Antarctica is the culmination of a big year for the Sydney rapper BAYANG (tha Bushranger). Its his debut mixtape, but it feels less like an introduction and more like a victory lap – a toast to the vivid musical scope and love for collaboration present throughout his music.

Many of the themes that have characterised his work are present throughout: working class grind, the contradictions of music as a passion and as a career, the sometimes oppressive nature of Sydney city. But Antarctica filters these ideas through a new lens, thawing the fiery rage of REDBRICKGOTHIK (BAYANG’s album with noise group Bract), into a frostier, at times more melancholic sound.

A star-studded line up of producers help shape this vision, including Ninajirachi, Grasps and Ryan Fennis, bouncing BAYANG between glitchy cloud rap, plugg and drain. The feature list is similarly stacked: Sevy, FRIDAY* & Lil Pixie & stealthynoob are some of the many talents BAYANG taps on Antarctica, giving it the feel of an exclusive, leaked hardrive of late night studio sessions and off-the wall ideas.

It’s a show of BAYANG’s unending sense of community, conscious of and eager to build the ecosystem of both local and interstate talent. Antarctica is proof of BAYANG (tha Bushranger) as a musical project that’s chameleonic in all the best ways; never one note, complex and always authentic.