Archive for 2025
This brother’s been on a generational run since 2019 when he broke out as an Unearthed High finalist with a track called ‘Mistakes’ that he cooked up with his buoy Oscar just as the comp was about to lock down. Thank god he did cos in the years since he’s given us multiple mixtapes, elite bars, concept videos and all the right collaborations. When I first met him Mali Jo$e was actually a duo, him and Oscar geared up together a la Remi and Sensible J but these days Mali is just Mali. Thankfully the two originals have kept linking up, particularly on the debut LP that we just got a week or two back.
The production is way tighter and sharper than we’ve heard on mixtapes and EPs recently and lyrically he’s found a lane that’s one part swagger, one part spiritual, three parts spliffs and one part gunner. Ya boy’s an Arsenal fan, of course, because he knows the truth of things in his soul’s deepest sphere. I’m gonna point you at Highbury because it’s my favourite off the album with production that has these long slides that lead into the richest bass kicks you’re gonna hear tonight. Put that to the side and recognize lyrics that nod to two of Arsenal’s greatest ever gunners in Titi and Bergkamp, namechecked in the chorus, and essentially you’ve got a ven diagram of all my favourite things.
Oh and a bandcamp embed to boot? We’re eating good. Big love to Perth’s finest.
Found myself thinking damn, this song is gonna be on my end of year list hands down and it made me realize that it doesn’t feel right to be having my favourite songs of the year list in December having almost never written about any of those songs. So here’s the first in what is hopefully a series of paragraphs about various recent, excellent records.
If you slept on Drifting Clouds then up yours this is your chance to make things right. The groove is just about enough to put me in a permanent state of standing desk on this workday but a bad knee and a 4:46 run time will see me seated shortly, no doubt. The Ylongu vocal delivered with matching rhythm, the synthetic sax filling me with swagger I haven’t felt since the first time Jock at ABC security started greeting me by name. He recently said he made this record on garageband which made me think I might try to shoot an American Beauty remake on my iphone camera since that seems to be possible for king Terry Guyula of Drifting Clouds. Top end gone italo-disco, who knew this was exactly what we needed all this time?
Uh oh! new year new me! Writing online!
Can you believe it’s been (let me check this) SEVEN MONTHS since I last wrote about an artist? This may surprise you, but I haven’t listened to a single song in that entire seven months since, not even while walking through Coles, not even while waiting for the bird show at Taronga Zoo to start when we got there too early but not so early that we had time to make the trip across to the reptile section without missing the rozellas but still early enough that we got pretty good seats near the front and could make fairly direct eye contact with a barn owl.
Breaking my total audio hiatus to share with you this album from Josef, a soul from south west sydney who gone and got himself a real silky flow. In my mind’s eye ear it’s a little bit dominic fike at moments, a little mac miller, a little mali jo$e, a little new york city, a little zion garcia and so on, and so forth. It’s a little bloody good though and I’d highly encourage you to spend some time with the entire record.
In this household I’d recommend your first pass be via this track below ’24!’ by virtue of the delicate piano lines that Josef steps through like a fleet footed deer, pushing sonic foliage out of his path as his adroit wordplay makes a picturesque landscape unfurl. Artful assonance and a vocal tenor that has this unexpectedly endearing monotone. It draws you in through rhythm and flow rather than melody. At least that’s what happened to me and I was gormless to resist to resist its charm.
I try to make a point of embedding from bandcamp or spotify but my hands are tied on this one so take this spotify link with my apologies.
Artists you need to know rn
| 1. 1300 |  |
316 |
| 2. Voidhood | |
259 | 3. jamesjamesjames | |
186 | 4. Zan | |
174 |
| 5. Sesame Girl | |
147 |
