On Wednesday I was in Sydney as part of the judging panel for the Australian Music Prize, once again it was another tough year to pick a winner from the shortlist and taking it out this year was West Australian artist Kankawa Nagarra. It is an amazing album that not many people probably know about from the elder who was part of the stolen generation. Recorded on country in Northern Western Australia by Darren Hanlon, it is one of the most raw and authentic Australian records you’ll hear. To draw a comparison, it has the rawness of some of the early North American blues field recordings of Alan Lomax. It was a special moment at the presentation to see how surprised and overwhelmed she was with the win.
Between judging this, counting down the shops best sellers and asking customers for our favourite releases of the year (not to mention everyone’s Spotify wrapped) posting, it’s time to start thinking albums of the year! You can win prizes if you let us know what your favourite five were by clicking the link below, I’ll reveal my top 10 in a few week’s time!
Yesterday local garage rock trio Cool Jumper released a new single R.W.F. The track is fully self-recorded and produced, with mastering by Owen Penglis. If you’re a fan of Thee Oh Sees, Wipers, Ty Segall, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Coachwhips and other like-minded bands check out this track. You can also see them playing live this Sunday at La La La’s with The New Christs. Next year we are launching a new Farmer & The Owl Distro service that gets us somewhat back to our origins by helping local bands we like distribute music digitally and on limited physical formats and well as assist in other aspects of their development, we are getting a bit of a jump start on this new phase with this release.
This Sunday legendary Australian band The New Christs take to the stage at La La La’s for a rare local show with support from previously mentioned Cool Jumper. I’ve spent lots of time tour managing The New Christs through Europe (I took this week’s feature picture of them, from memory in La Rochelle, France) and have seen them countless times. They always put on an incredible and lengthy live show so I highly recommend getting along to this!
