Cathartic rock and eshay rap at its finest: The best new Aussie music to hear

Floodlights’ Underneath: Widescreen, cathartic rock.

Floodlights, Underneath

If there was ever an opening track to convince you to keep listening, it’s Alive (I Want To Feel). The opener of Floodlight’s blistering third record stretches its wings gloriously, cymbals crashing and saxophones curling under the lashings of distortion and Louis Parsons’ shouted refrain. It’s completely gripping, and positions you perfectly for the next 40 minutes of Floodlights’ widescreen, cathartic rock.

There was a lot of buzz ahead of the new record from the Melbourne five-piece, who formed in 2018 and released their debut, From A View, in 2020. It was their 2023 follow-up Painting of My Time that broke through, and the band spent the last handful of years on the road through Europe and the UK.

Melbourne five-piece Floodlights go deep on their new album Underneath.Credit: Nick Green

Much of Underneath was formed on the road, and you can hear that frenetic energy coursing through its tracks. Parsons’ shuddering yells (often compared to Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett) propel us through highlights like Can You Feel It and Buoyant – a track that sees Parsons looking back at the “fog upon his youth”.

If the opener was a journey, so is the majestic closer 5am, which swells and soars and leaves us with a gut punch: “I’m living, but all I can do is look at the things around me and dream”. Jules LeFevre

Devaura: Aussie hip-hop’s rising star.

Devaura, Vol 1. Learning in Public EP

For the last 20-odd years, auteurs like Erykah Badu, Solange, Dawn Richards and SZA have been the ones pushing R&B into the future while their male contemporaries lag behind. Those are big names to mention in a review of an EP by a new artist like the Aotearoa/New Zealand-born Devaura (now based in Eora/Sydney), but when someone steps out with so much confidence, so early in their career, it’s inevitable to wonder what’s next.

Vertigo opens Devaura’s Vol 1. Learning in Public EP with post-punk plucked strings that could come straight off a Cocteau Twins record. But then the martial drums start thumping, synths rise with anticipation and Devaura opens up the pipes, deftly switching between powerful vocal runs and an authoritative rap flow.

Meet Your Maker could sit happily on a Doechii record, with Devaura bobbing and weaving as she delivers barbs to pretenders that prove humour burns hotter than the mean-spiritedness Kendrick chose on GNX. “Say you’re lost, now you’re found, begging for cheese and eating all out of my pantry,” she raps. Don’t be the mouse in Devaura’s cupboard – with two more EPs to be released in the coming months, her trap’s about to spring. Nick Buckley

Sidney Phillips, Standard

Brisbane rapper Sidney Phillips has become a leading emblem of the new wave of Australian hip-hop; her sound pulls as much from the eshay gutter rap of Kerser, as the swirlingly medicated sounds of the hyperpop and alt-rap underground (US star FearDorian even produced a track on Phillips’ excellent Penance, released in December, the follow-up to her 2023 cult favourite I’m So Tired of Being Staunchly). Even as it touches on prevailing online trends, her sound remains uniquely local.

Melbourne videographer Cole Surrey’s new video for Penance highlight Standard feels a bit like a victory lap, a celebration of Phillips’ mainstream rise. With an intimate, washed out, unpretentious style, it captures Phillips’ appeal, both lackadaisical and gut-punching: one second she’s dropping throwaway references to a multiplayer shooter like Team Fortress 2, the next she’s lamenting friends lost to addiction.

Alongside Twin Lite’s bouncy production, Surrey’s clip gets to the warm camaraderie and youthful exuberance in Phillips’ sound, too. We’ll be able to feel it for ourselves when she brings it to the stage at Vivid Sydney next month. Robert Moran

Immy Owusu’s Curly Hair: an Afrodelik journey.

Immy Owusu, Curly Hair

It’s not often I’ll go to a random local gig on a Thursday night and be totally blown away, but it happened a few weeks ago when I went to see Immy Owusu launch his latest single, Curly Hair, at The Tote in Melbourne. The multi-instrumentalist was accompanied by a sprawling band – keyboardist, bassist, two backing singers and two drummers, one on a kit and Owusu’s dad on an African drum. A flautist also joined for some songs.

Playing until almost midnight, Owusu took the enraptured crowd on a sonic journey through his Afrodelik music (a distinctive blend of psychedelia and African genres such as Highlife and Zamrock). His fluid singing, easy rapport with the audience and humour – there was an impromptu instrumental rendition of 50 Cent’s In Da Club – made an hour-and-a-half fly by.

I’ve since been belatedly hooked on Owusu’s 2023 debut album, LO-LIFE!. It’s a gem of a record, tracing the Ghanaian-Dutch artist’s experiences growing up in coastal Victoria. These are complex songs sung in multiple languages with communal voices, layered over indelible instrumental grooves. It’s hard to believe an album as accomplished as this is a debut. Coupled with the mesmerising show I witnessed, I’ll put him down as one to watch closely. Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen