A Sound Doctrine PREMIERE!? The crowds haven’t seen one of these since 1998 when I premiered the new Toyota Cressida to huge fanfare. Hell of an automobile. This one though, this one goes just the same, a record that sees three top guns armed to the teeth with a full arsenal of sonic weaponry. Two of those three make up the production partnership of fbqb, a duo who have are here dropping their third release. Their debut was pretty remarkable in itself, a track called ‘Waste Ur Time‘ featuring Abraham Tilbury that had a wonky James Blake energy, fizzing with Sherbert synths and and manipulated vocals.

But that was then, this is now, and we’re here to talk about the new drop. Where Waste Ur Time simmered, ‘Spiral’ boils. They’ve enlisted Melbourne young’n Boler Mani to ride a beat reminsicent of Vince Staples’ ‘Big Fish’ and ride it he does. The dude imbues an already energetic beat with even more bounce and showcases the capacity to switch into faster flows when the moment demands. Let’s not undersell the work of our production pals though because this thing GOES with sliced up beats and looming 808s. I’m a huge proponent of hearing rappers jump on beats they might not normally and truly, hearing Boler in this lane is particularly pleasant. It’s a song in two parts with the final 40 seconds in sinister half time.

Hefty gear from this lot and the perfect next step for both acts.

File this one under songs like incisors cos it comes with a sharpness of intent that’ll drive through muscle and bone. She may’ve only release a trio of songs but Ruby already feels like one of those essential lyricists who I’ll be emotionally grappling with for years to come. This one hits me with the despondency of Stella Donnelly’s Boys Will Be Boys though it errs a little closer to the side of systemic music industry manhood than it does the crushing physicality of BWBB. That said, it’s all part of the one thing and Ruby’s anecdotal storytelling is a partnership of hearbreaking and beautiful. “I can’t afford therapy with the money they pay us to sing songs” is just about enough to level you on paper before you feel the influence of Ruby’s vocal. Rarely do you get the songwriting and the vocal both but well, here we are.

On most records a backing choir that features the likes of Angie McMahon, Maple Glider and more would be the headline but it’s hard to center that narrative when Ruby herself has so much more at play. No doubt those artists are on the song for that very reason. One hell of a song.

Calling yourself a name as reductive as Jingle when you’re making music this complex and layered? That’s a flex. Also maybe it’s a portmanteau of the artists name Joshua Ingle but my Arts degree quite simply hasn’t equipped me to ponder such questions. He’s been preparing remixes for the likes of Kučka and Ninajirachi in in the last three months so having warmed the tarmac he chosen this as the moment to finally become airborne.

The Novacastrian producer wrote this song for a charity compilation raising money for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. It’s over 60 tracks long and features the likes of Arca, clipping and Holly Herndon among others so the taste? The taste is good. This song ‘Too Many Things’ centered those radar synths and Jingle’s manipulated vocal cadences for the first half before my attention was drawn to those viscerally crushing kick drum slams.

Shoutouts to Dave Ruby Howe who upon hearing this sent it to me and remarked ‘it had some sound doc energy all over’. The man knows. He’s always known.

I did a cursory search of earlier articles to see if I’d previously written about Dolorres. He’s had a trio of heaters in the form of ‘Heelys’, ‘IQ’ and his debut single ‘Fluffy Dice’ which features a 14 second feature from Agung Mango and a video showcasing hotboxing of the highest order. A shame, it appears I never got around to writing any of the three tracks up and that’s a stain I’ll have to wear for years to come. I’ve earned my fate.

Single three is called ‘D.T.R’, abbreviated for ‘define the relationship’. Centered around the universal disparity in the way a relationship is perceived by the people apart of it, the lyrics run through the litany of internal insecurities one might have about putting it all on the table. It’s built around an acoustic guitar loop which, I think, he had already hinted an affection for in the Fluffy Dice outro, but it’s layered up with warm bass, shakers, synths and tomtoms and anvil-heavy piano. The vocal production is gorgeous as hell, ranging from raw recording to fully delivered autotune across the tracks five and a half minutes. While we’re here, can we talk about duration? He’s heading towards with six minute mark with this record with an outro that goes for over a minute long. It’s a stark contrast to the streaming savvy tactics of The Kid Laroi whose recent drop ‘Stay’ is a snappy 2:20, clearly with a mind of eliciting repeat listens. DoloRRes evidently wants none of that, no discounts applied, he’s demanding full fare. Pay the man.

Born in Rome, he’s one of the few Melbourne music types currently celebrating the Azzuri EURO victory who I’ll accept it from. Lot of bandwagon jumping going on from cats who reckon Chiesa is the first of his name. Cross your fingers that Melbourne stays open for at least a while longer so that you might get the chance to see this one come off live, in line with an EP coming next month. I’ve never seen a proper DoloRRes set but I did get a glimpse of him as Agung Mango’s tour DJ on the Genesis Owusu shows, during which he jumped up for plenty more than button pushing and it was molto bene (Italian for ‘five stars’, trust me).

Meet your guy Hector Morlet who plays Clarinet and sang this song. He’s got a bunch of soundcloud lo-fi hip-hop beat type records floating around that are really quite nice, particularly those you’ll find on his descriptively titled ‘Hec’s 10:00 [EP]‘. It runs for 10 minutes, that’s extremely accurate. The songs I like most from that release are the ones where he’s spilled his vocals across them, low slung and draped in comfort like an afterthought while he calmly produced the beats live. It’s warm and homely, as the truest bedroom hip-hop beats should always be. Here’s another I really appreciated called Golden Sheets.

He also did a bit of a sing for Noah Dillon and is one of the merry band of Bush Chooks that Jack Davies has assembled. He’s evidently a man about Perth, someone vested in a community. We should talk about Picture Frame though, because it’s quite a long way from any of those soundclouds I mentioned. On this, his first kinda… ‘official’ single I guess, he’s gone yachting on the French Riviera, holidaying in a Neapolitan coastal manse. It’s a timeshare Still Woozy with a short term booking courtesy of Kings of Convenience paid for entirely in the credit of that clarinet. I know I’ve already said it, but I’d like you to acknowledge that you’ve heard me when I remind you that it is indeed Hec himself on that ‘Rinet (shoutout to my woodwind heads) as well as every other instrument on the track I think maybe.

Indie Randy Newman really killed it with Picture Frame, a track I’ve listened to at least 15 times in the past week already. Gorgeous and thick on groove, hang this in the… hang it in… HANG THIS IN THE LOUVRE I’M SO SORRY.