score, Romeo and Juliet Suite at…