It's aight, nothing to write home about but it's fun while it's one. Came up on my YouTube feed and it had a funny name

Hi everyone, Techtony Lesstano here, Australia's biggest indie rock hater here with a review of this new Bean Magazine project, In The Shade. This Meanjin/Brisbane indie rock act has been getting a lot of gradual buzz lately, culminating with what feels like an explosion after BIGSOUND with so many people scrambling to call them one of the next big things in Australia.

And... I actually like this.

Usually my biggest issue with the recent indie rock wave here, especially from the turn of ... read more

First of all, why in the hell is Paris not on here?

With the massive splash of DnB and House music coming out if the UK lately, most of which I've enjoyed the singles for, it's kind of unfortunate that the only album that feels like it's carried through on a full length project is Nia Archives'. Unfortunately, while songs like Strangers are still solid on this thing, the overall album feels like it's playing things extraordinarily safe texturally and soundwise. I feel ... read more

A French artist whose proved herself as a veritable genre chameleon on this new record which I randomly came across on Twitter recently. Always feels like it's punching above the baseline with any genre it's tackling be it dance punk, gospel infused dark electropop, a Rosalia inspired reggaeton banger or spoken word stuff. Absolutely would recommend copping a listen if you get a chance.

AOTY users when ambient music be like.

This album feels weird. I fucking love the production across a lot of it, especially the more winding, ambient tracks like the Evita Manji tracks, the popstar tracks and Do You Wanna Be Alive. Berlin Nightmare is probably one of my favourite tracks of the year. The Dome's Protection is almost there too, it's like if Just Stand There off Fred Again's latest record was produced by an artist with actual creative vision behing their word, but ... read more

I think we need a voice like Barkaa in the Australian music scene... unfortunately, the way this album is produced is fucking ass and any strong and vicious messaging that Barkaa is trying to deliver on the majority of these songs is lost under those god awful choices of beats and mixing. We Up is still a banger though.

Miss Kaninna splashed onto the Australian scene with Blak Britney and Pinnacle Bitch towards the end of 2023, two rap bangers which had a stranglehold on me, with Pinnacle Bitch ending up as one of my fav songs of last year. So the announcement of her debut EP had me insanely excited. Each of the tracks that came since though, while still hitting wasn't quite scratching that same itch. And now that the EP is here, I'm extremely worried that Miss Kanina is spreading herself way way too ... read more

So I started writing this review two days ago, got busy halfway through, my phone deleted everything and now Fantano has basically said everything I think about the record much more eloquently with a score 2 points lower. And yeah, I think I agree the more I try to unpack this record the less appealing it becomes as a whole.

My issue is how it constantly feels like Fred is stripping the emotions from his features so he can instead control the emotional payoffs sonically in ways that just never ... read more

While the highs on this record absolutely soar, I can't help but feel like Eora/Sydney pop punk/hardcore group Stand Atlantic's ode to what they'd leave behind if they died today feels like a middling intersection off all their past sounds that gives very little actual cohesion. I've been sitting with this one waiting for it to click with me similar to how 2022's fear took a while to sink in, but it's just not all that exciting outside of a few highlights. GIRL$ ... read more

Having a genuine banger bar like "Doesn't matter who your top 3 is/Michael Jack said it's Easy as 1, 2, 3" over the most dogshit beat is peak Jay Eazy. Please never get better beats Jay Eazy it's your identity at this point.
Also adding a track from 2022 with that weird lesbian bar on this EP feels bonkers given how many queer people are in your audience?

Yeah this is a much better EP than Jupiter that they released earlier this year. It's only 3 tracks but each feels lush and well crafted. Press On Me especially is a slick as hell track and I think some of Forest Claudette's best work so far.

As a whole, Telenova are one of my favourite Australian bands, made up of the extravagant frontwoman Angeline Armstrong alongside former members of Slum Sociable and Miami Horror Edward Quinn and Joshua Moriarty respectively, this group out of Naarm/Melbourne has had me enamoured for ages. However, I can't help but this debut album kind of sees themselves getting painted into a corner.

Ever since their debut single Bones came out, Telenova's sound has been defined by a similar dreamy ... read more

I feel like this album peaks around track 6 or 7 and then kind of falls off from there. This is my first experience with Nick Cave's music and it was definitely an interesting experience even if the first two lines of O Wow O Wow made me have to just stop listening for a minute as I felt viscerally uncomfortable from that, but also if Conversion is anything to go by I can absolutely see why Nick Cave is so beloved as an artist at the same time. The way that the dynamics can shift so ... read more

While there is good messaging through a lot of this record, Dallas Woods and Nooky are already B to C tier Aussie rappers and the actual music on this project kind of puts me to sleep. Like, there are highlights in the singles but those usually come from the features like Jess Mauboy's chorus on won't stop (which includes Nooky bragging about being a Triple J presenter), The Presets's sample on Our People which is a pretty clever sample flip and gave me higher hopes for this ... read more

I went into this wanting to like this. Please Please Please hella hit for me in a way I didn't expect and Good Neighbours made me like Espresso a lot more than I liked the original song, so maybe there'd be something for me to like here. Taste definitely hit well for me as well and I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised, similar to the Maisie Peters album from last year. But Sabrina Carpenter in comparison just doesn't have the same kind of wit that Maisie has on her ... read more

It's crazy how Flume is just a better producer than any of the other 5 or 6 other producers credited across this record because my god is this thing overproduced nonsense. There's too much going on 90% of the time across this record while Sycco kind of fails to be all that interesting a vocalist, with everything in the background feeling like it's just fighting for your attention constantly. It just becomes background noise until Ripple comes along and reminds you what a decently ... read more

Naarm/Melbourne band Teenage Dads are probably some of the biggest chameleons of the modern Aussie indie rock landscape right now. Where most of the bands popping up have one or two inspirations, see Spacey Jane having huge Beatles influences, Pacific Avenue having a bit of Abba and Oasis, Lime Cordiale having incel boards on 4chan, Teenage Dads often seem to change their frame of reference from song to song. While it's not their debut record, it feels like THE definitive Teenage Dads ... read more

So this came out before I came onto AOTY but I wanted to quickly transfer my thoughts from my original listen. This EP gave me me first taste of the band Teenage Dads and it was basically a collection of a lot of the singles they'd put out up till that point, and while it showed some of their potential with the newer stuff they had out at the time, it was heavily let down by the oldest stuff they released that no longer really represented their sound also being on this record.

So everyone I've seen talk about this Eora/Sydney band has specifically pointed out opening track Back 2 U as a highlight (and it's not even one of the singles) and I just have to agree, there's an energy to that song which, even compared to the singles feels so much more raw. In comparison, Sour immediately after feels almost this little bit more boxy and compressed and was probably my least favourite single leading up to the record.

The other singles on the project were much ... read more

Phantomime is an album that finally sees Mori Calliope finding her lane with music more than ever. That kind of rap/nu-metal angle that she's been toying with a bit ever since Jigoku 6 came out is out in full force for parts of this record, with Overkill and Cult Following (produced by UK band WARGASM) being some of the best songs Calli has ever put out. The addition of Lotus Juice on the remix of SNEAKING, one of the worst songs Calli's put out honestly in a while, alongside the ... read more