I’m just going to unsystematically roll out a bunch of refences for you here. Happy Hardcore, Final Fantasy, Wave Racer, Aqua, PC Music, furbies. Those are what we’re all about on this new Fresh Hex record. None of those things in particular but some beautiful hybrid of all that business combined the most colourful, fluffy elements of each and applied them to Melbourne. So think on that and see if you can create any sense of understanding from my clusterous attempts at creating context for this song. There’s a definite indescribable something about the song that means I’ve gone in for repeat listens and my best guess is that it’s something in the synths that has me hooked, or perhaps it’s those sweet, odd little vocal exclamations that ride the beat.

There’s an EP on the way that’s shaping up to be a very tasty dance floor filler.

I was going to write about the new Drones record but I don’t think I have the requisite minutes right now to do proper justice to what is a culturally loaded song that’s also innovative as all get out. Instead, we’ve got this one, the new number from Sydney’s Ribongia, through Sydney’s October Records, getting written about on [formerly] Sydney’s Sound Doctrine. I feel like I’ve gone out early and placed this in the shadow of The Drones but here’s what I’ll say, if you’re making music anywhere, in any format, you’re probably already in the shadow of the Drones so don’t feel too hard done by. If you can hit play on this track and remain completely static then horrible, horrible news; You are in fact deceased. Sometime in the last few weeks when you were preoccupied by one task or another, you died. You’re dead now. You’ll be missing out on doing some of your absolute favourite activities over the coming months. Breathing, circulating blood, le parkour – they’re all over. You’re dead mate. RIP you. The worst thing is it could be months before anyone finds your body because you live in Preston. This is taking a bit of a morbid turn though, you don’t want to start writing about Ribongia only to later find yourself deep in a post about Preston. I’ll alert the proper authorities, you just go in on this level 13 danceable track, if you do it right then maybe you’ll be reincarnated as a thundergoose.

You can see and hear the last time Ribongia appeared on Sound Doc right here.

This is a record of personal, cultural, geographical and spiritual pride. It’s put out by my buddy Si Jay Gould who runs a label & management agency called Wondercore Island. He’s done all those courageous Wondercore Mixtapes (remember?) and he’s got an ear for the un-Australian. I don’t mean that in the derogatory non-true blue way, but he has an ear for records that are going to transcend our oceanic boundaries and hold their own on a global level. His current blood Jaala dropped a track called Hard Hold recently that’s been making waves o’erseas and you can bet your best coin that Sampa The Great is going to hit her straps on foreign soil too. But Wondercore aside, I think the people are going to need to recognise this on it’s strengths. It’s wonderfully produced by Sydney’s Godriguez to make for a diverse bunch of instrumental sounds and well picked samples. Sampa flows over the top like a gelatinous treat but then cuts angular, ripping her rythms back from you when you think you’ve caught the gist of them. Track’s like Dutch Spring see her sing-songing her way through the center of a song but my favourite is probably The Basics, purely because I love a Wally De Backer concept track. Closely following though is Weoo which oozes raw ritualism and a ceremonial sensation through its sparse, tingling production.

This guy is one of the most promising people of 2015. His EP is one of the most promising releases of 2015. This song is one of the most promising songs of 2015. I think it’s reasonable to refer to a song as promising even after the fact if it doesn’t sum to immediate sensation, if it contains the possibility of growth and later understanding. One can sit and dwell on this song for a while and it won’t necessarily follow the same linear path for everyone. The samples take a long time to resolve into the beat and the beat itself takes time to resolve and even when it does, it bursts apart again forcing your jiggling knees to reassess their movement. Find the tempo again, find the new rythm. That dark, single piano note recurring again and again and again. And again. It’s foreboding and it tells a story unto itself before lyric becomes part of the narrative. Still ignoring lyric though, is that an affected scream or a siren? Wait is that Bruce Hornsby’s EXACT piano tone under the female vocal that started this damn track (it’s back, btw). There’s definitely a tale unfolding but the story arc is so confronting that it’s easy to focus on the structural elements of the track and find it finished before you could consider fully what you just listened to. And there’s an EP of these tracks still to come.

Jack Grace has ghost produced a whole bunch of acts over the past year and been a feature vocal under different names on a bunch of other tracks but the new name indicates new things, the first of which is the unilateral violation of my year’s best of list. Shoe in this, without a doubt.

I’m privileged to engage with two institutions that I hold in generally high esteem, the forward thinking boutique label Feral Media and the longstanding bastion of innovative electronica that is Bon Chat Bon Rat. If you’re having trouble getting your head around this, try thinking of this union as the chemical symbol for water. Correct, it’s H²0. In this analogy Bon Chat are represented by two parts oxygen and Feral Media are obviously that remaining one part of hydrogen. No disrespect meant toward The Feral Folk by leaving them with fewer molecules but even they’d have to admit that Bon Chat have a longer name which warrants a more significant chemical situation. Each element is great on their own right? Of course. Everybody loves a bit of oxygen, you’d be a fool to go without! But what happens when they come together? You get water, and the human body is made up of over 10% water, while the earth surface is covered by nearly 15% percent so I guess you can see how great water can be if properly treated. Remember though, drinking saltwater is never a substitute for good, Brita filtered water. Keep hydrated, keep active.

The tune itself is released within the greater boundaries of a seasonal Feral EP (this one is Summer) that sees a a strong trio join BCBR. We’re talking Tim Fitz, The Townhouses and Friendships all delivering brand new tunes. The Bon Chat song itself had a looping synth sound that manages to seem almost organic enough to be a pan flute or something similarly ‘world’ and there’s a pace to it that’s dramatized by some grandiose lyricism courtesy of INXS. Sorry, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, this is an INXS cover. It’s dark, it’s fearful, it’s great and it’s further padded by course synth coming in and out of that piping initial synth. Lots of synth, obviously. It’s been too long between drinks for BCBR so if they could just move things a long a little that would be lovely. More songs please gentlemen. Meanwhile, if you haven’t looked into the Feral Media back catalogue, let this be the day.

If you think I’m going to write a post that mentions both Feral and Rat and not deploy this image then you are absolutely and fundamentally kidding yourself. Get your Life in check.