Single Life was always a terrible name...

One result of this webly-interconnected world is a song released in Boston, Brisbane, Birmingham, or Bilbao this morning can make its way around the world by lunchtime. Relatedly, artists struggling for a profile or scrambling for airplay in their local markets can be recognised and even championed a hemisphere away. Some of the antipodean artists below are blips on the radar here, but getting mainstream acclaim elsewhere.

Holiday Sidewinder is getting noticed here, there, and just about everywhere - whether as part of the Russell Crowe-lauded Alex Cameron travelling circus or in her own right, where her mix of part ‘60s Gainsbourg chanteuse with dollop of ‘70s disco sex bomb, and thoroughly empowered 21^st century woman becomes increasingly distilled with Leo (Personal Best Records). But you don’t just have to take my word for how good she is – ask her Mum. Loene Carmen, much respected actress, musician and artist in her own right sums the work of her offspring thus: “When you raise your daughter on high doses of Dolly Parton, Barry White and Betty Davis, then she discovers Britney Spears and goes out into the world and travels and falls in love and reads books and thinks and lives and loves, this amazing anthem is what you get. So proud.” Yep, that about covers it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74giZVQ1NAI

A couple of years on from her quite stunning Self Talk album, Olympia has stirred up the world – or at least parts of it - in less than 24 hours with her return, Star City (EMI). ARIA-nominated for that first effort, the artist occasionally still known as Olivia Bartley stepped back and has taken time to work out what’s come next. With its almost ‘80s-echoing plastic sax to begin with before taking a bunch of glittering tangents, a title taken from Sydney’s oversize pokie lounge “casino” on the harbour get a bit existential as it unfurls. Her glorious guitar noise manages to both shimmer and punch. While reference points from Sia to St Vincent might be fairly made, she’s made pop-music-as-art unlike anything else from here – or anywhere else. The album this previews now becomes a much awaited item.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83J0oywX8Y0

The UK media are enthusiastically jumping on board, resulting in a growing following that will see Tash Sultana as a festival and live favourite there as well, probably before the year is out. Her candid bluntness and effortlessly style-less style endearing her to the Brits as much as it seemed to puzzle the Americans who tried to work her out a few months back. Free Mind (Independent) is another good example of what she does: it has that casual strolling lope – a bit reggae, a bit rootsy, and more than a bit soulful. Throw in her no-filter thought processes that gives her work a distinct ease, charm and that nicely frayed edge that makes her that bit human, and that bit special.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhmgMsHB1eY

A more orthodox stepping stone sees The Adults new work, Take It On The Chin (Warner NZ/Native Tongue), cross the Tasman east-to-west with a promotional push to coincide with a tour. If unaware, this is the band guise for erstwhile Shihad frontbloke and energizer bunny impersonator Jon Toogood. But please don’t come in expecting rockist racket in the style of his better known combo, or even the slightly more introspective noise that came from the first offering under this moniker about six-or-so years back - which featured Kiwi luminaries such as Straitjacket Fits’ Shayne Carter among others. Toogood’s central reference point here is Aghani Al-Banat, a Sudanese traditional music he discovered when he married in Khartoum – exotic enough for you? There’s a rhythmic bed to it, but with a percussive element which when mixed with the layers Toogood applies makes for something genuinely different, particularly with the vocals of NZ hip-hop identity Kings added.
Is Jonno serious about all this? Well, enough to be basing his Masters degree around an investigation of the music.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiOqNBGRh4M

Snakadaktal was another of those bands anointed ‘next big thing’ status a few years back. But, in a story that’s already happened a million times to better and worse bands, and will likely happen a million more times, it never came to full fruit. Emerging from the disappointment, that band’s Phoebe Lou and Joey Clough rearrange themselves as Two People, and have been patient enough to become something different they seem truly happy with. Something To Talk About (Liberation) is layered and electronics, with an almost old trip-hop feel to it, but again remembering to be pop with it. The whole sound is of a modern model, but with enough distinction to be taken on its own terms.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykhK1YbRtEk

Similarly, Adelaide’s Tom Montesi put a past of a dozen indie band that never quite made it behind him by giving himself a new name. As Los Leo, he offers up Beautiful Mess (Independent) - which is anything but the title suggests. It is plaintive, soulful music – even if he admits growing up on Coldplay and old U2 records. The international element here is this music coming together through a short collaboration with Jack Grace – the producer’s work with Ngairre and Christopher Port among others allowing him to decamp and resettle in Paris. As you do. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKKkdRekCkU

From her home in the bucolic surrounds of NSW’s far south coast, Melanie Horsnell assembles human scale pieces of songcraft of rootsy, perhaps heading toward alt-ish country, music that I remain determined to call Australicana – even if nobody else wants to take on that genre description.  Someone Like You (Inflatable Girlfriend) is typically gentle, with the oddly confident swagger she can sometimes infuse into her work, along with input from regular collaborator Steve Appel – himself sometimes known as the idiosyncratic King Curly. It’s an end-of-the-night waltz, to be enjoyed as the embers of the fire in the old 44-gallon drum fade.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsMRv1mJMEA


Dark Fair go for the rattly racket of the now oddly slightly-out-of-fashion guitar and drums duo. Off Into My Head (Poison City) is an insistent buzz that often seems like it’s about to overflow into a howl of feedback, but never quite does. Then on another level, it has some perhaps unexpected pop elements to it – which itself makes an odd sense when you see Adalita’s name among the production credits. Punkish? Sure. Approachable? Maybe. And likely to find a wider popularity if people manage to hear it. Another of those ones that may well find an audience outside their homeland.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbRArIxGVJY