Home-grown hits: the best new Australian music to hear this month

Thus Spoke the Broken Chanteuse, by Wet Kiss: poignant and anarchic rock.Credit: Dinosaur City

Wet Kiss, Thus Spoke the Broken Chanteuse

Wet Kiss is one of the country’s best live bands right now. One can imagine its enigmatic leader, Brenna O, kicking her way through a limousine’s sunroof to make the kind of impact-on-entrance a regular car door precludes. She sparkles like shattered champagne flutes and has a snarl wicked enough to spontaneously combust a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

Brenna O leads a troupe of sunglasses-inside-wearing rascals, including her floppy-eared, plaything-guitarist, Daniel Dog, Al Amour (piano), Ben Addiction (bass), Ju Sugar (lead guitar), Ruby Rabbit (drums) and Agnes Wailin’ (vocals).

On their sophomore album, Thus Spoke the Broken Chanteuse (out June 27), the band channels Aladdin Sane-era Bowie on album-opener The Gay Band, and follow that up with gospel-fuzz exultation on Isn’t Music Wonderful. And yet, underpinning the theatrics is poignant songwriting, often exploring the precarity, fear, freedom, joy and fight for self-determination of trans life.

If you think Pearl Jam ruined guitar music, then pucker up, sweat it out and bask in Brenna O and co’s anarchic radiance on the band’s August album tour. It’s one kiss you’ll never forget. Nick Buckley

The Other Side, by Tyne-James Organ: full-throated and emotional indie rock.

Tyne-James Organ, The Other Side

In 2021, Wollongong-via-Sydney songwriter Tyne-James Organ released his energetic and engaging debut record, Necessary Evil. Unfortunately, it landed on shelves just a few weeks before the COVID-19 lockdown would pull the shutters down on the east coast, cutting off any prospect of pushing the album to its full potential. It was a great shame, as the album – chock-full of brilliantly written indie rock tracks reminiscent of Gang of Youths or Sam Fender – deserved its time to shine.

It was shattering for Tyne, and the next few years saw him grapple with the loss of family members and mental health challenges. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in early 2024, Organ put his second album on hold to prioritise his wellbeing.

Now, he’s returned with The Other Side, an arresting album that sketches out the recent turbulent years. Organ’s voice, rich and clear, is bolder, and it will floor you on full-throated tracks like All On Me. But the peak is the title track, featuring a beautiful guest verse from singer Gordi, as Tyne ponders the end – and what might be there to catch him if he falls through the final curtain. Jules LeFevre

Vv Pete, Varvie World

Is there anyone better at putting down lame opps than Mount Druitt’s baddest boss, Sudanese-Australian club-rapper Vv Pete? Throughout her debut mixtape Varvie World, when she’s not just calling her competition “crows” (simple, cutting), she’s getting mischievously creative.

Varvie World, by Vv Pete: globe-spanning club sounds from Mount Druitt’s finest.Credit: Trackwork

“Bruv is that your new boo? Gyal look like a frog and cockatoo,” she taunts an ex on the sinuous, cavernous Bacardi Papi.

On the skittering Got it, she aligns herself with eternity, asking “Which bad gyal here say she read the Bible?”, which is just terrifyingly effective. That’s the energy you’re getting from Vv: rugged, raw and hilariously playful.

After years of viral drops, the mixtape instantly highlights Vv’s infectious appeal and globe-spanning bona fides; produced by long-time collaborator Utility, the songs womp through drill, Brazilian baile funk, Jersey club and any number of regional Afro-club sounds, like the rowdiest United Nations meeting.

Opener Wassa, featuring Vv’s buoyant dancehall slang against the dark roiling bass and marauding atmospherics of South African gqom, is such a propulsive standout that even superstar SZA shouted out the clip on Instagram earlier this year. Icons recognise icons. Robert Moran

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