How can it be so hard to muster the motivation to write about music right now when I’m deeply enjoying so many songs? Truly, this post alone has been two days in the coming, not because I didn’t know what to say but the effort of opening up wordpress and saying those things seemed an unbreachable barrier. I’m here now and you’re with me and that means you and I are gonna share in this song. It’s from Puppy Mountain – would you believe it? What a name, one that draws immediate affection the moment you hear it. Is it a mountain covered in puppies? Is it a stack of young dogs, wiggling and slobbering all over the joint? There are simply no bad outcomes here, whatever way it falls it’s a joy.

And from this canine hill comes a song that’s nowhere near as peaceful as the presiding name. It’s a choppy electronic record in the spirit of Animal Collective but with a little more linear drive to it. You know what it immediately reminded me of though, that White Lotus theme song, and the main theme in particular. The vocal parsed into pieces and rearranged and repeated at different pitches. Anyway, the energy to write that I thought I had just dried up so here I go, on my merry way.

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.

Been rinsing this one the product of a new Perth partnership that’s paying better dividends then the $760 of shares that I own (purchased at $1050). Your boy sound doc is a trader baby! Nuum producer this one a couple years back while in Tokyo before giving Sakidasumi the go ahead last year to caress the chorus as she’d like. It’s the arpeggios, the angular synths and Sakidasumi’s Tatu-esque vocals that elevate this somewhere special, sending it sky high to circle above Seoul skyscrapers bathed in neon luminescence. If you’re a fan of Darcy Baylis, Lonelyspeck or Hearteyes, you’re gonna get a little something something from this. Mixing credits to the gunblade king himself Laces who’s own recently released EP is deeply worth more than a few moments of your time.

And here’s something from Sakidasumi, a compressed metallic soundcloud rap record with lo-fi prod courtesy of Lovefear. Obsessed with this vocal take, it’s icier than your nan’s second fridge.