Happy July! While everyone has been finding themselves in Europe, FBi’s specialist presenters have been toiling away finding the very best new music for your ears. This monthly mixtape features selections from the folks behind Race Matters and Tuesday Lunch as well as new kids on the block, Tall Pop.  So bundle up and take refuge from the cold winter weather with these hot tracks!

JËVA & Nicole Issa, cohosts of Tall Pop

Elisha is a Sydney (Eora) based artist who has created an ICONIC pop track that is competing on the world stage. With a history of coming from an X Factor girl group to then finding her own artistry, she channels elements of Rosalia & Dua Lipa that is club ready. This track just makes us want to dance and shake our boootayy. We love the message of self-love behind the lyrics and the latina influence. Keep a tab on ELISHIA because we’ve heard her unreleased songs and she has more incredible songs coming yet.

You know a pop song has done something incredible when the artist manages to tap into a very specific niche emotion that isn’t usually coined or discussed otherwise in the mainstream. We found Carol Ades in the sea of other Tik Tok artists trying to promote their song but something about this one really caught our eye. She manages to perfectly describe the feeling of being around the mid 20’s crisis and not knowing whether you’re on the right path or running behind your timeline. The way she describes the world ending but “I’m not dying, I’m just 26” is a feeling that we resonate really strongly with. Starting with a bittersweet calm and flowing into an intense emotional panic, there are hints of old school Avril Lavigne that really keep it nostalgic yet 2022 at the same time.

Red Rey, host of Tuesday Lunch

JULAI – BADDIE BTTMS

Queer Pasifika artist JULAI has me shaking my butt with this spicy AF debut BADDIE BTTMS. This is a modern-day anthem for us Club Kids, celebrating queerness, sexual liberation, and empowerment. JULAI has flow, musicality and transgressive perspective that rivals the biggest hip-hop artists topping the charts now. Prominent member of the Australian ballroom community, part of vogue house House of Devine and international House of Oricci, JULAI is a show-stopping act and one to watch.

Lyndon Jarr – Planet Junk

Planet Junk is a thumping left-field club banger, that both transports me to a festival dancefloor and also a rainforest in Wakanda. The polyrhythmic drums, ominous synths and striking vocal sample all combine to create a slapping wall of sound. Lyndon Jarr is Co-founder of Unchained recordings, originally from Australia but now based in Hong Kong. Found this one through a fund-raising compilation Music For Ukraine, compiled by Andrew Wowk and Jessica Tassone, where 100% of the profits are being donated to organisation Sunflower of Peace.