2019 has been a big year for noise cancelling headphones, and the race to produce the very best has been increasingly difficult to call. Bose were once the clear front-runners with the widely acclaimed QuietComfort line, but since then worthy competitors from Sony, Sennheiser and Bang & Olufsen stepped up in a big way. With…
South Australia has long been regarded as a playground of sorts for discerning gourmands and wine enthusiasts the world over. Alongside the plentiful key regions of Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, the capital of Adelaide maintains its reputation for compact travel, artisan outlets, world-class restaurants (bolstered by the iconic Adelaide Central Market), and…
2019 you’re done. It might not have all gone to plan, and you might’ve been a bit of a trash fire politically, but there’s no denying you’ve produced the goods books wise. It’s been another big year in publishing, with thousands of books being published, read and enjoyed. We’ve also had quite a few literary heavyweights…
The hybrid reboot/sequel that was 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a mammoth success that I suspect not even Sony was anticipating. Sure, they threw considerable weight behind the project but in the wake of Star Wars: the Last Jedi‘s release, a near billion dollar haul worldwide was an unprecedented outcome, to say the…
Any well-informed beer enthusiast who finds themselves in Vancouver or surrounds absolutely must not leave without a visit to Port Moody, BC, a relaxed area laden with lakes, lush mountains and young families walking their dogs. Located 20 minutes outside of Vancouver by public transit, the main street truly comes into its own in the…
Chile’s National Tourism Service has today announced a postponement of the planned visa requirement for Australian tourists wishing to enter the country. Between now and May 9, 2020, Australian passport holders will not be required to hold a visa when entering Chile. As of May 9, 2020, Chile will introduce a new electronic visa, which…
The small city of Napa is no longer just a stepping stone to the many venerated vineyards that populate Northern California’s Napa Valley. Although once seen as the forgettable part of an unforgettable wine adventure, recent years have worked magic around Napa’s boutique-minded downtown, propping it up as the most ideal base for discerning wine…
It’s time for the AU review’s annual list of the best albums from Australia and the rest of the world for 2019. Across this list, we take you through a wide range of genres, with music that represents the exciting, vibrant time of music right now. It’s fair to say that there are some notable…
2020 is going to be a big year for Qatar Airways and their ever-expanding network, if the airline’s most recent announcement is anything to go by. As part of a massive network expansion, the five-time “World’s Best Airline” winner are introducing numerous seasonal flights and new destinations to make some of the world’s best destinations…
If you read over our Game of the Year list for 2019 and thought there were a few missing titles, there’s a reason for that. We simply can’t fit them all. In fact, there were so many great titles to come out in 2019 that we felt running a single list didn’t feel quite fair….
Kathy O’Shaughnessy‘s In Love with George Eliot is subtitled ‘A Novel’. Thank goodness for that, because if not, booksellers and librarians probably would not know where to shelve it. While readable and intensely interesting, the book reads more like a bibliomemoir, more akin to previous George Eliot studies like The Road to Middlemarch and last year’s…
Melbourne is now the location for the world’s first Ink Hotel, a personality-focused brand from Singapore-based Next Story Group, best known for their elegant NEXT Hotels and forward-thinking ‘Members Only’ club Kafnu. Ink adds another distinctive element to the group, focusing on lifestyle hotels that shape their own social scenes and provide a comfortable guest…
It hasn’t been easy to choose as a Game of the Year for 2019. This has been a pivotal year for the games industry. With new consoles on the horizon, and several high profile AAA titles delaying into early 2020, independent games have been able to take the spotlight in a big way. The games…
It’s a pretty amazing thing to see an artist who’s been around for 35 years continually reinvent themselves while managing to engage both the newest and oldest of fans. Returning for the third year of his Making Gravy tour, Paul Kelly brought along a heap of musical friends to well and truly welcome in the…
Paul Kelly and friends enriched our lives again at the Domain in Sydney, for the latest edition of Making Gravy. It was a quality line-up, with Thelma Plum, Kate Miller-Heidke, Marlon Williams and Courtney Barnett lighting up the stage. This event is the pre-cursor to Christmas in Sydney, with Paul Kelly giving us an uplifting…
A film like Just Mercy lays all cards on the table before it even starts. On the surface, it’s another entry in the long-line of righteous fury pointed at miscarried justice and a system unashamed by its own historical wrongdoings. And yes, that’s pretty much what it is, adapting the true story from a 2014…
Elton John and photographer Terry O’Neill first collaborated in 1972. Since then, O’Neill has taken around five thousand photographs of the star across the decades that followed. Recently, when going through his collection, O’Neill recognised the special nature of these photographs and wanted to share them with Elton’s legion of fans. Elton John: The Definitive…
Candide, or absolute nihilism? Eastern European cinema has always had a nail-biting bleakness about it, but The Painted Bird may have just upended all others. This is a brutal hellscape somehow stretched into an adventure epic; as hard to look away from, as it is to watch in the first place. There’s little wonder as…
Mary Costello’s first novel, Academy Street, was shortlisted for a number of awards, and won the Irish Book of the Year Award in 2014. It also shares a lot thematically with her latest work. However, in her second novel, The River Capture, Costello has used a very different narrative style, and although providing some real…
When director Michael Bay gets handed $150 million from Netflix to make a movie you can be guaranteed that he’s going to make something pretty insane. Where in the past he has felt a little hamstrung by studio expectations or interference, his latest effort feels like a return to form. For Netflix, 6 Underground is…
Last month Melbourne indie-rockers Kilns released their beautiful debut album “You Can Bet Your House on Me”. It’s an album that regularly visits themes of relationships, their fragility but is also joyous. Guitars riff and vocals soar with some sweet harmonies. There is also some sweet humour in there as well. It’s hard to believe these…
Sincere motivational rhymes about veganism and leading a healthy lifestyle may have been the last thing you would have expected from a dead prez concert. That is, if you thought the anthemic chant of their signature hit, “Hip Hop”, was nothing more than an infectious hook. The now veteran duo of stic.man and M1 don’t…
Assuming you have enough disposable income left over after building up the modern DIY smart home, security should be the next consideration. We’ve already seen what Arlo are capable of when they play around in their ultra premium security space. Now that they’ve steadily built up a rich ecosystem of devices, it’s time they finesse…
Want to experience something truly surreal? We’re talking genuinely life-affirming, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping sights that will forever be etched into your memory. See everything you possibly can in the Canadian Rockies. Hike it, drive it, sit on a solitary pier tearing up at the profound beauty of it all; fear this immense pocket of untamed nature…
Hyde Hacienda Sydney Bar + Lounge is Sydney’s answer to a hybrid dinner, drinks and dancing venue. The South American-inspired vista bar is opening its third Australian location, in the former Hacienda venue within Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour. It’s an exciting new iteration for one of Sydney’s most iconic harbourfront bars. While the brand…
Released in 1974 and oft considered the original slasher film, Bob Clark’s Black Christmas has rightfully earned cult status over the years after initially being passed over for that other genre staple, John Carpenter’s Halloween. Clark’s film is a unique take on the stalk-and-kill mentality that the slasher subsect is known for given that it…
Brisbane / Sunshine Coast trio Fragile Animals have released their latest single “Waiting”, and we are pumped to have it as our track of the day. It’s a wonderful amalgam of genres. Shoegazing is front and centre, but there’s a splash of indie rock and a smidgin of 80’s Manchester. The song was written by frontwoman Victoria…
Feature-rich, highly intelligent and design-forward, Sennheiser have put a great deal of love into the 2019 iteration of their reputation MOMENTUM Wireless range. The over-ear headphones not only outperform most rivals, but consider the entire sonic experience. This includes Tile technology to address the possibility of misplacing the set. Although you’ll be paying a premium…
PlayStation have dropped the latest State of Play broadcast overnight. The broadcast, PlayStation’s first since October, covered PS4 and PSVR titles launching in 2020. So what was on the docket? Untitled Goose Game Untitled Goose Game by Melbourne developer House House will make its PlayStation 4 debut next week, December 17, just in time for…
Novelty things are happening around Sydney all the time, as restaurants – the creative ones at least – strive to compete in a fickle scene. Take, the recently launched Parlour Cucina for example. When they first opened, the team behind it made the wise choice to let nonnas eat for free – it’s obviously an…
