Watching the slow burn of Lupa J’s musical growth has been a joy, but I can only imagine that for the artist themself at some points, it must have felt like a movement by inches. She caught a whif of the internet via soundcloud aged fifteen and was twice an Unearthed High finalist thereafter. She’s spent the years since making writing, producing and singing clever electronic pop songs and last year I thought she may have reached her zenith with ‘You’re In My Headphones’. Fortunately, i was extremely wrong. This new one ‘The Crash’ is the best record she’s ever released. Grimes-like melodies and washy BV’s but polished to the sheen of a Lupa J production. I reckon even Claire would be proud to have this one out under her name.
Alright, let’s talk about 3k, this Melbourne crew whose EP has been a mainstay of my listening life these past seven days. Sure, not a long span of time but in terms of listening percentage we’re talking upwards of 80. They’re a… four piece? five now? I’m seeing Benny Lago, Beluga, Eissa, Moey but who’s Luka? I’m having trouble reconciling these to the press shots I’ve seen. 3k, if you’re reading this, drop into my DMs for some clarity and I’ll amend this thing. The standout track from their OPEN FOR BUSINESS EP is one called ‘HOME N AWAY’ that’s blessed with playful bars, sharp beats, woozy production and chorus which might as well just read ‘we love our mams’. Extremely cute, extremely thicc. Worth a squiz at this live version of the track where they’ve flipped it into something a lil smoother too.
It’s a nice parallel to Hokeh which has far fewer hard edges, padded with chimes and warm 808 samples. All these songs have one hat-tip or another to the cultural diversity of the outfit. That’s probably part of the reason why Brockhampton seems to be a common frame of reference for these blokus’. They’ve been working that deep Melbourne hip-hop communities over these past two years and this year I’m suggesting that things have taken a turn. Their second EP is the one where they’ve escalated, taken smiley crew energy and turned it a little more sinister, a little more focused.
I can’t write this without pointing you at something a little older, this signal of intent from early 2018 called ‘Woof!’, which I cannot move past for a whole swathe of reasons. It’s got so much colour and life and the lyrics are momentous, in particular the one from Beluga where he claims to have “never been in a car that’s parked”. Worth considering this, because this effectively amounts to the idea that Beluga enters and exits automobiles in motion. That’s a huge commitment to the claim and I’m stunned. Does he own his own vehicle? Does he have a chauffeur who’s become accustomed to his dismounts? An absolutely incredible lifestyle, gotta tip my hat to this sort of behaviour.
Blast the audacity of this child for dropping this goodness on me from the slight age of sixteen. Sixteen years old and he’s navigating these sounds, songs and production choices. His name is ok2222 and I have decided that he is now my son in all ways short of legally, though once the papers go through that should also just be a formality. He’s been making songs for the past few years (so since he was fourteen I guess? Isn’t that horrifying?) and though the surrounding sounds have changed, the cores have remained the same. You can taste a 2015 morsel that’s
channeling the same ephemeral energy as Cosmo’s Midnight’s Phantasm it you can go straight in on his more recent Rex / Mac-like records.
All I know is that he has more talent than he has brand at this point cause his digital footprint is about as light as an ant’s undies. There’s not much on him at this point but maybe that’s for the best, letting these songs go ahead of him like the Silver Surfer before Galactus.
Big fan of anyone who’ll call their track ‘I Was Feeling Sad So I Made A Sad Song’. He’s in Melbourne doing the Lord’s work across a swathe of genres collaborating with artists the likes of which I’d not heard of prior and I can’t wait to watch him find himself musically over the next few years. Big tings. I’m not reaaaaally sure who NVTHVN is at this point but I’m gonna quietly wonder if he’s the one making those guitar parts sound so good?
If you brought my accountant Trevor in here and said “Trevor, break the numbers down for me”, he’d immediately tell you that across the board, through the years of Sound Doctrine, Simon Lam is the most written about artist. I’d ask you not to though, because Trevor bills by the hour and I’ve not paid his last two invoices so I’d prefer if you didn’t invite him onto my digital property. Oh good grief, he heard you say his name and he’s here already. GO HOME TREVOR.
Admittedly I’ve never written about Simon Lam under his own name, covering him as one third of I’lls, one half of Kllo and one hundred percent of Nearly Oratorio. It’s in his most holistic format that we’re hearing him again tonight, the face voice and production behind Nearly Oratorio. I like to think of this as his low-risk project, where he can release whatever he damn wants and to hell with the critical and commercial outcome. It’s the liberation from consequence I suspect, that means it’s here that he offers up some of his best art, and the new one Juniper proves me right again.
His vocals are tiny, the keys are caressed and it’s the sort of song you find yourself physically leaning towards, hoping to glean its inner secrets via closer inspection. Try as you might, you won’t crack it, for Lam is warlock of the highest order and his secrets won’t be plumbed by your normie energy. Cop the song, EP on the way soon.
Last time PD graced the glossy pages of Sound Doc was April 2016, when they unceremoniously made their opening move – a two-tracker featuring a single by the name of ‘The Living Man’. Roundabout a year later and both those songs found their way onto a full length (also called The Living Man). In the time shortly prior to its release and in the months thereafter, they lent their full weight to their anvil-heavy live show and are, in my humble opinion, one of the very few truly essential Australian live performances currently in effect. It’s blistering catharsis, strobing intensity, distorted horn blasts, synth stabs and Jonathan Boulet’s best efforts to lay waste to his kit. They’re a band who’s byproduct is not just light but also heat.
And now, we arrive in the now, with the duo having just releasing their first new music of the year. It’s simply titled ‘Party Dozen’, chosen because the song itself is a fair, holistic reflection of what the duo are all about. The accompanying video parallels that same frenetic anxiety that’s in everything the band do and just like their previous output, this song transcends all efforts made to categorise the sounds. It’s a ven diagram with variously labelled circles like ‘rave’, ‘metal’, ‘jazz’, ‘experimental’ and ‘instrumental’ and the band found squarely within the imbricate space. Noone knows what this business is and scientists have put thousands of hours and 2 million in funding into the issue and we’re none the closer. Apply your ears and eyes to the great mystery below.
The video was shot by Jack Saltmiras who also shot Exhibitionist’s glorious ‘Hands’ video in 2017. Makes sense too, given that Exhibitionist is in fact Kirsty Tickle, saxophonist and one half of Party Dozen. And for one final connection, Jack Saltmiras makes/once made music under the name of Skeleton Jack who turned up on Sound Doc back in 2013.
