Metallica’s fifth, self titled record, commonly referred to as The Black Album, was a major turning point for the band. Citing feelings of ‘musical insecurity’ towards their trademark maximalist, thrash sound, the band moved towards one that was more polished, with a focus on melody and production. The Black Album was both bold in direction yet, in the eyes of many fans, disappointingly ‘safe’ sonically, as Metallica were launched into stratospheric new commercial success.

Teether’s fifth solo record, It Must Be Strange to Not Have Lived, described by the rapper as his ‘own Metallica Black Album’ shares that record’s desire for metamorphosis. But while Metallica’s record pushed the band and the metal genre towards a more radio- friendly sound, It Must Be Strange To Not Have Lived is Teether burrowing deeper into his dark, hazy universe, cementing his place at the vanguard of underground hip hop.

A ‘young elder’ of the local scene, there’s both a weariness and wisdom to Teether across the  It Must Be Strange…, each word doled out in a careful meter, as if to be considered with utmost importance. Through vivid imagery and black humour he provides an insight into his inquisitive mind, constantly weighing scattered observations and interactions, searching his way through a foggy path.

Playing guitar on most of the tracks, and sampling on Roland SP-404, Teether chops and screws sounds from across his deep discography and range of musical projects. Genres like metal, dub and footwork are scattered across the sludgy, scuzzy world of It Must Be Strange and resurrected as a new, unique soundscape. It both perfectly encapsulates his trademark, discombobulated sound, and allows him to chart new experiments in song structure and vocal melodies. 

Speaking about the record, Teether says ‘No one but the traditional custodians and First Nations people of Australia have any real connection to this place…I think we have to represent that sense of disconnection in the music we make.’  It Must Be Strange To Not Have Lived is the sound of an artist on the true cutting edge, in deep consideration and conversation with his place in the world around him.

Small touches weigh heavily on Astrid Sonne’s Great Doubt. Across a minimal yet piercingly effective soundscape that constantly teeters between slight anxiety and nostalgic longing, Sonne ruminates on love, parenthood and the future.

While it shares a kindred spirit with the asymmetrical pop sounds of artists like Tirzah and ML Buch, Great Doubt is uniquely infused with Astrid Sonne’s compositional ear for classical arrangements. More than anything she understands how to use space and silence: when to punctuate it with flashes of cello or quivering drone, and when to let the song breathe with a single, affecting chord or arpeggio.

Astrid Sonne’s vision of bedroom pop is one where all instrumentals and touchpoints are on the table, whether it be deviations into spoken word, instrumental trip hop, or lumbering RnB. For an album built around uncertainty, Great Doubt is undoubtedly assured.

Shoelace & A Knot, the debut record from Los Angeles band Yungatita, is a tightly constructed piece of punky, bright power pop. Fronted by multidisciplinary artist Valentina Zapata, the band evokes sounds familiar to lovers of 90s alternative and 00s indie: memorable hooks, creative tempo changes and gratifying emotional crescendos.

At times glistening and introspective, Shoelace & A Knot nevertheless keeps a satisfyingly gritty edge that emerges at the record’s most cathartic moments. It feels almost indelibly tied to youthful summers of days past; the sticky, stifling heat, the turbulence of friendships and relationships, the hopeful promise of never-ending sunny days. It’s an impressive debut from a band with an exciting future.

The latest release from MALI JO$E, El Niño is a product of community and intentional, thoughtful collaboration. Across 13 tracks and split into two sides, the mixtape is layered with incredible features – Tasman Keith, SHADOW, xmunashe, IJALE, to name only a few of the talented many – that make the record a holistic and varied release.

El Niño is unmatched in its production, featuring the talents of not only MALI JO$E himself but also Percy Flint, OJC43, The Alchemist and so many more. Tracks including ‘operation highjump’ and ‘afreeswan’ are textural experiences that weave together tender and clean cut samples with beautiful resonant instrumentals and smooth lyricism. The mixtape is in touch with its medium – both ‘Intro’ tracks are used as an opportunity to breathe, building scaffolding into the otherwise loose and atmospheric tracklist.

El Niño is inspired and courageous to say the very least, urging for creative and emotional freedom of expression as a path forward.

WARRIOR POUNDS THE MORTAR is the latest album from Melbourne rapper and producer, Chef Chung. Across the record’s sixteen tracks, Chef Chung seamlessly drifts between jazzy and soulful samples, icier cloud-rap-inspired tracks and even the occasional RnB jam.

It’s a sound that could easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with alternative rap peers like Ratking or sLUms. Similar to that alumni, Chef Chung is authentically personal, wearing his heart on his sleeve in his lyrics across the record. It’s his unique voice that ties the album together; hushed but confident, hazy and layered like smoke drifting through the air at dusk.

This tension between easiness and intensity makes WARRIORS POUNDS THE MORTAL so compelling – one minute a laidback car ride, the other a scrupulous investigation of Chef Chung’s mind. It’s an impressive release from one of the most exciting voices in the Melbourne underground.

On Acopia’s self-titled sophomore release,, they are sombre and yearning, tracing sketches of relationships with renewed retrospection. A collaborative project between Kate Durman (Purient), Lachlan McGeehan (Liluzu), and Morgan Wright, Acopia melts together with each member bringing their own expertise to the record.

On their first record Chances, Acopia established themselves as ones to watch, fronting Melbourne’s DIY electro and dream pop sound. On Acopia, they further follow through, embracing an evolved blend of immersive trip hop, pop, and post-punk. Vocals are sustained, synth-like and haunting, weaving between stripped flickering drumline textured keys and percussion.

Acopia successfully orchestrate a beautiful record, marrying each song to one another both sonically and thematically. Acopia is a universal album, relevant to any listener through the familiar feelings it explores – an album that’ll hold your hand. As a natural continuation for the band, the record is varied, consistent and progressing all at once.

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.

On their debut album Dry Peel Crack, Beryl emerge as one of Sydney’s most impressive indie rock acts. On it, duo Gabriela King and Alex Jasprizza construct songs that are both intimate and emotionally charged. 

Dry Peel Crack builds on the folk sound previously developed on their debut 2022 EP, Keeping Score, but with an even richer soundscape. Dense layers of saxophones, flutes and clarinets add atmosphere and, at times, a quiet intensity to the personal ballads across the record.

But it’s Beryl’s newer forays into indie rock that sets Dry Peel Crack apart from earlier releases. Tracks twist and turn in unexpected directions, with skillful rhythmic flexibility. They’re also dynamically inventive, fluttering between softer and louder moments, or devolving into occasional noisy crescendos. 

What makes Dry Peel Crack so compelling is the uniqueness of Beryl’s songwriting. Confident in their distinct vision, it’s a launching pad for what’s hopefully many more releases to come.

R.M.F.C. are a staple of Sydney music. There’s no beating around it. Buz Clatworthy is the brains. Club Hits is their debut album. A five-year collation of the Rock Music Fan Club, the album features some familiar classics that we would have heard time and time again, this time with titles– tracks like ‘Introduction’, ‘Spectrum’, ‘Rock Tune’, et cetera. Other new tracks are expansions of snippets you’ve heard before – a one-off in a live set, slipped in with no context. These are the menial riffs that tie together tracks, the ones that didn’t register as a song but a harmless bit in the break for tuning, drink-sipping, or laughing at a bandmate during the set by the Rock Music Fan Club. These songs are no secrets, and why should they be? Club Hits is the flourishing of these moments. Trudging through each track, R.M.F.C walk the line of rock and divinity – not in a religious sense but a hint at a prophetic genius that could help us find our way towards an optimistic future, strengthened and fortified. The tongue-in-cheek-ness of having an abbreviated band name is a gag that doesn’t escape them – R.M.F.C. are not just a Rock Music Fan Club, but Finesse Club, Football Club, and Freak Club too. Club Hits is the natural progression of the rock canon. That it’s a 2023 release makes you sit in disbelief, for the simple reason that we’re so used to observing this level of quality at decades’ distance but how lucky we are to live in it.