Books Editor. An admirer of songs and reader of books. Simon has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature. All errant apostrophes are his own.
Despite their moniker, Wild Tibetan Monks, are an Irish indie-rock band based in Dublin. Though up until fairly recently the trio were plying their trade in Australia; Western Australia to be exact. Formed in 2011 at college, the trio swapped Dublin for Perth in 2018. But, thanks to COVID-19 they were forced to return to…
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Brisbane’s Liam Morton is back this week with a new single, “My Baby”. Officially released tomorrow, we’re stoked to bring you this exclusive first taste of the new track. You might not know it from a casual listen, but “My Baby” is a lament; a lament for a broken relationship and for those missteps and…
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Last week saw Azim Zain And His Lovely Bones release his new single “Punk Don’t Pay The Bills”. The single, which features Vic Austin, is taken from Azim Zain’s forthcoming debut album Be Good – set for release November 13th. Band leader Zain, was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, before moving to Adelaide at…
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“Moonchild” is the debut single from singer-songwriter, and self described “Prosecco drinking pop rock witch from the future” Apollo Blue. Recorded in Melbourne in 2019, the single, with its nod to the genre classics, is an ode to self-empowerment. As debut singles go, I doubt you’d find many with as much assuredness, swagger, or theatricality. …
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Karrinyup author Maria Papas has tonight been announced the winner of the 2020 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for her manuscript I Belong to the Lake. The win sees Papas take home a $15,000 cash prize and a coveted publishing contract with Fremantle Press. The Hungerford, is a biennial award, and in 2020 is celebrating…
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Perth’s indie girl band Dulcie are back with a brand new single, “Dust” – a three minute burst of sunshine and positivity to help get you up and going. Formed in 2018, Dulcie are Ashleigh Carr-White, Timieka Denton, Saskia Brittain and Madison Hanley. With three vocalists, a truly wonderful pop sensibility and hooks aplenty, the…
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New York singer-songwriter Charlie DeCarlo will release his new single “Walkway” on Thursday. The single is the latest and last to be taken from his forthcoming debut album Paper Birds – set for release in December. Ahead of its official release we’re excited to bring you this exclusive early taste of the brilliant new single…
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Melbourne indie artist Eddie Casper released his sophomore album Ohmage on Saturday. Self-produced, and with Casper performing all the instrumentation himself, the album was recorded in solitude in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. In an age dominated by the “single”, Ohmage is a return to the album format of old. Best heard in its entirety from start…
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Norwegian experimentalist and avant-rock singer Sturle Dagsland released a new single at the end of last week. “Kusanagi”, which was created together with his brother Sjur, is extraordinary, oddly compelling, and in all likelihood pretty polarising. It’s also quite hard to adequately describe. Sturle and his brother are from Stavanger, in South West Norway. It’s…
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To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde is the latest memoir from actor, author, and now director Rupert Everett. In the book Everett, recounts the story of how he set out to make the film of Oscar Wilde’s last days, 2018’s The Happy Prince. The book, then, is part memoir, part travelogue,…
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They’ve been teasing its release for more than a year, but Melbourne’s Howlite are all set to release their new EP Not Here next week. It’s coming later than originally planned, but that’s 2020 for you. But, before we get to the EP, the band have one more single for you all: “Canary”. And we’re…
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Singer-songwriter, producer, virtuoso guitarist and You Am I stalwart Davey Lane is back with new music and a new album to tease: Don’t Bank Your Heart On It – Out November 13th. “You Were A Mirage” is the first single from that new album. It’s a song that deals with the deeply personal; about moving…
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Fetch Phillips, the noirish rouge for hire from Weatherly, is back. It’s been less than year since his last case. And, it’s aftermath is still rippling through Sunder City. People have got the idea that the magic might be coming back. They’ve also got into their heads that Fetch is working to figure it all…
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Melbourne-based singer-songwriter BATTS returns with a brand new single. Written and recorded to feature on a collaborative cassette tape for This & That Tapes, “Dancing On The Moon” sees the musician return to pretty familiar interstellar territory. The single came about following contact from Joseph Carlough, the owner of Philadelphia-based label This & That Tapes….
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Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and 5 Seconds of Summer stalwart Ashton Irwin is all set to release his debut solo album, Superbloom at the end of October. He’s teased the album’s imminent arrival with the release of the single “Skinny Skinny”. I don’t know what I was expecting the debut solo single from Irwin to sound like….
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“Air Forces” is the new single from 23-year-old Muslim poet and songwriter Mustafa. The single, which is built around samples of a Sudanese tribal chant, follows the success of his debut single “Stay Alive”. Further, “Air Forces” marks the continued exploration of a musical style that Mustafa describes as ‘inner city folk music’. The move…
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North Carolina singer-songwriter Dylan Gilbert continues to tease the release of his forthcoming solo album, I’ll Be The Lakebed, with the release of a new music video. Gilbert, a founding member of Charlotte-based genre-bending punks Hectorina, teamed up with director and performer Sarah Ingel for the music video for “Good News”. A week out from…
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Today Dublin singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dunluvly drops his new single, “Too Late”. The single is the first release from his forthcoming EP Plethora. Written, recorded and produced by Dunluvly in his home studio, the single is a delightful blend of the traditional and contemporary. You’ve got that beautiful fingerpicked guitar, so obviously rooted in the…
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“Clutter” is the sophomore single from Jersey singer-songwriter Sam Walwyn. It follows the release of his debut “For You” back in June. Walwyn, who grew up in the Caribbean, Jersey and the UK, unsurprisingly has a broad range of influences, taking in everything from Cuban Mambo to Flamenco to pop. There’s also a slightly Australian…
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Multi-instrumentalist and composer Josh Johnson continues to tease his forthcoming debut album Freedom Exercise. The LA via Chicago musician, who has toured and recorded with Makaya McCraven, Leon Bridges and more, dropped the album’s first single “Western Ave” earlier this month. Johnson moved to Los Angeles eight years ago. It was only supposed to be…
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Today the Booker Prize judges announced the six books that make up their 2020 Shortlist. The shortlist was selected from the 162 books submitted for the award. Those 162 were whittled down to an eclectic longlist of thirteen titles back in July, and now the field has been tightened further. What was already shaping up to…
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Melbourne queer alt-popster Max Lawrence is back with a new single this week, the bold and infectious “Speak In Tongues”. The single, which sees Lawrence once again working with his long-time collaborator Rino Darusman, is an exploration of the interplay of physical desire and possession. “It’s about wanting to kiss someone but having no idea…
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This week sees the release of A Minute of Another Day, the much anticipated debut album from Perth alt-country folk group The Little Lord Street Band. The album, which officially releases tomorrow, is a mixed bag of songs that crisscrosses the genres and highlights the songwriting talents of both James Rogers and Natasha Shanks. We’re big…
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Overnight it has been announced that Maggie O’Farrell has won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction with her eighth novel Hamnet. As has become the norm in the age of COVID, the announcement was made during a live digital awards ceremony, with 2020 Chair of Judges Martha Lane Fox announcing O’Farrell as this year’s winner…
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Tijuana Cartel are having something of a busy year. That’s all in spite of the disruption and upheaval caused by COVID-19. The band released their new single, the delightfully psychedelic “Minimal Stuffing” back in July. Even more recently they’ve dropped the suitably trippy accompanying music clip – directed and animated by Carey O’Sullivan. The band’s singer…
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Brisbane singer-songwriter Nicole McKinney has begun to tease the release of her debut EP. Although not due for release until next year, this week McKinney is dropping “Hollywood Girls”, the first of a string of singles from the forthcoming EP. Officially released tomorrow, we’re excited to bring you this exclusive first listen. Produced by Luke…
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Melbourne singer-songwriter Tanya George continues to tease her forthcoming EP, this time with the release of lead single “Normality”. Written and created using George’s vocal looping techniques, “Normality” is striking to say the least. According to George, “The single is about questioning what is normality? What is the normal anymore in society, in our lives?…
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London’s Ezra Collective are back with new music. The first since the release of their debut album Can’t Steal My Joy last year. The release, a special double A-side single, also follows the band’s first visit to Australia earlier this year, beating the pandemic upheaval to play Golden Plains and Womadeliade. The group are releasing…
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Back in May COVID-19 forced the inaugural Yarra Valley Writers Festival online. At the time organisers promised a jam-packed day of author live streams for the main festival day in May. But, there was also the promise of continued events into the future, in the form of virtual book clubs and author chats. Four months…
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In a virtual ceremony Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s debut novel, The Discomfort of Evening, translated into English by Michelle Hutchison has been unveiled as the winner of the 2020 International Booker Prize. The £50,000 prize will be split equally between Rijneveld and Hutchison, giving both the author and translator equal recognition. The Discomfort of Evening was…
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