- For someone who’s always been a couple of steps away from being legit certifiable, Fiona Apple is extraordinarily resilient. That’s most true of her musical output and if the relentless truth telling she uses it as a vehicle for is accurate, as a person too.

- Brisbane trio Middle Name Dance Band have just released their second record, suitable titled Middle Name Dance Tracks Vol. 2. This follow up volume is the effort of collaborators Megan Christensen (keys), Sam Stosurr (bass/keys) and Sampology (sampler/sequncer/mixing duties). They’ve managed to elaborate upon their sound over these four new tracks, taking a jazzy/improivisational approach to disco and house.

- I don’t know quite how much spectral gating is in Spectral Gates debut, self-titled full-length, but one obvious thing I can say: there can’t be many Digital Audio Workstation plug-ins that are more primed to be turned into band names. 

<p><span><span><span>- <strong>Wil Wagner</strong> and the Smith Street Band are back with their fifth full length album <em>Don't Waste Your Anger</em>. A few things have changed since the last one - the band has expanded with a couple of new members, in particular <strong>Lucy Wilson</strong>'s keyboards a prominent addition. The band also for the first time recorded the album themselves at their own Bush House Studios.</span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span><span>- What was best concert you've ever been to? How much of it do you actually remember? The human brain has a tendency to squash experiences down into bite-sized sensory snippets and emphasise emotional impact, leaving us with heartening yet endlessly fallible recollections of past events. Now if you could hear that gig again, exactly as it sounded, what would that do to the memory? </span></span></span></p>

<p><span><span>- Right under our noses, the city of Ipswich has been harbouring some serious musical talent in the last few years, with all manner of punk and underground sounds emerging from the town. The instrumental trio Coalfalls are indicative of the diversity that emanates from the area, specialising in a particularly liquid form of jangling post-rock shoegaze. </span></span></p>

<p><span><span><em>- The New Abnormal</em> is the new album by seminal 2000’s rockers The Strokes. Recorded with legendary producer, <strong>Rick Rubin</strong>, the band took their time making the record, taking preliminary steps in the studio dating back to 2016. The result is the band’s finest work since their 2006 release, <em>First Impressions Of Earth</em>. Their sixth since their monumental debut, <em>Is This It</em>, the band’s career can be seen as two separate parts.

<p><span><span>- It’d be easy to think of Superego as conscious-hip-hoppers, but, on their new EP, that isn’t what they really are. The name is sort of misleading. What was once <strong>Pow! Negro </strong>is now Superego: a struggle to establish who you are; a roiling, unsettled identity; an attempt to move from in-your-face, break-your-nose rage to something more collected, settled, stronger; a middle-path between rage and hopelessness.