Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 22 November 2019.
Fat Picnic‘s debut album, Get Out Of My Fridge has just been released. With their soul-infused ska and deep-dub, Fat Picnic have spent the past few years releasing singles, touring and performing at festivals like Splendour in the Grass, Caloundra Music Fest and Island Vibe (later this year they’ll be making their debut at Woodford Folk Festival). Their first single ‘Don’t Wanna Get Up’ is a dose of ska boasting horn lines, pumping bass, crisp guitars and an anthemic chorus.
The album features soul, ska, funk-rock and even laid-back island vibing ukulele jams.
It’s been a whirlwind few months for Kat Edwards having made strong impressions on her debut at BIGSOUND and as national tour support for Didirri. Now she’s released her new single ‘Don’t Call Me’. With bright melodies and a driving beat ‘Don’t Call Me’ was written by Kat, produced by Xavier Dunn (Jack River) and mastered by Andrei Eremin (Sampa The Great).
‘Don’t Call Me’ follows on from previous singles ‘Good Girl’,’Stranger In My Room’ and ‘All That I Am’, which have all received national airplay on triple j and triple j Unearthed. Kat and her band have performed at Panama Festival, Falls Festival, Party In the Paddock and Til The Wheels Fall Off as well as support slots for the likes of Stella Donnelly, Alex The Astronaut, Luca Brasi, Bec Sandridge, All Our Exes Live In Texas and Julien Baker.
Daniel Lopatin (better known as Oneohtrix Point Never) returns with his latest score for The Safdie brothers’ film, Uncut Gems. The soundtrack is being released internationally on 13 December, the same day as the film hits theaters. Uncut Gems stars Adam Sandler as well as NBA star Kevin Garnett, Lakeith Stanfield, The Weeknd, Julia Fox and more. The crime thriller follows Sandler’s Howard Ratner, a charismatic hustler always on the lookout for the next big score, in a twisted odyssey through the New York jewelry market (watch trailer).
This is the second collaboration between Daniel Lopatin and the Safdie brothers following his acclaimed work for Good Time, winner of the Best Soundtrack Award at Cannes Film Festival 2017 and also for the Best Original Score for a Feature Film at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2017. His other film works include Ariel Kleiman’s Partisan (2015), and contributions to Rick Alverson’s The Mountain (2019) and Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (2013).
Grimes newest single ‘So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth’ is available now. The song comes on the heels of ‘Violence’, which was released in September. The new single was written, produced, and performed by Grimes.
Grimes will release her highly-anticipated fifth studio album, Miss Anthropocene on 21 February 2020 via 4AD / Remote Control Records.
At the age of 19, Tasmanian-based artist Medhanit has just released a debut single, ‘Her’. Born in Ethiopia and adopted at the age of 6 months, Medhanit grew up around music. Medhanit’s writing now explores provocative themes such as cultural and racial matters, drawing inspiration from her own and others’ social experiences. But, most of all, Medhanit is fascinated with the human condition – feelings of both broken and divine love, crippling jealousy, conflict and peace; how we emotionally evolve.
Growing up performing and writing acoustically, Medhanit decided to move into the world of production so her songs could exist in a bigger sonic space. This started when she met Jack McLaine (Sumner) at a gig and spoke to him about producing the single. The single was mixed by Becki Whitton (Japanese Wallpaper) and mastered by fellow-Tasmanian and Grammy Award winner William Bowden (Gotye).
Medhanit will be bringing this song and more, due for future release, to the live stage at Mona Foma, Party In The Paddock, Taste of Tasmania and more over summer.
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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television