Best new tracks Down Under #47

With the vibrant indie music scene in Australia and New Zealand constantly outshining much of the output from their British and American cousins, Little Indie picks our weekly bunch of some of the best new tracks on offer.

CURLY BLONDE - ROOM 309 

Melbourne two-piece Curly Blonde's track ‘Room 309’ is an uplifting three and a half minutes of jangly melodies and catchy alt-pop rock hooks, held together with singer Brynn O’Connor's light touch vocals. The song, he says, is abour "someone who had such big imaginings for their life and set aspirational goals growing up, yet, they’re extremely unsatisfied with how things have turned out and whether they can ever have a meaningful life.  It’s a pretty pertinent song, because I think most people in our age demographic are starting to realise and have thoughts along those lines, and the song captures a moment where you either make the move and live out those dreams, or whether you fall into the masses and go through the motions."

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DUST OF US - PUNCHING BAG (feat. Jess Chalker)

Credit: Dick Sweeney

Sydney’s Dust Of Us, brothers Ed and Lloyd Prescott, have unveiled new single ‘Punching Bag’. Taken from the duo's forthcoming debut EP which is due in February, blends a mix of electronic elements and indie influences. The track came together with the brothers recording all the music in Oz, before Chalker sung her parts at home in London. “It’s a pretty dark song about someone emancipating themselves from a dire situation," says Ed. "To me, you can read it either as a metaphorical punching bag or literal, ie. from the perspective of someone whose partner physically abuses them. Most of the lyrics came out pretty subconsciously but at the time, I was reading Jess Hill’s brilliant book ‘See What You Made Me Do’, and I think some of the themes of that book seeped into the song.” 

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ROMÆO - STARE 

Sydney-based experimental art-pop artist romæo follows her earlier debut single with this second, self-produced number. Built around her delicately delivered vocals, the track evolves around a dark synth and percussive claps. "'stare' began as a simple acoustic guitar folk song about the effort I had gone to in order to catch someone’s attention, obviously to no avail," she says. "I then overdramatised the whole experience and imagined what it would look like if my online stalking was translated to the real world. I wanted the production to demonstrate both the excitement and innocence of a crush but also the destructive obsession it can quickly turn into." 

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BIG ORANGE - I WANNA KNOW 

Perth’s Big Orange return with their third track of the year, which is taken from their debut album 'An Ode To Odious', out on November 27. The big arena-sized 'I Wanna Know' kicks a dynamic alt-rock, with searing guitars and passionate vocals from Daniel Davis. “It feels good to be letting this track loose," say the band. "It’s a song about ruminating on life and death, mostly death; Daniel has an unhealthy fixation with dying. It always goes down well in our live set and it’s great fun to play.” 

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ASTRALS - DAYLIGHT DRIP 

Sydney songwriter Claire Simpson's, aka ASTRALS, new single ‘Daylight Drip’, is her third dreampop release of 2020. Lending ethereal, but strong  vocals to 90s inspired guitar, the song captures an essence of hope lyrically. “Everything was pretty unstable in the world as well as in my own life, making it hard to make any concrete plans and move into a new phase of my life like I had been planning, pre-COVID," she says. "In this way, ‘Daylight Drip’ is equal parts inspired by the feelings of restlessness, being stuck and living in the uncertainty that COVID-19 conjured, as well as by that feeling of being on the edge of a new beginning.” 

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Astrals · DAYLIGHT DRIP